I attempted to order a PC using both HP's credit line and a credit card. Apparently you cannot split up the payment for the PC that way so I used HP's credit line to pay for the monitor, extended warranty and accessories.  
 
The sales person I talked to found my shopping cart quickly and made for an easy purchase. The products shipped almost right away.  
 
---Update 03/13/2008  
I rceived the HP d4999t by FedEx fairly quickly. It was shipped 1 day before their stated expected ship date. It took them 4 day to build my machine. It arrived in good condition and padded well.  
 
Unfortunately, the 15-in-one media card reader wasn't working so I opened up the tower and checked the connection on the motherboard. It seemed ok, but I removed it and put it back firmly. Works well now, so I have no complaints about that.  
 
I ordered a pocket media drive thinking the tower had a bay for it. Not so. This was the only model that didn't come with one. I returned it for a refund and am waiting for that to go through.  
 
Would be nice if I could specify that I wanted an empty partition on the hard drive when making my order . After creating restore disks on DVD I had to use GParted to shrink down the partition and install Ubuntu.  
 
So far my new Vista Ultimate x64/Ubuntu x64 PC is working great. Plays games, process video editing, and runs ArcInfo without any problems.  
 
--Update 03/20/2008--  
Encountered issue that should be made known...  
I purchased the HP 22" monitor (w2207h) which has one HDMI & one VGA inputs. it's native resolution is 1680 x 1050, less than 1080p, so do not set it to that or you'll have a blurry screen. I would recommend the 24" monitor for use as an HDTV alternative (1920 x 1200 & only a couple hundred dollars more).

This review was modified by its author, pepe0001, on 3/20/08 2:56 PM.

Ordered a custom M9000T desktop online. Added the 2 Year warranty, added to cart and paid. Was told on 10/27 it would be built on 11/6. Received the extended warranty paperwork first on 10/30. Checked my order status early on 2 November. Glad I did as it was scheduled to be delivered that day. NO COMPLAINT.  
Then I tried to activate the warranty. Told me the warranty was invalid for the multimedia center. WHAT? Then why did HP offer it on the build screen? Called customer support. HORRIBLE. First person disconneted me after I stated I had a problem activating the warranty on line. JUST HUNG UP ON ME!, Second person forwarded me to laptop technical support who forwarded me to technnical support I guess desktop, who forwarded me to customer service... Who wants me to fax them a copy of all my invoices. I would but the HP all in one printer has a glitch. It won't scan using Vista drivers. Used the HP Support link for the old HP all in one printer. YES there is a problem it said. Told me how to fix it by going to start/all programs/fax and scanners and manually scanning. EXCEPT the version of Vista they supplied me does not have a fax and scan folder. So now I'm thinking "Is my software corrupted too?" 2 grand worth of problems that aren't warranted....Will update this post as required. Have to rebuild the home office to put another companies computer in so I can scan and send the documents to HP. I'm thinking I should use the 30 day money back. Cause it ain't getting any easier.  
 
Oh and now the sound card is glitching and the printer just ate a spool and won't spit it out.. won't delete it! I can't even clear it off using the printer delete...Don't know what I dislike more The Company or the Software. Shoulda stayed with XP and the old computer.  
 
NOT HAPPY AT ALL AT THIS POINT  
 
OK RE: The relatively new All in One. Got rid of the spool by doing a hardware diagnostic scan via VISTA. Cool. Cleared the spool so I could print my invoice page. T  
HEN a idea hit me.  
Used the Adobe Photshop to initiate the scanner. PDF of all paperwork is at HP.  
Still I imagine that most customers would be boxing it up for return about now  
I have decided I'm getting my moneys worth no matter what.  
 
I'm stubborn like that. It's getting easier but HP is still not out of the woods with both the warranty and MOSTLY HORRIBLE *CUSTOMER SERVICE.  
(*Exception being the lady who finally got me to customer service and a valid email address for resolution.)  
 
 
6 Nov HP is now totally messed up.  
A computer company whose ONLINE warranty registration is "Experiencing Difficulties"  
Their solution?  
MAIL IN THE HARD COPY OF THE TWO WARRANTY REGISTRATION.. Which has to be mailed today to make the "Must be returned to HP with(all fields filled in)to be eligible for service"  
 
What is wrong with these people? A COMPUTER COMPANY WITH COMPUTER PROBLEMS?  
 
So now after all the info they require is sitting on thier desk. Every single piece of information was sent to them in PDF which they acknowlege they have.  
 
And I have to mail them a three by five card that they are gonna throw into a file cabinet or waste basket.  
 
