Tired of HP customer service bullshit? Try escalating to get the bullshit from a "Quality Case Manager."
Try 877-917-4380
use extension 79 for desktops and 94 for laptops
Also, email HP Ceo Mark Hurd here.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Part XI: The Run Around
Eight weeks and roughly 5 letters to Mark Hurd later I hear from a new case manager, "Steve." It's disappointing but not very surprising that he is just a carbon copy of the previous case manager Graham. After four repeated defects, and HP's continuing failure to adequately repair the problem, Steve thinks that this time they're going to get it right and wants to schedule another repair. Graham said the same thing back in February, until the laptop continually could not be repaired and then he just stopped returning my calls. I've already tried it Steve's way, and I still have a non-functioning machine. I'm simply looking for a working computer, what I originally thought I'd purchased.
I thought the following was appropriate enough to mention again:
True, HP is saving money by outsourcing their technical support, neglecting customer service, refusing to repair lemon laptops, and selling what can only generously be described as fake warranties. But does there come a point when the money saved is less than the money lost? Is A + B ever less than C? For instance, if I decide to never purchase another HP laptop, HP just lost $2000. And that's only the first purchase in a long line of possible future purchases. If I strongly urge my girlfriend to not buy HP products, and she listens to me and continues to show brand loyalty to Apple computers because they don't fail in the first five months. How much of a loss is that to HP? And what if the office is considering buying an HP workstation, but I recount my experiences here and we decide to continue to purchase Dell because we've never been lied to by a Dell customer service rep. Or if this humble blogger pretty much creates a blog for the sole damn purpose of hoping others avoid purchasing any product with an "HP" on it, to prevent a similar hassle from befalling them, just how much can I influence anyone else's pre-purchase decision? Not at all? Maybe a little? Simply put, how much will it cost Hewlett Packard to receive negative word of mouth reviews from me for the rest of my life? More than it would cost them to successfully resolve this issue?
I thought the following was appropriate enough to mention again:
True, HP is saving money by outsourcing their technical support, neglecting customer service, refusing to repair lemon laptops, and selling what can only generously be described as fake warranties. But does there come a point when the money saved is less than the money lost? Is A + B ever less than C? For instance, if I decide to never purchase another HP laptop, HP just lost $2000. And that's only the first purchase in a long line of possible future purchases. If I strongly urge my girlfriend to not buy HP products, and she listens to me and continues to show brand loyalty to Apple computers because they don't fail in the first five months. How much of a loss is that to HP? And what if the office is considering buying an HP workstation, but I recount my experiences here and we decide to continue to purchase Dell because we've never been lied to by a Dell customer service rep. Or if this humble blogger pretty much creates a blog for the sole damn purpose of hoping others avoid purchasing any product with an "HP" on it, to prevent a similar hassle from befalling them, just how much can I influence anyone else's pre-purchase decision? Not at all? Maybe a little? Simply put, how much will it cost Hewlett Packard to receive negative word of mouth reviews from me for the rest of my life? More than it would cost them to successfully resolve this issue?
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Part X: The 2nd Email sent to HP CEO Mark Hurd
After five weeks of unreturned messages to Graham, it seems I've again exhausted all my options. Back to Mr. Mark Hurd.
Dear Mr. Hurd,
Nearly three months ago I wrote to you expressing my dissatisfaction with HP customer service. I had run the gamut of technical support and customer service representatives, each of whom contradicted one another and would without hesitation flat-out lie to me. My HP laptop experienced a common hardware problem with the zd7000 series - the computer would power on, but the display would remain off. Many web sites confirmed that this was a common issue experienced by numerous customers. Later, I found out through my corporate case manager Graham, that it is now standard HP policy to repair all display issues with the zd7000 series laptop regardless of warranty status.
