HP Refund Checks - Beware.

While I am in a semi-funk mood, I thought I would share a little bit of today's mail with everyone.

Long-time readers will know that I have a bounced $100 HP refund check that was returned "Account Closed". Evidently, they (Hewlett Packard or their refund processor) only keep these refund bank accounts open for a brief period of time.

This particular refund was for a laptop purchase. The check was delayed getting to me because of all the Anthrax postal scare problems a few years ago... I'll skip those details.

Fast forward to today. Out of the blue (and after several attempts to remedy this directly with HP), I get a letter from "Estate Trust Asset Recovery" of Gainesville, FL. The letter is actually a "Refund Notice", in the amount of $100.

All they want me to do is sign the enclosed agreement essentially giving them a 20% finder's fee, and send along a photocopy of my Drivers License. (Note: I doubt I even had to show ID when I purchased the laptop!!)

HP: Hear this. "Stick it."

I will NEVER buy HP again. Never, never never - even if you beg.

Your supposed rebate was for $100, not $80. (And that was 7 years ago. - How about some interest?) Not to mention, the original deal terms and conditions did not require me to disclose my personal identifying information to third parties that I've never heard of.

FWIW, my advice is to not trust HP, or at the very least, do not include their mail-in rebates in your buying decision. You too could be just as disappointed.

And just to really rub it in: Last year, we replaced our HP 8753-C vector Network Analyzer. (Approx. $30K) I didn't even invite the HP rep to give us a quote. We went with Anritsu instead. (Which frankly is a better value, but that's besides the point.)

With any luck, some HP lurker rep will email me directly with an acceptable resolution, because this isn't even close.

-mpm

Reply to
mpm
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SEVEN YEARS???!

John

Reply to
John Larkin

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It's not HP that is offering you $80 it's "Estate Trust Asset Recovery" of Gainesville, FL. It seems your $100 is available from HP, if you can just figure out how to get it. Apparantly "Estate Trust Asset Recovery" of Gainesville, FL. has figured out how to get it. They don't want you to send the $20.00 to them do they? Mike

Reply to
amdx

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That is correct. ETAR wants me to sign an agreement giving them $20, which would come out of the $100 Refund. I suspect ETAR is akin to ambulance chasers?

Maybe if I take a photocopy of the original bounced check, and a copy of the ETAR offer, I can finally get some action out of HP. Though at this point, they'd have to give me a free laptop to even begin to earn my trust and consumerism again.

It's not like I'm a hardass or anything, but I just can't believe a company like HP would treat its customers this way! I did, originally, write several nice letters explaining what happened (neither party was responsible for the Anthrax mail delays), and though they responded, they made NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER to resolve the problem.

HP has since lost seven years of my business.

I guess the moral to the story is that if you own your own business, you should never let a promotion get so out of hand that you end up losing customers over it.

Reply to
mpm

[snip]

Maybe take a photocopy of the original bounced check, and a copy of the ETAR offer to a state attorney general who needs to make a name for himself... or to an accident lawyer ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Or "Estate Trust Asset Recovery" has figured out how to get your name, signature, and driver's license information all in one place. The only thing left to completely steal your identity would be your SSN, if it's not on your driver's license.

Oh -- and HP doesn't make instruments anymore. That would be Agilent, who are probably no happier with HP than you are.

--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

All this over a $100 rebate? Aside from satisfying a childish sense of revenge, what have you gained by condemning the entire HP organization and subverting your unrelated Network Analyzer purchasing requirements? Really stoopid.

-- Joe

Reply to
J.A. Legris

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I don't appreciate theft, which is really what this is. They took $100 of my money - plain and simple.

So in a sense, they "charged" me for this sort of behavior, and I don't want to disappoint.

I intend to keep trashing HP, at every opportunity, until they live up to their end of the deal. And that means $100, not $80 or any other BS.

And to be fair, we would have purchased the Anritsu anyway since it is a much better product than anything Agilent (sucessor to HP) has, and is a lot less expensive. But the fact remains that they (HP/Agilent) were not even afforded the opportunity to bid.

Now think between the lines here. Could I have ordered (anything) and then made the final deal contingent on getting an additional $100 off the sale? You bet your ass. Especially for these sort of dollars.

But if you think that way, you're missing the point.

Actually, what they (HP) did was a crime. In my State, I could have sued for triple the damages. But I don't operate that way. I'd rather just give my business to the next guy.

I have a call into HP again today to try to remedy this one last time.... But only because I received the letter from that outfit in Gainesville.

Reply to
mpm

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HP is not Agilent. HP is a personal computer marketing company, formerly known as Compaq.. Agilent is an instrumentation engineering company, fornerly known as Hewlett-Packard.

=2E

Reply to
Richard Henry

This sounds like this is one of the "Lost Property" scams. Sounds like your name is on an unclaimed property list that's run by a state government somewhere. Where you can get your money for a lot less than

20%.

Try either missingmoney.com (a coop web site that covers many states) or the states where the funds could be registered. (Some states, Washington for example, run their own site). Probably the state where the refund processor was registered for business.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Reply to
Mark Zenier

Agreed. However, some of the top brass did go with the sucessor-in- interest company, so in that regard, the ones at the top who may have "benefited" are still involved. Though that nuance position is not part of my original consideration in this regard, nor am I attempting to apportion any of that $100 owed me to particular company employees. Say what you want, but that $100 is still value to the company (i.e., money saved, etc..), and if they do it enough, it adds up.

