Buying a Netbook Part V - The Battery Wars Continue

Another update in the ongoing battle to buy a 6-cell battery for my little HP Netbook (which I still think is great and works very well).

I called my contact in the US to make arrangements so I can buy a battery from HP.com and send it to her, so she can repack it and send it back to me. Alas, foiled again! While I can enter a US shipping address, the billing address, which will probably need to be the same as the credit card, must be in the US. Now, I could try setting the billing and shipping addresses to be the same, but that would probably ring alarm bells somewhere at the credit card company (this would only happen with a legitimate use; if it were a stolen credit card situation and someone tried the same thing, the Powers That Be would have no idea of what is going on for several months...) and I don't want that.

Now you may be wondering why I'm making all the fuss about ordering this maddening little fucking battery from HP instead of somewhere else. The simple reason is that it's cheaper - waaaay fucking cheaper - to order it directly from HP instead of other places. The battery sells from HP for $99. Right now, there is a special that brings it down to $74.99. On top of that, HP has plenty of coupon codes that can be applied (one, good until the end of October, knocks another 25% off, bringing the price down to $59.99 - with FREE shipping!) Some places, especially here in Canada, want double or more plus huge shipping charges for the same thing. I'm being hosed, I tell you, hosed.

To add even further insult to injury, I checked the Canadian website again. They still list the battery, they still mention that it is not for sale online, they still mention that it must be bought from HP resellers, but now, when I go to check for ones nearest me, no listings appear. Nothing. Nada.

There is a cosmic force in the universe that is making damn certain that I will never have an extended life, 6-cell battery for my little Netbook. I ask you, what kind of fucking company in this day and age, in this recession, makes it so unbelievably hard to buy their products? Huh? What kind? I wanna know... really... I want someone to explain the logic here. I want someone in management to stand up and speak the truth - there is a major problem with their supply chain. But I do not want to hear any fucking apology. Not one goddamn word... I want to hear him or her simply state that said problem will be fixed fully by a specific date, and that the prices will be reasonable, that this sort of thing won't happen again. That's it... that's all I want to hear.

Am I asking for too much? You tell me.