Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Dell Gripes

Have you had problems with Dell? If so, tell the world about it here. You can do so anonymously, however if you ask a question an email address is necessary to get any responses. Two rules: no cursing and no phone numbers of Dell employees.

124 comments:

Anonymous said...

I purchased my computer in August 2004. I was supposed to get a printer with my package. I have yet to receive a printer from dell. I have emailed them many many times. No response. I have called them and gave them my tag # and everything else they asked for. No printer. I order an A: drive. My computer was delivered without an A: drive. Most of Dell's site have email address you can email them. But they don' work. I hate dell. My email don't work either. Most of my mail is returned. I need a computer that works. and I need the printer that I have paid for in August 2004.
E.J.Branch
ladeva5007@aol.com

Anonymous said...

I have been given a Royal runaround by Dell. I was given a coupon number for $750 off and the page was down so that I could not receive it. I tried at least 8 times and my daughter tried 5 times. When I finally got a person on the line to protest, the promotion was over and that was all to it. These are very poor business practices and I will not shop Dell again.

Anonymous said...

Dell promotion is bogus. I purchased two sets of computers and was salestalked to getting financed through Dell instead of using my own credit card, saying there will be no interest no payment for certain period of time. However when I received my first statement fine but on my second statement finance interest were charged. After multiple phone calls and long talks to customer service support I have been told that there was a mistake. I ended up paying off all the accounts and used my own credit card instead.

Anonymous said...

Dell Customer Service has a very annoying way of reminding you if there is an outstanding balance in your account. They will make your phone ring and you will be shown through your caller id their automatic reminder their 1866-3955011 but nobody will answer if you pick up. And this won't stop until you pay your account. However, if you have an outstanding dispute with your account, they they don't care, since they said they cannot do anything about their system. It sucks... especially if it is not your fault if they are not doing their job looking into your complaints.

Anonymous said...

This is a complaint against Dell Computers and CITI Bank financial practices. I purchased my Dell computer, screen and printer last November. The total price was $1,450 (+-) I explained to them that I was on a fixed income and needed my payments to come due on the 3rd of the month. Since my old bank would honor my checks if they came in a day ahead of my automatic deposit, they paid the debit.

I now have a new bank, and they do not honor the debit without incurring a charge. When I received the bill shown in this correspondence, I was shocked to see that I now owe more than I started out with. Since all of Dell’s Customer Service Representatives are in India, I sometimes run into a language/cultural barrier. There have even been times that I have paid more than the minimum payment due.

In spite of all this, I have not missed a payment since purchasing the equipment. So how the heck do I incur the charges listed on this invoice? Please note that the interest rate is 28.24%. This is supposed to be an American business. Yet, this percentage rate is nothing short of usurery. I would like your help in stopping this practice, or at least exposing it.

Thank you

Etha Gray

Anonymous said...

I was considering purchasing Dell notebooks for my office in India. But the fellas DO NOT REALLY CARE TO EVEN SELL ME THEIR STUFF.

As if I don't have a choice. I'm considering a local brand.

Ravi

Anonymous said...

Dell customer service is a joke. Have an extended warrenty that I paid extra for ($350 for home service if necessary). 15 phone calls later and 10 hours of time and the computer is still not working. What a joke. My wife was actually crying after speaking with them today. We paid a lot of money for a top of the line machine and got a pile of crap. Oh, by the way Dell says that they will call back when they find something out (5th time they have said that and still waiting).
DON'T BUY A DELL. The heartach and time spent screwing around with this company is not worth it.

Anonymous said...

We found it easy to purchase our Dell PC and it arrived as described. Dell’s greatest shortcoming is their pathetic telephone support line. Dell appears to hire for the applicant’s ability to speak English. Computer knowledge is virtually zero. Each sentence is followed by the command to “hold on for a moment”. Some moment! What should be a 5-minute call will take 45 minutes, and even at that, the likelihood of the problem being solved is dubious!

Our previous PC online purchase was through IBM and their telephone tech support is excellent. We certainly weren’t prepared for the “Dell Experience”.

Anonymous said...

I had all the numbers in place.........My lap-top was ready to be made and shipped...As a businessman, I chose the 0 interest...UNTIL.....They tried to shove the AOL down my throat.......I will not but a computer that has been tainted by AOL.....I do not want them anywhere on the computer.
Sorry DELL....Dump AOL....They are bottomfeeders!
Daniel George
Little Rock Arkansas

Anonymous said...

Seems the at home crap is just that....crap

Anonymous said...

I have never in my life dealt with such ridiculous customer service. I left the phone in tears after being on hold for two and a half hours. I can not restate how horrible the customer service was. After two months of purchasing my computer, the video card went bad. Now, I have to pay for it? There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Oh sure, they will replace it for you--as long as you pay.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a computer from Dell the beginning of Nov. for my son. BIG MISTAKE. Dell's customer support is none existant. I bought a wireless router & was assured by the person taking the order that his computer on the 1st flr. would receive the signal from mine in the basement. WRONG. Everytime I called the 800# my call got sent to India where they kept putting me on hold to look things up. I was told a "router technician" would get back to me the following day to help me. IT'S BEEN OVER A WK & NO PHONE CALL. I called the orignial sales person to try to return the router, lft 2 msgs and 2 e-mails, & NO RETURN RESPONSES. I tried calling Corp. Offices in TX. THEY WILL NOT CONNECT YOU TO THE EXECUTIVE OFFICES. WHY NOT? ARE THE EXECUTIVES BEING BOMBARDED WITH UNHAPPY CONSUMER COMPLAINTS. I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE ANYONE BUYING A DELL COMPUTER. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON EXISTANT!! I HOPE MICHAEL DELL IS ENJOYING HIS MILLIONS FOR NOW. WITH THIS LEVEL OF SERVICE, I SEE DELL LOSING PROFITS IN THE FUTURE.

Anonymous said...

Letter to UK MD Bill Rodrigues about Customer Services and the Axim range.

From Brian Minkoff
bmm@lineone.net


17.12.2004.


Dear Mr Rodrigues,

Re – Axim X50v.


I am in the market to buy some VGA PDA’s for myself and my staff and have cut the choice down to either the X50v or the Ipaq 4700.

Having had Dell Desktops I am inclined to go with the Axim, however as you can appreciate, one is reluctant to make purchases on publicity blurb alone. I can try out the Ipaq at any gadget high street shop, but this is not the case with your products.

I notice from your web site that your USA branch offers an unconditional returns policy (and sells the X50v at a little over £200 against your price of £340, but that’s another bone of contention for another time). There are no similar promises on the UK web site, and none of your staff either in India or Bracknell can tell me what the returns policy is in the UK. Indeed several E- mails to your Sales and Customer care Departments asking for clarification have been ignored.

I find it strange that simple Company Info about a returns or try-out policy eludes your people. Indeed nobody I spoke to either knew your name or where you worked.
Perhaps the lines of internal communication at Dell UK are being stretched too far, or maybe you are part of some secret government organisation playing at selling Computers in your spare time ?

I would be grateful if somebody from Dell UK came back to me about the possibilities of physically trying out the X50v- if you want to sell some that is.


Yours etc

Brian Minkoff.

Anonymous said...

Purchased a Dell Laptop on Dec 7th. Inspiron 8600. Got a good deal 1340 bucks including a printer and case.
Received a 5100 (worth about 900 bucks and not what I ordered on Dec 21). This was supposed to be a Christmas present. Called them. On hold for 20 minutes. Customer Service is outsourced to India so some of the phone personell have trouble understanding and communicating. Told them of the problem. After much discussion they said the correct computer would be sent and I would receive instructions on how to return the wrong computer. Never heard anything. Called again on Dec 27. Told it would ship next day. Checked online with customer number. Now I've been charged 1650 for the original one ordered (300 dollars more than I was quoted) and also for the wrong computer at 1200. So I'm now liable for 2800 dollars worth of computers I don't have. Cannot call anyone because I get put on hold and there is no recourse. This company used to be good. It is now run by a former Walmart executive who thinks price is the only issue. Service pretty much sucks and beware because this is going to be a nightmare to get this straightened out. A shame that a once great company now is a disaster.

Anonymous said...

tryed to buy 3 dell computers they called and said no problem well even finance you,, at 29.99 percent interest rate, if i remember right that is what the new york mob loan sharks use to charge, what a joke. there moto we are here to help you, yes they are and they are there to rape the consumer of there hard earned money, i would not buy from them now if they sold me one for one dollar, i would rather buy a e machine....dell can go to hell, you notice that rimes pretty damn good.

Anonymous said...

I bought a Dell Dimension 8300 in the spring of 2004. No problems for about 10 months..I go to my computer and it will not start up. I figure it may still be under warrenty.... and now the phone call to customer service. I talk to an Indian female..(do I really need to go into this) Huh? What did you say? HOLD PLEASE! So after an hour conversation she figures that I need a power supply and a motherboard. I have to get off the phone because I am a police officer and I need to handle a call. (may as well, since I have been on hold for ten minutes. So, thinking they would call me back, like I was told at the begining of the conversation, I hang up. I handle my call and await my phone call back. That did not happen!! So I call again and try to conversate with an Indian male. He tells me all I need is a motherboard. That was a two hour wait and conversation. All for nothing. Just needed a power supply. I could have told them that at the beginning of the conversation (if you want to call it that)

I had enough!!

Chris M.
ILLINOIS

Anonymous said...

I have been working for Dell Tech Support for a few months now and I can offer a few tips. First, if you are buying a Dell system, buy it from the Business side, not the consumer side. All consumer support is handled in India while all business support is handled in the U.S. You might spend an extra $100 or so for the same machine, but it's worth it to get someone who speaks English natively. Second, once you reach business support keep in mind that in the "business support" division, techs are REQUIRED by company policy to fix your problem. If you call back within 7 days with the same problem, the original tech gets a negative score for the original call. The tech is required to send you an email summary with details of your call. That summary includes a link that allows you to provide feedback to Dell about your experience. Those feedback messages ARE read by the managers and coaches at Dell Business Support and go into the files of each tech. If you have a bad experience, BE SURE to fill out the feedback form for the call so that the tech is accountable for the call. As I noted before, none of this is the same on the consumer side. Dell could give a crap about consumers, but 80%+ of Dell sales come from the business side.

Anonymous said...

per account # 6879 4501 1902 1687 391
payments being made regarding balance of $235.16.
automatic payment plan.
unjustified as new computer was never used and was returned in a timely manner.
The delay was due to the DPS service [# 50019201]as person did not pick up the computer as scheduled.
we were penalized as it was indicated that we were late in returning the computer.
from an irate customer who has been mistreated paying for a non used machine.

Anonymous said...

I have purchased numerous computers without the fiasco of purchase of a Dell desktop. I spent more than 8 hrs attempting to cancel a revolving credit agreement and to pay directly. My call were either booted from country to country or I received a recording after endless voicemails saying no one was available. I would gladly buy a more expensive machine rather than deal with Dell. I haven't tried yet to get technical support.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Dell customer of 7 years, BUT I just sent back my entire Dell system, and will never buy or recommend them again. They have slipped beyond repair.

The customer support Dell says is "world class service" is nothing short of unethical and incompetent. All of my contact with Dell was either in Panama City, or India. The reps speak poor english, and are very hard to understand. They seem to only be able to follow a simple flow chart and apologize. When I aked for a phone number to corporate, Customer Care said they didn't know the number. When I asked for the name of the Manager in Customer Care, they only said, "David". They also disconnected me from the chat Customer Care, when I insisted they provide me a solution to my problems...this happened 4 times!

In every transaction there was an error. From cancelled orders, to incorrect shipping methods, etc. I spent a minimum of 1.5 hour per call...that's per call.

When I asked Dell how they could rectify there errors, they said that they were only a "mail order company", and had no control over production & shipping.

If you press them, they will give you money off your order...they offered me $50, and then $75 credit. But in the end that was not worth all the trouble.

I bought a Sony Vaio now, and I'm a Sony guy to stay.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Dell customer of 7 years, BUT I just sent back my entire Dell system, and will never buy or recommend them again. They have slipped beyond repair.

The customer support Dell says is "world class service" is nothing short of unethical and incompetent. All of my contact with Dell was either in Panama City, or India. The reps speak poor english, and are very hard to understand. They seem to only be able to follow a simple flow chart and apologize. When I aked for a phone number to corporate, Customer Care said they didn't know the number. When I asked for the name of the Manager in Customer Care, they only said, "David". They also disconnected me from the chat Customer Care, when I insisted they provide me a solution to my problems...this happened 4 times!

In every transaction there was an error. From cancelled orders, to incorrect shipping methods, etc. I spent a minimum of 1.5 hour per call...that's per call.

When I asked Dell how they could rectify there errors, they said that they were only a "mail order company", and had no control over production & shipping.

If you press them, they will give you money off your order...they offered me $50, and then $75 credit. But in the end that was not worth all the trouble.

I bought a Sony Vaio now, and I'm a Sony guy to stay.

Anonymous said...

NEW DELL COMPUTER MAKES TOO MUCH NOISE!!

I have had my dell for 2 weeks (BOD 01-06-05), right out of the box after plugging the power in it was obvious something was wrong. The CPU fan was the unbearable louder than any component I have ever had in any computer that I have owned spanning 15 years. Called Dell Tech support and they ordered a new CPU Fan and sent a Tech. to install it. Noise problem solved.

I inspected the CPU fan the Tech. removed. It was made by http://www.datech.com.tw/ on July 9, 2004.

The tech said that Dell has not ordered a recall but instead continues installing defective noisy fans and letting the customer complain before correcting the problem. The tech. also noted that it was a very common problem.

Anonymous said...

My first negative experience with Dell tech support!

