Does Hewlett-Packard (HP) Customer Service Always Suck?
Or was it just me, tonight?
My five month old machine which died 13 days ago and was supposed to be shipped back to me today, is now scheduled to ship back to me on 12/28/2007. Yes, it’s true. An estimate of 7-10 days for the repair has now turned into 4 weeks.
Thank you for lying to me HP customer support!
I called to see what the story was and instead of getting some relief (or even some good information,) I was passed between 4 script reading, off-shored zombies- none of whom could deviate one iota from the predetermined, completely useless, HP customer service pathway.
And then I was disconnected.
To say I’m frustrated is a grand understatement. I’m going to call back tomorrow or Sunday and am going to immediately ask to speak to a supervisor- if just to get someone savvy enough to understand that a frustrated customer needs a little more than the standard question/response pattern they train these guys on. I understand that these things happen- parts can be tough to get, whatever (although I’m still pissed it will take a month.) What I want is someone to actually work at trying to make me a happy customer. The poor folks* I talked to tonight just weren’t doing that. I felt like I was talking to a series of buck-passing robots.
At this point? My first HP laptop purchase will be my last. We’ll see how things go from here on in. Right now, I miss my old Dell and will tell anyone that asks that Hewlett-Packard (HP) computers are to be avoided.
Can they come back from the brink?
*I honestly feel bad for them. Dealing with angry customers all day can’t be fun.
Alan Says:
A friend of mine pointed me to your blog entry. Got to agree with you 100%. HP SUCKS. While I think they have a marginal edge on features in some of their products, the software and support is the worst ever.
Not only do you deal with outsourced support, bad connections and barely English speaking people, everything they tell you is scripted and they are looking up their answers in the HP knowledge base (Like I didn’t already do that).
HP left me with broken software and a scanner that won’t scan. My printer is just a few months old (a HP L7680). Basically, they guy said they would escalate the service request and that someone would call back in a few days. That was over a week ago.
In addition, HP software has to be the worst out there. Just look at the crap that is installed when you install a printer scanner and how long it takes to install their software. There must be at least 8 applications with cryptic names just to make a scanner work. In addition, their software is so bad, the uninstall doesn’t uninstall properly, and you have do download a seperate DOS based uninstaller to completely clear it out (which I think still doesn’t work).
I also have a similar problem with a HP Design Jet 500 printer. Just absolutely crappy software. Try to configure the printer to remember your paper size and format - forgit it. It never remember states, or gets buggy or crash. And I have tried this now on 3 seperate operating systems.
I’m with you though. THIS IS MY LAST HP.
Posted: December 16th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Calvin Nguyen Says:
Gotta agree with all of you 100%. HP doesn’t even let you change memory. GOD, they said you could, but they lied.
Turns out that they are scared of talking to you in Customer Service. Srsly.
Posted: December 25th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Dani Says:
Received your laptop? I’m going through more or less the same thing with my laptop. I’ll start my story from the very beginning.
After getting paid out for working nights over Christmas, I decide to use that money to buy a laptop. So I head over to Best Buy, purchase it, and head home. Turn it on and the display doesn’t work, period. Call tech support, talk to an awesome technician, and we determine I can a) go back and exchange it or b) have it sent in. I chose a, he apologized, told him it wasn’t his fault and he was stunned. He was so happy I wasn’t blaming him.
Fast forward to the middle of October. Laptop working fine, and then the wireless card just stops working. After chatting on a crappy PC with HP techs and on the phone once, it is determined that it needs to be sent in for repair. So, I get the box from UPS 2 days later and send it off. Check the ticket, and it tells me the expected return date is the 6th of November.
November 12th rolls around, ticket hasn’t been update and I’m still waiting for my laptop. I give HP a call, after about 30 minutes on hold, I get through and some kid tells me there’s a parts shortage and that he’s putting in a request for the ticket to be updated. Nice kid, thanked him and waited for the ticket to be updated.
November 19th rolls around and nothing. I’m starting to get pretty peeved by this time so I call, spend about an hour on hold being bounced around from person to person to see what’s going on. I asked for a manager and some girl wanted to know if it was anything I could help her with, I told her I just wanted to get to the bottom of this and compliment some of the agents. So after she takes some information from me, I finally talk to a manager. He apologized for the lack of communication and said that he was going to have a case manager look after it and I’d be getting a call from them shortly.
Well, after some telephone tag (kinda, the only way to contact this guy is thru email) we talked on November 30th. They’re gonna send me a new laptop, and that it would take 7-10 business days starting on the 5th. Well, I’m pretty patient and I understand that in December, it’s more than likely gonna take a while (especially with UPS). Hadn’t seen or heard anything so I called last night (27th) and asked if there was a tracking number or anything they could give me. The guy I talked to said no, and that I’d have to email them…so I did once last night (forgot my phone number) and once this morning (with my phone number). He called back 10 minutes later and told me that his superior that was dealing with the case is on holidays until January 2nd!! So he has no idea if it’s been shipped, or if it’s in transit and won’t know until the 2nd, and is trying to find someone who is taking care of it in the mean time. The guy is very nice, but COME ON!!! This is getting ridiculous.
I’m now patiently awaiting a call on January 2nd to tell me that a) it’s been shipped or b) it’s going to be shipped. HORRIBLE!
Posted: December 28th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
lynne Says:
Not you. It is them. They put there customers through the worst possible experience. No Excuse for conducting business this way.
Posted: January 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Peter Says:
“Sucks” does not begin to describe HP service. HP’s sale of warranties with the barriers it maintains to deter as many people as possible from actually using the service is probably indictable for mail and wire fraud, at a minimum.
