Dell customer service lies, don't buy a Dell.

[Einan]

Flexor,

I feel your pain. About four techs in, I started giving them the "Litany."

Yes I already tried the BIOS reboot.
Yes I already replaced the power cord and converter.
Yes I already checked the power outlet.
Yes I already checked the power settings.
Yes I already rebooted.
Yes I already used a voltimeter. Yes it is standard voltage.
Yes I replaced the battery.
Yes I tried shaking the laptop.
No I didn't damage the laptop by shaking it.
No I don't want to wait on hold.

The problem was a piece on the motherboard. I had to get a whole new motherboard and finally, after the drama of trying to get a tech to come to my new address and fix it (after having a local tech call at 6 pm one night during dinner and ask if he could fix it now. In the middle of a dinner party, I said no, come tomorrow. He told Dell I refused service and shipped the part back to them. When I protested to Dell over this and refused to have this same tech deal with the problem ((Because if he can't get his act together over timing, I surely don't want him working on expensive electronics)) I finally got them to send ME the part, even though this voided the warranty. As if the warranty was really working at that point...) I finally recieved the part, replaced the motherboard and low and behold! the problem was solved.

Silly, silly Dell.

Einan

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

When I would tell them that I had already done what they were asking me to do they would get silent and wait...then ask me to do the same again. Before it was over we were sending mail to Michael Dell and it wasn't until we got ahold of a VP that anything was done. As it was the computer he spent close to 4 grand on was a paper weight for about 6 months. Then they sent him a replacement PC that was only about 1600 dollars in value.

 

[werk]

IIt all boiled down to the fact that Dell is a HUGE Bureaucracy and doesn't communicate well with itself.

DING DING DING DING DING

We have a winnah!


That's pretty much the lynchpin right there. If you get someone to take ownership of your problem that knows what they are doing inside Dell, you got it made. For the other 95% of customers, you are in for a headache that rapidly moves south.

But I believe that's the same for any major manufacturer, it's luck of the draw...err phone queue.

Tip #1 Never, ever order through home sales.
Tip #2 Get the name and direct number of the rep you talk to immediately. If they will not give that info, ask to be transferred to a group that will take ownership.
Tip #3 Don't tell your family history to every rep, it's just a waste of your time. Tell them what you need them to do, then wait to answer their questions. Let the rep lead the call.

When I was there, it was said that less than 2% of customers ever call customer service or tech support...so don't let the horror stories scare you, they are an extremely small group compared to the happy blue-birds.

 

[Vocenoctum]

When I was there, it was said that less than 2% of customers ever call customer service or tech support...

The other 98% just fix it themselves.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I finally recieved the part, replaced the motherboard and low and behold! the problem was solved.

Silly, silly Dell.

Einan

My first computer was a Packard Bell with no problems. (75mhz of pure computing power!)
#2 was a Gateway (triple the power of my first!)
The Gateway had problems which came down to the motherboard, but they sent me nearly every part in between before that. None of it voided my warranty, and I did it all myself after the tech got lost twice trying to find my place. When the HD went bad a couple years later, they replaced that, as well as a modem that died too.

But still, I figured I had enough problems with it, so I went with Dell next. Then I received my computer with half the parts loose in a box. I've had only minor issues since, all of which I corrected myself.

New computer is pieced togethor by me, so hopefully that holds. (Also a Compaq laptop in there, no problems)

 

[drothgery]

When I was there, it was said that less than 2% of customers ever call customer service or tech support...so don't let the horror stories scare you, they are an extremely small group compared to the happy blue-birds.

I've had three Dell desktops (a Pentium 75, a PIII-800, and a 3.2 GHz P4 that will probably be replaced by Dell notebook sometime early next year), have been quite happy with them, and I've never called tech support.

 

[Einan]

Count yourself a lucky, lucky man. It is an experience I hope never to have again.

Of course, don't get me wrong here. I like my Dell. It's a good computer, does what I ask of it and is reasonably reliable. It's just that I've had to replace every single part on it to get it to stay that way. On a six month old laptop seeing light home use, I should not have to do that.

It was that experience that taught me to learn more about computers so I never need to rely on a tech support line again. Good life lesson, bad product support.

Einan

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

It was that experience that taught me to learn more about computers so I never need to rely on a tech support line again. Good life lesson, bad product support.

Einan

Packard-Bell did the same for me. I thank them in a way for making me learn how to rip apart a computer. I've never bought a computer since then, I've built them all myself.

 

[werk]

The other 98% just fix it themselves.

Confirmed by Flexor...if you can fix it yourself, you usually build it yourself

I have had exceptionally good luck with all the Dell's that I own, but I know which models to buy (economy models are literally junk, you get what you pay for) and I don't do anything that wasn't designed into the model, like changing/adding hardware or switching OS. Buy what you need, not what you think you can adapt to fit your needs (and save some cash).

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but some people are just too smart for their own good.




And some sobering thoughts: when I left, Dell was doing over $40M a day on the online store, that didn't include phone sales. On a given day, we shipped over $14M worth of parts through our warehouse in Austin, but the warehouse never had more than $2M worth of parts in it at any given point. It's really a beautiful machine once you grasp the scale and complexity of the entire operation.

 

[drothgery]

Confirmed by Flexor...if you can fix it yourself, you usually build it yourself

I have had exceptionally good luck with all the Dell's that I own, but I know which models to buy (economy models are literally junk, you get what you pay for) and I don't do anything that wasn't designed into the model, like changing/adding hardware or switching OS. Buy what you need, not what you think you can adapt to fit your needs (and save some cash)

That may very well be why I've had few problems. I've always bought midrange or better systems (though just barely for my first box, but that was eleven years ago and the low-midrange boxes were of better build quality then), always pretended to be a small business rather than a home user (I wanted Win2K, and then XP Pro preinstalled, and didn't want any AOL junk on my system), never switched OSs (well, except going from Win 3.x to Win95), and only made minor hardware changes (adding RAM, upgrading the graphics card).