Cranky Customer

I've had my share of dealing with idiots at Dell, but I continued to do business with them. This might be the last purchase, and I will do my best to use another company.

I placed an order for a camera lens over the phone via Dell Home, although I make many purchases via Small Business. Actually, I've spent over $20,000 in the past year making purchases via Small Business. Anyway, I ordered the item, and requested the shipping charge be waived because I can order the same item with free shipping elsewhere. She checked with the manager and ok. I never received a confirmation email, and the order number she provided turned out to be the wrong order number. I cannot to find out about the order, and everyone refuses to do anything because of the wrong order number. They claim they cannot get order information using payment method, or address?? During my many calls, I was hung up on twice, and transferred to wrong departments several times. A woman assured me that she would follow up personally and gave me her extension number. Guess what? The extension is not valid, and she never called.

Every time I ask for a manager, the manager is always unavailable or on another call. They also claim the managers do not have an extension number, and they do not have the ability to call a customer. Are they using some special phones that doesn't allow you to make outbound calls?? I guess Dell has so little control that their service reps make up things, and give out fake names and extensions. I know that I'm not imagining this because I know others that have had similar experiences. This will most likely be my last purchase, and I will take my business purchases elsewhere. Thanks DELL!

You think Dell is bad, you should try Compaq. A few years ago I was helping a friend with some issues with their Compaq desktop. They needed to upgrade the memory and replace the hard drive as it was faulty. A local company was a registered Compaq Agent and had Compaq approved and trained staff who said the model was no longer repairable as parts for it were no longer available. Now this was 2001, and the machine was originally released in 1997 with a three year warranty, but hell, I was still getting parts for older machines in most shops. They told her to dump the machine and buy a brand new one from them, she didn't have the money and was moaning to me about at ten-pin bowling that night, so I went around to look at it the next night.

OK, they had a hard drive I'd never heard of, but it was a standard IDE hard drive, so what's so hard about putting in a new IDE hard drive? Anyway, I tripled the amount of RAM with standard style RAM chips, doubled the hard drive with a new hard drive, and had to fight with the BIOS to have it let me put in the drive settings. The Compaq system disk didn't recognise the hard drive so it wouldn't load. I had a copy of Win 98SE I'd uninstalled from another machine so I went about install that. had an issue with some device drivers but got it working. Everything went well for 18 months.

Then while she was away on holidays her mother turned it on to use it (first time turned on in two months) and it wouldn't start properly. So mother took it to the Compaq dealer who looked at it, said it had the wrong hard drive but he could make it work. Reset the BIOS and checked the system, and checked his book. He then said you can't load Win 98SE on this machine as it won't work and voids the warranty (the thing was out of warranty so who cares?) and promptly deletes the WIN98SE to install WIN95 then has troubles getting it to recognise the bigger hard drive as he used the standard Compaq version of Win 95 for that model. It took them two days to do this. The system only limped along after that. Daughter gets home, sees problem, calls me, I take ten minutes to work out all it ever needed was a new CMOS battery and reset the BIOS, change that, wipe hard drive and reload WIN98SE. System works beautifully and hums nicely.

Next day I drop in to talk to tech, after a few minutes I find out the Compaq Approved and Trained Technician means he can open the Compaq books for the model and follow the instructions inside and nothing else. When asked why he removed WIN98SE, he said "Because it doesn't work on that model." When I asked why he assumed that when he could see it working he looked very blank faced and two other clients laughed as they turned around and walked out the door.

I rang Compaq about the issue and their only response was only a properly trained and approved Compaq tech should ever touch a Compaq system. Nice, the Compaq techs can't fix it yet a generic tech can even upgrade it to work with operating systems it's not designed to work with, yet I'm at fault for extending the life of a machine they couldn't fix and had no parts for.

And people wondered why I always advised them NOT to buy a Compaq or a Dell - both are frequently made with 'one of' production runs of hardware people have never heard of, making some spares impossible to get. At least the bigger name people like Toshiba use generic spares for most parts.

