Hewlett Packard and Computer World against buyers

Introduction

Most manufacturers label their products not for humans, but for robots.

• Nokia 3310
• GeForse 6600LE
• Samsung XL2370
• MSI U123H-031RU

The impression is beginning to take shape that all this jumble of letters and numbers is intended only to confuse the buyer. Having come to the store, and looking at the laptop Acer Aspire 5532-312G25Mi, you can hardly remember its name. Having mixed up just one digit, you will get a completely different laptop. But if he was called by some proper name. For example, Acer Veronika ... Someone will say "yes there are not enough names for all of these laptops / monitors / video cards." And I will answer, “do you need such a huge number of almost identical models?” Instead of 100, you can make 10 models and give each product a unique name - each series will relate to some theme: constellations, ancient Greek deities, names of rivers, mountains, names of inventors , discoverers, etc. There are plenty of options - take it and use it. Again, with such names (names) it is much easier to come up with the packaging design of the entire series of devices in general, and of a specific device in particular. In addition, the attitude of the buyer to the product will already be different. He buys not a faceless piece of iron numbered Epson GT-S80, but, for example, Epson Jessica.

However, I digress, and the post is not about that.
So what is the post about and what does Hewlett Packard and Computer World have to do with it?

Want an example of entangling a customer by stupid item numbering? You are welcome:
')

Theory

HP has a line of cartridges of a series 178 intended for photo printers. It includes both regular HP 178 cartridges and HP 178 XL (with increased capacity).
However, due to reasons I do not understand, this line also includes HP 178 XL Photo cartridges.
Here is what the usual black 178 XL looks like on the store counter.

and black 178 XL photo :

As they say, feel the difference find the ten differences. Having come to the store for a cartridge to his photo printer, the buyer can easily be mistaken and buy something wrong. He also buys a cartridge for a photo printer, the inscription photo in the label should not confuse him. But the most interesting thing is that despite the fact that the cartridges have almost identical packages and are marked in a very similar way (HP 178 XL and HP 178 XL Photo), they are absolutely incompatible with each other, and there are a number of printers that do not support cartridges with marking photo. Once again: there are a number of photo printers in the photo smart lineup, with 178 series cartridges that the 178 photo cartridge does not fit.

Practice

In fact, that's exactly what happened. A friend of mine asked me to help with the purchase of a cartridge for her HP Photosmart All-in-One B109a printer. When I went to the official website, I easily found that the 178 series cartridges that I mentioned were intended for this printer (both regular and XL). With the words “take 178 XL”, I sent my friend to the nearest store. It turned out to be "Computer World" in Kupchino.
A girl consultant told my friend that there are two types of XL cartridges - regular and photo. And she added that they differ only in the quality of printing photos, resource and price (photo cartridge is less and cheaper). In conclusion, she said that you can safely take any. If the photosmart series printer supports the 178 series cartridges, then both a regular and photo cartridge will work without problems.
However, as we found out above, this is not the case.

What to do, how to be?

Of course, the cartridge did not fit, and, of course, a friend called me. Feeling responsible (after all, I called the number of the cartridge and advised the nearest store), I drove along with a friend to the place of the “accident”. The general manager of Computer World in the Balkan Eugene Zakharov approached us and began to assure us that there could be no question of any return of money. the cartridge was already opened by that time. In addition, the girl seller on the fly changed her testimony. Now, without a twinge of conscience, she said that she allegedly explained that the photo cartridge would not fit all, but only those photosmart, which have a special connector. Of course, she didn’t say anything like that at the time of purchase (otherwise, the purchase wouldn’t have happened), but, as I wrote above, on the contrary, she said that for any photosmart with 178 series cartridges, this HP 178 XL photo photo will work without problems, and , thereby misinformed my friend.

Total

As a result, a statement was written addressed to the director of the Computer World in the Balkans store, EA Pavlova. with a request to return money for the purchased goods on the grounds that "the cartridge purchased did not fit due to misinformation from the seller."



I will hope for decency of the store manager and for a positive decision on this issue.