Facepalm: In what might be one of the biggest gaffs of the year, HP is trying to dislodge its foot from its mouth after getting caught intentionally forcing customers to wait for 15 minutes on technical support calls. Even HP’s customer service staff criticized the bafflingly dumb move.
The Register reports that HP intentionally forced customers to wait 15 minutes when trying to reach tech support. The “minimum” wait time idea mentioned in an internal memo that The Register obtained was floated as a way to push users to go online and look for “self-support” as the company tried to “improve” its overall customer service experience.
The change would have impacted retail customers calling from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy. The memo from HP management informed customer care staff that, effective February 18, people using the “Interactive Voice Response” (IVR) system would need to wait at least 15 minutes before reaching support.
The company aimed to “influence” customers to use its digital support services, which is essentially just a Google site search. The IVR system would play a message about non-existent “high call volumes,” asking users to check the official HP support or VirtualAgent Cloud websites for a quicker response to technical issues.
The IVR system only mentioned the 15-minute wait time at the beginning of the call. The rest of the automated recording would play three times during the call so that customers wanting to speak to a human would be too annoyed to complete the call. The company said it was taking “decisive short-term action to generate warranty cost efficiencies.”
Technology companies seeking quarterly profits above everything else have never been particularly good with customer support. Even HP staffers weren’t happy with the bizarre decision because clueless managers don’t have to deal with customers looking for human help with their malfunctioning devices.
Ultimately, HP backpedaled after “initial feedback” on the ill-conceived notion and abandoned the policy. However, it still tried to spin the story in its favor to save face, saying it was only trying to make customers aware of its digital support options.
“We have found that many of our customers were not aware of the digital support options we provide. Based on initial feedback, we know the importance of speaking to live customer service agents in a timely fashion is paramount. As a result, we will continue to prioritize timely access to live phone support to ensure we are delivering an exceptional customer experience.”
Nice try.