We made a routine purchase of a Latitude notebook over a year ago, with an extended warranty. The end user has not had it out of the docking station in the 18 months or so that he's been using it.

The other day I had the opportunity to install some software for him. He forgot his power cord and I figured the battery would give me enough time to do the install. The machine would not power up and the battery showed a full charge. After scrounging up a power cord I plugged it in. The machine fired right up. Unplugging the power cord brought up a message coded into the BIOS about the Pentium 4 systems not running on any battery that was rated at less than 3600 mAh. Okay, fine. I check the battery. The battery in the system is an 1800 mAh battery! No wonder it wouldn't run on the battery!

Contacted Dell tech support. Told them the problem. They told me to pound sand and buy a new battery because they only warranty their batteries for a year.

But the problem isn't with the battery, it's with the improper *assembly*, providing me with the wrong battery to begin with!

After 4 emails reiterating this fact, I'm just about ready to go ahead and buy another battery. It's going to cost less in the long run to just pay for the battery than it will for my time to spit back and forth with tech support about the deal.

shesh.

Anonymous said...

I bought a Dell computer and monitor 2 years ago. After the first year it started falling apart and was told too bad no warranty. Now my monitor is fritzing. I think this is outrageous!

Anonymous said...

Today I tried to discuss payment with Dell at the telephone number suppled. I went from handler to handler and no one would acknowledge that the money we owned then had not appeared on my Amex account and therefore I had not paid them. After almost one hour I gave up deciding that if they didnt want my money who am I to push it onto them.

Anonymous said...

I work for a large financial institution as a network admin. We switched to Dell over 2 yrs ago. I have had repeated issues with everything from wrong server being shipped to us to Dell support techs blowing away our array on production servers. I can relay nothing but poor experiences in all aspects in dealing with Dell. No one in their company wants to accept responsibility for anything. No one wants to make things right for any situation. They are simple the most horrible company to have to deal with in any respect.
Let me relay my latest experiences to everyone. We had ordered 3 new server for implementation as domain controllers for a new domain. We ordered them without an OS as we had already purchased the OS for them in a bulk buy. They were delivered with Windows 2003 (we run Windows 2000). Dell refused to credit us for the OS saying that is what we ordered. After arguing that our quote specifically stated that no OS be installed, they finally said that they would credit us for the OS.
Next, we had a drive fail in a RAID 5 array. I called in a service call to have a replacement shipped to us. We have a 4hr 24x7 contact with Dell on this server. They said that the drive would arrive in approximately 6 hrs - not 4 hrs or less by any means. Additionally, their support rep said that he could not be insight to replace the drive until the following day nearly 24 hrs after the reported failure. Further, when the tech replaced the drive, teh complete RAID failed. I asked him to replace the original drive so that this server could go back into production in a degraded state and I would replace it that evening. He did just that, but the once working (but degraded state) RAID refused to boot. This should have NEVER happened! Lossing a single drive in a RAID 5 should never result in a unbootable RAID. At this point I was forced rebuild the OS and restore from backup, wasting 3 hrs of downtime that we should have never had.
I am NEVER recommending Dell to anyone again regardless of whether they are a corporation or home user.

Anonymous said...

I recently bought a Dell 8400 from a reseller on Ebay. During the first week of trying to transfer ownership and warranty info., I spoke to a Dell customer ser. rep. who stated I could return my system and purchase a new one, using my education employee program, which offers special discounts. Sounded good, so I followed his instructions for returns and shipped the system back to Dell Receiving in Austin, TX. I should have known better, after the hopeless conversations with Dell Customer Service, in trying to transfer ownership into my name. Now, they have my computer on their receiving dock and they state that they can't ship it back to me for 10 to 15 days or they may issue a credit for the system and send it to the original purchaser. I have been on the phone with rep. after rep. for 2 weeks now and still don't have an answer as to what they intend to do. You can't get someone on the phone who listens to the problem and gives you an answer without reading a scripted solution. I am TOTALLY fed up with this company and I will not reccomend a Dell computer to anyone. I just hope I can get my system back before the rats eat through the box sitting on the dock in Austin. Their outsourcing has just lost another customer!!!!

Anonymous said...

I recently bought a Dell 8400 from a reseller on Ebay. During the first week of trying to transfer ownership and warranty info., I spoke to a Dell customer ser. rep. who stated I could return my system and purchase a new one, using my education employee program, which offers special discounts. Sounded good, so I followed his instructions for returns and shipped the system back to Dell Receiving in Austin, TX. I should have known better, after the hopeless conversations with Dell Customer Service, in trying to transfer ownership into my name. Now, they have my computer on their receiving dock and they state that they can't ship it back to me for 10 to 15 days or they may issue a credit for the system and send it to the original purchaser. I have been on the phone with rep. after rep. for 2 weeks now and still don't have an answer as to what they intend to do. You can't get someone on the phone who listens to the problem and gives you an answer without reading a scripted solution. I am TOTALLY fed up with this company and I will not reccomend a Dell computer to anyone. I just hope I can get my system back before the rats eat through the box sitting on the dock in Austin. Their outsourcing has just lost another customer!!!!

Anonymous said...

I bought 8400 desktop on sale for about $990 I upgraded the "FREE" printer to an all in one and was charged at that time $126 for the upgrade , total $1330 with everything. After I got my bill I noticed that they charged me twice for the printer. I was on the phone for 1 hour trying to resolve this.I was informed that the problem would be taken care of and I would be refunded that amount. After 2 weeks I called to pay off my account and found out that it was taken care of. I called customer service spent 1 hour with a SUPERVISOR only to be told that there was a miscommunication with my sales rep and that I was not charged twice. I know what I bought and I know what I paid but they still wouldn't refund me my money. I paid them off but I will never ever buy from dell again and I will never recommend anyone to them. I hate their customer service I hate that you have to purchase everything online or over the phone. I will be reporting them to the better business bureau. If I can find someone to sell my computer to I doing it because I never want to buy or deal with dell again.

Anonymous said...

I ordered a dell computer and printer on 020305 for $874.00. A$203.00 debit was taken out that same day. I found out several days later no other debit was taken out of my checking. I called them and was advised they could only take out that amount within one hour. They told me they would take it out within one hour. Thay did not. Two days later I went out and bought a compaq at a local store. Two days later dell is taking out $874.00 of my checking, I called them canceled the order, refused ups delivery on 021405, and still waiting for my credit as of 022505. DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM DELL, THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!

Anonymous said...

I have spent a total of five hours over the last two days trying return a defective printer cartridge for a Dell printer. The best I can get is very courteous representatives in Bombay who refer me to another telephone number
that refers me to yet another number with no satisfaction. I believe it is their company policy to deliberately disregard complaints. It is the most unethical company I have ever dealt with.

Anonymous said...

I have spent a total of five hours over the last two days trying return a defective printer cartridge for a Dell printer. The best I can get is very courteous representatives in Bombay who refer me to another telephone number
that refers me to yet another number with no satisfaction. I believe it is their company policy to deliberately disregard complaints. It is the most unethical company I have ever dealt with.

Anonymous said...

I am not a computer person, I use one at my office, but it is very specific to my job. We purchased a Dell (the total package, printer, etc-etc, about $1700.00 worth of almost USLESS stuff. I have nothing but problems with it, I can NEVER get an english speaking person to assist me. One man from India, wanted me to open the computer and re-arrange the chips!! I don't even know what chips are!!! Anyway, a real person did come to our home and repair one thing, on a brand new compter of 2 weeks, but as soon as he left, things started not working that were working before. We bough the tutorial so I could learn more about this stupid thing, and the "help person" in India, signed me into the program using a different name, so I could not even get into to it to learn anything. If I had my way about it, I would send the whole thing back to Texas where we bought it and try another brand. PEOPLE OF AMERICA, DELL HELL IS A REAL PLACE I HAVE BEEN THERE OFF AND ON THE THE PAST 6 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dell Finance is nothing but legalized thievery. They charged us late fees and interest although we paid for the computer in full within the first month of receiving it. Then we harrassed on home phone and cell phone endlessly and relentlessly for nearly a year to try to collect the bogus debt. Even after many phone calls and letters, Dell refused to refund the bogus charges. Dell home computer support for the financial is in India, too, by the way. We will NEVER buy another Dell.

Anonymous said...

To clarify on software support for DELL. My background. I worked for 1 year in the Business 21 day software support. Techs were not REQUIRED TO FIX THE ISSUE BY COMPANY POLICY, the wair period between the same call was 48 hrs, no ftr hit after 48 hrs, surveys where very seldom if ever read, and no contact was allowed with the customer through email. As of March 8 2005 all software support was moved out of the US and is now fee based. No 21 day software support. My job actually move to Kannata Canada and I was left without a job.

Anonymous said...

DELL NEWS FLASH - UNMITIGATED FRAUD SELLING USED/RECONDITIONED DRIVES AS NEW. ---BREACH OF CONTRACT (see United States vs Dell)

Look folks don't think going to dell as a small or not-so small business makes any difference. I'm on my second hard-drive(s) failure in less than 6months because dell will only replace failed drives with reconditioned ones. They expect a 10-day return on failed equipment so you can't do failure cause evauatory diagnostics or Data Recovery (and what are they doing with all my porno anyway?)... I bought/leased (same difference- can't upgrade or swap-out as sales would like you to think, until buyout anyway, and you're probably paying 14%to 19% finance rates on top of cost).

anyway I bought a top of the line dimension, 21"flat screen-lcd and 200g dual hard drive serial-ata raid0 striped- (so when one drive fails all is lost anyway only recently discovered os-ghosting & external b-u) ---"did you back up your data???" 'no I was in the middle of down-loading 10-gigs of photos from a three week shoot at Mammoth & Death Valley flower fields from my Nikon 8800 for a couple clients who are a little pssd to say the least.

BASTIDS...did I mention this is the second drive failure since last october? (today is march 22-2005) dual raid sata replacement is alot like when you fix your alternator in your car, then the battery fails and you replace that, then the new alternator fails ad nauseum till somebody (usually not your mechanic who is having way too much fun and profit from your ignorance) tells you they both gotta go at the same time- one causes the other..... Anyway. so Dell is hoping I act business-like and since I'm stuck with
$7600 bucks worth of sh-t I'll upgrade to New Seagate Barracudas ( and pay them 25% to %100 over what I can get them for at Outpost/fry's)- still with no reassurrance that they're REALLY NEW.

OK FOLKS TIME TO GET REAL ON THEY ASS - WHY DON'T WE JUST CLASS-ACTION SUE THEM - I'M ON BOARD - write me brunelleschi@cox.net - no I'm not a lawyer - but San Diego City & County atty's office says it's possible - they voided their contract a long time ago - I bought used equipment that was not specifically identified as such... in addition to buying a three-year contract for next day on-site service - then they send me used parts, and only 1/2 of what is needed-required and expect me to install it myself - plus they never sent me the MS-Xp office Operating System I paid retail for so Microsoft won't recognise me as an OS owner, just a wannabe licensee. It gets deeper but I'm running low on batteries ON MY MAC. (hindi tech said- " oh yes, I understand sir, would you still like to order cartridge?"...?????)
ALL TRUE, & very truly yours- Bruno.
ps this is not copyrighted so anybody can feel free to use at your discretion

Anonymous said...

I purchased My Dell less than a Month ago and already had it crash. I did a reinstall of there Windows XP Pro server pack 2 and found I did not get allt he software, like for My monitor, My eithernet,My audio. And what really burns My shorts is I was told to go to one of there sights to download the programs and They did not work. So I reinstalled again and this time I set up My server first and went to add progams and let it search for the proper program. And My printer says My spooler is not working and that really Make Me angry. I wish I had know what I read at the begining of this sight aboud purchasing from a buisness insted of home since I cant spend all day infront of this thing, I have work I do and cant play with this thing all day long.

Anonymous said...

READ THIS.

CALL DELL SALES @ 800.624.9896 and tell them their service sucks. Jam their sales lines and tell tem you will never buy a Dell again.

Anonymous said...

I will NEVER buy a Dell product again.

I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9100 in 2004. In January 2005, it started locking up. After 10 painful phone calls, they agreed that the CPU and/or motherboard had overheated (THE REP ADMITTED THIS WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE 9100's) and agreed to replace the CPU / motherboard.

I sent the box back to Memphis, where they promptly did nothing and sent it back to me.

20 PHONE CALLS LATER, THEY ARE TELLING ME TO REPLACE THE O/S (WHICH IS THERE ANSWER TO ANY PROBLEM). NEVER MIND THAT THE SYSTEM LOCKS UP BEFORE I EVEN GET TO THE SPLASH SCREEN.

Michael Dell is no better than Bernbie Ebbers or Ken Lay - just another greedy scumbag.

Don't buy Dell unless you don't care about customer service. But you will, because their machines don't work.

Anonymous said...

After owning a Dell 1150 for only three weeks the battery adapter completely stopped working. Not a problem, things break, they shouldn’t break that soon but things happen, I understand that, just fix it, right? To date I have spent seven phone calls on this problem, today’s lasting more than three hours (no kidding) and while not going into all of the sordid details the problem is STILL NOT RESOLVED! In the mean time the CD/DVD player broke – it won’t open.

I have talked to five customer care agents, two managers (one very rude), and five tech reps, (all foreign), and still no one cares enough to solve the two problems I now have.

The warranty is a joke. It consists of sending wrong parts, being coached to do worthless diagnostics over the phone and wasting more time.

I have been lied to, given bogus Tech ID numbers, and invalid extensions. Gee, I wonder why??? And while most of the reps are very apologetic, it’s very clear none of them really care. Everyone’s blurb is the same and, I suspect this remorseful tone is self preservation at its best designed to keep you from going ballistic; since chances are the last guy didn’t do his job either.

