Dealing with Hewlett Packard

Can someone give me some information as to how to deal with HP.

Possibly I have been a bit gullible but that doesn't support what has
happened.

I had a Deskjet 6520 printer which had the wrong carts in it. HP told
me that the region was set wrongly so I needed a new printer. We
discussed options (I also have a Deskjet 932 and a Photosmart 7550
which only have Gutenprint drivers) and they tried to sell me a new
one. I figured that the price they were offering it to me for was only
marginally more than their (!) cost of carts. So I just went ahead
and instead of figuring out how to change regions without HP knowing,
I bought it, - a 5460.

It arrived and I plugged it in and almost immediately found that IT
doesn't have Snow Leopard drivers at all!

So I called H P and said 'you just sold me a printer to replace one
which wont work with my OS which doesnt seem to have drivers for my
OS. Do you have any drivers please?' They checked carefully and
agreed. They admitted that SL took them all by surprise and no one at
HP thought to do proper drivers. (their site says that SL had its
stripped down generic drivers which should do basic printing work but
which may or may not have any functionality)

But instead of replacing it with the only printer they now have which
does have drivers for 10.6.2, just want to SELL me another, - the
right, - printer!! And when I start to complain, they just ignore
me. So when I ask to speak to a supervisor, they pull the old 'do
another call or two and see if, by the time you get back, the customer
has got sick of hanging on yet'

Trouble is, I do all this on a speaker phone and while they have me
on their 20 minute holds, I get on with my work, letting THEM
interrupt ME as opposed to ME waiting plaintiflly for THEM. And I
have three lines here (and was careful to use the least worked, -
VoIP, - one for this call) so I can hang on forever if necessary. So
ultimately they got rid of me by pretending that the supervisor was
going to return my call, (which I did mention was fairly obviously a
lie). But I am pretty sure that with this attitude, they must have so
many operatives that no amount of my calling their tech support can
have much effect on them?

I did get a case reference number for that initial call and tried to
call back and cite that number but the operatives just play dumb: When
I quote it, they start asking me all sorts of stupid questions which
seem to indicate that their notes say something along the lines of
'start this one from the beginning all over again and see if you can
get rid of him when he realises that he is getting nowhere'

Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone on
this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer support?
I note with consternation that whereas they used to have a plethora of
printers, they do now seem to have discontinued most of them and now
only seem to have the 7560 to print photos [along with a slew of multi-
functions]. or does this mean that they are coming out with a whole
new line of them to replace these two (?) year old models soon?

On Feb 19, 12:47*pm, Martin Trautmann wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
*Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone on
*this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer support?

No, stay away from HP.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin

Sounds reasonable but I am having a different problem: I had to pay
them to sell me a printer (because they have some stupid region
setting they wont change) and immediately I opened the brand new
printer to find that it doesn't work, they want me to pay them to
sell me one which does actually work!

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:47:09 -0800, Martin Trautmann
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone on
this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer support?

No, stay away from HP. They do build some great products. But never ever
expect that they will fix anything which is broken for newer OS
versions.

I had the same experience already with the first inkjet printer they
built (HP Deskwriter) - the printer driver did consume every possible
bit of available memory for its queue after the OS was upgraded. I guess
this was about MacOS 7.5 or 7.6. The problem was well known but never
got fixed.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin
No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their
Achilles heel but the Deskwriter was not the first inkjet printer. The
first was the ThinkJet in 84.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/his...011/index.html
The DeskWriter series was their third generation inkjet if I recall.

Mickey

On Feb 19, 5:27*pm, mickey wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:47:09 -0800, Martin Trautmann *
wrote:





On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
*Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone on
*this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer support?

No, stay away from HP. They do build some great products. But never ever
expect that they will fix anything which is broken for newer OS
versions.

I had the same experience already with the first inkjet printer they
built (HP Deskwriter) - the printer driver did consume every possible
bit of available memory for its queue after the OS was upgraded. I guess
this was about MacOS 7.5 or 7.6. The problem was well known but never
got fixed.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin

No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their *
Achilles heel

This was my question: Do they actually have any customer service or is
it all handled by technical support refusing to assist when something
goes so obviously wrong? Is there some trick to calling them?

If they think they have saved money by doing away with their customer
service, do they have any office whatsoever in New York for a small
claims action? Any local sales office, training office, PR office,
medical device office etc etc etc please? I figure that issuing in
small claims is a faster way of getting a resolution than spending
endless hours on the phone with a company which acts like this.
Instead of going through this ridiculous charade with their tech
support people going off to get a coffee to see if the customer has
got sick of waiting yet, just tramp down to some local arbitrator to
see if he agrees that they should be able to charge me for a printer
and then charge me again for a printer which works. Then if I can
present it in an amusing enough way to some local newspaper, it should
be possible to get a newspaper to pay me for the article? I am a
freelance journalist and I can see some possibilities here. New York
media love punchy headlines and those possibilities are endless (I'm
sure we all remember what "headless body found in topless bar" was
really all about!). That way I come out of this episode with a profit
for having been made to 'wait' endlessly for 'hours' on the phone
while HP tries to get rid of me. And then be obviously lied to about
a call-back when they wouldn't pass me on to a supervisor


But not if they do have customer service.

