Fri 18 Aug 2006
Why I Hate HP
Posted by Greg under News, Performance
OK, I don’t really hate HP. Congratulations HP on your turn-around. And your laser printers work great (not the low-end “Personal LaserJets” though… they stink). But man am I tired of the all the press over HP soon passing IBM in terms of revenue. A scan of headlines reveals:
- Reviving HP has IBM in its sights
- With strong results, HP to overtake IBM
- HP to steal IBM’s crown in computers
- Hewlett-Packard soon to usurp IBM’s title
- HP is the Greatest! Lowly IBM Stinks.
Maybe it’s just sour grapes because IBM has been feeling so tired lately. OK… since the late 90s when IBM announced that 25% of their business was “from the Internet”. There’s no real buzz surrounding the company. My problem with the articles though, is that by and large they don’t mention that IBM has been selling off high revenue / low margin divisions for years. IBM purged $9 Billion in annual revenue by selling the Thinkpad. That alone would put IBM head and shoulders above HP. IBM is (for now) substantially more profitable and more valuable than HP, but these facts are left out of the news. It’s bad press for IBM when the only mention they get is half of a fact, used to bolster the case that a key competitor is overtaking them.
19 Responses to “ Why I Hate HP ”
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October 29th, 2006 at 6:08 pm[...] So take THAT HP. Tags:No Tags « IBM Information Server | [...]
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February 11th, 2007 at 2:05 pm[...] Perhaps I was right to hate HP in my earlier post. HP’s Richard Fichera goes to town mocking IBM in the blade server arena. His blog, The Eye on Blades (clearly a veiled yet lesser attempt to duplicate this eye on IBM blog*) mocks IBM for being "publicly irritable, combative, and occasionally rash." [...]
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June 27th, 2007 at 12:05 pm[...] crummy old HP has grown their install base this year (Watch your price point IBM). The big news this year is that [...]
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:55 am
I feel like there’s as much buz around IBMas there is for most companies. There are some companies like Apple that get really favorable press and are percieved as simply cool but they are anomolies. IBM has a favorable impression becauseof all the open source seed money and effort.
August 23rd, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I think with the open source jams IBM is cool to that crowd, and all the companies they’re buying IBM seem to be keeping them in the press as someone who is in the now.
August 25th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
well i was workign with compaq long time back and i love it at the same time i also hate hp they are making dumb PC’s all the time, HP printers awesome product range support technicality rocks with printers and scanners what happen was IBM is not creative with product line also not enough product range to perform on market, its all abut PC’s now its up to lenovo to kick hp and dell. anyway i don’t see IBM is aggressive on software market even lotus market share is getting down when we compare with ms exchange.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
I hate HP because they’re tech support people from India are the dumbest, rudest so called “tech support’ people i have ever met.
You have to “trick” these people in getting you the parts needed===the worst mistake is still paying $250 for the added warranties…
DO NOT BUY HP!
January 5th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Okay, so here’s my situation; most likely on the other side of the argument. Most people may not agree nor disagree with my statements below or just disreagde them. I currently work for HP, im a senior develpment and design manager. I find Hp’s computers fine… im sure i would (a little bias).
However, my problems come with their technical support service. ”India”, i too have to, sometimes, notfy them of changes etc. Even when i phone them they say they do not understand my problem and give the diagnostics website URL. Im like its not a problem its information for you…. This service should be greatly improved.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I agree, HP Laptops are great, its just their tech support sucks, they take 3 times as long as any other support agency and its an 0870 number !!
Bring their support back to the UK !!
February 7th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I think that HP has gone downhill in the last 6 months to a year, not only do they not have quality control, I mean the products lately have sucked so much. They have outsourced more tech support to India and all those agents do is lie to the customer, hang up on them or mis-use the customer’s CC. All HP cares about is the all mighty dollar and therefor all the India techs care about is selling, not helping. I know this because i was just a case manager for HP and finally left the company as they paid you peanuts to do a management job, ecspecially for a multi-million dollar company. But if you are ever entitiled to something for HP and are unable to get assistance at the regular tech support number just call 1-877-917-4380 Ext. 79 this will get you an english speaking Case Manager who will assist you.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Well HP has crappy phone and online chat. I purchased HP destop Pavillion Slimeline s7520n CP in August 2006. I was told by Best Buy this was a great pc. All I wanted to do was burn CDs and paly online games. Well after paying $800 got home, and used the burner twice. And come jan 2007 drive no good. I called HP and got a bench repair sent PC in to warehouse to get fixed. Got it back drive still not fixed and programs not working. So get tech support again and set up second bench repair ( you thank this will work a second time ) WHAT A BIG FAT CHANCE THAT WAS. I received my pc back a second time drive still not working and programs still messed up. ALL I want is a PC taht actually works for what I paid fpr it. And yes I’ve called the 877-917-4380 ext. 79 still waiting on someone. SO ANYONE READING DON’T BUY AN HP IF YOU WANT TO BURN CDS. If they ever fix this problem I’ll let you know.
Just remember I bought it in august 2006 brand new and come Jan 2007 quit working and now its almost April 2007 and still having problems with it.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:08 am
After 20 emails of scripted crap and nowhere near solving the issue I have given up. HP supoort via email is a complete waste of anybodys time. Bad grammar and scripted replies are enough to make you want to stamp on somebody. All I wanted was a driver for a printer.. the one provided by HP on the site is corrupt, it needs replacing. After being told to disbale my firewall and Antivirus (as if that is going to do me any good) and then being told to download from *this location (http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software3/COL6316/mp-19447-3/rw2_021_w02_enu.exe) Which is th same file I have SHOUTED at them to say is the file with a fault.. yet they seem to have selective readin skills and attempt to solve an issue I don’t actually have.
