HP Customer Service…Or Lack Thereof

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.
Most people never listen.
~Ernest Hemmingway 

4:17pm

I had to call Hewlett Packard twice today about a printer replacement. The second guy was such a moron.

I began the conversation with: “I called this morning to request a return label to send back a broken printer. I received the replacement printer, which is working fine, but there was no return label. The gentleman I spoke to this morning said he would email me one. That was 7 hours ago and I still haven’t received it.”

HP Dude: “Ma’am, when you receive the replacement printer, the return label will be in the box.”

Me: “Sir, I told you at the beginning of the conversation that I have received the replacement printer and that there was no return label in that box.”

HP Dude: “Ma’am, you will get a label with the replacement printer. Did you get the printer yet?”

Me: (and now I am not quite as nice) “Sir, I told you this twice already – I received the replacement printer but not the return label to send back the defective one. When may I expect the return label.”

HP Dude: “Ma’am have I given you reason to be impatient?”

Me, with my head shaking, even though this person cannot see me: “Yes, sir, you have made me impatient because you clearly do not know how to listen to what I am telling you.”

HP Dude: “You have told me that you need a label and I have told you that it will be in the box with your replacement printer.”

Me: “And I have told you multiple times that I have received the replacement printer. It works fine, as a matter of fact. Now I need to send the defective one back to HP.”

HP Dude: “Well, the label should be in the box along with the replacement.”

Me: “Sir, there was NO return label in the box along with the replacement. When I called for help this morning, your service representative said one would be emailed to me. He even verified my email address.”

HP Dude: “Ma’am, we cannot send such a label through email as it is not secure…..”

HP Dude attempted to give me a dissertation on internet and email safely. I will admit that I rudely interrupted him and told him that I know quite well about these topics, quit wasting my time and tell me how to get the return label. He then told me it would be sent to me by FedEx and did I need anything else.

I told him that I would like to encourage him to actually listen to what a customer is telling them. This would not have been a 15 minute waste of my time if the first guy knew the label could not be emailed and if the second actually paid attention to what I was telling him.

9:00pm

Adding on to the story….3 hours after this phone call, another HP representative left a voicemail for me to follow up on my service ticket. The representative said that he wanted to make sure I had received the replacement and that it was working properly.

Seriously? The last guy was supposed to update my record to indicate that I was waiting for a return shipping label and now this guy wants to know if I received the replacement. Do these folks even communicate with one another? Ever?