Posted: January 10th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Tom Says:
My HP Pavillion dies at 9 months of age Nov. 22nd. Hard Drive failed, called HP Customer Service. No answers after 3 hours and couldn’t understand I had already run a smart test. Kept trying to get me to do a system restore. Couldn’t pass me to 2nd tier support- they were too busy with other customers ( what does that say?). HP promised to call back next day, 3 days later I call them- they want to go through process again of system restores. After 2 hours they swear to send a replacemnet hd, about a week to arrive and the software 3 days after that! Then they try to sell me an extended warranty.
New hd arrives ( I had to give a credit card to HP before they would ship it), install hd and it doesn’t work. Call HP again and after several hours they advise me to mail it to the factory repair center. Another 2 weeks wasted waiting for it to return. Computer gets here on Jan. 11th set it up, it doesn’t work. Apparently the factory tech never finished the setup process. Gave me three different reasons the computer failed, motherboard, corrupted o/s and my graphics card had corrupted the o/s. Also my graphics card was taped to the outside of the tower. HP said it was repaired but guess not. Called HP, 2 hours of misery and attitude and I’m shipping the comp back again. HP promises it will be fixed and I was just “unlucky”. No apologies at all. No concern and no english speakers. Never again will I buy any product from HP. 2 months and still going.
Posted: January 13th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Tom Says:
Update- recv’d the comp back from HP today. Open the box (sealed with one thin piece of tape) and check the repair tag. States they replaced the hard drive (number 3 ), reloaded the OS and replaced the processor fan. Ticket again says repaired.
Set up the computer, turn it on and guess what? Boots to windows and then a big, fat “system preparation tool 2.0″ box pops up. This is the same reason I had just shipped it back to the factory repair center. Once again call HP customer care, they give me the same instructions that caused it to crash last time- I tell them 5 times, HP tech insists. I click the reseal button in SYS PREP, computer goes haywire. Tech is completely silent, starts suggesting I run a system restore. 3 hours on the phone later, they suggest I send computer to the Factory Repair Center. I decline and state its time for a replacement or refund under the HP warranty provisions. Another hour goes by and they PROMISE a Case Manager will phone me within 48 hours to arrange a replacement. 48? Well maybe 24 depending on how busy they are with other customer complaints. The tech promises to expedite my case, it took them 6 days to expedite the shipping box here for this latest failed “repair” attempt.
To make a bad situation almost laughable, the HP tech suggested I could replace my computer with a better model for only 4-500 dollars more from me on top of the price of the pc HP is replacing. What a company, buy more junk from us at a higher price. Lets see how long it takes me to hear from a case manager and if they’ll actually replace this paperweight.
Posted: January 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Bryce Says:
I’ll start off by saying I’m a college student. And now a days everything at school is done online and through the computer. Well I bought an HP DV4000 during the start of my freshman year 2005. Well, not even a month later half the lcd screen was dark…but still usable. I waited it out till my winter vacation then had it sent out…I went through a hell of a time to get them to send me a box to get this thing out. Well, I get my computer back a week later and guess what, the first day of having it back it works fine then all the sudden the screen goes completely dead…great job HP, not to mention all the sudden I’m missing two rubber feet.
So I had to go on and have it sent back out again…only problem is I didn’t have my computer for school. I ended up using an old laptop my uncle had that was lying around for the time being. I get the computer back finally, and no problems since.
Well heres what I’m dealing with now. New years eve, I’m using my laptop in my room when I realize my battery is getting low, so I plug it in…It never shows any sign that it’s been plugged in…check the cord to make sure everything alright, nothings wrong. The computer shuts down after the battery has been drained. I call them up immediately and go through their troubleshooting thing. And suprise suprise, nothing helps…I already knew it had to of been the dc port because I tried my extra powersupply that stays at school and it didn’t do anything.
Well, during the next two week we had to call them 6 times, they didn’t once call back after promising to do so and they juggled use around to one person to another like we were oranges. Well the biggest problem is they had no record of my 3year extended warranty that I paid close to $400 for. I had a receipt and two other paperworks with serial and product numbers on the actual extended service paperwork that I received with the computer. After giving them the numbers they still could find it and kept refusing to send out a box to get this thing out to service.(Hmmm..funny they can’t find any records of it and we purchased the computer through hpshopping online, and another funny thing is the service people didn’t even know what the hpshopping was..????) We finally talked one of these idiots into transfering us to a case manager, he couldn’t find any info on my warranty either, (We received an email the day before from HP with all our info on the warranty and numbers???WTF) but after a day we call him back and he still can’t find any info, but just asked us to fax them the warranty paperwork we have and he’ll send us a box.
Well I get the box in and Immediately early on the Jan 11 sent the box out to an authorized fedex shipper. He told me it would be there next day before 3pm…sure enough when I checked the tracking number they had it before 3pm.
Now I waited patiently…I was told it would be shipped out on Jan24…ok not bad, I can deal my first week back to classes without it since they really don’t start anything till the second week. Well, we check back with them Thursday the 24 to see if it was shipped…their answer is “We don’t have any info on what’s going on with your computer, we’ll check with someone that does”…(we sit on hold)…”The person we need to check with is busy on the phone, we’ll call you back within an hour when we find something out” Well guess what, this Award Winning Customer Service never calls me back…another suprise.
Well, I get an email today from HP stating that it’s not going to be shipped out till 2/17…Are you Kidding me??? Your telling me it’s going to take a month to fix a dc port that I could have done myself if it wasn’t for terminating my warranty I paid for if I even tried. Especially after fighting with them for two weeks just to get the thing sent out. We even stated to the case manager that we need this computer asap because I was starting classes again. I have two classes that I literally NEED my computer for, and I have no back up to use this time around. I had to come home and use my parents desktop to type this because I’m literally ready to punch a hole in something. At this point I really don’t want to see that computer again, the things a lemon, 3 times it’s been in for service. I seriously want a newer replacement or my money back so I can sell it and just go buy a Mac.(Apparently they won’t give me a replacement because..”We’re doing the best we can”) NEVER will I EVER buy an HP product again, and I will be spreading my story like a plaque around my campus and online. To spend almost 2k on a product as a student with really no money and get treated like this is insulting. And I will be calling the case manager again tomorrow and requesting a new product or my money back, and will keep calling him back again and again to get what I want…I always thought there was a term…something like the customers always right, hahaha now with HP.
