Josh's Thoughts

I used to own a HP All-In-One 1510 printer but I dumped it recently for a Canon printer.

Geez, a director of corporate communications at HP Canada told me on September 25, 2008 by phone that complaints — including mine — are very rare at HP Canada. I couldn't help but burst out laughing…..

My “I hate HP” story is a long one. Here is the short version. I ran into problems twice with my HP printer. The most recent was when I could not get the damn thing to print. I called HP customer service who said they wanted $35.00 before they would help! I told the perky customer service agent that hell would freeze over before I sent any customer service dept $ 35.00 to help me solve problems with their own product.

After numerous calls to poorly trained HP staff, I emailed the CEO Mr. Mark Hurd in California. As a result, HP sent me a free kit to clean the rollers in the printer. The kit needs a CD-ROM to run the cleaning process. I was not aware that my CD-ROM was broken.

I told HP I would upgrade my tower (CPU) with a new HP CPU if they would take back my HP 1510. Another perky HP agent said she would get back to me with a proposal on the upgrades. I waited three weeks but she never called. I kept calling HP and getting no where. I kept emailing Hurd and copied my complaint to a consumer specialist with a metro newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Eventually, after getting totally fed up, I told the CEO that I was dumping the HP printer for a Canon. I got a copy of Consumer Reports magazine for May 2008 (?) which just happened to rate computer printers. I bought one of the Canons that they rated highly. Have not had any probs with the Canon since. It was less expensive ($ 69 Cdn + tax) than the HP printer and has twice the number of features — just an excellent product.

Because I was so upset, the HP director of corporate communications called me on Sept 15, 2008. I told him all of the above and more besides. Also, I told him I used a lot of ink cartridges with the HP 1510 and had to stop buying original HP cartridges because they were so freaking expensive ( $19.99 + tax) and switched to refills ($ 9.99 + tax). The lady at the refill store said my cartridge for the HP printer only held 5 mL (one teaspoon) of ink! No wonder I had to keep refilling it every 3 weeks.

I told Mister director of corporate communications at HP that I wanted to send my HP printer back to the corporate office and asked for recycling info and if I could get a refund. I had the printer for less than a couple of years. He said he would get back in a day or two.

I waited a freaking week but he never called. I had to leave him a heavy-duty phone message to call me as promised. He finally called and said he would send a follow-up email which he did — but forgot to include in the email a response as to whether I would get a refund or partial refund.

I had to email him AGAIN on the latter issue. He finally called on Sept 25 saying HP was refusing to refund any of my hard earned money that I paid for the printer. He then followed with the blah, blah, blah phony comments about how sorry he was about all the trouble I had with HP and was sorry to lose me as a customer — Yeah, right.

In one of his emails was information on recycling printers with a link to the HP recycling site. (As mentioned above, I had requested this info as I do not like sending electronic junk like the HP printer to landfills). I could not figure out how to use the recycling site so I called HP. An agent told me the service was totally free and all I had to do was download an address label from the site. I ended the call and went back to the site but could not find the FREE address label anywhere on the site.

I called HP recycling back AGAIN on Sept 25, 2008 and this time got a completely different story from another HP agent who said I had to pay a freaking fee to send my HP printer back to them for recycling! Well that's one fee they will never see. The damn printer is going back to HP, addressed to the CEO Mark Hurd, supposing I have to walk barefoot the whole 2400 kilometres from here to Toronto myself, dragging the HP printer behind me.

I have now sent another email to Mister Director of Corporate Communications asking him why he didn't tell me earlier that there was a recycling fee –especially given all the probs I had previously with HP — on top of HP refusing to give me my money back for the Hewlett Crappard printer.

ARRRRGGGHH!!! Don't people who work as directors of corporate communications go to university for years studying how to communicate with customers????

I am waiting for his reply. I copied Mr. Mark Hurd CEO and the consumer specialist on that email. I have also asked Mister Director of Corporate Communications for the contact info for the members of the Board of Directors of HP in the USA. My gut feeling is that HP is just trying to sell as many products as possible to keep profits up but, in my opinion, are saying to hell with customer service. It is my personal belief that they are being inundated with complaints and simply cannot keep up. It may explain why it took a week for Mister Director of Corporate Communications at HP to get back to me when he said he would get back in a day or two. I could be wrong.

I feel screwed over by bad customer service at HP Canada. I have wasted hours of my time as a small business owner dealing with HP. I run my small business from my home. Time is money to me. I don't like to bear resentment against any corporate giants no matter how incompetent they are or how incompetent they appear to be. I just no longer will accept the feeling of being ripped off and screwed over by HP. They lost me as a customer and I hope the 10 people I tell about my bad experience (in addition to the people reading this blog) will each tell 10 others which makes 100 customers.
I always first give corporations the benefit of the doubt when it comes to customer service, and I am patient while waiting for them to get off their butts to make me a happy customer. When they don't follow through, I GET REALLY ANGRY, and then I tell others.

Thanks everyone for listening to my long rant. Wow….I feel better already….I think I will copy and paste my rant and then print it on my new Canon printer — ta da !