Asking me to download the same 166MB file in every friggin’ email is stupid to say the least. THEY CANNOT READ OR UNDERSTAND THE MOST SIMPLE ISSUE. What a technical support operative cannot understand about ‘THIS FILE IS F#@£$~*# CORRUPT!!’ (which was my final correspondance) in huge bold letters is beyond me.
Absolute CRAP!! I’m selling my current HP printers and will never buy them again at any cost.
If anybody has a remotely relevant fix for this or another location please let me know. Printer is a HP PSC 1205 All-in-one.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Needed a forum to vent and stopped here. The things I could say about HP… Hate is not strong enough. 8 years ago, HP decided to use JAVA based installers and attempted to simplify their software while at the same time, adding more junk, ads, sells tools etc. What a joke. Its been going into the toilet ever since. This pertains to any HP Scanner, HP Printer… all the parts that made HP what used to be a good strong vendor with solid parts. Anyone remember the HP Laserjet II or III? Even the HP IV and V were good machine. Then they went plastic and attempted to compete with lowend vendors like Brother and their days became numbered.
3 yrs ago, HP merged or bought Compaq. Another company that had a niche market and excelled (servers) and attempted to penetrate the desktop and laptop markets. The merger of the two companies destroyed what, if any, support environment they had left. Now, as most American companies realize that India support isn’t working (its ok for a front end as long as there is escalation back to the US) HP continues to feel service is not something they need to do and they rely whole hog on people reading scripts.
I’ve just spent 2.5 hrs trying to get a warranty on an HP part. Disgusting effect. Being referred back to their website, to read how ‘award winning (who’s? Crap of the year?) support and to find no links to speak to any US based person with Native English skills, I’m appalled. simply appalled.
I’m not intending to threaten but this will undoubtedly sound like it - I’m done telling anyone anything positive about HP. I will lament from this day forward that any client of mine run, not walk, from any HP product. This includes Compaq products as well. Dell is doing a better job for servers, and in the multifunction printer world, it looks like the recommendation will have to be Canon, Epson and the like.
Thanks for reading. Did I mention I REALLY HATE HP!
October 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Why do I hate HP? The “India” customer service reps and supervisors are rude and inacapable of resolving even the the most minor of problems. Worse of all, they lie. Last month i purchased over $5,000. of HP products including a laptop, desktop and printer.The set of $20.00 external speakers didn’t work but their Tech support promised to send out a new set, no charge.After 3 weeks and no speakers, i called them back, only to be put on a 25 minute hold then get yelled at by an irate “supervisor”. I am so sorry I bought Hp and so much for warranties.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I hate hp printers. they have wasted my time & money., I have lost clients, I have missed deadlines, & he support is worse than non existant, simply because I have spent weeks trying to work with them, & it still doesn’t work.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I’ve had enough! Because of this horrible support in India, I Will NEVER buy another HP product and hope that others take heed. I called up to ask for a replacement power supply adapter, and it took me 3 calls and 3 days just to make sure they got the address right! THe first time I gave them the address, and it was not taken down. The second time, they had it but forgot to put it down on the order. Hopefully this time it is correct! You get the usual reply of “my sincerest apologies….” , “I can’t find a supervisor around” and so on, but this level of incompetence is just not cutting it. They had better move their support elsewhere or more ppl will respond with their pockets. NO MORE HP STUFF for me as far as I’m concerned.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Called various HP “support” numbers about 5 times over a 45 min. period just to try and find out if XP can be installed on the new HP machine I bought which has Vista on it. The HP website does not have xp drivers for this particular model and of course the end user would need to find out if xp is going to work on the machine. An hour on the phone with all kinds of idiots and the question is not resolved.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I am so frustrated with HP! I have a brand new hp desktop with Vista 02/2008. Whenever there are new HP updates my system’s settings are changed. What the heck! Sometimes my pixel resolution is changed or I don’t have sound from my monitor speakers. Also, my Direct TV signal through windows media center is flashing (as if the feed is flashing on and off) When I call into their customer service it takes me 15 minutes to get someone on the phone who can help me and an additional 45 - 90 minutes to TRY to resolve the problem. Sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing and it’s like they’re reading scripted responses out of a book. I don’t have time for you to figure out my problem…seriously! Not to mention that the last phone call was very heated because the man had a bad accent and we could not hear eachother so we were basically yelling at eachother. He thinks that i need to do a system recovery but first he wants me to hire a “local technician to back up my files”. - LIKE HELL! I will get a second opinion from HP but i don’t have time tonight…i’ve been working on this for over 2 hours. This is HPs fault…it’s a brand new computer and I’m sick of waisting my time on the phone with their god aweful customer service. How is this fair to the consumer? Let’s burn their PCs just like we burned the Beatles albums…
June 17th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
It seems like all the people here complaining are end users using consumer level printers and laptops/PCs. The simple fact is that all consumer grade hardware sucks; HP, Dell, Toshiba, all of them. And their consumer level support more or less sucks also.
But anyone who works in IT knows that business class HP laserjets are the best printers on the market. And HP DL series servers are the best mid-range rack mount servers on the market. Same for the BL series blade servers. And never mind the fact that iLO kicks the hell out of IBM’s RSA II’s. And does Dell even have a real remote management option for their servers worth mentioning?