An Open Letter To Mark Hurd

[orangegirl06]

Hi Mark,

I’m an HP customer. One who really loved her convenient, manageable, cute, personal HP printer/scanner/copier until it suddenly stopped functioning. This letter is not to fault your products. Rather it’s your policies I have issue with.

Your tagline is something about making the computer personal again, but your service has felt anything but personal. Upon realizing I had a printer malfunction, I tried to figure out online what might be wrong by going through your troubleshooting manual. No dice. I couldn’t find anything about an “E” appearing where numbers should be. I assumed it meant “Error”, but not being tech savvy, I instantly doubted myself and thought, Well, what if it means Empty? What then? Could it be that simple? Ugh, I need help.

So I decided to pick up the phone and call customer service where I was patched through to a representative after about 10 minutes with an automated system. This man, who refused to give me his ID number saying that it was against company policy to release such information, spent more time taking more of the same basic information only to tell me that my warranty has expired and that if I wanted to talk to anyone, it would cost me $34.99.

This astounded me. We had not even gotten to what the problem might be. My mind raced, Am I really going to pay someone $34.99 for them to tell me that I need to replace a cartridge? I tried to explain this dilemma to him, but was getting nowhere so I asked to speak with his supervisor. I was then informed that supervisors are reserved only for customers whose products are still under warranty. This, too, felt counterintuitive. Why would I need a warranty to talk to a supervisor? I talk to supervisors for companies who never gave me a warranty in the first place, I thought. He said I could email in my problem at no charge, but I wanted to talk through the problem with someone in a reasonable amount of time. Not write down word for word, blinking light by blinking light, button by button what was going on and then never know whether I’ll get a response (although it looks like that’s where I ended up anyway…touche, Mark) or whether my explanation was coherent. I explained to the man that I wasn’t paying any amount of money to talk to someone about my problem and that I was willing to remain on the line until he was able to figure out a way to help me. That is his job, right? To help me fix a problem? I wanted to give him an opportunity to be a problem solver. I needed help, plain and simple. Just someone to talk to.

Well, he hung up on me. Said I was a waste of his time. So I tweeted about it. For all the HP accounts on Twitter, one guy responded to me. He was very nice and at least attempted to be helpful. Wouldn’t you know it, he was in marketing, not customer service. I gave him my phone number and my email and two weeks (two weeks!) later I received a phone call from a Mr. Dan Finn from the executive office. I thought, Whew! Finally, the executive office will know what to do. And they’ll be a lot more invested in my satisfaction as a customer. I couldn’t wait to talk to Dan. After a few missed calls and bad timing, Dan and I finally connected.

In my dreams, this is what Dan said, “I understand what you’re saying, let’s see if we can’t get someone to talk to you. I’m sorry you’ve had an unpleasant experience so far, and rather than just TELL you how sorry I am and how much HP values you as a customer the way everyone else has, I’m going to prove it to you and try to help you fix your problem. If it’s a quick fix there’ll be no problem, but it’s possible that it’s a bigger problem and then we can talk about the cost of any repairs. I’ll stay on the line while I patch you through to a technician so the three of us can talk this through and I'll make sure you get taken care of.”

In reality, this is what Dan said, “You can pay $34.99 to talk to a technician or you can chat online or email. Ma’am it’s stated pretty clearly on the warranty. I mean, your product was purchased in 2005. So your warranty’s been expired for a while now.” Don’t get me wrong, Dan was a nice guy. He was just doing his job, much like customer service representative #1 from the first call (except CSR#1 did get a little sassy and, oh yeah, he hung up the phone on me). When I asked if I could write you a letter to advise on how flawed I feel your customer service policy is, he gave me the address to his office where he promised to consider my thoughts, file away my letter to a place where it would never see the light of day and you certainly would never be bothered with it. Well played, Mark. You train them well. So I decided to post this somewhere where whether or not you see it, certainly other potential and current customers will.