DOES THE CEO KNOW HE'S IN CHARGE OF A BUNCH OF RUN AMOK ASYLUM ESCAPEES? simply amazing four days and this is the best it gets? Mail in a card that might or might not be honored with no idea if they will ever tell me my $169.99 dollar warranty was a failed bait and switch or an unrefunded mistake on their part.  
 
7 Nov. Sent in jpegs of the documents this time rather than the requested pdf after I received an email saying they could not read my fax? I hope not as I did not send a fax (THE DISADVANTAGES OF A "CUT AND PASTE" SUPPORT STAFF I GUESS) Got an email saying my 2 year warranty is in effect and billed my credit card. ? two years started from date of order so it's technically a one year eleven month and three week warranty. Hey just my point of view. the computer is working fine as with any new OS it is a smooth learning curve so far. Just some old device drivers have to be hunted down or worked around.  

This review was modified by its author, MKPA, on 11/7/07 11:05 AM.

I am a student, and I was looking to buy a new laptop for school to replace my current dying laptop. I called them to find out if they offered any kind of student discount (and they do). After getting my finances in order (My bank has a spending cap I needed to have raised in order to purchase) I called to place my purchase for a Customized ZD8000. After a 5 day delay for verification, they cancel my original order and I have to resubmit. OK, thats alright, its a security measure. However, this also pushes back my original order ship date by a week. Thats 1 delay as I see it. OK, I can live with that. The estimated ship date comes and goes, and on Feb 23 I call them and find out my order has been delayed until the 28th. (Thats 2 delays now) Buy this time I am starting to doubt my purcahse. On March 1, I call again to find out what the status of my order. Yep, delayed again (thats 3 now) Now I am really doubting my purchase. I do a little more research and find a suitable replacement. I decide to cancel my order and take my purcahse elsewhere. On the plus side, they cancelled my order with little friction, however it took them nearly a week to credit my account back. HP cannot foresee supply shortages (ALL the options which were part of my configured laptop stayed available for a week past my purchase) nor can they do anything other than put an order on hold until supplies come back in, no substitutions allowed. I also know from a couple of "User fan site/forums" that my situation is not unique. Any company that can fumble this many times before I am even truly a "customer" does NOT deserve to have me as a customer.

I ordered a customized Compaq Presario r3000z notebook. Spec'd out, it was a great deal, made better by a $100 mail in rebate. After placing the order I came an online coupon that was an additional 10% off. I called, and HP has a 30 day price guarantee they honored. But, except for the guy who took my order, 100% of consumer reps had to "check with a supervisor" to do anything.  
 
The problem: I ordered the computer in late September. I was told that it would take up to 2 weeks to build it. No problem, computers take time to build. I needed it by mid October, so I paid extra for two day Fed-Ex delivery... HP sent me an official "shipping notice" on October 6th with a FedEx tracking number. Built way faster than they said it would be. Bonus, but no computer within 2 day delivery time I paid $58 for. I called HP and they say, "The 2-Day shipping doesn't take effect until the shipment is in the US." I started to smell BS. Then, unbelievably, they told me, "just ignore what it says on the Fed-ex tracking website". I'm knee deep in BS by now. I called FedEx & they just about had a coronary that HP told me to ignore the FedEx tracking system! They don't issue tracking numbers and have a multi million dollar real time world-wide tracking network so that HP can tell FedEx customers to ignore it! They told me that the 2 days starts from when the package leaves the origin... in this case IN China. So I had to call HP twice, speak to two different customer reps, give them my order number 4 times, and hold so they could "talk to a supervisor" 3 times in order to get them to refund the shipping charge. So i had to fight tooth and nail to get them to refund the shipping fee because of their bogus "2 days from US soil" rule; and the irony is that I STILL didn't get the computer for 3 days AFTER it was in the US and 5 days total after it was shipped.  
 
My gut feeling: HP is running a shipping scam... they tell you it will be a 14 day build and then upsell the 2 day and overnight shipping... then they build your machine in 7 days, send it to you 5-7 day delivery method and pocket the difference between the express you paid for and normal freight they actually sent it under. Most customers get the computer before they thought they would have (because of the bogus build time claim) so they never complain. But the fact is: If you pay for 2 day shipping, the shipping itself should take 2 days and how fast they build the machine makes no difference whatsoever. They must have told me, "You're still going to get your computer before our estimated delivery date" half a dozen times. But shipping took 5 days. Just call them on it and you won't have to pay shipping at all.  
 
I specifically asked the final customer service rep about the $100 rebate. I told them that HP had now created a credibility problem with me over the shipping and I wanted assurance that they would honor the $100 rebate. He promised that they would and also promised the actual rebate would come in the box. A $30 rebate came in the box, not $100. I had to get it off the website. Credibility issues indeed with customer service.  
 
