Here’s a mail I received from my colleague, friend (and soon my boss) Laurent. I hope HP is monitoring the blogosphere as efficiently as Dell does.
Computer : 2.5 years old HP Presario 2500 laptop, bought on Ebay when it was only 2y old
I bought this for my girlfriend during her maternity leave so she could stay connected, even while “emprisoned” home
I took the opportunity to initiate her to the joy of instant Messaging and she pulled her mother and half her family – living far in the countryside – to itI also showed her how to use Ebay and she spend half my salary in baby clothes in a month
A few weeks ago, the “h” touch died. I checked the web and apparently it’s a common problem with this model (or at least, people have been vocal about the “h” touch)
But, ok, she could live wit tat, h is not tat important is it?
Yesterday night the whole keyboard stopped working. “e” gives “w”, backspace, delete and enter don’t work… She was really sad
Soooo, arriving at the office today, with all the references in my pocket, I surf to the HP website to find an after-sales/customer service number I could call to solve this asap. It’s not critical, she does not need the computer for work matters, but it has become really important in her life and I don’t want to let her without that.
Ok, number found..doh, a 0900 billed 0.74€/min…?? Ok, the computer is probably not guaranteed anymore, but still.
First call, robot voice spelling me a huuuuuuge (this is stupid by the way, who can possibly remember that?) url I could check to read about HP privacy policy, press 2 to get someone answering, wait wait wait, at least, a friendly human voice.
The guy asks for my postal code so he could give me phone numbers of companies that could repair my laptop.
I hung up the phone with 3 numbers.
1st number : number does not exist
2nd number : yess!! It rings!! Bad luck for me, that company works only in B2B
3rd number : number doesn’t exist
Hmmm, ok, I have an issue there. Back to my 0900 overtaxed number (again 2 minutes waiting time to get that humongous url spelled), press 2 to get someone answering, a lady now.
Postal code thing and she gives me a 03 phone number. I kindly ask her to give me a number close to my place (why asking for the postal code otherwise?) and she tells me that’s the only one she has (??) The number? : 03.382223366. For those of you who don’t know, Belgian phone numbers do not contain 8 digits. That’s what I told her of course. She puts me on hold “to check sir”… the line was cut after 10 minutes waiting time :-/
Back to the HP website, a bit angry and bored, I see a small link allowing to estimate what the repair price could be. If I can not get the contact of someone who can help me, maybe at least I could figure out how much it would cost. Click, click, click, my computer model? of course I have the reference, click click again : 389€ estimated repair price…but nowhere I could type what type of reparation I needed, so how can that estimation be right?
HP? Are you listening?
May 24, 2007 at 3:38 am |
I thought I’d take the liberty of dropping by since a reference was made to Dell and our blog monitoring program. Out-of-warranty issues can be frustrating for anyone’s customers, for sure. Now this is just a guess, but perhaps Laurent can get the system back in service quickly by going to http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/country_choice.asp and ordering a replacement keyboard.
May 24, 2007 at 7:43 am |
[...] you all agree this is a terrible support experience. We all know DELL is listening, and looking at the comments on Philippe’s post about this they’re listening so good, that they even try to help on HP issues
. What I want to know is [...]
May 24, 2007 at 8:55 pm |
[...] Idea, Indeed wrote a post called “HP Hell” that recounts a colleague’s journey through the labyrinth of HP’s customer [...]
May 25, 2007 at 5:48 am |
[...] audience is listening, HP isn’t It took me 2 minutes to post the story of Laurent struggling with an HP keyboard and HP’s kafkaesque customer service. I was amazed to see the [...]
May 25, 2007 at 7:22 pm |
Nice move, johnp
May 25, 2007 at 7:30 pm |
Ok, the above comment looks stupid without a smiley… Can’t I reboot?
