Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

[Brian Hamman]

Hi,

It seems and I'm sure you don't have idea what it is all about to work for support(don't mean only HP). From your point of view it is easy. 20 peoples above wrote that they are not satisfied and think they know better and they are very important customer and must be supported by 3rd level and escalate every call. Let's say there are 100000 coming in the support center per day, 10% think they are very important and what's happening? Everyone is sure 1st level can't help him, refuses to make any troubleshooting and nothing what the support tells him because "he is so sure where the problem is/have no idea where the problem is, wants someone else to help him/speak with a manager". Maye if you are on the other side of the barricade you will see the things different. Difference between supporters and ITRC:
1. In ITRC you can answer when you want, support must answer everything
2. In ITRC you can search google 3 hours and accidentaly find a solution, support don't have this time
3. When you write in ITRC you can't answer wrong and nothing happens, the people are lucky someone tried to help them for free, if the answer is wrong - bad luck. Support can't give wrong answers.
4. In ITRC there are thousands of people with different knowledge , in support they are specialized in some products only.
5. Here you write , but you don't speak with the big specialist "who knows everything and has rights as the customer" and don't listen what the "poor supporter on the other side of the phone is saying".
I'm sure that 90% of the guys who wrote in this post will sweaÑ if only 2 knowledged people are explaining their architecture and what they try to do on the phone and want immediate response what's wrong - 1st you don't have time to answer everyone and 2nd you can't see everything on the phone like the customer sees it.
If you work 2 days maybe you will speak from peoples who don't know how to turn off the computer and people who have very complex infrastructure, you must think for 20 problems at a time. I have worked as a support in a ISP company and I can tell you , working with a lot of different customers is not so easy. I can argue lot about that :)

Regards,
Brian

[Doug Burton]

Well.... I just HAVE to reply to the last two responses.

First Awadhesh:
Fist, to understand were this is coming from you would have to have been around for a while. At least five years, using HP support. I used to call and get first level support. You know... the first person to answer the phone. I would get my answer perhaps 90% of the time. YES, right off the bat. It was great. Smart people, etc. etc. All from the first level folks.

When I call now I get somebody who takes a message. I have come to realize to my misfortune that I need them to read back the call notes to me EVER time. Why? Because they ALWAYS get it wrong. BTW - I am VERY specific in what I'm telling them.

If I need to escalate the call I do. But you know what the REAL issue is? If you have issues with the "first line". The message takers if you will. And I need to have a supervisor get involved it not only is a HUGH pain but more than likely I mysteriously get disconnected. Oh... and the supervisor NEVER calls back or emails. Hmmm... nice support so far.

Now for the Brian Hamman response:
Every Systems Administrator is answerable to everybody in the company. Let's face facts, the server(s) go down in any way and everybody is calling you. Generally our function is to add users, restore data, build boxes etc. etc. but we also SUPPORT all those users. We take calls just like the HP support folks do. And for the argument that the HP folks can't give wrong answers you haven't used HP support long. They are human and make mistakes however they have a vast amount of knowledge at there disposal which we do not. Oh... and I did work for HP and had a few (to say the least) servers and customers to take care of so you can say I have an idea of what I'm talking about.

The cook off is the support has gone wayyyy down hill. Simple as that. And we know what we are talking about.

[James M. Dunn]

Brian,

This thread is not about an ISP or any other "backend support" for any other company, it's about Hewlett Packard's poor to cruddy support. I have basically stated this... "Over a period of 11 years HP's support has gone downhill like a truck with no breaks". Why has HPâ s support gone down this road? To maximize corporate profit, thatâ s the bottom line..money and at the expense of the customer.

I agree that the backend support folks are suffering too, because of the â maximize corporate profitâ mentality.

To HP Customer Service VP,

Please provide your customers with a person that speaks the same language; fluently, itâ s hard enough fixing a problem but it makes it even more difficult when you have to deal with a language barrier!


JD

[Joel Belizario]

Hi Jim,

Seems to me like the trend nowadays is anyone who is excellent at 1st level doesn't stay there very long - I think this whole outsourcing model has basically killed any incentive to have an excellent 1st level support team.

I think of 1st level as the foundation of support, if the calls that can and should be resolved by 1st level everybody involved will be a heck of a lot happier!

[AwadheshPandey]

DB,

it may be in ur case, But I am getting the exellent support from HP while other vendors still strugling for good resources....

Awadhesh

[machoq1]

This is a TEST Message Kindly Ignore this

[Anshumali]

Well.. my experience with HP goes well and all the cases logged were answered perfectly well. The support we received from HP is good. What i feel is you always have the option to get your case escalated to higher level but taking the case number and information the ASE does the trick for us. ITRC and knowledge bases always help me to understand when to log a case and what to do when its logged to steer it towards resolution. :)

Cheers!
Anshu

[Ashly A K]

hi!

Please see the below post. Quality is affecting new products and updates too.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1153111


Ashly A K
http://geocities.com/helponhpopenview/

[Glenn S. Davidson]

I find it is hit and miss (maybe more miss). I end up doing alot more research and trial and error even after I open a call and typically end up fixing it myself even if it means fixing scripts.

I used to call HP even if I had another OS that was similar and just tell them it was an HPUX server and I would get it fixed alot faster than if I called the actual vendor but I can't say I would do that now.

It seems like even on simple questions they have to go through their 'script' when it's unrelated or unnecessary. I just open a case for a temporary license key for a product and it's in the release notes as a documented problem so I called and I got a list of questions that have nothing to do with getting a key. I ended up deleting the email and removing the software.

[Eric Crosby_3]

Over the last 2 years, HP support has been on a downward spiral. This is not only the tier 1 phone support, but also parts availability. Tier 2, 3 and WTEC are great resources, after you get there - altough they seem to be stretched thin. Parts availability is horrid. The local CE's are great! I wish the company would quit crippling them!

We have moved our hardware support from HP to another provider. It has saved us massive amounts, they are CEs that left HP and started a new company - more like the "Old HP".

If HP doesn't fix the software support side of life, I can see that changing in the next few years too.