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Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

 
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Frank Copeland
Advisor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

The backslide in call center support has becomre more evident to me for the entire calendar year of 2007. I have reported this issue with my local CE team out of Ft Collins who have to apologize to me and then report my complaint to their management. They are (the Ft Collins team) a GREAT group of people by they way.

I'm a HPUX system customer. I agree with the notes above regarding the call center support falling way off. Scale of 1 to 10 compared to 12 months ago? I rate it a 1, being very poor.

That evaluation based off of the following:
1. Bad response time "JUST ANSWERING THE PHONE". Weekends are impossible, I've waited for over an hour on Saturday MORNINGs then gave up.
2. Poor english communication skills (ie: record not REEECord)
3. Insistence on me providing the same information that was supplied on previous call, or even repeating my service agreement ID after I've punched it into my telephone.
4. Tangled in bureaucracy about device serial numbers because my primary ID# doesn't provide them with the information for service on a device currently causing/having problems (I used to get passed this pretty easily, now days I have to have every little number available to me).
5. Call in support for Software and hardware are equally bad (Level 1 english for data protector is impossible to understand every time).
6. Add logistic (delivery) support and their call up response to hardware and software complaints. The companies that you outsourced for logistics can't help with any questions because they can't be understood. Also very rude. Last weekend 12/3 Sunday was a terrible experience for me. I was trying to find out about a delivery that was supposed to come to me on Saturday and the best they did was confirm that my Friday delivery made it (that was the wrong part which created the need for a Saturday delivery which never happened).

There, I feel a little better now. I know its nothing compared to the grand scheme of what should be my real life. It's just that I hate to see a company like HP free falling like this all in the name of corporate greed. And I cringe knowing that the enterprise I work for has so much riding on this lousy service.

Put the service back in your tech support please.
Joshua Small_2
Valued Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

I've had several cases open for forever.

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1128223

PSP 7.8 killed our servers. In several months of working with HP, the best they would ever tell us is to upgrade drivers. Ultimately the case went cold and they forgot about us. When PSP 7.9 came out we finally had some relief.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1176222&admit=109447626+1196925338986+28353475

Firmware update also affected a server. HP's latest official advise? Firmware updates are not to be done by end users. Honestly if I had someone working for me who told a client they do not have a manager and cannot escalate a case, that person wouldn't be working for me any longer.

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1158447

Tape drive hasn't worked since day one. We've been waiting three months on parts.


Care Packs with "four hour response" have never been answered in less than 24 hours. Noone seems to speak English, and it's definitely nobody's fault.
Kapil Jha
Honored Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

See I think HP support is not concentrated..they have various teams for various functions plus they are very process oriented but this does not help everytime.
In critical problem they have to get approval from other team even if they know the solution(no body want to take load).
Well if you seriously have problem ask you sales representation or your project manager he would be having all details of HP escalation matrix.
Either you or you project manager would escalate the case and i wish you'll get a nice support.
Hope this help,
Kapil
I am in this small bowl, I wane see the real world......
Joshua Small_2
Valued Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

Hi Kapil,

You're way off the mark.. I wish I could post a recording of how many hours of conversations we've had to this effect already.

Hell I called HP sales and advised that I'd be looking to consolidate with an EVA SAN- BUT only if they can offer something in the way of better support than we were getting.

Their response was to apologise and tell me that all support is outsourced to Bangladesh.. so it's not HP's fault when it's bad.
James M. Dunn
Frequent Advisor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

Update

I have been working on HPUX servers for 10 years or so and i consider myself a hard core HPUX person but frankly it's time to look elsewhere; so this year I started looking at AIX class servers just because HP has support is so bad.

I have not called support in a year or so, but have called them for hardware replacment, the last time took 30 plus hours to get the part replaced!

Sad... ehh :(
Joel Belizario
Trusted Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

It is very sad... how much business do all these vendors have to lose before they realize the system isn't working?

It seems if you're not lucky enough to have a service enabled reseller or have the expertise in house you're pretty much screwed.
Joshua Small_2
Valued Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

Hi Joel,

That does bring us to a good point.

Are the options for "inside expertise" a good mitigator to this? I note HP have a number of training courses. Perhaps some of us better IT professionals can reduce the reliance on support?
Capel
Frequent Advisor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

woa extensive topic about HP support situation ...
Joel Belizario
Trusted Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

Hi Joshua,

I guess it depends on your infrastructure and how well it is run. I think if you are running anything that is high availability / mission critical there should be some sort of internal process, expertise, etc. to ensure minimal downtime.

Especially important to note is that most service contracts are reliant upon part availability so even if you have a 2-hour response time you still be out of luck if they don't have the part locally available!

Case in point, one customer I dealt with had their VP's laptop HDD fail but they did not keep any spares on hand because they relied totally on their service contract to provide a same-day fix. Only problem was the part would arrive the next day because there was none in stock locally. (And I've heard cases where parts are not available nationally, oh boy...)

Of course cost is an issue once you start getting into infrastructure level equipment like servers and SANs but surely the cost of spare equipment does not equate to the cost of business downtime?

But back to your original question if you have a sizeable investment in vendor infrastructure I think it does make sense to spend money on training and having expertise in house - vendors normally outsource support anyway and it's pretty hit and miss whether the 3rd party is as good as you expect them to be considering the amount of money you spend on service contracts...


Joel
Eric Antunes
Honored Contributor

Re: Is it me or is HP support really bad now?

Hi James,

It is really bad because costs are before quality of service in the priority chain. But it is not only with HP. I think it is global and a consequence of the low cost outsourcing model.

Best Regards,

Eric
Each and every day is a good day to learn.