Disgusted with HP service

  • Thread starter Thread starter George
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George

For those of you thinking of purchasing an HP printer be warned. Their
out-of-warranty service policies leave much to be desired.

Have had an HP printer for years. Started to have problems not wanting
to print so looked around for a new printer. Not finding the new
models to be as well built as my old Deskjet 820CSE I called HP to see
about getting it repaired. They said for $110 they would make it new
again. Great...I sent to California and 10 days later I had my own
printer back.

Worked fine for 94 days.

Four days past the 90 day warranty it started acting up again. Called
HP. "Well, Sir the 90 days is up so you will have to pay $25 if you
wish to speak to a tech". I explained it was the same issue I sent it
in for. Did not matter. I asked if they could tell me what they did
for the $110 and they said they did not have that information in their
system.

There was no way they were even going to continue with the phone call
unless I gave them my credit card #. I hung up.

Very simply, IMHO HP service sucks.
 
George said:
For those of you thinking of purchasing an HP printer be warned. Their
out-of-warranty service policies leave much to be desired.

I fully agree...

My son gave me his old Deskjet 812c printer. I had no problem
installing it; when I went to HP's website to get the latest driver,
however, I got stuck in one of those 'endless loops' and was unable to
d/l it. So I called HP's 800 number, spoke to a VERY polite young lady,
who informed me pleasantly that in order to get someone to advise me on
how to grab their driver from their website, I'd have the privilege of
coming up with a $25 fee! Needless to say, I decided to live with the
driver that came on the original install disk...

Bob Headrick, are you listening?
 
Hal said:
I fully agree...

My son gave me his old Deskjet 812c printer. I had no problem
installing it; when I went to HP's website to get the latest driver,
however, I got stuck in one of those 'endless loops' and was unable to
d/l it. So I called HP's 800 number, spoke to a VERY polite young lady,
who informed me pleasantly that in order to get someone to advise me on
how to grab their driver from their website, I'd have the privilege of
coming up with a $25 fee! Needless to say, I decided to live with the
driver that came on the original install disk...

Bob Headrick, are you listening?

I just tested HP's driver downloads for the 812c - there's one for
Windows ME & 98, but none for Windows XP. The Windows ME & 98 driver
download was easy to find and downloadable with a click of the button,
like any other printer company's drivers.

P.S. Please note I'm neutral because I don't care for HP products,
I'm a Canon man. I was just testing the system because I find it
hard to believe that a driver would be that difficult to download.

-Taliesyn
 
Hal Hersh said:
My son gave me his old Deskjet 812c printer. I had no problem
installing it; when I went to HP's website to get the latest driver,
however, I got stuck in one of those 'endless loops' and was unable to
d/l it. So I called HP's 800 number, spoke to a VERY polite young lady,
who informed me pleasantly that in order to get someone to advise me on
how to grab their driver from their website, I'd have the privilege of
coming up with a $25 fee! Needless to say, I decided to live with the
driver that came on the original install disk...

What do you expect? Should HP waste money giving free service to you because
you want the latest driver, when your current driver works perfectly well?
If you can't figure out how to download, then don't expect free help.
Service costs money to provide; somebody has to pay for it. If you aren't,
then everyone else is through higher prices.

Besides, at least you do have the ability to get service, via a self-service
web site. If you have a problem with their web site, e-mail the site
designer and let him know.

If always surprises me that people expect free support indefinitely... even
after the warranty is expired. You may think HP is just a manufacturing
company, but they're really in the business of selling support services.
That's where the money is made, not on sales of cheap printers.
 
I fully agree...

My son gave me his old Deskjet 812c printer. I had no problem
installing it; when I went to HP's website to get the latest driver,
however, I got stuck in one of those 'endless loops' and was unable to
d/l it. So I called HP's 800 number, spoke to a VERY polite young lady,
who informed me pleasantly that in order to get someone to advise me on
how to grab their driver from their website, I'd have the privilege of
coming up with a $25 fee! Needless to say, I decided to live with the
driver that came on the original install disk...

Bob Headrick, are you listening?

Thanks for your post. I'm shopping for a new printer and you just helped me
eliminate one vendor.
 
Thanks for your post. I'm shopping for a new printer and you just helped me
eliminate one vendor.
As a person who repairs printers for a living, mostly HP and Lexmark,
let me be the first to thank you for buying something else. I/O
Errors are the number one cause of technicians ulsers, technicians
going postal and suicides.

Frank
 
Taliesyn said:
I just tested HP's driver downloads for the 812c - there's one for
Windows ME & 98, but none for Windows XP. The Windows ME & 98 driver
download was easy to find and downloadable with a click of the button,
like any other printer company's drivers.

P.S. Please note I'm neutral because I don't care for HP products,
I'm a Canon man. I was just testing the system because I find it
hard to believe that a driver would be that difficult to download.

