An Open Letter To Mark Hurd

[justkim]

I, for one, agree with Rebecca's letter. And, noticed that it has been read over 1500 times. Lots of exposure for a complaint such s hers.

I found this forum as the last ditch effort to get some help from HP or someone who may know something about my problem. And, BTW, I also sent an email to your CEO with my complaint, for whatever dood it does.

Reading the responses from the HP employees, I wonder if you have ever heard the phrase "the customer is always right." If you are concerned about HP having to pay too many people to be able to answer questions, I'm geussing you don't understand the importance of customer service.

Along with my printer problem, I upgraded to Internet Explorer 8.0. Chatted with AT&T, my ISP, and though we tried, we could not pinpoint the problem. I was given the number for Microsoft tech support. Called first thing this morning, and was provided with excellent help to get the problem solved. I am not computer-illiterate, but still sometimes need help. Both of these service reps were polite, patient, explained what we were trying, how it may help, and when we fixed the problem, Microsoft sent me an email summarizing the problem and the fix. This is what customer service is all about, regardless of how long the customer has owned the product. You can argue against it, but remember company income, which pays you, only comes from satisfied customers.

And speaking of your warranty, I was told by your rep, you know the one who screens who can and who cannot get help, that my warranty expired in September 2008. The only problem with that is that the printer was shipped to the store in August 2008, it's on the box, and I purchased in December 2008. So having the one-year warranty expire 3 months before the product is purchased will save you a lot of money, but will lose you my business.

It's up to each company how they treat, and therefore, retain their customers. If a customer walks in defeat, anger, disgust, or other similar reactions, it isn't likely they will be back, and it is very likely they will complain to many of their friends, family, co-workers.

So, you choose your attitude toward customers. And your customers will choose another vendor.

After spending a little time looking for help, and reading the complaints, my perception of your company has dropped dramatically. Truthfully, I don't know what you could do to restore it. This is the kind of damage that isn't easily repaired.

I am in a service profession, I work with some extremely difficult people, but regardless, I value the difficult ones as much as the easy ones. Why? I want repeat business - it's as simple as that. It isn't generally regarded good business to spit in your customer's face.

Kim

[tbernstein]

Interesting.

The impression I got is that HP can't tell the difference between what is normally considered warranty work, e.g. setting up the machine or repairing faults, and just giving normal customer service.

No I wouldn't want my car repaired free out of warranty. But I do expect my local main dealer ( i.e. the manufacturer's agent) to give me advice about a change in the handling of the car, or what something that appeared on the dashboard actually means, when I go in there and ask. Often over the years they've all helped me out ( for free ) with simple matters too, e.g. changing a bulb that's stuck, or is badly designed and inaccessible. That's just plain customer service and the gain in loyalty is far greater than the cost in time.

However, this, as implied by the Samsung reference, isn't just an HP issue. It's the IT industry finding a way to supplement squeezed margins by charging for any extras, however petty they may have to behave to do it. (At least my HP multifunction  came with a USB lead - my Canon printer and Epson scanner didn't).

But the HP response was indeed petty minded. Legal perhaps, within their rights, perhaps.

But petty minded none the less.

Maybe the original retailer would have been more helpful?

[Vaika]

Well, considering that all computer companies charge for ANY out of warranty service at all, I don't see what your problem with HP is.

When you call Comcast, when you call Verizon, when you call your insurance company, your power company... they support you for "free" because you're already paying a monthly fee, part of which goes to the availability of phone support.

With HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, ANY computer company out there, when you call in past the end of your warranty, there is nothing there to help them make up the cost of the support.  It's not economically feasible for them to give you free support on a product that you purchased for very little, considering the extremely high costs of having phone support to begin with.  HP, unlike other companies, does have FREE chat and email support, that is their way of compromising with customers who insist they be able to get something for free.  If you want phone support, you have to pay for it to help make up the costs of having someone sit there on the phone with you and talk you through troubleshooting.

I understand that you're upset that you can't get free support, but it does not mean that HP isn't standing behind their products (they are, you just don't want to use what they provide), or that HP support is bad (it isn't, but without paying to be assisted, you won't know that).  If you doubt that, try searching for "Horrible experience with <company>" and fill in the blanks for ANY other computer company.  You'll find posts just like this one, saying "I'll never buy a Dell again, I'm going HP next time!" because they just aren't aware that this sort of thing is industry-wide.

Message Edited by Vaika on 04-18-2009 10:03 AM

[Bskull]

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Vaika wrote:

Well, considering that all computer companies charge for ANY out of warranty service at all, I don't see what your problem with HP is.

When you call Comcast, when you call Verizon, when you call your insurance company, your power company... they support you for "free" because you're already paying a monthly fee, part of which goes to the availability of phone support.

With HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, ANY computer company out there, when you call in past the end of your warranty, there is nothing there to help them make up the cost of the support.  It's not economically feasible for them to give you free support on a product that you purchased for very little, considering the extremely high costs of having phone support to begin with.  HP, unlike other companies, does have FREE chat and email support, that is their way of compromising with customers who insist they be able to get something for free.  If you want phone support, you have to pay for it to help make up the costs of having someone sit there on the phone with you and talk you through troubleshooting.