At his point I wouldn’t own another Dell if you paid me. The true measure of a company is how they handle problems and DELL HAS FAILED MISERABLY! HEAR THAT MR.DELL? Nothing, I repeat, nothing is worth this kind of never-ending aggravation for what I suspect are easy to fix problems. Pass the buck, or should I say, pass the problem is their motto. Conversely, my five year old Sony has been completely trouble-free and a delight to own. That is what I’ll be buying next time.

Anonymous said...

I ordered Dell 8400 on 1/20/2005. Dell recieved Post Office Money Order in Richardson Texas, with instructed information on Money Order, on 1/23/2005. I have copy supplied by Post Office on who signed for it. Dell has not cashed money order yet and cannot get any help from 6 agent and 3 supervisors and e-mail replys to about 8 different people. DELL SUCKS

Anonymous said...

Dell Sucks,
dells comercials say that they have 24 hr. service. They did not say that it would be routed to a mud hut in some mid eastern country. On Tv the guy answers the phone in english and gets asked if he likes pancakes. What he should be asked is do you lke coos coos

Anonymous said...

Attached is a letter sent to Michael Dell on 4/5/05. It's self explanatory. P.S. I still haven't got my software.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could get involved in my situation as I have completely exhausted all attempts at resolving the situation with your customer care department. I assure you I am on the level and everything can verified; I have the names, dates, and times of everyone I spoke with and exact quotes where applicable.

Problem: In late January I purchased a new computer system from DELL Corp. that was completely defective and unusable. Over 15 technicians (via phone) and 2 technicians (in person at my premises) could not diagnose or resolve the problem. DELL would not refund my purchase price nor repair my computer with new parts. Finally they relented and sent me a new system but without all the software (which should have been pre-loaded) loaded. One technicians said he would sent it out overnight, when it wasn't recieved several days later a 2nd techician said she'd send it out, a third technician said the product doesn't exist since it could only be sent out pre-loaded, I spoke with a supervisor who now refuses to issue me a refund, provide me with the software (which included a 15 month Virus protection subscription as part of the purchased package), or compensate me in any way. The supervisor said he was closing the case and “refused” (his exact words were “I refuse”) to give me the name or phone # of his supervisor.

Detailed facts: In late January I purchased a DELL Dimension 8400 desktop computer online directly from DELL. The computer was defective from the start and was virtually inoperable after mid February. I spoke with approximately 15 technicians, none of whom could either diagnose or resolve the problem. I finally spoke with a supervisor who said he would send out new parts to replace the defective parts. On three separate occasions I confirmed that I was to receive new parts. I took the day off to await the technician, but 2 of the 3 parts were refurbished, so I refused the repair and requested a refund or new system. I was refused either and the supervisor’s position is that my service contract allows DELL to repair the computer with refurbished or re-conditioned parts and that I am not entitled to a refund after 21 days. I tried to work with DELL and on 3/25, I lost a second day of work while another technician replaced defective parts with more defective refurbished parts. DELL then insisted that I allow them (and lose a 3rd day of work) while they attempted to replace more parts to attempt to determine what parts were defective. I objected and after a lengthy discussion he agreed to send me a new system.

The new system arrived on 3/30. However, the virus protection software was never installed in the system (It is an integral and necessary part of the system and comes pre-loaded). I cannot use the internet since without any virus protection I run an enormous risk even to register my computer with DELL. I spoke with a technician who said he would send me the software overnight mail. When I didn’t receive it several days later I spoke with another technician who stated there was no order # and that the software was never shipped. She said she would send it out promptly. I called to confirm the shipment when a third technician said that the software doesn’t exist separately and is only available when loaded onto a new system, and that the first two technicians could not have sent me a product that didn’t exist. I then spoke with a supervisor whose only accommodation was to send me a new and later version of the virus scan software but without any guarantee or knowledge of whether it would be for the 15 month subscription that I had originally purchased, and that it would “likely” be shipped within 3-5 days. Even though I was receiving less than what I paid for and would be delayed even longer, I was willing to accept the accommodation if DELL could provide me some form of additional compensation. The supervisor refused to give me any compensation, said he was closing my case and refused to give me the name or phone # of his supervisor.

DELL’s position is that I am not entitled to a refund after 21 days. DELL’s original position prior to the new system being shipped was that I was not entitled to a refund after 21 days and that my service contract allows DELL to repair the computer with refurbished or re-conditioned parts.

My position is that because the original computer was defective upon shipment and unusable I never received the original product I purchased; a brand new computer in good working order and free of defects. Therefore, I am entitled to a full refund of my purchase price, (in the case of the first system - new parts in replacement of the defective parts. I purchased a new computer; I’m entitled to a new computer, period! If you purchased a brand new car and the engine didn’t work after one month, would you accept a rebuilt or refurbished engine? Never!) In addition, because the second computer did not contain all the purchased software nor did DELL honor their contract (re: the purchased 15 month subscription) I never received the original product I purchased. Therefore, I am entitled to a full refund of my purchase price,

As to the 21 day refund policy; my position is that the 21 day period doesn’t apply since
The computer was defective from the start (The “I never received my purchase argument”) and the only reason I didn’t return the computer prior to the 21st day was because I accommodated DELL in honoring their request to fix the problem. In addition, the first indicator of a problem arose prior to the 21st day but the error message stated that if this was the first time the problem arose I should restart the computer. Just because the computer was inoperable after the 21st day does not belie the fact that the computer was fatally defective when shipped and the hidden defects did not begin to manifest itself in full immediately.

The bottom line is, during the entire time I had the computer (into the third month now) I am unable to use it and virtually every minute of use was spent concurrently on the phone with technicians.

A reputable company never would have been allowed this to get to this point.

Anonymous said...

Dude you're getting screwed even if you are a business! Their policy regarding bad cooling fans is "first shutdown your server, open the case and diagnose which of the three fans is not working correctly, then set up an appointment for a dell tech to come out and replace the part" if you don't figure out which fan is not working correctly, they can't do anything! Is that pathetic or what?

Anonymous said...

I order colored ink cartridges from Dell 2 months ago. I received them in about a week. I didnt'opent the box until I was ready to use them about a month later. The item number on the cartridges did not match what I ordered. I tried them and they lined up incorrectly. Notches were on the opposite side. Phoned Dell approximately on wait and phone for 1 and 1/2 hrs. Tried to say this was the correct cartridge the book shows so. Finally they agreed to send me 2 more. Assured me they would be the correct ones. I ask they ship next day. No problem. I received them a week later. Exact same problem. Phoned them again on hold and tried to give me a tech again which before was a 45 minute wait. I told them no way they can't help me the notches don't line up. Again she tried to say they were the correct cartridges the book shows they should fit. I stated I need ink would I call and be tied up on the phone for all this time if I had the correct cartridge to fit my printer. Assured me they would ship me out two more right away and personally see the notches were in the correct place. This was two weeks ago. I still do not have any ink. Can't purchase anywhere else must come from Dell and they don't deliver until they fill like it. I was called a week later by customer service to see if I was pleased with my phone conversation on the last call I had made again asking to please send me the correct cartridge. I tried to say no its a week later and I still have not received ink. He was very nasty and said he only called about the conversation. That next day did not mean they ship the next day. It only meant once the delivery service had the item they would deliver next day. Last week I received a message on my phone from some other delivery service I never heard of saying they needed a delivery address. Dell only gave them a PO box and they could not deliver to that. I called them and was told they would have to get in touch with dell they could not deliver until they had their approval. I still have no ink. I have been without ink for two months and dell does not care. I was told by the last customer service agent that called regarding the phone conversation that dell was sending out those cartridges at no cost. I tried to explain I had paid for two and still did not have any ink to fit. THis was a mistake on them. I had 6 months of AOL with the purchase of my computer. AFter that conversation with the last agent. I have no access to my AOL. I had several days left on my account. Buy their printer and you can't get ink. WE have missed out on lots of special pictures of events in my daughters last weeks of school activities. My computer is useless without this ink.

Anonymous said...

Dell! Don't get me started...well, since I have already...I got the ultimate revenge. After owning 3 Dells and the poor quality they engendered, I decided to quit the PC world and check out Apple products. For a novice computer person like myself, it has been a wonderful transition and I will never go back!

Anonymous said...

Did anybody expect computer "Made in Texas" to actually work? A computer is not a cow nor is it a galon of oil. It requires technology and engineering. Buy IBM or any Japanese or German brand; it's like with the cars. I forgot to mention I'm working for Dell as software technician (not in US of course) and most of the people I work with are Microsoft certified, therefor they are not really technicians.
For those who buy server operating systems from Microsoft... Do you expect them to work? The internet is based on unix, that's why we still have it! Get Windows for your wife and kids not for your business. Unfortunately, in order to keep my job, I have to stay anonymous.

Anonymous said...

We were a new small business in 2003 and chose to purchase a Dell computer and all-in-one printer system in 2004. It is now mid-2005 and the equipment and customer service has been the worst that I have ever experienced in any industry. I have had problems with the billings from Dell Financial and spend a minimum of 1 to 1 1/2 hours each time I have to call for any type of problems, experiencing numerous transfers from one person to another and most of the customer service reps can not speak clear English. Dealing with Dell has been the most frustrating part of our new business start-up. I'm very disappointed in them. We will never purchase from Dell again.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell computer for my son's birthday this past February. EVERY month since then we have been talking to Dell on the phone 16-18 hours each month to get problems figured out. One message read" Failure occurred during installation"( which was by Dell) I have contacted Dell who told me to contact Microsoft who told me to contact Dell who installed it who told me to contact Norton because the "original" problem was a program NOT running correctly. It had nothing to do with the security. I now am the "proud" owner of a Dell computer that is nothing more than a glorified typewriter! Thanks Dell for your piece of #@%(*&^$%# and the Tech support that never fixes anything because they don't speak English!

Anonymous said...

Customer service stinks! I've been dealing with these guys for 6 months...haven't been able to use my computer for 6 months. The extended warranties aren't worth the paper they are written upon!
I will never buy another Dell. My son bought a computer through Circuit City when he went off to college. He got the 4 year extended warranty. The computer has had several problems. He made a phone call to the 1-800 number and boom... take your computer back to the store and they will give you a new one. A second problem...called the number and they told him to send his computer in. No questions asked. The problem was fixed. Maybe Dell executives should take a lesson from Circuit City when it comes to customer service!

Anonymous said...

Totally completely and throughly disqusted at this point, I cannot understand why I cannot get this total nightmare resolved. The credit for my computer that Dell got back on April 12 2005. I was to get a 2000.00 credit. Let me tell you the quick version of the story:

Bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 - long story short...modem jack was mis- formed at the company when produced. Would not connect, but would detect modem. The onsite tech came to fix it, saw the problem quickly and also decided the touch pad was jumpy. Ordered one. Went to put it in, stood up, pushed on the laptop (using all his weight) CRUNCH broke the mother board components. Unit was about 3 months old!!!!! Top of the line at the time. Sent into Depot. They didn't fix it. The laptop came back all the screws fell out on my living room floor as I took it out of the box!! Me = ANGRY. After 3 months of Nightmare. They replaced it with an 8500 ( no longer had the 8200 that I WANTED!! Although promised new, got a refurbished junk one that was crap, threw a fit (and I do mean fit) and then got a new 8500 Inspiron which I never wanted, but what was I supposed to do? )

8500 received. Working great although I hated the screen, got used to the crappy (really crappy) keyboard after a while. Then...it began Overheating...the feet melted off twice, battery won't hold a charge.. speakers crackling etc...they say to send into Depot (NOOOOOO!!!) They say they can't fix it properly on site. I baulk,(remembering last Depot fiasco) I try to get them to do onsite instead (after all I paid for that) In the end, I lose the argument and reluctantly see the techs side... I send it in (after crying profusely, (NO JOKE) and Dell has it about 4 days...yeah!!!! Dell is fast......WRONG!!! I am never that lucky... Depot did NOT fix it. (who would of thunk it?) Only replaced the touchpad. (hey couldn't we do that onsite??) and as a big bonus, they put a nice big Divet(dent) in my laptop lid. ( I begin to cry...again) But it's Not a problem, onsite tech can replace that. (They lovingly LIE to me..) They order the parts and have onisite tech come out to address the over heating problem and speaker problem that was never fixed at Depot. but...alas...Dell sent the wrong parts. Another appointment. Wrong parts again. This time while trying to remove the bezel, onsite tech slips with a screw driver and punctures the LCD screen.(Son of a B****** I cannot BELIEVE THIS)....speed ahead to tech's 4th trip to the house ...wrong bottom part. No fan vent holes ..AT ALL..still don't have the new LCD screen...he suggests could ship to Depot (are you kidding me?) He notices this no vent hole thing and says the unit will overheat you know without vent holes...Are you friggin...kidding me??? oh yeah isn't that part of original problem?

After literally hundreds of phone calls, emails..on hold wait time (Oh YES, HOURS!) and I finally get Corporate? to call. Dell finally takes ownership. (??..maybe) Dell agrees to give me a refurbished unit. NO way you guys broke it!!! (and I still wake up screaming from my last ordeal) Dell won't refund the full price but after more desperation and arguing, I give up and agree to take a credit of 2000.00 for the unit and STUPIDLY agree to buy another Dell laptop. I also agree to buy another one too! (the heat and giddiness of being offered a quick solution and the fact I have now been without a unit for so long coupled with the hours on hold time with Dell have apparently warped my brain!!) Dell tells me that 5 to 7 days after they get my Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop (the one with all brand new parts now and NO VENT HOLES in the case, with the crackling speakers and overheating problem and the fact it won't run at all unless it is plugged in) ...they will issue a refund in the amount of 2000.00 to the original point of sale...(my mastercard) although it is not the full refund, I am basically over a barrel. I can continue to piece back my unit and wait for it to burn up seeing it has no vent holes...or decide to take the credit, in an effort to end the NIGHTMARE (my second nightmare mind you) I box up the unit, in it's entirety, and send to Dell per my instructions. Dell gets it back on April 12 2005 signed for by J. MUSE. Tracking numbers engraved by now in Dells data bases... Although Dell has that in their records, and have now assigned me about 12 different customer numbers and reference numbers and CRA numbers. I have no credit!!! and they can't seem to get me one. They are totally lost and I am totally angry.

