by Roy Exum
posted August 25, 2008
 Roy Exum |
Dear Mr. Hurd...
Back one night when I was much younger, I was invited to a fun little Sunday Night Fish Fry in Palo Alto and everybody had a big time. It wasn't fancy folding chairs and tables as I recall but the food was good and the drink was even better.
Across the table that night was a "bigger than life" guy named David Packard and nearby sat his pal Bill Hewlett with my godfather, Leonard Ely, who you may know because "Uncle Leonard" is still called the "Billion-Dollar Man" around Palo Alto - he's raised that much for different charities.
Anyhow, I adored Mr. Packard and Mr. Hewlett was a lot of fun so, as I am wont to do, I've kept my vow of having nothing but Hewlett-Packard stuff around my house. Further, it's served me well, despite the thought your guys ought to put more ink in those cartridges you sell. I was even proud when I heard HP now sells more computers than anybody else in the whole world.
Not long ago I was walking through Sam's Club and they had a pretty good deal on a HPxb3000 Notebook Expansion Base so I got it to go with my HP Pavilion dv9000 lap top I had gotten from the great people at BestBuy. I've got a tough deal where I can only type left-handed and, being a right-handed guy, I've installed a voice-recognition software program my Southern drawl is eager to put to the test.
Well, ole one-armed me sets up my HP products just right except the keyboard and the mouse that came with the expansion base don't er, sync. That's the word you guys use when they fail to work. I called the 24-7 help line and, brother, that in itself is a trial. Our country has gone nuts over "Press Two if you are from Pakistan" and "Press Four if you need to buy supplies." Trouble is, this takes away my greatest asset time and I think that is pretty selfish on HP's part.
Finally I get "Sonny" in your repair shop. He's as nice and kind as anyone I ever talked to. But soon "Sonny" became "Sunny" because, it turns out, he was in southern India not southern Indiana. He tried every way he could to help me Lordy, we talked for well over two hours and, say, the next time you wander through the label department tell the girls to make the serial numbers and the product numbers bigger because having the customer use a microscope to read them doesn't help sales.
I called "Sunny" around 9 o'clock on Saturday morning, which I think was about 9 o'clock on Saturday night in India, and I asked him had anything happened Saturday he could warn me about. I also asked him did he know any sports scores because I could get a bet down, but, no, he just said it was the rainy season where he lived.
Well, we unplugged and plugged. We changed batteries. We started and restarted and booted. Nothing worked. I've been bedridden with that bone infection so soon it became a game of sorts. Normally I'd have gotten exasperated, but this time I stayed cool, real cool.
Sunny wasn't real sure about how Expansion Bases work so he had to put me on hold a lot while he checked with his supervisor. Sometimes I would be on hold for four or five minutes. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich one time during a "hold" and I was able to go to the bathroom a couple of times, walk on my back deck to puff a cigar, take out the trash and do all kind of things during the interludes.
I'm telling you we were on the phone for over two hours. I've never done that in my life. Boy, that's dedication, huh? During the call I was given a Case No. 8015204167 and, when I applied for it, I had to type in "Philippines" because that's where my call was being routed from to India. Admittedly, that's pretty fancy, but I don't understand why it wouldn't be better to talk to someone in Duluth or San Antonio.
And that brings me to my point. I am an American. I bought the HP products in America. I think we should stick together when something goes wrong, as little as a keyboard and a mouse may well be.
Towards the tail end of the conversation, Sunny suggested I take the whole bundle "somewhere in your city to see if it can be repaired", but, no, by then I was dedicated to seeing this one through, which is why I am coming to you. I believe an American company ought to service what it sells.
I asked Sunny if it had been his experience that some customers finally get so worn out with the "help number" they just go out and buy another computer or expansion base, which would be a pretty slick and a little sick - way to sell something new and he said he didn't know. I started to get him to ask his supervisor but by then realized if my man dared ask the supervisor one more thing about Case No. 8015204167 he'd have a live cobra thrown at him or something. So in this box you'll find my laptop, my expansion base, the keyboard, the mouse, and the power cords.
Incidentally, be careful with the power cords every HP product has a different one and, if you get them confused, it's a mess. My Einstein thought is to get those guys who wear those funny-looking glasses in product design to make a universal power cord that would work on everything because that would also save a bunch of money, but that's not my mission today.
No, I need help from somebody who is responsible for getting my computer and expansion base fixed. I need your girl down in diagnostics to run my laptop "through the garden" and the expansion base boys to "sync" my keyboard and mouse. I'm an ever-loyal customer and, somehow, I think that ought to stand for something.
Yes, I could probably take my bundle downtown and get it fixed, but I think this is bigger than all of that. You are the CEO the head of the stream and I think if you'll ponder the lessons you find in this letter you'll one day be so good and famous you and your wife will be able to give the Children's Hospital at Stanford $40 million like David and Lucile Packard did that time.
Bill Hewlett, you'll recall, set up a foundation before his death that just last year alone paid out $485 million in grants and such. What he did for the people of the San Francisco area is so wonderfully beautiful even today. I want you and your wife to be able to do that. I think that is a big factor towards that goal can be found in the way you love other people.
I am of the firm belief HP should tack the same course, so, as I send you "Sunny's Headache" and "Roy's Dilemma" in this box, my prayer is that you'll learn the lesson this experience lends to each one of us and again embrace the ideals that Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard held when they started this ride.
Finally, for me to have my computer packed in a way that assures safe shipment cost about $15. To send this 27-pound box will cost upwards of $100 to have it arrive expediently. I could have probably had it fixed for that or, with a little more, bought a new expansion base. Moreover, I've got at least 10 hours invested in this problem, by the time I started fiddling with it up until now, and "time is money" as well.
So in the spirit I embraced that Sunday night I spent with David Packard and Bill Hewlett, allow me to beg "my computer company" stay strong and innovative, but to never, ever forget the little guy at the end of the line.
That is what makes America the greatest country in the world.
And the next time you are in Southern India, tell Sunny hello for me, but, for goodness sake, watch out for that live cobra.
Onward & Upward,
Roy Exum
royexum@aol.com
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |
