HP makes me proud to be a Mac Owner

[MVApple]

Recently I bought a 22inch HP monitor for my gf and it has been a total nightmare dealing with them.

I've seen numerous posts by people claiming that HP is a better value and in some respects it is. You can get more raw hardware per your dollar but everything else is low class from the bloated advertising software to the cheap casing to the absolultely horrible customer service.

For starters customer service is shipped overseas to India. Most of their employee's have a bad grasp on the English language. They are fine as long as they are following their robotic motions. Anytime you ask them anything that remotely deviates away from their script they fall apart.

I was transferred a total of five times and I was on the phone for an hour and 43 minutes asking them one simple question, "I shipped the defective monitor back, why hasn't HP recieved it?"

That's it, anything a five year old who's native language is English can understand. On top of having a poor grasp on the English language they hardly know what they are doing. I kept getting the run around that the issue doesn't fall under their department.

The HP offices must be like an abattoir of retarded children.

Finally I decide to talk to HP Support online and the guys name is Steven M. Praises be, English may be his first language. Everything went smooth with him and the "Case Manager" is going to handle my case and I should be receiving a call tomorrow, we'll see.

The Story so far.

1. I buy a new HP monitor but it fails after an hour of usage. HP troubleshoots it with me over the phone and after running through a list of silly tests I tell them that I am a knowledgeable computer user. They stop the list and automatically agree to send a replacement. I ask if it will be new or refurbished, they say new.

2. I receive the replacement monitor. This one works but the bezel around the monitor is scratched and completely dirty. The bezel is also loose. This is clearly not new, it was probably repaired and was thrown around. The screen also came with streaks left behind by someone doing a poor job cleaning it with hard water. Not something I expect from a new product. I call HP and 2 minutes into the conversation they agree to send a replacement. I was impressed with the fact that I didn't have to hassle with them. One problem though, HP is backed up and they wont send the replacement out for 6 weeks. The first replacement works so I can deal with that.

3. Lo and behold HP sends the replacement monitor out the next day. Fedex proceeds to lose the package or it's stolen from the front of my house. I call HP concerning this issue and they waste almost 2 hours of my time and don't resolve a thing. Under the notes they have the expected delivery date as 02/23/09 but the tracking number shows that fedex as delivered the package. Their poor grasp of English does not help. They have no idea and just keep saying the delivery date is 02/23/09. Idiots.

4. I talk to HP support through chat. He finally understands what I'm saying. Now a case manager will contact me, we'll see.

5. I also have another problem. HP ships out the monitor and then you ship out the defective one. That's nice, but I shipped out the monitor 01/07/09 and HP still hasn't received it. On top of this I have no receipt that I sent it. I asked for one when I dropped off the package at fedex and they said there isn't a receipt. I also lost the tracking number on the slip. So I'm sweating bullets that HP might charge my credit card.

Now they have a customer service order status webpage with two tracking numbers, the one for your receiving the package and the one for you sending the package. The link for me receiving the package works fine. The one for me sending the package has a problem though, every time I click on it it sends me to UPS webpage with no information found. I'm baffled because I sent it according to their instructions through fedex.

Looking at it one more time feeling completely stressed out I realize that UPS uses letters in their tracking information. Fedex uses all numbers! I go to fedex.com and copy and paste the number and lo and behold HP receiving the monitor 01/14/09. The link on the webpage was made by a moron and was made wrong.

This morning I receive an email that my credit card will be charged soon since HP has not received the monitor.

I'm so happy Apple doesn't ship their customer service overseas. I was planning on getting Apple Care but then started to think about it a bit. Now I WILL get Apple Care. This experience just makes me appreciate that Apple hires people who understand English. The one time I had to call them everything as very professional. I also sent an email to steve job's email and I actually got a phone call saying they appreciate feedback. That's right a call from someone and they spoke English as their first language! That's very handy when you are communicating in English.

Sorry I had to rant. HP can burn in hell.

 

[Nipz]

Rant away!!!

That sucks. Sorry to hear it

 

[MH01]

Mate, I assume your not from Europe.... In the UK between welsh, scottish, Irish, indian, pakistani etc accents things can get complicated... Try dealing with a scottish call centre......

For whats it worth, I was just in the states, am from Australia, and there we lots of people who could not understand me. My fault for not speaking "american" i guess

Sucks you had trouble with HP, but it sounds like Fedex were also to blame here.

When i call Apple here in the UK, i usually get an indian who answers the phone, yeah hard to understand at times, but its their job and we work things out. Also with apple you need to Speak to a manager to get something done.