At the time I wrote to you I didn't know that. All I knew was that HP technical support wanted to charge me $700 to repair a widespread design flaw, which I didn't feel was right. I wrote to you out of frustration and I very much appreciated the quick response from someone in your company. I was given a case number and got in touch with a corporate case manager named Graham. After describing my problem, Graham confirmed that all display issues with the zd7000 are repaired free of charge. The laptop was shipped to HP for repairs and promptly came back. Unfortunately, soon after it began to behave erratically and frequently shut down. Again I spoke with Graham and the laptop was again sent to HP for repairs. Again, the computer was repaired but still exhibited all manner of problems, including a black screen, the problem I had sent it in for originally. The state of the laptop is now worse than it was before I sent it into HP for repairs.
As per Graham's instructions, I once more tried to contact him. And I tried again and again. For the last five weeks I have left over six messages with your corporate case manager but have yet to have any of my calls returned. I hope you find this as unacceptable as I do.
This is a time line of my experiences with your company:
* November 2004 - Laptop purchased
* April 2005 - Failure One
o Black screen of death, laptop is sent to HP (1st time) and repaired
* January 2006 - 1 Year extended warranty purchased and registered from HP (turns out to be fraudulent due to it being an expired warranty at time of purchase - still waiting for refund...)
* November 2006 - Failure Two
o Black screen of death returns
* December 2006 - HP clarifies that all zd7000 display issues are repaired free of charge due to company policy regarding design flaws. This is in direct contradiction to HP Tech support representatives who attempt to charge $700.
* December 2006 - Laptop sent (2nd time) to HP for repairs. Motherboard and heatsink are replaced.
* January 2007 - Failure Three
o Laptop behaves erratically, system shuts down and freezes, blue screen becomes common
o Laptop again sent (3rd time) to HP for repairs, ram replaced.
* February 2007 - Failure Four
o Laptop continues to behave erratically with constant shutdowns and blue screens.
o Still waiting for resolution, I've left over four unreturned messages with corporate case manager Graham.
If you desire a more comprehensive account of my travails with your company, please don't hesitate to visit the blog I have set up: http://shameonhp.blogspot.com, which has been receiving visitors from all over the world. Commenting is open and I would love to hear any feedback from you.
To me at least, one of the most troubling aspects is how your employees are so quick to blame each other. For instance, when a myriad of HP tech support representatives tried to charge me 700 dollars for a repair that HP policy states is free of charge, Case Manager Graham certainly didn't try to rectify the situation for future HP product owners by making sure Technical support gets it right in the future and is keyed into official HP policy regarding zd7000 screen issues, no, he wasn't interested in that. And he definitely didn't do anything as simple as offer an apology for what could be a costly mistake to a lot of people, he just said they're wrong and blamed the lowly representatives for the mistake. Last I checked they are just reading text off of a screen. Text you write?
I've been a longtime HP customer, feeling a certain affinity for founders Bill and Dave's California ingenuity, and I don't think I'm asking for too much to get this obviously faulty laptop either adequately repaired or replaced. Should your customers expect a $2000 investment to include being lied to by representatives of HP? Is the quality of your products so low that customers should expect to have to send their laptops in for repairs at least three times? And that even after all that, the computer returns in an even worse condition. Should I accept that my calls won't be returned by your corporate case manager? Shouldn't I expect more from a major American corporation? Shouldn't you?
Nearly three months ago, when I first wrote you, I expressed my sincere hope that the poor level of customer service I had received up to that point was an anomaly, that the company founded by Bill and Dave could not have fallen so low. Unfortunately, after this serious and sustained lack of even the most basic of service I am beginning to worry that the dishearteningly low degree of customer support may have become the new norm for HP. I will hold out a small measure of hope that you can prove me wrong.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Dear Mr. Hurd,
Nearly three months ago I wrote to you expressing my dissatisfaction with HP customer service. I had run the gamut of technical support and customer service representatives, each of whom contradicted one another and would without hesitation flat-out lie to me. My HP laptop experienced a common hardware problem with the zd7000 series - the computer would power on, but the display would remain off. Many web sites confirmed that this was a common issue experienced by numerous customers. Later, I found out through my corporate case manager Graham, that it is now standard HP policy to repair all display issues with the zd7000 series laptop regardless of warranty status.
