Saturday, February 04, 2006

More Dell Gripes

Have you had problems with Dell? If so, tell the world about it here. Two rules: no cursing and no phone numbers of Dell employees.

You can do so anonymously, however if you ask a question an email address is necessary to get any responses. This is a continuation of Dell gripes. The first set of comments got to be huuuuge.

93 comments:

Anonymous said...

About 90 days after I bought my Inspiron the disk drive simply stopped working - wasn't recognised: no CD play, no burning.

So do I face warranty dispute hell or do I just go pay for repairs?

90 DAYS! The company make things to break. Dell makes them to break down.

Anonymous said...

I sure wish that I had found your blog before ordering a high end home computer: Dell XPS 600. Although I spend almost $4,000 on this computer, it turned out to be a pice of junk. The BIOS froze time-after-time. The few times that BIOS did not freeze and loaded windows, my wireless high speed Internet connection would work about 1 to 2 minutes before it froze. When I tried to end the forzen process, instead of ending it, it created additional copies of the same process. The next time that I tried to re-boot, the BIOS would freeze.

Dealing with Dell tehnical support is a nightmare--just beyond belief in the sense that you have to experience it to really comprehend just how bad it is. There are four grevious problems with Dell technical support. First, the support preson in India, Pakistan, etc. speaks very poor English and you mostly don't understand his English. Second, he has a hard time understanding your American English. Third, they use an unreliable telephone network that keep dropping my calls. Even the Dell tech support person admitted that Dell had not resolved long-standing problems with their telpehone system. Fourth, when you explain the same thing in the same way, you get a different answer every time.

Don't buy Dell computers. JUNK HARDWARE from a JUNK VENDOR with JUNK SERVICE.

Anonymous said...

For what its worth, I ordered a Dell computer in late January. I received the box about a week after I placed my order. The computer I ordered was a Dimension e310 with some upgrades.

I hooked everything up and up to this point everything works great! However, they did forget to give me my flat panel speaker for my monitor.

I called dell suport and was on hold for about 8 minutes. I did talk to somebody in India. her english was ok. I told her that the speaker was not with my order and that I wanted the xp cd for my system.

She advised me she would send the speaker out right away. about 2 hours after the call, I recieved a Email from dell advising me that they were investigating the order. The next day I recieved another Email and a phone call advising me they had sent the order out. Speaker and 3 CD's for my system. 5 days later I recieved my speaker and Cd's. The following day I got a phone call from Dell confirming if I recieved my package.

I thought the service was great. It appears to me that Dell is trying to improve matters. If my Box breaks in a few months I will let everyone know.

Anonymous said...

I tried several times to purchase a Dell gift card for my brother for Christmas by calling their 1-800 number. After being disconnected and put on hold for an eternity, I logged on to the their website to purchase the gift card.

What a mistake.

I was able to purchase a $400 Dell Gift Card and had to pay additional shipping costs because they would not guaranty delivery by Christmas - even though it was 2 weeks prior.

Upon recieving the $400 gift card - I noticed it was in my name. Which seemed strange considering the card looks like a credit card with Dell's name on it, an account number and the $400 emblazened on the card...and the website cheerfully asks who the card is for so they can include a gift card. Why would I purchase a $400 gift card for myself??

I promptly found out (after being transferred to 3 different departments within Dell and being disconnected twice) that the card was "non-transferable". Just what I always wanted...a gift card for myself to the worst computer company on the planet.

After several additional hours and convenient disconnects and several non-English speaking service support techs later...I found someone that would at least listen. She ASSURED me that I could go ahead and give the card to my brother (since our last names were the same AND he would use the DELL gift card at a DELL website or store to purchase DELL equipment...hmmm) I should have known better...where else would he possibly use a $400 gift card in my name issued from DELL???? Maybe Apple accepts DELL HELL cards.

Feeling better than I had during the 20+ phone calls and hang ups...I proudly hung up from the "customer service tech" and gifted the DELL card to my brother.

Problem solved! Not so much. In early February, my brother was ready to purchase his computer. He promptly learned what I knew from my experience in just trying to purchase a gift card. He was told that he could not use the DELL gift card towards his DELL purchase. Not because his name was not on the card but because he was not purchasing the computer with an American Express card. ??? Once again I was involved in trying to understand why my brother would have to use an American Express card (which he does not own)to use a gift card that I bought for him? All I did was purchase the DELL HELL card for him on MY AMEX card.

He quickly learned as well that when DELL does not want to speak to you or when they do not know how to handle your problem - they conveniently say they are "transferring you to another department" or to their supervisor and disconnect the call. Then you have to re-explain your problem to yet another DELL representative who within a few minutes of listening will do the same.

SCREW DELL. I disputed the gift card with my credit card company, my brother cancelled his $3,000 DELL order and I sent him a check for $400 to spend at Apple or HP.

Anonymous said...

DELL HELL, been there and back!
Simple problem... everytime I want to send a fax the computer asks for the operating disks which do NOT come with the computer. Simple question for Dell, where can I buy them? Answer... there are no answers in Dell Hell. Just waiting, calling, emailing, chatting, being bounced from one represenative to another.. .final word You need to buy some support time to get THAT question answered.
BURN ME once but never again.. .buy anything but DELL.
Rev Jarrett - Minnesota

Michael Horowitz said...

Rev Jarrett,
That is indeed a very simple question that any computer vendor should be able to answer quickly.
It comes up often.
You may find that the files from the WinXP CD are on your hard disk already. Look for an i386 folder.

Anonymous said...