Apple does have one of the best customer service out there, though u pay for it. I do not get Applecare for the customer service, you can work things out with any companies customer service, with apple I get it, cause the cost of repair if something goes wrong with the apple product almost the same as buying a new product.

 

[MagicWok]

When i call Apple here in the UK, i usually get an indian who answers the phone, yeah hard to understand at times, but its their job and we work things out. Also with apple you need to Speak to a manager to get something done.

One of the things I really hate in this country. I have a few friends from that part of the world, and they're generally nice people. But they really do suck at customer service over the phone.

If I can, I always try to go instore and speak to a "genius" or equivalent and have them deal with it...

 

[drichards]

Every time there is an HP horror story posted, an angel gets its wings. There's almost as many of these as antivirus threads. ;-)

If you're going to buy a non-Apple and non-Dell monitor, buy it from Tiger Direct, their return policy is incredible.

 

[gan6660]

Are Dell monitors good? ALso can you use it with a alu macbook?

 

[iAthena]

*snip*
Finally I decide to talk to HP Support online and the guys name is Steven M. Praises be, English may be his first language. Everything went smooth with him and the "Case Manager" is going to handle my case and I should be receiving a call tomorrow, we'll see.
*snip*

Don't bet on it. I saw a news report where they interviewed these India based call centers and they said that it's now common for their employees to assume English sounding names for their work persona.

HP and Dell experiences just like you describe are exactly what nudged me towards Apple in the first place.

 

[MidwestStuck]

Is it just me or do the female reps always try sounding flirty at the Apple call centers in North America? Two out of three times I called, I got a woman and they sounded extremely giddy. I liked listening to the Canadian one... she had a subtle, yet charming, accent

 

[arkitect]

Is it just me or do the female reps always try sounding flirty at the Apple call centers in North America?

I think it is just your hormones…

 

[MH01]

Are Dell monitors good? ALso can you use it with a alu macbook?

Dell monitors are fine, and yes will work with any MB (need adapter for unibody)

Right now if you want a monitor that will connect to anything (mac, PC, PS3 etc) Apple is not your choice, the new 24" LED only works on the new Unibody notebooks and MBA Rev B. A dell will connect to nearly any source.

 

[11800506]

I certainly feel for you since I had similar issues with HP support with my old HP laptop.

It all started when within 6 months of getting this brand new laptop the hard drive died. I called HP when it did and tried to get them to replace the hard drive but it got to the point where they wouldn't acknowledge that my computer had any problems unless I bought their OS recovery disks. I refused, and they decided they would send them to me for free. The computer had dual hard drives though, and I was so fed up with the entire process I simply swapped them out and reinstalled the OS. My computer was working as well as it could and I simply forgot about the other hard drive.

Then, 6 months later the end of the power cord became loose and wouldn't charge my computer anymore. This was with normal usage so I of course decided to call HP support to try and get a replacement for the power cord and hard drive as well. I set aside an entire afternoon and called HP support.

I began by talking to a lady who said she couldn't help me with my problems since it wasn't in her department and so she transfered me to the notebook department. So I get put on hold and then transfered to another lady and I began to explain my problem, but she suddenly remembers that she is in the desktop department and so I get transfered to someone in the correct department finally.

Once I get to the correct department I explain my situation, and they guy who (as the OP said) can barely speak English, goes through all of the troubleshooting with me to make sure the parts are actually dead. I get fed up with this and ask if I can be sent to a Case Manager (who are native English speakers based in Canada). He puts me on hold, talks to his "supervisor" and then transfers me to who I think is going to be a Case Manager.

I then wind up talking to another Indian, this one with a little better English. I decided not to try and get a Case Manager again because I would have to end up explaining my situation for the 4th time or w/e again so I just stick with this guy. He repeatly tells me that none of what I'm asking for to be replaced is covered by the warranty. I then repeatly say to him that that is ridiculous since the usage of the components was all under normal conditions. He then says that he will talk to his "supervisior" about if I can get replacements for these parts. He comes back and surprise, surprise, the parts are suddenly covered! This is all after 20 minutes of troubleshooting to make sure that the parts actually don't work, even though I told him I was computer knowledgable. He finally asks me for my shipping address and credit card info just in case I don't send the dead hard drive back all of which takes excruciatingly long just to enter. We finally end the call after 2 hours and 45 minutes.

It was utterly ridiulous how no one could speak English. Equally spiting is that fact that when you first call in the computer says "Thank you for using award winning HP Customer Care." The problems with that computer were just ridiculous and eventually pushed me to get a MBP which I love. Right now I'm trying to sell it on eBay and it's just taking forever to get that stupid machine out of my life.