At the time I wrote to you I didn't know that. All I knew was that HP technical support wanted to charge me $700 to repair a widespread design flaw, which I didn't feel was right. I wrote to you out of frustration and I very much appreciated the quick response from someone in your company. I was given a case number and got in touch with a corporate case manager named Graham. After describing my problem, Graham confirmed that all display issues with the zd7000 are repaired free of charge. The laptop was shipped to HP for repairs and promptly came back. Unfortunately, soon after it began to behave erratically and frequently shut down. Again I spoke with Graham and the laptop was again sent to HP for repairs. Again, the computer was repaired but still exhibited all manner of problems, including a black screen, the problem I had sent it in for originally. The state of the laptop is now worse than it was before I sent it into HP for repairs.
As per Graham's instructions, I once more tried to contact him. And I tried again and again. For the last five weeks I have left over six messages with your corporate case manager but have yet to have any of my calls returned. I hope you find this as unacceptable as I do.
This is a time line of my experiences with your company:
* November 2004 - Laptop purchased
* April 2005 - Failure One
o Black screen of death, laptop is sent to HP (1st time) and repaired
* January 2006 - 1 Year extended warranty purchased and registered from HP (turns out to be fraudulent due to it being an expired warranty at time of purchase - still waiting for refund...)
* November 2006 - Failure Two
o Black screen of death returns
* December 2006 - HP clarifies that all zd7000 display issues are repaired free of charge due to company policy regarding design flaws. This is in direct contradiction to HP Tech support representatives who attempt to charge $700.
* December 2006 - Laptop sent (2nd time) to HP for repairs. Motherboard and heatsink are replaced.
* January 2007 - Failure Three
o Laptop behaves erratically, system shuts down and freezes, blue screen becomes common
o Laptop again sent (3rd time) to HP for repairs, ram replaced.
* February 2007 - Failure Four
o Laptop continues to behave erratically with constant shutdowns and blue screens.
o Still waiting for resolution, I've left over four unreturned messages with corporate case manager Graham.
If you desire a more comprehensive account of my travails with your company, please don't hesitate to visit the blog I have set up: http://shameonhp.blogspot.com, which has been receiving visitors from all over the world. Commenting is open and I would love to hear any feedback from you.
To me at least, one of the most troubling aspects is how your employees are so quick to blame each other. For instance, when a myriad of HP tech support representatives tried to charge me 700 dollars for a repair that HP policy states is free of charge, Case Manager Graham certainly didn't try to rectify the situation for future HP product owners by making sure Technical support gets it right in the future and is keyed into official HP policy regarding zd7000 screen issues, no, he wasn't interested in that. And he definitely didn't do anything as simple as offer an apology for what could be a costly mistake to a lot of people, he just said they're wrong and blamed the lowly representatives for the mistake. Last I checked they are just reading text off of a screen. Text you write?
I've been a longtime HP customer, feeling a certain affinity for founders Bill and Dave's California ingenuity, and I don't think I'm asking for too much to get this obviously faulty laptop either adequately repaired or replaced. Should your customers expect a $2000 investment to include being lied to by representatives of HP? Is the quality of your products so low that customers should expect to have to send their laptops in for repairs at least three times? And that even after all that, the computer returns in an even worse condition. Should I accept that my calls won't be returned by your corporate case manager? Shouldn't I expect more from a major American corporation? Shouldn't you?
Nearly three months ago, when I first wrote you, I expressed my sincere hope that the poor level of customer service I had received up to that point was an anomaly, that the company founded by Bill and Dave could not have fallen so low. Unfortunately, after this serious and sustained lack of even the most basic of service I am beginning to worry that the dishearteningly low degree of customer support may have become the new norm for HP. I will hold out a small measure of hope that you can prove me wrong.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Part IX: How is it possible that a major American corporation can consistently perform this poorly in all aspects?
