Part X: The 2nd Email sent to HP CEO Mark Hurd

After five weeks of unreturned messages to Graham, it seems I've again exhausted all my options. Back to Mr. Mark Hurd.



Dear Mr. Hurd,

Nearly three months ago I wrote to you expressing my dissatisfaction with HP customer service. I had run the gamut of technical support and customer service representatives, each of whom contradicted one another and would without hesitation flat-out lie to me. My HP laptop experienced a common hardware problem with the zd7000 series - the computer would power on, but the display would remain off. Many web sites confirmed that this was a common issue experienced by numerous customers. Later, I found out through my corporate case manager Graham, that it is now standard HP policy to repair all display issues with the zd7000 series laptop regardless of warranty status.

At the time I wrote to you I didn't know that. All I knew was that HP technical support wanted to charge me $700 to repair a widespread design flaw, which I didn't feel was right. I wrote to you out of frustration and I very much appreciated the quick response from someone in your company. I was given a case number and got in touch with a corporate case manager named Graham. After describing my problem, Graham confirmed that all display issues with the zd7000 are repaired free of charge. The laptop was shipped to HP for repairs and promptly came back. Unfortunately, soon after it began to behave erratically and frequently shut down. Again I spoke with Graham and the laptop was again sent to HP for repairs. Again, the computer was repaired but still exhibited all manner of problems, including a black screen, the problem I had sent it in for originally. The state of the laptop is now worse than it was before I sent it into HP for repairs.

As per Graham's instructions, I once more tried to contact him. And I tried again and again. For the last five weeks I have left over six messages with your corporate case manager but have yet to have any of my calls returned. I hope you find this as unacceptable as I do.

This is a time line of my experiences with your company:

* November 2004 - Laptop purchased

* April 2005 - Failure One
o Black screen of death, laptop is sent to HP (1st time) and repaired

* January 2006 - 1 Year extended warranty purchased and registered from HP (turns out to be fraudulent due to it being an expired warranty at time of purchase - still waiting for refund...)

* November 2006 - Failure Two
o Black screen of death returns

* December 2006 - HP clarifies that all zd7000 display issues are repaired free of charge due to company policy regarding design flaws. This is in direct contradiction to HP Tech support representatives who attempt to charge $700.

* December 2006 - Laptop sent (2nd time) to HP for repairs. Motherboard and heatsink are replaced.

* January 2007 - Failure Three
o Laptop behaves erratically, system shuts down and freezes, blue screen becomes common
o Laptop again sent (3rd time) to HP for repairs, ram replaced.

* February 2007 - Failure Four
o Laptop continues to behave erratically with constant shutdowns and blue screens.
o Still waiting for resolution, I've left over four unreturned messages with corporate case manager Graham.

If you desire a more comprehensive account of my travails with your company, please don't hesitate to visit the blog I have set up: http://shameonhp.blogspot.com, which has been receiving visitors from all over the world. Commenting is open and I would love to hear any feedback from you.

To me at least, one of the most troubling aspects is how your employees are so quick to blame each other. For instance, when a myriad of HP tech support representatives tried to charge me 700 dollars for a repair that HP policy states is free of charge, Case Manager Graham certainly didn't try to rectify the situation for future HP product owners by making sure Technical support gets it right in the future and is keyed into official HP policy regarding zd7000 screen issues, no, he wasn't interested in that. And he definitely didn't do anything as simple as offer an apology for what could be a costly mistake to a lot of people, he just said they're wrong and blamed the lowly representatives for the mistake. Last I checked they are just reading text off of a screen. Text you write?

I've been a longtime HP customer, feeling a certain affinity for founders Bill and Dave's California ingenuity, and I don't think I'm asking for too much to get this obviously faulty laptop either adequately repaired or replaced. Should your customers expect a $2000 investment to include being lied to by representatives of HP? Is the quality of your products so low that customers should expect to have to send their laptops in for repairs at least three times? And that even after all that, the computer returns in an even worse condition. Should I accept that my calls won't be returned by your corporate case manager? Shouldn't I expect more from a major American corporation? Shouldn't you?

Nearly three months ago, when I first wrote you, I expressed my sincere hope that the poor level of customer service I had received up to that point was an anomaly, that the company founded by Bill and Dave could not have fallen so low. Unfortunately, after this serious and sustained lack of even the most basic of service I am beginning to worry that the dishearteningly low degree of customer support may have become the new norm for HP. I will hold out a small measure of hope that you can prove me wrong.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Part IX: How is it possible that a major American corporation can consistently perform this poorly in all aspects?