All sarcasm aside, I agreed to give Dell another chance and yet I get screwed (Royally) at each time. I am unhappy, disatisfied, all this is so stressful, I can't take much more. I don't like what has happened. I don't think it is fair. I think it is crappy the way that this has been handled. I really just want to sell the two new laptops on Ebay and be done with Dell Forever. I want to start an I hate Dell web site to vent. I have this 2200 Dell laptop that is really awful. It is slow and sluggish and the keyboard is not all that. The 600 m although somewhat like the 8500 is just not the same and I am just totally unhappy all the way around now.

I AM DISATISFIED TOTALLY.

PS Dont even get me started about the rebate....
and Dell now says my address and phone number doesn't match some of the numbers so they keep hanging up on me....aghhhhhhhhhhhh can they hear us scream in space?

Anonymous said...

Dell customer service stinks!!!!
They sent the wrong drive with my laptop and they say, " I am very sorry about your problem." "I understand that you are disapointed." and on and on and on, but they will not correct the problem and send the correct drive. I have spoken with many people in many departments with the same lack of results.

Crackpot Press said...

HEy we just posted our Dell Nightmare at www.crackpotpress.com

Come check it out, it's long and I didn't want to durden this blog!

Dave

Anonymous said...

I just created a Geocities site with my wonderful Dell experience. If the Federal Trade Commission gets enough complaints about Dell's bussiness practice they might actually do something about it.

www.geocities.com/dell_topics/index.html

Anonymous said...

I also purchased a computer/DJ/Photo printer all at once in June, the computer was Inspiron 6000,Intel Pentium M Processor 730 (1.60GHz/2MB EA 2,036.55 2,036.55
Cache/533MHz FSB) . I bought top of the line and I received all of it on June 10th. The screen turned yellow and white (defective. I spent two days trying to contact customer service /technical support to find out why I had this problem. I talked to a customer service rep from some foreign country who would not give me thier real name, but I did get an identity number. They said that I had a software problem and that I did not have the warranty for the software therefore I would need to purchase it as well. My response? What for, I will just return the laptop! Their response, unless a technical rep has typed on their computer that it is a screen problem the customer has to pay for shipping. I responded by saying that I had contacted 3 different technical people, spent at least 10 hours on the phone and gave the names of the reps I talked to. She said sorry, they did not type anything in the file. I was furious and said fine, I will send everything back, which I did on my dime 4 days later. A loss to Dell of $3,000. I called the VP of sales left a message and the sales rep who sold it to me and left him a message as well. No one has bothered to return my calls. I wonder if this happened to Mr. Dell how he would like it? With all that money he has, I wonder how he likes being held on the phone for 10 hours talking to customer service reps and not getting any service? Last time I buy a Dell!!!!

Anonymous said...

I like my new DELL, but the tower does not have a parallel port. So I tried to get on their technical chat line.... can't do THAT, since I'm not a "home" user. No kidding, what the hell am I? So, I call on an 800#, and I asked, "I want to connect my HP 2000C jetprinter to my new Dimension 9100. What do you suggest for installing a parallel card?" The answer was not English. That took 20 minutes. Thanks alot.

Anonymous said...

Against my wishes, and after doing alot of research, my husband purchased a Dell Computer. What a nightmare this is!! Dell sold him all kinds of warranties but failed to mention the software is not covered. Of course the problem is with software and Dell will not do anything about it.I called Dell and told them I was sending the computer back. They told me it was 22 days since I received the computer I would have to pay shipping and a 15% fee for some other bogus claim. After reading some of the posts here,I realized just about everything said here has happened. This is a disgrace and something should be done about Dell.I thought Hewlet Packard was bad but Dell is far worse. If anyone is considering a Dell, I strongly advise against it.

Anonymous said...

DELL is a piece of shit. I bought a computer from them in Sept 2004 and it had to be sent back to the company for repairs in 90 days. Now, on 7/22/2005 it has had to be sent back to the shop again. I am an online college student and this is costing me grade points. what a piece of shit. I am going with Sony the next time this piece of shit breaks down and send DEll their computer back and stop making payments on it and they can put it on my credit report I do not care.

Anonymous said...

I,m sorry I didn't read about Dell and it's service before I got involved with this scam outfit. I purchased a desk top with pentium four processor and free printer. They give me a 60 day same as cash option, which I thought would be OK and this would give me time to get the 100.00 rebate before I paid for it. recieved desk top with monitor and key pad. no printer.. the pentium 4 turned out to be celoron including the decal on the out side. now after few hours on the phone I still havn't begun to get this mess straightened out.. I did put the amount on my personal credit card after they called a week after the order trying to get my SS # . Hey Dude this company should not be in business.

Anonymous said...

I have had some very good Dell
experiences, and some bad ones.
But lately, I am finding the
Dell technical support, and
even sales is manned by customer
service representatives that follow some script. If you ask them any question outside the script, they literally say things like, "Is there anything else I can help you with?", totally ignoring the question you asked. One can more surmise that the question is ignored because it was not part of the FAQ from which these robots (and they talk like robots) follow.

This is just getting increasingly bizarre. There is simply no comparison between working with some offshore customer service bot and a USA employee. The cultural differences are, I guess, so large, that they can create huge inefficies in communcation. And I have suffered from this now multiple times at Dell, and I am gettnig really sick of it.

So Dell lowers its costs by employing peoplebots, but it really is just a transfer of costs to the buyer. Is this worth it? Well,
that depends on how much you value your time. But I am certainly not happy with this situation.

Does Dell build great compueters? Yes. Is their service degrading into a DELL HELL nightmare? Yes.

This really needs fixing by the CEO.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell a little more than a year ago. It had Mcafee which I uninstalled and added Norton Internet Security. The machine screwed up so bad that I just shut it off and went back to my trusty 4 year old HP. After 7 months I decided to get the Dell running. I bought Wipedrive and cleaned the hard drive, but when I tried to load the XP Pro provided by dell,I find out that the product key is invalid. I just cant seem to get the people in India to understand my problem. I'm thinking of filing a piracy case with Microsoft.

Anonymous said...

Claim customers refunded over Dell blunder
By Jesse Hogan
August 15, 2005 - 4:30PM


Dell Australia is secretly cancelling the transactions of customers who successfully ordered and paid for incorrectly discounted hard drives, an affected customer claimed today.

But the company denies the claim, saying it would not refund the money without the customer's agreement.

Last week, Dell's website inadvertently advertised 250Gb hard drives for $A8.80 - almost $A600 less than their usual price.

News of the blunder quickly spread on Australian internet forums, with hundreds of customers attempting to order the hard drives. One claimed to have ordered 50.

By Tuesday, Dell had removed the hard drive from sale. Spokesman Paul McKeon said the $A8.80 price was a "clerical error", and affected customers could either have their money refunded in full or pay the difference.

Many customers refused the offer when contacted by Dell, believing the debiting of their credit cards constituted a contract. This was backed up by the NSW Office of Fair Trading, which said Dell had a legal obligation to provide the hard drives at the agreed price ($A8.80).
AdvertisementAdvertisement

Customer 'JK', who made two orders for five hard drives, was contacted by Dell last Wednesday regarding his transactions, which were paid by credit card.

He refused Dell's offer of a refund or paying full price and was told he would be contacted this week regarding the transaction, but today discovered that one of his two $44 hard drive orders had already been refunded, without his agreement.

"As far as I was aware they were just looking into it. To me, that would generally mean that the company would consult me first, as opposed to making an answer for me," he said.

'JK' provided a screenshot of his internet banking account that showed that Dell had refunded the money.

But McKeon said Dell was not refunding affected customers against their wishes.

"We wouldn't be charging the correct price ($A592) or refunding without an authorisation from the customer," he said.

"If there's a customer that feels they've received that discount incorrectly they should get back in touch with us."

McKeon also disputed the view that customers whose credit cards had been debited by Dell are entitled to receive the hard drives at the incorrect price.

"That's a view that you've had from Fair Trading (NSW) based on their understanding of the situation, but they're not necessarily across this full situation."

When asked if the company would challenge any claims made by customers to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal regarding the hard drives, he said: "That's a hypothetical thing that we'll look at when we come to it."

Anonymous said...

I received as a gift last fall, a 20GB Dell Digital Jukebox (DJ) along with a bunch of accessories and the 2 year Accidental Damage Coverage.
The thing worked great and I didn't have problem with it at all until the DJ fell while I had the ear buds in my ears. The DJ landed somehow on the headphone jack which is located at the top of the device. Subsequently the the headphone jack was pushed into the DJ and the sound would cut out while I was trying to listen to music. The jack popped back into place, which happened quite by accident. The sound continued to cut, not cool. I figure - design flaw?, any of these units should be designed to withstand a couple of drops (mine fell from a distance of no more than three feet and as the headphones were firmly lodged in my ears, it didn't land very hard at all) especially when they are so small (the size of a deck of playing cards) and made mostly of smooth metal. This happened earlier this year, and I kept meaning to call about the problem and finally I did.
I called the 800 number provided and was directed to India,(I've been down this road before with my notebook) I got directed to the wonderful tech support who speak technical english with only the slightest hint of an Indian accent(must I mention the inherint sarcasm), while having all american names, probably to put our troubled minds at ease. I described my problem and was told that there is no way to fix this problem and I will be shipped a replacement, followed by "can I put on hold while I take care of this?" why not by this point I had been on hold 4 times and had actually gotten used to the crappy classical music breaking up in the backround as my phone call was bounced off what I can only assume was an ungoddly number of satellites. After about 4 minutes the tech handling my case came back and said "you're all set"(I'm paraphrasing here) your replacement should be to you in two days...whaaaaa? I didn't expect such expedient service, ahhh the catch! As it turns out I get a "refurbished unit" which I was assured has met all the stringent testing prodcedures or it would not be sent to me. (Sweet deal for them they send out some used piece of crap that they fixed up to replace my unit which was purchased new and probably retailed for around $300 USD and I have to send mine back, I can only assume for them to fix and send out to someone else...I don't think so!) I was told that DELL'S Policy is that within 21 days yes days they are authorized to ship a New unit, after that you Refurbished. After hanging up the phone I started realizing how uncool this situation was, so I sent a reply to the email that was sent sent to me with all the "thank you for contacting Dell... and ...we were glad to be able to assist you with you problem" generic boiler plate mumbo gumbo. In my email I explained why I thought I should get a New unit, and got a voicemail 2 days later saying that "it is not possible to send you a New unit, you will receive a Refurbished one, and do not worry there will be nothing wrong with it, they are isspected and tested before they are shipped out" To make something perfectly clear, at no point was I concerned with the potential longevity of a Refurbished unit, I simply don't want a replacement that is used when what I have was purchased New at full retail value. I sent another email asking to speak with a manager, I got another voicemail the next morning, I was out doing errands. Then DHL stopped by and left a padded envelope between the storm door and my front door. Wow it was my refurbished DELL DJ! I got back on the horn with Dell tech support and started jumping through hoops again, just to be able to talk to a human being. At one point I had to enter my express service code, the automated female voice that kept interruppting the crappy classical music said I was call about some DELL Axim PDA and kept trying to give me advice on how to remedy any number of problems with it, as they were experiencing a heavy call volume. Must be a mistake I thought whist muttering some unique expletives. So I hung up and called back, nope Axim PDA again, I wondered if they had reassigned my service code already? When I finally was able to speak with a person after about 20 minutes I told him that I had gotten the refurbished unit and I didn't find the replacement satisfactory, he rambled off the 21 day thing and told me I could talk to his supervisor, "but he will tell you the same thing I just told you" that's fine let me talk to him...yup same speech, "I can email you the policy" terrific because it didn't come with the DELL DJ I originally got and the replacement policy on the packing slip that came with the Refurbished one only says "Replacement parts may be new or reconditioned" nothing about 21 days anywhere. Then he transferred me back to the other guy, who I asked to note that I would be sending the Refurbished unit back and would be taking my dissatisfaction to someone else. "Do you know anyone else whom I can talk to?" I asked "Honestly no, I'm sorry I can't help you further". So I thanked him for his "help" and hung up. The email I got, has no link in it just some vague reference to clicking hardware support warranties somewhere....well I'm off to call Customer Support and write some letters to the top Brass who won't actually read them. Actually dealing with DELL is a lot different than those stupid commercials lead one to believe, what ever happened to truth in advertising?

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell Dimension 8400 about 2 months ago with the understanding of getting $260 back in rebates. Initially, the sales person (Noah Webster) sent me a confirmation e-mail of the order which only listed a $60 rebate, but no others. After I e-mailed him with my concern, he wrote me back stating, "Before pacing the order I did verify that my helpdesk had indeed added the $200 Mail-In-Rebate, they assured me they had. If for some reason you have difficulty in receiving that rebate, let me know and I will ask my manager to get that tended to." I was told by the rebate department that there was no rebates for my purchase besides the $60. Well, after countless e-mails and messages to Noah Webster and Dell Customer Care Online, I received no response. Every department kept pointing the finger. I was eventually offered from customer care a $100 credit towards the purchase of additional Dell merchandise with a comment, "If I were you I would take it"....no thanks for the favors! FINALLY, after a ridiculous amount of e-mails and voice mail messages left, I was immediately offered my refund check in the amount of $200 ONLY AFTER I sent an e-mail stating that I would make Corporate DELL aware of the situation and include the names of all the people involved who were useless in my simple request for what I deserved, nothing more. I was also given a $90 coupon. Apparently, if you have the tolerance, persistence pays off. I guess I was lucky to have that e-mail from the salesperson....that was probably my only back-up...although it never seemed like it until the very end. Dell - never again!

