Volume 11 Of The Saga

11 August 2003

There is no conceivable way to mock up or make up a case study such as the one Hewlett Packard is putting me through. I’ve been in the computer business for in excess of twenty five years. The behavior of this company is more arrogant, disrespectful, unconcerned and ineffective than ANY I’ve ever witnessed.

Tonight I got my courage up and placed another call to HP. I wanted to find out how to handle the return of this defective laptop which they sent to me today unrepaired. The paperwork said they fixed the problem. The laptop required 11 cycles involving press the power button, wait for it to lock up, turn the power off, start again.

Here’s how HP handled tonight’s call. In a single call, I spoke to four people. First, Harry took the model number and the CSO number. He said he would transfer me to Pavilion laptop support. That was at 8:26 p.m. (CDT).

At 8:57 p.m. Richard answered the phone (F2/C25/P22). He indicated that he only worked on Pavilion desktops. He said he would transfer me to Pavilion laptop support.

At 9:02 p.m. Kim, an HP call director, answered the phone (F2/C25/P23). She was very rude. She asked how long I had owned the laptop. She asked the model number. She asked if I had ever called HP tech support before. When I gave her a very abbreviated version of my story, she transferred me to Pavilion laptop tech support.

At 9:05 p.m. David, an Indian fellow, picked up the phone and indicated that he didn’t speak English (F2/C25/P24). At least, I think that’s what he said. He put me on hold.

At 9:20 p.m. the call was cut off. Latest score: 2 faxes, 25 calls, 24 people.

HP is truly declining faster than any larger company in recent memory other than those guilty of fraud and accounting scandals. Please know that any ad you read, watch or hear from Hewlett Packard that says anything about customer focus, quality, excellence or any words remotely similar is a fraud in and of itself.

The August 11, 2003 issue of Forbes magazine featured Carly on the cover. Inside is an article about HP titled We Did It. The first page and two thirds of that article pictures four people under the caption ”Carly’s Angels.” It is so sad that companies of the stature that HP once was must resort to such puff pieces. Sadder still is Carly’s self-promotion. She’s on the cover, she’s in the photo with the other four and then she has another full page photo in the middle of the article.

She should have had the courage and self-respect to let them photograph some of her electronic plantations where underpaid, overworked and ill-informed people are attempting to respond to the numerous calls from customers with questions or with products that don’t work. A day of reckoning is coming for this company.

The four people are Ann Livermore, Shane Robison, Jeff Clarke and Peter Blackmore. The subtitle next to these people says, ”Carly Fiorina’s boast: HP pulled off a complex merger and saved $3.5 billion. Her sales pitch: We can work this magic on your company.”

I have but one thing to say to these five people, ”Keep away from my company. I don’t want to have a business that behaves in any way like the HP of August, 2003.” The writer of the story, one Quentin Hardy, should be ashamed for being a party to such a silly and superficial promotional piece.

I’ll sleep tonight. I’ll call HP’s headquarters tomorrow and seek relief from this nightmare I’m in.

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Volume 10 Of The Saga

11 August 2003

Some good news and some bad news. The Pavilion zt1290 was delivered a few minutes before 3:00 p.m. today by FedEx. It required 9 tries to boot to a stable desktop in Windows XP Professional.

I bought this computer brand new in July of 2002. I paid $2450.00 for it plus $207.50 which is the sales tax for Memphis and the State of Tennessee. That’s $2657.50 for a laptop that cannot be shut down without requiring at least 5 to 15 retries to get it to boot up. Once up and running it does fine and there are things I like about it; otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought it.

Knowing what I know now, I’ll do everything possible to avoid purchasing anything from HP again. More importantly, I intend to use any influence I can muster to encourage others to buy other brands of products – regardless of the product category they may be needing.

HP’s form included with the laptop said they ”duplicated the failure,” and they replaced the Switchboard PCA. Yet, this laptop will not start up correctly.

In a few minutes the calls will resume to 970.635.1000.

With each passing moment I find myself taking pleasure in stories such as this one that exposes a few of the cracks in HP’s foundation.

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Volume 9 Of The Saga

10 August 2003

Volume 8 left off with Michael planning to call. That was a promise he made on August 5th. Nothing more has been heard from Michael since then.

My frustration forced me to tackle HP again on August 6. The score quickly ran up to F2/C23/P19. Here’s how it happened: 10:40 a.m. called HP and was cut off; 10:46 a.m. redialed and was cut off; 10:49 redialed and was cut off; 10:50 redialed and was instructed by a phonebot to call a different number.

At 10:52 a.m. I called the new number. I was promptly cut off. At 10:54 a.m. I called that same number and was greeted by Nancy. Something tells me Nancy was not this woman’s given name. I’m reasonably sure that Nancy was in India.

By 11:04 a.m., it was obvious that I needed Nancy to escalate my call to a supervisor. First, I needed to speak to someone I could understand. People in Bangalore, India don’t speak English exactly as we do in the Deep South of the United States.