January 10th 2006 I went online to order a Dell computer,My 5th one, and when I tried using my thank you discount the screen came up with coupon error call 1-800-284-1140 to redeem. I called while still on page to order and a nice person said they would correct coupon error and said they would place order for the computer i wanted. this person was told by me the page i was on and said she found it and i told about the upgrades I wanted. she came up with the same price as me and i asked if I would be able to use coupon and order on line for extra savings and she said she would place order for me .I reviewed the information about the computer especially the upgrades and she verified everythng and placed order. Computer came but was not the same as i ordered. There wasn't a hook up to make computer a TV and no remote.went to chat and after several tries to get someone to believe me that this was supposed to be included in price Iwas asked about E-Value code and because I was online again with computer I thought I ordered Iwas able to give code.The person was able to verify and said they did not have that code avalible on their order screen but would sent parts needed. I said ok I will try it. It didn't workand they wanted me to install.I am not a tech and didn't want to void warranty. they sent a tech after alot of complaining and only after i asked to return unit. Tech came and said he needed a driver card and different tuner. While he was talking to his advisor from tech he told them I wanted to return unit and was convinced they could fix problem.Order was placed and when checked they cancelled and again through chat and wanting to return unit they convinced me that part would be sent right away with driver disc. Part came no disc. Chat again and disc sent. Arrived on a Friday and tech came on Monday. Parts didn't work and disc was same info as already on computer. Said this was last try and when tried to get permission to send tower back and get correct unit i was told they could only send same unit that was origonally ordered. Tried explaining original order was incorect they said to bad and that more than 21 days had passed and they gave me to meny concessions already.referred complaint to some committee and i am suppossed to wait 24 to 48 hours to get someone on phone. Not wanting to wait I started looking for a site like this.Tried callins Executive service and used extension give and got a recording thatthis person would be out of the office for the week. Any suggestions about anyone else to contact in United States?

Anonymous said...

Dell Hell and Buyer's Remorse....
I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 last Marh through my company's employee discount program. I thought I got a great deal until early Jan when it coughed up a giant hairball.

The system would not boot and gave me a missing file in the config.sys. Warranty no-support told me I needed s/w support at a cost of $70 to try and recover the system. This did not work and I realized I was going to have to reload the OS losing all my pictures and other info(my bad for not backing up!!).

Well when I went to reload using the OS CD dell sent with the laptop I found the CD with all the drivers was not sent to me. I called support and went through the run around again before they agreed to send me the drivers.

Got the drivers the next day and they would not load w/out the system crashing repeatedly. Ran hardware check for the 6th time on just the harddrive and low and behold I got sector errors. They shipped me a refurbished drive and at my insistance recovery CDs.

Fri night I swapped the drive and started loading the 4 CDs. They loaded OK, but during the program that installs the applications it kept freezing up. I tried reformatting and reloading again and it still kept locking up.

I tried swapping the memory SIMMS and installing one at a time in case that was the problem, then I got an error saying my battery needed to be replaced.

I called the number and ext given to me last on Mon, left msg, no return call. Spent ywo hours on the phone today and stressed they need to fix my $900.00 paper weight and that I wasn't going to run anymore diags or touch it besides sending it back.

They agreed to send it to their repair center, then the support person had the nerve to tell me that system was down!!!

He did call back later and gave me the case # and number to call to get it pciked up. Another call to make!?!?! ARRGGHH!!!!

Hopefully I'll get it backed in one piece but I am not happy.

Regrets in Florida

Anonymous said...

I bought a Dell in 2003 by phone from Dell. Being a senior citizen, widow, living alone, I bought the extended warranty for 3 yrs. plus the in-home service for 3 yrs. thinking if something went wrong, I just picked up the phone and Dell would send someone, wrong!

I lost power for a couple mins. due to a snow storm in Feb. 2006. I found my computer dead. I began to call Dell for my in home service. First, I got India, tech demanded I do the troubleshooting or they would not send someone out. I refused. I did not even know how to get into computer. I finally hung up on him.

Next I took it to Best Buy. The tech looked at it, said, it was not power switch it was mother board. They did not have part.

Again, I called Dell, this time got Manilla. Again, even telling them what I needed, I still had to do the troubleshooting. I refused again. So I just ordered the motherboard and paid for it out of frustration about $100 gone.

Next, I took it to Circuit City to get it installed which they did for another $60, come to find out, it was not mother board, it indeed was the power switch.

Again, I called Dell, back to India. I demanded CEO name, which I did not get, I demanded customer service director name, which I did not get, finally I got a supervisor-William. Wanted his last name-he refused.

After all the above, he finally sent a tech out today, 2/23/06 with another new motherboard and a power supply, and it was fixed in about 15 mins.

I feel like I really got took on the in house service purchase. It was a complete waste of money for what I thought I was buying. I have now spent $150 for warranty repairs that should have been covered.

I also, like so many others on here will never buy another Dell over this, and will spread the word as much as I can.

Anonymous said...

I have a broken Inspiron 600m that is now sitting in peices on my bed thanks to dell techsupport. On friday I noticed that the touchpad and keyboard were not working. So I called up dell to say that I had a broken keyboard at 9am on Friday. They (an indian guy named Peter) said they would send me a replacement immediately and that I would receive it on tuesday. When I got it, I would install it and then send the old one back.

At 1pm on friday I came home from classes and turned on my computer to find out it wasnt booting into windows. So I called dell techsupport again. They had me open up my laptop from the front. They told me (an indian guy named Cody to be exact) to messaround with some wires in there. Then when I was trying to plug back in my keyboard I noticed there were prongs on the motherboard that were pressed down, broken, and mangeled so that Icould not get my keyboard back in the slot on the motherboard. I told the dell man on the phone this and he first accused me of doing it. I replied that I had not done this and that this iswhy my keyboard and computer would not work. He said okay and and said he would send out a technition on saturday.