Or: Shame on HP for sullying poor Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's good name.
The black screen returns. Incontrovertible evidence that HP Service Technicians are as incompetent as their brothers in Customer Service and Technical Support. This is the third time this ubiquitous zd7000 error has struck my computer down. HP has already had two chances to fix this laptop that is now officially worse than when it was originally sent to HP for "repair."
Also, in the last two weeks I have left four messages for Corporate Case Manger Graham. Four unreturned messages. Why does your answering service lie? You know a case manager won't return my call within a few hours. I'm worried I have exhausted all official channels to receive a working laptop - it could be time to invoke a higher power. You've left me no choice. I call on the ghosts of Bill and Dave to intervene! Smite this horrible company that without your guiding hands has fallen oh so far!
The black screen returns. Incontrovertible evidence that HP Service Technicians are as incompetent as their brothers in Customer Service and Technical Support. This is the third time this ubiquitous zd7000 error has struck my computer down. HP has already had two chances to fix this laptop that is now officially worse than when it was originally sent to HP for "repair."
Also, in the last two weeks I have left four messages for Corporate Case Manger Graham. Four unreturned messages. Why does your answering service lie? You know a case manager won't return my call within a few hours. I'm worried I have exhausted all official channels to receive a working laptop - it could be time to invoke a higher power. You've left me no choice. I call on the ghosts of Bill and Dave to intervene! Smite this horrible company that without your guiding hands has fallen oh so far!
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Part VIII: Recap
Break it down:
- November 2004 - Laptop purchased
- April 2005 - Failure One
- Black screen of death, laptop is sent to HP (1st time) and repaired
- January 2006 - 1 Year extended warranty purchased and registered from HP (turns out to be fraudulent due to it being an expired warranty at time of purchase - still waiting for refund...)
- November 2006 - Failure Two
- Black screen of death returns, see part IV "Fiasco"
- December 2006 - HP clarifies that all zd7000 display issues are repaired free of charge due to company policy regarding design flaws. This is in direct contradiction to HP Tech support representatives who attempt to charge $700.
- December 2006 - Laptop sent (2nd time) to HP for repairs. Motherboard and heatsink are replaced.
- January 2007 - Failure Three
- Laptop behaves erratically, system shuts down and freezes, blue screen becomes common
- Laptop again sent (3rd time) to HP for repairs, ram replaced.
- February 2007 - Failure Four
- Laptop continues to behave erratically with constant shutdowns and blue screens.
- Still waiting for resolution.....
Monday, February 5, 2007
Part VII: Purgatory
The elapsed time between posts would appear to imply that HP adequately met their responsibility to repair a faulty notebook. However, that would be greatly underestimating the depth of Hewlett Packard incompetence and their really quite remarkable ability to consistently under perform at seemingly the most basic of tasks.
Per Part VI, the motherboard and video card were repaired, and the notebook was returned to me on January 11th (again due to HP, an attempt was made to find the mysterious nonexistent 129 sixth floor, not 12964, much love to all the alert fedex drivers working the marina). Immediately upon powering on, the system behaved erratically and would consistently either lock up or reboot itself during ram intensive applications. At least the display now works. Also, as a compliment to the previous black screen of death, now I became accustomed to the blue screen of death. I'd wasted so much time just getting to this point, from india to the ceo, and to still have a non-functioning $2000 paper weight was disappointing to say the least.