 

[pooky]

Most of their employee's have a bad grasp on the English language.

snip

That's it, anything a five year old who's native language is English can understand.

Oh irony...

 

[lordthistle]

Recently I bought a 22inch HP monitor for my gf and it has been a total nightmare dealing with them.

I've seen numerous posts by people claiming that HP is a better value and in some respects it is. You can get more raw hardware per your dollar but everything else is low class from the bloated advertising software to the cheap casing to the absolultely horrible customer service.

For starters customer service is shipped overseas to India. Most of their employee's have a bad grasp on the English language. They are fine as long as they are following their robotic motions. Anytime you ask them anything that remotely deviates away from their script they fall apart.
[...]

Being on a Mac forums, no one will tell you that you were just unlucky and there are a lot of people who might tell different stories about HP products.

I could tell the exact story using Apple in place of HP. I had to call a lot of times, I had to wait on the phone for half an hour without receiving an answer spending something like 30 euro since there is no toll-free number. I am Italian and I had to speak English with the customer care since they do not know Italian (and their English is worse than mine).

The truth is that Apple, HP, Sony, etc are just there to make more money. HP, Sony and the rest of the PC world must be careful about what they do since there is an open market. Apple can do whatever they want since there is no market for using OS X and a vast majority of their users are zealots ready to accept whatever bad idea they define a major step.

That's it.

thistle

 

[MVApple]

Being on a Mac forums, no one will tell you that you were just unlucky and there are a lot of people who might tell different stories about HP products.

I could tell the exact story using Apple in place of HP. I had to call a lot of times, I had to wait on the phone for half an hour without receiving an answer spending something like 30 euro since there is no toll-free number. I am Italian and I had to speak English with the customer care since they do not know Italian (and their English is worse than mine).

The truth is that Apple, HP, Sony, etc are just there to make more money. HP, Sony and the rest of the PC world must be careful about what they do since there is an open market. Apple can do whatever they want since there is no market for using OS X and a vast majority of their users are zealots ready to accept whatever bad idea they define a major step.

That's it.

thistle

The two experiences I've had with Apple Care have been top notch. They were native English speakers. I am in the United States which I didn't make clear in my first post. The Apple Care experience in the EU may be very different and they may be just as bad as HP is in the United States. I don't know though. I can only speak on behalf of my personal experience in the United States where our native language is English and I spoke with people who's native language was also English.

 

[polaris20]

I've had more issues with HP in the last 2 years than I can count. Quite simply the worst service out of any of the tier 1 vendors.

Being in IT that says a lot, because I see a ton of desktops, laptops, and servers pass through here. We switched to Lenovo Thinkpads for our laptops, and we couldn't be happier, and neither could the users. Much, much better laptops in every way.

 

[ndstrenge]

A piece of advice for all those who have never travelled abroad or believe American English is the only Native English.

Instead of accusing people from other countries of "not speaking English" why not just learn to slow down your speech and be more concise with your problem? If English really is their second language (I'm betting it was just an accent thing, and not an actual foreing language thing... trust me, they are fluent in India. Actually, they have more college graduates fluent in English than America does.) perhaps you should be so happy that somebody would work so hard to try to figure out what the pissed-off american is trying to say.

God forbid the problem comes from the person who can't stop bitching in innuendos, slang, native speeds & pronunciations... not to mention the metaphors and idioms. You think everyone who speaks English in the world can easily understand Americans? The nation which is most famed for only speaking one language?

Get a clue, kids. It's not that the rest of the world doesn't speak English, it's that you can't understand English speakers who don't speak your dialect.

signed,

The English Teacher.

 

[hexonxonx]

I've had more issues with HP in the last 2 years than I can count. Quite simply the worst service out of any of the tier 1 vendors.

Being in IT that says a lot, because I see a ton of desktops, laptops, and servers pass through here. We switched to Lenovo Thinkpads for our laptops, and we couldn't be happier, and neither could the users. Much, much better laptops in every way.

Wow. Since about 2000 or so, I have used HP computers and didn't even own a Mac untill last year. I have never had an HP computer fail on me. I still have a Pavilion 7970 desktop 3.0GHZ that still works from 2001.
I still have two HP laptops that are perfect as well from the last few years. I sold my 4 month old BlackBook and 1 year old MBP because I prefered my HP laptops over the Macs.

I guess some people just have bad luck just as some people have had bad luck with Apple.

 

[Sesshi]

Recently I bought a 22inch HP monitor for my gf and it has been a total nightmare dealing with them.

