Life and Vincent: Does ANYONE do Customer Service any more?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Does ANYONE do Customer Service any more?

Today I took my broken computer to school so that HP could pick it up between 9 and 12 and take it for repair.

You've guessed it - nada!

Luckily for me (but unluckily for the school's phone bill) I had some non-teaching time this afternoon. I had a stack of work to do, but this was too important to put off.

On the HP website I found what looked like the correct phone number. Ha ha. On the fourth number I got through to the right people. I didn't have my reference number or the direct line number, so that made matters even slower. By call number 2 I had lifted the serial number from the back of the bubble-wrap-bound machine.

Call number 3 was to the repair centre. They had no record. Call number 4 kept me on hold while they contacted the repair centre themselves just in case I couldn't be trusted to understand "We have never heard of you".

And this guy had the TEMERITY to tell me to keep calm! Is there anything more likely to make you lose your cool? Patronising crap.

Finally, the excuse. "You phoned on Saturday? The system went down on Saturday, and for some reason your booking did not go through." Confidence-builder, huh? A computer company that cannot put a repair booking through because...their computers went down!

Eventually I was given another appointment for tomorrow. I will not be holding my breath.

My long and fraught conversation was overheard by a colleague who was going to buy a computer tonight, and had pretty well decided on an HP with extended warranty.

Strangely enough, she's changed her mind.

8 comments:

JoJo said...: I just sent you a photo via email that could explain the computer tech support problem. lol

Seriously though, there is no such thing as "customer service" anymore.

Now you know why I don't dink w/ stuff on the computer unless it's easy.; 8:37 pm
SnarkAngel said...: Well, Val, at least you have the satisfaction of knowing that your aggravation led to their loss of a potential customer. Silly hacks.; 8:45 pm
Music Wench said...: What little customer service they do have sucks. My pet peeve is calling someplace and having to go through several tiers of automation before speaking to an actual person. And then, as you've pointed out, they tend to be located in India. If that's not bad enough, they try insult our intelligence by telling you their name is 'Tom' or 'Mary' and by their accent you just know that can't be right.

In any case, I feel your pain.; 12:02 am
tate31nym said...: I'm sorry you're having so much difficulty with HP. :(

April 07 I bought a new Compaq (now a subsidary of HP) laptop, and in about October my wireless adapter quit working. My old laptop worked fine (it was just falling apart, and losing keyboard keys was the last straw), so I wasn't too pressured to get it fixed right away... But over the course of about a month and numerous troubleshooting techniques, including replacing the adapter, etc etc... and talking to many people from India who are miracuously now using their real names (6 billion people in India can't all be named John)... Finally it was decided that I needed to send the whole thing in for assessment and repair. I sent it off on a Thursday (dropped it off at FedEx) and got it back the following Tuesday. I was SHOCKED it was so quick. What also impressed me was the guy I had talked to to set up the shipment said he would call back in about two weeks to make sure everything went alright, and sure enough two weeks later I got a phone call from the same service guy checking up on things.

My point is I have had an excellent experience with HP and found their support to be outstanding. So I really am sorry that you are having trouble, when I know it could go much smoother. :/; 4:10 am
Laura Cousins said...: I wish I had a cool and or/relevant and /or commiserating Customer Service story to tell you but all I can advise, to help you feel just a little better, is to sit down and imagine a telephone conversation with a nice man in a call service centre in Brooklyn.

His name, as it turns out, is Vincent, and his voice is comfortingly familiar. You eventually get round to telling him that you require servicing, and the company he works for sends him over straight away on the next flight out of JFK.

Um .. is that helpful, at all ..?; 8:25 am
Jane said...: Customer service? What's that?!; 5:29 pm
Anonymous said...: I've had good 'n' bad from HP, the most testing part is usually finding a phone number that actually connects you to a living being - and doesn't cost the price of small car per minute for the privilege.; 7:28 pm
Eliza said...: I'm not a big fan of customer service lines..actually Tiscal call it a 'customer care line'..in which the customer cares but the people on the other end don't!! In an effort to get back online,I spoke to 3 different people who all told me different things,then in the last call,to a 4th person she told me that my account still hadn't been re-activated when it should have been done during the first call.Then she had the nerve to say she didn't like my attitude when I got a little het up!!!!

aarrgghh!!!!!; 8:29 am