Posted: January 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Angry Says:
…I thought I was the only one with this issue. I guess I like everyone else has been ripped off. So not to go into deep details, the customer support supervisor/manager seemed understanding the first time i sent in my computer and then then a keys fell off the keyboard within a week and the internal camara not working so I called back. He said “WELL I GUESS WE WILL NOT EVER SATISFY YOUR NEEDS” and offered me a refound in a very rude manner. And he said he didnt believe my computer was having any issues. after I had already asked him for one and he said he coulndt instead have my comp fixed. Isn’t that the whole point?? Keeping customers happy?? …Well like all you last HP ever!!! …at least I am getting my money back … (I Hope)
PS- Stay away from HP laptops, for your own good.
Posted: January 25th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Bryce Says:
I am also post number 8 if you need a recap of my situation…well just got my computer back on tuesday. Today (Friday) was my first day back from school, so I finally got a chance to see if its working again. Plugged it in and, Great! its turning on. Now I can get on with having a computer again…well I thought too fast. As I had guessed it goes into service it’s going to come back with something going wrong with it withing the week. Well I check my cd drive…and in My Computer it doesn’t show that I have a cd drive. I load up itunes to check my sound…nothing, try a few different methods for checking my sound and not a sound is heard…only if I plug in headphones. So I go ahead and update all my drivers, everything is completely updated and I restart the computer. Now I can see my cd drive but still no sound. Call the case manager that I was dealing with and as I figured…these jerks replaced my motherboard and never rehooked my speakers back up…now they want me to send it back out!! I honestly can not go without a computer for another 2-3weeks. I will say that this case manager was very helpful with this whole thing and is getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation also. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore. I’m contemplating just getting a plug in speaker system but that still means at least $20 dollars out of my pocket that I really didn’t need to spend…I guess I’ll be stuck without food for a couple of days.
Posted: February 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Margaret Chiotti Says:
I had to send in my Pavilion notebook: dv9420us on the 7th of January.
Finally got my computer back on the 16th. It booted once, then died. When I called on the 17th, they said they would send me a new upgraded computer. Wow, was I a happy camper. That was short-lived. It’s now Febuary 5th. My case manager who was sick for 5 days, and today, he still can’t give me any date I’ll get my new computer. if it takes any longer, I’ll need to purchase another computer…and it won’t be HP. Does anyone know if they send a new computer out, do they want the old one back?
Posted: February 5th, 2008 at 2:25 am
rob Says:
With all these horror stories following from mine, I have to tell you folks I’m even more vigilant about backing up my data now. I actually back it up off-site now, just in case, since I expect this thing to fail once again.
What’s funny is I still get Dell catalogs and while I hated the commercials when they were on, I’ve started to echo the old “Dell dude” whenever I see one- muttering “should have gotten a dell, dude” to myself, with just a slight hint of bitterness.
Posted: February 5th, 2008 at 8:02 am
shaun Says:
I am having the same problem. I got a laptop for christmas this year by jan 12th it crashed. I sent it back to hp and I am still waiting to get it back the ddelivery date has been pushed back three times. The case manager know won’t return my calls and when I talk to anyone else they all say that he is busy ( who isn’t) and I just have to wait. When I ask to speak to their manager, they tell me that he doesnt talk to customer. I will NEVER buy an Hp again
Posted: February 14th, 2008 at 10:28 am
eduardo Says:
I had a terrible problem with the HP costumer serveice. Fisrt, they changed the date of the delivery for my computer from a 7-9 days wait to a 4 weeks wait. But that was not all the trouble.Just one day before the deadline of the due date, they had the courage to tell me that I was obligated to pay them $320 because they determined ( not 3 weeks ago , but just one day before the due date ) that the computer had been broken “intentionally” by the customer;luckyly i didn’t give them my credit card number. I had sent my computer to get a loose screw tied up and the conector of the screen and the keyboard fixed. but they did something terribly wrong , they broke the computer in multiple places like the screen bezel and the keyboard cover. I tried again; I called the hp customer service , where a guy that could barely speak english treated me with disrespect , he told me that if i wanted to get my computer fixed i just had to pay the money and not be cheap!. furious i decided to stop calling for that night.
3 days after that incident, I was decided to just get my computer back and repair it myself, but the frustration of posibily recieving a diferent computer (maybe a broken one) stopped me from that idea. I called hp and tried to get an explanation , I told them that I am student and needed my computer to study. i spent about 1 hour on hold on the phone, finally they conected me with a case manager (finally a guy with proper english) , that solved my problem. Right now im waiting for my computer because they told me to wait at least one more week (making the waiting time a total of 5 weeks)
I will never buy anything from HP again , and to all my friends in college I have told the same story with even more details,many have stopped from buying an hp this semester , and that I believe, is a good decision. NEVER BUY HP AGAIN!!!
Posted: February 18th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
momnan Says:
I waited weeks for my broken HP laptop to come back. After many calls, they sent me a new, subpar, laptop replacement. I think it is a refurbished of some kind, personally. HP said I could not get my old one back. I begged for the hard drive with personal data on it. Case manager says he will try to get it. Status continues to show old broken computer not yet shipped. Lo and behold, Fed Ex pulls up with the old one as HP is ringing my phone from India saying that the old computer is not coming back to me! How nuts is that? Now case manager is ringing my phone off the hook and wants me to mail old computer back to them again. Even though they sent it back to me broken! They can bite me…Keeping old and new. I owe them nothing,but a little of the grief they have given me. Hey, HP, how does it feel to want? NEVER buy HP!