I've seen numerous posts by people claiming that HP is a better value and in some respects it is. You can get more raw hardware per your dollar but everything else is low class from the bloated advertising software to the cheap casing to the absolultely horrible customer service.

For starters customer service is shipped overseas to India. Most of their employee's have a bad grasp on the English language. They are fine as long as they are following their robotic motions. Anytime you ask them anything that remotely deviates away from their script they fall apart.

I was transferred a total of five times and I was on the phone for an hour and 43 minutes asking them one simple question, "I shipped the defective monitor back, why hasn't HP recieved it?"

That's it, anything a five year old who's native language is English can understand. On top of having a poor grasp on the English language they hardly know what they are doing. I kept getting the run around that the issue doesn't fall under their department.

The HP offices must be like an abattoir of retarded children.

Finally I decide to talk to HP Support online and the guys name is Steven M. Praises be, English may be his first language. Everything went smooth with him and the "Case Manager" is going to handle my case and I should be receiving a call tomorrow, we'll see.

The Story so far.

1. I buy a new HP monitor but it fails after an hour of usage. HP troubleshoots it with me over the phone and after running through a list of silly tests I tell them that I am a knowledgeable computer user. They stop the list and automatically agree to send a replacement. I ask if it will be new or refurbished, they say new.

2. I receive the replacement monitor. This one works but the bezel around the monitor is scratched and completely dirty. The bezel is also loose. This is clearly not new, it was probably repaired and was thrown around. The screen also came with streaks left behind by someone doing a poor job cleaning it with hard water. Not something I expect from a new product. I call HP and 2 minutes into the conversation they agree to send a replacement. I was impressed with the fact that I didn't have to hassle with them. One problem though, HP is backed up and they wont send the replacement out for 6 weeks. The first replacement works so I can deal with that.

3. Lo and behold HP sends the replacement monitor out the next day. Fedex proceeds to lose the package or it's stolen from the front of my house. I call HP concerning this issue and they waste almost 2 hours of my time and don't resolve a thing. Under the notes they have the expected delivery date as 02/23/09 but the tracking number shows that fedex as delivered the package. Their poor grasp of English does not help. They have no idea and just keep saying the delivery date is 02/23/09. Idiots.

4. I talk to HP support through chat. He finally understands what I'm saying. Now a case manager will contact me, we'll see.

5. I also have another problem. HP ships out the monitor and then you ship out the defective one. That's nice, but I shipped out the monitor 01/07/09 and HP still hasn't received it. On top of this I have no receipt that I sent it. I asked for one when I dropped off the package at fedex and they said there isn't a receipt. I also lost the tracking number on the slip. So I'm sweating bullets that HP might charge my credit card.

Now they have a customer service order status webpage with two tracking numbers, the one for your receiving the package and the one for you sending the package. The link for me receiving the package works fine. The one for me sending the package has a problem though, every time I click on it it sends me to UPS webpage with no information found. I'm baffled because I sent it according to their instructions through fedex.

Looking at it one more time feeling completely stressed out I realize that UPS uses letters in their tracking information. Fedex uses all numbers! I go to fedex.com and copy and paste the number and lo and behold HP receiving the monitor 01/14/09. The link on the webpage was made by a moron and was made wrong.

This morning I receive an email that my credit card will be charged soon since HP has not received the monitor.

I'm so happy Apple doesn't ship their customer service overseas. I was planning on getting Apple Care but then started to think about it a bit. Now I WILL get Apple Care. This experience just makes me appreciate that Apple hires people who understand English. The one time I had to call them everything as very professional. I also sent an email to steve job's email and I actually got a phone call saying they appreciate feedback. That's right a call from someone and they spoke English as their first language! That's very handy when you are communicating in English.

Sorry I had to rant. HP can burn in hell.

Imagine that, but with a a week or more inbetween replacements. That's my ACD experience. And it's not just the one.

And in fact, over here at least you have to carry the monitor in, unless they look at your account and go "Ah, this guy's worth dealing with".

But I suppose if it salves your closet racism for "being able to talk English" it's OK. I never have any problems talking to Indians, Belgians, Irish... and even the dumbest Americans.

 

[applgeek]

You should have gotten a dell monitor. For future reference.

I like getting dell stuff over HP stuff because I can use text chat, and dell sends someone to my house. That guy is local, so there are no language problems, and I can complain right there.

 

[coledog]

Is it just me or do the female reps always try sounding flirty at the Apple call centers in North America? Two out of three times I called, I got a woman and they sounded extremely giddy. I liked listening to the Canadian one... she had a subtle, yet charming, accent

Lol, I've thought the same thing!

@OP, hope HP gets it all straightened out for you!

