Misguided HP customer support approach included forced 15-minute call wait times

HP rescinds European support call strategy due to "feedback."

See full article...

 

[RickVS]

Back in the day I would call Amazon Alexa support and half the time I'd already be upset by the time a support person finally got on the line. Now? A factory reset is my first go-to move. And it generally fixed the problem.

 

[JMTronicHobbyist]

Europeans are spoiled. IME 15 minutes is definitely not a longer wait time than normal.

 

[Derecho Imminent]

As long as their deterioration hasn’t affected you, you’ll keep buying from them. See, part of the problem.

The claim was that customers in general are being treated like shit and keep using them. The evidence Ive seen says thats not true.

Why would I go by the anonymous posts of internet denizens over my own experience? They actually seem to be among the best in customer support imo.

 

[Andre K]

Despair had a good on on that theme.
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(credit: despair.com)

If I recall correctly, Dispair.com's own customer service motto is "We're not happy 'til you're not happy!"

 

[mesh]

One of my new years resolutions was to actively shop local whenever possible. There were a lot of things that I expected to be impossible or too difficult that weren’t.

One of the things that pissed me off recently was with an iPad. One of my older ones (gen 9) has a broken screen just affecting the glass. I made an appointment for that specific problem on the apple site for genius bar at the apple store. Drove there, walked a mile to the damn store in a mall only to be told “ we don’t do that” by a post middle aged dude who pretty clearly would have preferred being any on earth but there.

I went to a local store as I should have to start with and it was done in 3 days for a reasonable price.

 

[AreWeThereYeti]

I feel like telling outright lies to your customers should be punishable in some way?

Yes, you can call the FTC and complain. Oh, wait....

 

[pmatous]

"HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn’t good support"

"HP Invent" indeed.

(Still have LaserJet 4L somewhere and I believe it would still work; so there was a time when HP was a competent company, which makes it sad.)

 

[Derecho Imminent]

One of my new years resolutions was to actively shop local whenever possible. There were a lot of things that I expected to be impossible or too difficult that weren’t.

One of the things that pissed me off recently was with an iPad. One of my older ones (gen 9) has a broken screen just affecting the glass. I made an appointment for that specific problem on the apple site for genius bar at the apple store. Drove there, walked a mile to the damn store in a mall only to be told “ we don’t do that” by a post middle aged dude who pretty clearly would have preferred being any on earth but there.

I went to a local store as I should have to start with and it was done in 3 days for a reasonable price.

One of the things that drove me to look online was an interaction with Best Buy. Called them up and asked if they had something in stock. "Yea sure." Drive down there and there isnt even shelf space for it. "But we can order it for you!" Damn, I could have done that myself and saved myself a trip.

Its just not fun anymore to go to a store just to find out if they have what I want or not.

 

[Apple fanboy 101]

I love this kind of stuff, coming from people who studied years business school and are supposed to be experts in what they are doing.

 

[geognerd]

Ah, yes...nothing makes me happier and more relaxed than being told to "try using their website" when my problem is some sort of hardware failure or other major system failure that I know will require RMA...

This is up there with calling because your internet is out and getting the recording "use our website" yo if I could use the internet to reach your website I wouldn't need support!

This is like my pension fund. Because I became a member 20 years ago, they don't have an email address on-file for me. Since they have no email for me, I can't create an account on their website to look at the status of my pension. When I call on the phone, their recording tells me I can get faster service if I use their website. How I would love to use their website, but I can't! It's like they're mocking me. And then if I try to submit a help ticket through their website, guess what? I have to have an account with their site to create a ticket. I'm screwed every which way. The hold times are always given as 2 hours, and I usually give up after 30 mins.

 

[mmiller7]

This is like my pension fund. Because I became a member 20 years ago, they don't have an email address on-file for me. Since they have no email for me, I can't create an account on their website to look at the status of my pension. When I call on the phone, their recording tells me I can get faster service if I use their website. How I would love to use their website, but I can't! It's like they're mocking me. And then if I try to submit a help ticket through their website, guess what? I have to have an account with their site to create a ticket. I'm screwed every which way. The hold times are always given as 2 hours, and I usually give up after 30 mins.

If you got thru they'd probably say to update your email address you must verify the change thru your existing email address to prevent fraud!

 

[Doug K]

Oh wow, I completely forgot! I can't wait to go check out HP's digital support consisting of:

• An FAQ with softball questions and obvious answers
• A communities thread where customers are asking the same questions and getting no answer
• A KB article that seems to match but provides resolution steps in an outdated UI version that was removed in the new UI
• A barely comprehensible AI chatbot that's just reading the same things I am

this is a perfect summary of tech support today, thank you..
I may quote this, repeatedly ;-)

 

[barackorama]

I'm getting closer and closer to not bothering calling the tech support line either, and going straight to Billing instead. (See my rant about Microsoft, a few comments back.)

I’ll do this with sales sometimes, billing often works but many companies will put an automated tree in front of the actual human so that most can pay their bill without costing the shareholders extra money.

Salespeople are always available to bring in new suckers and always willing to transfer you out to get an actual buyer on the line.

 

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Despair had a good on on that theme.
View attachment 103222
(credit: despair.com)

Ninja'd!

 

[ralphnobody]

Ah, yes...nothing makes me happier and more relaxed than being told to "try using their website" when my problem is some sort of hardware failure or other major system failure that I know will require RMA...

I’ll do you one better.

I hate when a service website directs me to call, and in the phone it: 1. Warns me about wait times. 2. “helpfully” suggests that I can use their website or (ugh, app) and asks me to press a button, to continue on the phone. 3. Repeat #2 intermittently.

Force services to pay even minimum wage for support wait times and this misbehavior stops.

The forced loss of productivity should cost the business.