Posted: February 27th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Denis Says:
I bought my Pavilion dv5000 (serial number CND62916VY) in the fall of 2006. The monitor failed approximately six months later. When I queried the warranty, HP phone reps in other countries argued with me over whether there was a valid warranty because they insisted the period was over. It wasn’t, of course, as proven by the bill of sale.
After dozens of long and difficult attempts to resolve the matter by telephone and by internet, I eventually received HP’s admission that there was indeed a valid warranty. I received a shipping box and sent the notebook for repair. They said it would take a week. In fact it took roughly TWO MONTHS to return the item to me.
When I powered up the “repaired” notebook, it would not boot. Again, many, many telephone calls to people whose language was mostly indiscernible, shouting matches, more denials that there was a valid warranty, and numerous other pitfalls stood in the way of progress. Most of the time, the HP voice-answering technology failed and I would lose connection before reaching a real human. It took two days to actually speak with someone, and it was most discouraging. Finally in November someone in another foreign country promised to send me an XP repair disk, since there had never been one in the original packaging.
I waited and waited for this. Several more months, in fact. I went on vacation two weeks ago, and the disk arrived while I was away. Upon my return yesterday I tried that disk, but of course the error message was the same as I’d described to a “knowledgeable” technie months and months ago, that no hard disk could be found.
Today I removed the hard disk cover and found that when the technicians reassembled the notebook last year, they did not fully plug in the drive. Moreover, the two screws that hold the cover on were clearly keeping the drive from making any contact at all. I’d been without the use of the notebook for over seven months. Suddenly I have a working notebook.
As I reflect on the days I’ve spent of my precious time trying to get HP to provide service, I’m sadly reminded that there are HP executives who believe an equivalent amount of time spent on their jobs is worth tens of thousands of dollars. This is simply not a company whose products I will ever buy again. At Christmas I purposely bought competing brands because of the losses I’ve suffered on this one. I’ve also advised as many people as possible about the level of service they’d likely receive if they fall for HP’s advertising. It’s clear that Hewlett Packard does everything in its power to NOT provide service out of a will to save money and then overshadow this dark fact with ads that assert their service is actually good.
When I tried to do the feedback survey they emailed me, it had already expired — very convenient and very predictable.
Posted: March 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
rob Says:
Man, I’m not sure if I feel better or worse to know I’ve got so much company with the horrors of HP Customer Service. I guess there’s some comfort in knowing I’m not alone, but I hate hearing these stories. I get frustrated just reading some of these anecdotes…
Posted: March 2nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Dan Says:
I’m certainly sad to see I have all this company with me. I will never purchase another HP product ever. I have sent my 6 month old laptop for repairs three times and now it is not working again. I hope the Lemon Law applies to this!
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Jack Says:
HP sucks the BIG ONE! Bunch of jokers and dumbshits as knowledgable as a bunch of rocks about their own products. NO MO’
Posted: March 8th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Jessica Says:
I bought a DV2416US in September in January it died I called tech support they said the mother board is defective on my model of computer and that it needs to be sent in for repair i send it in. 1 month later my labtop still isnt done I ask to speak to a superior they give me a case manger says he will call me back in 24-48 hours over 1 week later my ship back date keeps being later he never calls me I call and they tell me they will give me another case manager i talk to a very nice guy he says he will replace my labtop if it doesnt come back soon. Then the original case manger calls me back says I can only deal with him he cant replace my labtop and pretty much theres nothing he can do i ask to speak to his boss he doesnt have a boss and I am only allowed to talk to him and no one else they send me my labtop back Feubary 19th then 2 weeks later it breaks again i have to reformat the thing twice in one day then when i turn it on it does absolutley nothing. I have to send it in to repair again. Then I call to get another case manager and talk to the district office they give me a new case manger whose very nice but when I call her back a 2nd time I am told I must speak to my first case manager from now on and not her. The first case manager says that if my labtop broke again I wasnt supposed to ship it in he was going to replace it for me or give me part of my money back he never told me that so he said he was going to call the service center and return my call to see what was broken on the labtop this time. NO CALL BACK as of yet it is March 11th my labtop has been broke pretty much for 2 months out of the 6 that I had it i paid 950 dollars for that stupid thing with the warranty and I have nothing to show for it NEVER BUY HP
Posted: March 11th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Greg Says:
Wow, this is De’ ja’ vue! I purchased HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC (M8150N)in September of 2007 and have had more issues with it then I ever had with my Dell XPS B733r desktop.
The HP Customer Care Support lacks putting it mildly. I am going on day 52 trying to get resolution from a non working HD DVD. This is after more then a dozen phone calls, a dozen emails. By the way, I refused to call HP Customer Care Support by phone, I maintain a email thread for documentation of my dealings with HP. As many of you have stated, never again will I buy anything with the HP brand on it.
Posted: March 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Dennis Says:
Anyone have the Presidents email for HP? Time to start going to the top with our complaints. Also, please place your complaint with your local Better Business Bureru, hopefully that will help our situations as well.
Posted: March 16th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
A. Sue Fowler Says:
Please pay attention to this message regarding the mythical and non-existing HP Customer Service.
I have spent 14 months dealing with HP over a fraudulent “repair” and programming my system NOT to reboot. This was a sales effort to charge me an additional (the “unrepair was $236.) $250 to upgrade my 10-month old system.
Here are some suggestions:
Contact the Attorney General’s Office of your State. cc everything to HP.
My case ended up in the LEGAL Department, which is a good thing.
Keep this name and numbers: Use them:
Ms. Ginger Borge
HP Executive Customer Relations, Legal
3000 Hanover Street
M/S 1247
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: 650-857-2694
Fax: 650-852-8330
Keep all HP paper work, such as it is. Have your tower checked by a computer pro in your area. Keep your receipts, along with written diagnosis on that receipt.