Second, I was fed up and wanted someone to get this mess fixed. At 11:12 a.m. Philip got on the phone. Philip told me that he was based in Bangalore and had the authority to fix the problem. He first needed to do some research. He asked permission to put me on hold.

I granted that permission and waited interminably. When he returned, Philip assured me that my laptop service had been expedited and I would have it in 5 to 7 business days. Again, that promise was made on August 6.

Tomorrow may be the day! Philip may be my hero.

August 9 at 1:55 p.m. marked my last phone call to HP. An Indian woman named Elisa asked me five times for my case number. I held a long time while she researched my case. At 2:16 p.m. she asked me for my CSO number and I again held for quite a long time. Elisa eventually returned to the phone and said, ”your laptop will be returned four business days after August 11, 2003.” I kid you not.

After 24 phone calls, two faxes and conversations with 20 different employees at HP, I through up my hands and decided I wouldn’t pursue them again until the 12th or 14th of August. Tonight is Sunday, August 10, 2003. I’ll sit patiently until Wednesday of this week. If I’ve not got my repaired laptop by then, the floggings will begin anew.

HP should be ashamed. Carly should be ashamed. Those who posed for the recent Forbes magazine article should be ashamed. I’m simply very thankful that Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard weren’t around to witness the decline of such a formerly formidable company!

Here’s how to read this entire Saga::

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Is There Hope After All?

10 August 2003

Sometime yesterday, the web site HP provided for tracking the status of a repair got updated. Nothing got corrected. No existing information was altered.

What appeared offers hope. In an area called ”repaired product shipment (to you),” a FedEx tracking number appeared. Appearances may deceive me, but it appears that FedEx will be delivering my ”repaired?” laptop by 3:00 p.m. tomorrow.

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Volume 8 Of The Saga

9 August 2003

I didn’t call HP again until Monday, August 4. One of the phone numbers I had been using was no longer valid and I was told to call an 800# and use their new voice response system.

Doing so, Dana answered. She told me that she didn’t handle Pavilion repair calls and I should hang up, call back and wait for an operator to answer. (F2/C12/P12)

On the next call I got Samantha. She couldn’t help me, but said that she’d connect me with Pavilion repair. (F2/C13/P13) She did. I got Maggie this time.

Maggie asked for my CSO#. When she realized the CSO# was dated July 26th, she transferred me to the notebook repair department. While holding for them, I was cut off. (F2/C13/P14)

I redialed. ”Your call cannot be completed at this department of HP. Please hang up and call again.” (F2/C14/P14)

I redialed. Sirhan finally answered. (F2/C15/P15) He asked for my model number twice. When I gave it to him, he said they didn’t handle that model, so he transferred me to another department. I couldn’t understand more than every fifth or sixth word that Sirhan said.

I held until one ear was compressed against my head. Then, while fully expecting HP’s usual performance, I was cut off.

I redialed the voice-response-activated menu system again. Indojet(sp?) answered the phone this time. (F2/C16/P16) She was astonished that I had not received my computer back from HP. She suggested I call back to the 800# and when the voice-activated response system asks me to say ”repair status,” she suggested I remain silent. (I can’t make this stuff up. This is the truth. It happened.) Oh, Indojet is not from this country.

I redialed the 800#. Ignoring the directive to say ”repair status” I was put into a loop of the phone system where it continued to return to it’s own greeting three times before bailing out to music on hold. I held.

Raj answered. Raj is from India. He needed my Case# and my CSO#. I provided both. He asked me if it would be ok if he put me on hold to check the status of my computer. I assured him I had no problem holding for an HP employee.

Twice Raj returned to the call from on hold and asked for ”two minutes to do research.” Each time it was granted by yours truly. Raj returned to the line a third time and told me that my zip code didn’t match the zip code on the CSO#. He asked if I’d like him to correct it. I freaked.

Raj was instructed to connect me to his supervisor immediately. I held for twenty minutes in order to speak to Michael. The score is now 2 faxes, 17 calls and 18 people (not including the FedEx guy). (F2/C17/P18)

Michael went through the whole thing with me. He said he had the authority to straighten this out. He needed 120 minutes to fix it. That was at 5:30 p.m. While I was on the phone with Michael, my electricty came on. I concluded with Michael and went out for dinner allowing my air conditioner to do its thing while I was gone.

Michael called my cell phone at 9:39 p.m. and said he would have an answer in 120 minutes. I assured him that would be ok. Michael works in Bangalore, India. I suspect some other folks I spoke to live there as well. Visibility into HP’s repair center in Milpitas, CA isn’t great from Bangalore, India. Trust me on this.

The morning of August 5, 2003, I awoke, looked at my cell phone and saw that I had a voicemail message. At 1:12 a.m. on 8-5-03, Michael called and said he needed 24 hours to determine the status of my PC. He said, ”I call you tomowow twee hows early dan dis time.” I assume he meant around 10 p.m.

It’s 12:01 a.m. on 8-10-03 as I write this. I haven’t heard from Michael again.

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