15 Year brand advocate saying goodbye to HP [ Edited ]

[kscrow]

Dear HP,

You can keep the $100,000+ of Hewlett Packard equipment I (and the companies I have purchased for) have spent with you over the last fifteen years. Though we’ve been together a long time, it has come time to part ways. I feel like I am ending a long romantic relationship. We’ve been through a lot together but I still have a lot of good buying years left.

You see, you’re just not the person I met fifteen years ago. Back then you were attentive and accommodating. When I had a problem you’d work with me, as a team, and we’d both be happy at the end. Now, however, it has really become all about you and I feel like as the years have progressed you have just taken one liberty after another with me and now this relationship has become all about what I can give; and what you can take from me.

There are a lot of youngsters out there who have expressed an interest in trying to make something meaningful together and truth be known, I’ve really started to listen to what they’re saying while my faith in you has just continued to dwindle. I find myself in a sad place as I know that tomorrow you will just go out and find someone else to fill the void while I will be trying hard not just to find somebody to take your place but someone who’s truly worth everything I have to give; something that will last a lifetime. Though it comes at some great personal pain to end this relationship to which I have become so accustomed, the promise of a new, happier life is with someone special is just too great an opportunity to pass up.

So this is farewell. I am looking forward to a life without data loss, cheap and faulty components, and your deaf ear and cold shoulder to cry on. I really do wish you the best in life and will always look back fondly on the good times we had early on in our relationship. All I hope is that at some point you will see that in the end…

It’s not me…it’s you.

Yours truly,

CW
[support case information removed for privacy] (backround below)

The past twelve months of my professional life have been characterized by continuous hardward failures, inadeduate support, and sub-standard products. It all began with a faulty RAID controller on a proliant server but in the end it is a $700 pavillion desktop that has me saying goodbye forever to Hewlett Packard.

In 15 years of being an IT buyer and a SERIOUS brand advocate for HP, I hve NEVER had this many problems with HP's products, support, and customer service. In twelve months I have experienced two major failures in my proliant servers, a bad hard drive in one laptop, the same issue in a netbook, and now a faulty SATA controller in a pavillion desktop. With each failure came the loss of priceless data and countless man hours worth of work.

For the first time in many years I had to call HP support today and I am appauled at what HP considers to be customer service these days. The inbound call center was located inIndiaand the support and escalation process with deplorable.

Now...I outsource to India as well and completely understand the economic benefit of $3/hr labor, however, are we really still learning that India and other countries are NOT the best place to centralize customer service operations?

My phone call began with Jeff (his assigned name I am sure) in regards to a disfunctional SATA controller installed on the Pegatron M2N78-LA montherboard. I was informed by Jeff that in order to disgnose (yes you read that right, DIAGNOSE!) the problem, I would have to pay $100 via credit card. I was less than enthusiastic about paying $100 to diagnose a what is obviously a hardware failure in the integrated SATA controller on the motherboard of this unit. Jeff informed me that my desktop computer was "Out of Warranty" and that he was unable to help without collecting th $100. I informed Jeff that I would not be forking over $100 so that he could tell me my SATA controller was bad. Jeff then basically told me I was SOL and without paying the fee, I wasn't going to make any progress with him. Jeff and I continued to go back and forth on the matter whilst he consistently reminded me "There is nothing free in this world" to which my response was "The computer wasnt free". After about 40 minutes of our back and forth banter about what I expect customer service to be and what HP is willing to provide "by policy", I asked to be escalated up in the process. Jeff informed me that his supervisor "Refused to speak to me" as it is against policy to do so under HP rules and guidelines. I fought Jeff for another twenty minutes about letting me speak to this Supervisor; who he named as "John" when Jeff figuratively threw up his hands and simply stopped responding to me. That's right, didn't hang up (because apparently that too is against HP policy) but instead, just let me talk to myself for ten minutes. At the end of those ten minutes Jeff's voice appears again and his only words are…

“Sir, I am transferring you to a supervisor now”.

