Thanks John,
I appreciate the guidance. It is just astounding to me that HP has such poor customer response processes in place. This is the company that basically invented the desktop printer after all!
Seven days later, after 8 phone calls, speaking with 13 people, and scanning and sending the receipt (dated less than six weeks prior) three times, with no reasonable response, I started calling the Investor Relations folks. I eventually got to someone who seemed to actually be concerned with solving my issue. (I AM a stockholder...at least until the sell order is processed.) They were (eventually) able to dig into the Service Order that had been placed the day after the failure and discovered that the refurd unit that should have been sent did not include the print head.....which was one of the failed components. If the unit had been sent out, it would still not have solved my problem! Inept anyone??
I asked the rep, hereinafter 'the solver', to send a complete unit, or at least ALL the parts I needed to fix the dead unit. Two days later I received a new HP7610, which is apparently the replacement unit for the 7500A. After hours of trying to get it to install via USB connection, giant PITA, I eventually got it to install. Seems to work, at least so far. Not a real optimist, however. Oh, and the $80 I spent on cartridges that were used to print 4 11x17 pages are now trash.
Absolutely stunned that it took nine days (six business days) and hours and hours on the phone to (hopefully) fix this. I cannot help but think that most folks would have either: 1) Taken the unit back to the retailer (if OfficeMax had one in stock anywhere near Atlanta I would have done so), or, 2) Given up and pitched the thing in the trash and bought a different brand - then filed a dispute with Amex. Sad that it took extreme actions to finally get this (mostly) resolved.
I understand your concern with OfficeMax selling an older unit. It was new, and not a fast-seller. Most people do not need the wide format capability, and if I had read the online reviews prior to buying this unit like many did, I would have passed. If the unit had failed within 30 days they would have taken it back for a full refund, and eventually offered to do that for me. However, no other wide-format brand was available in stock within a reasonable distance, so I decided to stay the course with HP Service. Understand that the day after the failure I had a Service Order number and an email validating the warranty (via scanned receipt) so I expected a replacement unit in a day or two. If I had known HP's systems were so screwed up, I would have taken the refund, bought a 7610 from Staples online for $129, shipped free, and had a new printer in a couple days.
In any case, I persevered and eventually got a new printer. Not worth the effort involved, nor the time. Just sad that HP customer service is such a mess. This transaction was fairly simple...or should have been. Lots of complaints about HP CS online. I've bought dozens of HP products over the years, but I'm done.
Thanks again for chiming in!!