HP Deliberately Adds 15 Minutes Wait Time for Support Calls
[Updated to add on February 21
Following our exclusive, HP Inc has reversed course on the 15-minute forced wait.
--Bytram]
Frosty Piss writes:
https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/hp_deliberately_adds_15_minutes/
Not that anyone ever received any satisfaction from either support option, HP is trying to force consumer PC and print customers to use online and other digital support channels by setting a minimum 15-minute wait time for anyone that phones the call center to get answers to troublesome queries. At the beginning of a call to telephone support, a message will be played stating: "We are experiencing longer waiting times and we apologize for the inconvenience. The next available representative will be with you in about 15 minutes." Those who want to continue to hold are told to "please stay on the line."
The reason for the change? Getting people to figure it out themselves using online support. As HP put it: "Encouraging more digital adoption by nudging customers to go online to self-solve," and "taking decisive short-term action to generate warranty cost efficiencies."
The staff email says customer experience metrics are being tracked weekly in terms of customer satisfaction, escalations, and others. As are the number of phone calls that subsequently give up and move to social channels or live chat.
For some Reg readers, 15 minutes might not seem like an eternity, especially if they are used to dealing with UK tax collector HMRC, which was found to have kept callers waiting on hold, collectively, for 798 years in the year to March 2023, something it was also recently criticized for again.
An insider in HP's European ops told us: "Many within HP are pretty unhappy [about] the measures being taken and the fact those making decisions don't have to deal with the customers who their decisions impact."
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