I am placed on hold for just a moment and a new voice (self identified as Deeta) appears on the line. Deeta reiterates that because my computer is a few months out of warranty, I will have to provide the $100 necessary to diagnose my computer. I ask Deeta point blank…

“This computer is just over a year old and the on board SATA controller has gone bad. Is HP going to be willing to replace this component or am I going to be expected to pay for it?”.

Deeta’s response was this…

“If the on board SATA controller is bad, you will need to purchase a new motherboard at your own expense.”

So…For this $700 computer I need to pay $100 additional to have HP “Diagnose” the problem then another $300 for a new motherboard?

I don’t think so.

[Big_Dave]

I have notified a moderator to assist you with your issues.

[kscrow]

Hello Dave. Thank's for your attempt. I did receive a call today (this time from an American native) but the end result is the same. The reality of the subject is that all HP did was get someone from the U.S. to call and give me the same rhetoric I got from his Indian counterpart. It seems HP doesn't understand my frustration clearly. eighteen months is NOT an acceptable life span for a desktop computer. Google results provide 2,440 hits for "hp p6310y motherboard failure". This is a huge failure by HP to produce a quality product and correct its errors. If all those hits (and lets face it, those are only the 10% of consumers that are taking the initiative to complain and seek help on the web) are owners of the p6310y (Pavillion Desktop) then that's $1.7M in wasted consumer dollars. To make matters worse, if each of those has to pay the $99 "diagnostic fee" and $299 motherboard replacement fee, that's an additional $970k in consumer capital. I suspect the real numbers for these failures is far greater. There used to be a time in this country that when you cost consumers that much money...there were governmental reprocussions. Too bad that's not true today. Too bad. 

[FattysGoneWild]

Hate to say it. But, HP is right. Its simply out of warranty and you will not take no for a answer. Why should you get a free fix (out of warranty) unless it is a well known issue being recalled? That is what extended warranty is for. If you planned on keeping it more then a year. You should have picked up an extended warranty. With those other problems. You kept coming back to HP. Your fault. If you are not happy with the products. Move on to another. Pleny of choices out there. Customers like you make call center workers crazy. Their hands are tied when a product is out of warranty and you want a free fix. It don't work that way in life. HP honored the 1 year warranty.

[kscrow]

Hello Fatty. Though I appreciate you tossing your two cents in, I'm going to have to disagree with your position on the matter. I think that I (and the hundreds of other owners of the Pegatron M2N78-LA equipped HP computers who have experienced crashed motherboards) have a valid argument. In fact, during my time over the last couple of days I have been visiting one consumer site after another and there are LITERALLY thousands of dissatisfied customers regarding the M2N78-LA motherboard.

I have an archaic HP pentiium 3 desktop running Red Hat that I must have purchased around 2001 that is still running stong on the original equipment. I also have two notebooks (one purchased around 2002 and another in the summer of 2006) that are also still completely operational. In the last fifteen years, netbooks, notebooks, servers, and desktops combined I have probably PERSONALLY owned and purchased at least two dozen machines. Add that to many times more workstations and servers that I have purchased as an IT buyer for organizations I worked for and one could say I have a LOT of experience with HP. In fact, and I mean this with 100% sincerity) apart from the Tandy 386SX I purchased from Radio Shack in the early nineties, The IBM 386DX shortly after, and the Dell Netbook I purchased in 2007 on a whim, and an Epson color inkjet I purchsed in 2002, EVERY SINGLE computer and printer I have purchased has been an HP.