On saturday by 3:45 I had still nto heard from a dell technition. So I called Dell support for a 3rd time and asked what the status was. They told me that they had no log or record of me ever calling at 1pm on friday about the motherboard. Even after I gave them a call reference number and the mans name they still had no record of it. I asked to speak to a supervisor and he (an indian named “Guy”) could not help me either. so, I asked them to set me up with a dispatch for a repair man to come monday. They said this was impossible because I already had a keyboard coming to me and they could not make two ongoing dispatched at once in their computer. The indian man named John then accused me of not telling hte first man at 9am on friday that my mother board had broken. It made me get very upset and I asked him how I was supposed to know that my motherboard was broken at that time before I was told to open my computer. He had no answer. He then told me that I would have to call them back after I got the keyboard and confirmed It did not work. I told him it wouldnt matter, they keyboard would not fit in the motherboard because of the mangled prongs on it. He said he could not help me any further until the keybaord came, thanked me for my business and hung up the phone.

I could not sleep all of saturday night thinking about the injustice of it all. So Sunday morning I called back (waited on hold for 45 mins+) and demanded they send me either a new computer or repair guy out asap. They, of course could not send me a new computer (even after I reminded them how poorly manufactured this one was - 2 gb ram failure + keyboard + motherboard failure in less than 5 months after I bought it). Finally though I got the lady (named Sally) to promise to send me out a repair guy with a new motherboard at the earliest of Wednesday. (And, I have to return the keyboard they are sending me as well - on my own)

I again have case and dispatch numbers but I am sure that they are becoming increasingly meaningless. I also have emails and extensions from all of these indian people, but my emails get forwarded to a bulk email auto responder and my extensions get forwarded to a bulk responder as well that ends up being a machine. So it is technically impossible to recontact these people that make me their promises.

That is all.

Anonymous said...

I recently made the huge error of buying a Dell computer online. As soon as I got it hooked up, I realized it was not running right - extremely slow. I tried everything I could think of to speed it up. Then it stopped working altogether after only a week. Last night I spent two hours trying to deal with their tech support (based in India) on the phone. The tech could barely speak english and I think he understood even less than he spoke. He could not comprehend at all what I was trying to tell him and I had to keep asking him to repeat himself after every other word because I could not understand him. I was ready to hang up and smash the computer to bits but instead asked for his manager. The manager got on the phone and spoke even LESS english than the tech! So, today I did a little research online and discovered that the young owner of Dell, Inc. is a rabid Republican and supporter of BUSH. He donated the maximum allowable $$$ to his campaign. So this explains everything - just like Bush, Dell's agenda is to take jobs away from this country, export them to impoverished 3rd world countries where they can exploit the natives and pay them dirt wages, and then provide horrific customer service. SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!!!!

Anonymous said...

I bought a notebook two days ago via their website.

They sent me an email today saying some of my credit information didn't gel with my credit card company and would I mind replying to the email with all my personal contact info....AND, if that is too inconvenient I should feel free to call the number provided and leave the info on an answering machine...what's really crazy is...it was legitimate...DELL actually asked me for private personal information via email.

I could hardly believe it, especially after I spent an hour explaining to my mom why she shouldn't ever reply to emails of this nature because they're USUALLY fakes.

I have to call them tomorrow and verify information they could easily have got from my credit card company; I'm undecided about cancelling the order...see how I feel tomorrow

Anonymous said...

I rang Dell last week with the intention of buying a Dell Dimension 3100 right there and then after I had asked a couple of questions. I was put through to a woman in India who had such a heavy accent I couldn't understand her English and got annoyed with me when I had to ask her to repeat what she was saying several times. Then I ask for the spec I wanted and included the free printer which was advertised on the site. She said that wasn't an offer any more so I checked and it was offered but she wouldn't give it to me. She then quoted a price one hundred pounds more than the Dell website was quoting and when I asked her why, she said the prices had gone up even though I was looking at the lower price on the site! Finally she tried to really hard sell me their 3-year warranty and when I said several times over 5 mins that I didn't want it, she argued with me. Eventually, I said I didn't want to buy it and she offered to email me the quote and asked for my email address. I never got an email. I will NEVER EVER consider a Dell computer again - their customer service is APPALLING and their advisors rude. Ditch the crap call centre advisors, Dell, because you're losing customers - I told every one of my friends what happened and one, who was about to buy a Dell computer, is now not going to. I have subsequently bought a higher spec machine from a local computer in the UK (for the same price) whose customer service has been fantastic and whose advisors treat a customer like a customer, not someone they can't be bothered with.

Anonymous said...

I recently purchased an I6000 laptop from you. I purchased one year of Dell on Call to assist me with wireless networking setup and other issues that may arise. Upon calling the on call people to assist with setting up the wireless home network, I discovered that they were essentially clueless. The solution to almost everything in their minds was to run me through MS wizard after wizard to no avail. After initial call of at least 2 HOURS with no success, the tech person felt that the Bluetooth was causing the problem. This was not the case, which I told them, but they had such a lack of knowledge that they wouldn’t believe it. In fact, once they transferred me to the wireless group, that person told me that I was right, the Bluetooth has nothing to do with it!

Prior to beginning with tech support I had run through the wizards for networking setup and told this to your representatives. I stated that there are probably just some advanced setting that need to be adjusted to get it working correctly. They never checked any of those, except running through wizards. I discovered that the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was not installed on the I6000, and after I installed it, what do you know, it worked!

I have also been told repeatedly that Dell has no one capable of providing tech support for the Bluetooth device installed on my computer! So you actually sell products that you can’t support?

After about 5 or more hours wrestling with this with clueless representatives, I was told to contact MS. As you hopefully know MS will NOT support its products when installed by the computer manufacturer. Luckily I had another computer running XP that I had purchased so they helped me. And they had a clue!

