HP Hell

[barryfl]

Brace Yourselves......

Thought I would let you all know of a problem i have with HP at the moment...HP of all people too...

We have a few of their DLP Projectors which on the whole are very good. Well anyway one of them has gone up the creek and needs to be replaced. Its only 4 months old so its under warranty.

Monday: I phoned tech support and explained the problem...they let me explain the problem then told me that the technical team was down therefore I would have to call back another day (No call back was offered to me)

Tuesday: Called them back and explained the story again. The lady on the other end of the phone said to me "are you with the projector now sir?" I said "I am sorry I can't be because its bolted to the ceiling in a tech department that I don't have coverage on a phone to" she said "I am sorry we can't help you, You will need to go online" I then replied with "I have been and the symptoms show I need a new projector" she then said "ok well you can email this address" which I hastily said ok to and did that. I was told there was an 8 hour turn around. I did tell her that I would of happily taken away a task list and called them back with the results but Nooooo she wouldn't even do that. I would have taken the projector down but health and safety doesn't allow + I don't want to take the projector down if there is a simple solution (It has to be taken down by an external company which we would have to pay for)

Wednesday afternoon: Its been 8 business hours now, No response...I phone HP again. I go through the whole story again and this time get a case ref. I thought ooo we are making progress, She then said she still couldn't put me through although she could put me through to customer services. I spoke to a guy in customer services and he was very rude, Didn't understand that I couldn't take the projector down or be in the room at the same time (No I am not phoning you back on my mobile at the cost of 12p a min) He got really angry with me and tried to get rid of me then huffed and said ok sir I am going to try and put you through to the projector team but its on your head if they have a go at you (As if they would) they put me through to a call centre and although it took me some time to explain my story YET AGAIN the guy said oh yes that sounds like a hardware error (He didn’t get me to try anything so I have no idea why I needed to be with the unit) I managed to get them to send me a new unit within 5 minutes of talking to this guy I thought yes that’s a result

Thursday: New unit arrives, Scratched, Marked and tatty. They didn't even put labels in the box so that I could send the old one back. I call them back to say that I am not happy. They say I need to speak to logistics I say ok can you put me through "Err I don’t have permission to do that sir I will have to put you through to the projector team" my rage gets worse here..."Why I say its not technical support I want, Do you want your projector back or not?!?" "I will put you through sir" AHHHHH

I speak to some guy who actually said in 3 separate points "I don't understand what you are saying can you repeat" AHHH I say "Ok you know what don't worry about it"

I phone back the UK support line ask to speak to the most senior customer complaints agent and she puts me through. I explain the story again because they cant get the case on screen I am then told that someone will get back to me within 8 hours....

Friday: I am still waiting for a call + a reply to my email at the start of the week. What HP don't seem to realise is that schools talk about their experience with suppliers, I have just brought a load of HP Switches to upgrade our infrastructure...do they think i will be buying the other half with their company ? Hell No + We still have about 100 Win98 machines, I was pushing HP as the replacing supplier to take our entire network to CC3...Not anymore....Trading Standards are with me 100% and if i don't get a call by the end of tomorrow if going to phone back the very helpful guy @ trading standards and tell him to press ahead with the reference he gave me.

What’s really annoying is that I was so polite so they had no reason to be so unhelpful

Think that’s everything

Barry

No where near as bad as your problem, I had a issue with HP last week.

We took delivery of a Deskjet 9800. It was DOA. The carriage had dropped, and was rubbing the page on printing, so was smudging.

Rung my supplier, who told me I need to ring HP to geta returns number.

Rung HP on the number my supplier gave me.

Went though to India. After 45 minutes of "Sorry, I don't understand" and "No, the printer DOES turn on, the carriage is smudging the ink" They said they would call me back within 10 minutes. I waited and indeed, within 25 minutes they called back. They said I rung the wrong number and should call another one. Spoke to someone in Ireland, they acknowledged the problem and gave me the number I needed with-in 3 minutes.

New printer turned up and the old one collected. Job done.

Why I had to waste 45 minutes of my life I'll never know.

