Worst Company In America: Walmart VS HP
A controversial retailer VS a computer company with a black hole for a warranty repair operation. Which will you choose?
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2009 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers, and seeded according to number of nominations. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Download the bracket here.
Post a comment
Comments:
Fairly easy win for Walmart, but I expect it to be closer than Peanuts v/s Amex.
Not as close as Chrysler v/s Dell though.
And I am betting on BestBuy for the yet-to-be-opened second matchup of the day.
These rounds have been too easy . . .
One of my friends screwed up his HP laptop to the point where it would shut down randomly. The first thing I did was to try and update the BIOS, but the HP website was crap. Not only did they NOT have any sort of support for the new 22 digit alphanumeric serials on the robo-crap support part of their site but when I tried the [www.dialahuman.com] trick to get a person, they wanted me to PAY to talk to someone before the problem was even solved. On a laptop that was under warranty!
I voted for HP mainly because PC World recently did a big survey on the customer service of the major tech companies and HP failed spectacularly. They were dead last by a HUGE margin.
Trampling Death
Shoppers laughing while the man died
It might not be fair to hold the second one against Wal-mart...but I'm gonna anyway.
Did anyone get held responsible for what happened?
I am abstaining from this vote because those are two of my favorite companies.
I wanted to get two for one, so I voted Walmart.
What's wrong with HP besides being expensive. Walmart are a necessary evil so I honestly can't really pick.
@Rectilinear Propagation: I heard it was kind of like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, where no one in the company actually did anything illegal, so they got off scot-free.
I personally have had nothing but positive experiences with HP products. I have owned 2 HP Laserjets and they were both outstanding. I shop at Walmart regularly and while I have had a few frustrating experiences, they are no worse than any other discount retailer IMHO. So I will abstain on this one.
I understand that HP has horrible customer service (luckily I bought mine through Costco, so I have to deal with Costco's wonderful customer service concierge, and also bought it with AMEX, which were wonderful and helped me with a credit card warranty for my previous Gateway laptop). I love most of HP's computers and designs as well, whereas I just have not had pleasant experiences shopping at Wal-Mart, and the things I've heard about Wal-Marts policies with employees, I'll have to go with Walmart on this one.
Yea know, I don't like this year's bracket. For the 'likely suspects', AIG, Peanut Corp, Ticketmaster and Walmart are on the same bracket half with no one in Comcast's league on the other half. It's almost as if it is weighted...
You can't walk into an HP "store" with your hair in curlers, fuzzy slippers, and wearing a dirty sweatsuit, and feel "overdressed" in comparison to other shoppers.
Walmart for labor issues.
@noone1569: Like Louisville vs Morehead State?
It's a four bracket seeded tournament. So the first round features the worst companies vs companies that might not belong in this competition (good companies) and progresses toward the mediocre companies vs mediocre companies. The next round, baring upsets, will be worst companies vs mediocre companies and more mediocre vs mediocre. And eventually we will get to worst vs worst in the semis and finals.
Although both are weak competitors. It's dumb to vote walmart after reading about the customer service issues HP had. The problems people have with Walmart are largely made up, while the problems with HP support are real.
I'm going with Walmart because of Thaddeus's great comment, and because I would have voted for Walmart anyhow. But Slinky22 has an excellent point, and shopping in sweats is darn comfortable,....but no, I'm still voting for Walmart. They have become a blight on our retail industry.
@battra92: in terms of customer service, i'd say they deserve to be here.
there was a time when HP product support was great - i remember having faulty units under warranty replaced in 1-2 business days.
i don't know when that changed, but things have gotten pretty bad over there. one example (i have many): i had a faulty HP drive under warranty (inside a perfectly fine HP tower). tried to get it replaced...first they denied my replacement b/c "opening your tower voids your warranty". right. so, i escalate. they wanted me to send the whole tower in for troubleshooting. 4-6 weeks. not gonna happen. escalate again. now my choice is to pay to have a tech come out & troubleshoot the problem. the earliest he can be there is 3 weeks out & he won't have a new drive with him (even though i know the drive is the problem), so i get to wait another week for him to come back out if it is the drive. oh, & i have to pay for the in-home service. get bent.
$40 on-sale at a b&m for a new, faster, non-hp drive that's been working ever since. still pissed that they wouldn't support their product. not only did they waste my money, but also ~4 hours of my time on the phone.
i still buy from their business division, but i won't touch any of their home products ever again.
Even though I'm shopping at Walmart less often (even though I like Walmart, I'm finding that Kroger's has better sales on groceries as of late), I picked HP for their non-refillable, overpriced ink cartridges that self-destruct if you don't install them on-time.
As an owner of an HP printer with the lousy #02 inkset, it's HP FTW!
Walmart is a terrible company. They have racist and sexist values, work to drive their vendors beyond reason and encourage censorship.
Plus they're the embodyment of a genetic wasteland.
I occasionally walk through the local walmart to see how it's changed and in a word: it hasn't in over 5 years, the aisles are trashed, the employees are useless and worst of all they have a receipt checker.
HP is the leading manufacturer of computers, my main dealings with them have been on the enterprise business side and from all standpoints they have been nothing but stellar. The contacts I have made on that side of HP have helped me in navigating through any problems I have run into on the consumer side as well. HP rocks and I am frankly surprised it's on the list.
@Corporate_guy: I don't like how Walmart runs their company. They give gobs of money to religious right charities, they endorse (not publically, though the class action lawsuits have brought them to light) sexist and racist policies. They bludgeon their vendors.
On the plus side their bludgeoning of vendors has led to an increase in efficiency, but at the extreme cost of quality.