After fourteen (14) months, I got a check (which I cashed before it disintegrated “Mission Impossible” fashion) for the “repair” amount plus $100.
If necessary, write hard copy Certified Mail to Ms. Borge, cc-ing your State Attorney General, and your attorney. Make phone calls unceasingly until your problem is solved. If you consistently run into Ms. Borge’s answering machine, call BEFORE 8 AM PST. A human operator will get sick of hearing your voice and will see that your call is returned.
You must be persistent. This crusade has caused me 30 blood pressure points; however, I am tired of dealing with firms that outsource American jobs, and provide an unending stream of “Rodney Patels”, endless phone transfers, dumping off, and take no responsibility for product quality. The more we sit here and take, the more of this BS we will continue to deal with. I am 68 years old and mad as hell.
So go to it and be successful.
Posted: March 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am
A. Sue Fowler Says:
Dennis:
Forget the Better Business Bureau. This is just another local scam. Ever try to get a comment posted by these folks? Who do you think pays to keep this place in business. You guessed it: local businesses.
Posted: March 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 am
Jen Says:
I have the emails. I sent a carpet bomb this morning to all the top level executives and because of Easter or Good Friday I got a few automated emails in reply….with phone numbers.
My story is like all of the others here but far to long to type and it will just piss me off again. Please go to my blog for the whole story. Good luck to you all!
Posted: March 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Jen Says:
http://redheadranting.blogspot.com/
Posted: March 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Rita Lenhart@aol.com Says:
Ten months ago, I bought an HP L7580 All-In-One DeskPro Printer. The roller for the sheet feed died and I can’t Fax multiple sheets. It sounds like a gerbil inside! I can fax one sheet at a time from the glass but not multiple sheets, as the thing has to be re-addressed after each sheet! I lifted the top lid and two pieces of plastic fell out. No clue what they did or where they came from. And, being 76 y/o I haven’t been tossing it around to break anything!
Today I found out that the “WARRANTY” on my machine really was only good for 21 days after purchase! Although the Product Warranty in the manual said it was good for 1 Yr! You need a Law degree to figure THAT one!
I talked to several non-English speaking persons in India, a non-English speaking person in the Philippines, and back to yet other non-English speaking persons in India. This took 4 hours of being given the same CUSTOMER SUPPORT NUMBER each time! Never anyone in the US. None would even entertain the thought that this could be repaired. It makes my head spin to try to figure out all the garbage I was fed. I couldn’t even get a RMA (Return Material Authorization) label. After reading about all the problems with Shipping to them and the long delays. Maybe I lucked out!
I’ve bought HP since 1983 and have no clue how they could have gone so bad. They were terrific when they were based in Connecticut. I guess corporate greed plus giving away the jobs overseas, has got the best of them! They haven’t hit bottom yet, so thay haven’t figured out that it will cost them twice as much to regain any credibility.
Posted: March 25th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
julien Says:
…damn…
I ve just sent my HP dv2074ea laptop for repair.. GPU was getting hot 100ºC and CPU was 70ºC just by using skype and webcam… (the cpu fan is still working..)
The guy told me it would take 4weeks minimum, and up to 8weeks….-…..
I still hope that they ll give back a working laptop..
and i hope they wont only change the fan..
i feel… hopeless..
Posted: March 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Eric K. Says:
I purchased a laptop from hp last year when my motherboard went out I had to send it in for repairs. They have had my laptop in for service for the last 3 months going onto 4 months according to the site their awaiting parts I called HP they connected me to the service tech and he said he was going to get it fixed that day he guaranteed me I would have it by the 03/20/08 well guess what its 2 weeks latter and according to hp their still waiting for parts!! I filed a report with the BBB to see what happens. I own a company that purchases mostly hp laptops, workstations, and servers I have never had any issue before. But if you don’t purchase the unit as a big business you get crap service!! Well lets just say I pulled the contracts from HP and now I’m going with Dell and IBM for my equipment I will never buy a HP ever again.
Posted: March 27th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Sharon Says:
Well, I don’t know why, but (and I know I’m lucky here) I’ve gotten wonderful service from HP. I’ve had my laptop for two years, one year was factory warranty and one year was extended coverage. I had the DVD go out and received a new one in 24 hours. Then one of the fans went out and I returned it with a list of all sorts of really picky stuff: cat fur in the keyboard, battery not holding a charge, and some other stuff I don’t remember, but they fixed everything, ran a test on everything and replaced a soon to fail 100GB, 7200RPM hard drive and I got it back in less than one week! I’ve had other s/w related issues and their on-line chat got me what I needed. True, I did forgo Vista in favor of Win Xp Media Center Edition 2005 and it works. I loaded Vista for a couple of months and got it off so fast it would make your head spin! Yes, I KNOW lots of people DO have problems with HP and they are honest in their reports, but I wanted you to know someone, somewhere is getting good service, even if I AM the only one. A lot of the issues I read about are from Vista. Even Bill knows Vista sucks, why else would Win7 be due out next year?
Posted: April 6th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Lizzy Says:
According to HP as of February there has been a part shortage. And here starts my dilemma.
I sent in my dv2000 notebook (reluctantly) to HP, under warranty, because I was told that there was problems w/ the motherboard on 2/28/08. I say “reluctantly” since I’m a college student and need a computer essentially for basically all my studies. Personally, I would have just preferred to have paid to have gotten it fixed by Best Buy in person, but they assured me that I’d receive my computer fixed back within 7 days.
