Can Companies Charge for Tech Support When They Can't Fix Their Hardware's Problems?

Obviously, companies can do whatever the hell they want to do. But "can" companies charge for customer service on their problems regardless of whether they can fix the problems or not - and get away with it?

Knowing the CT readership, I can see heads all over the world shaking their heads "no" in unison. Well, guess what folks - that's HP's new policy.

Several of us on Linkedin CEM sites have been writing about what the hell HP is up to, when a former HPer who left after HP off-shored customer service but still feels loyalty to the company, took it upon herself to try to connect us to senior management, so they hear customer reactions first hand.

Today, I had a call from a supposed customer service executive about my problem (described in a previous CT blog and one David Sims posted more recently). Aside from dealing with two CSR layers who barely speak English, and one who doesn't understand English, my outrage was over being told I would pay $59.99 for a service call whether or not HP fixed the problem.

That's a first. And I half expected her to say, "That's an incorrect interpretation of our service policy." But the other half of me understands that HP is abandoning its customer service reponsibilities in the SME space, and we're down to caveat emptor. Sure enough, she blandly said something like, "I'm sorry, but that's a new HP policy." Like the fact that HP issued a "policy" means customers have to bend over and accept it. Finally, she offered, "I'm sorry I can't help you more" (she didn't know a guilty case manager had already apologized profusely and reversed the charge, because India couldn't fix the problem with my hardware - I finally did). To which I replied, "Sorry that I can't help you more."

So folks in small businesses, if you're thinking about buying HP hardware, be advised. Once stuff is out of warranty and breaks down, you might not be able to get it fixed - at least not by HP. Caveat emptor indeed!