HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole

February 29, 2008

It has happened to anyone who owns a computer. Invariably the machine hick-ups, and you find yourself on the telephone to tech support. You sit there for several hours getting routed to every customer call center on the planet trying to connect with someone who can 1 and 1 to get 2. By the end of the process, you realize that if you multiplied your hourly salary by the number of hours wasted on the phone with tech support, you could have purchased a new computer.

Since I know you’ve all been there, I won’t bore you with my HP tech support ordeal. All you need to know is that my power cord is frayed, and the morons in HP tech support keep “solving the problem” by sending me duplicate copies of some power cord that does not fit into the power adapter.

The last straw come today when I was sitting on the phone with a “case manager”, the king of the tech support morons, who apparently is a little smarter and a little mightier than his mindless minions. I guess in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

After I explained my problem for about the twelfth time, each time getting more frustrated, this “case manager” broke in and said, “according to the part numbers you gave me, you have no problem. The cord HP sent you fits the adapter you already have.”

Okay, genius. Explain to me how this peg:

fits into this hole:

At this point, I expressed to my “case manager” that I am a mechanical engineer with two advanced degrees, and I am currently employed as an engineering professor. Who else is more qualified to conclude that A does not fit into B?

The “case manger” concluded the conversation by telling me that unless I could give him some other part numbers than the ones I had read off of my computer, my adapter, and the power cord HP sent, nothing could be done to help me. So, I started reciting all the digits of Pi, and the “case manager” hung up on me.

This engineer will not be buying any more HP products.

Posted by Matthew Traum on February 29, 2008 | Comments (5)

November 12, 2008

In response to: HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole
Scott commented:

I had the same thing last night when my internet on my new HP would not work. The \”tech support\” kept telling me to plug and unplug the cord in and run diagnostics tests. I finally went into the drivers and changed the speed duplex settings to 10 mbps half duplex and that fixed my problem. I don\’t how these companies can call themselves \”tech support\” when all they do is tell you to unplug things, restart and run the diagnostics which is pointless because the test needs the cable to start the test. ALSO, its annoying trying to decipher their accent.

April 6, 2008

In response to: HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole
Anil commented:

It's interesting that neither HP nor the customer suggested sending photos of the part. That might have illuminated the problem.

March 21, 2008

In response to: HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole
gmak2004@comcast.net commented:

TO KEEP A LONG STORY SHORT....TWO BAD EXPERIENCES USING TECH HELP FROM INDIA.

BOTH WERE PAID FOR UP FRONT.

BOTH WASTED MOMEY AND TIME.

NEITHER RESOLVED THE PROBLEM.

MY ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE DID NOT IMPROVE.

NO MORE TECH HELP AND NO MORE HP PRODUCTS FOR THIS RETIRED TEACHER.

March 10, 2008

In response to: HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole
Don't Do Dell commented:

No, don't go to Dell either!

March 3, 2008

In response to: HP Tech Support Suggests Inserting a Square Peg in a Round Hole
Chris Loughnane commented:

Great post,

I am currently in the process of trying to get the exact same problem fixed. Won't go into the details (as you already did), but just wanted to chime in and echo your frustrations. Might be going Dell next time

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