Hello Josef,
I am sorry to hear of your troubles. I know you must be frustrated. Here is some advice I can give you. It seems that you are beyond the 14-30 days the Best Buy usually gives you to return electronics, so getting a refund from Besy Buy is not going to be a possibilty. You should be covered for at least a year from HP. Meaning, should something break or not work, HP is responsible for repairing it free of charge, unless there is tiny print in there terms that excludes certain pieces of hardware.
I would say that you need to contact HP directly, and not go through Best Buy. Typically, if something on the computer breaks you can call Hp and they will troubleshoot with you. Then they will usually give you 2 options. They will send a box with postage for you to send the machine back to HP and they will repair and send back, or you can bring it to an HP authorized repair center in your city and they will fix it and then you pick it up. Best Buy is one of them, however it seems to me that they were more problems then help.
Here is a link to HP customer care options: http://hp.infonow.net/bin/findNow?LIST_LIST_KEY=1-11967077570002650688&CLIENT_ID=HP_LOC_USA_SRV
I think you should report Best Buy to HP because they really seemed to drag you through the mud. You really shouldn't have had to pay them ANYTHING. So I would call HP and try to sort things out with them and tell them what you have been through with Best Buy. I think you were treated unfairly and for a problem as simple as a hardrive you shouldn't have been without a computer for so many months. I think your only chance is hashing things out with HP...
Good Luck and let me know if I can help out in any way....
All the best,
Toe
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