The smartest AI can't overcome a dumb company policy, why HP sux.

[GordonJ]

New gift, a 17" HP computer for Xmas. Tried to connect to WiFi, and it got stuck and couldn't connect.

Looked on HP site, used a bot, no help...had me call. And I spent 2.5 hours of nonsense, talked to 5 real people, none of whom could help and reason is/was...

My brand new 2024 HP laptop bought directly from their website...had support expired in 2018.

See, they, the dumb bells of HP, RECYCLE serial numbers.

And their smart AI bot who answers the phone and directs the calls kept sending me to BUSINESS support, cause the serial number was the first gate...

And they could not help, the serial number was for an older model and so they transferred me to consumer, who couldn't help because it wasn't in their system...and one after another, until I finally went to sales and wanted to know the process to RETURN it (and I went shopping at DELL)...and got some one who kept apologizing and ended up sending me to BUSINESS support BECAUSE...

She typed in the serial number without gettting more information.

HP USED to be a good company. I will NEVER, ever buy an HP product again, including printers

I would love to know why they used RECYCLED SERIAL NUMBERS, SO IT IS IN MY OPINION, A COMPANY OPERATED BY DUMB BELLS, AND NO AI bot is going to help me again.

Gordon Jay Alexander

[johnja]

Well... that touched a nerve. (No...I haven't had a problem with HP.) In the past, bad experiences like yours where things are REALLY messed up where you are going around in circles maybe happened once a year or so. Today, it seems very commonplace. Does it seem to anyone else that this type of behavior has skyrocketed since Covid? You call get the usual phone tree. Oh...your issue doesn't fit into one of their neat little buckets? I guess your AI isn't smart enough to understand English. If the rep doesn't understand, they try to fit in to whatever "script response" sounds best. Ugh! Or they think up something to get you off the phone....no matter how wrong it is. In days gone by in my time in customer support and sales any good company I worked for had people say something crazy like "I DON"T KNOW let me get back to you". Training with companies seems to be minimal and very poor. And it is always pass the call on to someone else, no one OWNS the call anymore! And thus the never ending run around, extreme frustration and hours on the phone. And there is that "quiet quitting" going on that is a big problem. I could go on but....I feel your pain Gordon. Hope it gets resolved!

[unpinkpanther]

As someone else said, issues like these seem to be becoming more frequent.

Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would want to recycle serial numbers (which ideally should be unique to each product)

Some of these large corporations see customers as a necessary burden to be handled with bots and mindless scripts - while the execs focus on the "big picture"

(By the way, I saw the HP logo in the credits while watching Kung-Fu Panda again yesterday and I remembered this incident.)

Hope this issue gets resolved soon. Please keep your head up regardless

[Dien Rice]

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing... That shows HP has been pretty stoopid !

I'm looking to soon buy a new laptop... So I'll keep in mind to avoid HP!

I have a tale which is not quite the same...

I've bought both Apple products and non-Apple products... Generally, I've been impressed by the Apple products, at least those bought during the Steve Jobs era... I have a 2006 Apple Macbook that still works, almost 19 years later!

But... Search and you'll find... many people believe quality control has gone down at Apple since Steve Jobs passed away...

Tim Cook made Apple the most profitable company in the world. But... I suspect part of the way he did it was to increase profits by reducing quality control...

My wife has a Macbook Pro. Then, what's known as the "stage lights" problem occurred... (The screen looks like it has "stage lights" on it.) It's on its way to the screen failing. This is a problem from the design and manufacturing of the computer, during the Tim Cook era. But... Apple won't fix her laptop on their dime, even though their design and manufacturing is known to be the cause of the problem. She has to shell out a ton of money if she wants to get it fixed.

Here's an article from a few years ago on Apple's dropping quality control... But if you search, you'll find a lot of discussion on this from recent times too...

Apple Has a Major Quality Control Problem
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/ipad-be...ews-28901.html

I don't look at Apple the same way now as I did during the Steve Jobs era...

Best wishes!

Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

New gift, a 17" HP computer for Xmas. Tried to connect to WiFi, and it got stuck and couldn't connect.

Looked on HP site, used a bot, no help...had me call. And I spent 2.5 hours of nonsense, talked to 5 real people, none of whom could help and reason is/was...

My brand new 2024 HP laptop bought directly from their website...had support expired in 2018.

See, they, the dumb bells of HP, RECYCLE serial numbers.

And their smart AI bot who answers the phone and directs the calls kept sending me to BUSINESS support, cause the serial number was the first gate...

And they could not help, the serial number was for an older model and so they transferred me to consumer, who couldn't help because it wasn't in their system...and one after another, until I finally went to sales and wanted to know the process to RETURN it (and I went shopping at DELL)...and got some one who kept apologizing and ended up sending me to BUSINESS support BECAUSE...

She typed in the serial number without gettting more information.

HP USED to be a good company. I will NEVER, ever buy an HP product again, including printers

I would love to know why they used RECYCLED SERIAL NUMBERS, SO IT IS IN MY OPINION, A COMPANY OPERATED BY DUMB BELLS, AND NO AI bot is going to help me again.

Gordon Jay Alexander

[Steve MacLellan]

TechRadar has a list of what they consider the best laptops for 2025:
https://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...aptops-1304361

HP isn't in the list. In past years, HP was always near the top of the list. Sad, that it isn't. I have three HPs, and they work well.

Newer Dells are good too. Some of the older desktops didn't come with a functioning WiFi or Bluetooth adapters, so for my Dell, I bought the adapters off of Amazon.

In the case of your HP laptop, I would check with your ISP. They can often help with any settings. We just had a new modem installed here, and my computer didn't pick up the new security for WPA3 and was trying to connect using WPA2. I had to make the adjustment in my WiFi settings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access

In the event you can find some help online, or if you decide to buy a WiFi adapter to take the place of your current one, you may have to connect using an Ethernet cable or use your cellphone as a hotspot to install the alternate adapter.

Regards,
Steve

[Dien Rice]

Thanks Steve for the links!

My last laptop (which I still use, and which I'm using right now) is a Lenovo Thinkpad, which I like... Though it's a bit of a pricey laptop I feel. (Though I just looked up some recent models, some are not as pricey nowadays!) My current one is getting a bit "long in the tooth" which is why I'm looking at getting another laptop at some point...

That list is useful!

I do also have an el-cheapo Acer laptop, which is also a bit old now, but still works well... (It was very cheap, so it has a very small amount of RAM, and a very small hard drive as well... I bought it as a "back up" computer...)

Thanks again...

Best wishes,

Dien

Originally Posted by Steve MacLellan

TechRadar has a list of what they consider the best laptops for 2025:
https://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...aptops-1304361

HP isn't in the list. In past years, HP was always near the top of the list. Sad, that it isn't. I have three HPs, and they work well.

Newer Dells are good too. Some of the older desktops didn't come with a functioning WiFi or Bluetooth adapters, so for my Dell, I bought the adapters off of Amazon.

In the case of your HP laptop, I would check with your ISP. They can often help with any settings. We just had a new modem installed here, and my computer didn't pick up the new security for WPA3 and was trying to connect using WPA2. I had to make the adjustment in my WiFi settings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access

In the event you can find some help online, or if you decide to buy a WiFi adapter to take the place of your current one, you may have to connect using an Ethernet cable or use your cellphone as a hotspot to install the alternate adapter.

Regards,
Steve