Let me ask you something: Am I an HP customer as long as I own an HP product, or only as long as that product is under warranty? Just because you can no longer assure me that the product I paid for will function properly, does that mean that I’m no longer deserving your help? When was it ever a good business plan to LIMIT customer service? If that ever worked at some point in history, you're sadly behind the curve in realizing it's not going to fly today. That doesn’t sound like you want to keep things really personal. Not one bit. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at whatever meeting that decision was made at:

Suit #1: So, now that we’ve got the terms of this warranty written up, what do we do if a customer needs something after it expires?

Mark Hurd: Screw ‘em.

What really gets me is that I’m willing to pay to have it repaired! I understand nothing lasts forever and sometimes things go wrong and need to be fixed. If you would just let someone talk to me about my problem long enough to figure out what’s going on, I’d pay someone to fix it. But pay someone to tell them what my problem is?  That doesn’t sound right to me. Does it sound right to you? Don’t help your customers because it's an opportunity to squeeze more money from them, help them because you have pride in the quality of the products you sell. I’m really sad, not only because this is the #2 most frustrating situation I’ve had behind getting cable installed (they finally came) but also because I LOVED your product, and now I can no longer use it and I have no idea why.

It crossed my mind that this is all a ploy to just get me to never fix the old product and buy a brand spankin’ new HP printer, I’m sorry, Mark, but if that's the case, you’ve failed. Because after this experience I have no intention of ever purchasing another HP product now that I know how very little you value your customers. This is a dangerous policy you’ve got here, Mark. Customer loyalty is so important. Especially now, I’d say it’s critical to a company’s survival in these tough economic times. I urge you to reconsider your current policy when it comes to your customers. Either that, or create a new advertising campaign. I’m dying to know: What exactly about HP is making the computer personal again? If you read this, that question is not rhetorical. Please let me know. Call your executive office, Dan will know how to reach me.

These kinds of bad practices lead to bad PR. If you don’t want bad publicity, do the right thing and be good to your customers.

Thanks and best,

Rebecca

[Bskull]

As an employee of HP's technical support, but not representing HP in any way when posting this, I am greatly sorry for your bad experience with HP. A lot of business have what is called "license agreements" which are usually separate documents explaining ownership and usage of a product. When you first use such a product (i.e.. printer) or service, it usually means with most business that you agreed and comply with that agreement. When you originally purchased that printer, you had a 1 year warranty that began from the moment of purchase, that was possibly expandable at that moment while you were in warranty, which also entitled you for free phone support for that period of time. Since that 1 year warranty has expired, in order for a technician to support you over the phone, there is a per incident option (depending on what type of product that you are calling in for.) for phone support. Like Dan said to you though, we do offer free technical support via our website for there is a chat support option and this message board to assist you for free as well. Once again, I greatly apologize about your experience from HP, but I do hope you have a wonderful day.

[mcctwin]

you MUST be an HP tech support employee bc what you said still doesn't explain the problem. All of you guys talk in circles and all represent a product that is crap. that's probably why you only have a (1) year warranty and don't care about how you treat your customers. I'm not buying another HP product bc of the rude tech support and the product that just fell apart after I've used it only a few times before my warranty expired. Customer satisfactions is very crucial to keeping a business going bc we are buying your products. Well, I'm not going to purchase ANY HP product anymore and will make sure that others won't either.

[frprinterwiz]

So basically, any product you purchase should entitle you to free diagnostics for as long as you own the product?  I wonder what all the car dealerships and factory repair shops for the automotive industry would think about this kind of practice.  It would be great if I could call KIA and find out for "FREE" what the problem is with my car and then I could fix it or go somewhere cheaper to get it fixed.  It would be awesome when my 5 year old dryer starts squealing that I could call Kensington and be told for "FREE" how to fix my dryer so it don't make my spine tingle every time I turned it on.  Do you see where I am going here?

Also, it costs money to offer the phone support to customers.  If every person with an out of warranty HP product could call in for free, not only would HP have to greatly increase the amount of people they hire, they would have to pay these people.  Do you know how they would likely get the money to do this?  You know that printer you spent maybe $200-$500 on back in 2005?  You'd be paying $2000-$5000 for it so that HP could give you free support for a printer that's ready to be replaced soon anyways as these products only live for so long.

