ALKHOBAR, 4 November — I have a little problem with my printer. It’s a HP Desk Jet 690C. Honestly, I never have had any luck with this machine. It’s a gimpy little printer. Its ink dries slowly. It always grabs two sheets of paper at a time. It constantly jams. Its cartridges are a mess. Purchasing it was a big mistake. However, printers aren’t like dresses. You can’t take them back if you hate them. So I’ve been stuck with the machine for four years.
I don’t print much. In fact I will do almost anything not to have to print. So the machine only gets to torment me intermittently. However, two weeks back it suddenly decided to go totally berserk. In addition to its previous problem of ugly print quality, the printer decided to crunch up the paper and make nasty grinding noises all at the same time. What to do?
My first choice was to throw the silly thing out. The most important thing about information technology is to know when it’s not working for you and buy something that will. My colleagues would have none of it. They convinced me that it should be quite simple to make the printer function properly. So against my better judgment I tried to find a HP repair center.
As a start I called a bookstore chain in the Kingdom, which advertises that it sells HP. I telephoned their store in Alkhobar four times. The first time I called I was told that the computer department salesman was sick that day. The next day when I called his line was busy. The third time I phoned I was told that I’d have to speak with the technician who didn’t come till 4:30. The fourth time I called I was told that the technician was helping another customer and couldn’t take my call. No one else at the store could tell me if they’d fix my printer since it hadn’t been purchased there and if they would fix it, how much it might cost.
No problem, I thought. Try, try again. So I called the HP Call Center at (800) 897-14440, the number they advertised in the newspaper. I discovered that this call center is staffed by very friendly women based in Dubai who know almost nothing about how to get a HP printer fixed in Saudi Arabia. They gave me three telephone numbers in Riyadh.
I hoped for the best. A call to the first distributor got me routed to an answering machine. The switchboard operator at the second distributor on the list cut me off three times. The results with the third distributor were no better. At first I thought I’d met with success when the distributor’s representative gave me an Alkhobar telephone number. But that number turned out to be — the wrong number.
Not one to give up easily I called HP Country Manager for KSA, Abdul Raheem Bawazeer on his mobile — but he didn’t answer. I also called another HP manager in Saudi Arabia on his mobile; he didn’t answer either. In desperation I called HP’s office in Dubai Internet City and since I didn’t know an extension, I pressed zero for operator assistance, which got me transferred to an answering machine.
Furious, I wrote a nasty e-mail that eventually got passed to Bawazeer. The next day I received the following e-mail response back from him.
"I regret to see that you could not smoothly reach an HP Authorized Support Center. I also apologize that you were unable to communicate with us as easily as I and other colleagues would have wanted it to be.
"As our market share in Saudi Arabia has grown rapidly over the past few years, we realized that we must become closer to the customers and analyze what we can do to maintain our growth while keeping customer satisfaction. We therefore opened a HP Branch office in Saudi Arabia a few months ago. Our next move is to complement our existing Authorized Support Providers like Al-Faisaliah, Nahil Computers and ESAP, which are owned and operated by qualified independent local partners covering several towns in Saudi Arabia.
"How? By building HP local service centers (as a first step in the three major cities as of mid 2002). Our customers will then have the choice to continue using our local partners’ support centers or use HP planned Service Centers to honor HP warranty and/or after-warranty services and support. As a result of our willingness to correct your perception and due to the communication difficulties, which you faced, I therefore would like to offer you a replacement printer so you don’t stop printing on HP products. Please send me your address so I can ship this printer and as well send you the exact address and contact numbers of the nearest Authorized Support Provider(s).
"Below you will find all my numbers in case you still need to contact me in the future. HP has succeeded all around the world because we always made it easy and fun for our customers to acquire the best and most reliable computer and imaging products bundled with first-class services. I hope that we will be able to reach your satisfaction levels in the days to come."
Interesting. I wondered if everyone who had terrible service problems with HP got offered replacement printers. So I rang up one of HP’s largest customers in the Kingdom and had a chat with them. I found that not only were they not offered replacement printers, but even though they had many HP printers they were not even offered on-site service. At this time that company is investigating alternatives. Then I remembered that at a storage conference in Spring 2001 in Riyadh, a representative of a large national company stood up during the Q&A session and made vicious comments about HP service.
While looking into the service problem of my HP printer I was told by a knowledgeable source that Bawazeer and his people actually have nothing to do with the printers business. They handle large enterprises. Printers are consumer goods and HP’s organization requires that the distributors deal directory with HP Corporate. All network engineers and IT managers that heard about my situation told me that after-sales service is the area, which without a doubt, needs the most improvement in the Kingdom. The latest technology is available but getting it properly serviced is a challenge for all.
When I refused to take Bawazeer’s offer of a replacement printer he did finally phone me. He stated that HP’s service is good and its increasing share in the Saudi market reflects this. I only have my own documented experience to go by and the reports from other colleagues in the IT business which indicate some deficiencies. I told Bawazeer that HP’s attempt to have new service centers up and running in the Kingdom’s three major cities by mid-2002 showed that even they recognized that improvement was needed. I suggested that immediately at least some upgrading could be done on their information channels so that my experience would not be repeated.
In the meantime, I still don’t have a working printer. Any reseller out there in the Eastern Province who can offer me a printer that actually works and has excellent after-sale service, please send the specs and purchase information to the e-mail at the bottom of this column.
And now let’s move on to the hottest topic in town for the Kingdom’s young GSM users. Hundreds of thousands of pre-registered players across 28 countries including Saudi Arabia have begun experiencing the global virtual adventure, Nokia Game 2001.
Over the next three weeks, players will receive clues via different media including newspapers, TV, radio, SMS messages, short movies, websites, e-mails and phone calls. Their challenge is to solve each clue, gathering enough points to move onto the next stage. No players will be eliminated in the early rounds, but as the plot thickens, some players may find themselves eliminated from the global challenge.
Eddie Maalouf, Marketing Manager, Nokia Middle East, said, "Players across the globe will compete to solve clues that have been scheduled to drop across different media in different countries in real time. Over the next three weeks, players will receive cryptic messages that they need to solve in order to move on to the next stage. The global Chief GameMaster team in Amsterdam will monitor their progress and ensure that all is working well."
Sixteen GameMasters and the Local Chief GameMaster, all based in the UAE, will offer network support by providing daily online updates and answering online queries from regional players. The local team, headquartered in the American University of Dubai’s computer laboratories, will report to the International Chief GameMaster, Khaled Abou Nader, another AUD student based at the global headquarters in Amsterdam, along with other Chief GameMasters from the rest of the globe.
The Top 10 players of each Middle East country will each win a Nokia 5510 mobile phone. You can keep in touch with the action at nokiagame.com.
