HP Support Seance: Is there anybody there? (Hewlett-Packard Customer Support)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Hewlett-Packard Customer Support
Date:	20/05/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: On-line reporting of faults accepted

Disadvantages: Feedback needs wringing out of them

Of course, anyone lifting pen to paper concerning a support function probably has an axe to grind. Having been a service manager in a previous life, I know for a fact that no-one rings you to say "Heh, just thought I'd ring you to let you know that nothing's gone wrong with my Okikoki 2000 and everything's fine" so you can only judge an organisation by their actions when things go wrong. To be fair, the phrase "on a hiding to nothing" was never truer.

Over the last five years I've had HP ink-jet printers for home use.

The first was a Deskjet 5552, which was excellent. I now regret getting rid of it whilst it was still working. As it functioned perfectly, I never had any reason not to make HP my natural choice for something a bit more useful, i.e. an All-In-One.

Of course, at that point I'd had nothing to do with their customer services - well you wouldn't if what you've got works perfectly eh?

That was my fatal error of logic.

I went out and bought an HP Photosmart C5180, allowing me to replace my competent but nevertheless non-photo-quality 5552 with a machine that was:-

a) networkable,

b) a scanner/photocopier too,

c) could handle camera chips directly, producing photo-quality prints and

d) was on sale in Tescos at a massive reduction, now costing £50 down from a RRP of about £120.

For 10 ½ months, all was well, until I encountered the following error message on its LCD screen

"Ink system has failed. Unable to print. Refer to documentation. Error:0xc18a0001. Turn power off then on again"

Well 'referring to documentation' was as much use as a chocolate teapot, as was rebooting it and running the head cleaning routine about 10 times! All the manual can come up with is "Solution: Contact HP support. Go to: www.hp.com/support"

That's when at some time in early May 2009 the (lack of) fun started.

After gaining access to the site, I was led through a series of options until even HP had to give in and allow me to report a fault by typing it in, having confirmed from the printer's serial number that it was still under warranty. Given that I'd paid fifty quid for it, getting it repaired at my expense was not, and still is NOT an option. The HP site was quoting something close to the RRP!

I provided them with a verbatim copy of the fault report as shown on the LCD screen of the printer.

According to the receipt for the e-mailed report, I was to expect a reply within five business days, detailing time and date of delivery of a replacement, confirming whether or not they wanted to old one back, significantly with all 6 inks installed. This gives me a problem. It's out of two of its colours and I'd already disposed of the cartridges. Does this mean that I'll have to spend about £18 just to be able to swap it with their delivery agent?

Unfortunately I don't have an answer to that question because 4 weeks later, I'm still no nearer knowing when or even IF I'm going to get a replacement.

(UPDATE: 3rd June 2009 - according to the exchange instructions, I can't remove my ink cartridges despite some of them being brand new, but to a certain extent, this doesn't matter because the replacement will be fully equipped with fresh ink)

First off I got an e-mail from them telling me that they'd reviewed the case and the machine was not under warranty after all, but explained that this can happen when something takes a long time being sold, as their database is based on manufacture date until told differently.

If I cared to send them a scan of the original bill, they'd update their records and get back onto the case.

"Aha", I thought "I'll scan in the bill on the .......oh bu***r!"

Silly me, the scanner is part of the machine. In the end, I set my Nikon D70 camera up on macro and sent them a digital photo of said bill.

This was accepted, with a promise that the database 'had now been updated', and that I would be re-contacted shortly.

A week passed and I'd heard nothing. So I e-mailed them again to give them a prod.

This time, I learn that the database hadn't yet been updated owing to IT problems and that as soon as this is overcome I'll be....blah blah etc etc.

Well thanks a lot guys. It's just as well I got a laser for most of my printing and that I'm not a small business run from home.

If and when I do get a replacement, apparently it'll have either the balance of the warranty, which with the way things are going looks like being MINUS 2 weeks, or a new 3-month warranty, whichever is the most.

Frankly I'd dump it and start afresh if it wasn't for one salient point. I've got fifty quid's worth of their ink cartridges sitting unused (except the offending two I'm currently out of damn it!), and the only other current model using these "363-series" cartridges is a £230 job, which they can whistle for if they think I'm getting one of those instead.

Digging around on various forums does indeed reveal that the numbers of people unhappy with HP support are legion, but then, would Canon or Epson printers fare any better once they stop working? It's just bloody annoying that you only get to find this stuff out when there's a fault.

If I'd gone on with my Deskjet 5552, I'd no doubt be patting it and saying something like, "Fine little printers, these HPs - think I'll get another one".

I'm not now though.

Incidentally, the number of stars in my "Quick Rating" assumes that this will eventually get fixed

Eplilogue: After a whole month, I now have a delivery date for the exchange. This will no doubt involve traipsing off to some God-forsaken trading estate to pick up the parcel which will inevitably arrive whilst I'm out. I then have to re-package the faulty one and arrange for their agent to come and get it. I hope they don't expect me to be in at the time, otherwise, in view of the pay I'd lose, I may as well forget it!

UPDATE: The replacement arrives! It works......for a while!

And just when you thought it might be safe to go back into the water, i.e. use the replacement printer, guess what - after six prints, it has developed the same fault, which like before refuses to be cleared.

FRANKLY, I GIVE IN.

Summary: IT Help desk (on-line or phone)