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From: gerwitz@hpcore.Kodak.Com (Paul Gerwitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP Customer Support
Message-ID: <968@eastman.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 89 14:47:04 GMT
References: <221@cmic.UUCP>
Sender: news@eastman
Reply-To: gerwitz@Kodak.com
Organization: Eastman Kodak Co.
Lines: 48

In article <221@cmic.UUCP>, garvey@cmic.UUCP (Joe Garvey) writes:
> 
> 1) I'm a paying HPUX support customer.
> 2) I've been on support for years.
> 3) I didn't know what the hell I was doing when I started. (I believe I've
>    learned a little bit since then :-)).
> 4) I agree there are some things about support that really need to be
>    improved.
> 
> Feel free to disagree, but disagree civilly.

I must commend Joe for his thoughtful post.  I have been one of the prime
support people in my company for 9 years now, working on HP/1000 and
HP/9000 platforms and have had a similar experience with HP as far as
customer service.  I must say the HP has improved dramatically over that
time.  I remember before the days of the response center, how difficult it
was to get experienced SE's to solve those real trick problems for me.  I
am part of a small group who answers all those 'beginner' question so when
I call PICS, I expect someone who knows what they are doing, and how to
get my difficult probblems solved.  In general, I'm pleased with the
Response Center and it's people.

But I find HP's lack of recognition of their customer base to be very
troubling.  Also in my group we have a larger collection of people
supporting rival systems.  So I am put into the position of not only
defending HP and it"s products, but also the ability to convince my
customers that HP is worth investing their projects in.  IMHO, HP has one
of the most loyal customer segments in the industry.  Not only that, but we
really know what we want from HP.  If I was making the decisions (don't we
all wish we could :-) ) I would be spending as much time, money and effort
in building up those relationships with existing customers by getting their
input, making them part of the process to solve problems, spreading
information in any way possible (usenet, Internet Mail lists, small
customer study groups etc.)  We are setting up a local mail connect to out
local office to get away from playing telephone tag with my sales rep and
SE.  All I had to do was ask.

Come On, HP,.............   What If.........  The customer is really the
most important part of your business ??

[The opinions expressed are my own, and may not reflect those of my
employer, but wouldn't it be nice if they did ]


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