Sidestepping pay-to-play phone support

One of the Gripe Line’s readers tried to use his tech skills to help an old friend get his computer working but was stopped short by pay-to-play phone support — a situation he finds untenable.

“While my gripe does not apply to IT on a major scale,” writes George, “it certainly does apply to the mind-set of a company that raises its middle finger to a customer arbitrarily.”

[ For more tips on how to deal with customer service roadblocks, see the Gripe Line post, “Persistance is an art.” ]

George continues, “An elderly customer, a good friend, and a former teacher of mine from high school, purchased an HP desktop, which suddenly lost its PowerPoint capability. He e-mailed me for help, and I guided him until we found he needed a code to unlock the program to get him up and running again. The OEM install had apparently died within the unit due to a virus or other malfunction. But when my friend called HP tech support, they advised him it would cost $50 or $100 — depending upon length of time for service for support — to answer his question and give him the 20-digit number.”

George felt this was an absolutely outrageous price for a simple answer, so he wrote to me. I forwarded his complaint to Cherie Britt at HP to see if there was a way around this obstacle standing between George’s friend and a working version of PowerPoint.

Britt confirmed that HP currently charges $49 for out-of-warranty phone support. This covers one issue over 14 days (most likely plenty of time to get this problem solved). “HP also offers a year of phone support that includes virus protection for $99,” she explains.

But in addition to paid support, says Britt, “HP offers a range of free out-of-warranty options: E-mail a tech support agent; chat real-time with a support agent; use the diagnostic tools, software updates, security tips, and troubleshooting hints on HP’s Web site; or take a variety of free online classes ranging from customizing Microsoft’s PowerPoint interface to how-tos for fun, easy printing projects.”

But while researching George’s complaint, Britt came across what is probably the solution in one of HP’s forums. “It is possible that George’s friend was using a computer that came with a trial version of Microsoft Office,” she says. “It is likely that his test trial has concluded.”

Instead of paying to have this situation explained over the phone, George’s friend would probably prefer to put that money toward a license key to get his copy of PowerPoint working. If he feels he already has a license key, though, that would need to be cleared up by technical support, though he could avail himself of the chat or e-mail options.

Of course, if he doesn’t already have a license key for PowerPoint and is simply looking to create a presentation, he could keep all his money and instead download the free OpenOffice.org, which includes a nice presentation program and is compatible with Microsoft Office. Or he could use the free online presentation program at Google Docs.

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