Dear fellow consumer,
If you are considering the purchase of a new printer for your personal computer, and have a Hewlett-Packard printer on your short-list, you may want to consider my HP printer experience.
The product is a HP 2575 all-in-one printer/scanner/photo printer. When it arrived at my home on 11/2/05, it failed to work as the user manual said it should, so the next day, I called HP's technical help service.
(At this point I should warn you that HP has contracted out much of its technical help to India. What that means to the HP customer seeking tech-help is time wasted trying to overcome a definite language problem.)
On my first contact with HP's tech-help service, after literally hours on the telephone, the tech-help-rep concluded that incorrect software had been packaged with my printer. A new CD of software promptly arrived at my home and promptly failed to correct the problem.
Back to HP tech-help, back to more language roadblocks, and back to more hours on the phone I went. This time the issue was kicked up to higher level technical help, which informed me that the problem was a known issue. Translated, known issue means that HP continues to sell a product that it knows to be defective. I'll let you ponder the ethics of that.
Not to worry, however, higher level said, the problem will be solved and we will call you back with the solution the very next day, between 7 and 8 A.M. Est. Sounds good!
Since no one called, I figured it just slipped HP's mind, so I called them again to remind them that I'm still here with my printer that doesn't work properly. To date, I have called HP and reminded them that I'm still here with my printer that doesn't work properly on five separate occasions. To date, I have been told, each time I've called, that a solution would be found and that someone would call me, on a specific date and at a specific time. To date, not one person from HP has followed through.
My personal log now shows 15 hours of time spent troubleshooting. Out of sheer desperation, I wrote Mark Hurd, HP's president and CEO, describing my problem and asking for his help. Would a CEO not want to hear from one of his customers? Apparently not — Mr. Hurd proved to be every bit as unresponsive as his tech-help-reps. Goodness, had language problems spread from India to HP's California headquarters? Or is the infestation top-down?
Whichever, assuming there was in fact a language problem at HP's headquarters, I sent Mr. Hurd a second letter, explaining to Mr. Hurd that if I received help with my printer, I would not begin posting messages like the one you are now reading.
HP cut its teeth on printers and grew up on computer printers. But something not so funny happened along the way: HP forgot its customers. So if you are in the market for a new computer printer, you may want to carefully consider my experience with HP.
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