A Letter to HP
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Here is a letter that I am sending to the CEO of HP (through a link on their web page, as well as to their public relations department.
To Whom It May Concern,
In May of 2007, I purchased a Pavillion tx 1000 notebook from your website. This laptop has worked perfectly, until last month when the tablet functions ceased to work. I finally contacted HP Tech support to find a solution. After speaking with numerous technicians, it was decided that the best means to address this problem was to send it in for service
The technician promised me that the process would take seven to nine days, including shipping time. As a student, I cannot be without my laptop for long; as it is my central nervous system. I agreed to the process and wait for the box in the mail. Forty eight hours passed, and still no box from Fed Ex; another 24 hours, and still nothing. I call to check on my order, and it turns out that the box has not yet left the warehouse. I asked why there was a delay in sending the shipping box to me, and I received the worst excuse possible. The phone technician said that they have been too busy to mail out my box. As a customer, I should never be told by your company that you are too busy to assist me in fixing my laptop (which remains covered under your warranty).
The next person I talked to said that I should wait a few more days, as the package is only 24 hours past due. At this point I asked for a supervisor, and I was told that they do not have a supervisor! However, they passed me on to tech support, who said that their supervisor could not assist me. I was then rerouted back to the order status people.
I asked for one favor. I asked that if I was valued as a customer, that HP own up to their mistake, and send me the box overnight, and have Fed Ex deliver it on a Saturday. However, I was told that no boxes ship out over the weekend, and I would receive my box on Monday. I am slightly confused though. If no boxes ship out over the weekend, how will my box be here on Monday, if it did not ship on Friday?
I did some searching on my own, and it seems that a multitude of people with the Pavillion tx 1000 is having the exact same issue as I am. Perhaps it is time for a recall, so you can fix your product. Here is a link to a four page topic on this very problem.
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthre…
During this ordeal, I have come to one conclusion. Your tech support is worse than that of Dells. After my warranty expires on this product, I will never buy another HP product in my life. I have never felt more insulted as a customer in my life.
For a company that claims to focus on their customers, this type of behavior belies that. You have one very unhappy and annoyed customer here.
Justin Capasso
8 Comments
Anthony Kinyon
November 25th, 2007
at 2:25pm
I appreciate your feelings and the ordeal you went through.
You’re beef with HP is 100% justified, *but* if you want someone to actually read it and care (read: get results), you should make it more concise. Your feelings matter, and the facts matter. But - having said that, you can make it much more readable and get the point across more effectively.
My suggestion more or less is as follows:
————
To Whom It May Concern:
I regret to inform you that I recently had a negative experience with HP customer support in regards to my Pavilion TX 1000 laptop.
Last month, my tablet functions stopped working and I contacted HP Technical Support. One of the people I spoke with was (insert name here). He/She told me the best means to address this problem was to send it in for service, which would take 7 to 9 business days.
It took a much longer than expected amount of time for the FedEx box to get to me due to it not leaving HP for some while. This was a very time sensitive and important matter for me, and I needed quick resolution.
At this time, I am very displeased and unsatisfied with HP Support. Though I am upset, I hope we can work together to change that. Please call me at 555-555-5555 so we can discuss the problem further and arrive at a satisfactory resolution.
Thank you.
Regards,
Justin Capasso
————
I think if you use this approach as your initial complaint letter, the person reading it at HP will take you and your complaint more seriously and see you as more reasonable and fair minded. They will probably own up to what happened, apologize for the inconvenience, and offer you some sort of compensation or at least look into what went wrong and try to fix the problem from happening again to you or anyone else. You may want to address your initial letter to the manager or president of HP Customer Care, since the CEO will likely just have it sent over to them anyway.
That person, in turn, will have someone launch an internal investigation to find out what went wrong, where, how, who was involved, and why - was it a procedural problem, was it a logistical problem, was it an employee’s incompetence, etc. That’s their problem, and shouldn’t be yours - but it became yours since you got hit by it. But HP does need to fix it if it is more than a one-off situation. From the sound of things, based on your posting, quite a few customers have had similar experiences with delay.
I am not trying to downplay the impact of what happened to you - but you may get a better response following the above advice. Either way, best wishes to you and I hope HP does something to make up for it.
linuxiac
November 26th, 2007
at 6:18am
I have noted this to my 5,000 clients and customers.
In my FREE demonstrations of Mepis, Vixta, Knoppix, PCLinuxOS, in the aisles of major chain stores, customer service is the second most discussed subject by the thousands of folks observing Live Linux CDs running on HP computers.
The foremost issue of discussion is “When will HP/Compaq offer a GNU/Linux pre-installed system, like Dell and Walmart (Everex $199 Tower, and soon to be released $399 notebook)?”.
For Consumers, it IS all about the “Microsoft Tax”, and the “Microsoft Sucker Tax - Nag-ware, Trial-ware” fiasco. All easily replaced with the Free OpenCD.
Bubba Squirrel
November 26th, 2007
at 6:54am
How did you find that many people in HP support who spoke understandable English?
GB
November 26th, 2007
at 9:01pm
I wonder why you said worse than Dell. I had to ship my Dell laptop twice in two months for two different problems. Each time it took exactly five days for the laptop to go AND come back. (Picked on Friday delivered on wednesday)
I am highly satisfied with the service. I wonder if anybody else had the same.
jfcapasso
November 26th, 2007
at 9:05pm
I’ve had some bad experiences with Dell. Perhaps worse than this one.
Ray
November 26th, 2007
at 11:54pm
Shame Gateway is no longer on the scene. My wife and I used to run
nothing but straight Gateway’s and had no problems with them at all.
Alas that was before the days of every conceivable add-on bell,
whistle and peripheral and every thinkable and a few unthinkable
programs.
Oh and back when there were really some really different operating
systems other than the IBM one that they sold to Mr. Gates.
GiM
November 27th, 2007
at 8:10am
It is not a pattern, but similar situations are with other big names too. No second level of expertize or supervisor - at least functional - that moment when you need it…
A good solution is to build your own pc. This is OK for a desktop, but since the current trend is toward laptops, you have very few chances.
Maybe latter, the manufacturers will bring some standardisation on laptop components (cases+LCD, mechanical connection for rem, ssd, hdd, mini card standard for video, audio, modem, lan, wifi…), so we will be able to do it. Just you wait…
Javier
March 2nd, 2009
at 1:23pm
I agree with the guy who made revisions to your complaint letter. I own a HP laptop myself, and I can tell you, I’m not buying them again.