The HP Scandal.

To get this off the ground, I’m going to make the first real blog post. This post will contain some harsh biases; please use reader discretion as far as what you want to read, and what you do not.

The HP Scandal.

I will never, EVER buy, or recommend another HP product after this blip. It is possibly the worst failure in a large manufacture I’ve ever seen, and it’s not even related to a recall, or a mass of defective products!

This all goes back to about a month ago. We’ll use the Customers name as “CUST,” HP service rep one will be “HP1” service rep two will be “HP2,” and I will be BBT.

Customer walks to our counter.
CUST: “Hello, I need to drop this laptop off, it does not boot to windows”
BBT: “Ok, we’ll diagnose your problem, and give you a call once we know what the problem is. If it’s a hardware problem we’ll send it off for repair, ok?”
CUST: “Ok, thank you.”
Later on that day, my coworker calls the customer, and informs him it’s something to do with the motherboard, and because of our limited testing equipment, it will be sent to HP for repair. We inform him that his data may be wiped, but it’s not likely and it may take 2-4 weeks to get the unit back. At this point the customer had already started to get pissy about the wait time, and we promptly told him that it’s generally not that long.
Later on that week, we ship it off to HP.

20 days passes by, and there is no laptop, so the customer comes in asking where it is.
BBT: Hello, what can I do for you?
CUST: Yeah I dropped my laptop off 25 days ago, and I haven’t heard anything about it.
BBT: Ok, let me call HP and see what’s up with it.
I’m on hold for 8 minutes; meanwhile the customer is getting impatient. He starts proclaiming that he’s the manager for the Sherwin Williams Paint stores and that he just wants to talk to a manager or the district manager because he knows “how it works.” He said something about “the last time I had a problem; I called the district manager and got the problem resolved.” During the wait time he keeps babbling on about how important he his and he knows how the structure of management is around here, and that we wont do anything for him because we don’t know what we’re doing. Finally…
HP1: Thank you for holding could I have the CSO Number?
BBT: JHO275
There is a pause and I can hear some typing and clicking.
HP1: Ok, yes, we sent off a label on the 2nd and it looks like it got to you guys on the 3rd.
BBT: Yes, we got it and shipped it on the 5th.
HP1: Well, it shows here that it was never shipped.
BBT: Uhh, what?
HP1: Do you have the tracking number
At this point I was a little surprised and hunted on our email account for the tracking number. Alas, the webmail was down.
BBT: At this time I cannot access my e-mail, I know we shipped it off on the 5th.
HP1: Well, it looks like you didn’t on this end.
BBT: And you guys don’t have the tracking number?
HP1: No.
BBT: Ok, let me see if I can find it and I’ll give you a call back.
HP1: Ok, thank you for choosing HP, have a nice day.
I asked me co-worker to go see if a Manager could get into their e-mail to get the tracking number. Meanwhile, I had to inform the customer of the situation, because he was only three feet away from me during the phone conversation. He starts going on some rant about how important he his and how much his sons laptop was. He started mumbling on about how we should just give him a NEW laptop, even though it’s after the exchange/return period. The he started to get angry at me because HP lost his laptop and he was going to sue me directly because I didn’t ship it correctly. After the customer vented on my uncaring soul, my coworker came down with the tracking number in hand, as well as the confirmation that someone signed for it at the HP repair center on the 6th.

I called HP back. I was waiting for another 8 minutes with the customer ranting incoherently about how everything is setup and how none of us can do their jobs.
HP2: Thank you for holding could I have the CSO Number?
BBT: JHO275, Actually, I was talking to someone about 10 minutes ago about the situation of this laptop. She said that we never sent the laptop and you never received the laptop at your service center, although the tracking number with the unit says differently.
HP2: Hold on while I check something, please.
Again I hear more mouse clicking and pounding of the keyboard.
HP2: What’s the tracking number on that unit?
I read off the tracking number, twice. There was another pause, this time for a couple minutes.
HP2: Ok, well, it looks like it was sent to the wrong service center.
BBT: Wait, what?
HP2: It looks like the week you put that claim in, we closed a service center, and opened another one. The label you got and used was a label to the wrong service center.
BBT: So the unit has been forwarded to the right service center by now, correct?
HP2: No.
BBT: So, this unit has been setting at an empty service center for…13 days without it being noticed?
HP2: Sir there is no reason for that attitude with me; in fact this is only one of thousands.
BBT: Ma’am, You haven’t heard an attitude yet. So how are we going to deal with this today? Quite frankly I think it’s a little ridiculous that a unit has been sitting in an empty repair center with THOUSANDS of other units, do you not?
HP2: Well, I will e-mail the service center with a request for the tracking number for this unit.
BBT: And do what with it? E-mail it to me, so I can tell the customer that his unit is just now being sent into service? This needs to be dealt with today.
HP2: Sir I’m afraid it’s going to take some time to get a reply back from our service center.
BBT: Ok, this is what’s going to happen: You’re going to e-mail that service center. You’re going to forward that e-mail to me, then call the store here to confirm we got it. I’m going to call the HP corporate lead, and we’re going to get this resolved.
HP2: Sir, there is no need to call the corporate lead; we have this situation under contr...
BBT: If you had the situation under control, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Thank you, I expect that tracking number tomorrow, or the next.

I hang up, and then tell the customer what’s going on. I understand his frustration, and now he wants to talk to a manager. Oh well.

I promptly called our corporate lead and get the problem resolved after 4 days of phone tag.

I never got a call back from HP, and the Corporate Lead sends a “new” refurb laptop.
Fuck HP, and fuck this stupid ass customer.