Dell Support

[Matt Meiser]

You have to wonder how Dell makes any money...

A couple weeks ago I put one of the memory cards for our camera into the built in card reader and started copying the pictures off of it. All of the sudden all the drives for the card reader disappeared and when they came back the card was corrupted--my camera wouldn't read it and my wife's photo printer wouldn't read it either. Luckily I was able to recover the pictures from it with some recovery software I have to and reformat the card with the printer. We bought another card thinking ours was bad and the same thing happened, so I called Dell support who decided to replace the card reader which was delivered overnight.

I was out of town when the card reader came and finally put it in on Wednesday. Same problem--so I called back. This time they decided to replace the card reader and the motherboard. Tech comes yesterday since they send a tech for motherboards. He tears the computer down and replaces the parts. We restart and...same problem. He leaves and I call back. This time they decide to try updating the driver (my original suggestion on call 1, but that was ignored.) Still the same problem. So now they are sending another new card reader and cable. The new card reader is going to be a different brand so maybe that will fix it. I called back a little while ago since I hadn't gotten the tracking number and sure enough it should be here any time. I also mentioned that now the Service Tag number that the computer reports doesn't match the label on the back of my computer. The the just told me they have to replace the motherboard again since they can only flash the service tag number 1 time???? So tomorrow (we have night/weekend repair service) I am to expect the tech again for motherboard #3.

Also it still remains to be seen whether the new reader will fix the problem. Their only other suggestion is to reload Windows. I've told them instead they can send me the blank off plate for the card reader slot and send me an external Sandisk reader.

Even without the Indian call center labor, they are going to have more invested in fixing the thing than I paid for it in the first place between hardware, shipping costs, and on-site support calls.

[Joe Pelonio]

I've given up on them. If I can't understand the person speaking to me on the phone I wonder how they can understand me. I had a power supply go out after the warranty was up and after calling and hanging up 3 times in the hope of getting someone that spoke English, I decided to just buy one off the shelf at my local computer store. I needed a power button for an older one and ordered it from Dell by phone, same problem, but finally thought it was done. I never got it, and my credit card was never charged (over a year ago).
I turn that one on with a screwdriver since no one elese sells that button.

[Matt Meiser]

I FINALLY got off the phone with them. I guess he won't be coming tomorrow. Maybe Monday or Tuesday. Next day only means next day if your call is completed between Midnight and 5PM Monday-Thursday. Otherwise it means "whenever the tech gets the part". While I was on hold, DHL actually showed up and I put in the new reader. Works great. Good thing I refused to follow their OS reinstall instructions. Now they just have to fix the damage they did to get to this point.

[John Shuk]

That is pretty sad when you consider that they used be number one on and off with Gateway customer service wise. Guess thay found that it just wasn't too important.

[David G Baker]

I FINALLY got off the phone with them. I guess he won't be coming tomorrow. Maybe Monday or Tuesday. Next day only means next day if your call is completed between Midnight and 5PM Monday-Thursday. Otherwise it means "whenever the tech gets the part". While I was on hold, DHL actually showed up and I put in the new reader. Works great. Good thing I refused to follow their OS reinstall instructions. Now they just have to fix the damage they did to get to this point.

Matt,
I have heard horror stories from several senior citizens that purchased Dell computers along with the best warranty that Dell offered. Most of the senior citizens were pretty much computer illiterate so even minor fixes were impossible for them. They too went through the tech coming to their homes and replacing almost everything in the computer several times before Dell sent them a totally new system but by that time the senior citizens were in total computer shock. Most of them stopped using their computers.

[Karl Laustrup]

I can sympathize Matt. I have a friend who has spent many an hour online with Dell support in India. He finally figured it out. You just keep telling them you can't understand what they're saying. After quite a while he got some tech support guy out of Tennesee. Had his problem fixed in a short time.

I agree with the others here. I got my first Dell in '97 and had to call support several times. Got through immediately and the problem was diagnosed and solved in short order. I guess Dell figures customer service doesn't matter anymore. The bottom line on that will be similar to the HD foray into lack of customer service.

Good luck.

Karl

[John Schreiber]

I've bought a couple of machines from Dell and I've never called their customer service. I've always been able to find fixes by searching through the web for other people who have had the same problem.

So far so good.

