HP in a free fall

[CK SatGuy]

Crazy times going on at HP. Good article about it on here: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-10/can-meg-whitman-reverse-hewlett-packards-free-fall
It's a long read though at 6 pages.

 

[jayn_j]

I agree it was a good article. The point I disagree with was that the cancer started with Carly. Carly was a symptom and logical development of the disease that started when Bill and Dave retired from active management in the late 1970s. Both founders came back in the mid 80s and forced John Young to retire, but the company was too entrenched with financial types by then.

We were called into a meeting in 1987 and told that "we were now responsible for our own careers" The translation was that HP would start laying off without cause and that you better make darned sure that not only were you performing, but that your project was also performing. Overnight the culture changed. We stopped investing in speculative projects that had any risk. Our division management would rather we sat and did nothing than be working on a project that didn't have a certain level of pre-sales. That free fall accelerated throughout the 1990s until Agilent was spun off in 2001. By then the biggest engineering activity was to package up the engineering documentation for our products and ship it off to India and China. Once that was completed, 80% of us were laid off.

 

[Neutron]

The only product HP makes that I like is their printer line. Their desktops and laptops are HORRIBLE. Case in point our parent company made us switch from Lenovo to HP at the end of last year. This week I had to call HP tech support to request an RMA on a dead hard drive for a 2 month old HP laptop.

4 years ago I worked for a company who also used HP for their computers. All of us on my team dreaded calling them for tech support to replace stuff as they were always script happy and wouldn't deviate from the script. I got asked quite a bit if I updated the BIOS, even when I called in for a dead LCD screen or a dead hard drive.

 

[mike123abc]

A good article. It is sad to see a once great company fall so much. I still like their printers. I hope she can turn it around.

 

[John Kotches]

Neutron:

I honestly don't know why you are kvetching over the failed drive. Anyone who has dealt with systems and storage knows that the failure of components is a U shaped curve, with the infant mortality cases on the left. You had an infant mortality.

Sure it's frustrating, but it truly is part of what makes the failure curve.


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk 2.x

 

[Neutron]

My thing is we never saw this with our Lenovo or Dell laptops. I know it can happen but I've seen more failures with HP.

 

[Poke]

Yeah I never really had any issues with HP I think their problem is like Dell in that they try to make way too much they should slim down how many different models of things they make.

 

[Frank Jr.]

The only product HP makes that I like is their printer line. Their desktops and laptops are HORRIBLE. Case in point our parent company made us switch from Lenovo to HP at the end of last year. This week I had to call HP tech support to request an RMA on a dead hard drive for a 2 month old HP laptop.

4 years ago I worked for a company who also used HP for their computers. All of us on my team dreaded calling them for tech support to replace stuff as they were always script happy and wouldn't deviate from the script. I got asked quite a bit if I updated the BIOS, even when I called in for a dead LCD screen or a dead hard drive.

Back in 2006 I had an HP laptop still under warranty with a failed cooling fan. While on the phone with support (across the big pond) they too wanted me to update the bios. I refused to boot the thing back up. They then claimed it was out of warranty. After many hours on the phone I finally contacted executive support in California who agreed to repair it only after I faxed the sales receipt to them. Back in early 2011 I had a 3 year old HP desktop fail because of 8 bad capacitors on the motherboard. It was a well known frequent issue with this particular model. (M8300f) HP still wanted over 300 bucks to replace the motherboard. I replaced the bad capacitors myself for about 9 bucks,,, plus my time.

I will agree with John that even new components can fail, but bad customer service will be remembered long after a failed part has been forgotten, or at least forgiven.

 

[Foxbat]

Good for you, Frank! The Bad Cap plague hasn't been eliminated, even though I've seen TVs, LCD monitors, Ethernet switches, and even a digital clock radio fall victim to burst electrolytic capacitors. But PCs have to be the most prevalent failures due to Bad Caps.

Grrr™ I had typed in more about HP, but the App was hungry and ate it. (Time Out)

 

[whitewolf8214]

They have been in freefall for years and if they don't get it fixed soon they will be gone imo

 

[Neutron]

Same laptop is displaying hard disk failure. HP now wants me to ship it into their techs for advanced troubleshooting. Give me a break!

 

[Poke]

Yeah would not hurt HP to trim down some of their product line as well.

 

[Poke]

Same laptop is displaying hard disk failure. HP now wants me to ship it into their techs for advanced troubleshooting. Give me a break!

Yeah that don't make sense if it's still under warranty they should ship a new HD out. But again not just with HP many companies when it comes to customer service or tech support it all depends on who you get on the phone.

 

[mdram]

only thing i buy from hp is
1. printers
2. large format plotters
3. calculators

 

[Poke]

only thing i buy from hp is
1. printers
2. large format plotters
3. calculators

Yeah I had a few of their Laptops in the past no real issues but have used Dells more hear lately with no real issues either. I think some it all depends on what you buy as far as what models and the type of hardware you choose.

 

[Poke]

HP rains on Dell's private parade, should probably mind its own business

Yeah I agree HP should mind it's own business.

http://www.neowin.net/news/hp-rains-on-dells-private-parade-should-probably-mind-its-own-business

 

[raoul5788]

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but HP is the only computer I've owned that didn't have issues. My first brand name was a Gateway, then a Dell, now an HP. The first two companies were a PIA to deal with. Fortunately, I haven't had to with the HP, not yet anyway!

 

[Poke]

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but HP is the only computer I've owned that didn't have issues. My first brand name was a Gateway, then a Dell, now an HP. The first two companies were a PIA to deal with. Fortunately, I haven't had to with the HP, not yet anyway!

I used HP in the past without any major issues with their hardware.

 

[Neutron]

Got our laptop back from HP. Guess what? All they did was replace the hard drive, NOT the motherboard as I was told would happen. I called back and the tech I spoke with said that the repair services group doesn't exactly go by their recommendation and they do their own troubleshooting. It sure would have been nice if they had read the notes on my case!! I HATE HP!!!!!

 

[jevans64]

I haven't bought a pre-built desktop computer in about 10 years or more. I did buy a Dell laptop in 2004 and the thing still works fine but I have little need for it now. I do have HP calculators and printers. I had a LaserJet that ran for about 15 years before I decided to get a new one -- a LaserJet P2055dn.