I understand that you're upset that you can't get free support, but it does not mean that HP isn't standing behind their products (they are, you just don't want to use what they provide), or that HP support is bad (it isn't, but without paying to be assisted, you won't know that).  If you doubt that, try searching for "Horrible experience with <company>" and fill in the blanks for ANY other computer company.  You'll find posts just like this one, saying "I'll never buy a Dell again, I'm going HP next time!" because they just aren't aware that this sort of thing is industry-wide.

Message Edited by Vaika on 04-18-2009 10:03 AM

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Finally, somebody who understands the ways of phone technical support as much as I do. Kudos to you, Vaika

[DexterM]

Thanks Vaika for speaking my mind. *thumbs up*

[Vaika]

tbernstein,

HP does stand behind their products for basic customer support much like your local car dealership you mentioned does.  It's called the chat and email support that is provided - for free - on HP's website.

When you want the next level of service, you pay for that service to help make up for the costs of providing that service.  Phone support is NOT cheap to provide.  Most software problems are more complex than what one light means, and a support call on software can easily get to an hour or beyond.  The fee for phone support is not high, by any means, and I think it's more than reasonable that if you decline to use the free service that HP does provide on their website, and you still want to be helped, that you are expected to pay a little to receive the same service as in-warranty customers, which should be HP's priority.

(Thank you, DexterM and Bskull!)

Message Edited by Vaika on 04-18-2009 02:19 PM

[tbernstein]

The original poster wanted to know what the sign on her display meant.

A two second reply would have done. (Probably followed with a  "buy a  new HP printer" ).

Message Edited by tbernstein on 109-28-09 06:28 PM

Message Edited by tbernstein on 109-29-09 06:29 PM

[BrickInHPWall]

Hi orangegirl06/Rebecca - sorry to be appearing off-topic, but is your original issue resolved? Is the printer working to your expectation? If not, what model number is it?

**Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP**

[dpic73]

Well mine WAS under warranty and let me tell you about my experience. Here's the letter I sent to the Better Business Bureau:

On May 30, 2009 my 79 yr. old mother bought an HP Pavilion Computer from Best Buy for $529.98. She paid for it with her Visa card. In early November 2009 the computer suddenly would not turn on. I then went to her house to see if I could help. I first called Best Buy and they informed me that since it was still under HP's warranty I should call them. I called HP Technical Support and they walked me through some steps to determine what was wrong with the computer. One of the steps had me opening the computer to check on the power supply. They determined that the computer had a faulty power supply and since it was under warranty they were paying for us to ship it back to their service center to have it replaced. On November 19, 2009 Paul H -the Customer Relationship Manager with HP called my mother and also sent her an email stating that they couldn't honor the warranty because they "are not allowed to work on or repair units with insects, pests and/or insect droppings inside the computer. We are returning the computer to you un-repaired. Please do not attempt to return the unit for repair as this will not be covered under warranty and we cannot repair it." This was an absolute lie because I had to go into the computer to diagnose the problem before it was shipped and there was no evidence at all of any type of pest infestation. And even if there were, I certainly would have removed them before shipping it back. Not only that but my mother keeps her house spotless and completely pest free. When asked what type of pests they claimed that they wouldn't tell us. In other words they didn't have to prove it....just their word against ours. I immediately called the next day to try and contest this situation and escalate the complaint. I was told at that time that they still had the computer and would escalate the issue. That was another lie because unbeknown to me it had already been returned to my mother's house. So I then went to her house to unpack the computer. Not only was there no evidence of pest infestation when I opened it but lo and behold there was a "HP Refusal of HP Bench Repair Service" document that stated the reason it was returned was due to " possible blood spilled". There was no mention of pests at all! So there was more proof of their lie. We couldn't figure out what they meant by "possible blood spilled" so we looked the computer over with a fine toothed comb and the only thing we could find that they MIGHT have been referring to was a very faint pink spot on the back of the computer-something virtually impossible to see(there was nothing on the inside). I can assure you that neither me nor my mother bled on the computer so this was a far fetched attempt to not have to honor their warranty. But even if that faint spot had been blood that had nothing to do with the power supply on the inside. Why didn't they at least ship us a new power supply if they couldn't replace it themselves? This whole episode smacks of outright fraud. Then it only got worse as we took it back to Best Buy to pay to get it fixed. They told us that they couldn't repair it even if we paid because HP had voided the warranty. I had to raise a ruckus to get them to repair it and they made me sign a waiver but we finally got it repaired. However, we should not have had to spend a penny to get this problem fixed but we paid a total of $102.98 because my mother needed her computer back. HP has no proof of their false claims but the honest consumer was left holding the bag. This was a much bigger hassle than it needed to be and the only thing we did wrong was stupidly buying an HP computer thinking that they were a reputable company. We were wrong. The service ticket number that HP refers to for this issue is : 8031535539

Your Desired Resolution:
We would like the cost of the repair and labor returned to us. $102.98

This case will be reviewed by a complaint specialist at the Better Business Bureau, and then forwarded to the business for their response. It is our policy to allow the business 30 working days to respond to your complaint. You will be notified when the business has responded.

[deceasedlavy]

It may not be the manufacturer's responsibility to provide tech support after a warranty expires, but it wouldn't be so bad if you could actually get some help in these forums.  You look down the list of threads and half of them have zero replies.  Respectfully worded, all the suggested info, and nobody can offer a couple quick words of advice.  What's the point of a support forum where half the questions just don't get answered?  I guess HP really wants you to pay that 35 bucks.