Back on the phone with corporate case manager Graham, per his instructions should the laptop continue to fail, I explained to him the new symptoms - random shutdowns, system lock-up, and blue screen. I realize I'm really tired of talking to Graham, not that there's anything necessarily wrong with him, he seems alright, I'm just tired of repeating this stale process. Anyway, Graham is thinking memory problem, which is certainly a reasonable diagnosis. I had run memtest86 and gotten back a large number of errors which could suggest a ram or motherboard problem. But Windows Memory diagnostic tool found no errors and the ram was stable with no system compromises on another machine. Ineffectively, I tried to steer him away from this conclusion back to the possibility that maybe the repairs that HP had just done could be causing the new failure. He assured me the laptop would be thoroughly checked and repaired when I sent it in again, for the third time. With faith that the Hercule Poirot's at the HP Service Center could properly investigate the cause of these problems and that this time they could make good and maybe all would be forgiven. The laptop was sent to HP on January 30th and returned back to me on February 2nd, the repair slip simply stated - ram replaced.
Granted I am in no way an i.t. expert, but it seems reasonable to deduce that the problem is most likely not being caused by my ram module that has been consistently working since day one, but rather the new problem is probably related to the new motherboard that HP apparently clumsily replaced the week before. Again I power up the machine for the first time following a HP repair. Again the system freezes up before windows finishes booting up. I restart, the system manages to boot up, but this time I get a blue screen. A new blue screen, but still a blue screen nonetheless. This process of restarting, system freeze, restart, continues for a ridiculously long time. Each time hoping in vain that that is going to be the one time it works. At this point the computer is in a worse place that it was before I ever sent it to HP. Back when I only had the black screen of death I could still hook the thing up to an external monitor, but now, the thing won't work for more than five minutes.
Suspiciously, my corporate case manager has become harder to get on the phone. So, while I wait for Graham to call me back, I have some time to catch up on this ongoing report which stubbornly refuses to end.
Per Part VI, the motherboard and video card were repaired, and the notebook was returned to me on January 11th (again due to HP, an attempt was made to find the mysterious nonexistent 129 sixth floor, not 12964, much love to all the alert fedex drivers working the marina). Immediately upon powering on, the system behaved erratically and would consistently either lock up or reboot itself during ram intensive applications. At least the display now works. Also, as a compliment to the previous black screen of death, now I became accustomed to the blue screen of death. I'd wasted so much time just getting to this point, from india to the ceo, and to still have a non-functioning $2000 paper weight was disappointing to say the least.
Back on the phone with corporate case manager Graham, per his instructions should the laptop continue to fail, I explained to him the new symptoms - random shutdowns, system lock-up, and blue screen. I realize I'm really tired of talking to Graham, not that there's anything necessarily wrong with him, he seems alright, I'm just tired of repeating this stale process. Anyway, Graham is thinking memory problem, which is certainly a reasonable diagnosis. I had run memtest86 and gotten back a large number of errors which could suggest a ram or motherboard problem. But Windows Memory diagnostic tool found no errors and the ram was stable with no system compromises on another machine. Ineffectively, I tried to steer him away from this conclusion back to the possibility that maybe the repairs that HP had just done could be causing the new failure. He assured me the laptop would be thoroughly checked and repaired when I sent it in again, for the third time. With faith that the Hercule Poirot's at the HP Service Center could properly investigate the cause of these problems and that this time they could make good and maybe all would be forgiven. The laptop was sent to HP on January 30th and returned back to me on February 2nd, the repair slip simply stated - ram replaced.
Granted I am in no way an i.t. expert, but it seems reasonable to deduce that the problem is most likely not being caused by my ram module that has been consistently working since day one, but rather the new problem is probably related to the new motherboard that HP apparently clumsily replaced the week before. Again I power up the machine for the first time following a HP repair. Again the system freezes up before windows finishes booting up. I restart, the system manages to boot up, but this time I get a blue screen. A new blue screen, but still a blue screen nonetheless. This process of restarting, system freeze, restart, continues for a ridiculously long time. Each time hoping in vain that that is going to be the one time it works. At this point the computer is in a worse place that it was before I ever sent it to HP. Back when I only had the black screen of death I could still hook the thing up to an external monitor, but now, the thing won't work for more than five minutes.
