Ranting and Raving…

Day 4 of the New Year, and this year sure has had ups and downs already. Two steps forward, and sometimes 2 or 3 backwards, ARGH!

This morning I realized I hadn’t sent a copy of my daily humor mailing to my dad’s HP Printer Mailbox address. I rushed in to the desktop computer to try getting it out before the next dial-up time, sent it, then brought up the account to see if it had already dialed in for the scheduled time, or I’d beat it. Sometimes it’s up to 15 minutes after the supposedly scheduled time before the printer actually dials in, so there’s a little give and take there.

When I checked, I noticed the ink was really low, and the printer hadn’t dialed in since 1pm yesterday. It had missed 3 dial-in times. Since this is new technology to us, I thought maybe it wouldn’t dial in if the ink was low, so called Dad and told him to replace the ink cartridge.

He did that. All lights were go. The next dial-in time came. It still didn’t work.

I called Dad back and told him to use the “cheat code” to have the printer dial in even when it’s not a scheduled time. It chirped at him, but still no email was printed.

By this time, I’d looked through the F.A.Q. stuff and trouble-shooting pages at their website, but nothing seemed to fit. I figured it was time to call customer support.

Guess what I heard when I dialed in? “We’re sorry but we’re experiencing extraordinarily heavy call volume.” Not again! Is that every company’s mantra right now??? At least they didn’t tell me to call back later, but asked for me to stay on the line, then asked which of two sets of problems I had. When I pushed the button, the phone immediately rang elsewhere and I was connected...

And WHERE was I connected? To India of course! Heaven forbid an American company should use American people to man their tech support lines. No, they outsource it to India, and you get to talk to someone who may or may not have a good grasp of the English language, and who may or may not be understandable themselves. (Please read the January 10th blog for updates!!! This was in error!)

Did he help me out? Not really. All he could tell me was they were experiencing some difficulties with “their connectivity”, he’d send a sheet of paper from their end, and then see if Dad’s printer mailbox prints it out at the next scheduled printing time. If not, call back.

I also asked why people added to the friends list weren’t getting through, and got the same wheeze… see if it works at the next printing and if not, call back. Yeah, in other words, call back when it won’t be HIS problem, because he hasn’t a clue what to do!

I’d sure like to call a company and get IMMEDIATE and understandable help for a change!!!
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Please read the January 10th blog for updates!!!