On 2/20/2010 6:17 AM, DManzaluni wrote:

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone on
this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer support?



This was my question: Do they actually have any customer service or is
it all handled by technical support refusing to assist when something
goes so obviously wrong? Is there some trick to calling them?

If they think they have saved money by doing away with their customer
service, do they have any office whatsoever in New York for a small
claims action? Any local sales office, training office, PR office,
medical device office etc etc etc please? I figure that issuing in
small claims is a faster way of getting a resolution than spending
endless hours on the phone with a company which acts like this.
Instead of going through this ridiculous charade with their tech
support people going off to get a coffee to see if the customer has
got sick of waiting yet, just tramp down to some local arbitrator to
see if he agrees that they should be able to charge me for a printer
and then charge me again for a printer which works. Then if I can
present it in an amusing enough way to some local newspaper, it should
be possible to get a newspaper to pay me for the article? I am a
freelance journalist and I can see some possibilities here. New York
media love punchy headlines and those possibilities are endless (I'm
sure we all remember what "headless body found in topless bar" was
really all about!). That way I come out of this episode with a profit
for having been made to 'wait' endlessly for 'hours' on the phone
while HP tries to get rid of me. And then be obviously lied to about
a call-back when they wouldn't pass me on to a supervisor


But not if they do have customer service.

Try writing to who runs the Infoworld Gripe
Line http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/christina-wood

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:26:18 -0800, Martin Trautmann
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:27:19 -0800, mickey wrote:
No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their
Achilles heel but the Deskwriter was not the first inkjet printer. The
first was the ThinkJet in 84.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/his...011/index.html
The DeskWriter series was their third generation inkjet if I recall.

Hi Mickey,

I guess you're right about earlier injet printers at all. But AFAIK the
DeskWriter was the first Apple compatible inkjet printer from HP - it
was the DeskJet with an AppleTalk interface (RS-422) and Mac drivers.
Since this thread was about MacOS incompatibility (Snow Leopard / MacOS
10.6), I did not consider the DOS world (Hm, I guess, Win 3.1 was around
by that time).

- Martin

No harm. It was a long time ago. It only caught my eye because I'm a
former HP employee with friends and family associated with the inkjet
divisions. Was friends and worked with the industrial Eng that designed
the first inkjet, the ThinkJet. Have owned several thinkjets, a
pagewriter and several Deskjet models. Son is an Eng at the Vancouver
printer Div. Have been a Canon owner for at least 5 yrs.

Mickey

On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:17:31 -0800, DManzaluni
wrote:

On Feb 19, 5:27 pm, mickey wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:47:09 -0800, Martin Trautmann
wrote:





On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone
on
this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer
support?

No, stay away from HP. They do build some great products. But never
ever
expect that they will fix anything which is broken for newer OS
versions.

I had the same experience already with the first inkjet printer they
built (HP Deskwriter) - the printer driver did consume every possible
bit of available memory for its queue after the OS was upgraded. I
guess
this was about MacOS 7.5 or 7.6. The problem was well known but never
got fixed.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with
postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin

No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their
Achilles heel

This was my question: Do they actually have any customer service or is
it all handled by technical support refusing to assist when something
goes so obviously wrong? Is there some trick to calling them?

......


But not if they do have customer service.

Like so many other Co's today, they farmed out their "customer Service"
years ago. Also they have been out of the medical business for more than
a decade. IMO today's HP is in name only. Bill, Dave, the principles and
company they created are long dead.

Mickey

On Feb 21, 10:26*am, mickey wrote:
On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:17:31 -0800, DManzaluni *
wrote:







On Feb 19, 5:27 pm, mickey wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:47:09 -0800, Martin Trautmann *
*wrote:

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
*Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to anyone *
on
*this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer *
support?

No, stay away from HP. They do build some great products. But never *
ever
expect that they will fix anything which is broken for newer OS
versions.

I had the same experience already with the first inkjet printer they
built (HP Deskwriter) - the printer driver did consume every possible
bit of available memory for its queue after the OS was upgraded. I *
guess
this was about MacOS 7.5 or 7.6. The problem was well known but never
got fixed.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with *
postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin

No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their *
Achilles heel

This was my question: Do they actually have any customer service or is
it all handled by technical support refusing to assist when something
goes so obviously wrong? *Is there some trick to calling them?