The best part is, if you had paid for the support and the issue had been something very minor you could have spoken to a supervisor then to see if you could be reimbursed.  If the issue required repair, you would have been REBATED the cost of the call in the total repair bill.  If HP does not offer service for the unit, you could have then asked to be reimbursed since HP could not actually offer you the service you had called in for!  (that one might get dicey, if you spent any time troubleshooting the issue, you likely won't get your money back as you are paying for phone support).  The kicker, if it fixed your issue, you spent 40 bucks instead of the cost of a replacement printer.  Sounds like a deal to me!

Also, you could have talked about your problem until you were blue in the face to the phone rep who wanted your credit card info.  They are not technicians, have likely never seen the printer you are calling about and would have no clue how to help you or if the technicians could help you.

The best part about your post is that you don't see the reality of the situation and live in a fantasy world where what you want to happen should just happen.  You wanted your service to happen the way you wanted it and got upset when it didn't.  You want to contact the CEO about it but you post your letter on a user to user forum where it clearly states that this section is for feedback about the FORUMS themselves and not a way to contact HP!!!  Guess what, there is a really easy way to CONTACT HP and in fact there is a form you can use that will get sent to the CEO's department where your concerns might actually get addressed.  Be prepared though, you are likely to get the same answer that you have already received.  Your product is out of warranty and if you want to speak directly to a technician on the phone you will have to pay!!

Please note that I do not talk for HP, nor do I work for HP, my profession however places me in the situation where I have to deal with HP support on a regular basis, have read my warranties and learned from experience how to work with HP support (and many other computer related vendors).

[Cassio]

frprinterwiz-

I would love to see where this forum you talk about is. I've been crawling the website looking for a place to actually post a complaint about a product and there is nothing. All they have is support (I've already been through support and got told that its my own problem not HP's) and I really would rather not start a topic where it will jsut be deleted for being in the wrong place. 

[DexterM]

Email mark Hurd HERE 

Go knock yourself out.

[Cassio]

Thanks Dexter, I will. Will also let them know that they need to work on their employees (the ones that apparently are not part of the support?) temperment on the forums or restrict them from using them. A small snippet saying that HP is not responsible for your comments does not change the fact that they still reflect negativly on the company.

[DexterM]

Restrict them from using? But why? Just because they were being objective, and thus didn't quite agree with your opinion? Besides, i believe it is because of the HP employees taking up their personal time to help resolve other customers' issue for free and nothing else in return, that the forum has been as helpful as it has been so far. Without us, there'll just be more questions, not many answers and more rants and frustration-venting.

Message Edited by DexterM on 02-26-2009 03:45 AM

[Infernoman]

LOL! You think this was bad support??? ZOMG. Try Samsung. Their support is crappy DURING WARRANTY!

I've had great experience with HP and will forever be with them. HP offers great service in warranty, and great support outside of warranty (free chat and email, etc). 

For me to get a notebook fixed, it takes 1 call, 30 minutes, approx with HP.

With samsung..it takes about 5 calls, 4 weeks, and problem still isn't solved. I don't even want to imagine what their attitude is when you try to call Samsung out of warranty! 

Btw, 4/4 for defects in samsung printers. 

[truthtopower]

Please call the better buisness bureau on them and paste your problem heres what they did to me and my BBB resolution pending.-

I called to have a Visa charge removed and a Recovery disc order cancelled talked to 5 people was told it was done then recieved an Email confirmation that I will be billed. Called again was switched between 5 different people they dropped the call 2 times I redialed and they didnt listen to what I was saying after 3 people I was finally told it was done it took me 5 minutes to order it and 4 1/2 hours to cancel it.Still not sure its complete service case# (Removed for privacy reasons)
Your Desired Resolution:
$15.78 back on my Visa An apology from a Supervisor or high administer sent to me in the mail. I was aggrivated beyond compare to any way I have been misled/rerouted told wrong information and just blatently disregarded in the past, by any other phone tech. or service industry ever in my life!They should be ashamed of the company they are trying to run,Horrendous service!

Message Edited by SandyD on 03-19-2009 12:09 PM