HPC Responds

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HPC emailed me and asked me to give them a call to discuss my previous post where I described my experiences of poor customer service. The internet rumour mill works in mysterious ways because I got the distinct impression they hadn't actually read my blog post. I phoned them asap and gave them my name and the conversation went the way I expected it to, basically I shouldn't tell people about the poor customer service I received because it reflects badly on their company.

When I managed to interrupt the opening salvo, the conversation felt a lot more even sided. I felt I managed to justify the things I had written. I received answers to some of the questions I have been asking HPC over the last 5 weeks, but some of the answers shocked me more than the poor customer service I received. I don't want to spend forever complaining about people on the internet so I will try to keep this minimal, and I'm sure I'll tell some of you more details in person. They did make a few points though and I will recount them here for anyone else who uses them.

  1. They don't have time to answer all their emails, so phoning them is the best way to get an answer to your question.
  2. Their online shop is up to date with stock levels, even if it doesn't allow you to actually complete your order online. Check the online shop before phoning up to place your order.
  3. If you ask a technical question that they don't know the answer too they will ignore your email. So consider no response to be the same as we don't know.
HPC offered to replace any laser ply that I care to return to them. It is actually nice wood though and I will make the best use of the two different types. They also promised to inform me when the white stuff finally arrives. I will keep you updated if this actually happens. (Update: This never happened)

I'm afraid my opinion hasn't changed though. I've spent over £6K on lasers,services and repairs (and more on laserable materials) and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a response to an email within 5 weeks. It's a shame that the fastest way to ellicit a response was to write about it all on the internet.

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