Aaron says: No, I’m not. I’ve plainly said I’m a Mac man.

If, OTOH, he wanted a whole bunch of custom hardware and software then it’s going to take time regardless of who he purchased the laptop through.

Show me one company that does and I’ll show you a miserable failure of a company.

This, this right here is the problem. If you do not understand how just asking this question is plain wrong then you will always have a hard time with customer service people.

You wouldn’t last a week working customer service.

Noah: Does it really matter how customers behave when it comes to customer service? I mean, I don’t think Thomas was out of line asking questions and not being satisfied by the results. HPs customer service is not stellar so his expectation of something not very different is not unreasonable. Regardless of how Thomas approached the situation (I don’t see his first email as threatening – and definitely not inflammatory), HP has an obligation to customer service or they will take their hits in the public arena. Be real about it.

I think everyone ignores another part of this conversation. Unempowered CSR tells Thomas to call the call center. Which makes me wonder why her job exists at all. Then Thomas does and is told there is nothing to be done. He asks for other suggestions (is this an attack too?). The CSR then recommends calling the same number again.

Why the circular handling? What CAN Denise do? What is the point of her job if not to handle customer service?

Title of blog : “HP Gives Consumer the Middle Finger”

Behave like an adult? Remove hands from eyes and take own advice.

I have no stock in HP. I do not work for HP. I work in customer support and I deal with customer’s like Thomas every day. When Thomas is unhappy, I am the one he writes or calls and gets angry with when he can’t get his way.

So, suck-it-up Thomas. You fucked up! You made a mistake when you placed your order. As others have pointed out:

a) You should have chosen a “ships today” laptop instead of the custom-built one

b) Your mistake is no cause for HP to have an emergency

c) You started out making threats to the customer service rep.

Whatever happened to the expression: “You attract more flies with honey than vinegar” ?? If Thomas had started off by being nice to the customer service people he probably would have gotten what he wanted. But, Thomas comes out with the “guns a blazing” and threats the Support people (and HP). They were like: “No… fuck YOU Thomas…. fuck you in your stupid ass”

No outsourced CSRs, no inexperienced “Ma’am is your computer turned on?” nonsense…just solutions, and quick ones. On the other hand, when I call, I don’t make unrealistic demands and I don’t yell at the CSR.

The system was returned. I was not offered repair or replacement. Never again will I order from them.

I called 3 or 4 times and emailed several times. I couldn’t get to a supervisor that had a clue.

Thomas initiated his conversation with:
“I think it is ridiculous that it is going to take to the 28th of Feb to build my computer, when I ordered it on the 17th.”

Having some customer service experience I can say that the tone of the conversation was probably set directly to nasty as soon as Thomas submitted his first inquiry.

You will (almost) always get better customer service when you are nice or sweet talk the support. Think about it, if your job was to respond to emails like this you would likely immediately dismiss, ignore, or put off any messages that were hostile or accusative in nature, and if you had the ability you would send it off to an underling or auto response bot.

Having initiated a conversation like this I am surprised that Thomas received a response at all.

I am an Apple guy. I did not buy the computer. And if you actually read, no one is complaining about how long it took to process the order. Take your feet out of your mouth and behave like an adult. I am not the one whining here. Makes me wonder if you have stock in HP since you’re such a fanboy.

Thomas broke his laptop. Laptops are expensive pieces of equipment and as a business PC that Thomas relies on this laptop’s worth is even greater. “Freak Accident” = “Stupid and Careless”

Now with a major problem and a clear deadline, Thomas ORDERED a PC. A custom PC. One that was going to take time to build, test, and ship. A ten minute trip to a computer store and he could have avoided all of this. Not thinking clearly, more like clearly not thinking.

And yes I said test. HP isn’t stupid enough to build you a PC and send it off without testing it. Because a customer like Thomas or you would boil them in oil if you received a PC that didn’t work absolutely perfect. If you take a minute to think about how many (hundreds) of these orders they do in a day. It’s amazing they can do it all in 11 days.

On top of being so short-sighted about his purchase, Thomas was rude and childish from the very begining of his emails with HP.

“I think it is ridiculous”
“So, customer service does not seem to be a priority to you.”
“I buy two to three cmputers a year”
“it is taking you FOREVER to build it”
“The computer is for business, not video games!!”
“I will not forget this.”

When you act like you are a two year old brat. What do you expect in return? You made similar childish statements Mr. “Technology Ninja”

And again on childish. I like how you made a big deal about Thomas being willing to pay for the special shipping he wanted. He damn well should! It was not HP’s fault that Thomas was in this situation, and it is not thier job to dig him out of it. He’s a big boy for heaven’s sake.

If HP made custom shipping arrangements for Thomas, they would have to for you. Because you would go crazy if they denied you after he got it. And then your friends and family. And Thomas’co-workers, and soon everyone who thinks they deserve something for nothing. Which is a big pile of people these days. And if you would like to fund and organize the department that will handle and arrange all of these shipping requests. Then maybe HP will consider it. But right now they’re too busy building laptops for people like you who have been calling them because thier laptop is taking FOREVER (11days) and they have a business trip, and they buy 3 PCs a year.