If you had tech support people that knew what they were doing, you actually might save money because it wouldn’t take them 5 hours to try to solve a 5 minute issue.

When talking to your people, they liked to transfer me repeatedly to other “experts” who also knew essentially nothing about supporting your product. And, every time I was transferred, I would have to repeat all of my personal information and review what was wrong and what I needed.

You guys ought to look at what Computer Shopper magazine says about your tech support, it’s pretty sad.

IN SUMMARY
Your company has wasted over 5 hours of my valuable time.
Your company has charged me hundreds of dollars for “Dell on Call” that is worthless.
Your company apparently cannot even provide tech support for products it sells (Bluetooth specifically).
Your company’s tech support people are not knowledgeable enough to be answering the phone as representatives.
If I responded to my customers in the manner that your company does, I would be looking for a job!
I have wasted yet more of my time since I had to write you a letter!

WHAT I EXPECT
I bit more than a refund of my Dell on Call fee.
A sincere apology by PHONE from somebody other than the folks that just answer the phone (someone who is responsible for this).
A lot to get me to ever buy a Dell again.
Maybe a phone number for real tech support that can handle issues more advanced than how to plug it in!
I do need a better battery than the one that came with the unit.
The government agency I work for has bought hundreds of your computers and servers over the last 10+ years.

Anonymous said...

Dell is the worst company I have ever dealt with, I returned a computer that didn't work and they want me to pay for depreation of a computer that was a lemon, after several attempts of trying to resolve this, they hung up on me and I can't get anyone to talk to me, they sent it out with a bad hard drive and that wasn't bad enough, they sent someone out to replace it and didn't even load it and left me to figure it out, after being on the phone with the tech's for hours, I was never able to get online, they should pay me for the trouble, I can't pay anything for that experience even if I go to jail.

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

I am attempting to purchase a new tower computer for my daughter. I configured the machine online, got a good price and went off to the races. When I mentioned the configuration to my wife, she suggested I have the Linksys Wireless G card factory installed so that, when it arrives, we can get it up and running with less fuss (and fewer complaints from our impatient six-year-old{g}). I agreed this made sense, so I attempted to contact Dell. The website said that I had the opportunity to change/augment the order as long as the machine was in the "build" stage (which it was).

Step 1: I tried to augment the order online. This seemed to be in line with their instructions (if you ordered by phone, call; if you ordered online, update online), but, I landed in the wrong channel. The site prompted me for the type of machine I selected, so I chose Home/Home Office (it is an E510). My order number was not found, however, even though it was accepted and I received the confirmation e-mail.

Step 2: I called the number on the confirm e-mail. All it would provide me was order status ("in the build stage" -- it even asked me to write that down...a little insulting). When it asked if I wanted to check another order and I answered 'no', it hung up on me. No option to speak to anyone.

Step 3: I called the main Dell sales number. They also couldn't find my order number, but at least asked if I was receiving a corporate discount (like many companies, mine has negotiated an employee discount for purchasing Dell products online). That put me in the Business channel, even though I was purchasing a Home system. The courteous representative gave me the number and wished me good luck (little did I know at the time that he was being ironic). The department I then connected to was closed (it was 7PM Eastern time in the US).

Step 4: I e-mailed the link provided in the confirmation message. I received an automated response quickly that they received it and then another in an hour or so that read my text and determined that I wanted to change my order (correct!) The instructions, maddeningly, referred me back to my Step 1. This is when my attitude began to deteriorate.

Here is my first exasperated e-mail to them:
PLEASE help me! I am simply attempting to correct an order I placed on-line (see details below). I ordered a desktop computer, but neglected to add an
upgrade for a Linksys Wireless G network interface card. I have called several numbers and have been told I need to speak to a different department (who is always closed) or that I have called the wrong division. I have also attempted to use the online links provided to no avail. This is quite frustrating. I am actually attempting to spend more money with you and I keep ending up in blocked corridors of service. You should not expect your customers to be experts in navigating your labyrinthine service channels.

Please assist me, or I will consider canceling this order and going to one of your competitors.

I received a heartfelt response that sent me back into the maze (see the following):

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX:

Thank you for contacting Dell's Online Customer Service for our Employee Purchase Program customers.

I understand that you would like to add Linksys Wireless G network interface card to your order. Please accept my apologies for the difficulties encountered when attempting to resolve your issue. I assure you that your situation is not indicative of the quality service Dell is capable of providing. I am truly sorry that we were not able to provide an experience that was completely satisfactory to you.

Unfortunately, Customer Care does not have access to pricing or detailed product information. Dell Customer Care takes care of post purchase logistics and other customer satisfaction issues.

Please contact our Software and Peripheral department for better assistance with this issue, they will be more than happy to assist you with your request.

You may call them at:

1-800-449-3355 ext 72-40168

A representative will gladly assist you in placing an order for the Card suiting your needs. Moreover, they shall also be able to provide comprehensive assistance with payment options, ongoing promotions, and any discount structures available in the segment.

You may monitor the progress of your order online using your Dell order number and customer number at:

www.dellcustomercare.com/orderstatus

As soon as you get a notification that your order has shipped, the shipper name and tracking number will be listed in the order status page. Please contact the shipper at that point of time and schedule the delivery as per your convenience.

Mr. XXXXXXXX, I apologize that I am not able to assist you with this issue directly.

You may receive a survey requesting your feedback on your Dell experience. Please take a moment of your time to complete this survey and provide us feedback on how we deliver to your customer needs.

Thank you for choosing Dell.

Respectfully,

KC_Pramod
Customer Care Specialist
ABU Customer eCare
Dell Inc.

