The HP Black Hole
If I can’t actually do anything about getting my computer back, I can at least vent to the universe. Here’s my rant which I did submit through the HP feedback web page despite the utter futility of it.
I don’t honestly believe that HP cares about my experience, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I still believe that customer service is important and not just when I am the customer.
I am currently waiting for my notebook to be repaired under the warranty. HP received my notebook on 8/17 and estimated its return to me on 8/27. I was given a link to an order status page which so far has not been updated. First, I don’t understand why HP is wasting my time by having me check a useless page that is never updated. Second, I think that not even updating it by the day it should have been returned to me is inexcusable. I use my laptop for both work and college courses, so its return to me is very important. I called customer service and was obviously being given standard meaningless answers including that the customer service agent would send a message requesting that my notebook be returned to me ASAP. Is the message to me that HP wasn’t trying to get it back to me ASAP? Why does the customer service agent have to request that?
Again, I don’t really believe that HP cares, but I’m letting you know that unless my experience radically changes you’ve lost at least two customers (including my husband who also has an HP laptop). I think HP should care especially since the impact of the individual’s experience is amplified these days through blogs and other social networking tools. Perhaps you are just counting on your customer base being lulled into complacency by robot-like agents who render the act of calling customer service useless.
Oh Pam, sounds like you’re having trouble with HP. My daughter, myself, and her boyfriend all own HP laptops. I’ve had fine experience with customer service while mine was under warranty. I didn’t buy an extended one. We did for our daughter’s because she used it in a greenhouse during grad school in dust and humidity. She never had a problem with hers so I bought myself one in 2005.
Sounds like your hard drive was defective. I hope you get it back ASAP.
I have an HP laptop, which I bought an extended warranty on and which HP is absolutely no help at this point. It had two hard drives and the motherboard go bad, and now it makes noises like a squirrel is trapped inside. Despite being under warranty, they won’t fix it. Same thing happened to another colleague. I’m really sorry it’s happening to you! It’s such a pain in the butt!
As an IT worker turned seminarian, I’ve dealt with just about everyone’s tech support department, often personally handling some VIPs repair issues with the vendors. I would say every vendor has dropped the ball on some repair or had some models that are bad.
My general experience is that it is better for a repair to take a little longer because they are actually trying to figure out what is wrong rather than just fixing what is normally wrong and rushing it back. I just had the bad version of this with Toshiba but in the recent past had a similar experience with Apple were they took the time to actually figure out a complex problem.
Usually I know what is wrong when I send a machine back and I generally look at who does a better job of actually listening. I’ve generally had the best experience overall with Apple and Dell.
Thanks, Marilyn. I had a great experience with Sony when I had a problem with my old laptop. This has been the opposite. Not only is it taking much longer to get my laptop back, HP has left me in limbo with no communication about what is going on. And my experience calling HP turned out to be primarily material for a comedy skit about the frustrations of modern life. Grrr.
Thanks for the sympathy, Stephanie 🙂 Sorry to hear about your squirrel infestation 😉 I purchased the extended warranty from HP and so far I’m not feeling the value of the investment.
Hi JField. While the length of time I’m without my computer is a distressing problem, it’s the lack of communication with HP that I am upset about. My “order status” page still says expected delivery 8/27. How can you even define it as an “status” page if it is never updated? Then calling HP was totally useless. How is saying that he would “put in a request that my computer be returned to me ASAP” an acceptable response? Wouldn’t that be their intention in the first place? But you know, when he said “I’m very sorry that your computer was not returned to you” in a totally rehearsed way, it made it all better. It didn’t matter that I still had no idea when I might get my computer back or what the problem is – aside from what I already know which is that the hard drive was trashed.