Suspiciously, my corporate case manager has become harder to get on the phone. So, while I wait for Graham to call me back, I have some time to catch up on this ongoing report which stubbornly refuses to end.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Part VI: Free Repair, Clarification of HP Policy
I went through 13 inept, lying, rude csr's before emailing the hp ceo. Then, and only then, was I given a dedicated american case manager, Graham, (via direct line, no waiting) and after about two minutes of explaining the situation he said the repair is free. They'll be sending a prepaid fedex box. In fact, it is HP policy to repair all zd7000 screen issues at no cost to the customer regardless of warranty status. Funny thing, they have a dedicated department full of little case managers who spend their whole day telling customers their zd7000 display will be repaired for free. These are of course the customers who haven't already previously listened to HP technical support and payed $700 to have HP perform what should have been a free repair.
So, according to my escalated HP Case Manager, Graham, right now, HP has a company wide policy of repairing screen issues with the zd7000 free of charge. Which is great. I commend Hewlett Packard for acknowledging this issue and taking steps to solve it. But then why on the three occasions when I had the displeasure to speak with HP's tech support and I explained my screen issues to them, they didn't quote me HP's company policy? Instead, they tried to get me to pay 700 dollars. They tried to tell me my warranty was expired, and I was just out of luck. Too bad. Then they wanted to bargain with me and offered to repair the laptop for only 290 dollars. Does Graham know why tech support is telling people this? "They shouldn't be doing that." At this point I have lost track of how many times one HP rep has passed the blame onto another poor HP rep.
At best, this shows a lack of coordination between their american offices and their official tech support in India. At worst, this is a company that intentionally is trying to obfuscate their policies and attempting to falsely profit from what should admittedly be a free repair. A company that chooses to run their business in this manner deserves whatever amount of shaming customers can dish out.
If HP is really serious about repairing these things, why aren't they publicizing their policy? There's nothing on their website, no alerts sent to zd7000 owners, nothing. Why aren't they making damn sure that their own tech service reps are keyed into their official policy? I had to find out from fellow disgruntled customers and websites what should be common knowledge.
This is a rotten company, one I'll never have anything to do with again.
Edit: After a few days passed and there was no sign of any fedex box I began getting a little worried. But there it was waiting for me after my too short holiday break. The reason for the delay: instead of sending it to 12964, HP went ahead and initially tried to send the package to 129 Sixth Floor. Bless their little hearts.
So, according to my escalated HP Case Manager, Graham, right now, HP has a company wide policy of repairing screen issues with the zd7000 free of charge. Which is great. I commend Hewlett Packard for acknowledging this issue and taking steps to solve it. But then why on the three occasions when I had the displeasure to speak with HP's tech support and I explained my screen issues to them, they didn't quote me HP's company policy? Instead, they tried to get me to pay 700 dollars. They tried to tell me my warranty was expired, and I was just out of luck. Too bad. Then they wanted to bargain with me and offered to repair the laptop for only 290 dollars. Does Graham know why tech support is telling people this? "They shouldn't be doing that." At this point I have lost track of how many times one HP rep has passed the blame onto another poor HP rep.
At best, this shows a lack of coordination between their american offices and their official tech support in India. At worst, this is a company that intentionally is trying to obfuscate their policies and attempting to falsely profit from what should admittedly be a free repair. A company that chooses to run their business in this manner deserves whatever amount of shaming customers can dish out.
If HP is really serious about repairing these things, why aren't they publicizing their policy? There's nothing on their website, no alerts sent to zd7000 owners, nothing. Why aren't they making damn sure that their own tech service reps are keyed into their official policy? I had to find out from fellow disgruntled customers and websites what should be common knowledge.
This is a rotten company, one I'll never have anything to do with again.
Edit: After a few days passed and there was no sign of any fedex box I began getting a little worried. But there it was waiting for me after my too short holiday break. The reason for the delay: instead of sending it to 12964, HP went ahead and initially tried to send the package to 129 Sixth Floor. Bless their little hearts.
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