Anyone want to guess how I'm going to respond to that survey?!?

Dell needs to wake up to the fact that the hardware and software they can provide are commodities and that the only way they can differentiate themselves is with service. In this case, they have CLEARLY stood apart from their competitors...at the bottom of the list.

Anonymous said...

No microphone in Inspiron 6000.

I have been a loyal Dell buyer (this is my 6th Dell purchase) and I still think they are good machines and I have not had the same bad experiences as some of you here. But not having a built-in microphone IS SOOOO ANNOYING. Each time I want to Skype or MSN, have to rummage around in my computer bag to find an external microphone. Why did they not install it? Dell said it was because the HD causes interference. Huh!

Anonymous said...

We won our battle with Dell. After purchasing an Inspiron with a DVD/RW combo drive and a seperate CD drive to enable copying from the one drive to the other we found that the CD ROM drive did not work. We spent several hours on the telephone with the Dell "customer service" reps who know little to nothing about the product and two technician visits in which he replaced both drives we were frustrated beyond belief. We persevered and continued to complain escalating it time and time again and refusing to speak with the Dell "techs" located in India we finally got them to agree to return the computer for a refund.
It's hard to believe that a company like Dell cares so little about their customers. If you go to Dell's own forum site you find over 1000 pages of people complaining about the very problem we experienced while Dell continues to deny it is "their" problem even after agreeing to a refund.
My significant other and I are both seasoned computer owners and users and I can say I have never owned a computer as bad as this Dell. I have never had to "tweak" any computer like Dell wants you to do to continue stalling you. I have never had the extended warranty be so useless as is Dell's. With Toshiba and HP I have only had to take it in for service or return it and it was fixed no questions asked.
The Dell from he#$ that we owned briefly was replaced with an HP that we plugged in and worked right out of the box and has shown no problems.
As for Dell computers I have now owned two. My first and my last.

Anonymous said...

i have just spent hours on the telephone to dell support I had to repeat everything twice as did the support I could not understand his english and he could not understand mine so everything took twice as long the fault is still the same second fault on a computer 3 months old.

Anonymous said...

Ah Yes, Dell. Like many others I was a returning customer to Dell - having had four years to forget the customer service experience of buying a new Dell the last time. I ordered a Dimension 5150C - speaking to their so-called sales people - who of course are on commission - so don't believe a word they say.

I only had two issues - would my existing wireless card fit/did it come with one and don't put security software on it - I already have my own. Needless to say the salesman told two downright lies - the machine arrived WITH the software and without any wireless card (and because it is a mini-hard drive you can't get a wireless card for love, money or anything else. The pre-loaded software and the security software was a NIGHTMARE to remove - I still have crashes and issues but there's no point in talking to Dell - even Microsoft couldn't work out what they'd done - but did say they regularly have the same problems from Dell customers.

The wireless issue is a bug because I now have an external adapter - exactly what I was trying to avoid.

Customer service - what customer service? Escalation of complaints/issues has no meaning to an organisation like this.

They have your money and quite frankly couldn't give a toss. I will never, ever buy another Dell computer or product and have already cancelled a major corporate order and transferred it to Apple and HP.

At the end of the day it comes down to customer service. Those who provide it and who do not. Dell does not. If you are anybody other than a mega-advanced computer user - don't buy their products - it really isn't worth the nightmare.

And finally - I have a question. Why do Dell have customer satisfaction surveys? Ha Ha Ha Ha. What a waste of money. Maybe they could invest the cash they spend on this useless, useless process and invest it in customer service.

Anonymous said...

I have recently purchased a Dell Notebook. After talking to 16 Techs they determine the mother board was bad. I shipped my computer for repairs. When the box was returned to me, someone else's computer was in it. Once again after being transfered around the world, I did finally get a tech that was willing to help. And after emailing Michael Dell himself I thought I was getting somewhere. No one could find my computer. I was sick of it, I wanted a refund. A gentleman calls me up, he has found my computer, 30 minutes later another lady calls me and says she has my computer. First they couldn't find it, now 2 people have it. So I give my point of contact, supposably from Michael Dells office, the ladies phone number with my computer. Today I receive a call, from my point of contact, that she is contacting her people in Bangalor to contact the lady in Tennessee (which I gave her the ladies phone) which has my computer. My point of contact lady will not give Bangalor the information I gave her to help speed up the process. While I am trying to understand their procedure, I repeat what my point of contact is telling me. She informs me that I am taking up her time. She was sooo rude, she would not let talk. I don't know about you, but the first lesson in business is the customer is always right. I have never been treated this way. She spent more time telling me I was wasting her time, than if she would have answered my questions. Listen to this, the repair shop for Dell cannot ship the computer to Dell. My point of contact, contacts Bangalor, who contacts Tennessee to ship me my computer. Then I have to ship the computer from my house to dell to receive my refund. This is crazy. Then who knows when I will receive my refund. To top things off my point of contact cannot contact Dell Financial to assure there will not be any late fees or interest charges because they are not in the same area. I will never purchase another Dell. For those of you who are still considering it, do not use Dell Financial. If you use a personal credit card you can file a dispute without receiving late fees & interest fees. In my opinion the right hand does not know what the left had is doing. I have never heard the phrase Dell Hell, but I have been there and back. I realize I am one small person, but if I can take $1000.00 out Michael Dells pocket it will be worth posting this information.

Anonymous said...

I have been paying for my dell computer since June of 2003. I have been paying $50 per month since June 2003. The interest is so high 29.99%. I have only bought a couple of ink cartridges during this time. Today, I check my account and I still owe $947.97 It has almost been three years and I still owe almost 80% of the original charge of $1,500. What a rip off!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Charlotte A. Pearson

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine wants to buy a laptop.