As I already mentioned, we would not have purchased test gear from either HP or Aligent anyway. The point is, they didn't even get the opportunity.

Timeout: - I guess maybe I'm glossing over reality here. When Agilent purchased HP's instrumentation business, part of what they were buying was HP's "goodwill" associated with that business sector. "Goodwill" is a financial term which you can research later. Essentially, (among other things), it's the ability to make a sale without investing in extensive advertising and marketing due to brand loyalty, brand recognition from prior advertising, good word-of-mouth reputation, etc... Anything that has intangible value, that can be counted on to generate future revenues. Which I agree, overall, HP did generate tremendous goodwill and Aglient was justified in the capital expenditure related thereto. That said, HP still owes me $100.

Agreed, in part. They are actually a multi-national with at least seven distinct business sectors according to their most recent Annual Report. At the time, they were selling laptops, which is the key point here because that is what the $100 rebate check was for. What they do now is of little consequence to me. But for the record, HP and its subsidiaries are involved with everything from television set manufacturing to heart-lung machines.

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No, they acquired Compaq through merger and acquisition. HP was in the business prior to the M&A and actually ran Compaq as a separate business entity for some time. In short, they bought out their competition.

Yes. That business unit was sold off and the spin-off was renamed "Aglient".

I think Mercedes Benz (or their predecessor in interest) built the ovens that incinderated all the Jews in WWII. Did you have a point here? I guess I missed it.?

Reply to
mpm

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Thanks Mark. I will definitely look into that.

I actually called HP again today. That sure turned out to be a really stupid idea!!!

All it did was get my blood pressure elevated again. For example, even after I told them the bounced check was from 2001, they (robotically) continued to ask me for my claim number (which of course, I was never issued), when even by their own admission, their rebate records only go back 3 years.

If the records only go back three years, does it really make any difference what number I give them?? Duh!! (Mental note: Idiocy knows no boundardies!)

I did finally get a supervisor on the phone who reluctantly gave me a fax number I could send a copy of the bounced check & the ETAR offer letter to. I have zero confidence this will ever get paid. In fairness, the supervisor did understand the problem fully, and was respectful and apologetic. But it's not like a replacement check is in the mail, either.

Like I said, I've been through this before. (many, many times with HP) No more. I will (continue to) never buy anything HP. Not even a ream of photo paper.

I'm done with them. Except to go out of my way, on occasion, to trash their goodwill. I almost feel obligated to do so, and certainly justified. -mpm

Reply to
mpm

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When HP and Agilent split, the got the names attached to the wrong companies. The instrumentation company should have been names Hewlett- Packard (or HP) and the computer company should have been named Compaq. The "good-will value" would have then been correctly assigned.

Reply to
Richard Henry

,

Whoa! It just dawned on me. _Bounced_ check??

Here in AZ I can turn a bounced check over to Sheriff Joe. He'll collect the amount owed you, plus a fine, plus send the culprit to an all-day-school session, at their cost ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jim Thompson

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Good call, Mark.!! You're a genius.

I found a similar website for my state, and now I can get my money direct. I do still have to send them a copy of my photo ID, but since they (the State) were the ones that gave it to me in the first place, I guess no harm done....

Now I just have to decide if I want to blow my winnings on a tank of gas, or stock up on beer.

-mpm

Reply to
mpm

Well, I had to do an unclaimed property search as part of putting a value on my mom's estate. All that I found were unclaimed refunds due to some distant cousins. This explains how they could have got there.

Looks like HP's refund processor was set up as a separate corporation or trust that got dissolved, but had to file any remaining known unclaimed assets with the state to be put into trust. Cheaper to stick the government with the paperwork than keep the outfit going for a few more months and followup on unprocessed checks.

The customer service droids at HP should have had that in their answer book. If they ever knew. Probably outsourced to the lowest bidder. A bad idea when the company's reputation is on the line.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Reply to
Mark Zenier

Almost works except for the difference in timing.

Reply to
JosephKK

,

Sounds like a reasonably good law, now explain why and specifically how to apply it to multinational corporations.

Reply to
JosephKK

ETAR isn't a scam, though you may feel like you're getting ripped off with the 20% finders fee. Here's the deal. The state of Florida requires that all money belonging to a company's customers is returned to the customers. If it cannot be returned they are required to turn it over to the state after a certain amount of time. Before this law, companies used to just pocket it. The state then posts the availability of this money on their lost property website. Since this is public information, companies like ETAR can get access to it and along with a private eye's license they can access other information about you to track you down. The state does try to track you down as well but since they can't charge you a finder's fee and since it is a government agency and since they are making money on the property they hold, they take their sweet time in doing so. ETAR takes advantage of this and makes a business out of it. So ETAR's not trying to scam you, just trying to make money off you. As far as requiring your license, that's the state. They require that proof be provided that the person collecting the money is the correct person.

But of course if don't like HP, that's another story.

ecoplunge

Reply to
ecoplunge

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