Substandard Customer Support

[swissoff]

Hi there

Just want to share my experience with HP so far.

Always was a Dell user, I worked for Dell for years. However, I was very excited about the TouchSmart PC as a home media system, and in general, I must say, I loved the product. The proprietary HP media software crashed constantly, but I didnt really care, as I was using windows media centre.

After 6 weeks, the PC froze, and the long and short of it is that the mother board or HDD died. They are still unable to tell me which it is.

The PC went back, and I was told it would be back in 10 days. 10 days later a call informed me there was a delay in the 'part' arrival. I did not complian, as Ive said i've worked in support and understand how things can be delayed. The rep told me I would have it the following Friday, 7 days away.

Following Friday, nothing and I call support. They tell me the part is on odrer, and they dont know when they will have it. Finding this unnaceptable I asked for customer service to ask for a replacement PC, after all, I am a customer of HP who has bought a 1300 euro product which is faulty, I'm asking them to satisfy the customer as I've had no PC for 3 weeks. Incredibly the 'customer serice' supervisor I get, tells me a third story, that the part is in and it is being repaired, but also tells me with complete indifference to my frustration that it could be 8 weeks. When I ask why I was promised it today, she has the audacity to tell me I was not, and that it is not on her file. When I argued the point with her she asked me if my 'kick' was to phone call centres to pick fights, and duly hung up on me. Never, in my 10 years working in support have a I heard of a customer bring treated or spoken to in this manner.

When I phoned back to complain, absolutely furious, I was told a 4th story by the next rep, that the part is on order 'again', and they completely clsoed ranks on my complaint. I was told that she could not tell from the system who I spoke to last, which is rubbish, as all call centres log all calls by customer rep, and that she was the highest I could go to complain. She would not even give me the name of a manager or official complaints department I could write to.

I am utterly disgusted by the treatment I have been subjected to by HP, and if their goal with customer service is to satisfy and retain customers they have failed miserably. I have now been without the product I purchased for 3 weeks, and might be for a further 8 before they will even begin to consider replacing their faulty product to me.

I would seriously attempt to dissuade anyone from purchasing a HP product, as they seem incapable of providing answers to customers, and the supports staff I have spoken to were flippant and border line abusive.

[lizard]

Boy, I feel your pain.

First a horrible product, then completely apathetic customer service.

My encounter with customer service was not nearly so crazy as yours, but I still have 2 substandard PC's and HP doesn't have a clue as to what's wrong.  After 1 hour, I just basicly gave up on tech support.

[SaneMadness]

Customer service agents are doing what they can do... Most of the time they do not hear from the repair facilites or they do not hear much more then "part on order". 

Its not a great job getting yelled at for problems that are not your fault or customers that aren't willing do the steps fro troubleshooting.

[swissoff]

"Customer service agents are doing what they can do..." In this case they are not doing enough, and being flippant and rude to customers who have purchased faulty products from the company they work for and get paid by is totally unnacceptable, no excuse.

"Most of the time they do not hear from the repair facilites or they do not hear much more then "part on order" Not my problem as a customer, this is HP's problem. I bought a product, I want it back repaired. I dont care if the details have been deemed a state secret. They are responsible for sorting it.

"Its not a great job getting yelled at for problems that are not your fault or customers that aren't willing do the steps fro troubleshooting." Where in my case report did you read that I had not been willing to follow troubleshooting steps?

If you work for that company, you ARE that company when you represent them on the phone. So if it is HP's fault that I don not have my product, or cannot get a straight answer on when I will get it back, then while you are anegaged in talking to me about it in an official capacity, it is YOUR fault. You work for and are being paid by HP. You cant use a get out clause and say its not my fault. End of.

Thanks for defending the CS rep in this case tho, I'm sure they wouild appreciate it. Unfortunately your out of context remarks in this case dont help, but simply muddy the water even more.

[mdbuchman]

I feel your pain!  I sent my computer in and the expected ship date came and went...nothing.  I received an e-mail about a possible delay and someone would contact me...again nothing.  Called tech support and they cannot even say what is going on (part, troubleshooting, etc).  So I contacted the place that sold it to me and got an RMA.  I called HP back and informed them to go ahead and ship it back to me (broken or fixed does not matter) and they stated that would take a couple of days!!!  My RMA time limit is ticking!

I received a computer that has not worked since day one.

[WWK888]

I completely agree.  I have had nothing but problems with my 804, Hard Drive failure, touchscreen failure.  Sent it in for repair and when it came back the ambient light was broken and three weeks later my touchscreen feature failed a second time.  I get constant error messages on shutdown due to my HP printer software and they have no clue how to resolve that, spent over ten hours on the phone with three different reps, all promising to have a supervisor call back and I never heard a word.

With very few exceptions, I had terrible customer service.  I will never buy HP again.

[SandyD]

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