HP Stalls Support Calls with 15-Minute Waits to Drive Users Online
Support calls are something that many consumers dread. From long wait times and irritating menu choices to members of support that can't or won't help you, or hang up on you after you have waited for tens of minutes or more.
HP Inc has reportedly found another way to make the life of its customers miserable. The company added a 15 minute waiting time for all telephone support calls, reports The Register.
Update: HP appears to have stopped adding the artificial delay due to "customer feedback".
The details:
- All support calls to HP's consumer hotline have a wait time of at least 15 minutes.
- The wait time applies even if support members are available.
The change is live already in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy, with more countries expected to be added to the list in the future.
HP informs customers about the waiting time at the beginning of the call and during the call repeatedly. Customers are also informed that they may be able to get help online as well.
HP wants to drive customers to self-help solutions that do not require active involvement of company employees.
Internal staff memos confirm that the waiting time is set to 15 minutes for each customers, regardless of how busy telephone support lines are. The Register reports that HP says that it is tracking customer experience metrics.
It is an attempt to cut costs by making the experience of customers miserable. This is not the first time that HP is implementing changes that are negative for its customers.
Just in the past couple of years, HP has restricted functionality of printers, blocked use of third-party ink cartridges repeatedly, and introduced renting services that often are not in the best interest of consumers.
HP's money-saving strategy could backfire
While HP hopes that it is going to save money, as more and more customers may give up on trying to reach the company via the hotline, it is possible that the strategy could backfire.
Customers may not be pleased to wait for at least 15 minutes, but when they realize that the wait time is artificially added, they might consider leaving bad reviews or purchasing printers or computers from other companies with better hotlines in the future.
With AI booming, it is probably only a matter of time before members of support will be replaced by AI personas.
What is your take on this? When was the last time you had to contact support via telephone? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I think it’s important for users to understand that when they call a support line that they won’t be speaking to the company that makes the product, but whichever Outsourcer the company has a contract with.
When I was doing support for HP while working for an outsourcer called Stream International that had the service contract at that time – I can reveal that now since the confidentiality clause I signed has now expired – it would very much depend on how much pressure agents are placed under as to the service users receive. As far as HP is concerned they wanted a 94 percent service level which means that agents were under a lot of pressure to answer the phone directly it rings. Any delay and the service level drops below that percentage figure. Also, the Outsourcer only gets paid for the first eight minutes of any call after which they have to foot the bill themselves. That adds to the pressure support agents are placed under by both parties.
There are unfortunately a lot of cowboys doing support work who only regard the job as a means to an end and don’t give a damn if users problems are solved or not. They’re only interested in the money it pays and often leave the job within six months, or get fired. Whoever takes their place is subsequently landed with the mess they made and has to do his or her best to clean it up while still having to deal with the next incoming call as soon as it arrives.
I’ve met people in bars who tell me they’d love to work as a support agent because they know a lot about computers, but what they don’t understand is that the questions they get on the phone are all about things they don’t know.
The 15 minute delay may have been implemented by an outsourcer or whoever was providing support at the time, but I sympathise with these guys because I know what a hassle it can be especially if you’re faced with the mess some other agent who is no longer employed there has created.
One way to get our if this is to pay for professional services, buy professional products… pay for being able to speak to humans not robots. Pay for being able to make decisions with humans instead of robots and so on… pay. It is what professionals do all the time. Pay for getting contracts on paper, Pay for getting your bills and all other documents on paper and so on… file your documents the analog way instead of on your digital equipment.
I swear my Doctor is starting to do the same thing. It doesn’t matter what time of the day you call, your phone call is automatically placed in a (non-existent) queue with the message that there is one person already waiting in the queue and then it takes forever before somebody answers the phone. They just seem to want to get rid of you rather than helping you.
Aside from Apple, which still has brick-and-mortar stores that provide – at least in my experience – excellent customer service – a 15 minute wait to intercat with a human is not unusual in the tech industry, or any industry in 2025, and in most cases just gets you through to a call centre in India that’s not able to help anyway. But don’t worry, AI will make this all better soon [/sarcasm]
Who buys HP except for old people who do not know better? My friend is much older and when she bought a new laptop and wanted me to set it up: I said “if you bought HP, do it yourself”. But she started begging and I let it go. I will not buy HP, I do not want to see HP computers or printers near me. It is the greediest and least consumer friendly PC and printer manufacturer ever.
