Damn You India!

[DailyDi]

My printer won't print anything. Doesn't even try to print when I tell it too.

> Okay, press settings and print a configuration page.

I can't do that.

> Okay, I'll walk you through it...

No, I mean I can't print a page if the printer won't print.

> Okay. Turn the printer off, then on again.

I tried that.

> Okay, now print the configuration page.

It still won't

>Did you go to settings ans select print configuration page?

Yes, it won't print anything

> Have you tried restarting it?

This goes on for another twenty minutes or so before they agree to send me a 3rd replacement printer.

[gah!ghost]

Well having been the person doing the tech support you gotta understand how many calls these people get where the person calling for support has done something like not turned on the printer or left it unplugged because they think just plugging it into the computer is enough.

[Guest]

I still have my 6 year old printer that came with my PC, it still has the original ink cartridges, when they run out, I'm just going to buy a new $40 printer.

[Repaid1]

What a 6 year old printer with the same cartridges?, there isn't anyway If you don't even print that much, and obviously you don't print anything, the cartridges would dry at the print heads. And a $40 dollar printer is all they all cost, but the ink cost you another $50, they get you one way or the other.

Smokey you should just drop your files to a thumbdrive and go to kinko's save you $100 a year

[feralfreak]

you could try uninstalling it, and then reinstalling it, it could be a driver issue. i have a scanner that use to not scan anything sometimes, i removed the drivers and rebooted, then reinstalled the drivers and it worked for a while, i did the same thing for a friend that had a camera that wouldnt work with his computer, the problem was the installation corrupted the drivers so i reinstalled them and it worked(he was ready to throw the camera out the window before i got to it)

[Mischa]

My printer won't print anything. Doesn't even try to print when I tell it too.

> Okay, press settings and print a configuration page.

I can't do that.

> Okay, I'll walk you through it...

No, I mean I can't print a page if the printer won't print.

> Okay. Turn the printer off, then on again.

I tried that.

> Okay, now print the configuration page.

It still won't

>Did you go to settings ans select print configuration page?

Yes, it won't print anything

> Have you tried restarting it?

This goes on for another twenty minutes or so before they agree to send me a 3rd replacement printer.

I know it's asinine, but I've vowed the next time I call a tech support hotline and I get someone with an incredibly bad accent, I'm going to keep pressing 1. When they finally ask what I'm doing, I'm going to state that I cannot understand a word they're saying and I am pressing 1 to speak to someone who speaks English.

[DailyDi]

LOL! Misha = brilliant!

And yes i tried uninstall/reinstall, updated drivers and firmware, etc... First one was clearly hardware defect: the heat-bond roller was too tight and was crumpling/jamming every page. This one is likely also hardware as it just doesn't do anything. They are sending another one...again

[Puggsley]

Vodafone here in NZ have finally realized that help desks in India don't help with their brand satisfaction, and have relocated their call centers back to where people are calling from. Best move they ever made.

Pity for them that I'd already changed to another provider because of the rude response I got from their call center in India before they moved it... It just makes good sense to have your calls answered locally. Its the most contact some people will have with your brand.

Best luck with your third printer DailyDi!

[Guest]

What a 6 year old printer with the same cartridges?, there isn't anyway If you don't even print that much, and obviously you don't print anything, the cartridges would dry at the print heads. And a $40 dollar printer is all they all cost, but the ink cost you another $50, they get you one way or the other.

Smokey you should just drop your files to a thumbdrive and go to kinko's save you $100 a year

Right now, my PC is not even hooked up, I live at my work, so if I really need to print something, I can just run into the office and use the big industrial printer/scanner/kitchen sink/copier/fax machine. Your right, I don't print that much, but it's nice having a printer. Amazingly, my ink is still good last time I used it, but, it will be cheaper to give my printer away, and buy a new printer with new ink cartridges, than to try and buy ink for my old cannon pixma 1700 that came with my pc as part of the bundle.

[Honu]

DailyDi,

What brand printer are you having those issues with? Yes, it's a hardware issue if you can't print the config settings. Does it power up when plugged in? You cycled the power switch but didn't indicate that it had a sign of life with the switch on. Anyway, I sure don't want those issues and would like to know what brand of printer to avoid.

Mahalo,

Honu

[Bettypooh]

Did you really expect anything better? Come on, even someone like me who thinks the 90's mean 'modern' knows better than to bother with calling 'Tech support' if you have any other way to address the issue. If you're really, really lucky, when you call those idiots and spend 2 hours on the phone, you might eventually wind up speaking with the one person in the batch who happens to know more than how to read an owner's manual. All these idiots do is 'cue sheet' solutions- if your question is not on their Q and A list they have no more clue than you do as to what to try next. In fact the have less 'clue' than you because by now you're tried everything and they haven't.

Next time call me. I'll tell you how to set it up properly, how to load the necessary stuff safely, and how to aim and pull the trigger so that POW!- all the problems it had are permanently resolved in an instant. Always be sure to save the original box so that you can ship the target, er I mean unit, to their repair department, and be sure to include a cover letter telling them you're tried everything their "Tech Help" people recommended but that you are pretty sure their piece of crap machine is just plain shot

[Honu]

I have a short video from my days in Iraq. An Army Captain had an "issue" with an HP printer and decided to solve it with an automatic weapon. It wasn't just plain shot, it was shot over and over and over again!