I used to own a HP All-In-One 1510 printer but I dumped it recently for a Canon printer.

Geez, a director of corporate communications at HP Canada told me on September 25, 2008 by phone that complaints — including mine — are very rare at HP Canada. I couldn't help but burst out laughing…..

My “I hate HP” story is a long one. Here is the short version. I ran into problems twice with my HP printer. The most recent was when I could not get the damn thing to print. I called HP customer service who said they wanted $35.00 before they would help! I told the perky customer service agent that hell would freeze over before I sent any customer service dept $ 35.00 to help me solve problems with their own product.

After numerous calls to poorly trained HP staff, I emailed the CEO Mr. Mark Hurd in California. As a result, HP sent me a free kit to clean the rollers in the printer. The kit needs a CD-ROM to run the cleaning process. I was not aware that my CD-ROM was broken.

I told HP I would upgrade my tower (CPU) with a new HP CPU if they would take back my HP 1510. Another perky HP agent said she would get back to me with a proposal on the upgrades. I waited three weeks but she never called. I kept calling HP and getting no where. I kept emailing Hurd and copied my complaint to a consumer specialist with a metro newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Eventually, after getting totally fed up, I told the CEO that I was dumping the HP printer for a Canon. I got a copy of Consumer Reports magazine for May 2008 (?) which just happened to rate computer printers. I bought one of the Canons that they rated highly. Have not had any probs with the Canon since. It was less expensive ($ 69 Cdn + tax) than the HP printer and has twice the number of features — just an excellent product.

Because I was so upset, the HP director of corporate communications called me on Sept 15, 2008. I told him all of the above and more besides. Also, I told him I used a lot of ink cartridges with the HP 1510 and had to stop buying original HP cartridges because they were so freaking expensive ( $19.99 + tax) and switched to refills ($ 9.99 + tax). The lady at the refill store said my cartridge for the HP printer only held 5 mL (one teaspoon) of ink! No wonder I had to keep refilling it every 3 weeks.

I told Mister director of corporate communications at HP that I wanted to send my HP printer back to the corporate office and asked for recycling info and if I could get a refund. I had the printer for less than a couple of years. He said he would get back in a day or two.

I waited a freaking week but he never called. I had to leave him a heavy-duty phone message to call me as promised. He finally called and said he would send a follow-up email which he did — but forgot to include in the email a response as to whether I would get a refund or partial refund.

I had to email him AGAIN on the latter issue. He finally called on Sept 25 saying HP was refusing to refund any of my hard earned money that I paid for the printer. He then followed with the blah, blah, blah phony comments about how sorry he was about all the trouble I had with HP and was sorry to lose me as a customer — Yeah, right.

In one of his emails was information on recycling printers with a link to the HP recycling site. (As mentioned above, I had requested this info as I do not like sending electronic junk like the HP printer to landfills). I could not figure out how to use the recycling site so I called HP. An agent told me the service was totally free and all I had to do was download an address label from the site. I ended the call and went back to the site but could not find the FREE address label anywhere on the site.

I called HP recycling back AGAIN on Sept 25, 2008 and this time got a completely different story from another HP agent who said I had to pay a freaking fee to send my HP printer back to them for recycling! Well that's one fee they will never see. The damn printer is going back to HP, addressed to the CEO Mark Hurd, supposing I have to walk barefoot the whole 2400 kilometres from here to Toronto myself, dragging the HP printer behind me.

I have now sent another email to Mister Director of Corporate Communications asking him why he didn't tell me earlier that there was a recycling fee –especially given all the probs I had previously with HP — on top of HP refusing to give me my money back for the Hewlett Crappard printer.

ARRRRGGGHH!!! Don't people who work as directors of corporate communications go to university for years studying how to communicate with customers????

I am waiting for his reply. I copied Mr. Mark Hurd CEO and the consumer specialist on that email. I have also asked Mister Director of Corporate Communications for the contact info for the members of the Board of Directors of HP in the USA. My gut feeling is that HP is just trying to sell as many products as possible to keep profits up but, in my opinion, are saying to hell with customer service. It is my personal belief that they are being inundated with complaints and simply cannot keep up. It may explain why it took a week for Mister Director of Corporate Communications at HP to get back to me when he said he would get back in a day or two. I could be wrong.

I feel screwed over by bad customer service at HP Canada. I have wasted hours of my time as a small business owner dealing with HP. I run my small business from my home. Time is money to me. I don't like to bear resentment against any corporate giants no matter how incompetent they are or how incompetent they appear to be. I just no longer will accept the feeling of being ripped off and screwed over by HP. They lost me as a customer and I hope the 10 people I tell about my bad experience (in addition to the people reading this blog) will each tell 10 others which makes 100 customers.
I always first give corporations the benefit of the doubt when it comes to customer service, and I am patient while waiting for them to get off their butts to make me a happy customer. When they don't follow through, I GET REALLY ANGRY, and then I tell others.

Thanks everyone for listening to my long rant. Wow….I feel better already….I think I will copy and paste my rant and then print it on my new Canon printer — ta da !