Most everybody has had to deal with those hip, outsourcy wags from Bangalore when calling HP for tech support. You’ve read the articles about how horrible the service is, how they can’t speak English, even though the English people lived there for a hundred years or more, so you’d think that maybe some of it would have rubbed off, but, alas, no. (the saying goes, ‘You can take the English out of India, but you can’t get English out of an Indian’)
So, I have tried my hardest to restrain from writing this post, figuring it’s been done too many times. Well, I deleted it twice and it still comes back to haunt me, somewhat like my recent antibiotic-and-Claratin induced nightmare, ‘No Tetas D’Amora’, a Fellini short about a sexy woman with no breasts. It ran for three nights over at the old Teatro de Me Cabeza until the new indie release, last night: ‘My Penis has morphed into A 1983 Mazda GLC Hatchback.’
Okay, I will not go over the no tit chick dream, but I will recount the HP tech service call. It all started when I tried to empty the recycle bin on my Vabulous Vista Desktop and it would not show that it had indeed emptied. Being very compulsive on the subject of all of my Windows Crapware working correctly, I decided to call HP to iron it out.
After all, the service is still free with warranty, blah, blah. Big mistake, but I cannot seem to learn my lesson from horrible ‘you get what you pay for’ incidents in my life, at all, ever.
Here’s how it went:
Ring, ring, followed by smooth jazz and whatever bullshit HP has recorded to keep you calm for ten minutes.
HP: Hello, and thank you for calling HP technical support. My name is Rosibmuklllhsmkdsa, how can I help you?
Me: What?
HP: My name is Ilkndklsinammmabnanana.
Me: Okay. Uh, I can’t throw away the trash on my desktop.
HP: I’m sorry, I will need your model number and serial number.
Me: Alright (give her the information)
HP: Alright, now, what seems to be the ropopuls?
Me: What?
HP: The proooojjbkelem.
Me: I can’t empty the trash on my desktop
HP: Okay, we will do remote assistance to help you with this.
[twenty minutes go by, with me staring blankly at my screen while the HP tech lady moves my curser around. At one point, she misses my porn folder by mere inches. I think this is funny and laugh. She does not respond.]
HP: Okay, did that help?
Me: No.
[Another hour and a half of attempts to find the source of the problem, rebooting in 'safe' mode, and a dozen other pointless attempts all of which I was sure would be eventually punctuated by the ever popular, meme, 'Let me put you on hold for two minutes while I research this', which can only stop you from complaining long enough for them to get back on the line with another unworkable anti-fix.]
HP: Okay, just give me two minutes to hikielkhdklslturolakourejn with my supervisor. [told you so]
Me: What? (cool jazz waiting music)
HP: Okay, my supervisor says that you probably have a virus. Do you use anti-virus software?
Me: Of Course.
HP: Well, it must not be working.
Me: What am I supposed to do?
HP: You need to do a clean install of your system.
Me: That means I’ll lose all of my files?
HP: No, you can back them up first.
Me: Okay, well thank you for nothing. How can your supervisor diagnose a virus without looking? He must be an
ignorant, lazy asshole.
HP: Very good! Thank you for calling HP. Is there anything else we can help you with today?
Me: Uh, you didn’t help me. You only pretended to help me.
HP: My name, again, is Oufredifjklajdkfjal. Your case number is blah blah. Would you like to take part in a short survey?
Me: No. the only thing you helped me with was using up half of my day. [ Wherin I hang up]
Ten minutes later, I decided to google the problem, found the answer on a tech forum, applied it and that was that.
Two days later, I got a call. I let it go to the answering machine before picking it up.
HP: “Hello, this is Miss OPIU-jkajdfkjieeeieiedda calling from HP. We would like to know if you are still having your problem with the recycle bin. Please call us at……
Me: Hello?
HP: Yes, this is Ms. Hiouriihheels calling from………
Me: Can I put you on hold for two minutes?
HP: Well, actually I wanted to…………
Me: Just two minutes, please.
I put her on hold, which I couldn’t fully do with my phone, so I just put the phone down next to the tv and flipped to ‘Tucker’, on MSNBC while I did two loads of laundry.
I think that took care of the problem.