[Ryan Myers]

I have a Dell desktop (7 years old), a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook (1-1/2 years old), a Dell MFP Laser machine and a Dell color laser printer. I have not had one single problem, other than the battery in the notebook is going bad. I upgraded the desktop from Windows ME to XP a few years ago because ME was horrible.

My mother on the other hand bought a Dell desktop at the same time I did. She is more computer challenged and didn't live close enough for me to help. She had countless software problems (attributed to ME) to which she had same language barrier problems dealing with their tech support. Not only is there a language barrier, but most of them are not computer literate at all.

When I bought my Dell MFP machine I complained about the tech support problem to an American (which I was suprised to get). He said all purchases through the Dell Home division get their tech support routed to India. If you purchase through the Small Business side you get American based support. So you can guess which unit I bought my laptop and two printers through. Thankfully I haven't need any tech support.

[Mark Cothren]

I have a Dell laptop. It is my second Dell computer that I have owned and is most definitely the last. I've had to call their tech support one time and was frustrated (what a joke). Then my wife spoke with them and not only was she unable to understand most of what this guy said, but he got very rude with her. So I got on the phone with him and we had a nice little conversation. I insisted on speaking to his manager and when he finally put the guy on the phone I asked to speak with someone - ANYONE - that he reported to in the United States. All he would do is give me another 800 number to call. When I got someone in the US on the phone they were very apologetic and tried to be helpful, but I told them they would not be getting any more of my future business.

[Matt Meiser]

This particular computer was actually purchased through a large business account since I worked for a large company at the time. This is my second support incident related to bad hardware. Next time I'll probably just build the computer myself as the one I just built has been more reliable. I might even consider a Mac.

I tried to demand a US call center--instead I got a corporate software support center in Canada.

Oh, and the service tag issue--I did a quick Google search and found which utility to use to fix it. I responded to the service dispatch email and told them not to come--no response. I hope the guy is driving from a long way .

[Steve Hackman]

I can understand Matt's problems with Dell. I recently had a blue screen error on my Dell desktop saying I had a display driver problem. So I called Dell. It took a while to speak to a live person. The person I got spoke clear English with what I beleive was a Danish accent. He lead me through my problem and solution very promotly and precicely, quickly reloading a new driver and my computer was back in business. After some banter about weather I asked him where he was located, he said India.
That surprised me so I thanked him for his prompt, courteous and helpful solution. Through an error my part, a week or so later I got another blue screen error and thougt no problem. I called Dell. After the usual wait for a person to answer, I had to repeat much of what I said and asked for the person from Dell to repeat what they said many times I was put on hold. When he returned he lead me through to a solution. It did not work. We tried another angle it did not work. After more time on hold, now I am up to almost an hour on the phone, he said I must reload Windows XP and call back for further help. I said "thank you", but thought "no way", the last fellow knew exactly what to do, this guy didn't. So I hung up and retraced what I did with the first fellow and found a driver file he had me download.
I was able to reload the proper updated driver and all is well, without reloading Windows.
I seemed reloading Windows would be like a hunter shooting anything that moves, it may include the duck he wanted for supper. If he got his duck he would consider it a success, but at what cost?
Your problems are probably the same, all you need to do is talk to someone who knows the problem and can communicate the solution, you will do fine.

[Matt Meiser]

We had a running joke a few years ago about a particular software vendor's troubleshooting procedure which went something like:
1. Reboot
2. Reload their product
3. Reload Windows

[Dick Latshaw]

We had a running joke a few years ago about a particular software vendor's troubleshooting procedure which went something like:
1. Reboot
2. Reload their product
3. Reload Windows

Heh , Matt. You're talking about the 3 R's of tech support: Reboot, Reload, and Reformat.

[Matt Meiser]

I'll be honest, I use #1 a lot and I've used #2 a couple times. But #3 is unreasonable unless there is proof of a problem with a corrupted load and chances are the problem is going to come back once the OS and required patches are installed anyway. At the same time, one of my main customers had custom Windows 2000 Server load CD's where they had messed with all sorts of stuff in the registry. Even if we had reloaded, we'd get the same problems back to start with.

[Jason Boushard]

my dell run great of course I wiped windows totally and installed GENTOO Linux instead. I fell for people who have to put up with windows.