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HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

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Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#161

Post by dv_dt »

dehrmann wrote: post #89
omcnoe wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. You can see these exact same market dynamics at work in the mobile telco industry. Newer online only upstarts able to save on costs because they don’t operate a retail store you can visit to get help resetting your email password.

One time, I needed this. I lost my phone with a physical SIM card and needed a replacement that day. Now I'm trying to remember the eSIM transfer flow to know if this is still an issue. But also, which MVNO should you go to? Carriers supposedly prioritize their own customers, so it feels a bit like running on spot instances.

Ive been happy with US mobile - you can actually switch between their VZ backed network or their ATT backed network.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#162

Post by wccrawford »

gib444 wrote: post #76
cjs_ac wrote: post #18

The danger in assuming that all your customers who request support are the sort of person who couldn't empty water from a boot with instructions written on the heel is that all of your competent customers will seek out your more respectful competitors, leaving you with only those who couldn't empty the boot, thus maximising your support costs.

For a few years now, I've found every support department has been trained to treat every single person as if they were a dumb 5 year old. The condescending replies from the outset, the 'clear your cookies' first line response to every bug report, the ignoring everything you say because you /must/ be wrong, the weird need to explain that they understand your feelings and frustrations (before even expressing any frustr…

I used to work tech support. Those lines are there because they work. In only 9 months, I had a few different people tell me they were pc repair techs and knew what they were doing, and I didn't need to do the basics.

I did them anyhow because the company said so, and I found that more often than not, it fixed the problem.

If I had sent that to second-level support without making sure of it, I'd have been written up.

So yes, they're trained to treat callers like they don't know what they're doing, because they often don't. Even if they claim to.

The best thing you can do is just go along with it quickly and get it over with, even if you've already done it. There's no way around it.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#163

Post by ryukoposting »

cogman10 wrote: post #139
ryukoposting wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is staggering how much HP has fallen from grace. I don't think a lot of people my age even know. If you're a late millennial/early zoomer, you probably know IBM had a sort of "golden age" from the 1960s through the 1980s. You also know AT&T was a juggernaut (even if you can't imagine the scale of "Ma Bell"). HP though? Nobody my age knows how great HP was in the '90s unless they're either a retro computing nerd, o…

That was basically entirely on Carly Fiorina, Mark Hurd and the board of directors. It's pretty similar to what happened to Boeing. HP had engineers at the helm right up until Fiorina. She came in and destroyed a lot of what made it great to work at HP while not really doing a great job of managing the company. Then Hurd came in and he just gutted the company to the delight of the shareholders. I came in right as Hur…

Ooooooh, there must be a story there. I think I get the same high from corporate horror stories that my wife gets from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

I yearn for the day that I'm in a stable enough career position to write about some of the shitshows I've seen.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#164

Post by gib444 »

lol768 wrote: post #138
BobaFloutist wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the online FAQ/support flow should give you a one-time skip-the-line code that you append to the phone number or something.

One of the first things I did when I was involved in the set-up of online support ticket system for a GB rail retailer was https://xkcd.com/806/ compliance. If the support request body contains the phrase "Shibboleet" the ticket will be assigned to an engineer. Equally it's not hard to teach front-line when to escalate, and ensure L2 and beyond are approachable. Even better if L2/L3 can keep half an eye on tickets th…

Hah, I've seen your posts on RailForums!

> One of the first things I did when I was involved in the set-up of online support ticket system for a GB rail retailer was https://xkcd.com/806/ compliance. If the support request body contains the phrase "Shibboleet" the ticket will be assigned to an engineer.

I get the feeling you wouldn't joke about this. I can't believe how amazing this is LOL. I /think/ I know which retailer...good to know!

> Equally it's not hard to teach front-line when to escalate, and ensure L2 and beyond are approachable. Even better if L2/L3 can keep half an eye on tickets that come in for anything that looks particularly interesting.

