This one is strange and a rogue HP employee (in India) may be responsible but if it happened to me it's probably happening to many others - BEWARE. I called HP tech support due to a failed hard drive. I ordered replacement operating system CDs which were to be provided for the shipping cost only (under $20). Shortly after the support call I received an e-mail confirming the order for the operating system CDs. Moments later I received another e-mail from HPSHOPPING.com confirming an order for two copies of Norton 360 at $79.99 each ($159.98). At no time during the support call was Norton 360 or anything to do with antivirus software ever discussed. No purchase of a product was suggested by the technician and a purchase was never authorized. The order, however, could not be canceled even though I called to do so only moments after receiving the confirmation e-mail. A "order shipped" notice was received the following morning and the product was clearly on the way. During the support call I provided the technician with an unusual phone number and a different e-mail address than I typically use. The unauthorized order was accessible on the HP shopping web site only by entering that unique phone number and the confirmation was sent to the atypical e-mail address I provided to the HP support technician. I'm therefore 100% sure the unauthorized order was entered by the HP support technician. My guess that HP technicians are on an incentive plan or receive commissions when they place merchandise orders for customers. I've got to believe they can benefit by placing unauthorized orders or this would not have occurred. While I will be able to refuse or return the product and dispute the charge with my credit card company, it will likely require that I cancel my credit card. This will require hours of work submitting revised credit card information to many monthly subscription providers. After three hours on the phone with various HP departments around the world, I was told (by the first HP employee I encountered that didn't speak in broken English and was likely in the U.S.) that there was simply "nothing he could do" and that I'd "have to take the issue up with my credit card company".
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