-Taliesyn
Yap the XP ones are built in to windows
 
HP has been feverishly moving things around on their web sites, and I've
gotten caught in some endless loops myself; but it doesn't seem to be a
matter of policy.

Try again, or try searching a different way.
 
Four days past the 90 day warranty it started acting up again. Called
HP. "Well, Sir the 90 days is up so you will have to pay $25 if you
wish to speak to a tech". I explained it was the same issue I sent it
in for.

What is the problem you are having?

- Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP
 
My son gave me his old Deskjet 812c printer. I had no problem
installing it; when I went to HP's website to get the latest driver,
however, I got stuck in one of those 'endless loops' and was unable to
d/l it.

What operating system are you using? What language do you need?

- Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP
 
Thanks, but your reply makes no sense to me.

If they only "put $30 worth of parts and labor into it" (and they
charged me $110) then they at least owed me the decency of allowing a
repair tech to speak to me about this recurring problem. Seems I still
had $80 worth of their time coming to me, correct? And if, according
to you, it's all that simple to fix perhaps that repair tech could
have told me just how to do it, right? After all, your theory is they
can't be bothered fixing these old printers themselves.

Look, it's just shabby treatment, plain and simple, and no amount of
BS as to the hows and whys they need to do it will alter that fact!

This is not, I have come to realize, the same HP that Bill Hewlett and
David Packard started in 1939. It is HP in name only.

Profits before customers, right Carli? Yea, that's the way to build a
loyal following.
 
Trev said:
Yap the XP ones are built in to windows

Come on now, its not Bob's fault! he is one of the good guys at HP.

Let put it this way we all have trouble with some firm or other some it
maybe Epson some its HP or Canon - we can hardly blame the guys at the end
of the phone as the calls are recorded and they could end up losing there
jobs if they where to give out any info - so you can't really blame them.

But leave Bob alone he breaks his silenace to help us - DON'T shoot him
down.

Martin
 
Arthur Entlich said:
I think he'd like to hear that HP stood behind their refurbished
products more than 90 days.

Yeah, that would be nice. 1 year would be nice, but if it broke down after
369 days he'd still be pissed off. 10 years would be nice, but if it broke
down after 10 years + 4 days he'd still be pissed off.

HP provided exactly the service they said they would. He knew the warrantee.
HP is a corporation and is in business to make money, which apparently
surprises many people. Some customers are never happy. Those are the
customers a business is better off doing without. They take up 90% of the
business's time and provide about 10% of the revenue. A business just can't
make money by keeping the fussy-people happy.
 
Dewaine wrote:
If a person wished to have an older model of a product refurbed to "like
new" status at a cost similar to the cost of a new product, it should
have more than a 90 day warranty, IMHO. He wasn't asking for lifetime
support, he paid $110 to have the unit refurbished, because he was
unhappy with the build of the current line up.

Even the NEW HP printers only have a 90 day warranty, so 90 days on a
repair doesn't surprise me at all.

Bryan
You may find it amusing, but that doesn't mean it poor judgment. The
older models cost more in their day because they were better built.
they were more solid and in theory designed to last longer and to
survive repairs.
Some current product is so poorly made that the companies don't even
attempt to repair them should they come back for servicing, but simply
supply a new unit.
Epson inkjet printers are, overall, very reliable, and the vast majority
of owners get many years of use out of them. All mine work fine, they
range from 2 to 7 years old. I expect there are very few HP models in
the same standing.
Further my original Epson still produces a very reasonable photographic
image, something HP printers of that vintage never did.
 
Yes, and we all know the only purpose of a business is to make money.

Many businesses have changed their business model over the last number
of years. HP was one of the most customer centred businesses in North
America for most of its existence. They offered great customer support,
they offered quality product, etc. However, they transformed themselves
into a producer of toss away product that fills the landfills. Most and
more it has become nearly impossible to pay more for more quality. It
is a race to the bottom.

While there may be some logic to this due to newer technologies making
older product not worthwhile keeping no matter how well built it is
(because newer may be faster or better), not everyone is after cheap and
replaceable. Some people much prefer durability and consistency even if
that means not having the more modern up to date product.

Sure, it make for less cash flow on the short term if a person pays more
up front and then demands more quality, service and is less likely to
replace the item as often. But the problem is that the real birth to
death costs of making disposable product is not added to the real cost.
The waste of resources, the wasted time of workers, the wars over oil
to make plastic that only is in use for weeks or months, etc.

Part of it is our own faults for demanding garbage product cheaply, but
part is industry feeding into this.

Yes, I've read all about the "expensive customer" model, and how
companies today are told to dump them. They get away with this because
today many customers have simply given up trying to get quality and
accept the junk they get, as long as they don't pay too much for it.
That doesn't make the model right, ethical, or even valuable.

