I already wrote about my experience with one day of Vista on my new laptop - see my blog.

Now a response came from HP, regarding the $50 rebate, saying

We appreciate your purchase, btu your submission for the HP $50 HP Pavilion Notebook Rebate offer was declined for the following reason(s):

Submission did not include a copy of an itemized dated sales receipt or packing slip. Please enclose a copy.

I don't remember any packing slip being mentioned in the instructions. UPC code yes - I still have the box missing it. Receipt, I have printed two, I still have a copy. Now I wish they said what exactly was missing, but they didn't.

When you send them EVERYTHING THEY WANT, all you get is a letter, months later, that one of the items is missing and you aren't eligible. I was scammed like this, several years ago, by ColdFusion - the receipt from their website somehow doesn't count as an invoice (!), they want an invoice from a shop (but why did they advertise the rebate on the website then?). HP takes this a step further - they offer even less explanation, and if they claim you didn't send the UPC code, you're done - you sent it already and have no way of either sending it again, or proving that you did. So not only did I give an interest-free $50 loan to poor HP, they are now claiming that I cannot prove I gave it to them. My only recourse is to post the facts here. And if I notice an extra stream of computer related junk mail coming my way, i.e. if this was just a ruse to harvest my address, I may even take this further - just waiting for any symptoms of them selling my data.

And if their scamming division believes in hell, they may just take a trip there, as far as I'm concerned.

Not that I actually expected to ever get this money. To be honest, I bought this laptop despite the rebate offer, because I liked it.