News HP intentionally made customers hold for 15 minutes for telephone customer service, then quickly canceled it due to backlash

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DS426 said:
I'm pretty sure that honor either goes to Apple or Microsoft.
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I dunno... I've been a customer of all 3 (Apple, MS, and HP) and as the family tech guru, helped relatives who were HP customers, and based on my experience, HP has been the most insidious, anti-consumer company I've ever dealt with, no contest. And that's saying something, because I hate Apple too.

If you want specifics, the proprietary equipment that doesn't work properly, the dark patterns they employ in their UI, bloatware, and downright criminal behavior with their printer subscription ink program all get them the top award at sucking.
 
When I have an issue with a product, I, (Like most of the people on this forum), exhaust all online resources before I call a support line. Long wait times are a reflection of how the company treats is customers overall.

HP used to be a great company, (decades ago). A mandatory 15 minute wait? That shows they have Zero respect for their customers. This will not go well for them.
 
DS426 said:
I'm pretty sure that honor either goes to Apple or Microsoft.
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Like @Jabberwocky79 said, I think it’s actually HP.

Microsoft loves overcomplicating simple things (nobody asked for widows recall) and can’t seem to release a significant Windows update without breaking something, but otherwise I think they’re fine.

Sure Apple is expensive and everything is proprietary, but they generally stand behind their products and are pretty good at repairing stuff for you so long as your device isn’t legacy status. For example, they are one of the few smartphone manufacturers that I am aware of that will replace your smartphone battery for you. They also support their phones with security updates much longer than most Android manufacturers do, so I don’t understand all the hate Apple gets for planned obsolescence.

HP though is on another level than anyone else. They are legendary for their scummy tactics in the inkjet printer business and they cost cut their consumer PCs so hard in the late 2000’s that my Dad’s HP laptop from that era was the last PC he ever bought. (He had been buying HP since the 90’s). It was so bad that he switched to MacBooks after that!

This, amusingly, sounds exactly like the kind of counterproductive boneheaded tactic that HP would try to save a few bucks. They can’t help it, it is ingrained in their toxic cost-cutting corporate DNA.
 
Apple's almost completely closed ecoysystem is a total nonstarter for me, as it is to many others. Great products -- both hardware and software -- don't make up for that failure in principal and harm to other tech companies and consumer choice. I don't have any issue with their planned obsolescence over what anyone else is doing (it's been industry standard stuff for awhile now), i.e. I also don't know why Apple would get singled out on this?

The Windows 11 arbitrary hardware requirements cut-off in tandem with the seemingly early Windows 10 EOL date (now only 8 months away!) takes the icing for worst software company, no doubt. Don't buy HP printers and PC's, too easy! On the other hand, Apple and Microsoft are WAAAYYY more pervasive than HP, making anything anti-consumerist that they do that much more amplified. Also recall that MS is trying to eliminate offline local user accounts

Compaq actually started that cost-cutting war as it went for the PC. HP acquired Compaq, and that strategy never went away. Indeed, HP was a gold standard right there with Dell in the 90's, and indeed, I'd steer any and every consumer away from HP today.
 
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DS426 said:
Apple's almost completely closed ecoysystem is a total nonstarter for me, as it is to many others. Great products -- both hardware and software -- don't make up for that failure in principal and harm to other tech companies and consumer choice. I don't have any issue with their planned obsolescence over what anyone else is doing (it's been industry standard stuff for awhile now), i.e. I also don't know why Apple would get singled out on this?

The Windows 11 arbitrary hardware requirements cut-off in tandem with the seemingly early Windows 10 EOL date (now only 8 months away!) takes the icing for worst software company, no doubt. Don't buy HP printers and PC's, too easy! On the other hand, Apple and Microsoft are WAAAYYY more pervasive than HP, making anything anti-consumerist that they do that much more amplified. Also recall that MS is trying to eliminate offline local user accounts

Compaq actually started that cost-cutting war as it went for the PC. HP acquired Compaq, and that strategy never went away. Indeed, HP was a gold standard right there with Dell in the 90's, and indeed, I'd steer any and every consumer away from HP today.
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You are definitely not wrong about any of this.
 