I bought HP stock years ago on the premise that a company with its fine
approach to business should be supported, and that that business ethic
would be rewarded in the marketplace. Under the stewardship of the
Hewletts and Packards, the company grew and thrived and made money and
my stock escalated in value. Sadly, when they died, the company became
another commodity company selling whatever they could at the cheapest
price. They got a set of ruthless board members and a CEO who made HP
no more than a name that used to mean quality and customer service. The
stock has suffered considerably, as have many owners of their products.

Everything from the 90 day warranty to "starter cartridges" were things
HP either introduced to the marketplace or jumped upon the bandwagon
early in the adoption process. They have pulled back on both because it
made people move away from their lines.

Yes, many other companies have done the same, but you know what, I don't
own them. I'm an owner of HP, and I am also "disgusted with HP", because
of what they allowed themselves to become. I still haven't sold my
stock, not so much because I expect it to suddenly "surge" one day, but
because I am hoping to be around when they see the foolishness of their
ways, and give me the opportunity to participate in helping to remove
some of the worst management they have been under in recent years.

I believe their current CEO painted a very different picture of her
vision than the one she has brought down upon the company, and I will
not be sorry to see her leave.

Art
 
Even the NEW HP printers only have a 90 day warranty, so 90 days on a
repair doesn't surprise me at all.

I was told HP had gone back to a full year warranty after considerable
complaints by customers who rightfully felt this an inappropriate length
for a piece of high-tech.

Are they back to 90 days?

If so here is my comment:

Listen up people, any company offering you a 90 day warranty on a
hardware item doesn't want to be liable for their product for more than
90 days, that's 3 months, which may not even to get you through a full
cartridge on a printer, or a complete chance to test the product, let
alone actually use all its features if a scanner. Is it reasonable to
get only 3 months insurance on a brand new product? CD-Rs have longer
warranties, and they cost less than 50 cent each (in fact, some still
have lifetime warranties). Potato chips come with a 90 day freshness
guarantee, and they cost a buck a bag and are food to be consumed.

WAKE UP FOLKS, is a product that the manufacturer is afraid to warrant
for more than 3 months, it is because they don't even expect their
product to last more than 90 days without a significant number of them
coming back for repair... is that something you want to own?

If two products are of similar cost, and one offers a 365 day warranty
and the other a 90 day, is there any question which company believes
their product will last?

You make the decision for yourselves. I know where I stand on it.

Art
 
I gave up on HP products because of their poor tech support and service.
They seem to think that by cutting corners in that department so as to make
their retail prices more attractive they will remain competitive, but in the
long run I think that philosophy will prove counterproductive. Smart folks
make the mistake of buying HP only once.

Toby
 
I made the mistake of trying to update drivers for an HP scanner when I went
to Win 2K a few years ago. The drivers were totally bogus--they would not
install according to HP instructions, and when I finally did get them
installed they crashed the box. This had to do with making the parallel port
in Win 2K compatible somehow. I lost a number of hours trying to install in
various ways and then having to remove the drivers again and again in safe
mode. In addition HP instructions indicated that the PrecisionScan software
had to be updated, but there was nowhere to d/l the updated version...

At that time this NG was full of people with the same problem and I was told
by one in Australia that he was told by HP tech support that the rewriting
of the drivers was assigned to junior coders and never adequately tested.

No e-mail tech support on HP products after two years. You have to pay $25
dollars to tell them that their drivers don't work. I was smart enough not
to. The chap in Australia shelled out and never did get his drivers working.

I did finally get the driver istalled by some sort of voodoo which I don't
remember. Certainly not following the steps HP outlined. However while the
scanner worked it was reported as offline in the taksbar and whenever I
booted the computer after that install up would come the "System 32" window
in Explorer, which I had to close manually.

Someone else not long ago lost their original PrecisionScan software and
went to the HP site to d/l it and could not find it. I couldn't believe that
HP would not provide this, as every other scanner and printer manufacturere
of which I am aware keeps these kinds of d/ls on their servers. ON the HP
site was the message that if one needed that s/w they would have to order it
on CD from HP.

Pretty sleazy.

Toby
 
Marty1a said:
Come on now, its not Bob's fault! he is one of the good guys at HP.

Let put it this way we all have trouble with some firm or other some it
maybe Epson some its HP or Canon - we can hardly blame the guys at the end
of the phone as the calls are recorded and they could end up losing there
jobs if they where to give out any info - so you can't really blame them.

But leave Bob alone he breaks his silenace to help us - DON'T shoot him
down.

Your right, Martin, and I'm hereby apologizing publicly to Bob Headrick.
I emailed him privately about my driver problem, and he was both quick
and gracious in providing an answer. He is indeed one of the 'good guys'!
 
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