So 7 days come and go and still no computer. So I call back and I’m told that there’s a part shortage and that I’ll receive it back within a week. Another 2 weeks pass and nothing but a pushed back delivery date has occurred. I call back infuriated and am finally assigned a case manager (after being bounced back and forth for hours). His name is Ronald and he’s completely useless. He flat out LIES to my face and tells me that there was a tsunami in India and thats the reason why theres a part shortage! (Can you believe it, there hasn’t been a tsunami in India for 3 years). It seems like the case managers have been given a paper of “reasons” why there is a part shortage and they just go down the line and feed it to customers who are dissatisfied. He then tells me that they did however receive motherboard parts that day and that WORST case scenario I would get my computer back within 4-5 days.
Yet, I’m still not buying it so I call in a lawyer friend and I come to the conclusion that I’m going to take this to small claims court if I don’t get a replacement laptop within 24 hours. After only about 1/2 hour since the last time I talked to Ronald (and he fed me that bullshit story) I call back and he REFUSES to take my call. And since all other case managers refuse to do any action if your not assigned to them. I’m completely powerless. But don’t worry, I was told that Ronald would call me back shortly.
So 3 weeks later, it’s April 10 and I have not received my laptop and had not even received a phone call from by beloved case manager. Now I’m furious since my expected delivery date has been pushed back to 4/24/08; making it 2 months without my much needed laptop. So I call back talk to Ronald (who never called me back) and I tell him that I demand a replacement or I will take it to small claims court. He happily tells me the fax number I need to make my claim and that he has no authority to give me a replacement. He has a tone of arrogance and indifference that pisses me off more than anything.
What I can’t understand is how HP can have a continual part shortage for such a long time? After reading posts from other people experiencing the same issue it seems like this sort of thing has been occurring for years, with HP taking absolutely no responsibility.
Has anyone been able to win a suit against HP in small claims court? If anyone could please let me know a process where I could get replacement laptop out of them, please let me know. I feel almost powerless to them, with no hope in getting my laptop back.
My e-mail is lizzyh12@gmail.com If anyone has any information I could use, PLEASE contact me.
Posted: April 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Gerri Says:
I will never purchase another HP product. I do not recommend their products or service. I had to send back several units to get a printer that worked, or so I thought. They sent a refurbished unit which later turned out to not work. I waited over a month sending units back and forth through the mail. When you call you think their service is great because you get to talk to someone day or night. The problem is they can’t make a decision and operate like an assembly line worker. I have had my refurbished unit now the 3rd one that prints only to find out 2 months later that it doesn’t scan. I don’t normally use that option and my old scanner that I sent to them works fine. Guess what. Now my unit is out of warranty and they expect me to pay. Pay all right I definitely will, but not to fix this HP. I will be buying another brand. I also own an HP computer. It is their loss. Can’t seem to find a place to email a complaint to at HP so I am threading on to this site.
Posted: April 20th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
David Says:
I will never buy another HP Product either. I do not recommend buying HP. I spent over $4000.00 dollars on a HP workstation and the on board firewire has blown the firewire port on to of my high-end video cameras and a hard drive. Wh I called HP they of course said they have never heard of that problem before and it couldn’t be the HP workstation causing this problem after pleading with them they offered to charge me an additional $39.99 per half hour but said they do not guaranty they can fix it. In the end the tech on HP service tech on the other end of the phone said it is not HP’s problem but it might help if I changed out my mother board. Last time I checked the mother board came with the workstation I ordered and is part of the computer there fore is HP’s problem. I run a company and if I treated my customers like that I would expect to go out of business and if HP is dependent on my business in the future that is exactly what will happen to them. In short I would like to say HP you suck. I have had problems and nothing but problems with several of HP’s products. I will spend the rest of my life bad mouthing your crap workmanship and horrible customer service. I should have bought a DELL or better yet a MAC.
Posted: April 24th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Marty Cain Says:
I called HP in February after my DVD/CD Rom went bad. They told me the would send out another one. I waited about 45 days. I called back, they then told me that they don’t know why it was not sent, but I was 1 day past the warranty and that the only way was to pay for an extended warranty. I then called Best Buy to ask them to help me to fight this, Best Buy then told me that this is not there problem. What has happened to customer service. Everyone in the service industry sucks. I am sick and tired of all the B.S. NO MORE HP PRODUCTS EVER!!!!!!!!!
Posted: April 24th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Marty Cain Says:
Lets all get together hire an attorney and sue the crap out of them. There has to be some kind of law about this.
Posted: April 24th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
They Stink! Says:
Worst customer service ever.
http://www.hp-customer-service.com/2008/02/hp-customer-service-is-horrible.html
Posted: April 25th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
HPTech Support Says:
Get ready for this; I’m an actual, honest-to-God, HP tech support technician. I’m not offshore, I have tons of computer experience and education, and hey, did I mention I’m not offshore? Good.
That being said, I personally would never buy an HP product. Why? HP, flat-out, does not give a rat’s ass about you, the customer. My job, although initially advertised as strictly a tech support position, began to morph quickly on the whims of HP. My primary job, sad as it is to say, is to get you, the individual who has already purchased a HP product… to purchase *more* HP products. Me and my fellow US techs can actually be *fired* for poor sales performance.
What’s more, they give us crippled tools, outdated information, on antiquated 4-year plus old stations that can barely handle the scripted programs we’re required to use. System crashes, lock-ups, and reboots are a frequent occurance. After the initial hirings, the testing done to hire new “techs” has dropped so low that all you need to be able to do is read… somewhat.
Now, when people get routed to us, they are almost unviersally happy they got someone that speaks English. News for you, folks. We’re tokens. We’re a token US branch, so HP can say they do have US-based tech support. The rest of their nsupport is all offshore, from people that barely speak English, have zero technical knowledge (those that do are quickly promoted off the phones), and are paid a pitance. But hey, they follow the company line without question.
If you bought an HP product… I’m sorry. Really, I am. If you get me, or one of my fellow US techs, we will do everything within our power to get the problem fixed. Sometimes a few things outside our power, if we can. But the odds of you getting one of us… ain’t good.
Posted: May 13th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Christy Says:
Yes they always suck!!!
