Hewlett-Packard (HP) Refuses to Honour Warranty and Lies to Customers Mississauga Ontario Canada
Here's a copy of the letter I just faxed to the Head Office. I don't expect a reply but if I get one, I'll update here.
October 16, 2007
VIA FACSIMILE
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.
5150 Spectrum Way
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5G1, Canada
Tel. 905-206-4725
Fax 905-206-4739
Attention:
President and CEO: Paul Tsaparis
CTO: Victor Garcia
VP, Sales: Randy Ostojic
Re: Warranty Fraud / Deceptive Business Practices
This is a formal demand letter. If I do not receive a written reply via facsimile by the end of business October 19, 2007 with a guarantee to replace my defective monitor as per the warranty contract then I am filing an action in court for breach of contract and will sue for all related legal costs.
In addition, I will be filing the usual complaints with the Office of Consumer Affairs, Better Business Bureau as well as reporting on as many consumer websites as I can find to warn others of your shabby customer service and refusal to honor the warranties on your products.
I will first outline in detail the nature of my complaint and give you a chance to respond in writing. I don't expect to receive a response, as you are clearly a company that does not value your customers. However, I am required to write this letter before I can take further action.
I purchased a desktop computer on October 6, 2006 from a local retailer, the Future Shop. The computer came with a basic warranty for parts and labor for exactly one year from the date of purchase. On or about September 26, 2007, I contacted your technical support call centre to report that the monitor speakers were malfunctioning. I was routed to someone in India who was incredibly rude and could barely speak English.
First, he tried to tell me that the product was out of warranty. When I insisted it wasn't, he then said it must be a software issue, at which point I was asked to perform a series of tests on the machine and spent nearly half an hour trying to decipher what this person was saying as well as put up with his condescending tone. When that didn't work, the technician reluctantly transferred me to a hardware specialist.
Next, I was told that the monitor would be replaced and an exchange order would be set up since it was clearly a manufacturing defect and not a software issue. The representative took my information including a credit card number in order to secure the return of the defective monitor.
The order number given was: LDD890-01 and I was asked to submit my proof of purchase so the warranty information could be validated. This I did. I emailed the HP proof of purchase (POP) department at least 12 times over a two-week period to provide an image of the receipt as requested. Sometimes they replied and sometimes they didn't.
I've saved all the emails over this period, but just to quickly summarize here, this is the worst customer service I have ever encountered in my life by far. You have managed to somehow put Dell to shame in this department and that's saying a lot.
Finally, I received notice from the POP department stating my warranty was updated. Yet, when I called customer service two days later to follow-up on the above pending service order, it was not at all updated. Then I began receiving emails stating that the date of purchase could not be read, when it is clearly printed on the receipt in two places.
I had to send in a copy of my credit card statement before they would validate the warranty. Today I received confirmation from your customer service department in Ontario that the warranty was verified and in the system. However, now that I had someone in Canada on the phone, the excuses only continued.
The customer service representative, who gave her name as Marie, telephoned me this evening. She had called to follow-up as I reported to her last week the problems I was having with the proof of purchase department and that it was holding up the pending service order. I gave her all my information and she agreed to call me back the following Tuesday.
I was on the telephone with Marie for exactly 1 hour and 22 minutes. When she confirmed that the warranty had been validated, she then began to ask a litany of redundant questions all of it information that I have given to her and to every one of your representatives many times over: model numbers, product numbers, serial numbers, telephone numbers, etc.
Then she kept putting me on hold every minute for two to three minutes each time. She put me on hold no less than 20 times (I kept count); always coming back with more ridiculous questions and excuses such as I just need some more information, or "I apologize but there is something wrong with my program." Then it was, "Have you ever lived in the United States, I'm showing an American address on here" then it became, "Oh, I'm sorry that must have been another customer."
An hour into the call, when it was clear to her that I wasn't giving up, or hanging up the phone until the order to replace my monitor was processed, suddenly she came back with another brand new excuse, one that I couldn't refute. Now she began to say the model number of my monitor wasn't showing up in her database. Then, that became "I'll have to ask my supervisor," which quickly became, "Can you provide those serial and product numbers again?" and then it was "I'll have to call you back at a later date," and then it was, "I'm still waiting on my supervisor" to finally, "I'm sorry but this model is not available for service in Canada as it is not supposed to be sold in this country and you'll have to take it back to the store that you purchased it at."