Nice move, johnp
May 26, 2007 at 3:40 pm |
Pietr, The power of smileys is amazing. It’s the only non verbal communication on the web
(except web cams, of course)
May 28, 2007 at 9:17 am |
[...] al een tijdje een goed blogmonitoringprogramma in werking. Daarmee komen ze ook klachten (1 en 2) over andere pc-fabrikanten tegen. Je zou verwachten dat ze dan hun eigen producten in de kijker [...]
May 29, 2007 at 11:50 am |
[...] There is a holier-than-thow element to this. Apparently, to be successful, you’ve got to have your ear (aggregator) to the ground, know the movers and shakers and hang out at the right blog expos. Even better, vlog about them. Corporations in particular can’t miss a beat. [...]
June 16, 2007 at 6:17 pm |
[...] attitude toward Dell has changed. In addition to a few bad tales came these two wonderful one: In a post complaining about HP — not Dell — a Dell blog rep came in and answered the HP [...]
July 20, 2007 at 2:21 pm |
I have a similar story as Laurent.
This is my story:
HP laptop failed on april second, 2007.
I get it back on july, 16th, 2007
The service of HP Belgium is awfull !!
And yes, I also know the story, of expensive pay-numbers. You call, you wait, and nobody can help.
Never HP for me anymore.
Welcome Dell!!
December 23, 2007 at 10:31 pm |
12/23/07
H.P. Pavilion Team:
I am writing in reguards to refrence number . I will try and explane how unacceptible that H.P.’s actions and reactions have been while I have had no computer for 2.5 months!
After buying a new H.P. computer. I was looking forward to a long time comming from a performance computer. What I got instead was a defective computer that was in for bench repair twice and never fixed correctly. Bench repair wrote that they replaced the hard drive, on the second bench repair. Excuse me, I marked all the parts in the computer and the the same hard drive was in the computer when I got it back! This makes me question H.P.’s integrity!
Durring this whole time I have not had a computer “of my own” to use. Once again I am without a computer while I wait for a replacement to arrive. It is Christmas time and emails and other computing issues are comming up because I do not have a computer at this time. I am waiting for the issue to be resolved! It’s in the works? Like I said, “I question H.P.’s integrity!”
Please email me a tracking number. Something that will help me know when to expect the replacement unit. (Pavilion a6230n) I expect that I will have a working computer when the replacement arrives.
Your prompt attention is appreciated,
@comcast.net
April 14, 2008 at 3:36 pm |
I had the exact same issue, I cannot believe that a company the size of HP can be so poor when it comes to customer service.
I’m based in the UK but I eventually got through to a centre in Holland, who then transferred me to a country code I have never come across before.
Won’t be buying another HP!
October 20, 2008 at 2:29 am |
I am sorry some of you guys are having problems. I know this can color one’s view of a company. My experience with HP is totally different. I find the company’s customer service to be top-notch. In the 24 years I have been in IT, including managing a 250 user department all running almost 100 percent HP equipments, I would give them an A+. I am currently an Independent IT consultant, most of my clients are running on HP equipments, and I am talking desktops, laptops, PDAs, plotters and of course printers. Personally in my office also, except for a Canon copier and Avery label printer, everything is HP. Even great companies like HP have issues with incompetent employees.
February 19, 2009 at 5:33 pm |
I purchased my HP lap top in January of 2007, it is February of 2009 and my computer broke. We took it to a repair person and they told us that it had been on recall bc they messed up on the motherboard, but since we didn’t get it fixed bc we didn’t know it was on recall, they said it would cost $300. I called the hp place and they weren’t helpful at all. I paid $800 for my laptop and within two years it broke bc the manufactures didn’t make the motherboard right. The hp place told me that they can’t do anything about it and they won’t fix HP’s MISTAKE. DO NOT BUY HP COMPUTERS unless you want a computer that might break after 2 years of purchase. I bought an HP notebook computer. I wanted to comment because I don’t want anybody else to LOOSE $800.
March 28, 2009 at 10:13 pm |
Im glad I found your site. Please post up more pictures!
April 15, 2009 at 12:14 pm |
The style of writing is very familiar to me. Have you written guest posts for other blogs?
June 9, 2009 at 12:52 pm |
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