[DailyDi]

It's an HP. Have been happy with their stuff for years, but this one printer just isn't working out.

I bought it direct, so going through their support people is my only option. Giving them one last chance before I give up on em and get a refund. Really like the scanner/copier so would like to keep it if I can get a good one.

It does power on, and the toner cartridges will cycle for changing them out, but no matter what I do it won't print. The touchscreen comes on, says it is printing but the printer does nothing. Can only assume the circuit board isn't connecting to the mechanics.

[sarah_ab]

we got a wireless HP scanner, printer, copier for 50% off at office depot and then had a coupon for 20% off which they actually honored on top of the sale price, and we got two reams of paper for free.

We have macs, and its an HP, but so far the only problem we have with it is that the cleaning ladies keep hitting the off button when they dust the computer room, and never turn it back on, so we will go to print and it won't be connected....

but we got the extended warranty for like $9 at office depot or max or whichever it was... so we would only need to deal with them.

[DailyDi]

Nice deal. I got mine on sale, $100 off plus a $15 coupon and free shipping. And a $50 trade in on my old printer.

[babyleanna75]

I hate those indian tec support the don't understand the english language. I have to ask for a manager ussually 3-4 people latter you get a english speaking person

[annee]

I thank god my guy is good with this stuff. I hate the price of ink and my god we use a hell of a lot of it.

[Mischa]

One warning about HP printers my old accounting teacher said: they aren't releasing drivers for Win7 on old printers, so you may need to either keep a Vista/XP computer or get a new printer.

And DailyDi....it's Mischa.....there's a C in there..........sheesh in my real last name I want people to forget there's a C in it, but they always forget the C in my pseudonym

[Zander]

Well having been the person doing the tech support you gotta understand how many calls these people get where the person calling for support has done something like not turned on the printer or left it unplugged because they think just plugging it into the computer is enough.

This. OVER 9000! of this.

I've never had to work support before, but I have friends who have done it. The industry stats for consumer support calls say it all: depending on the company, between 70 and 84% of calls are resolved when the customer actually turns it all off, checks all cables and connections, then turns it on again (figures from ~2006, the top 8 UK computer support phone-in help-desks by call volume).

People almost always over-think consumer technical problems. Computers are complex and thus they refuse to accept the problem is something simple like their pushing the desk back yesterday - to pick up that pen they dropped - has pulled the keyboard cable out of the USB port, or the new printer ink cassette they installed two days ago wasn't pushed in properly, or the mouse needs to be button-side-up to work as intended.

Really common ones from the internet help-desk of a major ISP:

-- Customers who have plugged it in, but haven't switched power on the plug socket (this might be a UK thing)

-- Customers who have no internet, router is powered on and has wireless, but is not plugged into the phone line.

-- Customers who think they are technically savvy, who have played with their system settings, and not set them back to the defaults.

-- Customers who have installed all manner of crap and been infected with malware, and are now having their DNS hijacked.

[Repaid1]

For win 7 drivers, almost all Vista drivers work with Win 7, not to mention Win 7 has the Compatibility Mode. Which I have even loaded Windows 2000 drivers into Win 7. Anyway in instances such as this if I was in a crunch. I would go to a local store and get the identical printer I was having trouble with. Take it home, pull the printer out leaving all else in the box. Replace the printer. Test and print? All good now! Put old printer in box take back to store, get my money refunded. It's still a warranty thing, I just speed up the process!!!

I have found it quite useful to request Tier 3 right at the get go, also I am thinking that I heard that some law passed or is going to pass that they must give you a US representative if requested, which is almost going to be Tier 3. Tier 1 is for the idiots of the world, Just request right out of the "tabbed helpers book" of stupidity!

[~*PrincessZozo*~]

Lol I was just about to ask if it was an HP Printer. For the Two Officejet Pro's my parents use for business I think they've gone through AT LEAST 9 total. Professional doesn't mean "Sutible for small business" to HP I guess.

[Bettypooh]

"Professional" is based on the word "Profess", which means "I want you to believe what I am saying even though I cannot prove that I know as much as I want you to think that I do"

I am at how gullible people are, though when I think too deeply about that I just

Bettypooh

[~*PrincessZozo*~]

"Professional" is based on the word "Profess", which means "I want you to believe what I am saying even though I cannot prove that I know as much as I want you to think that I do"

I am at how gullible people are, though when I think too deeply about that I just

Bettypooh

The sad thing is, those are $500 printers (my parents have One Officejet Pro L7780 (the main office)) and a Officejet Pro 8500A as the light duty one. I'm trying to sell them on a Color Laser printer (that isn't HP) We had an ancient (like 2000-2001) Laserjet 2200DTN That I picked up from free that was E-Waste (a family member of mine let me pick through whatever crap people in the building (big office building in Chicago) were throwing out. It printed 250K pages before they threw it out (no idea why). I got my hands on it, cleaned it up, printed another million pages before it finally died EIGHT YEARS LATER. God I miss that printer.