We order stuff online. A lot. Things go wrong. You get the wrong item, it’s defective, you change your mind, whatever. You call, they ask for your name or phone or credit card number, then you return or exchange it in 5 minutes. Many times, you can take care of it easily online with a few clicks. Worst case, if it’s your own dumb fault, maybe you pay a restocking fee. Maybe you have to make two calls or it takes 15 minutes and is a little more difficult. 99% of the time it’s only a minor hassle.
It’s that 1 out of 100 times that takes 60 minutes or even longer to do something that should take 5 or 10 minutes. I’ve had bad service. Representatives who are clueless. Some who just aren’t nice. I’ve dealt with the huge companies like Amazon.Com and Apple. I’ve dealt with tiny manufacturers and retailers. Of all of them, only one company stands out as having routinely horrible service. For me, almost each and every one of those 1 out of 100 is with Hewlett Packard.
I cannot express enough how absolutely awful their customer service is. Whether you call or email, it is more painful and takes longer than a root canal. Literally. If you email, they do their best not to actually read your comments and you have to start over from scratch with every reply. By phone, you have to be transferred around at least a few times before you’re ultimately told you need to call a different number and start being transferred again. Each person who talks to you has to take all your information all over again.
I’m not sure what it is there. It’s like they are specifically trained to do everything in their power to frustrate you so you will give up. This actually wouldn’t surprise me. The other issue is that they’ve moved almost all of their support to Asia. That alone isn’t a big problem; some companies I’ve dealt with have adequate customer service that is based in Asia. When the customer service is bad, though, the language barrier makes it even worse.
The only bright side of HP customer service is that there must be at least one call center left in North America. If you get transferred around enough, eventually you get someone there who not only listens to you and understands what you are saying, but actually tries to help you as well.
My HP notebook computer spent the better part of its first 6 months being repaired over and over. It’s made a couple trips back in years since, too. Each and every call or email has been the same. The only way I was ever able to get it repaired after countless hours on the phone and numerous emails was because someone in an online forum for the product gave me a special number for a “case manager”, who happened to be based in North America and was actually willing and able to resolve the problem.
Most recently, I ordered a recovery CD online. They lost the first order. No record. I made a number of calls and even had to open a case number. Each time I bounced around to different departments and phone numbers and no one could help me. Everyone had to start from scratch with my life history and demanded every bit of information before they could tell me that they had to transfer me to someone else. After a couple days I finally ended up with a rep in North America who still couldn’t find the order, but at least was helpful and suggested I wait a few days and order again and they would refund one if I received two.
Well, I did reorder. So far, only one item has arrived, but it was nearly folded in half. I dreaded making the call. As expected, I bounced around again and again. Apparently no one was willing or able to deal with finding my order or processing a refund or exchange. Turns out, the number I was told to call on the receipt was not the right one, of course, so they gave me another. After about an hour, I landed with North America again after one of the transfers. He was helpful, too. Unfortunately, by that point, there was absolutely no way in heck I wanted an exchange and thus even a remote chance of having to call HP again if there was a problem. He processed my refund.
I’ll never buy an HP product again if I can avoid it. Well, not until I read that they are moving all their customer service back to North America and training them on what service should be.
What company is your goat in terms of customer [dis]service?
I’ve been thru HP tech support 5 times since I bought this computer. Each time they solve my issue while I’m on the phone then I find some new issue right after hanging up. (like, I don’t have my handy dandy calculator program anymore–wahhhh!)
Also, I’ve learned to make sure both cordless phones are fully charged AND the non cordless is plugged in. I know to set up the kids with a full legnth movie and boat loads of food before I call.
That reminds me of one of the biggest scams I ever encountered. I was unable to attend a funeral for a friend’s dad many years ago. Another friend and I chipped in to send flowers from Dave’s Floral, a place I’d used a number of times before.
Somehow, it got back to me that our flowers and card were never received. Of course, I called, and they assured me they were delivered. Beyond that, what was I gonna do? Aside from never using them again, of course.
Our worst customer service experience was two-fold, involving a florist who was dispatched by FTD.com to deliver what proved to be a badly wilted and essentially dead potted plant to my MIL for Mother’s Day. Nothing says “I love you, Mom” like a dead plant, and nothing less than an alive replacement plant was acceptable for the occasion. FTD.com and the local florist repeatedly promised to deliver a replacement and repeatedly failed to do so, and requests for a refund also went unheeded. DH proceeded to dispute the purchase with the credit card used for the floral purchase, and the credit card company (AT&T Universal, owned by Citibank now, I believe) opened a case. About a month later, AT&T Universal sent us a letter saying the dispute had been closed and the charge would not be reversed because DH had failed to provide a charge slip issued by the merchant showing the purchase price. Um, DH had placed the order online and the e-mailed order confirmation was the receipt showing the purchase price. That e-mail order confirmation had already been provided to the credit card company not once, but twice during the dispute process, but the credit card company insisted on a charge slip as proof of purchase and deemed the e-mail confirmation as insufficient. Needless to say, we canceled the credit card and never ordered from FTD.com again.
VERIZON wireless! I dread calling them everytime. They never fix anything correctly the first time. I just had to call them today for something and of course it was the run around.
I can not wait until our contract is up with them so I can cancel!
