One Final Word on Hewlett-Packard

One final entry regarding the ongoing saga of my battle with Hewlett-Packard.  You can read the earlier very maddening entries here and here. 

I did write a letter a couple of weeks ago to the head of consumer affairs for H-P concerning my problems with Hewlett-Packard technical support.  It was nearly three pages in length and I documented the good, the bad and the downright ugly service I received up to the point when I just decided to pull the plug on my laptop.  Honestly, I really didn't expect to get an answer. 

Last week, while I was on the road, I received a telephone call from someone at H-P who said they received my letter, but they couldn't find my laptop's serial number in the system.  The lady who called said, "We know it must be in the system as you went into great detail in your letter about the problems you had."  She gave me a number to call and an option number to give when I called in. 

I was doing some stuff in my office on Monday of this week and I came across the note I had written after I'd gotten home last Friday evening.  I thought, "OK, let's call Hewlett-Packard and see what's going on."

I was put on hold after dialing the number and I was connected to a lady who sounded like she was a kindly old school marm.  She had trouble finding my case in the computer, but when she finally did find it, she was asking questions as to the problems I had previously. 

I went through the sequence of the good and the bad.  Each time I pointed out something bad, she gave me a cursory, "Oh, that's too bad", or an "Oh, my goodness."  I knew there was going to be nothing she was going to do.  And I closed by saying, "And that's why I'm looking at my old H-P laptop sitting on a shelf here in my office, and that's why I typed that letter on my new Toshiba laptop."

Finally, she said, "It says here in your letter that you own two Hewlett-Packard printers.  What models are they?"

I gave her the model numbers and she said to me, "What I'd like to do is to send you two ink cartridges for your printers."

I said, "Excuse me?"

She said, "Yes, I'd like to send you two ink cartridges for your printers for all your trouble."

I couldn't believe what I heard.  Did I think they'd own up and say, "Yes, sir, we screwed up, big time.  We'll fix your laptop for free"?  Hell, if she'd said, "We'll send you two cases of ink cartridges," it would have got my attention.  Two ink cartridges?  I was completely incredulous. 

I said, "You really want to send me two ink cartridges to show how sorry Hewlett-Packard is for the trouble they put me through?"

She said, "Well, yes.  It would be a token of our appreciation for the trouble you've been through."  

I said, "Actually, that's a very small token for what I've been through.  The most logical token of appreciation you could show is if you fixed my computer for free." 

She sort of laughed and said, "Oh, goodness.  We certainly couldn't do that." 

I said, "So, you want to send me two ink cartridges that cost $9.00 bucks each at Best Buy (I'd just bought one over the weekend) to show how truly sorry Hewlett-Packard is for the time and hassle I put up with trying to get my 18-month-old computer fixed?"

The lady said, "Yes, that's right."

I said, "Look, if that's all you're going to do, don't bother sending me the cartridges.  I'm sorry, but that's an insult for the time and trouble I had to put up with.  No, I don't need your cartridges."

And that was it.  I'm seriously thinking of writing ANOTHER letter to Hewlett-Packard to let them know how insulted I was for the measly offer.  Not that I was expecting stock options or a trip to the California wine country for two, but I would have thought they would have, at least, done something more to try and get me back in the fold.  H-P ink cartridges probably cost them a buck to manufacture.  That's just absolutely amazing on Hewlett-Packard's part to basically piss me off even more than they have.  

Good God...  

Comments

[R. Coleman]

I forwarded this on to my nephew who works for HP. This is not right.

[Will]

I sort of wondered why this particular entry was getting so many hits all of the sudden.