Cranky Customer

I ordered a high-end desktop from Dell with an agent over the phone. When I received the confirmation e-mail that the PC had been shipped, I noticed that the type of RAM was not what I ordered (it was slower). I called immediately and was told "No problem, when you get the machine call us and we'll ship out the correct RAM." (They wouldn't ship out new RAM until the PC was delivered, so a tech could swap the RAM - to ensure the other RAM was sent back!)" Great, all settled. Not!

I get the PC, set it up and call back for the RAM and they tell me "Sorry, we won't replace the RAM. Either you have to live with it or you can send the PC back." And yes, I went through the useless supervisor escalation routine.

Well, I sure as hell didn't want to go through the trouble of repacking the whole damn PC and dealing with arranging pick-up from UPS b/c of Dell's screw-up.

So, I had my wife, who is a senior editor at a major technology magazine, call her contacts in Dell PR to explain the issue. The RAM was shipped out the next day.

Again, unless you have some firepower behind you, you really are facing Dell hell.

I had a real problem with Dell, including being hung up on TWICE by Tech Support, as I evidently knew more than they did. I've been repairing PC's since, oh, I guess 1988 or 1989. Anyway, after going around and around for over a week with Dell, I finally got in touch with a tech supervisor who knew his stuff, and let slip a vital bit of info: Michael Dell's e-mail address. You know, it's really amazing what can happen when you complain to the top of the food chain! I got a call from a Senior VP the very next day! Sad that one has to go that route, but hey, whatever it takes, no?

Our company has had problems with Dell Service as well, particularly over the last 12 months. One incident: a new computer was ordered with a 4-week delivery date promised at the time of the order. It finally arrived after 8 weeks and a supervisor-escalation.

I've tried both phone and web-based support for resolving tech problems, and have had a bit better luck with the latter -- at least with that approach I got to a human being within a minute or so, rather than 20+ minutes with no human contact by phone!

I had a hinge break on my inspiron. Of course it broke just out of warranty! It started with a simple phone call and took SIX HOURS just to get the part ordered. Yes, I was hoping for a quick replacement since I was headed out of state and the laptop was an integral part of my job.

The first guy had an Indian accent but was able to give me the correct part number, but was NOT able to take my order. Many of tha calls began with "IS this for business or home? Since the warranty was for business I made that choice. Of course in subsequent calls I got upset and asked why does it matter? I was never given an intelligent response! Well after five and a half hours of calls, holding patterns, and morons answering the phones I decided on a new answer: "ITS FOR HOME USE!" Ok, now I've been through three more people but it seemed to be progressing..!

Finally I get to a guy who takes my card number. THEN says sorry thats a business credit card!!! Sheesh!! Ok I give him another number. He likes that one. Next he says the part is in stock. "Wheww!" First good news all day... but continues on "It will be delivered in 21 days." WHAT!?? Didnt I hear you say it was in stock??

Anyway I also paid for overnight shipping hoping I could get the hinge re-shipped to me on the road. Well the box was waiting for me when I got home. Luckily I was VERY careful and didnt break the other hinge. I called the credit card company and told them the item should have been free and covered under warranty. Dell didnt dispute it.

I would think their phone bill for all the customers wasting time on hold would put the company out of business.

I'll definitely think twice about having another Dell product.

A number of years ago, I purchased a Dell desktop computer with the same configuration to the one I used at work. My work computer had Windows NT 4.0 installed as the OS. My identical new desktop arrived with Windows ME pre-installed. Since Win ME is the worst OS they ever invented, I had already purchased a copy of Windows NT 4.0 and had a tech friend of mine install the new OS for me. No problems for months, everything is fine.

Then, I get a virus. I clicked on something I shouldn't have and nothing is working. The 'cure' is to reinstall the OS. Unfortunately, when my tech friend did the original install, she forgot to put the video driver onto my setup CD. So, to Dell Customer Service I go. I get the nice man in India, I explain my problem and ask him for a URL where I can download the missing driver. He's all nice and sympathetic and says he needs to go ask someone else for the information. Five or so minutes go by. He comes back on the line, all stiff and formal and tells me that since I changed the OS on my computer, I was not entitled to any help. Then he hung up. Remember, I worked on this exact machine with this same OS at the office! I knew the drivers existed! I had asked only for a URL where they could be found! And he hung up on me.

I was able to get the drivers from my tech friend eventually but was quite angry and frustrated with Dell. Does this mean that one can never upgrade the software on a Dell machine??

Several weeks later, Dell Customer Service called me back wanting me to rate my service call!! Needless to say, I let them have it!!