Posted: May 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Jane Says:
Bought a low-end HP printer/scanner after my Canon died. Won’t let my computer go into hibernate while it’s turned on, so I have to turn it off. Sucks up huge system resources, for what I don’t know, while it’s turned on but not being used. Then it wants the install disk every time I turn it back on. Don’t particularly care for all the crap it comes with either… wants to do weekly updates, link to HP store (who buys anything other than cheap generic ink, anyway? ) “Customer Participation” (whatever that is) that can’t be uninstalled without disabling the printer.
Real piece of garbage, in my opinion, and overloaded with labyrinthine extras I don’t want or need. Had a straight-forward HP printer 10 years ago. It worked fine. This will be my last HP product. Too many horror stories on the web now about customer service, and mysterious deaths of products that are only a couple of months out of warranty.
As for this printer, it cost $81, including tax/enviro fee/shipping, and I consider myself lucky that my HP experience/education came so cheap. I expect a convenient accident will take this thing out of my life during my next move. (If I get the chance, I’ll tie it to the bumper of my car, drag it down a country road, and have someone video the whole thing, then post it online.)
Posted: May 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Steve High Says:
I am Steve High a licensed Realtor in Honolulu, HI. I purchased and HP2840 Laserjet for home office and have never been able to use the scan function.
This morning I got up at 3:00 a.m. on my quest for customer support. The support center for this product is in Niagara Falls. To get to this support center I spoke to India, PI and Puerto Rico. HP has set up these people to be third world country idiots and they have done them a great injustice. No I am not a racist or bigot, my son is half Chinese. So why in the world would HP set-up two human beings that do not speak the same language and call that Customer Service. Then there is the electronic whore who screens every call.
Two of the employees at Niagara Falls have been exceptionally helpful although my scanner is still not functional. I have offered these employees a vacation rental for one week each at the time of their choosing because I was so grateful that they answered the phone, spoke English, were exceptionally helpful and very empathetic. These calls still got mysteriously dropped.
I can’t begin to express my frustration with foreign countries, electronic answering devices, $1,200 printers a year and a half old that are not fully functional (Vista is a whole different story), $683 print cartridges and drums, being held hostage by American corporate giants, CEO’s that make too much money and don’t answer to paying customers, endless online websites that say nothing, circular websites, unintuitive websites, condescending support, being treated like a moron by support people.
I challenge Mark Hurd, to come to Hawaii, get up at 3 in the morning and start the process of what he calls customer servie and product support.
Held hostage in Honolulu by HP, Vista and corporate giants. They continue to laugh all the way to the bank.
Posted: May 29th, 2008 at 9:56 am
DEN Says:
THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I JUST SPENT AN HOUR ON THE PHONE WITH “INDIA” BECAUSE MY HARD DRIVE DIED, IT IS UNDER WARRANTY, AND I WANT A NEW ONE! PERIOD. WELL, ACCORDING TO THIS IDIOT WHO DOESN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH, MY COMPUTER IS READING THE HARD DRIVE, BUT HE NEEDS TO SELL ME A RECOVERY DISK.I DON’T WANT A DISK, I WANT A NEW HARD DRIVE.I TRIED TO GET AN ENGLISH SPEAKER ON THE PHONE, BUT TO NO AVAIL. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN, AS THIS IS EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL, AND I AM EXTREMELY UPSET.I HOPE SMART PEOPLE WILL READ THESE COMMENTS, AND BUY FROM SOMEONE ELSE
Posted: June 4th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
R Says:
I am happy to see these complaints. It shows me that I am not the only one… I can only say that dealing with hp (I won’t give them the courtesy of caps) has convinced me that in the future, I need to check for blog entries for any company before I buy anything importance in my life.
Posted: July 13th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Bob Mcdonald Says:
Here is a copy of my recent experience with HP. I will never buy another HP product. I recomend that others do the same. This is not the great company of the 80s
Hello Bob:
Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard. We apologize for the problems
you experienced. In order to assist you further, please call our office
at 1-800-756-0608 option #7. Our office hours are 8am-5pm Pacific Time,
Monday through Friday. Any agent answering the phone will be able to
assist you.
Thank you,
Hewlett-Packard Company
Executive Customer Relations
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Email: email.ecr@hp.com
This is a message to HP’s CEO, from a valued customer: Bob Mcdonald.
Customer’s Phone: 541-259-3336
Customer’s E-Mail: mcbob@netscape.com
Feedback Area:
- Product experience
- Service or support experience
Message:
Mark, I thought I should pass on my experience with my purchase of a HP
photosmart 945 camera. I purchased this camera for $399 from Costco. I
used it just over 1 year and it froze with the lense extended. It was
returned to service and I received a refurbished replacement. That
camera lasted 2 years and failed the same way as the first one. I
contacted service and told it was “dead”. I asked about repair and was
told that there was no repair option. I was offered a coupon that would
allow me to purchase another HP camera for $120. Funny thing was the
same camera was available retail for $99. Now I’m feeling just a little
pissed.
I used to support test equipment at HP Corvallis while working for
Schlumberger. We were constantly grilled on the MTBF of our driver
boards in the test systems. HP demanded and expected improving
performance. We did a good job at meeting those requirments to make the
customer happy.
I can not say the same as a customer of HP. I did some web searches on
Photosmart camera failures. Turns out my problem was happening to a very
large group of HP camera users.
I take great care of my electronic equipment and expect it to last until
outdated. It seems my $399 digital camera was considered to be
disposable by HP. Sorry, but I don’t feel that way. I would love to hear
what the MTBF on those camera is. Meanwhile do you have any suggestions
on how to repair my damaged view of HP products?