The computer: Great. Built like I wanted, no problems whatsoever with hardware. I'm annoyed by all the excess garbage software pre-loaded... MS office trial edition, AOL of course, trial games, etc... but I guess thats business as usual with a new PC. But the very first program I installed was AdAware, which immediately found spyware installed... probably from one of the pre-installed games.  
 
Hardware: 10/10  
 
Software: 8/10  
 
Shipping: 3/10 (I did get it after all)  
 
Customer Service: 2/10 (got em on the phone easily and quickly, but they can't actually make decisions or take any action without talking to supervisors, and then either make up stuff (2 day from us soil rule) or have no idea what they're talking about ($100 rebate promise.))

This review was modified by its author, kvanhorn, on 11/8/04 12:12 PM.

I made the mistake of waiting too long to order my notebook before going on a trip. Generally, I like to have a notebook for at least a month before leaving.  
Well I didn't have that luxury this time. I only had two weeks. So I ordered a Compag Notebook. And I thought I could get away with ignoring what other resellerratings customers had to say -- after all, every notebook manufacturer has a pretty poor score up here. Anyway, I knew I'd be cutting it close with the build time, so I selected 2-day shipping. The trouble began when I hit the "confirm" button. Sure enough, on the "order confirmed" page, I was down for 5-7 days. Did I make a mistake? Alt-back arrow shows that indeed, _their post-order confirmation page had an order different from the one I submitted_. I even grabbed some screenshots.  
 
I emailed customer service immediately, and the next morning Jon wrote me that the shipping method would be changed to 2 days (without it showing on the invoice) and they would expedite build if possible.  
 
Now, a day after the anticipated build date, they send me the inevitable "build delayed" message, and I'm in a (predictable) bind. So I call up CS to see if we can sort this out, and after an hour of listening to the worst music imaginable, I get Dawn on the line. All I find out from her is that shipping is 5-7 days, and she cuts the line; she doesn't even let me get to the reason why I called and waiting an hour on the phone.  
 
edit: I wrote that last message while waiting on the phone a second time (only 45 minutes to speak to someone, then another 15 minutes on hold while she waiting for her supervisor).  
I had more success emailing their support people, and eventually we were able to reroute the package to my first destination. It was still a considerable amount of hassle.  
The "whitebook" notion is attractive to the consumer, but there are many points of failure: in this case, I'm in the US, the factory is in or near Shanghai, email support is in Germany, I have no idea where their phone folks are, and their supplies come from all over the world. It's a fascinating model,but the system isn't robust enough (yet, if ever) to handle more than one problem at a time.  
 
My advice: use email as your primary means of contact with the company, and don't try to do anything fancy.  
 
The computer itself works fine. No complaints there.

This review was modified by its author, dinger, on 8/30/04 6:59 AM.

Most of the comments here are due to inept purchasers it seems. I especially liked the story from the "experienced internet shopper" who signed up for financing through HP and "surprise!" had purchased the item in question. YOU FILLED OUT A CREDIT APPLICATION, WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN???  
 
I myself purchased a ZD7000. Entire transaction was flawless. Oh, and when you customize an item, they do have to build it. And yours is not the only one to be built. It can take some time. My delivery was still almost a week earlier than quoted when I purchased.

Ordered the HP injet ink combo pack, they had the best price I could find anyplace on it, and free shipping on top of that, received it in 3 days, will definitely order from them again.

I ordered a Laptop (zv5000z series) and an h5555 iPAQ Pocket PC.  
 
The first thing I'd have to say is since I finance through HP, they contacted me less than 30 min after placing my order on line. Verified my information, while repetitive, it made me feel pretty good that they went this far.  
 
The iPAQ shipped the next day, and I received it in 2 days, even though I didn't request any type of 2day shipping.  
 
The Laptop shipped 3 days earlier than what I was told, and it also arived in 2 days. Pretty good considering the laptop shipped out from China and arrived in KTown, TN. There were some problems with FedEx tracking, but nothing HP could be blamed for.  
 
The customization for the laptop was a bit confusing. The processor listed are actually Mobile processors, even though the mobile tag isn't provided.  
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ = 2.0Ghz / 512K L2 Cache  
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Mobile = 1.8Ghz 1M L2 Cache  
 
I did have to contact HP support about an issue related to flashing the BIOS of the notebook. First used the "Instant Support" which was a waste of time, then used the phone support... again, a waste of time.  
 
Support for HP is defiantly outsourced, and those I spoke to were hard to understand. While they tried to be helpful, the language barrier made thing difficult.

This review was modified by its author, d3bruts1d, on 4/8/04 10:27 PM.

These Guys have great service, I ordered a laptop and a external floppy drive, they shipped the same day via free FedEx ground, while FedEx isn't my favorite service, this time around it was pretty good. They also make great products.