A bit of Googling turns up a fair number of posts with similar issues with this laptop, additionally indicating it's a hardware problem and that a typical solution is chatting with HP customer service who will take the laptop back (even out of warranty) and replace the motherboard, thus fixing the problem. OK that sounds not exactly ideal to be without the laptop for a few weeks, but it's nicely proactive on their part if true.
So I head to the HP support website, and after a bit of stumbling around find the place to chat. I fire that up and get put in a queue. Being experienced at this, I also fire up notepad and begin constructing my responses to the rep, basically detailing very quickly what the problem was, what I'd done to triage it, and asking what the next step is. Eventually "Gannon" comes on and I begin copy/pasting my responses in. I do this and wait a bit, and he responds to the effect of "Can you please elaborate what the problem is". Never mind that I just did that! However it's clear from his response that English is not his first language so I cut him a break. I ask "Sure, what do you want to know". No response. So after 5 minutes of waiting, I retype in very short sentences essentially the same information I gave him the first time. Wifi was working, but isn't working now. (send) Tried the switch, but it's always amber. (send) Adapter doesn't appear in device manager (send). Tried reinstalling the driver, no luck (send). Saw many people with the same problem in Google, and the solution seemed to be a hardware replacement by HP (send). What now? (send, and wait). Again after a few minutes he eventually responds with "So it seems you're having trouble with your wireless networking, is this correct?" I can see I'm not going to be slipping anything past this guy, so I reply with a simple "yes". After another 5-10 minutes of waiting for his next incisive troubleshooting question, he asks "Are we still connected?". Yeah. I decide there's no positive future in this conversation so I reply with "Yes, but this conversation isn't going anywhere so I'll try again later" and close the chat. OK so that's not a great customer service experience, but it's very typical for level 1 support, especially when L1 has been offshored. Unfortunately HP is really no different than most large companies in this regard, and sadly I'm used to it by now. Granted the customer experience is awful, but it was pretty much what I expected and so I really didn't give it a second thought. I know it's better to just end the conversation nicely and try again until you get someone who actually has a clue, so that was my intent.
But then today something else happened that made me think "ya know, maybe this whole episode should be a blog post". I received an email from HP titled "HP total care follow-up", and on the surface it seemed an attempt to recover from the failed episode the previous day in chat. "Great", I think at first "they noticed the moronic chat and now are going to make things right - how awesome is that". Then I actually read the email:
Thank you for contacting HP Total Care, delivering total care for your HP Pavilion Notebooks.I re-read this email a few times because I really wasn't sure I was reading this right. They actually seem to be saying "Sorry for the problems, we'd love to understand what went wrong, and in fact are looking forward to hearing from you. But don't actually attempt to contact us, kthxbye." Wow, now that's innovation in customer service!
This email is a follow-up to your recent HP Pavilion Notebooks Chat experience. It has come to our attention that you were not able to complete the process or respond to our message. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the inconvenience.
Our goal for this program is to provide an efficient and helpful online support experience, and so we would like to better understand the connection issue from your perspective.
Also, we are committed to helping you with any questions you may have about your HP Pavilion Notebook. If you would like to attempt another chat interaction, please visit this page:
http://www.hp.com/support/ipg/chat
We look forward to hearing from you, and hope to be of future assistance.
Note: Please do not reply to this email as this inbox is not monitored.
Needless to say, HP Customer Care is going to post a big fat "Bad" rating on the Good-Bad Scale today. They actually should get bonus points on the Bad rating for not only screwing it up in the first place, but also piling on afterward. It takes a special kind of company to follow up your screw up with an even better screw up.
And just in case anyone finds this post because you have this problem, the right answer appears to be on this page on the HP website.
Anyone else had such stellar experiences with HP Customer Care? Drop a line in the comments please!
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3 comments:
I would think that someone who designed survey software would know better than to use a scale with just two choices! :-)
@JHenning - nice SEO link! ;)
Well rather than debating the merits of the 5 vs. the 11 point scale, I figured I'd just boil the evaluation right down to its very essence.
OMG!!
i spent two hours on the phone today grappling with three people on their customer care line, in hopes of getting some answers. My question: I don't like the current distro, if I wipe it, will it void my warranty?
After an hour and 45 mins., I managed to get a supervisor, who scolded me for be so blunt.
I will never, ever buy another product from HP, ever again. Ever!
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