On the morning of 9/14/2001 I purchased my first paid WebOS app Glimpse for what I thought was the sale price of 99 cents, (there was a 1 day 80% off sale). However, when I got home and read my e-mail, I get a receipt from HP for the full price of $5.33 ($5.00 + tax). No problem I thought, a simple call to HP should straighten out this error. I’ll just look on the e-mail receipt they sent, and find the easy contact info to fix this problem; no such luck, there was no contact info on the receipt. So after spending 5 minutes on the web, I finely find the number for HP, 1-800-BUY-MYHP. After spending another 5 minutes navigating through HP phone menus, I find what I hope is the HP WebOS support line. On the support line a very polite woman answers. After explaining the billing error, she asked me if I checked with my credit card company to verify that a $5 charge appeared. I explained that I normally do not check my credit card statement for a $5 charge, but since I am able to check my statement on-line, and since I am close to my computer, I go ahead and log into my credit card web-site, and sure enough there is a $5.33 charge pending from Palm. After that she ask me for my Touchpad Serial Number. I explained to her that my touchpad was in another part of the house, but I do have a copy of the HP receipt in front of me, and I could give her the invoice number. She explained to me that she couldn’t look up the charge by the invoice
number, and that I had to go get my Touchpad and give her the serial number. So I spend another few minutes, trucking to another room on the other end of the house to retrieve my TP and read her the serial number. She puts me on hold for another few minutes. She then comes back and tells me that there is a 1 day 80% off sale on the Glimpse app. She also informs me that since she is level 1 support person, there is nothing she can do for me, but she will refer this problem to the level 2 support staff to investigate. She also tells me that I will need to fax in a copy of the receipt they just e-mailed me, and a copy of my credit card statement with the $5 charge to HP before they could fix the problem. At this point, I must apologize for getting a little angry with her. I told her that there was no way that I was going to send her my credit card statement, and to just cancel the whole order.
When I placed my first paid WebOS order with HP, I wasn’t expecting the Apple app store, but I certainly wasn’t expecting what I got. Please HP; listen to me! You made a mistake, you made a very nice tablet, but you selected an OS with very little developer support, and you originally overpriced the TP at $500 and $600. So you dumped your inventory and took a big loss. But now you have an installed user base from anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 users. Also, as I start playing
around with WebOS, I discover that it is a very nice OS, a bit slow, but with excessive logging disabled, not too bad. I also discover a very nice web browsing experience. With flash enabled, I can even watch Amazon Video on Demand. In some ways, its browser is even nicer than the Ipad.
So you made a mistake. We all do from time to time. But now you have a real chance to turn a mistake into a golden opportunity. With anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 TP users you are going to start to draw developers. Developers like to make money; and with that many users, they will see the potential. Yes, I know
that TouchDroid is busily working on an android port to the TP. And yes, like most TP owners, I am eagerly waiting for them to eventually port Honeycomb to the TP. However, they are not replacing WebOS, but rather developing a dual boot system. And frankly, I have been enjoying the WebOS interface and strong browsing features. With some really good apps, I could see myself spending a lot of time on the WebOS side, and sending money to HP and their developers to buy these strong apps. Take a lesson from the printer side of the company. The real profits are not in the core HW, but rather the support supplies, toner, paper for printers, apps for TPs. But in order for this to be a reality, you better do something to very quickly fix your WebOS store and support lines. I must say you certainly have not made my first app purchase very enjoyable. Now instead of frantically trying to find a TP for my brother, I have to re-evaluate whether or not I will buy him one at all.
Is this an isolated incident or have other user experienced similar problems with the WebOS support line?
Take Care,
Victor
Post relates to: HP TouchPad (WiFi)