Just wanted to let people know about what happened to me with my Dell laptop so that hopefully it didn't happen to other people. I have been a loyal Dell customer for the last eight years. My boyfriend and I have purchased four Dell computers within the last eight years. My boyfriend purchased a DELL XPS M170 laptop. I started to use it and decided that I should purchase my own laptop since I was a graduate student. I selected Dell because we have bought several Dell computers in the past and they always ran well. I bought a Dell Inspiron 1500 because I needed a small and easy to carry laptop for school. That is when my problems began. First, only after a couple days of using the computer I activated the Norton anti-virus (it was trial software that came with the purchase of the computer) and could no longer access the internet. I contacted Dell and they said I had to restore my computer to factory settings. They could not tell me what happened or why it was refusing to let me access the internet.

The next issue that started to happen was when I went from using the battery to plugging the computer into the power cord -- sometimes the screen would go black. This seems to be a common problem since a friend of mine has the same problem with his Dell Inspiron. The only thing the computer would let me do is hold down the off button to restart it.

The next issue happened less than six months after having the laptop. I used the computer the night before and it worked without any issues. However, the next day when I started it, I only had a blank black screen. I did not receive any error messages or anything to tell me what was wrong. I thought I must have contracted a virus so I had my brother-in-law reformat it. I lost all my information. Then a couple months later again I had the same problem. I called Dell’s tech support. This was by far the worst customer service I have ever received. First I was on hold for an hour and then I was passed from person to person. I finally had someone helping me but I had a really hard time understanding what they were saying since the call was outsourced to India. The person had no idea what they were doing since they were unable to answer any of my questions. Again I was told my only option was to reformat my computer. They started talking me though the reformatting and said they would call me back after it was closer to the end of formatting so that they could walk me though the next steps. I did not receive a call back until two weeks later but by that time I had already asked my brother-in-law to finish reformatting it. I was unable to wait for their calls since I required the use of my computer for grad school.

Then two months later again my computer works one day then the next it boots up to a black screen. I also started receiving an error about the power cord. When I booted the computer it would go to a screen with a message about the computer being unable to recognize the power source. So in order to fix this problem I had to start the computer while using the battery only then plug it into the power cord. This would sometimes take several tries since as I mention earlier sometimes when I plugged the laptop in the screen would go black. Another problem that started to happen is that I would try to use my battery (which was fully charged) and it would go from 100% battery power to 7% within five minutes. Now I really cannot unplug my computer because the battery does not work anymore. So again I call Dell with pretty much the same results. They were unable to answer any of my questions such as why my screen goes black when I plug the laptop in. I asked them why my laptop needed to be reformatted every couple months. I was told it was a software problem. When I asked if there was a way for me to find out what software was causing the problem again they told me they did not know. I tried to explain how frustrated I was because I kept losing information I needed for school and I really needed to find out why this was happening their only answer was that they could only tell me it was a software problem and I would have to reformat.

At this point I asked to speak to a manager because I wanted either a new computer or my money back. I was told at first that there was nothing he could do even though at this time my laptop was still under warranty. So again I had to reformat the computer. I had the same issues with the people telling me that they would call me back to help finish reformatting but they never did. I had to call them and I received a different tech person. I had to explain the problem all over again and spent several more hours trying to have the computer reformatted. There was an issue reinstalling at around 59%. It would not go past that point. Eventually the tech was able to have the reinstallation work. However, a couple months later I had the same issues only this time my computer just shut down while I was working on my master thesis.

When I started the computer up again it was not working. This time I was panicking since I needed my thesis. I had learned to back-up my information since this kept happening. Unfortunately, since I was working on the paper at the time I did not save the most recent copy to my flash drive. I was about to lose ten pages of my thesis. This time I asked my brother-in-law to help me since the techs at Dell were useless. My brother-in-law was able to retrieve my paper but the computer needed to be reformatted. This happened in March. Now three months later June 17, 2008 my computer again stopped working. I took it to my brother-in-law because he knows more about computers then your techs and has been the only one that was really helping me with this problem. He tried to reformat it but again it kept stopping at sector 59. He tried a full reinstall three times and it would not work. He was finally able to reinstall the operating system today.