.....

But not if they do have customer service.

Like so many other Co's today, they farmed out their "customer Service" *
years ago. *Also they have been out of the medical business for more than *
a decade. *IMO today's HP is in name only. *Bill, Dave, the principles and *
company they created are long dead.

Mickey

Instead of sending me a printer which does actually work they have
offered to give me my money back: They DO seem quite keen that I dont
buy another HP printer. Should I take them up on it and be done with
them? Is there a Canon which does photos as well as the HPs at the
moment please? I was looking into it a few years ago but found that
the Canons didnt have enough colours in their (admittedly separate and
less expensive) cartridges to do photos which were as good as the best
of the HPs with their plethora of colours. Now I find that printing
seems to have moved on a bit and the printer companies seem to make do
with fewer colours along possibly with a photo black.

Is this game not worth the candle? Is this a company which empahsises
all-in-ones now where the individual parts dont do the job as well as
(for example) having a separate scanner, and printer?

Back then, Canon was pretty successfully playing catch up on photo
quality with HP still ahead. Has time moved on and Canon surpassed HP
and is HP concentrating their supposed talents elsewhere?

On Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:06:37 -0800, DManzaluni
wrote:

.....
Instead of sending me a printer which does actually work they have
offered to give me my money back: They DO seem quite keen that I dont
buy another HP printer. Should I take them up on it and be done with
them? Is there a Canon which does photos as well as the HPs at the
moment please? I was looking into it a few years ago but found that
the Canons didnt have enough colours in their (admittedly separate and
less expensive) cartridges to do photos which were as good as the best
of the HPs with their plethora of colours. Now I find that printing
seems to have moved on a bit and the printer companies seem to make do
with fewer colours along possibly with a photo black.

Is this game not worth the candle? Is this a company which empahsises
all-in-ones now where the individual parts dont do the job as well as
(for example) having a separate scanner, and printer?

Back then, Canon was pretty successfully playing catch up on photo
quality with HP still ahead. Has time moved on and Canon surpassed HP
and is HP concentrating their supposed talents elsewhere?

Since you are not happy now, I'd just go for the money returned.

I went with Canon 4-5 yrs ago and at that time HP didn't have any printer
I knew of that could offer the qlty of picture prints that my Canon can.

Mickey

mickey wrote:
On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:17:31 -0800, DManzaluni
wrote:

On Feb 19, 5:27 pm, mickey wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:47:09 -0800, Martin Trautmann
wrote:





On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:08 -0800 (PST), DManzaluni wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to actually get though to
anyone on
this sort of problem or have they discontinued their customer
support?

No, stay away from HP. They do build some great products. But never
ever
expect that they will fix anything which is broken for newer OS
versions.

I had the same experience already with the first inkjet printer they
built (HP Deskwriter) - the printer driver did consume every possible
bit of available memory for its queue after the OS was upgraded. I
guess
this was about MacOS 7.5 or 7.6. The problem was well known but never
got fixed.

The only HP printers to recommend are network printers with
postscript /
pcl - the risk of incompatibility is much lower then, even if the
support of grayscale or images may be less than perfect.

- Martin

No disagreement with HP's customer service, it has always been their
Achilles heel

This was my question: Do they actually have any customer service or is
it all handled by technical support refusing to assist when something
goes so obviously wrong? Is there some trick to calling them?

.....


But not if they do have customer service.

Like so many other Co's today, they farmed out their "customer Service"
years ago. Also they have been out of the medical business for more
than a decade. IMO today's HP is in name only. Bill, Dave, the
principles and company they created are long dead.

Mickey


Except for Walter Hewlett, who might not be an innovator engineer, but
always struck me as a decent guy trying to maintain the company culture.
Of course, Carly (now running for some Republican position or another)
Fiorina, decided Walter was her enemy, and she helped to tank the
company. Meanwhile Walter ended up at Agilent, a spin off from HP. While
HP has recovered financially since Carly was "asked to leave" (fired)
and given her golden parachute in 2005, the company culture, IMHO, has
been destroyed. Like yourself, I see HP today like so many others,
Memorex, Polaroid, to name a few, who are more a trademark and brand
than a company inventing new ideas and products.

I don't know that HP will ever be able to reclaim their place as a top
American company with quality and integrity as their principle methods.

In general, Carly has left a lot of bodies in her wake, Bell's Lucent
Technologies is a mere memory, HP is walking wounded, and John McCain,
much to my personal relief, fell on his sword with her help. She is now
running for Senate, and I suspect (and hope) her curse continues to
haunt her. She certainly has worsened the lives of enough workers and
investors over the years. She gives the good talk, but never seemed to
match it with her walk.

Art