HP rights some wrongs, with a little prodding from the Gripe Line Wayne wrote to me with his frustration over a large purchase of HP printers. “Due to how our network is configured,” he explains, “we can’t use network printers. Since space is an issue and everyone needs color, I chose the HP DeskJet 6940 as my standard printer and purchased 14 printers direct from HP. Several did not work out of the box. I contacted HP for replacement since the printers have never been used and I have had them less than 30 days.” Wayne then spent many hours and answered many irrelevant questions before it looked like he would get what he ordered: new printers that worked. “Finally,” he says, “I spoke to a very nice person who explained that the usual policy was to send me refurbished units. But since mine were new she would connect me with someone who could override that and send new ones. At that point, though, I was accidentally put back into the support queue and had to start from square one. After another hour on the phone, someone named James refused to send me new units. End of discussion. “When I contacted the executive office of the President of HP, I thought surely someone would see how silly this issue is. I am a good customer and purchase quite a bit of hardware other than these $65 DeskJet printers. Are they really willing to lose me over this?” Replace DOA printers with refurbished? Three hours on the phone to no effect? This sounds like a job for the Gripe Line! I forwarded Wayne’s letter to HP and got a message back from Cherie a few hours later: “We are working on rectifying this customer’s issue now. Thank you for calling it to our attention.” Sure enough, the very next day, I heard from Wayne. He got a nice note from a federal account manager at HP. “Hi Wayne,” Glenn wrote, “I have requested that all 12 printers be replaced. Someone should be contacting you this week for the return of the 12 and delivery of new ones.” And the note contained contact information so that, hopefully, Wayne won’t have to waste more hours on hold if anything like this should happen in the future. And Glenn kept his word, “I have 12 new printers,” says Wayne. “They were sent same day via Southwest Airlines.” As Wayne says, “I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through what I did.” But at least sanity reigned in the end. Got gripes of your own? E-mail them to Christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com. Technology Industry