Hewlett Packard at it Again

Again, complaining about bad customer support from Hewlett Packard is like going to a prostitute and claiming you really didn't feel loved, but this one is at least worth blogging about.  

Bought a nice new laser printer from them ... the cost was approximately  $2000.  During shipping, one of the guides on the tray door broke off (see photo) ... a very simple thing...

...unless you want to fix it.

Forgetting about how long it takes to actually GET to the right person when you call them for support, as near as I can tell (my Hindi is a little rough), "George" either doesn't believe that this piece is the problem, or doesn't understand me when I try to describe this piece, because he is apparently unwilling to ship me the broken part (#RC1-392 1) because he can't verify that something else wasn't wrong as well -- nor will he ship me the entire tray because that would have to be done as a warranty repair, and my vendor is not an authorized warranty repair center. 

Did I mention the printer is less than two weeks old at this point, the problem was discovered in the first week, and it was more-than-likely damaged during shipping?  

The vendor who sold it to me is also unable to get the part since the request would have to come from the end user (which would be me ... see above), and in order to send it back, the vendor would incur the cost of shipping, etc.  Which I really can't blame them, since it's a heavy, expensive mutherf****r to ship and they weren't the ones who damaged it, why should they pay for it.

Needless to say, the costs of this fiasco have now easily surpassed the costs of the printer when you add up the billable rates over the last three weeks for me, as well as the vendor's sales rep, support rep, and shipping rep, spent on the phone with "George" trying to convey what our problem is and find some sort of solution that actually allows us to receive the printer that we paid for in working condition.   

Add in lost productivity for not having a working printer for four weeks now, and I think you'll agree, this is already one expensive hunk of plastic. 

At least I get the satisfaction, after having already removed HP from my personal life last year (the Pavilion disaster), to convince my company to change preferred brands here as well.

	File Under:	Rant
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