All of these excuses were punctuated by two to three minutes of being put on hold. At this point I asked to speak to a manager and she began to fumble for excuses again saying she could not put one on the telephone, as there were so many. When I insisted, she put me on hold for five minutes, and some young fellow picked up. He identified himself as a "Non-technical Supervisor" and gave the name of Matt. He was absolutely no help whatsoever. He wanted me to tell him what the problem was. He already knew, he just wanted me to spend the next five minutes explaining myself.
I asked him point blank why Hewlett-Packard could not provide service for this product. He could not offer an explanation as to why this product that is not supposed to be sold in Canada was purchased by me at the Future Shop, a national chain in Canada, and one of their biggest distributors. Instead he replied with "there are no service options available" for this model at which point I terminated the call.
I'm just thoroughly disgusted with how you run your company. Clearly, Hewlett-Packard is either training or instructing these people to deliberately frustrate and stonewall customers or they are hiring people who are incompetent on purpose. Perhaps a class action is in order. I am posting this letter online at any and every website I can to warn other consumers off and will make sure it stays up indefinitely. And then I'm calling my lawyer.
Melissa
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Hewlett-Packard - HP
7 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike Fritzler
Regina,Saskatchewan,
Canada
Hewlett Packard Canada - 2 Divisions Consumer and Corporate
#8Consumer Suggestion
Fri, November 28, 2008
Just reading your letter to HP Canada and I say, honestly I must agree. I am a reseller of HP equipment, and I spend most of my days educating customers that there are two different divisions of HP, and they do not make any attempt to educate the customers themsevles. It is frustrating.
First off, HP has Consumer and Business class systems. If you go to their website www.hp.ca you will see this. Future Shop and Best Buy are two companies owned by the same parent company, and unfortunately, HP is right when they said "How did you get this system? When did you live in the United states?" because unbenounced to them, these companies bring the equipment up from the US, and resell it. They also resell piles of "refurbished" or repacked items they get as a discount from HP, and resell as new - unless you read the fine print.
So basically, a deal from them is not really a deal.
When you have a warranty issue on a consumer class unit - you get the service you just got. If you actually purchaseda bsuiness class unit, there are service centres across Canada that would help you in every major city, most cities with more than one. In Regina here, we have 3 - and I am one of them.
Customers do not know this when buying an HP product. They figure the name "HP' means it's an "HP" which it does and doesn't. When you buy a GM car, you can go to any GM repair centre for warranty service - but not so with the HP line.
I brought this up the ladder at HP Canada recently - and they finaly have a response I was told - they will be rebranding the consumer line to be Compaq and keep HP to be the business line. At least that way, as a customer you will know what service you are entitled to.
Business class products are normally "Next Business Day Replacement" or Fix. Consumer clas products, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
If you think this is a problem only to HP, you are wrong. Dell and other major companies do it as well, but to a different extent.HP did it to price compete against others, but are ruining their good name trying to do so.
I thought you should know the inside scoop on your issues, and why you were treated the way you are. It's not just an HP issue, but Future Shop for shipping US only product to Canada.
-Mike
Mike Fritzler
Regina,Saskatchewan,
Canada
Hewlett Packard Canada - 2 Divisions Consumer and Corporate
#8Consumer Suggestion
Fri, November 28, 2008
Just reading your letter to HP Canada and I say, honestly I must agree. I am a reseller of HP equipment, and I spend most of my days educating customers that there are two different divisions of HP, and they do not make any attempt to educate the customers themsevles. It is frustrating.
First off, HP has Consumer and Business class systems. If you go to their website www.hp.ca you will see this. Future Shop and Best Buy are two companies owned by the same parent company, and unfortunately, HP is right when they said "How did you get this system? When did you live in the United states?" because unbenounced to them, these companies bring the equipment up from the US, and resell it. They also resell piles of "refurbished" or repacked items they get as a discount from HP, and resell as new - unless you read the fine print.
So basically, a deal from them is not really a deal.
