Complaint Review: Hewlett Packard

Wed. Oct. 3rd I decided to look into an annoyance of mine... a minor problem with my laptop's USB ports. Looking online I found no applicable solutions, but discovered that HP has a free Chat Support Service.

With no disclaimers I entered into a conversation with a Support Tech. who had me download to executable files to install onto my laptop. No mention was given that should something go wrong this may effectively kill my computer. When one of the two files failed to install I got back on to chat with another HP Tech. I informed him of what was attempted and the exact error I had received... he proceeded to have me try a few more things and restart my laptop.

My laptop never awoke! To this day I can't even get a cusor flash when I power it on. The hard drive is audible, but that is all the life I know of.

Using my desktop computer I chat a third time with a third individual. He, although polite, was not the sharpest knife (wondering half an hour into the conversation if I was chatting on the dead laptop I was talking to him about!). When all his ideas had failed and I'd finally worn him down by saying repeatedly that I would like to take my laptop into a service center or send it off to HP to be repaired on HP's dime as it was there support which wrecked my laptop over a merely annoying initial problem.

In the end my "Status was upgraded" and I would "be contacted by a support person in 24-48hrs". I was given a phone number to call and for the next week that is what I did... every 48hrs, as that is when I was repeatedly told someone would get in touch with me. Each conversation I would have to restate my case... often to mulitple people... to hear responses like "my laptop is out of warranty so we cannot do anything", and "the Chat Support is free" and therefore HP is for some reason not liable. Finally, I was able to uncover that only a "Case Manager" was able to make a decision on my case and they were "very hard to get a hold of" as a tech supervisor put it.

Having been given the number for the elusive "Case Manager" I proceeded to call (after waiting all day Friday and Monday for a response). On Monday Oct. 15th I call and leave a message describing my issue. The next day I call again to discover the voice-mailbox is full and cannot take any new messages. Calling daily now, the voice-mail continued to be full.

Fed up with the run-around I look online for additional contact information to discover Mr. Mark Hurd (CEO) has offered himself as a point of contact. Briefly describing my problem, I sent him a formed letter of complaint. The following day I received my FIRST AND ONLY response. An email stated:

On behalf of Hewlett-Packard we apologize for the delay and difficulties
you are experiencing.
Your message has been forwarded to our Customer Escalation team who will
review your case.

Thank you,

CEO Customer Relations

That was October 18th. I have not heard anything from HP. My laptop remain effectively dead. The majority of my work remains on it... inaccessible... unless I foot the bill for a multi-billion dollar international company's error.

Ryan
Spokane, Washington
U.S.A.