The Case of the Incompatible Ink Cartridge

It has been over two years since I last spent several weeks speaking with HP India executives making them aware of the numerous problems with their outdated website that I came across while trying to choose a laptop for my personal use.

After close to an hour of assurances that Ms. Tapoti T. Tipnis of HP India provided me over phone, I buried the hatchet. Now, after 2 years, life has come a full circle and I have been again affected by the outdated, misinforming website of HP India. I had thought that 2 years was a long time for HP India to get their house in order, but it is now evident that their management is still sleeping over this issue.

This time, I tried to purchase genuine ink cartridges for my HP OfficeJet J3680 printer from the online HP Store. The moment I typed the printer model number, the website came up with two cartridges that should have supposedly been compatible with my printer model:

(Click Picture to View Full Size)

However, the site informed me that shipping the ink cartridges to my home could take up to 24 hours. Since my requirement was very urgent and the time was already 7:30 pm, I drove up to the nearest HP reseller in Janak Puri and bought several ink cartridges, including two HP 702 cartridges (highlighted in the picture above).

On coming back home, I realized to my utter horror that the printer in question (OfficeJet J3680) refused to accept the HP 702 ink cartridge, with a clear error message saying that this cartridge model was incompatible with my printer.

The HP reseller was kind enough to refund me the money for one of the HP 702 cartridges that was still unopened, but I lost Rs. 1110 on the other one that was now open and could not be re-sealed.

Just about 15 minutes ago (about 3:55 pm IST on 24th March 2009) I logged this case as a complaint on the HP website and have received the complaint number CCHSAP200651. Now I am waiting to hear back from HP India, keeping my fingers crossed. I hope they refund me the cost of the incompatible ink cartridge.

An Open Letter to Managing Director (HP India)

Dear Mr. Doraiswamy,

I have recently joined the family of HP India customers. The entire experience of buying an HP Notebook Computer through the Direct Sales channel of HP India was horribly disturbing.

Could you please respond to some of my questions below, related to the functioning of your company in India:

1. Your India-specific website is so out-of-date. The prices and the availability of models is out-of-sync with the ground reality. Why?
2. Why is not possible to buy a lot of models directly from your India-specific website, when the same functionality exists in the US website?
3. World over all companies (including HP in the USA) strive to sell their products online at the cheapest possible price to the customers directly through the website. Why is it then that HP in India is unwilling to benefit the customers in the same way? Why is that in India your dealers are still able to offer the customers a price less than what your company is willing us to offer through the direct sales channel?
4. On your USA website you let customers do a great deal of customization of the configuration of the laptops. In India your website does not offer similar functionality. Why?
5. In USA, you are selling notebook models with much better configuration at a much lower price than the models you are selling in India. Why?
6. Why is it that your direct sales people never respond to phone calls, e-mail messages or voice-mail messages? Why does it take anywhere between 4 to 6 hours to get in touch with the direct sales people?
7. Why is it that out of 46 New-Delhi based resellers listed on your website, the contact information of 40+ resellers is incorrect / outdated?
8. Why does your toll-free number offering advice to prospective customers avoid publicizing the direct-sales channel and instead are more willing to redirect potential customers to the resellers?
9. And lastly, how could have things gone so horribly wrong with your company operations in India?

Regards,
Amit Batra

(The author lives in New Delhi and works as a Computer Scientist with Adobe Systems India)

Are Hewlett Packard India morons?

Hi Readers,

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

I do not think there is any doubt about what the real reason behind this kind of pricing model could be. It is indeed shameful that in 21st century, a consumer products company loves its dealers more than its customers. When all companies worldwide are pitching direct sales as the way to ward off middlemen and to pass the maximum price benefit to their customers (and also make some extra money themselves), HP India is sleeping like a dinosaur that got frozen under the arctic ice and failed to realize that the world changed long back.

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)