When you have a warranty issue on a consumer class unit - you get the service you just got. If you actually purchaseda bsuiness class unit, there are service centres across Canada that would help you in every major city, most cities with more than one. In Regina here, we have 3 - and I am one of them.
Customers do not know this when buying an HP product. They figure the name "HP' means it's an "HP" which it does and doesn't. When you buy a GM car, you can go to any GM repair centre for warranty service - but not so with the HP line.
I brought this up the ladder at HP Canada recently - and they finaly have a response I was told - they will be rebranding the consumer line to be Compaq and keep HP to be the business line. At least that way, as a customer you will know what service you are entitled to.
Business class products are normally "Next Business Day Replacement" or Fix. Consumer clas products, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
If you think this is a problem only to HP, you are wrong. Dell and other major companies do it as well, but to a different extent.HP did it to price compete against others, but are ruining their good name trying to do so.
I thought you should know the inside scoop on your issues, and why you were treated the way you are. It's not just an HP issue, but Future Shop for shipping US only product to Canada.
-Mike
Mike Fritzler
Regina,Saskatchewan,
Canada
Hewlett Packard Canada - 2 Divisions Consumer and Corporate
#8Consumer Suggestion
Fri, November 28, 2008
Just reading your letter to HP Canada and I say, honestly I must agree. I am a reseller of HP equipment, and I spend most of my days educating customers that there are two different divisions of HP, and they do not make any attempt to educate the customers themsevles. It is frustrating.
First off, HP has Consumer and Business class systems. If you go to their website www.hp.ca you will see this. Future Shop and Best Buy are two companies owned by the same parent company, and unfortunately, HP is right when they said "How did you get this system? When did you live in the United states?" because unbenounced to them, these companies bring the equipment up from the US, and resell it. They also resell piles of "refurbished" or repacked items they get as a discount from HP, and resell as new - unless you read the fine print.
So basically, a deal from them is not really a deal.
When you have a warranty issue on a consumer class unit - you get the service you just got. If you actually purchaseda bsuiness class unit, there are service centres across Canada that would help you in every major city, most cities with more than one. In Regina here, we have 3 - and I am one of them.
Customers do not know this when buying an HP product. They figure the name "HP' means it's an "HP" which it does and doesn't. When you buy a GM car, you can go to any GM repair centre for warranty service - but not so with the HP line.
I brought this up the ladder at HP Canada recently - and they finaly have a response I was told - they will be rebranding the consumer line to be Compaq and keep HP to be the business line. At least that way, as a customer you will know what service you are entitled to.
Business class products are normally "Next Business Day Replacement" or Fix. Consumer clas products, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
If you think this is a problem only to HP, you are wrong. Dell and other major companies do it as well, but to a different extent.HP did it to price compete against others, but are ruining their good name trying to do so.
I thought you should know the inside scoop on your issues, and why you were treated the way you are. It's not just an HP issue, but Future Shop for shipping US only product to Canada.
-Mike
Mike Fritzler
Regina,Saskatchewan,
Canada
Hewlett Packard Canada - 2 Divisions Consumer and Corporate
#8Consumer Suggestion
Fri, November 28, 2008
Just reading your letter to HP Canada and I say, honestly I must agree. I am a reseller of HP equipment, and I spend most of my days educating customers that there are two different divisions of HP, and they do not make any attempt to educate the customers themsevles. It is frustrating.
First off, HP has Consumer and Business class systems. If you go to their website www.hp.ca you will see this. Future Shop and Best Buy are two companies owned by the same parent company, and unfortunately, HP is right when they said "How did you get this system? When did you live in the United states?" because unbenounced to them, these companies bring the equipment up from the US, and resell it. They also resell piles of "refurbished" or repacked items they get as a discount from HP, and resell as new - unless you read the fine print.
So basically, a deal from them is not really a deal.
When you have a warranty issue on a consumer class unit - you get the service you just got. If you actually purchaseda bsuiness class unit, there are service centres across Canada that would help you in every major city, most cities with more than one. In Regina here, we have 3 - and I am one of them.
Customers do not know this when buying an HP product. They figure the name "HP' means it's an "HP" which it does and doesn't. When you buy a GM car, you can go to any GM repair centre for warranty service - but not so with the HP line.
