Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Good tech support experiences shouldn't be the exception to the rule, but I've had two very nice ones this week.
The first was with Cameta, the company that sold me the refurbed E-500. The CF slot died after I'd had it less than a month. They took it back, and I had a repaired camera back in my hands two weeks after I sent it off. Amazing.
The second was with HP. I love my HP Photosmart 8250 printer, and the time had come to replace my Brother all-in-one unit. It works okay, but it consumes very expensive ink at an alarming rate. We dropped in at the new CompUSA today, and I came close to buying a particular HP all-in-one, but decided to think about it over lunch. We dropped in at Fry's for some batteries and I happened to be there when one of the salespeople noticed that someone had removed the sale price tag on an HP Photosmart C7280 all-in-one. I'd been thinking about getting it, but $300 was a bit out of my budget, even though I have that nice advance check. (Yes, I'm thrifty.) When he said that the sale price was $179, I was sold.
The C7280 uses the same 02 ink cartridges as the 8250. It also has ethernet and wi-fi, and does duplex printing. My main requirement for an all-in-one was a sheet feeder, and this one holds 20 pages, double the capacity of the Brother. And, of course, being a photo printer, it has lots of card slots and a nce LCD screen. What wasn't to like?
We got the printer home and set up. As it was printing an alignment sheet the paper jammed. Then I got an error message stating that the cartridges were unusable. Ouch. Well, I tried one in the 8250, and got the same message. After some digging around on the HP support site I decided to connect with a rep for a chat.
Normally it's my misfortune to get a clueless script reader. My initial worries were banished when, instead of telling me I was SOL that he was willing to help me reset the printer and see if that helped. The process took a very long time, but he was patient and got me through all of the steps - some of which involved going into special support menus. So far it works like a champ.
I used the form on the web site to send an e-mail to the HP CEO commending the rep for his patience and help. Why go to the top? Well, there wasn't an option to contact tech support without filling out a huge trouble report, which I obviously didn't need to do. He'll probably never see it, but I hope the appropriate department does.
As I said above, good tech support experiences should be the rule rather than the exception. But it's nice to sit here on a Saturday afternoon feeling good instead of fuming!
Tags: Technology