 

[Diseal3]

Wasen't it Hp advertising "Support From North America..." .... hmmm thats something to wonder..

 

[fireloss]

A piece of advice for all those who have never travelled abroad or believe American English is the only Native English.

Instead of accusing people from other countries of "not speaking English" why not just learn to slow down your speech and be more concise with your problem? If English really is their second language (I'm betting it was just an accent thing, and not an actual foreing language thing... trust me, they are fluent in India. Actually, they have more college graduates fluent in English than America does.) perhaps you should be so happy that somebody would work so hard to try to figure out what the pissed-off american is trying to say.

God forbid the problem comes from the person who can't stop bitching in innuendos, slang, native speeds & pronunciations... not to mention the metaphors and idioms. You think everyone who speaks English in the world can easily understand Americans? The nation which is most famed for only speaking one language?

Get a clue, kids. It's not that the rest of the world doesn't speak English, it's that you can't understand English speakers who don't speak your dialect.

signed,

The English Teacher.

This cannot be further from the truth! I do not know where you got the idea that the people who had troubles with the call centers do not speak clearly. From my personal experience, most of those outsourced customer service centers hire people who will only read from their "cookbook" to you. America famed for speaking one language? What are all those webpages that offer "Español" versions then?

 

[voltare]

Famous for speaking one language???!!!

Oh the ignorance that gets spread on the internet...

The U.S. has NO official language. People move here and learn English. Others move here and don't learn English. I can walk into the DMV and see forms in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, etc. Every American company you call has, as one of the first options to choose from, different languages to choose from. "Press one for English, Press 2 for Spanish, press 3 for..."

Don't even get me started on dialects. There are dialects here, that are difficult to understand as well. As difficult as a Scottish accent? No. But try holding a coherent conversation with a Creole. Good luck to you.

 

[Abstract]

If the person on the other end didn't fully understand what you said, did you try to speak using clearer phrasing? You may not realize this, but there are a lot of words that you use every day that is considered slang, and yet you use it every day without realizing this. This is particularly difficult for people who speak English as a second language to understand, as well as for English speakers from other parts of the world. Perhaps the person on the other end understands grammar far better than you, and you sound like a yokel.

How do you "speak American", anyway? What sort of accent do you want to hear on the other end of the phone?

Instead of accusing people from other countries of "not speaking English" why not just learn to slow down your speech and be more concise with your problem? If English really is their second language (I'm betting it was just an accent thing, and not an actual foreing language thing... trust me, they are fluent in India. Actually, they have more college graduates fluent in English than America does.) perhaps you should be so happy that somebody would work so hard to try to figure out what the pissed-off american is trying to say.


....Get a clue, kids. It's not that the rest of the world doesn't speak English, it's that you can't understand English speakers who don't speak your dialect.

Well said.

If you're certain that you're speaking to someone whose native language isn't English, then perhaps you can help them by speaking at 90% speed, or construct a sentence that isn't full of errors. That may help them understand you.

That being said. If a company wants to sell a product to Americans and provide them with good customer service, do you think they're going to set up their call center in Cajun country?

Why not? They're still speaking "American". The OP should be perfectly happy with that.

 

[MVApple]

If the person on the other end didn't fully understand what you said, did you try to speak using clearer phrasing? You may not realize this, but there are a lot of words that you use every day that is considered slang, and yet you use it every day without realizing this. This is particularly difficult for people who speak English as a second language to understand, as well as for English speakers from other parts of the world. Perhaps the person on the other end understands grammar far better than you, and you sound like a yokel.

How do you "speak American", anyway? What sort of accent do you want to hear on the other end of the phone?



Well said.

If you're certain that you're speaking to someone whose native language isn't English, then perhaps you can help them by speaking at 90% speed, or construct a sentence that isn't full of errors. That may help them understand you.


Why not? They're still speaking "American". The OP should be perfectly happy with that.

I never used any slang words. I used very basic English. I was clear and concise. Don't assume the blame is on me because they can't understand basic English. I'm a customer in the United States of America, not India. Don't you realize that when I purchased the monitor the price includes the cost of customer support?

Why do I have to learn how to interact with someone in India then? I'm the customer, not them.

You're a fool if you don't realize that those in India handling calls FROM AMERICAN CUSTOMERS should be trained to understand Americans. Not the other way around.

If they don't understand what I'm saying then they need to speak up and ask me to repeat what I'm saying. I'm the customer If they have a job in customer support, it's because American's customers like myself are buying products that pay for their wages.

If you can't understand something as simple as that then, please, never get into anything buisness related. Stick to flipping burgers.