I wanted to purchase a laptop. It was that simple.
I did some research online. I liked Hewlett Packard / Compaq range of laptop and shortlisted a few models at http://www.hp.com/in/ (the India-specific website of Hewlett Packard / Compaq).
I was filled with immense joy and anticipation. Little did I know that the troubles for me had just started.
The first thing that I discovered when I tried to make a purchase from the HP India website was that only a few models are available for purchase online. They might have posted the specifications, proces and other details of maybe 50 models on their website, but you are not allowed to actually buy them online, except a very small range of specific models. Seemed strange at first. I moved on.
Next, I tried to see if HP allowed me to customize the specifications (like RAM and hard-disk capacity, the CPU model, the screen size, the software that comes pre-installed on the system and things like that). I know that the HP website in the United States has this feature. I was quite sad to discover that the HP India website does not offer any kind of customization functionality. Why, you would ask? Maybe Hewlett Packard considers Indians second grade citizens of the world who are deprived of even the basic intelligence to even decide on the exact configuration they are looking for. By now I was started to feel quite let down.
I retrieved a listing of all the 46 HP resellers (i.e. retailers) in New Delhi from the website, and starting calling them one by one to get a quotation of the models that I liked the most. However, I completely freaked out when I realized that out of the 46 resellers listed on the HP website, the contact numbers of as many as 40 resellers were incorrect. Therefore, I was only left with a handful of resellers to talk to and negotiate a bargain.
Anyways, I called up all of these 6 resellers and also visited a few resellers in the vicinity of my residence. Imagine my shock when I came to know that only a handful of models that I had shortlisted from the HP India website were actually being supplied by the company. The rest of the models were all outdated and no longer being supplied. Why the hell did HP not remove these models from their website? This is one question that Istill have not been find an answer to.
Next, I decided to see if buying a laptop directly from HP would cost me less than buying it from a reseller. I frantically searched the HP India website for a phone number of their Direct Sales channel. It took me half an hour to figure out that they have hidden the phone number in the remotest possible corner of their website. Hell, they do not even list the relevant section in their sitemap. Why would a company want to avoid dealing with the customers directly? Maybe because they hate their customers? I am not sure.
Finally it took me 4 hours and 40 unanswered calls on their toll-free number to get to a sales person. On asking him the pricing of the model that I had previously shortlisted, I was quite taken back to hear that the price that the Direct Sales channel of HP were willing to offer me was absolutely the same as the price being offered by their resellers. Now this can mean only two things:
- Either the HP resellers are doing a great social service by first buying these laptops from HP and then selling them off to end-customers like us at zero profit.
- Or, HP India loves its resellers more than they love their customers. They are willing to dole out huge profit margins to their resellers by selling them laptops at a lesser price, but they are not willing to do the same for the end-customers.
Anyways, once I filled the e-Form and sent it back to the sales guy via e-mail (how un-21st-century is that) he called me up back to say that he could offer me a discount of a thousand bucks (INR 1000) on the price because I worked for Adobe Systems India, and therefore considered a "corporate customer". Thank God for that. So the final price of INR 55,110 was decided upon, an order number was assigned to me, and on the 25th of May I asked my younger brother to wire this money electronically to the bank account of HP India in Bank of America in Chennai (India) towards the payment for the cost of the laptop.
Once the money was wired, we waited and waited. We wrote to HP Sales; we called up HP Sales; hell, I would even have tried to do telepathy with HP Sales if I knew how to. This went on for one week, and neither did they answer any of our phone calls, nor did they respond to any of our e-mails. We did not receive any acknowledgment for the money we had sent to HP, and we never got a call from them telling us a shipping date. During this one week, we were very worried. What the hell happened to our money? When we checked our order status online, it said "Credit Verification in Progress". Credit verification? Bullshit. You already got my money, man. What the hell were these guys up to?
Finally, after one week of trying, my call did finally go through. I was shocked to know that according to HP, they had still not received any money from me. Now I had all the proofs with me -- the money being deducted from my brother's bank account and the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) transaction number indicating a successful transfer of money from my brother's bank account to HP bank account. In India, all electronic wire transfers go through the Reserve Bank of India. It is the supreme government body that controls everything in India that has anything to do with finance and banking industry. If RBI says that the transaction was made, then you better believe them.
However, today is 1st June. 6 days have elapsed since I made the payment for my laptop. I am calling HP every day. I am writing to them each day. And there is no trace of where my money went. In India, INR 55,100 is a huge sum of money. For 95% of the population, this is more money than what they earn during an entire year of productive employment. But HP is not concerned. And I have yet to come to terms with the fact that HP India swallowed my money.