Right!? I did L2/L3 support many moons ago and it was very much my job to keep an eye on PFYs to ensure they weren't dismissing interesting tickets.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#165

Post by ryukoposting »

tiagod wrote: post #113
ryukoposting wrote: post #54

My first thought was "wow, those assholes." But my second thought was... how did they make their PBX do that? Is this actually a feature that PBX vendors ship?

Many call centers have these privacy messages that play before you're actually put on hold. Just use the same feature with a 15min of waiting music.

Ah, so that the music changes and/or clips when you jump into the call queue. That way, you know you just got mishandled for 15 minutes. Diabolical.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#166

Post by neild »

dehrmann wrote: post #89
omcnoe wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. You can see these exact same market dynamics at work in the mobile telco industry. Newer online only upstarts able to save on costs because they don’t operate a retail store you can visit to get help resetting your email password.

One time, I needed this. I lost my phone with a physical SIM card and needed a replacement that day. Now I'm trying to remember the eSIM transfer flow to know if this is still an issue. But also, which MVNO should you go to? Carriers supposedly prioritize their own customers, so it feels a bit like running on spot instances.

Mint (T-Mobile MVNO) has been great for me, $20/month/line and my one experience with international travel was good ($20 for 10 days). I used to be on Verizon and the quality of service doesn’t seem any worse while the price is dramatically lower.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#167

Post by [deleted] »

omcnoe wrote: post #59
cjs_ac wrote: post #18

The danger in assuming that all your customers who request support are the sort of person who couldn't empty water from a boot with instructions written on the heel is that all of your competent customers will seek out your more respectful competitors, leaving you with only those who couldn't empty the boot, thus maximising your support costs.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. You can see these exact same market dynamics at work in the mobile telco industry. Newer online only upstarts able to save on costs because they don’t operate a retail store you can visit to get help resetting your email password.

[deleted]

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#168

Post by gib444 »

wccrawford wrote: post #162
gib444 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a few years now, I've found every support department has been trained to treat every single person as if they were a dumb 5 year old. The condescending replies from the outset, the 'clear your cookies' first line response to every bug report, the ignoring everything you say because you /must/ be wrong, the weird need to explain that they understand your feelings and frustrations (before even expressing any frustr…

I used to work tech support. Those lines are there because they work . In only 9 months, I had a few different people tell me they were pc repair techs and knew what they were doing, and I didn't need to do the basics. I did them anyhow because the company said so, and I found that more often than not , it fixed the problem. If I had sent that to second-level support without making sure of it, I'd have been written u…

> I used to work tech support

Me too. Long time ago though. I get it.

But my problem and main point is that now L2/L3 doesn't seem to exist, or is way way harder to access.

When I did L1, I was trained to permit escalation. Now, it seems people are trained to gaslight people that actually nothing is broken and it's all their head.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#169

Post by slumberlust »

dehrmann wrote: post #89
omcnoe wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. You can see these exact same market dynamics at work in the mobile telco industry. Newer online only upstarts able to save on costs because they don’t operate a retail store you can visit to get help resetting your email password.

One time, I needed this. I lost my phone with a physical SIM card and needed a replacement that day. Now I'm trying to remember the eSIM transfer flow to know if this is still an issue. But also, which MVNO should you go to? Carriers supposedly prioritize their own customers, so it feels a bit like running on spot instances.

They're all fungible if you aren't addicted to your phone.

Re: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

#170

Post by FiatLuxDave »

tristor wrote: post #46

My experience with customer support with every major company has always been a miserable one. The fundamental problem from my perspective is that if I've decided to call support that means I've already exhausted any other alternatives, and most likely my issue is one that explicitly requires human intervention because I've found myself wedged into a crack in the self-serve systems. I'm not particularly bothered by wa…

I used to be the top-level support escalation at a company, and I made sure to brief all the tier-1 support personnel to escalate directly to me any call using "shibboleet" Sadly no one ever used it.

The company had "Nuclear" in the name, and our average customer had at least a masters in physics, so maybe not the typical support situation. But in at least one case, it has been a real thing. It doesn't work at AT&T and Spectrum, I've tried.

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