There are  two types of computer users:

1. The problem-solving techno-geeks who build hardware, hack software and enjoy every challenge, even bugs to dug themselves get deeper an deeper in… most of us have probably  been there, done that, then grew up.
2. Those who simply want to use their systems for work, fun or whatever they damn please, and hate when they are forced to spend hours investigating problems that should not occur in the first place, and then they should be documented… I suspect that’s the majority of us.  A few hours here, half a day there, always in the worst possible time.  We feel it’s unfair that we are forced to work instead of [insert your favorite lousy company here]. After all, wear not on their payroll.

Enough is enough.  Let’s fight back!  If you’re a freelancer, or are in any profession where you bill your hourly, you know exactly what your rate is. Even if not, chances are you have a realistic estimate of your time’s worth.  Next time you feel you got robbed of a few valuable hours, just bill it!   Chances are, you won’t get paid, but you’ll feel better.   I certainly do, having just billed Microsoft,  Mozilla and HP.

Remember to tag your invoice / blog post.. whatever as virtualinvoice: I will keep tab of the totals, and periodically publish them.

Viva La Revolucion!

Tags: customet support, technical support, virtualinvoice, zoho invoice

I don’t know why I haven’t killed HP Total Care Advisor yet, but today I accidentally clicked on it:

Wow.  I’ve seen crapware .. but never before have I seen a vendor with the audacity to place their shopping program under Critical Alerts.  Shame, shame, absolute shame, HP.

Tags: Customer support, hewlett-packard, HP, hp total care, technical support

Reading this gem (hat tip: Ben Casnocha) about the nightmare of trying to get HP support their PC’s reminded me of my own horror story. Actually, not horror - just comedy.

Anyway… yeah, I was weak, fell for the good deal at Costco, and got myself a Vista-loaded junk from HP. There’s one component that shines - literally: the display. 22 inches of shiny black beauty, sharp screen, it tilts and moves around in every imaginable way, even pivots for a vertical view. But there was a little glitch with pivoting: I had to lie down to read the screen. There was no way to get the screen image rotate - something that should happen automatically.

I’ll spare you the first 20 minutes or so of the online chat with HP support, let’ s just jump to where it got really interesting:

Support: You probably have a video card that does not support auto-pivoting.

Me: That’s not possible. I did not build this machine, it’s a standard HP system out-of-the-box.

Support: I don’t understand.

Stop. Take a deep breath. This is just hilarious. Rather than trying to find the answer, the easy way out is to claim a standard configuration HP is selling consists of a mismatched video card and monitor. She has absolutely no idea how she is damaging the brand. Oh, well, let’s get a supervisor … wait .. disconnect.

Btw, “disconnecting” appears to be a standard HP solution to support issues: I’m still waiting for this other fellow to “gather all information” to my email over a month ago. Perhaps he’ll figure it out by the time I dump this PC.

Tags: Customer support, hewlett-packard, HP, LCD, technical support