HP forum: To all those with HP Tech- Support Problems--BEWARE!

I own a HP Pavilion Laptop computer. First, this computer did not have the drivers for the mouse, the touch screen, or key board. It took a while to fix that but now I'm OK. Now my problem it with the crummy power cord. The ground on the AC plug has broken off. This is the second time this has occurred. (No AC cord that I own has ever done this, and HP does it twice). Second, I have a broken wire in the cable so it does not charge unless you hold the cable in place. This is the second time this has happened. Yesterday, I called HP and spent over one hour on the phone with a supervisor. I hung up. The tech called back with a case number. I called back with the case number today only to discover that the case number was meaningless, they wanted to trouble shoot the issue again, went to a supervisor, and finally got the new power cord shipped. Today, I was on the phone for 56 minutes. I will not be buying HP again.

Just saw that HP has stopped making their tablets already. They have only been out 3 months so they must be made in India with tech support the same place.
The same article said they maybe going out of the computer business all together to follow other ventures.
If that's true, it should be very interesting. I just hope they don't dump their printers because they do make the most reliable printers out there.

I understand all the frustration and anger with HP. I've been dealing with a defective HP printer for a month and a half. I've emails from HP as along as my driveway. Finally heard from a Case Manager last night and was on the phone for 3 hours trying to get some kind of resolution.

I bought an HP Officejet 8600 All-in-One printer new at the end of May 2012. By the middle of June it stopped working in the middle of printing a photo. This was only my second time printing with it. Just died and nothing worked to turn the power back on.

I contacted HP support and their solution was, "Unplug it, plug it back in. Is is working?" They determined they couldn't help so they sent me a replacement. The replacement turned out to be a used printer! As a replacement for a brand new printer they send a used one.

To make it worse, the used, replacement printer didn't work. This one gave nothing but error messages regarding a missing or defective print head. I installed the print cartridges again using the manual, online troubleshooting and HP techs on the phone. Couldn't get the error message to go way. Their solution, after, "Turn it off, turn it on. Is is working?" ... send another used, replacement.

Third printer arrives and again, I get nothing but an error message indicating the print head is missing or defective. HP troubleshooting says it's probably defective print cartidges. So I go and spend another $100.00 on new cartridges trying to resolve the problem. THAT doesn't work.

I have been trying to deal with HP Support since the whole mess started and they have done abosolutely NOTHING to resolve this matter except send me used, defective replacement printers.

At this point you couldn't PAY ME to own this printer. I have no faith in this product, or any HP product, and their customer service is a joke.

I've repeatedly asked for a refund and all I get is condescending apologies at the start of every email and then no help at all. I was told for weeks that first contact techs were sending this issue on an "escalated, emergency, priority" basis to a Case Manager who would be contacting me.

It wasn't until last night that I was finally contacted by a Case Manager. I was offered a new printer and an extended warranty for my trouble. After three defective printers, why the HELL would I want them to send me another one??? I told her no. I want a refund. I have no faith that will happened so I've turned this issue over to my credit card company to get my money back.

I returned the printer last night at my cost because after weeks of begging HP to send me a shipping label so I could return the THIRD printer and they never even acknowledged the request.

This was the first, and LAST, time I ever buy an HP product. They have absolutely the WORST customer service I have ever experienced in my life. They do NOT care AT ALL about customers and have no working knowledge of th products their crappy company manufacturers.

And yes, it is frustrating and sometimes impossible to understand what they are saying, along with them being rude and condescending.

HP - Warranties Woes & Hard Drive Headaches.

Dear Internet Community (I.C)
I need your help.
I would like to know if I'm being unreasonable in my expectations or is Hewlett Packard (HP) not living up to its both moral & legal obligations as a good corporate citizen & what it alleges to be - a Customer Focused Global Computer Services company.
Apologies if this is a little long winded but in the interests of fairness I need to put as many HP comments in as possible - to give you a clear picture.
So bear with me, you will not be disappointed & there are a couple of questions you might like to answer & feedback to the appropriate parties.
Keep in mind at all times we are talking about approximately a $200 (NZD) fix - less than the lost profit on one lost sale for an HP PC ( you might think twice about HP products after reading this).
There are two parts to this problem :

Part 1 :
I purchased an HP Touch Smart a few years ago, I registered the product & warranty with them & over the years have received have received numerous emails stating "buy this, upgrade now".
But I don't recall ever receiving an "WARNING - Critical Failure Issue (CFI) apply attached patch immediately" email while under warranty. Why is this relevant?
- Seagate makes Hard Drives - in this case a Barracuda 7200.11
- HP buys said HD's from Seagate
- Seagate finds a problem with firmware in HD's & advises HP & supplies a fix
- HP knows which Customers have these HD's, because you know what goes into your machines - right ? - see below
- HP FAILS to send email to Customers with the fix (a simple email with attachment would solve problem) or issue recall.
- HP even offers previously to fix problem FOC & puts fix on its Website - but only if the Customer knows somehow of the problem.
- Should the Customer intuitively& telepathically know of problems in HP Products in advance before it fails, because of course HP is not telling their Customers.

