HP tech support lacks human touch

Over the years, I’ve been told by executives at high-tech companies that every call that comes to customer service or technical support is an opportunity to take a problem and turn it into a loyal customer. The idea goes back even further. The great American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser — who built the Hoover Dam, the Liberty Ships, and Kaiser Health, among other achievements — is famous for quipping, “A problem is just an opportunity in work clothes.” That attitude brought him great success, both business and personal, and has been much cited since.

But this being the Gripe Line, it’s become clear to me over the years that the opposite is also true. It is possible to take a small problem and not only squander the opportunity but turn it into something irreparable. I recently tried to repair such a rift between HP in Canada and one of its customers.

[ For a look at where tech support is going, read Christina Tynan-Wood’s “The (better) future of tech support.” | Frustrated by tech support? Get answers in InfoWorld’s Gripe Line newsletter. ]

Stacy wrote to me about a problem he had with his laptop, which was only a year and a half old when something went very wrong with its motherboard. He called customer support and, unfortunately, found himself speaking to someone who had not heard Mr. Kaiser’s famous quip.

This support rep, according to Stacy, did not see this problem as an opportunity but as an irritant. He diagnosed the problem as caused most likely by a battery that had been, unknown to Stacy, recalled. The heat from the battery, which was too hot to touch, had likely fried the motherboard, the tech told him. He offered to fix the laptop for $450. This price seemed high to Stacy, who pointed out that the problem was caused by a known defect, that he had not been informed of the recall, and that a new laptop didn’t cost much more than $450.

The technical support representative laughed, and while laughing may seem like a small thing, this time it wasn’t.

“I have a stutter,” explains Stacy. “It gets worse when I’m agitated or uncomfortable.” This tech support representative — and another one that Stacy spoke to the next day — laughed and sighed with impatience whenever he began to stutter. “I felt belittled, embarrassed, and ashamed,” he says.

These are emotions, and they can turn a situation like this one from a problem into an opportunity. If the tech support representative had been understanding and supportive, it’s possible that the same offer of repair — or the one that followed — would have made a loyal customer out of Stacy. But the emotions Stacy was made to feel are those provoked by the schoolyard bully, and they have no place in customer service.

Stacy spoke to several other people who did little to repair the problem or the growing feeling he had that his problem simply did not matter to anyone at HP. After detailing his experience in a letter to the CEO of HP in Canada, he did, however, receive a call from an “executive case manager” who almost succeeded in turning things around.

“He was nice and very patient with me,” reports Stacy. “I told him all of the issues and the emails that I have sent to HP and about the rudeness of the employees and lack of consideration for my feelings.” He confirmed that Stacy’s laptop battery was on the recall list and told Stacy that, just to get the troubleshooting started, he would send a new battery. This probably wouldn’t fix the fried motherboard, he told Stacy, but it was a first step. The parts arrived and didn’t fix the problem, so Stacy called back.

But his case manager was apparently not authorized to repair the laptop. He offered Stacy a laptop bag and an additional year on the extended warranty if he bought a new computer, but told him that was all he could do. He suggested Stacy try another case manager.

“The next day another executive case manager called me and before I could say two words, she told me my case was closed,” Stacy says. He had accepted the battery and adapter, she told him, and that was all HP was prepared to do.

I contacted HP on Stacy’s behalf, but it was too late. It was probably too late after the technician laughed at his stutter. It took my contact in the United States a while to work through channels, but she managed to get the Canadian HP division to offer to look at Stacy’s computer for free. He declined, saying he preferred to sell it — in parts — on eBay.

For a company that makes and sells computers, it may be easy to view the world in terms of parts, service, and the bottom line, but it is humans who purchase machines. If using emotion to sell machines works, it also works to make people regret those purchases. In marketing campaigns, most companies try to make their customers look happy, optimistic, and productive. Stacy’s experience was at the other end of the spectrum. “I am just a nobody to HP,” he says. “The people there made me feel small and insignificant.”

I completely understand that a company cannot replace an out-of-warranty computer every time a customer calls with a problem, but I think it’s instructive for anyone who runs a business to remember that, while making this sort of business decision, it is a human being at the other end of the line. Computers are often more than just machines to us. They are our livelihood and our connection to the people we love. We might be willing to accept that the laptop needs replacing — though a lifespan shortened to 18 months by a known manufacturer defect is likely to irk most consumers — or any other fair(ish) business decision. But you can’t be rude about it and expect us to keep spending our money with you.

Got gripes? Send them to christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com.

This story, “HP tech support lacks human touch,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Christina Tynan-Wood’s Gripe Line blog at InfoWorld.com.