Anonymous said...

they make excuses NOT to help as much as they can.i also would have NEVER paid for tech help if i would have known that everytime i called i'd get a person that could barely speak english.DELL is a rip off and i should have stayed with TOSHIBA!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Idiotic Dell delivery policies.

My experience has been that Dell's service is consistently bad. I won't go into the farce I witnessed when I last purchased a computer from them but I wish now that I had stuck with my resolution never to deal with them again. This time I will.

Dell told me when I ordered my computer that Purolator would attempt a delivery at my home and if I was not there they would arrange a time to deliver. In fact, Purolator will not commit to a time- they deliver as and when it suits them between 8 and 5. In order to pick up from them you need id with the address that matches your home address. Well, guess what, my id has my WORK address on it. That means that I cannot be sure that I will be home when they deliver and can't pick it up from them! So in order to solve the delivery time problem and the inability to pickup problem Purolator advised me to change the delivery address with Dell to my work address. Do you think Dell will do that, even when their own sales rep has not cared to tell you to ensure that you use an address that matches your id and has misled you to believe that a specific delivery time can be set? You guessed right. NO! Dell will not change a delivery address, ostensibly because they cannot verify your id over the phone. Well that is pretty strange, considering that they will accept your MONEY over the phone. All that the dell service rep could suggest (and this she did without a hint of shame or irony) was that I go out and get the address on my id changed. "And just make sure you do that within the 5 days you have within which to collect your computer before Purolator sends it back to us". What idiotic and apalling service. Dell hell.

Anonymous said...

OMG!! I wish I never bought a computer from Dell. I have had nothing but problems with the service! First, when you call they have that stupid voice activated menu that dosen't recognize what you say half the time. It takes forever to get to a person and then they ask you all the same stuff all over again! On top of that, if you tell it to give you a hardware person you get a software person or visa versa. When I told the service person about how horrible it was they laughed and said that they get a lot of complaints about it. I was told when I ordered my laptop that certain software was included. When I got it, the software was a trial version. When I called to ask about it I got blown off and they told me they only include trial versions. Right on my order it says its included and nothing about being a trial version. That issue never got taken care of. Now I have a software issue. I get someone who dosen't speak fluid english and has a very heavy accent. It was like talking to a wall. I was told they don't support it there but they gave me a history lesson on how they bought another company that does. However, they gave me about 5 numbers to call and said I might have to pay for it. This is all covered under my waranty. I wasted another half hour trying to get thorugh to that guy. I have unresolved issus, whenever I call you can't get anyone to listen to you. Nobody understands english well. When I asked to speak to a manager the one guy asked do I want a software tech or hardware tech. I said I wanted a manager. He then asked if my problem was related to windows. Are they friggen robots?? I originally bought the laptop based soley on the reputation of their service. I am so sorry I bought from them. I have friends who have similar problems. How can a company who is so big and come so far treat people like this?

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop in June of 2004.
This morning, 8/30/05 or 14 months later, the motherboard went rendering my computer useless.
Since my computer is 2 months off warranty, I am left with buying a $675.00 part + installation.
(A motherboard should last 3-5 years, at least!)
The Dell customer service person suggested that I buy a new laptop and had the nerve to say that Dell is having some great deals on them now.
I will never, ever buy another Dell product.

Anonymous said...

Bought our first Dell for my daughter a month before she was to leave for college. The computer never even booted up. Must have never been tested from the assembly plant.

Four weeks of work with them and it still wouldn't boot up. My daughter ended up having to box it up the day before she was to leave for school and take it to UPS. Now we are fighting over the credit.

I believe Dell has more than service issues, they clearly have some quality control issues. I will stick with Compaq for home and business.


Fort Myers, Florida
August 29, 2005

Anonymous said...

If you have even few nerve cells in your brain, YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY ANY DELL COMPUTER OR ANYTHING FROM DELL. Dell's customer service and business policy are the hallmark of SHAMELESS STEALING FROM CONSUMERS. I bought a Dell computer ($3200.00) which is in my basement gathering dust now (the motherboard is defective and Dell never replaced it inspite of hundreds of calls). On the top of that, now a days I can not even get hold of their C/S NO MATTER HOW LONG I TRY. I GUESS THEY IDENTIFIED MY PHONE NUMBER AND SOMEHOW MANAGE TO ROUTE TO THE ANSWER PHONE AND OBVIOUSLY MY CALLS ARE NEVER RETURNED. DEAR CONSUMERS, LET US DESTROY DELL.
Otis, TN.

Anonymous said...

I just (shipped 8/6/05) purchased a new Dell Inspiron 9300 and was absolutely astonished to discover that it has no internal microphone, rendering it unsuitable for light or moderate voice use. (Heavy use warrants a headset, but which notebook user wants to carry a headset all the time and then unwrap and connect it every time there's an incoming voice call?) What's worse: I was out of the country immediately after the computer arrived and so didn't notice this problem until after I returned. Fortunately, I was able to notify Dell of this problem within 30 days--unfortunately for me, the return period had been changed to 21 days (as readers here knew, but I didn't). So now I may be stuck, though I may sue over this issue given that Dell did not inform me (or apparently any other of its former customers) that it had stripped out such a basic capability as a microphone. (It does still come with a keyboard, though, I was pleasantly surprised to discover.)

If you think Dell defrauded you when you unwittingly bought a new notebook from them without a microphone, submit a problem report at http://www.girardgibbs.com/reportproblem.asp

Anonymous said...

Dell has a new scam, before it was the rebate, now it is get your money out of them when you return items that they ship incorrectly. In June my Inspiron 8500 crashed and I needed a new hard drive. I spoke to one of their new computer sales team members and explained what I needed. He consulted with their tech dept and told me the part number and completed my order. When I received the part it was wrong!!! I called them only to be told even though it was their problem I had to pay for a second hard drive and ship the other one back and upon receipt they would credit it back to my credit card. 3 months later I have a crdit memo from Dell fom Hell but no money. I have spoken to India repeadtely,becuase thats where you finish up when you have a problem, they have even had Bank of America on the line with me to confirm the money has not been repaid to my credit card. They will investigate!!! Still no money. I tried disputing the charge with BOA total protection slogan, but because Dell has passed a credit that cannot do anything about it. I cannot believe they can get away with this and all the other stuff I am reading about. Surely there is some class action, or expose that can be done on The O'Reilly factor. They seem to have become a law unto themselves.

Anonymous said...

Incident
my computer was crashing once a day. I called tech support and the help I received made the problem worse. They asked me to reformat the hard drive. The guy in India did not have a clue what he was doing. He just read from a script. Since he could not think logically his support destroyed my computer. The operating system would not reload. All my data was destroyed. The tech agent had me open up my computer, remove the video card, unplug and re-plug a battery, all to no avail. I have never had another computer company ask me to service the computer myself. I spent 5 hours on the phone. I missed work that day. The computer is completely inoperable now. I received an email from someone with no name telling me I would receive a phone call from a technician. A person called and said they were ordering the part. It has been one month now. I could have customized and received a brand new computer in this time. I don\'t know what to do. There are no human beings I can speak with who can help.

Anonymous said...

Have bought approximately 75 Dell desktop and laptops over the last 4 years. Have never had a problem that wasn't resolved within 24 hours of my contacting them. Sometimes getting throught their phone system and getting the right person can be a pain, but once you talk to the right person, I have never had any issues. Their web site is very confusing, but they have always taken care of every need for service without any hassles. Out of the 75 or so systems I have had hardware issues with about 5 or 6 of them - ranging from fans that stopped working to a replaced motherboard on a laptop. Overall Dell is one of the best compaines I have dealt with as far as customer service goes. Sorry to hear all the problems everyone else has had, but when you are the #1 computer retailer in volume, I'm sure there are going to be a small percentage of people who are just not happy with their experience.

Anonymous said...

3 weeks ago, I bought an Inspiron 6000. I started having problems with erratic cursor movement and had called the tech support. After spending numerous hours with the Indian Tech Support, I was asked to do a "PC Restore" to solve the problem. The Tech support does not have any idea who can handle this problem. I was put to ten different technicians from ten different departments before somebody could walk me through how to fix the issue.

Today, I made a call to upgrade memory from 1GB to 2GB on the same computer that I bought 22 days ago. This computer has two memory slots of 512MB each. To upgrade to 2GB memory, the sales rep said that I should buy two 1GB memory sticks and throw the existing ones. I came to know that the company policy is 21 days from the date of sale to return any purchases. I called one day later and they are not willing to exchange the memory.

Also, during one of the calls to the tech support, when I was put on hold for few minutes, one of the automated messages said that I could participate in a customer survey conducted by JD Power Associates regarding the customer service. So, I asked the technician to connect me to JD Power Survey line. This rep from India did not know what JD Power was. He put me on hold for few minutes and got back to me saying that there was no survey line - He asked me go to Dell website and search for it.

I have been a repeat customer of Dell. But, from the experience I had with the Customer care, I won't buy another one.

Anonymous said...

On 9/22 - Unfortunately, my new laptop, that I have been in love with for about two weeks, has stopped working properly. It's a minor hardware problem. A connection between the LCD screen and the bottom. At first it was just a flicker, but then they told me how to fix it, and now it won't work at all. It does work with an external monitor.
They offered to repair it, by sending a call tag. However, they only use DHL. DHL does not come here. The people many miles away in India do not understand this. They just say, oh yes, they will pick it up from you. But I know. I know that DHL in Billings, about 350 miles away will receive this parcel and they will put it in the postal system, where it may or may not arrive ever.
So the people in India told me I should send it to a friend in a city where DHL provides service. This was their answer. They would not even let me send it to them at my own expense.
Then they got mad. They transfered me to nowhere. They put me on hold forever. They promised me calls back that never came. They told me the person they were transferring me to could help me, but the person i was transferred to, said no, you need to start all over.
How can a company that provides support like this be so successful!?
I should have bought a sony. I really like the Vaio.
I strongly recommend the Dell Chat system over the phone. Sometimes the indian accents are so thick you can't understand them. And they can't understand you. I am SO offended by the fact that Dell's TV commercials show all those nice clean cut american kids, ready to give you support. The reality is that those are ACTORS. I don't believe that Dell employs any americans. I sure havent spoken to any today. Currently I'm online with someone named Swapan Jain. He (or is it she) sincerely regrets my inconvenience. But has no idea how my head hurts from dealing with this all day.
on 9/27 Still no word from India or anywhere else on the shipping of my new computer. I signed back into chat today and was told by the gender-less typer on the other side of my computer screen that my exchange would be expedited. They told me that this meant I should receive it within three days. I somehow doubt that this will actually happen.
today:I held off contacting them for a few days because I saw a new order in my account. I thought the new order was my new computer, but when it never showed a tracking number I dug a little deeper and saw that they had simply shipped my $35 concession cupon.
So, now it's been going on since September 21. That was the first time I contacted them. On September 22 They told me:
"Your reference number for this exchange is 62989092. This is a number for internal reference and cannot be traced at the Dell web site. An order number should be generated within the next 48 to 72 hours, which will ship via next day shipping."

On the 27th they told me:
"As now, I will go ahead and place a request to the concerned department in order to expedite the exchange. So, I assure you that you will receive it with in estimated 3 days."

On the 29th they told me:
" I will send a mail to the concerned department to expedite it as soon as possible."

Today they told me:
"I see you escalated the issue while you were in chat session with Swapan Jain on 09-29-05 . In standard cases it takes a minimum of 10 days to ship an exchange request. But we are giving due to importance to your case since you deserve it. We will try to ship it as soon as possible."
and
" You are our esteemed customer."
and
"By bringing this to our attention, you provide us with crucial data in our ever vigilant efforts to raise the standards of individuals upon whom we rely to give excellent service to our customers. Your feedback has and will continue to be considered in our ongoing endeavors to improve services."
and (particularly offensive)
" About the worst experience that you had, I can understand, had I been in your case, I would have felt the same."
and finally, which I simply do not believe:
"Just now it got the approval from the Head of the concerned department, please allow it 2 days time. I appreciate your patience."
I got him to agree that if i did not receive the computer by next Monday, I could return it for a full refund:
{ 12:08:05 PM} If I don't receive it by Monday the 10th, can I return my brokencomputer for a full refund?
{Sanjeet 12:09:20 PM} Sure Pati.
{Sanjeet 12:10:18 PM} I fully agree that it was our error so please do not worry about the refund.
{Sanjeet 12:10:43 PM} Though we are doing our best so that there should not be that kind of scene.
{Sanjeet 12:11:09 PM} But have faith on me, I am following with your issue.
I'm feeling so much better that there will not be a scene and he's following with my issue.
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I'm sure that come next monday I will begin fighting to return it.
Pati Taylor
pati_taylor@yahoo.com
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mtpati/

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

what's the matter admin - can't stomach any posts that aren't anti-Dell?

Anonymous said...

I delete postings that use foul language.

Anonymous said...

Inspiron 5150/5160 Problems
After three weeks of trying to deal with Dell and get them to honor my warrantee, I found a link where all kinds of folks have the same problem as me,a laptop which will not power up. Check it out- if this isn't a sign that something is rotten at Dell....there is strength in numbers, people!

http://www.aqstech.com/5150pj.html

Anonymous said...

