- HP is apparently making personal PC and printer buyers wait 15 minutes on phone calls
- Customers in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy are affected
- During the call, three more self-service reminders are played
With the rise of AI and ongoing financial struggles impacting businesses, we’ve seen companies directing users down the self-self route when it comes to customer service, but HP is believed to be doing something even more drastic.
To prevent users from adding a burden onto its customer service workers, HP is reportedly enforcing a 15-minute minimum wait time for consumer PC and home printer customers.
The Register says the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy have already had this change enacted, and other countries could soon follow suit.
HP doesn’t want you to talk to customer support
The objective behind HP’s decision to make getting in touch with customer service unpleasant appears to be to encourage customers to use digital self-service options in the first instance.
According to The Register, a voice at the start of the call reads: “We are experiencing longer waiting times and we apologize for the inconvenience. The next available representative will be with you in about 15 minutes.”
Reminders at the fifth, tenth and thirteenth minutes repeat the ‘high volume’ notice, reminding customers of online support alternatives.
HP reportedly said in an internal memo it is, “encouraging more digital adoption by nudging customers to go online to self-solve” and “taking decisive short-term action to generate warranty cost efficiencies.”
In other words, it’s yet another cost-cutting measure being introduced by the company after reducing its headcount by 10% in 2022.
One insider within HP’s European operations team told The Register: “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.”
TechRadar Pro has asked HP to confirm whether it is introducing an artificial wait time at the beginning of customer service phone calls, and whether this will happen in even more countries. We did not receive an immediate response.
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