Problem or Outcome: My HD has bricked itself & will not operate as I never received notice of the firmware fix at any time either in or out of warranty.

Paul Boshoff - G M -Personal Systems Group- HP NZ (PB- GMPSG) says

"It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for any computer vendor to proactively notify it's customers of component-level updates"
&
"Failures of the kind you've experienced are usually related to a specific batch of serial numbers and often those component serial numbers aren't available when the user is registering that particular computer."
Now let me know if you think I'm wrong, but it sounds like HP does not know what goes into its machines or at the very minimum does not keep track of this.
HP, a Global Computer Services company cannot possibly be expected to track what goes into its machines. HP apparently does not record or match the serial number of the HD with the machine it goes into.
If Ford & Toyota can track & record what tyres go on which make & model of their cars which are in the millions each year & can recall cars dating back 8-10 years just case of a manufacturers component malfunction why can't HP link & record the HD details.
I can just hear it now "I'm sorry we don't know which engine we put in your car".
And let's be real clear here - we are not talking about some small screw at the back of a PC - Along with the CPU & the RAM, the Hard Drive is pretty much up there in the top 3 of important components of any computer.

I.C - Do you feel
- That fills you with confidence in HP products & services ?
- Should HP be required to tell its customer of CFI's with its products - particularly while under warranty?
- Has HP tried to limit their liability & cost by directly NOT telling Customers of CFI's while under warranty?

Part 2 :
When your HD bricks itself - apparently all is not lost - some very clever person has found a solution so you can get the HD going long enough to apply the firmware fix & then your HD is a good as new - Here is the link that spells it out with pics http://www.overclock.net/t/457286/seagate-bricked-firmware-drive-fix-with-pics)
You'll see the relevance of this shortly.
After much messing about I received the following email from PB- GMPSG : "I have escalated your issue and have just received the go-ahead to repair your unit at our cost. We will be utilizing our own, authorized service provider to re-install the original hard-drive and to run the software fix on that unit." (This guy most likely earns a six figure salary & isn't able to sign off $200 fix).
NOTE : it does not limit or restrict what type of fixes will be used & also at this time HP was aware of both the Seagate fix & above fix.
I delivered the PC & bricked HD into the HP Authorised Repair Centre (ARC) as requested -their ticket instructions read "do firmware update...HP to incur costs. NO COST to customer".
Obviously it's not rocket science but you need the HD going before you can apply any firmware fix including this one - HP knew that to get the HD going they would need a special fix to enable them to apply the Seagate fix.
After all this is not an isolated case & I did point out to HP that they would need the fix I supplied (or something similar HP approved or designed if that made them more comfortable) prior to their offer of fixing the HD.
HP said their ARC's had all the right software for fixing their machines. In addition I have been told on several occasions, the ARC's are the bee's knees, the cat pajamas, the whiz kids of the PC service world "The first port of call for the repair centre agent is to download all the latest service advisory notices and updates. This is a very fundamental part of the repair process and one that we spend a great deal of time emphasizing with our authorised repair centres" Keep this in mind.
A week later I received a call from Peter Gasporaratos, HP CS Melbourne (poor guy - caught in the middle) & stated "there is nothing else we can do for you". When I asked if they had applied the fix he said "its not our responsibility.. its not part of our guidelines.. the ARC does not practice unauthorised methods..& this ARC will not go down this path"
Ironically the day before, Barry from the ARC said "we can attempt it, but we will charge you too". So HP's own ARC will do it, but there will be a cost - but hang on a minute, didn't PB- GMPSG say "to repair your unit at our cost. We will be utilizing our own, authorized service provider to re-install the original hard-drive and to run the software fix on that unit" & HP CS put on the instructions "HP to incur costs. NO COST to customer".

I.C - Do you feel
- HP have said they will fix it at NO COST to me, regardless of what the fix entails ?
- Should HP honour this commitment ?
- Would you do business with a company that says one thing & does another & does not honour its commitment ?
- That given the bricking fault did not need to happen if HP had been proactive in letting their customers know of the firmware issue & this is not an isolated case- shouldn't they then be responsible in finding or developing a fix for getting the HD going long enough to apply the firmware fix if they are not going to use other recognised fixes.