And then collection.....

It seems whatever you do they persist in trying to make you pay the total amount. I no longer have a defective-from the start-computer (returned after 7 months due to slow dancin' by Dell) and they still want payments due to the depreciation! NOT LIKELY. But how can it be legal for a company to call 20 times a day on a service I own and pay for? They need a written request to stop contacting you--do this immediately--we'll see if it works.

Anonymous said...

I bought a Dell lap top in 1999 (remember... Y2K fever was abroad in the land?) I bought their best support package. I was taking no chances.

I had a few problems but there was always a rep available to come take care of me. true, at the end of the lease, there were indeed problems getting it clear to the Finance department that I HAD PAID IT OFF!! That took MANY iterations. But tech support was pretty mish what I needed when I needed it.

Then, I finally decided the time was right to upgrade from that machine... to another Dell Inspiron. That was December 2004. Not a year ago. Last week my new (basically now part of my body) baby froze at the "welcome screen." I duly called to get my top of the line tech support... only to find myself talking to someone in the Philippines who spoke at 78 rpm and was unable or unwilling to even give me a straight answer on what level of support I had paid for. All on a line with audio distortion so bad I could not make sense of what he was babbling.. It was utterly surreal.

I am glad I bought the machine from a reseller I have faith in. He’s in Montana—quite a few states over from me—but I know my precious main machine is in good hands. But Dell should be VERY ashamed of themselves.

Incase they care—I will NOT buy another Dell. Not unless they remember who the company is about—NOT shareholders… C USTOMERS!!!

Anonymous said...

My brand new Inspiron 6000 Notebook does not seem to be compatible with my MP3 player. Everytime I try to online for their customer service chat service, it either throws me off line before I even get a customer service rep, or throws me off line in the midst of a chat. I've only been able to successfully chat with an online rep once and they weren't able to solve my problem. The second rep seemed totally clueless, even though she had the history of my previous call and then I got thrown off line by their messed up system.

On top of that, the system won't allow me to register my McAfee virus software so it's not fully functional. I am totally upset that I am having so many problems with such a new and expensive computer.

If Dell would only put a fraction of the money it spends on its marketing efforts into its customer service efforts, they may actually be able to save their company. I mean for God's sakes, at least hire customer service reps who understand English! How much common sense does that take? The word is finally getting out there that their systems really aren't all that great. I for one am very disappointed. The system just seems unnecessarily difficult to function. This will be my last Dell product.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9100 the summer before i started college. about half way through the year my headphone jack stoped working. spent many hours on the phone with dell before i got it sent in to be repaired. after this two months later i started getting memory errors. about a month after my warenty ran out the computer crashed. Arugued with the 3rd world retards for awhile and had to have the computer sent to dells out of service warenty. my computer just came back, it turns on now but the graphics card wont work and one of the cooling fans is shot.
DONT BUY DELL EVER SH**** PRODUCTS AND SERVICE.

Anonymous said...

A lot of the problems when comes to computers not working correctly, is the idiots behind them. They think they know what there doing, but in all reality they are the problem. All computer companies have software and hardware issues, you after all you’re dealing with electronics here. When you’re talking about millions upon millions of computers made, some of them are bound not to work. It doesn’t matter what brand. Some brands more than others have more problems (ie eMachine) There will ALWAYS be that guy who happens to get the bad reps and the bad parts. Well, sucks to be you guy. Its like that with every service and every company. You CANT make everyone happy. I worked in IT and doing tech support for years and have I found most problems stem the dense people on the computer. And for God sake, get technical support, hardware AND software warrantees with your system! It’s like having full coverage on your car. If you just have liability and get in an accident, do you really expect your insurance company to fix YOUR car? NO, and yes for some of you brilliant people out there. In the real world, they wont. It’s the same thing with you’re your computer. Especially you people who buy computers for your business. “Oh my computers down, I’m losing so much money.” ONE: Why don’t you have a backup? TWO: Why are you FULLY covered on that equipment? That is, if you were an intelligent business owner you would be. What’s that you say? You shouldn’t have to? It should work right in the first place? In a perfect world, YES! Here in the real world, every company has defective products. Take the steps to protect yourself. One more note, this is America, your bound to get screwed over by some company, probably more than once. Hopefully you’ve realized that by now. Hint: Make sure you’re FULLY covered on everything electronic you buy. When your not, that’s how they screw you! LEGALLY screw you. Research what you buy. Its really is an investment. You’re not going to buy a new Mercedes and not get insurance? Well hopefully not, but you’ll learn your lesson. It looks like a lot of people already have.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a $2723 Inspiron 8100 laptop.

Dell's service and, in my case, equipment is deplorable and the company is not worth having you or me as a customer. The laptop was a lemon from the start – this and continued problems are extensively on record. When the 8100 was about a month old, a Dell rep issued a Credit Return Authorization (#024266661) to me, and agreed to give me at least a couple of weeks to return the 8100 so that I could save my irreplaceable data. But when I called Dell back to make final arrangements to have it shipped, another individual at Dell cancelled my Return Authorization and refused the return! Now despite more than 57 documented contacts I have made with Dell personnel by phone (each call lasting 1 to 2 hours) - most of which I have detailed records, Dell would not replace the crippled system which consistently kept overheating and crashing. Finally, after about 18 calls in November and December 2004, a Dell rep and her supervisor agreed to replace it with a refurbished Inspiron 8600, with specific features as per the phone conversation, but with no warranty! In addition, when the "bare bones" Inspiron 8600 (with a price inflated by Dell to be over $1741.78 on its invoice when a NEW identical one was selling for about $1300 on Dell's web site at the time!) came, it was missing about five key features I had been promised and had paid for in the original system. An individual from Dell's Executive Support Staff finally responded to me by phone at the request of an editor of one of the computer magazines I subscribe to, who I had emailed. The rep refused to exchange the 8600 for the better-equipped laptop I was promised and said that she would put a 90 day warranty on the refurbished 8600. However, the refurbished 8600 failed (first the CD burner, then the display) two days after I took it out the box. When I called Customer Support and Technical Service, I found that the 90 day warranty does not, and never did exist! After months of trying to get a response from the high level rep, she finally called me back, and then had a senior technician call me. He had me run diagnostics as we talked by phone, and confirmed that the 8600 was not repairable except by shipping it back. Since this would still leave me with a system deficient of the promised features, at the advice of the technician, I called the high level rep again, but she will not budge on the issue. Now neither she nor he return my calls to have the non-working 8600 returned or repaired.

Furthermore, the BBB case which was opened on 4-20-05, closed on 8-30-05 because the BBB could not persuade Dell to rectify the situation. Also, the Dell spokeswoman fashioned a bogus story in her letter to the BBB, alleging that the reason for my dissatisfaction with the 8100 was that I was “enrolled in Computer Aided Design classes” and found the 8100 to be inadequate; this is totally untrue and I have NEVER taken CAD classes and wasn't running CAD software! Among other untruths, she stated that I waited for 2 1/2 years to call Dell complaining about the 8100; as my detailed records show, I called Dell technicians starting only days after my purchase and on a consistent basis for almost a full year. After a year of complaining, I curtailed the contacts with Dell because of the frustration level with the company.

At the advice of the Clark Howard’s staff, I mailed certified letters and complaints to the Chairman of Dell, to the President and CEO of Dell, to the Federal Trade Commission, to the Better Business Bureau, etc., all to no avail. (Also, still no one has contacted me yet from Dell at least a month after I talked again to Clark Howard’s staff who were to have another Dell contact person phone me.) I will still be sending the same information to the Texas Attorney General's office and the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. They both encourage me to forward my complaints and transcripts or recordings of the phone conversations to them.

Lawyers I contacted will not take the case, because of such things as distance, low profits, or need of a specialization in consumer law.

I returned the 8100 and now have a useless, non-working 8600. The personnel at Dell whose personal extensions I have chosen to not return calls. I do not know if Dell will ever do what is right, but I advise all potential customers to beware of Dell if you want to be spared a nightmare.

View the current class action lawsuit against Dell at http://www.lerachlaw.com/lcsr-cgi-bin/mil?templ=featured/dell.html.

View Jeff Jarvis' blog of his experiences with Dell at http://www.buzzmachine.com/?tag=dell.

For other examples of poor service, start with a link such as http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=commfb&page=2.

Dell is moving some of the most negative threads off the main page, but they can still be found such as these two: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=cc_general&message.id=71690#M71690 and http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=cc_general&message.id=72637.

Anonymous said...

I purchased my Dell laptop Inspiron 600 April 05 and have had nothing but problems every since. my first model had to be replaced, the replacement model so far has had to have a wireless card replaced and the LCD panel replaced. now it keeps freezing and i have had technical support fix it and it works for a few days and happens again. Boy my daughter was right when she said "Ma get a Mac" Waiting on the phone is bad enough, but when i want to get customer care to compansate me i was give the technical support number twice by two different technicians and eventually when i did get customer care i was told by the lady that customer care can do nothing i need technical support (they who tell me that i should call customer care) today i asked for a supervisor, was put on hold for 1 1/2 house (what would we do without speaker phone) and finally was disconnected!!! to say i'm furious is an understatement!!!no wonder Dell's stock is going down. what next? how can this company get away with it?

Anonymous said...

The Potential Technical Disaster of a Dell PC against a name Brand

Many of us have been sucked in to seemingly cheap prices and quick delivery and been comforted by a Big Ticket Label. Think Again.

While your Dell PC IS working properly I will tell you what is in store for our IF you have a Hardware or Software problem.

Software: I have been a Senior IT Professional for over 30 years. It became necessary to reload the operating system after letting a semi technical house mate use my PC for over 2 weeks. I had Data backups – so the prospect of loading the O/S did not daunt me.

I loaded Dells Version of Win XP. I then prepared to connect to the internet and perform a Windows Update to pick up not only security updates, but software and Hardware updates that are published to Microsoft by all reputable brand name PC’s.

My first surprise is that the NIC is NOT recognized by Win XP SP2 and I became suspicious.

I called Dell Technical Support and after explaining my problem someone from Dell called my back the next day!

I was advised that the System did come with a separate disk with critical drivers which must be loaded in specific order to connect to the internet.

First the chipset driver, USB, Keyboard, the NIC, Video, Graphics and finally the Audio driver were loaded from CD and I was ready to connect to the net.

The problem with this methodology is that the user only ever posses the oldest version of these Hardware dependant drivers and by NOT acting like a Brand PC they never will inherit new Hardware drivers and Dell does not publish their drivers to Microsoft.

For those in a corporate environment don’t get smart and load all the drivers on a server, as not even your NIC will function after am O/S install.

There is a fundamental design error for the mothboard not to function correctly in respect to its chipset AND USB fundamentals which, the later is normally covered by the O/S.

And Put in its worst scenario over the lack of the NIC not being recognized on O/S install – how are you going to get updated driver or any at all if you loose the Dell CD – as you can be sure to never be able to update them from Dell or be able to obtain a replacement.

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I currently reside in Nashville, TN and have attempted to get a job at Dell both in there "fulfillment" department, aka shipping and receiving and there computer build departments. Most of there staffing is done through a staffing agency, when I went to the "interview," I was one (1) of 8 English speaking citizens that were trying for a job. After numerous attempts to follow up on the job could never get a hold of anyone. Second attempt was through Dell directly. Out of the 45 people in my "session" 30 did not or spoke very little English. 40 of the 45 people did not even know how to fill out there applications. I am not one to brag but I graduated top 10 of my high school with high marks in computer tech., computer aided drafting and in networking. Unfortunately have not attended college for either. Besides the point if that is the kind of staff that Dell wishes to hire into a multi million dollar company than expect nothing but shameful results.

Anonymous said...

I bought two dell computers with the promise from the sales person that if we had any problems related to software and hardware, and purchased the service agreement, that a technician would be sent immediately to fix. Well, guess what happened. We had a problem. Contacted Dell and now are told that our contract doesn't cover the problem and that we will have to purchase a new service contract to fix the problem. We spoke with 8 different people from, what they call, the service department and the tech department. We've been hung up on twice and not called back. And here's the really bad part, we weren't even rude or nasty about. No foul language, no raised voice, just a request to do what they said they would. We were about to purchase two more computers as gifts for family. NEVER AGAIN. h.

Anonymous said...

My Dell Comp is two years old January and been great... But, I've had issues to take up with Dell, and that's as hopeless as trying to get Pres. Bush on the phone. They don't seem to have any employees that speak clear enough English to understand what they are saying. I think we just have to learn to accept the reality that there is no longer any business courtesy or appreciation for the customer in any technology field

Anonymous said...

DELL CUSTOMER DIS-SERVICE WORSE THAN CELL PHONE COMPANY
We bought a 2nd Xeon processor upgrade at $350; wait over a month and then got the wrong parts with half the kit missing. Dell refused to take back the order because we need to return all the parts (THE MISSING ONES).

Anonymous said...

I purchased my computer about 18 months ago and I have had nothing but problems with this Dell computer I really want a refund of my money back !!! I wont buy another computer from no one else....

Anonymous said...

