Ron in Utah tells Consumerist that he purchased what he thought was a brand-new HP printer, but ended up being more of a Box of Crap. The printer inside wasn’t just non-functional, it was so old that the warranty had expired. HP Customer service’s answer? Before they could help him, he had to fax his original receipt within thirty minutes GO NOW NOW NOW TO THE FAX MACHINE NOW!

Ron was not pleased. He writes:

I bought what I thought was a brand new HP photo printer from a local store. I immediately registered it on the HP website which was confirmed; then I turned it on to set it up and print a test page. The result was horrific, all the colors ran together so I rechecked everything and printed a second page with the same results.

I called to 800 customer service number, and yes, I was speaking to someone in India whom I could barely understand. I gave him the model and serial numbers and I was told that printer’s warranty had expired. I tried to explain to him that I just purchased it yesterday. Nope, he told me that printer with that serial # was registered about a year ago and that there wasn’t anything they could or would do, so I asked to speak to the manager.

The manager was rude and told me that I had 30 minutes to fax to him my receipt. Well here’s a news flash, not every American home has a fax machine in it and why should I incur a $50 phone bill faxing to India my receipt since HP just acknowledged registering my “new” printer?

In sum, its obvious someone bought a lemon, returned it, and HP just repackaged it and sold this defective product again as new. When I complained to HP no one responded, they just ignored me. Fortunately the place where I purchased the printer is very reputable and gave me a full refund.

We’re glad to hear that Ron had a happy ending. We’re not sure who else at HP helped him, but if the retailer had remained unmoved, we would have recommended calling up the friendly folks at the company’s executive customer service number to see if they could be much more help. Who knows? They might even be able to receive scanned receipts via e-mail.

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