Bob Mcdonald
Posted: July 24th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Ahmad Raza Says:
I have the same experience here in India. I bought my laptop from US with international warranty and it died after 8 days of purchase, Had no idea how come it gone bad as it was running fine till late night and next morning i had no display , moreover its dvd player never worked for me in the first place …(THIS GIVE THE EXAMPLE OF QUALITY CHECK OF HP????) and when i took it to nearby HP service station ..they promised to returned it be back in 4 days and now its coming out to be 15 days and still they do not have the status on it…LOOKS I DID A GRATE MISTAKE TO SWITCH OVER FROM DELL TO HP , AS THIS NEVER HAPPEND WITH DELL.
FROM NOW ON I TAKE A PLEDGE NOT TO BUY OR RECOMMEND ANY PRODUCT OF HP.…AND I KNOW I CAN HANDLE THAT BETTER AS BEING THE IT MANAGER IN GLOBELLY LOCATED COMPANY.
Posted: July 26th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Gabrielle Says:
I just learned this through experience. If your HP laptop has problems, keep sending it in. If you send in your laptop at least three times (and every time you send it in for repair, the warranty is extended 90 days from that repair, which is useful if you only have, say, 30 days left), and it still does not work, call up HP and ASK FOR A REPLACEMENT. According to the technical support guy I spoke with, they AREN’T ALLOWED TO offer a replacement, you must verbally ask them on the phone to replace the computer, but they can only agree to this if you have sent it in three times (they call it the three-strike policy). After dealing with a lemon laptop for almost a year, and sending it in three times, I am now awaiting a brand-new, top of the line replacement laptop.
Posted: August 1st, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Andrea Says:
Totally agreed. We had hardware failure within 3 days of purchase and we have been getting the runaround from HP since. We have just now decided to return the compter and cut our losses… just to avoid any further business with HP. I really wish we has just spent a little more on another brand in the first place
Posted: August 6th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Steve Says:
I also had a very bad experience with HP. they have the worst customer service i have ever seen in my 50 years of living!I had a printer that i could not get a cable for that printer through HP so they talked me into an upgrade exchange for my old printer. i chargeed the 200.00 for the new printer.They sent me the printer with no lable to sent the old one back.I called them numerous times and finaly had a lable emailed to me. I sent the printer back. A month later i had a second charge on my charge card bill for 480.00 After hours and hours of talking to there poor customer service reps, including the superviser, They told me everything was taking care of. Next bill comes in with 480.00 still on it.Again hours of calling and being transfered a dozen times,they say there is nothing they can do, so it cost me 680.00 for a printer that sells everywhere for less than 200.00.I will never in my life, ever by another HP product.
P.S. And it all started with them not having the upgrade cable to go from ther’ye printer to a new computer’s usb port. I would have been very happy keeping the old printer.
Posted: August 8th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
RICK Says:
HP IS INCREDIBLY INEPT. I am going to buy my son a new laptop….anything but a HP.
Posted: August 10th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
John V Says:
Here’s my HP story. Bought wife a DV6020 laptop. The wireless switch in front would not turn blue stayed amber no wireless connectivity. Happened near warranty expiration. Tried BIOS fixes via HP online help. They told me it was out of warranty. When I found the receipt which was a month later the warranty information was good 1 more month than HP reported. I was lied to and should not have given up so early. Read online about similar cases like mine.
Lo and behold, an enhancement product warranty becomes available. (They are fessing up). I meet the criteria. I fill out the form send in the laptop. Later I get an email asking me to call a service number. I am told that the mother board had to be replaced ,the wirless problem was fixed.
But here’s what kills me. Oh by the way, you have a bad keyboard which was news to me. It was fine before I tell them. But my only recourse was either to take it back with the wireless repair only or (get this) pay $320 for additional keyboard repair which was not part of the warranty enhancement. Unbelievable!!!! They deny any cupability or appeal process. Needless to say, I asked for it back without any keyboard repair. I’m curious to see what functionality the keyboard has. There’s more but my blood pressure just can’t handle it.
Bottom line—DON’T BUY HP!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! HONESTLY!!!
Anyone else out there being scammed like this by HP?
Posted: August 14th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Shawn Says:
So guess my tale will sound like all the others…bought a state of the art laptop about 8 months ago. The hard drive stops working now and I call HP to get it fixed. They send their cardboard box to me ASAP (which I thought was going to be a sign of something good to come) with a “back to you in 7-10 business days.
Now on day 5 I call to check status (or moreso to get a mail id so I can track it back home…or so I thought).
Apparently they’re out of hard drives at HP…yes you heard me right - THEY HAVE NO HARD DRIVES - so the one I need is on backorder and should be available IN TWO WEEKS!!!!
umm…I went to best buy and got a replacement (to see if that was the only issue - which is wasn’t) in about 30 minutes but it takes HP 2 weeks to get a SATA hard drive…holy crap!
Anyway, then they say it’ll be about 7-10 business days AFTER THEY GET THAT IN (yet they still haven’t found out, even though I told them, that the video card isn’t working right…sooo…guess that’ll be another few weeks to get that from backorder as well.
Oh wait, this is the best part - so I tell the lady on the phone, “so you’re telling me I’m to be without my laptop for a month b/c you can’t get your hands on a harddrive?!?” You ready for her response (I couldn’t have made up a better response if I tried):
“Well sir, we could send it back to you and then you can send it at the end of the month - that way you won’t be without it so long”.
ummm…send me my broken laptop…so that I won’t be without it too long…scratch scratch.
Suffice to say, I LOVED my previous HP laptop - then I switched to Toshiba b/c HP did away with the good speakers (my old one actually had like a subwoofer or something)…Toshiba was complete garbage - don’t get me started on that one - so I came back to HP…
And now I’m going to: http://store.apple.com/us
I can’t make bank if I have no computer…thank you HP for taking my $3,000 in 2k7 - I guess I’ll use you as my ‘backup hardware’ if my Apple should ever break…if I ever get the HP back from India that is.
Posted: August 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pm