If this weren't so painfully typical, it would be funny.

Recording of an actual customer service call, with video commentary.

I've never had to call HP support, but this is very like many calls to large-company support centers I have experienced. But with many small companies, I've gotten help so quickly and effectively it has astonished me.

Is it that small companies that provide good customer service stay small, or is there something that makes big companies think that helping their customers doesn't pay off? If customers are uniformly pissed off at the last customer "support" that they got, HP will lose about as many customers to Dell as vice versa? They see customer support as a cost center, to be minimized, rather than as a brand differentiator?

Updated to add:
Comment #5 to David Pogue's blog post points to another film, that explains how customer service is actually supplied. More painful humor, though the authenticity quotient may be lower.