I almost forgot another error I started to receive was an error about how my computer was too hot and had to shut-down to protect it. I did not understand why it would say that because the fan was working, it was not dirty (I keep compressed air which I use regularly to keep my laptop clean), and the computer was only warm not hot. This would even happen sometimes after only having my computer on for five minutes. In Oct. my laptop again stopped working I had the error message of UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. This time my laptop would not reformat. I finally received a call from Dell only after I filed a report with the BBB. Now that my warranty was up Dell told me my hard drive went bad. I kept telling Dell that my brother-in-law said it was the hard drive but Dell said it was something I was doing (when this first started happening). It seems that Dell waited until my warranty was done so that they did not have to fix it. I just wanted other people to know how Dell treats their customers. I've had many people in the computer industry warn me not to buy Dell. They have all told me their computers are junk even a guy running the tech department at Carnegie Mellon University (for those that don't know it's a top tech university). He said never buy Dell computers because they garbage. I hope this helps other people to not make the same mistake I did in picking Dell.

Just an FYI: After spending a day in DellHell last week, I can tell you that the Unresolved Issues route is fairly worthless. I sent an email on 10/29 and as of today, 11/3, have no response. They do warn though, after the email has gone through, that they are experiencing high traffic volume and may be delayed in getting back. Thanks.

Another FYI - after a frustrating morning, I paid $149 for upgraded service. While the accents are more understandable, there's no background noise, and the wait time is less, the expertise and professionalism of the tech is about the same as ones in India.

I'm hoping Michael Dell's address is a good one as it's my last resort!

I had trouble just trying to order a laptop from Dell. I ordered it online when they were running a promotion for $249 off Inspiron notebooks. I received an order acknowledgement via email with the correct price. Several days later, I received an order confirmation email that had the line item for "Save $249", but it was not actually deducted from the price. So, the price had gone up $260 ($249 + sales tax) since I placed the order.

I was not sure if it was just an error in the email confirmation notice, or if they were actually going to charge the incorrect amount. So, I called customer care and they informed me that they were going to charge the higher amount (even though it was $200 more than the current "non-sale" price), and if I was unhappy with that I could cancel my order.

I asked to speak to the manager and went round and round with him asking why they refused to honor the original price that I had agreed to. He continued to refuse to fix the problem and told me my only option was to cancel the order. I told him to go ahead and cancel it.

Since I am also an IT Manager for company that purchases Dell equipment, I emailed my Dell rep explaining to him why we may no longer be doing business with them. I do not mind when businesses or individuals make mistakes, but refusing to correct them after the fact is unacceptable, especially since I spoke to a customer care rep and his manager and neither one offered to help.

I also asked my sales rep to verify that my laptop order had indeed been canceled, and it was not. He unfortunately, only had access to the business order system, not the consumer order system, so he could not cancel it for me. So, I ended up spending another 30 min. on the phone getting someone to cancel the order for me.

I have spent years recommending Dell products to everyone I know as well as converting several companies I have worked for from HP to Dell. However, if this is what has become of their customer service, then no more. I ended up purchasing a competing laptop, and encouraged several members of my family to do the same. I had setup a Dell Employee Purchase program at my company, but I stopped forwarding that information to our employees. And the next time we need to order new servers, desktops, etc. for the office I will certainly be looking at competing bids.

I also filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the FTC, and the WI Dept. of Consumer Protection. I never received a response to any of these complaints, but I encourage anyone else who had a similar experience to also file a complaint. They may be able to ignore one or two complaints, but they will have to do something to resolve this if enough of us complain.

Dear Mr. Dell:

This is a complaint. To give a background, I have purchased a lot of Dell products over the years. My last two (2) peripherals are a 4 in 1 wired/wireless printer V505 and flat monitor (my son-in-law gave me for Christmas) He asked me, what brand I want. I requested a Dell monitor.

I received an email confirming the purchased and informing the dates the printer and the ink cartridges were being mail on December 12th and 13th. I received both on December 15th, 2008.

I did not install the printer because it was the holidays. Beside, I did not think I would have a problem, since it is a Dell. When I installed it just right after Christmas, the process was easy. In the installation, I was warned, “the software” that sent to me to install the driver and the printer were not approved by Microsoft. I ignored that warning and was able to install the wired part and the wireless part of the printer.