I called Dell but after waiting 26 minuets to talk to sales, I got mad and called gateway and she bought one of theirs.

Dell is about the shi_tiest of them all!

Anonymous said...

Dell support stinks! Not only do they talk like Indians they write like Indians. A small software problem costs a minimum of $99.00 and that is for one question

Anonymous said...

9 months after purchasing my inspirion the screen went out. I spent hours on the phone who kept telling me Texas was a country!!! I could not understand them to get anything done. Now I am stuck with a computer payment and a broken computer. The repair place wanted 450 to fix it. It was supposed to be under warranty but I h=guess they don't care. dell is a Texas based company how come there are no texans working there. Dell sucks i am puting an ad in the paper telling my story!!!

Anonymous said...

I have had one hardship after another and my latest involves Dell Computers, I have been reading about Michael Dell and his 18 billion net worth, and the code of conduct of dell and the values of Dell and it is all hogwash!!!

For several years I had worked for Remax real estate in the impoverished area where I live. It had taken me years to build up clientele and then a rich little gal bought the firm and while I was on vacation she called all my clients and told them I was no longer in Real Estate and they had to sign over they’re contracts for new ones with her. She stole all my business in one afternoon. She kept my commissions and charged med double for the Dell computer and even kept the rebate.

When I came back from vacation stripped of any means of support, I got my brokers license and started my own Brokerage River Country Properties. I live in a trailer and have not paid rent for 2 months. Some of my clients are coming back to me but slowly, I do not have enough money for advertising yet of an office.

But the one bright spot was going to be to be able to service the few clients I do have now. When I got the computer to my home office noticed there is no modem or floppy 3and ½ drive. In this area there is only dial up. I ordered a floppy and a modem on April 11th from Dell. I have spent hundreds of dollars that I do not have speaking to dell about this order with foreign people whom do not understand me and have consistently gotten my information wrong. I have lost thousands in revenue from clients I cannot service because I have no computer to use. Each week I go to my association office and buy a data disk for my multiple Listing Service that is only good for a few days and then I have to keep buying them as I keep believing the new customer service people I talk to that the order is shipping overnight. I got a call today that my order is bing processed and may or may not be here on May 18th. By the time I receive it. It will be almost 2 months. I have a list of new order numbers and conversation confirmation numbers at home. Why in the world can’t Dell just send me another tower with the floppy in it (and cd) and modem, and exchange mine at home??? It seems like the parts will never be made.

I feel for the emotional distress and the financial loss to me, (this is crippling the little business that I do have) I should be seeking counsel for restoring me to a position that I was in before I ordered these parts, before I lost the clients and my cell bill got out of hand. No one at Dell seems to care, aren’t those executives and Ceo’s and presidents with all that net worth concerned with the poor little businesswoman who is just trying to break even? I am so sorry I ever heard the name Dell, and if u know anyone whom can help me please send this letter is Michael Dell and any other executives whom boast all they’re ethics and company values and all that net worth, as Dell is worthless if u ask me!!
jorikrystek@hotmail.com
www.angelfire.com/stars4/jori
815-973-1197
Signed,
Disgruntled Dell User.

Anonymous said...

Although I am a few months shy of my3 year limited waranty pn my Dell Laptop; I needed Tech Help. Try and understand them? I found out when I purchased my lap top that Tech Help serviced both soft and hardware. However, now to get help it's fee based to get help on software. I remember help being horrible and now it is even worse. If I ever need another computer, it will not be dell.

Anonymous said...

you Americans are lucky - apparently you can actually get a machine you ordered

- here in the UK, where I run a small charity, we have to deal with Indian phone operatives who would have trouble cleaning a street without annoying it.

Now they have finally said they are going to deliver my 3 new 19" monitors ( five operatives and four order numbers, seven idiotic emails with "sorry please" in, 5 weeks and two lost cheques later)

they won't deliver it to my new address (- the reason I was getting new monitors was for my move to a new office - ) and the delivery firm won't change the details - neither will dell - so I cannot get them - my old office is closed, gone, finished... (these words are not accpeted by dell operatives- they will be... soon.)

this company is going down the tubes - spending millions on advertising but unable to deal with customers like a chimpanzee cannot deal with a Mac truck.

kill them all... kill them all...

Anonymous said...

I have a Dell 5150 and my friend a 1150 Dell Inspiron laptop. The laptops DC power jack in both our laptops went "belly up"...wouldn't power up, wouldn't charge the battery anymore without moving the plug on the power adapter. Called Dell and they would not cover us..even though we had their extended warranty..we were told that it was customer abuse and that they would replace the motherboard for us for $500!!! Dell's customer service was horrible. In order to get the problem resolved in both case's we found a Technician / The Laptop Doctor www.doctorlaptop-repair-jack.com who was easily able to fix the power jack problem for only $98 verses Dells $500!!

Dells Customer Service SUCKS

Sincerely,
tom

Anonymous said...

Despite my use of Google as a search engine, I don't want its tools on my desktop. Now DELL has signed an agreement with Google to install Google tools on new desktops. For me that is an additional reason not to buy DELL products. I used to have an interest in Alienware, but that interest has died.

Now my choices are:

WidowPC: www.widowpc.com
Puget: www.pugetsystems.com
Velocity: velocitymicro.com

What are your favorites?

E.

Anonymous said...

Back in April 2004 I purchased a Dell Dimension 2400 and for an extra £50 I could get a Dell Photo AIO Printer 922 thrown in with the deal. I thought this was a great offer, and was really chuffed with the printer as it did printing scanning copying and photo printing of good quality photographs.