Abstract
So that's it - what do you think I.C. ?
Would you want HP computers & servers controlling the Traffic Lights, Air Traffic Control, Patient records & Medications at Hospitals knowing that HP will not tell these organisations that there is CFI with their products & they could suddenly lose everything. All dead while they try to find a back up computer with all the data - god forbid if President Obama's "football" is powered by an HP - Nuclear War before we know it.
But seriously - I would love your feedback - Am I being unreasonable in asking them to honour their commitment for a $200 fix ?
And of course HP being a Customer Focused Global Computer Services company, would welcome your feedback.
Here are a couple of the players contact details who would love to hear from you :

- Keith Watson - CEO -HP NZ -I initially contacted him & he thanked me for bringing it to his attention, then nothing.
Email : keith.watson@hp.com
- Paul Boshoff - G M -Personal Systems Group- HP NZ - well of course you now know who he is now - he would love feedback.
Email : paul.boshoff@hp.com
- Jessica Rangi - She's the Spokes person/PR/Marketing for HP NZ & has just help launch HP new PC range in NZ - She would love your feedback as it might impact on her marketing & she is quoted as having helped out in warranty situations before & has worked at HP head office.
Email : jessica.rangi@hp.com
- Meg Whitman - President and Chief Executive Officer of HP Global
Email : meg.whitman@hp.com

They would all like to hear from you J

I.C
Thanks for being patience & reading through to the end - now it's up to you
buy HP Products & Services or not.
Do HP deserve your hard earned money if you now believe they aren't going tell you about problems with their Product & Services.

Be kind to one another & take care.

Regards
Smithie

P.S - I sent this blog to HP for fact & quote checking prior to uploading (I gave them over a week to reply) - the silence was deafening from HP.

Friday went through 5 hours of the so called support went from one non English speaking person to another. Finally got someone that spoke better English than the rest. He stepped me through several tasks on my computer which is a HP Pavllion that got hit with a nasty virus that will not allow the puter to start all the time. When it does start it will freeze after so long but the real problem other than the virus is somehow my wireless device in the puter got turned off. Well after all the time I spent with all of these people he informed me that since my puter was out of warranty I would have to sign up for service at the rate of 15 dollars a month with at least a year contract. Needless to say I told him I was on medical, a senior, and disabled vet an could not afford another bill. His statement was "Well we can help you but you need to sign up first" what a bunch of bull. Anyway does anybody know how I can turn my wireless device back on that is inside my puter? Like I said my puter is a HP Pavilion desktop it's system is 64 bit operating has 8GB memory model m9517c Vista Service Pack 2.

HP Support is the worst! This is a true story here is my experience with them after buying a brand new high end laptop for $3000.The product is under warranty and in addition I have bought paying $105 the extended support for accidental damage!

First the laptop hard disk crashes and refuses to boot 4 months after buying. HP support says it cannot recover the data but suggests to replace the hard disk. I wait for over a week after raising the ticket to realize they have got my address wrong and Fedex pickup box was sent to the wrong address. Then after 15 days the Fedex box arrives and I ship the laptop when it finally comes back after 10 days and I start installing all my software it is then I realize they have installed the wrong version of operating system. I had Windows Ultimate and they have installed Windows Home!

When I contacted HP support I am told after 1 hour on the phone and giving them all the details. That I would need to contact the specific HP Service Center where the repair was done! I could't believe what I was hearing! How could the process be dependent on a specific repair center where the customer needs to contact them when the service engineers are available at their desk? So here I am running behind a specific service center all because I bought a HP laptop. I should have bought a Lenovo or Dell instead!

My new envy laptop's screen get apart from one side (Hinge opened) and HP put on hold since 40 days from now, waiting for parts. After so many calls to them no response yet. HP forget that now it is customer's property and if HP failed to provide warrenty HP should refund.

7 years ago I was working as an IT specialist for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The entire IT group I was working with got outsourced to India. I got another job and about 6 months later I got an email from a recruiter who was interested in having me work for that company again, to serve as a go between between the IT techs in India and employees in the US. The people who were working in the US couldn't communicate with the Indian techs either. I said no thanks because I had found a better job. What I couldn't understand is why a company with a couple of billion a month in sales needed to outsource a thousand jobs to India to save $30 or $40 million a year in expenses.

...I had my Compaq sent out to HP for service (mobo replacement), and I actually had it back in my possession by Friday of the same week. Go figure.

OTOH, I had Dell not respond twice to my service requests; once for an old laptop, and a second time for my dad's desktop.

There's no formula or company that's a sure thing, unfortunately. Moving service back to the US is not necessarily a solution either.