HP Tech Support Nightmare

Filed Under Just Wow

Customer service and support is important to any organization’s success. A bad customer service experience or tech support experience is more likely to shape someone’s perception of your company than a good experience is. I had a very bad customer service experience with HP yesterday.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I changed the OS on one of my laptops form Windows Vista to Windows XP Pro. I like XP, and hate Vista. Not that XP is much better, but at least it’s more familiar. For the record, I used the recovery disks that HP sent me with the computer.

After I upgraded the OS, the USB ports on the laptop stopped working. No big deal, I figured I’d just reinstall the software for the USB ports and I’ll be in business again. I searched all over the HP website and couldn’t find the right drivers. I searched on the Intel page (Intel makes the mother board on that laptop) and couldn’t find it there either. I even searched on Google, but was not able to find the appropriate drivers.

What was I to do? The computer is under warranty, so I called up HP Tech Support.

My ordeal started off with HP tech support chat. I was greeted with HP’s nice clean interface on their web page and was very impressed by that. A few moments later, I was talking with someone named Anil. The HP application already had my serial number, product number etc. but Anil wanted to know my mailing address, in case they needed to come pick up the computer. I didn’t see why they needed my address, so I refused to provide it, unless they really needed it. I get no response. A few minutes go by, I ask, “Are you still there?” and still no reply. 35 minutes later, I get a response telling me they need to send me to talk to a different agent and to “please holding the line.” Grrrr.

So I close the chat and call HP tech support. After 5 minutes worth of navigating the phone tree, I finally talk to someone who wants to know the model number of the computer. He confirms the number, and then tells me that the number is invalid. Odd, since I’m reading it off the bottom of the computer, and the online system had no problem finding it. After a good 10 minutes of arguing whether or not the computer, which I bought in December, is “obsolete” in HP terms, not mine, I ask to be transferred to another agent. Grrr

Can you say “Rinse lather and repeat?”

I went through the same dance with 4 different agents. One of them, even claimed to be a supervisor. I went through all that because I wanted to reinstall the USB drivers and be done with it. I did not want to reinstall the operating system. I wasted an hour and a half of my time on the phone with them, and got no answers and certainly receive no support.

I ended up reinstalling the OS on the computer, which by the way took only 45 minutes to complete. After I reinstalled the USB ports were working again. Imagine that.

If HP needs to “invent” anything, they need to invent better customer support. This entire ordeal only reinforces my zeal to be rid of all Windows boxes and be strictly a Mac shop. At least they have an appropriate support organization and infrastructure. My support experience with HP, does not bode well. I think this video sums up my experience.