[barryfl]

Its good to know im not alone in the world of HP support hell, Seeing as i didn't get a phone call today i phoned them, She wanted to put me through to India again i went please no thats the wrong department i want logistics she said im going to put you on hold sir and see what i can do, I get a lady on the phone from logistics who says the ref you have given doesn't show anyone needing to call you back, I will update it and someone will get back to you, OMG!!! How hard can it be!!!!

And breath....Maybe i should give the Ireland number a call

Barry

[ChrisH]

Dont try the web support thats even worse :P

[Ric_]

I've never had these problems with HP - always spoken to a lovely lady in Ireland who has arranged to swap my printers out. Similar experience with the PDA people.

To be fair, the HP stuff doesn't tend to go wrong in the first place though.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Ric_

I've never had these problems with HP - always spoken to a lovely lady in Ireland who has arranged to swap my printers out. Similar experience with the PDA people.

To be fair, the HP stuff doesn't tend to go wrong in the first place though.

Have you just seen a good job advertised for HP?

[Dos_Box]

I've never had a problem either. On call and a courier is there within a couple of days with a swap out!

[barryfl]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

Have you just seen a good job advertised for HP?

Hehe...I know they are looking for enthusiastic, Polite telephone support reps as they currently don't have any.....

Don't get me wrong, I like the kit and it is some of the best kit out there for the price but it seems they have cut a few corners when it comes to support. I have had to deal with HP before and don't ever remember it being this hard, Though it was just a spare part job (Print server) of which they never picked the old one up...Strange, They never want old kit back.

[GrumbleDook]

I have had bad experiences with HP printers and the subsequent testicle support calls ...

But at the moment the prize goes to Dell for me.

I love their desktops and workstations ... I even love most of their laptops but the last few months has been a bloody nightmare.

Queue a post about Dell

[barryfl]

Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

I have had bad experiences with HP printers and the subsequent testicle support calls ...

But at the moment the prize goes to Dell for me.

I love their desktops and workstations ... I even love most of their laptops but the last few months has been a bloody nightmare.

Queue a post about Dell

Oh yes i could start a new topic on our Dell problems, I will let you do the Honours if you are willing to share the issues you have had

[katie.lawe]

We had the same experience with HP as barryfl, took us nearly 2 months to get a replacement projector!!

Then when it arrived it did not fit our mounting bracket. Our reseller or HP thought this was not their problem and offered us a new bracket at £90.

Thankgoodness for Technology departments in schools who were able to modify the bracket we had.

Having since been phoned up to answer a survey on HP I had great delight in telling them how appauling their Support service was.

Stay well clear is my advice

[pete]

I also hate contacting HP "Support".

Users laptop has a dodgy vga chip, so we send it back to HP, who advise us "courier will provide appropriate packaging". Hear nothing for a couple of days, so I phone them up for them to accuse us of sending in a laptop with a cracked screen as a "vga problem".

Screen was perfect when it left here, HP says it was borked when it got to them and emailed photos to prove it. So, looks like courier didn't provide "appropriate packaging".

Phone up courier, who do a bit of checking and hold their hands up and offer to pay whatever to fix it.

Sorted, no? Nope - because HP refused to accept that the courier broke it and, despite the courier phoning and emailing them to confirm it HP refuses to do anything.

I had to escalate this in writing through 3 PHBs at HP before someone woke up and realised that if someone else is going to pay, you don't need to ask questions - just fix it.

[john]

The packing that they use for HP is normally amazing! Its sooo good I think its better than the original shipping boxes

[mark]

We need a script to counteract the script used by the support guys - it's a nightmare sometimes trying to interrupt it to inject some common sense and make them realise we really don't need to run any more diagnostics on this melted piece of plastic on the desk in front of us..

[ChrisC]

My main problem with dell is the seriously over excited automated hold guy that talks to you EVERY 5 SECONDS. I would be more willing to stay on hold if it was just their spacey sci-fi music stuff, but to have "You're call is valuable to us, and we don't expect you to be on hold very long!" then followed by a "We're sorry, but you're in a queue, please hold" then another 5 seconds of music, and another automated cheery voice.

Ugh!

Chris