The first six months went swimmingly. I loved the printer and got on well with it, but then it developed three faults. The first was the printer feed mechanism broke meaning I had to feed each piece of paper through manually. Then the printer kept saying that the scanner door was open which it wasn’t and the third fault was that the ink chambers did not move into the centre when the door was open, which meant I was unable to change the ink cartridges.

I got straight onto customer support, who were very good and replaced the printer that week. Problem solved. Or so I thought.

Three months on, I tried to turn the printer on and found that it wouldn’t even power on. Again I got on to customer support. After being passed through three different people, and 5 minutes on hold I was told to plug the printer into a different mains socket (of course I hadn't tried this already!!) I was asked to check various parts of the printer, and finally my suspicions were confirmed and was told the printer was faulty.

However Dell then told me they would not replace the printer as it was no longer under warranty. Despite the fact they had provided me with two crap printers, they weren't going to do a thing about it. Three strongly worded letters later, and they are still not backing down. I am not an unreasonable woman, and understand that warranties don’t last for ever, but I think if both products I have received from Dell have been faulty, I surely have the right to expect a replacement, or at least a refund. Trading standards agree with me, and I’m perusing the matter. I don't see why big companies such as Dell should get away with ripping us off.

Since this charade, I have discovered that three of my acquaintances have had the same make of printer from Dell, and these have developed faults too. Anyone out there planning to get a Dell printer (which is actually made by Lexmark) don't do it!! Spend an extra £20 and get an HP - much more reliable.

Anonymous said...

Dell Computers is the first manufacturer of the "disposable computer".

I bought my Inspiron 6000 laptop a year ago and now the motherboard needs replacing. After one year! Thankfully it is NOT covered under the 90-day warranty (really should be a one year warranty). Thankfully Dell's tech support that helped me diagnose this over the phone for $42 had such a thick accent that I could hardly understand him (and him me). Thankfully I bought such a high-quality disposable laptop that lasted me for a whole year.

Anonymous said...

My computer works pretty well. My complaint is with Dell Financial, who will not take no for an answer! I bought my computer in 2004 and initially had accepted a $50.00 rebate for using Dell Financial to pay for the thing. But they sent their first letter, stating that interest would be at 19.99%. That rate was usurious to me because it did not relate to their risk nor to my creditworthiness.
So I phoned them to say I would not use Dell Financial and would pay for my computer by bank check. They suggested I contact Scott, my salesperson, so he could drop the credit rebate, which was fine with me. My computer now cost $979.62.
On July 17,2004, I wrote them to restate my lack of need for them, and sent my bank check to Dell Computers, not Dell Financial.
Then they started sending me bills with various financing charges when I had already paid for the computer in full. I wrote on each bill, "I have already paid for this computer," and sent the bill back to them.
Finally a girl wrote me asking why I had not sent any payments after the first one. I explained all this to her, thinking that finally, maybe, sombody at Dell was going to listen to me. It was not to be. Without any other notification, they sent these charges to collection agencies. I briefly told each of them that I had already paid for the computer and that I had notified Dell Financial that I wasn't going to make use of their services. One of them accepted my claim that I had paid for the computer after I sent him a copy of my check.
But it was useless that I addressed my check to Dell Computers. After a month, Dell Financial, having set up an account despite my phone call and letter, indicated that my check had been credited to THEIR account.
But the other two collection agencies then reported my "non-payment" to Experian, Equifax and Transunion, and my credit dropped from the 700s to the 600s!
Since then, I have been working with these agencies to correct this report. When they saw I was nor going to pay, Dell finally cancelled my account, and this did show up on my credit report. But the payment history and other records still stand on my credit report, so my credit number is still submerged.
I have no beef with the computer. But if you don't want to pay 19.99% interest, then you better tell your salesperson that you will pay cash for your computer and never allow any discussion of credit with Dell Financial to creep into the conversation.
Forget the customer is always right! These credit agencies only take the word of the corporation when they agree to
"investigate."

Anonymous said...

Dell Defy belief!!

I have bought a lot of computers from Dell over the last 4 years and every year they get worse.

Due to experience I have to call dell everyday until the problem is solved. Everyday. And they still make mistakes. I get them to log my call keep in touch with me text me anything- THEY NEVER EVER EVER DO AS THEY SAY EVER!!.

I don't ask for much.... all I ask for is when you say something keep to it (there agenda not mine) It Dell who says the what when how.

I honestly dread calling.

Every single point they make mistake every single point EVERY ONE. If you are a bad company it must be 50-50.

Dell "we will pick your computer up Monday" they come Wednesday. Someone from delivery will call you- nobody ever did "I will stay in touch with you until this problem is resolved" never heard from them again "i will put you through to the right department" I speak to some illiterate Indian in charge of printers.

They can't treat customers like this.......

Absolutely useless.

Anonymous said...

