July 16th - Speaking with Corporate

At 11:14am on Thursday, July 16th, I called the HP Corporate Office. The Better Business Bureau has their corporate office as:

3000 Hanover St
MS1247
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1112
Tel: (650) 857-1501
Fax: (650) 852-8330

I followed the prompts until I got to an operator. I asked the woman if I could speak with someone in the department that handles service enhancements, recalls, and warranties. The operator was the first person to start attempting to derail me.

"In regards to what kind of product?"
"A notebook."
"A Pavillion? A...."
"A Pavillion."
"Okay, if you're having technical trouble, you should call the customer service department at 800-917-4380.."

I explained to the operator that I needed to speak to a person about their policies. She reluctantly transferred me to the Consumer Relations department, where the phone was answered by a woman named Annette.

Annette has no sense of listening, comprehension, or social skills. I explained my situation, and asked if she knew anything of the order coming "from corporate" banning customer service from offering free or discounted repairs to consumers. Our conversation went something like this:

Annette: "Ma'am, the order came down from the higher-ups that we are not to offer ANY free or discounted repairs."

Me: "I understand, Annette. I know you are not authorized to help me and you don't have the authority to help me. I want to speak to someone who can. Can you give me contact information for someone in the department that issued the order?"

A: "Ma'am, there was no department that issued the order. The memo instructed us not to offer ANY free or discounted repairs to customers."

M: "Surely some person's name was signed to the memo, or it came on letterhead from a specific department. The memo didn't come from nobody, did it? I'd like to speak to the department that issued the memo."

A: "Ma'am, there was no department that issued the memo."

M: "So you're telling me that the memo came from nobody? Or do you routinely follow memos from unidentified personnel?"

A: "Ma'am, the order came from higher-up, NOT to offer any free or discounted repairs to consumers."

M: "Annette, you're not understanding me. I understand you cannot help me. You are not authorized to help me with a repair, because someone higher-up told you not to. I would like the opportunity to speak to someone higher-up, so we might fix it."

A: "Ma'am, the order came from higher-up, there's no person, there's no department."....

And so on. Annette was unwilling to give me any information regarding a supervisor or other department. I asked her repeatedly if I could speak with HER supervisor or manager - appeals which she completely ignored and spit out "We've been told NOT to offer"... again.

Finally, she agreed to take my phone number and have "a manager" call me back within 2 hours. That was at about 11:30am on Thursday, July 16th. Before hanging up, I asked her for her last name - she told me it was "Jones." Ahem. Yeah, right.