Other companies are doing this too, and similar stuff.
Many other companies.
Customer service is so last millenium.
It doesn't scale.

But I remember HP way back when, I took their (very expensive) class on how to develop software on the HP 3000 minicomputer, and they said, "don't use the 2400 baud speed on your terminals, people get used to it, so use 300 baud." Seriously.
(meanwhile everyone else was already using 9600 baud)
 
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Don't EVER buy an HP printer. They make you subscribe to a prepaid service just to print at home! Or else they will remotely lock the printer. I said you know what cool. I will pay $1 a month as I don't print often and they will send the ink. Well a mechanism in the printer broke. Googled it the fix and it was insanely difficult and it just randomly happens to this style of printer. Out of warranty so I just threw it in the trash. They will never get another penny from me
 
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Jabberwocky79 said:
I dunno... I've been a customer of all 3 (Apple, MS, and HP) and as the family tech guru, helped relatives who were HP customers, and based on my experience, HP has been the most insidious, anti-consumer company I've ever dealt with, no contest. And that's saying something, because I hate Apple too.

If you want specifics, the proprietary equipment that doesn't work properly, the dark patterns they employ in their UI, bloatware, and downright criminal behavior with their printer subscription ink program all get them the top award at sucking.
Click to expand...
Yep I just spoke on my experience. I hate HP.
 
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The company defended its previous action by saying, “We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer service experience. This support offering was intended to provide more digital options with the goal of reducing time to resolve inquiries.”

HP then added, “We have found that many of our customers were not aware of the digital support options we provide. Based on initial feedback, we know the importance of speaking to live customer service agents in a timely fashion is paramount. As we result, we will continue to prioritize timely access to live phone support to ensure we are delivering an exceptional customer experience.”
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I've read some really, REALLY stupid things in the past, but THIS justification for the "force a 15 minute wait for customer service" while it may not be THE most idiotic thing I've ever heard, is definitely in the running for that title.

What idiot hears this and thinks "Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, annoying people for 15 minutes is something that will make them more aware of the digital options." Who exactly in HP wrote this to be released as a statement, and who signed off on this plan of sounding SO incredibly customer-hostile?

If you have to RUIN one thing in order to get people to choose the OTHER thing, then the OTHER thing was terrible to begin with.
 
That has to be one of the most anti-customer actions I've ever heard of. Any company that has such little respect for their customers deserves to go broke.
 
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So HP wants to reduce the amount of money they are spending to support angry/confused customers who can't figure out why their printer is broken. I understand that.
I know when I am particularly upset with a bad product/service that I can't get refunded, I will often make a point to call the company as many times as it takes to ensure the company responsible has spent far more money supporting me than I ever spent on their products.
And I can tell you, that is a lot of calls to Adobe.

HP should consider taking 2 steps here:
First - make their printers more reliable, easier to set up, and user friendly - so fewer people have problems.
Second - when people do have problems, resolve it immediately (even if it takes a refund) - because the refund is going to be a lot less expensive in the long run than an actively vindictive former customer.

But more generally, why did we let the printer industry become like this? Anybody can buy parts and build a 3D printer using open source designs and software. I wish that kind of thing were easier for 2D printing.
 
Ever since founders Hewlett & Packard let the unskilled "sociopath" Carly Fiorino become the company's CEO, its corporate culture was doomed. Years and years after her departure was FORCED by the board, the damage she did essentially "BOEING'd" HP. This latest idiocy is just more of the fallout of the destruction of a terrific, design-oriented company into a money-grubbing pit. REALLY a tragedy for HP, its good staff and customers.
 
For anyone who has asked "what could HP do to suck even more?", this is the answer.

It's been a long, dark slide for a great company from Fiorino on down.
 
Jabberwocky79 said:
So the way HP wants to educate its customers about digital customer support alternatives is to make customers so mad they give up trying to reach a human. That is the most HP thing I've ever heard about HP
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That's what they mean when they say
“We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer service experience“
 
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