This is easy: Wal-Mart.
While HP's customer service sucks, Wal-Mart is internationally known for:
- Not paying overtime
- Locking their employees in stores
- Driving out mom and pop shops (purposefully) across the country
- Forcibly shutting down and firing any and all employees who think about starting up a union.
Consumerist: If they're so evil, why do you consistently point readers to Wal-Mart via the morning deals?
These both don't even belong in the same ballpark as AIG. This year is going to be a runaway.
Had to think about this one. I had an HP printer with a problem, so I called technical support. The rep was hard to understand, really didn't seem to know anything about the product, and actually gave me information blatantly incorrect. Promised a call-back and a replacement CD - neither of which occured. Ended up fixing the problem myself.
Still, I ended up voting for Wal-Mart. My wife will hardly set foot in there since it has this really dirty feel to the store. She feels like she need a Purell Body Wash afterward.
@jake7294: "The deals are posted as a benefit to the Consumerist community, The Consumerist is not responsible for content blah blah blah"
@battra92: HP used to be a superb brand. Their lab equipment, and everything they sold, was absolutely top notch. But then they sold out. They're the Phineas Gage of technology companies. I voted for them because of how low they have fallen.
Walmart is truly evil (mistreating their workers, suppressing unions, checking receipts, pressuring manufacturers to lower quality, killing mom-n-pop stores) and they deserve to win this round, but I wanted to vote for an upset.
@BigFoot_Pete: You will be shocked. If Ticketmaster or Comcast or one of the other big entertainment companies comes up against AIG, the vote will be close. To some, destroying the economy (or even willfully sickening/killing people) is far less an evil than having to pay $20 extra for a ticket to a Buffet concert.
@snowburnt: HP is on the list because most HP products people deal with ARE the "Consumer" side.
Small businesses especially, thinking that they are getting a 'great deal', go to Costco or Walmart and buy 3-10 Pavilion desktops with Vista or XP Home, and can't figure out why the networking doesn't work like it does at the "home office" of their franchise or branch.
In my experiences, 2/3 of the "complaints" are founded in the basic choice of the customer to "do it on the cheap", then blame it on the inability of equipment to do what it was never designed nor intended to accomplish.
DISCLOSURE: I work with a computer systems/service VAR, and HP is one of the product lines we carry. I'm also qualified to repair almost every system HP makes except handheld and non-computer devices.
How can HP be losing? Their computers are crap and full of crapware that constantly causes problems, their printers are designed to fail, and they screw you on ink!
HP is the worst company I've ever dealt with. They stole my computer "'for repairs" and sent me a new 1 after not admitting they lost my original, after 5 months of bouncing me around and not addressing my phone calls. Oh, and the replacement they finally sent? It had a broken internet card. I'm praying for an upset (especially since I kind of like Wal-Mart).
To me, it seems hypocritical to vote for a store I shop at on a regular basis.
HP on the other hand, pissed me off with the most recent computer I purchased. I used to be a hard-core HP fan, but I have to say that I am not impressed with a lot of their newer models. And for goodness sake, ship the laptops with an adapter with the angled connector that doesn't break so easily! I've gone through 2 power cords already because of that, and those things aren't cheap.
None of the communities in our area have been damaged by HP trying to bypass zoning restrictions and getting away with it because of financial clout, so Mal-Wart gets my vote.
Had to go with HP due to personal experience.
Too easy.
@pkoutoul: Pretty much this.
I've also only had minor frustrations with both of them, but not really more than any other store/brand out there.
@LandruBek: Everytime I walk into a walmart no matter where it is, I see the same kind of people. The ones that stand out are the families that roll 3 or 4 generations deep. with the grannie in a scooter who has no concern for anyone around her, her large son in the home made A shirt with his large wife in the mumu and their son and daughter running around in dirty clothes that are falling apart (probably bought at walmart the week before). There are worse examples but I've seen that particular collection at a number of walmarts (in different states)
Anybody here watch South Park? My vote is Wal-Mart. That was a classic episode.
...worst of all they have a receipt checker.
If that's the worst thing you can come up with about a company, then I think you need to put some priorities in order.
@TVGenius: I agree about the crapware, which is why one uses the PC Decrapifier program to remove it all if they're not savvy enough to do a clean install.
I'm fortunate. I own two HP laptops and two iPAQ pocket PCs. The older of the two laptops finally had a hardware problem, five years after I bought it (dead optical drive). Bought a secondhand drive from a computer dealer. I'm good to go.
The newer laptop runs Vista Home Premium, and as is normal HP practice these days, they only provide a restore partition that you can create discs with, unless you want to pay for discs. That restore partition puts all the junk back on the computer which is not a good thing. Fortunately at the time, HP was providing Windows Anytime Upgrade discs, and after doing a bit of looking via Google found out that some enterprising soul out there wrote a bit of software that could find the OEM key on the computer, extract it to a file, and then reintegrate it into the installation after using the Windows Anytime Upgrade disc to install Vista.
Check it out here. The guide has Lenovo laptops in mind, but it works on HP, Gateway, and Dell as well.
@dragonpup: Pretty poorly drawn up brackets. Looks like a half hearted effort at seeding. Who is on their selection committee?
Jeez, I don't get all the hate for Wal*Mart, especially in this awful economy. Yes yes, I know they pay low wages and are maybe not the world's best employer. But this is a *consumerist* forum, and as a consumer whose financial circumstances have taken a nosedive in the past two years, I appreciate the deals I can get at Wal*Mart.
I'm going with WalMart becasue not only do they suck, but you can get HP products there. It's a two-for-one. Everyone wins!