Don’t even get me started with Best Buy and our tv experience from hell. We bought an extended warranty from them because of the new type of tv technology we were dealing with (DLR? I forget, but it was a few years ago) and sure enough, we needed to use it but man, were they slowwwww. On one occasion when the 2nd (yes, 2nd) bulb blew on the tv, instead of waiting another month for them to replace it, we bought one online, replaced it ourselves while waiting for them to “find one”, then eBayed our bulb when they finally took the tv back as a dud. Bleh!
Oh, and then there’s Sears and my dishwasher. Evidently it was *my* fault they delivered and installed my dishwasher without a handle (a month after we ordered it, btw). Then they sent a stainless steel handle when our dishwasher is white. Three months after we actually ordered the dw, we finally had our handle and Sears had long lost a customer.
I used to work at the call centre for HP before it was closed down here. Believe me, it’s just as miserable working in the cube farm. After spending so much time listening to the customer problems and not being able to help, i will never buy one of their products again.
Funny thing is, mine was eventually repaired. They gave me a 3 yr extended warranty for the hassle. Near the end of the warranty, HP settled a couple class action suits. One in response to not fulfilling the terms of their warranty and one about the technical problems.
Having found that case manager number was the key. Gotta like user forums where people share their methods of getting to someone who can help!
There’s a really simple answer to this problem once you’ve done your due diligence in using their standard CS.
First off, Google is your friend. What you are looking for is the company’s corporate headquarters. We’re not looking for an 800 number, as that will just lead us back to CS Hell. We want their regular land line number. Yes, this will mean a long distance phone call, but you want your problem fixed, correct?
Now that we have our needed phone number, we’ll get our problem solved even faster if we know who to ask for. Not knowing may lead to your being quickly transferred by the clueless operator back into CS Hell, and we don’t want that do we? So back to our buddy Google we go! Now we’re going to be searching for the corporate management team of the offending company. Bigger companies are easier btw. You may find what you are looking for on the company’s website, or you may need to hit some of the financial data services though. These sites give basic corporate overviews for potential investors. The data we are looking for will be free, so there is no need to pay them anything. We just want to see who the corporate team is, and who is in charge of customer service. If you can’t find a VP in charge of CS, then you’ll just want the name of the President or CEO.
Now that we’ve got that info, it’s time to call the company! Here’s the first tip… The operator doesn’t need to know what your problem is. In fact, if they hear that it is CS related they may try to act as a gatekeeper and transfer you to CS Hell. We don’t want that. So we’re just going to ask for the name we researched. Act like you know them. “Hello, my name is XXXXXX, and I need to speak to Joe Blow (the name you found earlier). Could you please transfer me to his/her extension?” If they start trying to find out why you are calling, cut them off. It’s not ANY of their business! Just keep repeating your request. They’ll eventually transfer you.
Now, don’t expect to immediately speak to the person you asked to be transferred to. Most likely your call will be answered by their PA, or Personal Assistant. That’s not a bad thing. In a corporation, a corporate officer’s PA is pretty much on the same level as God there. When they tell the folks in CS and tech support to jump, they expect to be asked “How high?” Yes, you are going to have to repeat your entire ordeal again, but this time you will be repeating it to someone on YOUR side! So be nice. Really nice. Yes, you can be upset and exasperated at their CS, but NOT at the PA. The PA will want to know where their CS broke down. The more info you have the better. Why? Because they will want to fix their problem in CS as well as help you fix your problem.
If something has been broken for a really long time, or if the company has attempted to fix it numerous time in the past, but have still been unable to get it working properly, then do not hesitate to ask that they replace your product with a NEW one. Not a refurb, but a new one. If the product is no longer made, then the most comparable new version. If you bought a product because of a special feature, then you should expect that said special feature is present in the replacement item. Even if that item is a lot more expensive now than when you purchased it.
Make sure that they follow up on the issue in a timely fashion, and that you follow up in a timely fashion as well. If they give you time lines, you should expect that they will follow them, or at least update you if they cannot meet said time line.
Good luck, and I’m always more than happy to help with specific CS issues! 😀
New tactic. I’ll remove this blog if they become a sponsor!
I think you can cross HP off the list of potential blog sponsors.
Oh, yes, the many, many weekends I have been an HP Customer Service Widow because DH has been locked in the office on the phone with them trying to iron out printer issues… uuuuuuuugh!
I understand about HP, I have deqlt with them more than I can remember, and one of those problems was also about ordering Recovery CDs and it taking 3 shipments (so they say) before I got them.
But this one is about BRU. I needed doorknob covers and it seems they have these new ones which my DD can use, I wanted the old ones. Anyway thye had two different types and I decided to buy both. I very specifically asked if they could be returned and was told yes as long as I had the package and receipt. I even asked “What if I open it?” Yes you can still return it. Now I have bought stuff from them before and returned, no problem. This particular night I returned it and the floor supervisor said she can’t take it back, Why? Because it’s opened. I said I asked and was told I can, she got all huffy (she already was) and said I’ll do it just this once, but I can’t sell this now. Uhm, they are doorknob covers, not panties, OK. So she tosses the receipt at me and it falls to the floor. I’m like you don’t have to throw the *&%^&$% at me! She’s like watch your mouth there are babies here. Yeah she’s right I should have watched my mouth but uhm the store was empty, really. Got my money and left.