My problem began when I turned my laptop (DELL Latitude D520) off, my computer would simply freeze. So I did a hard reboot for the first time and then later on I decided to do system restore (more than 24 times.) Because it was happening each time.

Finally I decided to call your technical support. I then was referred to Gurdeep_176462. I let him work on my laptop on January 2, 2009. He installed the printer but ignored the warning that the “software” was not approved my Microsoft. (Copy of our chat room conversation attached.). The laptop would freeze at the start –up so I needed to do multiple system restore (more 2 dozens time). I did not know that my Dragon Speech Recognition would be lost each time I do system restore. Therefore, I have to install it over and over again. I also lost my speech files. At this time, I believed there was really a conflict between the V505 driver and whatever drivers I have in this Dell Latitude.

I have called several times to your tech support. I had talked to Anita, Emma, Hitish, Manu, to name a few (these people are from either IT or Customer Service). I was given the round and around, meaning, IT would insist in looking at my laptop. I indicated to anyone I talked to look at my history, so as not to repeat my issues over and over again. But I did all the time. By this time, I became very upset. Because as you noticed, based on the copies of the emails that were sent to me nothing had been accomplished. The last IT person I talked to was John. I asked him if the solution is to restore the Latitude back to its original specifications. He said I should do a back up first before we restore it as if this was ‘brand new’. I told him I already did that. It took him around 45-50 minutes to do it. He instructed me install several drivers after the completion of his tasks. He did that by downloading these drivers to my external drive. This part was easy.

I figured, there would be no more conflicts or issues since I am starting from scratch to install this printer. But no, I saw the warning again. So, I did not proceed.

My last option after several attempts to install it was to talk to a supervisor to help resolved this problem. This is in spite of several IT persons insisting in looking into my laptop again and for them to install it. At this time, I refused to allow them to that.

Finally, I got Ross. I indicated to him my desire either to replace the printer or exchange to another one. He promised me he would call me the next day to confirm the replacement. This was the last time I talked to Ross. Since then, I was dealing with Priya, twice. But she failed to call me back as she promised. Then, it was Sarayna, who call for Priya, who was on her day-off.

Sarayna sent me a couple of emails (copies of the emails are attached) after I talked to her over the phone. Three times she promised me she would call me at a specific time (which we agreed upon), just like Ross. The good thing was, she did; the bad thing was, it was a day later. Her excuse to me was either it was her day-off (how would I know that) or she was busy. In all these times, I made sure I would be at home when she calls. I wasted my time for more than one month!!!

For your information, Mr. Dell, I am a physician. And I am sure you know that I just do not sit around the house to wait your people to call me.

I have thinking. This printer is not even more that $200.00. Just imagine the time that I lost which I did not get compensated for and the time that your people wasted that you were paying for.

Would please address and resolve this problem.

Sincerely,
erdmd

cc: Better Business Bureau, 1005 La Posada Dr., Austin, TX 78752
Better Business Bureau, 445 E. Central Texas Expy, Harker Heights, TX 76548

i fine that dell should develop their international customer and repair services. They have a policy whereby only in the country that the computer was purchased can a warranty service be acknowledged. For example i bought a dell inspiron 1525 from ebay and it came with the 1 year warranty, i've found that the battery will only last one hour or just over that and am not doing anything processor intensive and i even have the power saving settings on. First i go to the dell website and talk to customer support the representative tells me they have a number for my country and the people who will answer my call will assist me. When i call the number am still not sure what the intended purpose of this line was but i think its not to help find solutions and ways to service dell computers from where i live but rather for people traveling who have something wrong with there computer. I don't know its just my guess think i saw something about it on the website but anyway the person on the line tells me that i would have to ship the computer all the way to the US because it was purchased there and has to be serviced by parts made in the US. I don't find that very practical since there's a dell authorized reseller who am sure could give me a new one if something is wrong with mine. I think it's so because dell needs to keep account of whatever it has to i wouldn't know but it should try and device a system so that this kind of thing doesn't occur because right now my warranty is worth nothing, it would be cheaper for me to buy a new battery.