Fatty, did you actually read my entire post? If you did, you came away from the reading with the wrong message entirely. This is NOT about me getting anything for free. What this is about is me spending money on products that are multitudes of times less reliable than the techonolgy I was purchasing ten years ago. It is NOT acceptible for myself and hundreds (if not thousands; see google search) of consumers to invest in a computer that only lasts a year or two at best. Furthermore, it is not I that make call center personnel crazy. Though the representative that I spoke to on the phone (Jeff) would probably argue otherwise, it is HP's faulty hardware and ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS customer service policies that make US crazy. I am normally not a complainer and believe it or not this is the FIRST time I have ever "flamed" a company on the internet (and I have been on here a loooong time). This is simply the last straw and truth be known, the smallest of the issues I have experienced with HP's products over the last 24 months.

As an IT buyer and a business analyst, it is the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) that I must weigh when making IT (or any other) purchasing decisions. In the last 24 months HP has cost me (and the companies I have been involved with) thousands of dollars in hardware replacement costs. However, these costs PALE in comparison to the man hours it has taken to backup, restore, reconfigure, and reinstall everything needed after a catastrophic failure (of which I have had the pleasure of experiencing over a half a dozen times in two years). And each and every one of these was an HP product (two servers, two desktops, one notebook, and one netbook. ALL HP! Even worse...ALL hard disk or HD controller issues.

This crappy p6310y HP computer is getting a new motherboard but it's not going to come from HP! For any of you out there reading this post, know that you do not have to buy the M2N78-LA motherboard from HP when yours dies. Instead, just go to Best Buy or CompUSA and buy a replacement Micro ATX motherboard from one of the reputable manufacturers and install it (or have your technologically inclined 12 year old do it) in your existing case. Even with the new motherboard and a retail version of Windows 7, you'll still come out $150 cheaper and have a better built MB in the process.

Fatty, all I can say is that if you think the technology you buy should only be good for a year unless you pay for an additional warranty...then I am sad that this is what you've come to expect. Looking around my life, if I had to purchase an extended warranty for everything I thought I wanted to use for more than a year (my refrigerator, surround sound, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, garage door opener, dryer, hot water heater, AC unit, cell phone, home phone, DVD player, I-Home alarm clock, salt water tank filter, water softener, sprinkler system controller, television, xbox, wii, and EVERYTHING ELSE that has a heartbeat) I'd be BROKE.

Of all the things mentioned above, I have not once, but repeatedly had problem after problem with ONLY those products I got from HP. In fact, the ONYL other problem i have had in two years was the ring of death on my xbox which Microsoft fixed for free (OUT OF WARRANTY!).

So Fatty, you statement that "HP is right"...

No Fatty. No they're not.

And HP. if you're listening, I will NEVER purchase another desktop, server, netbook, printer, or even printer paper from you again. Ever.

Fatty, hope I didn't offend you, that surely wasn't my purpose. Have a great day!

[kscrow]

Well this explains a lot http://forums.cnet.com/7723-21576_102-539291/hp-to-sell-off-computer-division-hp-stock-drops/

Looks like us consumers are the only ones who've lost some major money in HP

[FattysGoneWild]

I am not offended. I read the whole post. You kinda came off as a whiner. Sorry. I might come off as a arrogant jerk about how I feel. I don't mean to sound that way and hope you understand where I am coming from. I am on my 3rd desktop bought by HP. This one being their latest offering which is a custom built Phoenix gaming pc. The previous 2 desktops had no issues. My last machine which is a Compaq CQ5210F. It is still going strong. And that was only $299.99 when purchased. It will be 3 years old in December. That was with also adding upgrades. New cpu, power supply, video card and more ram. I have also had 3 HP printers. My latest being the Envy. My previous 2 worked out great.

No issues. Not even a single paper jam. So, far this Envy has been performing excellent. No complaints. Guess what I am saying. If something goes out under warranty. I would not be mad. Most manufactures offer a 1 year warranty. Lets face it. Things are not made like they use to be. My new Phoenix gaming pc came with a 2 year factory warranty. HP must be confident in the machine to offer that. No one offers a 2 year warranty on new desktops standard. HP also pays for EVERYTHING. Shipping to and from. Or in home service. Even customer install. They give you choices. I like that.