Prathiba is the Chennai Regional Service Coordinator and her email ID is prathiba.p@hp.com

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Ms. Prathiba

As you were quite insistent on having an email from me even when I was stuck up in a desperate situation, hence here it goes.

Hope you read the entire story. Even though you might find it lengthy and boring, it was a moment of extreme psychological stress for myself and my wife as we were going through the agony being “customers of HP”.

My laptop “Compaq Presario CQ40” with serial number CND9120DFF had developed a problem recently and was not booting. It was purchased in April 2009.

1. I searched for your authorized service providers on your own website and M/s.Mukesh Infoserve, Chennai was listed on it without any kind of clause which you were mentioning i.e. authorized either for warranty or out-of-waranty repairs. I approached them as it is nearest to my place. As seeing is believing, hence the link to your own website and the webpage is: http://h20431.www2.hp.com/support/contactcenters/in/en/commercial/comm_south.html#Chennai

2. My wife, Amitha, handed over the laptop and charger to them on 12th Aug for diagnosis and necessary repairs. They explicitly asked whether the laptop is under warranty for which my wife stated that it is not as it is more than 1 year old. Hence, the repairs were supposed to be ou-of-warranty and on chargeable basis.
3. They (Mr.Giridharan) called me up on 13th Aug saying that the motherboard is faulty and they can do the needful for which it would cost me approx Rs.6,500. I told them to be sure of doing a proper repair and hence approved the repairing of the laptop.
4. On 17th Aug in the afternoon, they called me up and said that the laptop is ready. I asked them that I would like to have my old part back alongwith the packaging of the new HP part to be sure that the repair is genuine. Mr.Giridharan told me that he cannot give me the old part as it is “HP’s policy”. When I argued further, he said that I can take the laptop today after paying money and he would hand over the old part to me on the next day. I further insisted that for taking laptop on the same day, I shall atleast require the packing of the new part to be sure that it is a genuine HP part. By this time, I had started smelling foul play and asked my wife to reach the service provider to take physical possession of the laptop.
5. In the meantime, I tried calling on your toll-free helpline to know your policy. I first spoke to a female at around 4:30 pm and she refused to answer any of my questions withot a case ID. I didn’t have one because your service dealer told me that this is a “trade call” and hence there will be no “Case ID”. Subsequently when I insisted, she banged the phone rudely.
6. I again tried contacting your regional office in Chennai thru the link: http://www8.hp.com/in/en/contact-hp/office-locations.html#. Unfortunately nobody picked up the call at the 1st and 3rd Chennai offices and the contact numbers of the 2nd Chennai office i.e. Service Office are wrong. The webpage is attached herewith.

7. Subsequently, I caled up your helpline once more to get your office numbers and upon my repeated insistence, I received your mobile number.
8. By this time, my wife had reached your dealer and asked for the bill for payment. On the bill, your dealer wrote “Laptop Servicing = Rs.5,000” and “Total amount oincluding Service Tax = Rs.5515”. My wife insisted that a proper bill with the “Part number” and MRP of the part must be mentioned separately with labour charges. Mr.Giridharan flatly refused the same.
9. Upon my wife’s insistence he told her that they had replaced an IC on the Motherboard which I believe is not as per the service procedure for HP. Then I asked him why he did not replace the motherboard if that is a genuine HP part for which he had no answer.
10. Then I called you up and following was your response:
a. You asked me to send an email as you were too busy to look inot this case today.
b. Upon my insistence, you listened to my case and asked me the following questions:
i. Why did I leave the laptop with Mukesh Infoserve when he is not authorized for out-of-warranty repairs?
ii. Why did I not take it to your dealer, Maha?
c. When I asked you why your dealer did not educate me that he is not supposed to undertake out-of-warranty repairs, you had no answer for that and tried to put the blame on me that I had checked up the information from some wrong website.
d. Then you asked me to leave the laptop at Mukesh and it will be sent to Maha on the next day for proper repairs.
e. When I asked you that if any part other than the motherboard requires replacement when it goes to Maha then would HP take ownership of replacing that part at their own cost, you flatly refused.
f. When I asked you that as the laptop was now working after repair and that your authorized dealer had only repaired it hence what your reason was for not being able to stand guarantee for the same, you had no answer and said that your work timings are from 9 AM to 6 PM and that I was bothering you at 6:15 PM.
g. You also asked me why I did not apprise the case to you in the morning after which you rudely cut the call.
11. After that I lost all hope of support from HP and asked my wife to pay the money and take the laptop home.
12. As your dealer had understood that he had done improper repairs, he handed over the laptop on a “Non Returnable Delivery Challan” i.e. without bill/invoice without charging any money from my wife.

