Another Customer Service Nightmare…

HI - Nice to see you again. Have you sent any greeting cards recently?

I will NEVER recommend or buy another HP product.

The other day, my Canon printer (that I’ve had for years) died. Now, Canon has the most expensive ink out there, so I decided to look for something different. I go to the local office supply store and the clerk there recommends an HP printer. Says it will last forever compared to everything else out there.

I buy an HP printer, bring it home and hook it up using the disk that came with it to install it.

Documents print fine, however, when I go to use my program that I print stamps and labels from, it does not work. The paper feeds through, but nothing prints. I’ve been using this same program for 2 years so I know the program works fine. The only variable at this point is the HP printer, so I call HP technical support. I get a very nice lady who tells me that I have the incorrect drivers for the printer. She gives me the website where I can get the correct drivers. I ask why the incorrect drivers would be in the box with this printer and she has no clue. She does tell me, however, that her shift is ending and she can’t continue to help me. She says she will have someone call me back within the hour (by this time it’s almost 10 pm on Friday night) to see if the printer is working properly with the correct drivers.

11 pm Friday night and no call back from HP tech support, so I call them back. I give them my service ticket number and tell them that the printer is still not printing from that program. The guy says “So call them. It’s not our problem”. WHAT????? I say to him “But, the ONLY variable here is your HP printer. The program has worked fine for the past 2 years with the Canon printer” He says “Too bad. There’s nothing I can do for you”.

Well…I don’t just sit back for that type of customer service so I ask to speak with his manager. I explain that he’s rude and there has to be SOMETHING they can do because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the program worked fine with a different printer and now doesn’t work with the HP printer, the problem has to be that the printer is not understanding what the program is sending to it. The supervisor says “That’s right. So it’s the program’s fault that it can’t give the proper instructions to the printer”. HELLO???? This guy must have had wax build up in his ears or rocks in his head. I said “Are you telling me that you are willing to give up a customer just like that because you won’t even ATTEMPT to troubleshoot this with me?” and he says “We don’t need you as a customer if you can’t understand that it’s not our problem.”

Now, where I was brought up, the customer is ALWAYS right. You do whatever you can to make the customer happy. These nitwits didn’t even attempt to appease me. They just stuck to the whole “it’s not our fault” thing.

Needless to say, first thing Saturday morning, I took the HP crap back to the store and ended up buying a Dell printer. It cost a little more, but I didn’t care at that point. I get it home, install it (with the disk that came with it) and VOILA! it worked in all of my programs.

After doing a little research I managed to ascertain that HP is the ONLY printer that does not work with this particular program. HP is also the ONLY printer that does not work with a LOT of software.

Bottom line – if you’re only printing from Microsoft Word, get an HP. If you are going to use any other programs that need to have text printed in a certain area, DON’T GET AN HP PRINTER!!! In addition to them not working properly, their customer service leaves a LOT to be desired.

The customer is definitely NOT right at HP.

Roxanne Green
http://WorkWithRoxanne.com

Filed under: Instruction • Working From Home

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