Monday, September 22, 2003
A Pocket PC "No-Buy" List?
Posted by Brad Adrian in "THOUGHT" @ 09:40 AM
I have a friend who uses Pocket PCs to help perform health evaluations in developing countries. He recently told me about a strange situation he encountered:
"Recently, I tried to purchase ten Pocket PCs from Hewlett-Packard Shopping.com. The agent who was helping me asked me casually why I was buying so many, and I responded that I would be using them in a child health program in Kenya. The HP agent told me that everything was fine with the order, and to expect it the next day. The following day, I received a call from HP. The person told me that my order had been denied because it didn’t meet 'industry-wide criteria for proper orders.' I knew that I had more than enough credit on my card to place the order. I asked the agent what was wrong with the order, and she just repeated the aforementioned line. When I asked what the criteria were to which she was referring, there was a long pause then she said, 'I am not at liberty to divulge that information.' I asked to speak to the person’s supervisor who had denied my order, and that supervisor repeated the same language, but would not give me any more information. I asked if the refusal was due to some problem with my credit (although I knew it wasn’t – HP had already put a hold on my card for the purchase). He said it wasn’t. I asked if it had anything to do with how many units I ordered. He said it wasn’t, but would not give me any other information.
I have wondered if my mentioning that I will be visiting a country with known terrorist activities (Kenya) led to the problem. Do you know if this has happened to other people? Is this part of an overly-zealous efforts on the part of the Dept. of Homeland Security? Is there some sort of No-Buy list in use?
Thanks,
Tom Davis, MPH
Senior Program Specialist"
Does anybody have an idea why this would happen? If this does relate to the fact that the Pocket PCs were to be used in Kenya, who actually sets the denial criteria?
"Recently, I tried to purchase ten Pocket PCs from Hewlett-Packard Shopping.com. The agent who was helping me asked me casually why I was buying so many, and I responded that I would be using them in a child health program in Kenya. The HP agent told me that everything was fine with the order, and to expect it the next day. The following day, I received a call from HP. The person told me that my order had been denied because it didn’t meet 'industry-wide criteria for proper orders.' I knew that I had more than enough credit on my card to place the order. I asked the agent what was wrong with the order, and she just repeated the aforementioned line. When I asked what the criteria were to which she was referring, there was a long pause then she said, 'I am not at liberty to divulge that information.' I asked to speak to the person’s supervisor who had denied my order, and that supervisor repeated the same language, but would not give me any more information. I asked if the refusal was due to some problem with my credit (although I knew it wasn’t – HP had already put a hold on my card for the purchase). He said it wasn’t. I asked if it had anything to do with how many units I ordered. He said it wasn’t, but would not give me any other information.
I have wondered if my mentioning that I will be visiting a country with known terrorist activities (Kenya) led to the problem. Do you know if this has happened to other people? Is this part of an overly-zealous efforts on the part of the Dept. of Homeland Security? Is there some sort of No-Buy list in use?
Thanks,
Tom Davis, MPH
Senior Program Specialist"
Does anybody have an idea why this would happen? If this does relate to the fact that the Pocket PCs were to be used in Kenya, who actually sets the denial criteria?
