Sixteen months ago, I bought a new HP (Hewlett Packard) 6500 wireless printer.  It was the top recommendation in Consumer Reports, it was easy to set up, and seemed to work well initially.  I did have some problems with it going offline for no reason, called HP for support in the first 30 days and they helped me set it up differently.  That solved the problem then, but over time the going offline problem got worse.  I would have to unplug the machine to get it come back on line.  Finally this fall, it got so bad, I went out to the web and searched the problem.  It became pretty obvious that this model had a major problem and no obvious fix, so I called HP customer support.  The polite representative told me to hold my comments until he’d finished( nice way of warning me I wasn’t going to like what I heard)/  He then proceeded to tell me I was 135 days out of warranty, that this was a hardware issue and because I was a “valued customer of HP”, they would sell me a new printer for only $99.00.  I told him I’d called for a fix, that it was obvious they’d had a manufacturing flaw with this model, and that I thought they should make it good in a better way than offering me a printer that I could find on line for the same price.

I went to do some research, and found that the new generation of HP printers was having the same problem.   So somewhere, HP knows they have a big problem, and rather than stand behind the product, they’ll see if you’ll trust them another time.  I felt used.

Turns out I bought my HP printer at Costco.  They have customer concierge services  http://shop.costco.com/en/Customer-Service/Concierge/2nd-Year-Warranty.aspx , and extend the manufacturer’s warranty.  So I boxed up the non-working HP printer, took it back to Costco, and they gave me a full refund – no hassle. They even looked up the transaction at the store, since my bookkeeper had my receipt.   I turned around and bought a new printer at Costco – this time a Canon.  I didn’t trust HP anymore. 

So, who won my loyalty as a customer?  Costco – I’ll purchase all my electronics there in the future, I’ll tell my friends and family to do the same – and I ‘m blogging about it.  Costco wins with integrity, big time.

Tags: Costco, customer loyalty, Hewlett Packard, HP, integrity