Now, I have following questions for you:
1. How do you expect your customers to know whether any of your service dealers are authorized or not authorized for ou-of-warranty repairs? Why isn’t the same mentioned on your website?
2. Is it not your and your dealers’ job to educate customers about what they are authorized and not authorized to do?
3. Why your office people do not pickup phones at 5 PM and why is the Service office phone number wrong on your website? (Hewlett-Packard India Sales Pvt.Ltd, Service Centre, Jeypore Hall, New No.241, Peters Road, Chennai – 600 086, Phone: (044) 39189602 / 39189603)
4. How can you put the blame on a customer if he is not aware of what your dealer is supposed to do?
5. Why did your dealer repair my latop in an improper manner i.e. by replacing an IC and not the motherboard itself?
6. What are your service norms? Are you not supposed to return the old part in the original packing to the customer? Is you dealer not supposed to bill separately for the part, as per MRP, and the labour as the the flat rate time? If you have option of not returning the part, should the dealer not explicitly take customers’ concurrence before undertaking the repair?
7. When your dealer is acting mischieviously, how do you expect me to leave the laptop for one more day with the same guy? With what confidence do I leave the laptop?
8. When you dealer has diagnosed the laptop with a problem, why are you unwilling to take responsibility of the same? I was ok with replacing motherboard at Maha and paying up for the same only? If your dealer replaces any other spoilt part overnight in my laptop and then Maha said that even that required rpelacement (other than the motherboard) then who is responsible for the same? Are you not? If not why not?
9. When you do not have control on your own dealer, why were you trying to put the blame on customer?
10. If I was seeking your help from 5:45 PM onwards then there was something grossly wrong for which I was requesting. Instead of understanding the situation how can you insist on an email from me (i.e. being bureaucratic) and rudely cut the call?

Your dealer quickly recognized the mistake which he had made and delivered the laptop without collecting the bill amount. I hope you too would have understood the situation the customer is in an tried to help out a customer rather than colluding with the dealer and deliberately trying to cover up mistakes.

With this experience, I feel sad to have purchased an HP product and vow not to touch one in the future.

But, I would expect your reply on the case and my above queries. I hope I can expect atleast this from you, though I did not get any sort of help from you. I sincerely hope that HP feels committed and answerable to their customers.

However, if HP doesn’t bother about customers I don’t mind even if you don’t reply to this email and if you disown this case.

Regards

“A tortured customer”

I’ve had such a bad experience with HP that i’d never ever think of purchasing any damn product of HP.
And no doubt “HP sucks big time”.

and HP people don’t think that customers are fool,if they have made u they can also mar u.

you can contact me at info@customermath.com

thanks

avinash

I can help you!

Can you please share your contact details with me?

Neha

I really agree with the complaints listed above.I am a unhappy customer of HP lap tops.I bought one of the Hp Pavillion dv5000 from Oman.Once i came back from Oman my laptop started having problem like all sorts now ended like keeping as paper weight.My father also bought one Compaq nc6000 came from same company, surprisingly the thing also got the problem of restarting and now its not functional.The other interesting fact is that we have to claim the AMC from the nation of purchase…so funny for that i think i have to be an Omani sitizen.There is no proper reply from the so…called authorised suppliers…I think…international brand with nationalized support teammmm…I got only one think to say to all…NEVER EVER GO FOR PURCHASE OF HP LAPTOPS…IT WILL MAKE YOU END UP IN TROUBLE AND LOSS OF MONEY.

thanks for your comment.

I have received so many complaints for HP laptops that I am thinking of sending a mail to whoever I can that they should stop buying HP Laptop.

On the other hand, there is no complaint on their printers. I have been using HP printers for a long time and never had a complaint. I think they should stop manufacturing laptops.

avinash narula

And trying to deal with the case manager is a trial all by itself. Now that the laptop is finally fixed, I am trying to get an invoice for the work. Here again, an impossible task, in that the only one that can do that for me is my case manager, and after two weeks of calling, I haven’t heard from him.

So… in addition to poorly made products, the customer support… to put it plainly, SUCKS!!

I will NEVER, EVER, buy an HP laptop again!

regards:

Meenakshi

Thanks for your comment. I think HP (Hewlett Packard) should stop selling laptops as there are a lot of complaints. Their printers are good as I have using their printers for the last 15 years and never had a complaint. They are sullying their reputation by selling laptops.

I hope all prospective buyers of laptop are listening. Please don not buy HP Laptops.

Avinash narula

It is surprising that HP laptop servicing is very bad .