Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Customer Service at HP

My cd writer has been illiterate for some time. It used to spit out CDs as soon as they were inserted, no doubt disgusted with my pirated mp3s and divx rips. I took it to the HP service center (tucked away in Wind Tunnel Road, off Airport Road) to get it repaired. After a bumpy ride over a few craters, I navigated past a few tough looking security guys (TLSG) and a bunch of fancy cars to get to the main office.

I stopped at the reception when another TLSG called me back to the entrance where I had to enter my writer's serial number in a register. Walked back to the reception. The lady there asked me to sit down and helpfully added that my cartridge would be ready in a moment. I managed to convince her I didn't have a printer, didn't need a cartridge, all I wanted was to get my writer serviced and get the hell out of there.

Went back to work. Waited for a couple of days. Called them today.

The lady goes: "Sir, I spoke to you in the morning. This will need a Unit Level Replacement"
"No, you didn't speak to me in the morning. This is the first time you are speaking to me. And I called you, not the other way round"
"er..umm...ok"
"Whats a Unit Level Replacement ?"
"The entire part has to be replaced. Will cost you Rs 6100 sir"
"Let me get this straight. I need to pay Rs 6100 to get my writer repaired when I can buy a newer, faster, sleeker model for just Rs 2900 ?"
"Yes sir"
"Thank you very much"

Well, maybe its a good opportunity to buy a new, jazzy writer. Just hope I don't need to get it serviced after a few months
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14 comments:

  1. psychedsunshineOctober 28, 2003 at 1:17 AM

    i love OBILIX....

    don't you???
    er what were you saying ????? ehm... uhuh...

    sorry OBILIX it is.
    have you seen all their animation films?

    i can send you some if you wish to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. madhavOctober 28, 2003 at 1:32 AM

    Glad you liked the icon. I've not seen the animation films but I've read the books, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. quizlingOctober 28, 2003 at 2:23 AM

    To think they call themselves "customer support"... bah!

    ReplyDelete
  4. jackolOctober 28, 2003 at 3:06 AM

    HP totally sucks are Customer Service. I had the same problem with a HP Laserjet. The MRP was 16,000, I took it there as it was under warranty. "Sir, we need to change the blah-blah which'll cost 13,500 rupees". I screamed, took it back, and cleaned the thing up. It worked well.

    One of those individual service companies do a much much better job. HP's products may be good but after that experience, they're on my never-ever-buy list.

    ReplyDelete
  5. serioussamOctober 28, 2003 at 3:00 PM

    I know I shouldn't, but I am laughing out loud right now. Thing is, same thing happened to me. Me and a friend went to get his scanner repaired.. they said it would require a "Unit level replacement"(almost the same thing), and that he'd have to pay 6500 INR for that. Considering I can buy a new scanner for 2500 INR, I just laughed on the service guys face. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. contentedblokeOctober 28, 2003 at 3:29 PM

    Are customer service people really that dumb???

    ReplyDelete
  7. serioussamOctober 28, 2003 at 3:33 PM

    I'd love to think otherwise, but stuff like this...its happened to more people than not. :(

    ReplyDelete
  8. serioussamOctober 28, 2003 at 3:40 PM

    The animation films are not so good, since they are dubbed from French to English, by what would seem to be talentless hobos picked up from the streets in exchange of some cheap booze. I swear, what I would not do for some subtitles...

    ReplyDelete
  9. madhavOctober 28, 2003 at 3:51 PM

    Are other companies any better ? I don't know, really. Maybe I should try out Samsung when I go shopping for a new writer. Their ads are all over the place, so they must be good, d-uh !

    ReplyDelete
  10. madhavOctober 28, 2003 at 3:56 PM

    I don't think they are dumb. See, the rate at which technology changes, what you buy today morning has already become obsolete by evening. My writer is 3 years old, its practically an antique. If the part needs to be changed, it probably needs to be sourced from the other end of the world or custom-made or something. Hence the Rs 6100.

    I understand where they are coming from. Its their inefficiency which bugged me. Secondly, I asked them if they could give me an exchange offer for a new writer. Or at least sell me a writer then and there. They were totally clueless on how to go about this. "You will need to go to a dealer, sir".

    Oh, well.

    ReplyDelete
  11. jayasankarvsOctober 28, 2003 at 4:45 PM

    Go Samsung. Almost all of my appliances and stuff are Samsung now,Sehwag notwithstanding. I get into philosophical discourses with the HP people too. Customer Service in this country is practically non-existent. All they know to do is sport a fake accent which they cannot sustain for more than 2 minutes anyway (then they swith over to Hindi. Har Har Mahadev)

    ..%&*^@

    ReplyDelete
  12. jaceOctober 28, 2003 at 4:51 PM

    AFAIK, Samsung replaces without asking any questions if the item is still under warranty.

    ReplyDelete
  13. jessyleenOctober 28, 2003 at 6:34 PM

    What about LG?

    ReplyDelete
  14. veenvenOctober 28, 2003 at 8:49 PM

    I used to work in the hardware division of *** (to prevent possible litigation ;)) and the startegy is to always price the replacement components higher than the SKU. This is b'coz budgets are fixed on new SKU's and not on replacements. So they are not as dumb as they seem, it's just that what the customer thinks is not as important as what the CEO thinks.

    ReplyDelete

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