For the past several weeks I have been attempting to get Dell to fix the problem with the broken computer that they sold to my company, a small non-profit organization that provides residential and support services for developmentally disabled individuals. Dell has been loathe to help me in any way and consistently has asked for money to assist me. With tech support on the phone we determined through numerous tests that the memory was in fact bad. I had been repeatedly told by the Dell employees that it must be my fault and was all but accused of being stupid. This computer had never been hooked up to the internet and had no new programs installed on it, yet the Dell customer help line would not believe this. Finally after repeated tests that confirmed over and over again that it was in fact Dell who had shipped a substandard and unusable product to me, the gentleman on the other end of the phone with Dell, told me to get out a screwdriver and remove a panel on the underside of my laptop, and then try to reseat some of the chips to see if I could perform the necessary repairs on my brand new computer myself! I was flabbergasted at the thought of this. I am not a computer tech. I work in an office without the necessary tools to fix my brand new computer, and I of course should not even be asked to! I told the gentleman that I had read nothing in the warranty that said I should be performing computer maintenance on my own computer. He became very angry upon hearing this. He told me that I should be able to do it, that it was not a very difficult piece of computer maintenance. I told him again that I was not a tech, that I did not have the tools, that I worked in an office, and that I had read nothing in the warranty that required me to perform tests on either the hardware or perform maintenance on the hardware myself. He became angrier and told me that he would talk to his manager. After being on hold for quite some time, the gentleman returned and said very abruptly that his manager had told him that I should call back when I get a screwdriver so that he can talk me through the repairs! He then tried to hang up on me! I caught him before he managed to complete the “Thank you for choosing Dell”, and told him that I would like to talk to his manager. He would not let me, and instead put me on hold again. He returned then, some time later, and told me that he would send a box out to me for me to mail the faulty computer back to Dell for Dell to repair. He told me that the box would be there in one to two days. I thanked him.
I waited for over a week, and the Dell box had not arrived yet. I called Dell again on November 30th 2005, and again I spent a long time on hold waiting to speak with someone as to why I had not received what I had been promised by Dell…again. Eventually I got to speak with someone. They told me that the box had been sent but that I would have to call the shipping company to check the tracking number myself to see what was going on with the box. I was given a phone number by one of Dell’s representatives (I will not mention here), that I repeated back to her and she confirmed that this was the number to call to find out about my box. I called the number. I will just preface this next bomb, by stating that by this time I had spent probably ten hours or more on the phone with Dell trying to get them to take responsibility for their end of the agreement, and to actually get me a computer that works. So, the phone number that I was given in order for me to find out why Dell couldn’t get a box to me so that I could ship back the substandard, faulty laptop that Dell tried to pawn off on me, WAS A SEX LINE NUMBER! I was very, very upset by this. How could Dell be so completely incompetent on all levels of their operation?
I called back on the same day to try to resolve the issue. I spoke with two individuals who did not want to address the problems, and finally I spoke with a manager who apologized and told me that the number I was given, was given in error. Well…I already knew it was not the right number…big revelation there! So, he gave me another number and apologized. That’s it. That’s how Dell fixed this problem. Pretty pathetic. Unfortunately Dell’s incompetence did not end there.
I called the number and they told me that the reason that the box had not been sent, was because Dell had never bothered to ship the box. Dell had paid so little attention to fixing their mistakes that they didn’t even take the time to ship me the box they had promised! I went to the webpage of the shipping service, and indeed the box had not been sent. I saved this webpage as evidence of Dell’s ongoing incompetence and complete disregard for their customers…below is a key excerpt.
Current Status
No status available. Please contact us.



So, what am I supposed to do now? Countless hours wasted on Dell. Dell does not care and offers substandard equipment that they will not admit any liability for. Dell will not act in a timely manner to correct their own mistakes. I have no computer. I have wasted many hours needlessly. Nobody I know will ever buy a Dell. Was it worth it for Dell to do this? If you could only imagine the amount of suffering and outrage that I have gone through, just in an attempt to get what I ordered.


Daniel F. McNulty
df_mcnulty@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Dell and Service are mutually Exclusive. Dell service is absolutely pathetic. I purchased through a Fortune 100 corporate account for employees and opted for the 24x7 at home service. Eight months later my PC died. Called support. Three days later tech showed up five hours late with a likewise dead new motherboard. Three days later tech showed up again with another dead replacement part. Four days later tech scheduled, but never showed. Consider I opted for the "premium" 24x7 on-site support option. Guess what though, nothing occurred during the weekend! As a matter of fact I raised this issue with 3 separate techs and all said.. "well you have a point, we just don't do much on the weekends. We will not even ship replacement parts except during mon-fri. Anyway... Two days later tech showed up two hours late with another dead part and then left. Next day I called Dell and was told replacement system was ordered but would take 10-15 days to "build." Ten days later "new" system shows up at my house for me to install only it is DOA! Unbelievable! Looked inside, realized it was a "refurbished" system--a derelict with dust bunnies and bent CPU cooling vanes and a fan that sounded like a worn out diesel! Unbelieveable! Dell: "Sorry about that." We'll ship you another after we "build it" in 10-15 days! 3 weeks later while I was out of town for thanksgiving another refurb was dropped at my front door.. alone. It apparently spent turkey day plus 3 days all alone exposed on the front porch. Who's brain child was that? The box was "weathered" from the experience. I unpacked and inspected the "refurb". I laughed hysterically from the sad shape this one was in. Once again the insides was absolutely coated in dust and BIG dust bunnies abounded. The CPU cooling fan had nasty brown dust ENCRUSTING every single fan blade in their entirety! Who in the world inpsected that piece of crapola before sending it to me? I took pictures for evidence. To top it all off this one it didn't work as well. DOA! So let's recap I've been waiting 2 months and 2 weeks for this!?? My only option was to attempt a transplant of parts to try to piece together a working unit. I was able to succeed but I discovred that the refurb was significantly different from the one I ordered: different video card, slower CPU, different s/w and older versions of s/w loaded on replacement HD. Where .. where is that 24x7 on-site support with premium responsiveness? What an absolute joke! It really is quite insulting. By the way, I did get an email from Dell the other day telling me they considered the matter closed! Michael Dell should be ashamed of himself and his sad excuse for customer support.

Anonymous said...

Steer well clear of precision 470. High spec but array disables before your eyes and looks like hard disk failure. It is not hard disk failure and Dell do not know how to fix it. Hard Disks are 250GB but all falls apart with 100 GB of normal data (i.e. Office and Mp3 files).

Anonymous said...

Bought a Dell Dimension 4700 for Christmas of 2004. Since I got it I have had to replace the hard drive once and have had three LCD monitors fail. The last one lasted three weeks. It was refurbished. It came with a slip of paper that said “Quick Test” under which was checked “No Fault Found”. I don’t think they looked very hard.

Anonymous said...

I purchased an Inspiron 1000 notebook in February of this year and I'm already having problems. My power cord shorted out. Dell sent me a new one and I'm still having trouble with it. The cord doesn't fit tightly in the computer so it's always jumping from battery to ac power. My battery dies within 30 minutes. I chatted with web support this morning and the tech argued with me about the cord being the right one for the computer. He kept telling me it's the right cord so it must be my motherboard although I kept telling him the cord doesn't fit tightly and I have to hold it in place a lot of times to charge the battery. I kept saying it was defective. I was on with him for 30 minutes before I got him to just send the new cord.

Anonymous said...

Dell Hell

Last January, I purchased a Dell 4700 PC package that was more than I needed for my home office. But it had everything I wanted., including a 4-year at-home hardware maintenace contract. I was delighted with it. Then in October, the PC started to crash, sometimes freezing, other times with the dreaded blue-screen error messages. Rebooting would usually work. . . for a short while, and then another crash. I called Dell service, and got one of their outsourced technicians. He had me remove and reinsert various cards and drives. I’m no IT tech, and had some trouble reinserting the memory cards, one of them under a stiff cable asssembly. The technician decided that I needed a new motherboard.

The following Tuesday, a local QualServ technician came to my house and, without any prior diagnostics, replaced the motherboard. This didn’t solve the problem He then tested the memory cards, and found one to be faulty. (I had probably failed to reinsert one of the memory cards firmly.) He came back the next day and inserted a new memory card. After he left, the PC worked for a few hours, and then started crashing again.

I got on the phone with another Dell tech, and went through more diagnostics, mostly on the software. He said he needed to loook something up, and would call back. I never heard from him again. The next day, I tried again. This time more diagnostics, and the tech said that the problem was in the software, not the hardware. He had me go through a recovery process, but all that did was lose my settings and applications. (I had saved my files.) So I called my favorite IT service technician, who said that I needed to reinstall Windows. He took my tower with him, but brought it back the next day. He said that the boot DVD R/W drive was defective. I got another Dell technician on the phone, and he was able to confirm that the drive was bad. The same local QualServ guy came out and put in a new DVD R/W drive. Still some crashes.

I gave the tower and disks to my IT guy to reinstall Windows. He reported that he had problems until he tested the memory. On of the two 256-MB cards was defective. He reinstalled Windows using only the good 256 MB, and now the system works fine. So last night I called DEC service, and told them that I needed a new memory card. He wanted me to remove the cover from the tower and start testing things again. I refused to do this again . . . my technician had already done this, and he is very competent. We reached a standstill, so he called in his supervisor. Still no help unless I did the requested hardware diagnostic procedures.

I ended the telephone tech session. At this point, I decided that my 4-year service agreement is worse than useless. Without it, I would have had my technician do the diagnosis and replacement of the memory cards and the DVD drive. It would not have cost me more than the $240 I have already paid him, and would have saved me two months of aggravation.

Incidentally, this is my seventh PC. At work, I had a Heathkit, then a DEC Rainbow, then an HP. At home, I had an Amstrad, then a Gateway, then a Micron Millennia. I never had a serious problem until I bought a Dell. Never again!
imk@case.edu

Anonymous said...

I have refused to accept my computer when it arrived at my door. It is now 2 months later and I have yet to receive a credit from them. I have called several times and am receiving a different answer every time. I have decided to go with Mac and it is the best decision I have made.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a computer in July 2005....it is now the largest and most expensive paper weight I have ever bought. It will not come close to booting up. I hear 4 or 5 alarms when I power it on and then absolutely nothing else happens.

Dealing with Dell Tech Support is the worst experience I have ever had. Try to get an English speaking customer service rep.

They all have the same script they are reading from. It doesn't matter to them at all that I have purchased 3 computers from them in the past nor does it matter that I've recommended them to countless friends.

Well, that will NEVER happen again.

Anonymous said...

Dell mailing list removal, December 2005:

Once a few years ago I thought I might be interested to receive Dell's computer catalog at home. Recently, I found I didn't want it cluttering my mailbox, especially when it followed me to a new address. I've never placed an order, and only once requested a catalog. Easy, you should think, just telephone and ask to be removed from the catalog mailing list. Hmmpf! First problem is that there is no remotely suitable choice on the telephone menu for the phone number listed on the catalog.

Right, well, then let's try selecting one of the menu choices. After a long wait, one talks to someone who doesn't seem to be able to handle that sort of request. I've tried the "buying a computer" people, been transferred to other people, and even been promised that it was done. Not so.

I filled out the web page that says it will remove me from their mailing list, a good six months or more ago. I truly hope it does, as I am beginning to view each catalog as a sign of their incompetent to handle a very very simple request.

If a company cannot cope with a mailing list, how could they possibly manage billing and orders!

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell Lattitude D410 from the business department. 6 months later the battery stops working and a few months after that the CDRW/DVD drive is messed up. I have spent almost 2 months trying to get them to send me a new battery. I bought the Plus Warranty Service so I assumed it would be easy but they said the battery was on the way and then a month later it wasn't. So I emailed again and they said it was on the way again, and then 2 weeks later still nothing. So I emailed again (twice accidentally). The funny part is the first one emailed me back saying it was on the way and the other one said oh I'm sorry but we don't have that battery in stock where you are (I'm on an extended trip in France)
So I have caught them lying to me already.
And now they will not send the battery to me in France.
But I have to spend my money to send them the messed up battery within 7 to 10 days of my new battery arriving at my US address or I WILL BE CHARGED.
So I have to pay extra to send the messed up battery with expedited shipping to them and to have the new one shipped to me in France.

I really doubt I will ever buy anything from Dell ever again!

Anonymous said...

I bought a brand new Insiron 600m for my daughter that I have fully set up. I can't get a network card in the PCMCIA slot to be recognized on startup. I have to always unseat and reseat it to have Windows recognize it. This should be a fairly simple issue for either Dell or Netgear to address. 3 days of long queues, disconnected chat sesssions, phone calls with people in India that can't even read their scripts and I give up. I will NEVER buy another product from this mess again. By the way, Netgear is almost as bad.

Not a real big issue compared to most I know, but the frustrarion of dealing with these clowns isn't worth it.

Anonymous said...

Spoke to someone in India- poor English. Obtained quote and was charged more. Promised refund-received after several months and numerous e-mails. Promised compensation - still waiting after some 20 e-mails.Rec that nobody buys from them-EVER!
Dell is as bad as Dixons in the High Street - don't buy from them either!

Anonymous said...

I sent a laptop in on 12/19/05 for repair. Found out on 1/3 that it had been sent to the wrong place for repair (they provided the box and shipping label) Called 1,2,&3 days later only to find out that they lost the laptop. They have offered a replacement but states it will be 8-12 days to process. I talk to someone different every time I call and they claim that they have no way to transfer me to the same person as the day before. What? I cannot tell you how frustrated I am. I never wanted to order this on line to begin with but my son insisted, and now I have to deal with this stellar customer service that isn't even located in the US. I hope Michael Dell reads these. I have never been more stressed about anything in my life.

Anonymous said...

I recently spent a few hours going around in sales trying to get a simple Fan for a DELL XPS that is 1 month over a year old.

I was told (Get ready for this) that they don't carry those processor fans anymore and that they won't be able to provide a CPU fan for the machine until 2010.

Yes, you read it right, 2010 - Is this some kind of joke? I have a machine here repairing for a family friend, everything is running good but the machine is now useless without proper cooling. I can't believe that DELL doesn't have replacement CPU fans for machines they put together. I am ready to contact the Elliot Spitzer.