“I’m Your Customer Who Never Comes Back.”

I’m a nice customer. All merchants know me. I’m the one who never complains no matter what kind of service I get. When I go to a store to buy something I don’t throw my weight around. I try to be thoughtful of the other person. If I get a snooty clerk who gets irritated because I want to look at several things before I make up my mind, I’m as polite as can be; I don’t believe rudeness in return is the answer. I never shout, complain or criticize and I wouldn’t dream of making a scene as I’ve seen people doing in public places. No, I’m the nice customer, but I’m also the nice customer who never comes back.
That’s my little revenge for being abused and taking whatever you hand out, because I know I’m not coming back. This way doesn’t immediately relieve my feelings but in the long run it’s far more satisfying than blowing my top. In fact, a nice customer like myself, multiplied by others of my kind, can ruin a business. And there are a lot of nice people just like me. When we get pushed far enough, we go to another store where they appreciate nice customers.
He laughs best, they say, who laughs last. I laugh when I see you frantically advertising to get me back, when you could have kept me in the first place with a few kind words and a smile. Your business might be in a different town and your situation might be “different,” but if your business is bad, chances are good that if you will change your attitude the word will get around and I’ll change from the nice customer who never comes back to the nice customer who always comes back and brings his friends.

On the other hand, I work for an IT company, and we are HP authorized resellers. Do you want yo guess the brand for all the consultants laptops? Dell. Why?, HP machines are better, but (at least here in Colombia) Dell customer and technical support is 10000% better than HP. And for “road warriors” this counts more than anything. With a Dell computer, I have never waited more than 24 hrs to get a solution, compared to 10-15 days from HP. If your laptop is an “office on you shoulder” you can’t wait that long.

As far as I’m concerned the customer service person seems to have tried their best with an unreasonable self-important blowhard of a customer. I wouldn’t have been able to stick with it that long.

Yes, maybe HP won’t change the thing for you, but I give my applause to the customer service representative (CSR) who did remain professional towards a arrogant customer like thomas.

As a customer, starting off with a nice tone and a mindset that you’re not indeed superior to the CSR will help making your experience a smoother ride.

Also from personal experience, when I present my issue professionally, and let the CSR know that I in fact put myself in their shoe when it comes to dealing with customer, some of them have often gone the extra mile and done those *sshhhhh* or things to help me, though at times outside of their policy or trainer’s manual.

Not saying that HP is right or wrong in this case, but I do want to comment that if you carry a friendly conversation with CSR or just people on the street, you’ll often get what you don’t expect when you present yourself as a jerk otherwise…

Next time you email/call a CSR, say little things like, “how are you? where are you guys located?” and find out how much further that takes ya…

(1) Thomas is unmitigatingly hostile and generally uninformative. I’ll grant that it would be nice if customer support had time to read through every ticket every time – but that doesn’t tend to happen at the consumer level, for prices most consumers are willing to pay.

(2) There’s an apparent confusion between “required greeting” “text from customer service rep” “required signature” and “boilerplate response”. I’d definitely agree that there’s a ton of boilerplate in the messages – but the overall content of the exchange is actually:

Thomas:
Order Number: H9439196
Feedback: I think it is ridiculous that it is going to take to the 28th of Feb to build my computer, when I ordered it on the 17th. I cannot understand such a delay. So, customer service does not seem to be a priority to you. I buy two to three cmputers a year, but probably will not go through you again. I am very disappointed.
HPI understand your concern regarding the build date of your notebook and apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Thomas, I would like to inform you that you have ordered a customizable notebook, hence, it will require some time to build the notebook as per your requirements. I would also like to inform you that the build date is the estimated date and if your notebook is build earlier and shipped, we will notify you via e-mail. I appreciate your patience.

Thomas:
I am wondering if I can change the shipping for my computer, to expedite delivery. As it is taking you FOREVER to build it, I will not have it for my next road trip, which begins very early on Monday, March 5. Further, if the computer were to arrive when I was away, there would be no one to sign for it.

The computer is for business, not video games!! This is as frustrating as it can get…I will not forget this.

So, how can I upgrade to get the computer delivered by Friday, March 2?

HPI understand that you want to expedite your delivery. I would suggest you to call at the number listed below, so that they can help you to resolve your problem.

Thomas:
I called as you said, and they would not change the shipping option for me. Any more suggestions?

HPI understand you want to change your shipping method. I would suggest you to call at the number listed below and ask for a supervisor, so that they can help you to resolve your problem.

The boilerplate could be thought of as a rather excessive corporate email signature, in fact – and signatures/salutations are very common email automations (I’d be surprised if Thomas didn’t have one of his own, in fact).

I’d also note that Thomas doesn’t seem to have grasped the difference between “Needs to be built” and “shipped faster”, which this entire exchange seems to hinge on.

The overall issues here seem to be:

(A) Should there be an option to expedite the building of custom laptops (and at what cost).

(B) Was the notification that a custom laptop would take longer to build sufficiently obvious.