I will never buy from this company again. I am a computer professional and many of my friends and relatives have asked me for advise on buying computers. None of them have purchased Dells.

I was able to get the drivers from my tech friend eventually but was quite angry and frustrated with Dell. Does this mean that one can never upgrade the software on a Dell machine??

Sure, you can upgrade--if you buy the software from Dell. Same with any hardware add-ons.

I had a similar problem; I found my 3-year warrenty and extended service contract cancelled after six months, after mentioning the new optical mouse I'd unthinkingly bought at Wal-Mart. I was on the phone for the seventh time since buying the computer, with an Indian-accented fellow called Craig, who was clearly reading off a card while instructing me how to, for the seventh time, reinstall the OS in my crashed computer. I had begged, just as I had six previous times, for a solution that didn't involve reinstallation, to no avail. Craig did try to tell me how to use the System Restore point, but his card and my OS had the option at different stages of the reinstallation, so he decided it wouldn't work. He also had me check to see if there was a disk in Drive A nine times. Needless to say, despite being out a fair chunk of change, I haven't missed the service contract.

The best part of the cancelled contract is, it forced me to call a local company for help. The local guy whisked my computer away, had it for two days, and replaced the faulty sound card it had shipped with. It hasn't crashed once in the three years since then.

When the time comes to buy a new computer, it definately won't be a Dell.

He comes back on the line, all stiff and formal and tells me that since I changed the OS on my computer, I was not entitled to any help. Then he hung up. Remember, I worked on this exact machine with this same OS at the office! I knew the drivers existed! I had asked only for a URL where they could be found! And he hung up on me.

From my experience in a tech farm, I am sad to report that this is an all-too-common occurrence among notebook manufacturers. All that is covered by your warranty is the hardware and software you initially purchased. If you happen to change the OS, the owners of these companies go so far as to tell helpful employees that they are wasting company money by devoting time trying to help the customer.

Several of the companies I work with have an option to purchase the system without an OS. When I (or my fellow techs) take a call on one of these systems and try to give the bare minimum of support required to figure out whether an issue really is hardware (our problem) or software (the customer's problem), we have to spend the next three days justifying every second of the phone call, and one of our technicians even had the cost of the call deducted from his paycheck for walking a no-OS customer through locating the latest drivers for his system.

This seems ridiculous because it is, and not all the companies with which I work are this bad, but every one of them demands a very strict limit on time spent supporting customers who either have no OS or an unsupported OS. (God help you if you purchase a 64-bit system right now and actually want to know where to find 64-bit drivers for Windows XP 64. Laptop 64-bit drivers will not be common until Microsoft releases Windows Vista).

I really hate working in an industry full of companies that boast their superior technical support and then deny that support because someone wanted to save $100-$200.

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop which has had many problems and, within the three year support contract, had almost every removable part replaced by a Dell technician.

A few weeks ago when I tried to boot up the laptop, I got nothing but a black screen. To my dismay, my service contract had expired and without any notice from Dell. (Given the many problems I'd had, I would have renewed if I'd been notified!)

Since this black screen problem had happened before and since I was helped quite simply by a Dell tech over the phone previously, I tried getting on the Dell chat support line with my desktop computer to see if the problem could be once again taken care of.

I asked the tech support woman to check my past record to find out what the previous fix was. She said she could do that but instead lead me through removing and reinserting just about everything which could be removed from the laptop. She didn't really seem to know what she was doing and she kept asking me if there was a green light on the start button. I kept saying that there was never a light on the start button. She kept asking me about it anyway, insisting that there had to be a green light. Abruptly, she then told me that she had determined that I needed a new motherboard. She was unable to say why she thought so, though, and apparently, she never looked at my past record to see what the problem was last time. She transferred me to the sales department where I found out that the new motherboard would cost $412. On a computer which was then three years old and had had more bad times than good, it was decided to retire it.

Ah, Dell support.....woefully inadequate to say the least. I will never buy another Dell.

My Dell Hell is on-going as they have tried to ruin my credit rather than be fair to me. No apology, no good faith effort, no backing off....DELL HELL won't end for a decade in some cases!

http://bewaredellcomputers.blogspot.com/

They are truely Dell Hell. I agree with you 100%. I also had a bad experience with them some time ago, and have been looking for a way to get a hearing ever since then. I ordered a photo editing software online for $39.99, that is supposed to come with a digital camera starter kit, but instead was given another one that I saw on the same site for $29.99, but without the digital camera starter kit. I called them to complain, and even decided that they should give me the difference back if they don't have the starter kit available anymore, but was basically ignored and indirectly told to do my worst. I sure hope that they pay for their sins for stepping the on the little guys all the time.