I brought this up the ladder at HP Canada recently - and they finaly have a response I was told - they will be rebranding the consumer line to be Compaq and keep HP to be the business line. At least that way, as a customer you will know what service you are entitled to.
Business class products are normally "Next Business Day Replacement" or Fix. Consumer clas products, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
If you think this is a problem only to HP, you are wrong. Dell and other major companies do it as well, but to a different extent.HP did it to price compete against others, but are ruining their good name trying to do so.
I thought you should know the inside scoop on your issues, and why you were treated the way you are. It's not just an HP issue, but Future Shop for shipping US only product to Canada.
-Mike
Mattvshp
Toronto,Ontario,
Canada
Everything you say is true! I just went through the same thing as you!
#8Consumer Comment
Mon, November 05, 2007
I know what you are going through!! I went through the same identical situation with my laptop. What makes me so mad is that I work in the call center industry as an account manager. I have never, ever witnessed such a nightmare before. The reps are very ill trained, cannot understand English what so ever and do not know how to apologize. Another very big point is try calling the excusive customer service team for the Canada operations. You think the agents are bad, that is nothing compared to what you will get at there so called executive level. Also do a quick search about "HP" with a search engine and you will find hundreds of the same complaints.
It is certainly the service provider of customer service were the majority of the issues arise from. However it comes from the top and that is were the problems are. This company has in my opion a very serious customer service issue. They refuse to accept any responsibility for any errors. They do not contact customers back after stating they will. There case managers do not call back ever. There so called Executive customer service team is beyond poor. A very very serious problem. I have done everything I can including contacting the CEO Mark Hurd.
Melissa I also wanted to sue them in small claims for the warrenty, however you cannot sue for bad service. While they said they would provide the warrenty for me, if they do not, there is nothing more i can do. I have sent letters, faxes, emails, nothing. This company does not care about you or anyones eles. That is what it is. A very sad sitution which could have been corrected for me with an apology statment. Alot of time i had to do just that, appologize to the customer when things go wrong. You always can make a bad situition great for the customer by taking ownership and saying" As a compnay we did not handle your concern correctly. We will correct this for you. Things go wrong all the time, that is life, but it is how you handle it is what matters.This is what we can do See my report on ripoffreports ripoffreport.com/reports/0/282/RipOff0282879.htm
I wish you luck, Trust me they will not respond to any letters you send.....
MS
Melissa
Vancouver,British Columbia,
Canada
HP Hewlett-Packard Scams and Rips off their Customers
#8Author of original report
Fri, October 26, 2007
Hewlett-Packard's POP or "proof of purchase" department is a joke. So is their customer service. Their CS representative kept me on the phone for over an hour, kept on telling me she would put the order through, and put me on hold about a hundred times, and kept coming back with excuses. But she did do one thing for me, she confirmed that the warranty was validated as of October 17, 2007. According to her records now my warranty was still good when I phoned in the problem with the monitor. I was relieved because the first idiot I spoke with in September (some guy in India) kept insisting that my warranty expired in May "according to their records".
But lo and behold, when I called technical support today to see about getting this order processed and having my monitor replaced as the service order called for, the tech guy told me that "according to their records" the warranty expired in August of this year. He told me that I would need to fax my receipt, my proof of purchase, to their POP department and go through that whole dog and pony show again. I had done all this already, about 10 times, and was told already by them the week before it was updated and verified.
I just flat out asked him if they were running a scam. And he said, "Ma'am I just answer the phones." Right.
So is it worth it? Hell yeah. Their scam artists. It's exactly the same as those rebate schemes where they tell you "the check is in the mail" and weeks go by and no check is in the mail. Somebody has to say something. Or they get away with it and keep doing it. I'm documenting everything and spreading the word. HP will repair or replace this piece of crap they sold me. And I know I'm not the only one who has gone through this. And sure most people would have given up by now... but I'm not most people.
J2
Victoria,British Columbia,
Canada
Is it really worth it?
#8Consumer Comment
Thu, October 25, 2007
Wow, just spend the $10 on a cheap pair of computer speakers and call it a day. It sounds like you've taken this a little too personally and are just trying to prove a point.
I've always had great response from HP support for real issues.