Buying a New Laptop
Posted: 2009-04-13 00:00:00

A couple of days thinking about it and pricing out computers online - I'm going for a new laptop. However, I've been having a lot of fun trying to purchase the damn thing.

I placed the order for my new HDX18t - a 18.4" full HD multimedia powerhouse with a blu-ray drive, built in HDTV tuner, 1GB nvidia graphics card, 4GB DDR3 ram -- and my debit card was declined. Wha? Ok, maybe it was an issue with my shipping address not matching my billing address. No biggie, I made sure the addresses were correct, tried again, only this time using PayPal. Charge was declined, only this time, PayPal seemed to have charged my account even though the order was declined. A call to HP to see what happened had them tell me I'd have to take it up with PayPal. I called PayPal (and actually spoke with someone from the US!!) and they said that they were just the middle man and I'd have to contact HP as they are the ones keeping the order alive. I called back HP (all the way back to India) and they said this time that I'd have to talk to my bank. Grrr..

The next morning, I called up my bank, and they said that the debit cards they issue have a $1500 daily limit. WTF? ...but they would raise the limit for me for the rest of the day. A couple of calls back to the bank and then back to HP, the laptop is heading my way. Also, in talking with my bank, they made sure to decline the PayPal charge.

I also bought a 3 year fix-all warranty with the laptop this time - anything (ANYTHING) goes wrong with it, it's on them to fix it. It even includes the battery! ...which is also pretty cool as my last laptop battery got to the point where it held a 5 minute charge.

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