I was all excited to be one of the first 100 people to click on the HP web site for the trade-up offer on the HP MediaSmart Connect. I had a rather awful experience clicking the “Trade-up Now” link AFTER 12:00pm PDT while it keep saying said “try back after 12:00pm” until I finally got through at 12:09pm (my system clock is not off by 9 minutes). But my persistence paid off as I was one of the lucky 100! My joy soon turn to frustration after reading these “Next Step” instructions from the web site:
To complete the trade in process and receive your HP MediaSmart Connect you must ship your trade-in product. […] Your HP MediaSmart connect will be mailed approximately 4 to 6 weeks after the receipt and inspection of your traded product. If you need assistance, please contact customer service.
Thank you for visiting the Out With the Old, In With the New: Let HP Make Your Digital Streams Come True Trade-in Promotion!
Let me bottom line this for you. HP wants me to take my current Media Center Extender (that I rely on every day), pack it up and mail it to them and wait up to 6 weeks or more to get the new one.
What am I to do in the mean time? I don’t have a tuner on my HDTV and thus my current extender is the only way that I can watch television at all on my HDTV! Am I to buy some random extender on eBay and send that in as the trade-in? When I had a Western Digital warranty return, they let me give a credit card that wouldn’t be charged unless I didn’t return my defective drive. Why couldn’t HP do the same thing?
I’m sorry, but this is bull$#@% and HP needed to be called out on this one! Way to go HP. You’ve managed to take one of your most excited pundits and turn them against you. I will of course be contacting HP directly about this and will let you know what they have to say. I may end up just keeping my Linksys Media Center Extender.
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14 comments:
Well said! To say i was actually considering... THANK YOU
Sorry about your luck. I too was one of the first 100 to enter and received the same confirmation. Luckily, I have an old D-Link DSM-320 collecting dust in the closet. Hope they can work something out for you.
Doug
I was too late :( I would love to have it, my old dlink extender is useless with VMC. Maybe we can trade Donovan :) I do understand your point especially if someone bought a new extender but I belive they are targeting users like me who have extenders for MCE2005 and feel little cheated by MS when moving to better VMC. good post as always though.
I agree with your comments, I am also one of 100 (I think that there were more than 100 given away).
I am doing the ebay method also, I cannot disconnect my device for 4-6 weeks (probably more than that... since HP normally delays new product's production releases).
That should drive prices up on eBay (at least in the short term) as almost 100 people try to buy cheap old media center extenders. :)
I'm sure this is not what HP wanted to happen, but they are forcing our hand.
BTW, I emailed customer support and filled out the "Email HP CEO Mark Hurd" form on the HP website. We'll see what (if anything) happens.
I just received this email (looks like it's working it's way down the food chain):
Thank you for taking the time to share your comments with HP.
They have been forwarded to the appropriate people within Hewlett-Packard for review and action, as needed.
Regards,
CEO Customer Relations
Wow. Make that 2 canned email responses within a half hour:
Thanks for your inquiry. We appreciate your patience while we research your question. We will be back in touch as soon as we have more information. Thank you for using the HP Out With the Old, In With the New Trade-In.
Sincerely,
HP Trade-In Program Customer Service
2 canned responses = they will contact you in 6 weeks. Enjoy.
Wow, I'd be pissed off too.
Companies need to think things thought when they do stuff like that.
I've received a personal email from HP. The person said that he would respond personally to this blog post, so I'll give him a chance before I post his letter.
All I will say right now is that I am much happier now. :)
I am shocked / impresssed that they responed so quickly with a personal email. I am looking foward to their response or your post of their email.
My name is Brian Burch and I’m the Director of Marketing for HP’s Connected Entertainment business.
We’re responsible for the HP MediaSmart Server, the HP MediaSmart TV and now, the HP MediaSmart Connect.
I'm posting to apologize to the community for the confusion that I created with the “Out with the Old, In with the New” trade-in program.
The good news is that clearly a lot of people were excited about getting a shiny, new HP MediaSmart Connect.
The promotion was over in 88 minutes.
On the other hand, Donavon was definitely right. Waiting 4-6 weeks for your HP MediaSmart Connect after you’ve traded-in your old DMA is too long.
We have a good reason that prevents us from earlier delivery of the trade-in units, but I failed to communicate it clearly in our promotional copy.
The reason we stated 4-6 weeks for delivery is because we won’t be shipping the MediaSmart Connect to customers until late July.
We opened pre-orders for the product on Tuesday at ecommerce sites like Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, Circuitcity.com and Newegg.com, but the actual delivery of those pre-orders (and delivery of the trade-in units) is scheduled for late July.
Therefore, it’s not possible for us to deliver any HP MediaSmart Connect units sooner than that.
We should have provided a longer window for recipients to ship their existing product to HP and we should have explained that you can wait to send in your current unit until we’re actually shipping the MediaSmart Connect.
I am, therefore, extending the window for all people who qualified for the promotion from 30to 90 days to send in their competitive product.
Everyone will be notified by email.
So I want to officially confirm for those who are using their current media adapters on a daily basis, we will honor your trade-in in late July once the HP MediaSmart Connect is actually shipping.
Our turnaround time to receive your DMA and deliver your MediaSmart Connect will be less than 7 business days.
It is, unfortunately, unavoidable that we need confirmation from FedEx that the trade-in product is on its way to us before we can ship a MediaSmart Connect out.
I hope you’ll all understand.
Hope this clears up the confusion and I apologize for not being clearer in the first place.
Cheers,
Brian Burch
Will there be a Linksys versus HP comparison here when your HP unit comes and you have some time to play with it? WOuld certainly help us future buyers.
I've heard good things about the Linksys, but if the HP plays even nicer with the MediaSmart servers, it might be the way to go.
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