Worst Customer Service EVER

Law firms will be sorry if they jump on the trend to offshore legal services.  I just went through a customer service nightmare with Hewlett-Packard ordering a $4 power supply cord for my printer.  It took more than an hour, dealing with people who barely spoke English.

No store carried the part.  It could not be ordered online. I was doomed: I had no choice but to telephone the HP phone number for support.  After a long wait, listening to blaring hold music, I finally reached a man in India.  His headset was badly adjusted that I could barely hear him.  I told him to speak up, and noticed he could barely speak English. 

Because I had never called HP before, he had to set up an account for me.  In a trans-Pacific call, the consonants B, C, D, M, N, P, S, T and V are unintelligible.  He kept putting me on hold and asking me to repeat my address. After going through this, he tried to sell me a warranty on the printer, which would cost more than $50.  When I said I just wanted the part, not a warranty he kept putting me on hold.  After about 30 minutes on the phone he said I had to call another number for parts.

I was ready to throttle him.

So I called the second number and reached a woman in Costa Rica.  English was also her second language.  I had to repeat every word -- my name, street, city, the printer name -- several times.  She would say them back to me, very very slowly, often mixing up N and M, and T and P.  Then she discovered the shipping address was different from the cardholder address, so I had to give her my address on East Camino Pimeria Alta, Tucson, Arizona.  It took forever, even though I presumed she spoke Spanish.  She kept asking me why there was no "road" or "street" as part of the street address.  The city "Tucson" completely confused her, because it is not pronounced as it is spelled. 

I was grieving that fact that customer support has been sent offshore to incompetent, substandard workers who don't have the language skills to do their jobs.  Next I had to call Citibank to change my credit card address.  I was dreading it.

Lo and behold, I reached an American who spoke English!  The address change took 2 minutes, including the confusing fact that my home town is two words (Glen Ellyn) and one word is spelled unconventioinally.

Perhaps if enough of us have these horrendous customer service experiences, these customer service jobs will come ack to America, where they belong. I am not xenophobic, but when I'm doing business, I want the vendor on the line to be from the USA and speak high school English.

Comments

[Kathy]

In the middle of July, I noticed that although the ac adapter was identified by my laptop, this was not charging. HP told me that the problem could be my ac adapter, and sent me a new one after a couple of days. Two days after I got the ac adapter, the problem started again, and they told me that the next step will be to send my laptop to them, and that a box for my laptop will arrive the next day. (Wednesday, July 22nd) However, the box didn’t arrive. I contacted them again on Sunday, and they told me that for some reason (they even didn’t bother to explain it to me) the box has not been shipped yet. The box finally arrived on Tuesday morning (July 31). I shipped my laptop to them in the afternoon.

They told me that the whole process will take from 5 to 7 business days. It was supposed to be back on August 9th. On august 9th, I contacted them again, after they called me, and they told that a part on my laptop needed to be replaced and that they didn’t have the part in stock so it will take longer for the laptop to be shipped. The new date was August 16. I said that it was ok.

On august 15, I contacted them again to make sure that it will be back on august 16. They told me “to rest assured” that I will have it by august 16. On august 16, I stayed at home the WHOLE DAY waiting for my laptop. However, it didn’t arrive. On the afternoon of August 16, I contacted them again. I talked to 4 guys of customer service. One of them even asked me if the laptop has not arrived yet. I told him that it has not. Then, they assured me that the laptop was at a FEDEX facility, and that it will be back within 24 hours, and that NO part was replaced because it was fine. I was surprised. Wasn’t a part going to be replaced? Wasn’t that the reason for the laptop to take longer to be shipped?

On august 17, I stayed at home the whole day again. On the afternoon, I chatted with hp, and they told me that the laptop has not been shipped yet. I was even more surprised. Didn’t they say that it was at FEDEX? I did not believe what the lady told me, and contacted them by phone.
I talked to two guys who didn’t really explain me what happened and the last one told me that he will “transfer” my call to somebody else, and guess what? They hanged up the phone. I was mad. I called them again, and asked a lady to let me talk to a supervisor, she told me that there was no supervisor in the floor at that moment; however, she asked me if she could help me. I started telling her the problem, and she started laughing. After that, she told me that she will look for a supervisor, and put me on hold. Nobody answered my call for a long time, and I decided to hang up.

I called them again, and contacted some customer representatives who speak Spanish. They were nice, and apologized for the problem. However, they weren’t very helpful. They told me that the shipment information was not in the system yet, and that I should wait until Monday (august 20th), and they will send me an e-mail with the information. No e-mail was sent.

In august 24, I contacted HP, and they told me the same thing. They are still waiting for the “part” so the can fix my laptop, and that they might get it today, and that I MIGHT get my laptop back sometime next week. I’m not sure if this is true.

I don’t know what is going on. What’s up with all of these lies? Will I really get my laptop back next week? I don’t trust HP anymore. I have contacted them at least 15 times…literally. How can a company that supposedly has the greatest customer service LIE to its own customers? And even ask me if I have not received it yet EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE NOT SHIPPED IT YET?
I don’t know what happened to my laptop, but I needed back soon. I’m going back to school. (I almost begged them to hurry because I need it)

Please, can somebody help me? I’m so scared that I will not get my laptop back or that the problem will not be fixed as it has happened to some people. Please help me!!!

I am sorry for the long message, but I really think it is necessary to explain every detail of the awful experience I am having with HP!!!!

[rabia]

This is the first time in my life that I have been really mad about the customer service that after spending 6 hours on phone with HP customer service in India.