Now you decide whether you want to ever buy anything from this company. The choice is with you.
Regards,
Amit Batra
(The author lives in New Delhi and works as a Computer Scientist with Adobe Systems India)
9 comments:
Its Really unprofessional way to deal with customers. But this is really one thing to that we customers should keep in mind.
What happened with the customer over here is unfortunate but as a regular HP customer I would say exceptions are always there.
I have been buying and recommending HP products to my friends and relatives and they all are truly satisfied.
Commenting openly against any company just because one customer requirement is not met is wrong.
We all have right to put our views but using harsh language is shameful.
I think any customer who would have gone through this pain what batty went would use even harsher language then him. Being soft hardly works... (although nothing would have worked with HP with the kind of attitude they showed).
Its sad that India being a backbone for HPs support and services, still does not get served appropriately.
For people who have commented after reading my article, I would like to thank them and offer an update on my current order status.
On the hot sweltering afternoon of 7th June 2007, when the temperature in New Delhi was just about crossing the 46 degrees Celcius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) mark, HP India managed to deliver my laptop at my residence :-)
Even though my immediate issue has been solved (thanks to you people for giving this article a few Diggs and help get it noticed by HP), HP India has failed to see the larger part of the problem here.
I am now directly interacting with HP India chief (Balu Doraiswamy) over e-mail, and bring to his attention the N number of things that HP India sales team needs to improve. However, until now, this has been only one-sided interaction (i.e. I have not heard back from Mr. Doraiswamy yet).
The list of specific questions that I raised with Mr. Doraiswamy is posted here.
Do let me know if you agree with some of these points. Even if you disagree with my observations, I would love to hear back from you.
Poor Neha, She might advertise HP inadvertently But there is nothing wrong with HP products. I have a laptop, three printers and lots of other things for my office. But that is not what Batty has to say in the article. Well Neha would be surprised that there are many such customers.
WE Indians are so used to believing the salesman that we cannot grow a brain.
Now hear this, I make a similar survey and shortlist a model. Then luckily I get a regional distributor and I finalise the purchase without enquiring the prices. I buy the piece of 34,000. Then just on a hunch I check out the prices on a visit to kolkata and to my horror all multibrand vendors are selling the same model for 32,000!!! All HP centers still sell for 34,000.
I come back to my distributor. He says that there is a pricing policy that rural areas will have expensive products. What he fails to explain that how come multi brand shops both in city and villages and selling the same piece for 32,000 and all HP INVENT centers are selling for 34,000.
Thats not all, hear more. I purchased another laptop, AMD X2 top of the line Vista preloaded. It comes package opened and to the surprise of everyone a defective piece.
The fault lies with us Indians. Imagine BSNL claiming a revolution giving broadband in the country. Reality is all those foreigners coming here to make some money first complained about the slow speed of dialup connections and the government had to get into action and provide broadband. The revolution happened because some firangi wanted it and not because it was due for us or the government was interested in providing it to us.
It needs lots of internet users and penetration for websites to work. Till then it is the good old salesman.
By the way, anyone visiting the hp India website right now will get no information about HP and Compaq notebooks. The page simply says. "Webpage no longer exists". Hope the notebooks exist.
son of a bitch like you will always have a problem with anything. go and ask your mother what problem she had giving you birth asshole
Poor Anonymous, cant even have the courage to spell out his/her name online. Anyway might not be proud of his/her parents who gave birth to him/her anyway. OK this is a small update to all those potential notebook buyers. North South East West DELL is the best. Look no further than DELL. Infact I am just now waiting to dispose my Compaq so that I can go for it. Build quality, Components, aftersales,etc everything is good. One just has to ask a Dell Customer and a salesperson to believe it. Just note a few points. Try to trak down the Dell Area Sales Guy. Some of you might think that these things are to be booked online butbelieve me there is a sales guy and he is doing to get you some discount. You still have to go online but you can bargain hard with this guy.
Then try to catch this guy and pester has on a wednesday/thursday and further as these people have weekly targets to be met.
Amsang is right -- I recently purchased a Dell and I am quite happy with the service.
Also, Dell has one more up against HP -- Dell provides on-site warranty -- whereas HP does not.
Turned out that my HP notebook has a faulty DVD-Writer, and I got the shock of my life when the customer support told me that I would have to leave my laptop at the HP service center for a few days for them to look into the problem.
I had always thought that Lenovo is the only company that does not offer on-site warranty to home customers in India. Now I have added HP to my list of never buy products.
Read this for he second part of the story.
http://hpindialies.blogspot.in
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