Former HP printing exec indicted

A former vice president of Hewlett-Packard's printing division has been indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly sharing with HP confidential information from his previous employer.

First reported by Wired, the indictment was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. As director of sales and business development in IBM's printing division in March 2006, Atul Malhotra allegedly requested confidential information about IBM pricing. Just two months later, Malhotra took the position of vice president of HP's printing division.

In the indictment, prosecutors say Malhotra e-mailed the IBM information, marked "confidential," to an unnamed HP senior vice president on July 25, 2006, and again to another HP senior vice president two days later.

He was fired shortly thereafter, in September 2006, according to HP.

"The activity with which Malhotra is charged was in direct violation of clear HP policies, including HP Standards of Business Conduct," the company said in a statement. "HP detected this activity, conducted an internal investigation, terminated Malhotra's employment from HP, and reported the activity to appropriate enforcement agencies and to IBM. HP has cooperated fully with the government's investigation."

Following is a letter that I wrote to the CEO of HP and it is time that the consumer demand respect again from "Corporate America".

Mark Hurd
COB, CEO, & President
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Dear Mark Hurd:

This letter is about customer loyalty and customer retention. After being part of the HP family for over six years, I am unsure about continuing to purchase HP Products. I have spent hundreds of dollars on HP Products and have recommended them to family, friends, and associates. I currently have a ?HP Pavilion dv6915nr Entertainment Notebook PC? which was purchased after my last PC which was a desk top TV/PC that was stolen out of my home along with other hardware. I have had this notebook for a little over a year; about 4 months ago I noticed that the battery would not charge completely or hold a charge for over 5 minutes. While working full-time and going to school full-time I didn?t have a chance to sit down and call HP about the battery until yesterday 11/22/09. I understand that the notebook is no longer under warranty but it is obvious that the battery is defective and not on recall. While talking to an associate (case# 8032100677), there was several attempts to get me to purchase an extended warranty before the issue about my call was addressed. After speaking to a manager by the name of Shaun, I was continually told that the battery would not be replaced by HP. I requested to speak to someone other than him who has the authority to replace the battery. Today, 11/23/09 I was called by Bob (case# 7501212074) and was told by someone else that he was with another customer and she would take assignment of the case. After explaining everything to her I was still told that HP would not replace the defective battery.

Mr. Hurd, I have been loyal to HP every since I purchased by first HP Desktop PC in 2003 and to this point had refused to purchase any other brand of products. Now I ask myself, why should I be loyal to a company that is not loyal to me? After I receive my tax return in 2010 I was planning to purchase another TV/PC from HP with the discount that I get through my employer which is HDSupply Inc., but have now started to seek out other brands of computers that might meet my needs. One of the subjects that were talked about in my college marketing class was customer retention, and this leads to my closing questions. What is HP doing about customer retention? What is HP going to do to keep a loyal customer such as myself?