I still want to sit in front of the computer and file a complaint. I had an issue with internet explorer. I called they spend 5 hours and at the background I could hear an Indian music as I am my self from that area. Than there was big laugh it looked like they were having a party the person who dealt with me was not listening to me he was giggling and than he would ask me same question again and again. It looked he had no clue what I was saying. I told him that I can not open the internet explorer web page. When I click on the link it dose not open . He said madam please click on the link and when page opens click on tools--internet options.

I said that is the problem I cannot open the page------ he said 3 times madam please listen open the page and u will see tools. Was that hard to understand or what. I had Dell for 3 years I thought HP had better quality. Dell has best customer service ever. Not even once I had an issue with them. They looked serious in what they were doing. I made the worst choice this time. I am stuck with them now. I don’t want others to get stuck.

HP products may be good but they have worst customer service ever. Worst worst worst!!!!!!!!!

[Horseofcourse]

Larry! The sweet sound of the truth! THe whole HP India customer service/tech support scam has me slackjawed. I just ordered a HP Pavilion entertainment notebook. It was expensive. It was supposed to be a CTO (custom to order). I noticed the product number inside the notebook didn't match the service tag on the outside. I do a little digging through a detection scan that it's actually a different series notebook! The hardware was installed a year before I ordered it and some of the software was installed 3 years earlier. What a deception! THey obviously wanted to get rid of an other notebook they had with some of the similar specs on it that chose in the order process. They didn't exactly customize it to order or build it upon request as I was told they would be doing. Then I tell this to tech support and their main comment was "not to worry" if it has the right customizable features than it should suit me. Ahem, well NO. That's not okay with me. To start with, it's a different series for godsake! That means by definition it is not what I ordered. HP won't take it back because the service tag is shows it as the series I ordered. But the computer itself is not! Unbelievable. And they transfer calls that then get dropped. They pretend not to hear you and speak unintelligibly. They probably sent me a refurbished notebook for all I know. If I had only found your blog before I bought this computer I wouldn't have touched an HP computer. This wasn't a mistake from HP. They had to know what they were doing. They were hoping I wouldn't notice? Unbelievable! It's a sham. I actually agree with the anonymous poster above. I was a sucker for ordering something from this company. When you get TECH SUPPORT telling you things like "Not to worry, not to worry" about tech specs and series models, you know you are in trouble.

The worst part of this
whole thing is Hewlett-Packard in the US is by all accounts a good place to work if you're an engineer. A reputable american company. The biggest mistake they have made in this global marketplace is farming out tech support and customer service to foreign countries. Manufacturing is a different thing. But customer service and tech support??!! Are they interested in losing customers by the droves? They just lost me and most likely many people I tell my story to, and on down the grapevine which could grow exponentionally over time into a more sizeable loss of business (in theory.) And all of this just from one person's bad experience. Multiply this by other incidents all across the world. And you have the "shoddy customer service effect." At some point, when they lose enough business, maybe HP will rethink this issue. I wonder how long ago they got rid of american customer service centers. Didn't they used to have some here?

[Themyui Vashum]

Don't Blame India or blame Indians for their accent, remember it means they know one more language then you do. Just blame the people who outsourced it to India just to save few bucks admitting that the Indians are far intellectual in this industry (technical knowledge). Personally i think America would be no where without immigrant think tank working for them. Remember it's a machine and supporting the product over the phone needs immense patience from the customer and probing from the technician to resolve it.
So blame it on us.......

It cannot be, hello, hi, lo and behold your computer works fine.

[Pam Hasty]

Same experience with HP customer service. I paid for and charged to my credit card Support Service for my HP Note Book. When I call for support, I amd told by someone that does not speak Englishthat I do not have this service. When I ask for a supervisor, I am hung up on.
I paid for this Jan, 2006 and to this date have had no support from HP.

[jfridley]

Great post! I'm sure we've all felt that way at one time or another.

I thought you might find this article interesting: http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2003813,00.asp

I don't know if this technology has been released yet, but there are companies working on technology that can detect an irate customer so they can answer their call faster. In theory it seems like a good idea, but then I wonder about all of the nice people who keep getting pushed to the back of the line.

[Anonymous]

Lol !!! what a joke !! Indians dont know English .... Lol !!!

50 % of Americans dont know how five is spoken, nine is spoken...

Wanna learn English talk to a Britisher...

[marcello]

Hewlett Packard wretched, atrocious, miserable, shameful, worthless customer service. HP is a scam, they do not honor their warranties, they ignore and hate their own customers, they have set up a system of the most abominable non-existent customer service I have ever encountered. HP sells lemon notebooks that malfunction right out of the box, they take your money an run. If you are thinking of buying anything HP slap yourself and then throw your money in the trash, this will be less aggravating then dealing with this low-down, unscrupulous, deceitful bunch of criminals. HP sucks.

[Francis Egenias]

It is surprising that "people who barely spoke English" were assigned to customer service, in a company like HP.

But Mr. Bodine won't encounter a similar situation with a Filipino.

English is a second language for the Philippines, yet it is the official language used in business and government. English is also the medium of instruction in schools at all levels. Filipinos are much more familiar with American English than any other Asian. The Philippines was once an American colony.

The Philippines is now a key player in outsourcing, but still behind India.

[Razib Ahmed]

" It took more than an hour, dealing with people who barely spoke English."-
This is interesting because highly skilled english language work force is considered to be among the main factors behind INdian success in outsourcing in the first place. Anyway, we should get better service than that from a company like HP.