i guess this was their final response?

Hello Shaunte,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

It is our intent to treat you with courtesy, respect, and understanding and to provide the highest quality of service in all areas. We are sorry that you have been inconvenienced to the extent indicated in your e-mail.


Although this service is provided as a means of technical support for our customers, we appreciate any feedback about our company's products and services. The e-mail message you sent has been reviewed and forwarded to the proper individuals. We value your comments.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site
at:
http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare



Sincerely,
Chiranjib
HP Total Care

What did that even say?
Why was that response even sent? It did not help me. Did not make me feel better. Did not offer a fix or an attempt to rectify the problem.

This leads me to ponder on honesty in the workplace.

Back in the day, I worked at a title company. We were overbooked every single day. Every day. And we had "special" clients, that we had to squeeze in at the drop of a hat.

Some days there was just not time to do everything we had lined up. I had to prepare documents for closings that were scheduled sometimes simultaneously between two closers, some of them in a different office, working another county.

As luck would have it, those were the days the "special" clients would call for a favor. There was literally no way I could squeeze those favors in. But...there was no way I could tell them "no" that we were too busy at the time. That immediately translates into "you are not as important to us as the other clients we are serving."

So I would lie. A lot.

I would say "you bet, I will get that right over to you."

And then I would work on my closings. The client would call back and say they hadn't received the document yet, and I would apologize and say it was in the queue to be faxed, or being delivered via our runner, or some other excuse to basically buy some time. Usually after hours, we would all catch up on all the little things like that.

Honest? No. But really, what would you rather be told? We are too busy?

So I look at the response HP took to my e-mail. And I wonder what I would rather be told. Obviously they do not intend to fix the problem. Would I rather be lied to? And told they are looking into the problem (when they really aren't)? That maybe my e-mail was being forwarded to a technician? That maybe they are aware of the problem, and are working on a solution?

Sometimes honesty is offensive and feels like a brush-off.