Or: Shame on HP for sullying poor Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's good name.

The black screen returns. Incontrovertible evidence that HP Service Technicians are as incompetent as their brothers in Customer Service and Technical Support. This is the third time this ubiquitous zd7000 error has struck my computer down. HP has already had two chances to fix this laptop that is now officially worse than when it was originally sent to HP for "repair."

Also, in the last two weeks I have left four messages for Corporate Case Manger Graham. Four unreturned messages. Why does your answering service lie? You know a case manager won't return my call within a few hours. I'm worried I have exhausted all official channels to receive a working laptop - it could be time to invoke a higher power. You've left me no choice. I call on the ghosts of Bill and Dave to intervene! Smite this horrible company that without your guiding hands has fallen oh so far!

Part VIII: Recap

Break it down:

• November 2004 - Laptop purchased

• April 2005 - Failure One
• Black screen of death, laptop is sent to HP (1st time) and repaired
  

• January 2006 - 1 Year extended warranty purchased and registered from HP (turns out to be fraudulent due to it being an expired warranty at time of purchase - still waiting for refund...)

• November 2006 - Failure Two
• Black screen of death returns, see part IV "Fiasco"

• December 2006 - HP clarifies that all zd7000 display issues are repaired free of charge due to company policy regarding design flaws. This is in direct contradiction to HP Tech support representatives who attempt to charge $700.

• December 2006 - Laptop sent (2nd time) to HP for repairs. Motherboard and heatsink are replaced.

• January 2007 - Failure Three
• Laptop behaves erratically, system shuts down and freezes, blue screen becomes common
  
• Laptop again sent (3rd time) to HP for repairs, ram replaced.

• February 2007 - Failure Four
• Laptop continues to behave erratically with constant shutdowns and blue screens.
• Still waiting for resolution.....

Part VII: Purgatory

The elapsed time between posts would appear to imply that HP adequately met their responsibility to repair a faulty notebook. However, that would be greatly underestimating the depth of Hewlett Packard incompetence and their really quite remarkable ability to consistently under perform at seemingly the most basic of tasks.

Per Part VI, the motherboard and video card were repaired, and the notebook was returned to me on January 11th (again due to HP, an attempt was made to find the mysterious nonexistent 129 sixth floor, not 12964, much love to all the alert fedex drivers working the marina). Immediately upon powering on, the system behaved erratically and would consistently either lock up or reboot itself during ram intensive applications. At least the display now works. Also, as a compliment to the previous black screen of death, now I became accustomed to the blue screen of death. I'd wasted so much time just getting to this point, from india to the ceo, and to still have a non-functioning $2000 paper weight was disappointing to say the least.



Back on the phone with corporate case manager Graham, per his instructions should the laptop continue to fail, I explained to him the new symptoms - random shutdowns, system lock-up, and blue screen. I realize I'm really tired of talking to Graham, not that there's anything necessarily wrong with him, he seems alright, I'm just tired of repeating this stale process. Anyway, Graham is thinking memory problem, which is certainly a reasonable diagnosis. I had run memtest86 and gotten back a large number of errors which could suggest a ram or motherboard problem. But Windows Memory diagnostic tool found no errors and the ram was stable with no system compromises on another machine. Ineffectively, I tried to steer him away from this conclusion back to the possibility that maybe the repairs that HP had just done could be causing the new failure. He assured me the laptop would be thoroughly checked and repaired when I sent it in again, for the third time. With faith that the Hercule Poirot's at the HP Service Center could properly investigate the cause of these problems and that this time they could make good and maybe all would be forgiven. The laptop was sent to HP on January 30th and returned back to me on February 2nd, the repair slip simply stated - ram replaced.

Granted I am in no way an i.t. expert, but it seems reasonable to deduce that the problem is most likely not being caused by my ram module that has been consistently working since day one, but rather the new problem is probably related to the new motherboard that HP apparently clumsily replaced the week before. Again I power up the machine for the first time following a HP repair. Again the system freezes up before windows finishes booting up. I restart, the system manages to boot up, but this time I get a blue screen. A new blue screen, but still a blue screen nonetheless. This process of restarting, system freeze, restart, continues for a ridiculously long time. Each time hoping in vain that that is going to be the one time it works. At this point the computer is in a worse place that it was before I ever sent it to HP. Back when I only had the black screen of death I could still hook the thing up to an external monitor, but now, the thing won't work for more than five minutes.

Suspiciously, my corporate case manager has become harder to get on the phone. So, while I wait for Graham to call me back, I have some time to catch up on this ongoing report which stubbornly refuses to end.