HP laser printers with Ubuntu 24 are fully working all day long without config requirements. Single pairing done in less than 2 seconds, immediately printing after seconds, no delays, nothing to regret to any HP laser printer. Here working with at least two dozen of HP laser printers in an insurance company, more than one thousand papers printed per week. Everything done under Ubuntu.
I am used to buying and working with HP equipment. I do the professional line, get professional support and so on… i use it at home and it is OK.
Some years ago at the job i did the round with support from local & on site which was best, then neighbouring country, then the next even farther way… i got ‘support’ from people in Morocco as well… it was a steep downfall in just a few years. The people in far away nations are cheap for corporate but useless to customers. They do not speak the same language even though it is somewhat english. It is nasty talking with them because it is two different cultures. The do not understand high pressure situations in a server room with hundreds of employees needing to work…. we had to complain at HP and redefine contracts… it was an unpleasant time.
So, they eliminated the wait time. Was this just an experiment to see if there would be any push back from customers?
I wouldn’t consider any product from HP, even at the right price. I was forced to use their laptops at work and found the build quality to be poor compared to Dell or Lenovo. I am quite happy with my Brother Laser printer.
It’s interesting to see how HP is encouraging users to go online for support. Do you think this approach will improve efficiency or frustrate customers more?
People still buy HP products? I been ignoring them since 2015. I don’t miss their products one bit.
HP is the worst thing that have happened to cats since dogs.
Agree w/all of the foregoing. In addition, having issues w/HPs “Instant Ink” program (joined when an HP inkjet ws purchased about 1 yr ago.). Haven’t received new ink cartridges for months, but have a monthly billing/subscription charge. Need to speak to a live customer support agent to hopefully resolve the problems, and am considering canceling subscription to Instant Ink. HP printers aren’t nearly the high quality and reliability as prior years. Inkjet printers, no matter price point, are manufactured w/flimsy, easily breakable & cheap plastic parts, especially levers required to access (push/pull/press/release) certain printer features. Difficult to see tiny “screen” which displays printer status. Only tiny fingers/hands can reach inside printer (per HP instructions) to troubleshoot some printer operation problems. Setup instructions are poor & difficult to follow, necessitating calls to customer support (after wasting much time trying to follow them &/or viewing YouTube setup tutorials). Have been a loyal HP customer for many years (mostly HP printers using toner cartridges rather than inkjets) and those older HP printers were workhorses & very reliable, but do not accommodate the newer printing technologies & related software, and for which there are no updated drivers. But the current crop of HP printers, along w/poor customer support, is forcing consideration of other brands.
HP laser printers are still good ones in Linux, without the required HPSmart of course. HPSmart is the worst demon in hell, absolutely crap. Ubuntu 24 is able to print in any HP laser printer in seconds with no configuration needed at all, pure automatic pairing. Absolutely priceless!
I buy their computers (almost) always, but I buy Brother printers – always. I’ve never had to call HP, but I’ve had to call other companies and government agencies and had the long wait. I expect it. I play games while I wait.
People might have been willing to put up with this wait time, back when HP printers were top-quality products. But now there are lots of others just as good or better on the market.
The problem with the AI aspect is that the bot can only answer questions which are included in its database. If you ask them something which isn’t in there you’re advised to rephrase your question. Imagine getting that response from a human agent.
So it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that HP and other companies have dispensed with human beings altogether in favour of these next to useless chatbots all in the good cause of making bigger profits at your expense.
Feedback made HP change!
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/02/21/hp_ditches_15_minute_wait_time_call_centers/
HP’s behavior towards customers has generally been reprehensible. I used to own a HP printer, but I replaced it with a Brother printer (which is actually better in every respect anyway) and now own three of them. I’ll never even look at a HP product again, unless there are drastic and clear changes to their operating approach.
Update. The 15 minute wait time has been eliminated due to “customer feedback”. See https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/21/hp_ditches_15_minute_wait_time_call_centers/
Idiots.
My response to HP & 15 minute waits – easy ! I’m currently looking to upgrade both my laptop and chromebook — I won’t be considering HP.