Anonymous said...

I wish I read this website before I bought my Dell! I have just spent two days and twelve hours arguing with the techs from India. My new computer system has a "software clitch". I can paid Dell an extra $99.00 and they will solve it. Oh sure. This clitch came with my system from the factory, but I have to pay to have it removed. Make any sense to you?

I can't get my rebate, because (and get this!) Dell's computers are down and have been down for a week!

I can't get promised items either, so what do I think about Dell? Full of empty promises.

Want to hear something that is funny now, not then? Want to know how knowledgeable the techs in India are? I had a problem with my monitor's power cord. But, a replacement for the cord can't be sent without speaking to a tech in India first to authorize it. My power cord will not stay in the monitor, it keeps falling out because there is an obstruction in the plug itself. The tech's response when I described this to him was, "So, what is the problem?"
I tell him, "I have no power to my monitor when it falls out." But, being the polite person I am, I am thinking to myself, this guy is not too bright.
His response again is, "So what is the problem?" Get this, I now find out I am talking to a LEVEL II technician, not just the lowly entry level tech.
I tell him I want the cord to stay in and provide electricity to the monitor so that I may see what is on the screen. (I am still trying to be polite and I am only thinking....Duhhhhh, dumb and dumber!)
His answer, "Well, I do not understand the problem. Let me explain about the power cord to you. It has a flat side and a rounded side. There are also three prongs that you have to line up. Did you know that?"
I told him I was educated and did completely understand how a power cord works. (I am getting angrier by the minute now.)
His response, "So,...tell me, what's the problem?"
A half an hour of explaining that monitors need electricity to run and hearing him ask me "So, what's the problem?" just about drove me bananas. Hate Dell, wish I bought ANYTHING else!

Heed all warnings you hear about Dell. They are right! I wish I had heard a warning first.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a DELL Computer a year ago. And I've been through it all.
Bad tech support, can't speak english, ask for another one to speak to, calls dropped. Have been on phone for hours trying to get help. Purchased a warranty, it has never been honored, and then I was advised that my warrantly had run out. This is a company that has totally duped the public with their million dollar ads, all false. I am truly interested in starting a class action suit against DELL. I need to have a corporate lawyer that would know about this type of action. I feel that there are so many people being taken for thousands of dollars and this is a crime. Contact me if you are interested in starting a class action suit against DELL. Anne, ashforkheaven@peoplepc.com

Anonymous said...

I got my dell in Oct.2005 but I have never rec.a statement on a payment thay called an my wife sent 2 payments but still have not rec.a statement in the meantime the dell is not working right an i called dell for tech. help an was told to call microsoft an they will only talk to you after you pay so will not make no more payments on dell that has warrenty that SUCKS where does dell import there help from

Anonymous said...

I bought a laptop online on 12/18/05. Dell ran a Weekend Special:FREE 2-Day Shipping & Handling. I was charged $79, immediately went into chatroom to ask about and got Sharimi, who typed we never offer free shipping. I printed the flyer, just check your web site! Next thing I know, he leaves the room!
So I email customer service. Bert calls me back 4 days later, same story "we never give free shipping," "I'll fax you the flyer" he gives me a bogus fax number. So I call and get a new fax number. Sent flyer, never hear from Bert again. I have proof of false advertising! Will attempt one more call to customer service and then Better Business Bureau next. Good Luck to all of you!
D. Huth
dgizzycat@aol.com

Anonymous said...

Dell Hell and then some!
Bought a 670 workstation from them in Nov 2005 and it still
is inoperable. All hardware problems. 7
screen dumps, endless
Alerts and warnings, hours and hours on the
phone, at least 50 emails back and forth, two tech visits,
and it still doesn't work. Dell refuses to
replace it or take it back.

Anonymous said...

My son bought me an E510 Dell with a printer for Christmas. When I started hooking up the printer I couldn't find the USB cable. I spent a long time looking through boxes and anyplace that it might be. After much looking I realized that they had failed to ship me one. So I called Dell customer service to let them know. They told me that it didn't come with a USB cable, but that I could order one from their sales department. A long argument ensued, but to no avail. I couldn't imagine them not sending everything I needed to make the printer operate. But even so, if they had told us when the system was ordered that it wouldn't have a USB cable and that it would have to be ordered separately, I wouldn't complain. This tells me these people are trying to cut corners and squeeze every dime out of the consumer. I'm wondering now about the overall quality of their product.

Anonymous said...

To the griper above: your gripe about printers not coming with the necessary cables is industry-wide, this is not just a Dell issue.
That said, they should warn customers that there is no cable, especially since they make a profit by selling you one.

Anonymous said...

Dell support is racing with microsoft to become the world's worst possible support company. Can't find telephone numbers online. And when I do get a tel# hoooks me up with Indian people who don't have technical ability and especially can't speak English. Last time I called, waited 2 hours (yes, 2hours !) for someone to come on, no one did; they hung up. Called back waited 20minutes, no one came on. Called Gateway, who after some mumbling about f..ng Dell (those are my words!) got me my technical answer about the Dell piece of sh..t. The reason Gateway helped me was the client I was assisting has both brands. After I informed him of this, he cancelled an order he'd put in with Dell for 3 new PC's and placed them with Gateway. The other loser company is Symantec; used to be be great, now TRULY SUCK for support, reliability, confidence in product (numerous virus attacks in spite of up to date on both Windows & Norton). We need a RALPH NADER for computers, NOW !!!

Anonymous said...

1-31-06 BBB Complaint about Dell:
CUSTOMER#6879450119033680574 I bought a laptop computer from this company in December as a Christmas gift for a friend visiting from England. I spoke to an American salesman and never again spoke to anyone American. Everything is outsourced to India, and after waiting for literally hours in my attempts to remedy this problem I received monotone (read) un-understandable answers saying that "I do not have the authority to do anything about this complaint." The computer arrived with the WRONG hard drive. I called and reached someone in India who sent a replacement "REFURBISHED 100gig hard drive. We had already sent the new 80gig hard drive back that came in the computer originally, so we refused this refurbished hard drive as I had been charged for a NEW computer. I was never again able to reach anyone who would do anything about the problem, and my friend was desperate to remedy this problem so he could do work while here in this country. We had to go to Office Depot and spend $100+ for the proper equipment for him to use his OLD hard drive externally on a new laptop computer. This is totally unacceptable and I tried to send the computer back without success and without any cooperation from Dell. My friend has now returned to England and I've had extensive spinal surgery at this time. The first bill or contact I received from Dell was for more than originally agreed, did not give me credit for the hard drives I sent back to them (I verified the #s of the returns by phone with them in December) Also, the very first month I was assessed a $35 late fee when I only bought the computer in December. This is the absolute WORST company I have ever had dealings with in my life, and their foreign-based business practices are absolutely unacceptable. Now they're threatening me after 30 days to turn me over to the credit bureau when I have ZERO complaints against me. I am FURIOUS!
ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Account Number: 6879450119 Order Number:

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell 9100 with about everything they could put on it. Bought their very best warrranty including in home service through 2008. The sales rep told me I could get warranty help 24/7 for anything to do with my computer, software or hardware. I found out that was not the case. NO SOFTWARE HELP UNLESS THEY CHARGE YOU FOR IT NOW!!! DELL SALES REPS ARE LIKE USED CAR SALES PEOPLE---TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR TO MAKE A SALE!! The help you are most likely to need is software, not hardware. The service support is why I bought Dell!

Anonymous said...

i bought the inspiron 6400 but unable to get any assistance at all from dell regarding wireless connections.
and unable to contact any service department.
never never buy a dell commputor

Anonymous said...

I puchased a PC from Dell over the phone from an ad in San Diego News, August 8, 2005, because a tremendous offer:Dimension 3000 for $699.95, with $200 rebate. I took the monthly pay option with no finance chg. 'til Jan 2007. The clerk assured me she would take care of the $200 rebate.
In monthly billings it didn't show, and I spent hours over the last year asking why. I was passed back and forth between customer service and Dell Financial, all saying the rebate didn't show..but send a copy of ad to one of them, I did, but never heard from this Indian guy again. On suggestion of one clerk, I got a rebate form and sent it to a different company. they eventually answered, said rebate was in the works, but next email said I didn't qualify. Many phone calls finally got me (from corporate) a $100 credit). I'm unhappy about having to fight for what was part of my purchase agreement. I no longer have the ad, but doubt I would matter now with the credit. this was my 2nd DELL. and I will think twice about buying a third.

Anonymous said...

My complaint is against their customer service. I purchased a Dell when moving into my newly built home. After that, I began to get catalogs addressed to someone else! Since I am the 1st occupant of this home, I knew the person the catalog was addressed to wasn't a previous resident and I was offended that they couldn't even bother getting the right name on the catalog after I'd made a purchase from them worth several hundred dollars. I contacted Dell to tell them just this. Their solution? Now I am receiving two catalogs - one addressed to me and another to the mystery person. I have called several times, because it was ticking me off that their customer service is so poor but nothing has changed. The last catalog I got, I mailed back to them with a handwritten note to remove that person from their mailing list as had been requested multiple times. Guess what? I just got a catalog today - still addressed to someone who is not me!!! How hard is it to remove someone from a mailing list?

Anonymous said...

Bought a Dell Inspiron 5150 in August 2004 for my daughter who was starting university. With all the extras, it was close to $4000. The motherboard crashed in April during her exams. Dell finally sent her a new one during the summer and she had to install it herself with help from someone on the telephone. Dell help never called back when they said they would and it took weeks to get the situation straightened out. The one-year warranty was up in September and by December the screen was dead. Dell's response was send it back to us and we can fix it for $800. The computer was only 15 months old! Dell Canada never once replied to my e-mails or letters. I had to buy my daughter another laptop for her to start university in January--NEVER again will it be a Dell. False adverstising about quality products and how they have satisfied customers! The only ones who might be slightly satisfied are the ones in the United States who won their class action suit. I am disgusted with how Dell Canada has dealt with its Inspiron 5150 customers. They knew the product was flawed, yet they refuse to help us. Shame on them--they deserve all the bad publicity they are getting.

Anonymous said...

Dell customer service is a joke, a really bad joke. If getting a real computer issue solved is anything like trying to get yourself removed from their marketing mail list don't dare buy anything from them. The only thing you will get from them is an infuriating conversation with someone in India or the Philippines and hour on hold. BTW, I am a Texan. I would like to do business with a Texas company. I would rather buy from North Korea than do business with Dell.

Anonymous said...

My Dell computer, equipped with HP and blah, is a mess. It's crashed twice in the last week. And although the interesting colors and patterns that come along with the crash are mildly entertaining, the act of constantly System Restoring gets kind of old. Over the last six months, I'd say that my computer has crashed 6 times, and I've lost quite a lot of extremely important information each time it has done so. I called and purchased some kind of PC Tuneup in which a technician supposedly accessed my computer from headquarters and "fixed" it ... and it crashed the next day. $100 down the drain, and no refunds.

I honestly think that each Dell comes equipped with a little piece of Satan installed.

Unknown said...

I am the I.T. Director for a medium business and have purchased well over 150 machines and 10 servers myself since I started here. Dell service has been getting worse and worse and so has their product. Lately I have been purchasing some laptops from ebay with transferrable warrantys because I like the model. But the most recent support I have been getting is driving me crazy. Below is a chat sessions still in progress taking well over an hour. It is the third time contacting Dell about this issue, I gave up on the phone route. I know many of you who read this feel my pain.

Part 1:
4:23:22 PM Nathan
Still Waiting for dispatch #'s and a call from dispatch Service Ticket #'s 81691215 & 817129413
4:23:36 PM Nathan
Third time contacting about the first one.
4:24:27 PM Sandip_188835
I apologise for the inconvienice caused Nathan, please give me 2 minutes to check the previous case details.
4:28:47 PM Sandip_188835
The dispatch service was created to replace the motherboard and the hard drive of the system, correct ?
4:29:10 PM Nathan
Never got dispatch #'s, said I would get them later never did
4:29:27 PM Nathan
First time promised over the phone second was duriing a chat
4:29:42 PM Nathan
So much for quick business response times
4:30:32 PM Sandip_188835
Just checking the exact reason of the delay.
4:36:32 PM Sandip_188835
Thank you for your patience.
4:36:39 PM Nathan
k
4:37:37 PM Sandip_188835
Nathan, unfortunately the dispatch could not be completed and got cancelled as the technician was not able to reach you.
4:38:07 PM Sandip_188835
Let me quickly create a new service dispatch so that you will get a call from the technician in the next 1-2 business days.
4:38:42 PM Sandip_188835
A technician will give you a call and fix an appointment with you to come and replace the parts.
4:39:01 PM Nathan
O.K. Please give me the 2 dispatch #'s
4:40:07 PM Sandip_188835
Nathan, I see that the numbers you provided me are not the dispatch numbers. They are the service request or the case numbers.
4:40:34 PM Nathan
Right, I need the dispatch #'s. That is what I have been trying to get.
4:40:52 PM Sandip_188835
The service request or case number for this issue is 816912153.
4:41:01 PM Sandip_188835
Let me quickly create the dispatch number for you.
4:41:16 PM Nathan
I have two case numbers listed above I need two dispatch numbers
4:42:47 PM Sandip_188835
It would be a lot of inconvienience for you if we create two dispatches as you would have to wait for the technician at two different times.
4:43:25 PM Nathan
As long as he has the parts for both laptops one dispatch would be fine.
4:43:27 PM Sandip_188835
For multiple parts replacement only one dispatch is created so that the technician goes to the customers place to replace all the parts at once.
4:43:41 PM Sandip_188835
May I please know the service tag of the other laptop ?
4:43:49 PM Nathan
I was told I need two dispatches for two laptops