WOW!! I knew Dell was getting worse, and I knew they were having problems, but I never expected a problem like the one I just encountered. I am a Dell VAR, and I move a moderate amount of product through to my clients. That is, until today. I simply can't afford the time to continue to fix their problems and deal with their incompetence any longer. In June I bought a new D820 laptop for a client. This is not some cheap laptop, but a system that cost me over $2,000. Out of the box it did not work correctly. After contacting Dell Gold Support both by phone and through their on-line chat, they wanted to start sending me parts and have me fix the laptop. After spending many hours with the techs, and finally getting a supervisor, they agreed to send a replacement laptop. The new laptop was received and upon examination I found that it was configured incorrectly. After spending several more hours with Gold Tech Support, I was told to take parts from the old laptop and put them in the new one; specifically, the hard drive which I just finished programming for the client. I've invested over 20 hours just fixing Dell's problems, and after calling Customer Care and again speaking with a supervisor, they offered to compensate me in the amount of $100 for over 20 hours of my time. Then they hung-up on me. I called again and got some guy in India, who wants to start the entire process over again. After providing the ticket number and asking for his supervisor, he says no problem, and he hangs-up. I have been in the IT business for over 20 years. I am a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), I'm certified on MS Exchange and everything from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003, I have an excellent customer base that covers Long Island and Manhattan, and customer service is my primary focus. I have never, in 20 years, encountered a company as frustrating as Dell; a company that has a complete lack of respect for its clients, or a company that hires complete fools to interact with the public. Aside from being the president of my company I am also on the board of education and the chairperson for the technology committee for the 3rd largest non-city school district in New York. Dell can not be the only player on the block, and I will find the alternatives and find a way to work with them. I have been insulted by Dell; by their lack of respect, their lack of concern for my time, and by their lack of quality customer support, both technical and non-technical, and I can not in good conscience continue to do business with this type of company. If anyone reading this is aware of real, viable brand name alternatives to the Dell product line, I would appreciate an email. We sell all types of systems; laptops, workstations, desktops, servers, and storage units (NAS), and I would welcome any information and direction that you can provide. Please send any guidance directly to me at info@Am-Pro-Services.com. Thank you very much for your help.

Unknown said...

6/21

I went online and applied for Dell Financing. I was approved, so I ordered two systems - identical in every way except for the sound cards. The base price was $649 and with the customizations they came to $798 and $814, before tax.



6/22

I received no email, no order number or confirmation of any kind, but logging onto Dell.com, I could see that the cost of the order had been subtracted from my Dell Financial credit balance. So I decided to investigate further, in case there was a problem.


Chat #1: Around 11:00 am, I initiated an online chat with customer service representative Kanika Kansal. I explained the situation, and was told the following:

06/22/2006 11:26:22AM Agent (Kanika Kansal): "Rxxxx, I have verified with Dell Financial Services and your order did not go through due to configuration issues."

06/22/2006 11:26:29AM Agent (Kanika Kansal): "I request you to re-order the systems."

When I pointed out that the amount had already been subtracted from the initially approved balance of my credit account, I was told:

06/22/2006 11:28:54AM Agent (Kanika Kansal): "Rxxxx, the amount has been reversed and your available credit balance is $xxxx.00."


Ok, I was admittedly a little frustrated at an additional delay to receiving my order, but, I went online to start over. I confirmed that credit balance was restored, then tried to reorder the systems. However, the base price was now $699 and some of the customization prices seemed to have changed as well. That's when I decided to call.


Phone Call: My phone conversation with customer service/order support representative, Shandie Alegre, might actually have been comedic, had it not been so unspeakably frustrating. What I expected to take a matter of minutes took close to an hour and still ended up wrong.

I began by carefully explaining the situation to Ms. Alegre, how I had never received an order number or customer number, how the order had not gone through due to some unknown "configuration error,” how the price had changed on the web, and how I felt I should not be penalized for the order not going through. She then proceeded to ask for my customer number. I explained, once again, that I had not received a customer number or order number. (This didn't appear to matter, as she requested these numbers several more times during the conversation.)

Next, she explained that the prices had changed because: “the prices changed.” I said that I had figured that out already, but that I did not feel I should have to pay more than what I had originally placed the order for, just because it was mysteriously cancelled. This took numerous repetitions to Ms. Alegre before she said she would "see what she could do," and began entering the new order.

What followed was one of the most irritating and exhaustive conversations I have ever had. Ms. Alegre became so confused that even I got confused. I quickly decided to make both systems identical; it was clear I would never manage to convey "all the same except for different sound cards" to Ms. Alegre. As it was, the process required numerous repetitions and corrections. When it was finally complete (or so I thought), she announced that my price, per system, would be $903 - exactly what it would have been, had I simply reordered online. Once again, I was forced to explain my entire reason for calling, until she went to speak with her supervisor.

When Ms. Alegre returned to say that "the best she could do" was a $50 rebate on each system, I was not happy. Yes, that covered the price change in the base system, but clearly other prices had gone up as well. However, by that point, I was rapidly running out my lunch hour and my patience, so I said "fine." This did not, however, lead to a swift end to the call.

Next came the "order processing" phase. Once again, I found myself repeatedly correcting the order. I was stunned that, this far into it, she still had the first, most basic option - the speed of the system processors - wrong. She told me that tax was $130; it ended up being $12.50 on the final total. And at one point, she even informed me that my "operating system is Microsoft Works." I can't even begin to describe the lack of confidence I had at receiving properly configured systems.

As the call appeared to be reaching an end, we came to the "delivery address". I was very clear with Ms. Alegre that I needed the systems delivered to my work address so that someone would be available to sign for them. This then triggered numerous repetitions of my work address particulars, until we were finally able to end the call. I only wish that it had also signaled an end to the problems.

Here is what happened next:

Email #1 & #2: Confirmation of the first system ordered - twice. (I never received one for the second system.) It had been entered with to be delivered to my home address.

Chat #2: I connected to Upinder Singh who was extremely helpful and apologetic, and who immediately changed the shipping address for both order numbers.

Email #3 & #4: These were confirmations from Upinder Singh with the corrected delivery address.

Email #5: This was from Shandie Alegre and was a “quote” (complete with a "Buy Now" button) for the systems I thought I had ordered on the phone. I immediately responded, requesting clarification.

Email #6: The response came from Michael Vincent A. Mesia ("Call Back Queue/ SOAR Representative") and assured me that everything was fine and both orders were confirmed.

Email #7: Before I had a chance to reply to Mr. Mesia, another email arrived. It was the confirmation of the original web order from the night before, nearly five hours after I was told it had not gone through! I replied to Mr. Mesia, asking about one of the system components (confirming that was what I had asked for) and asking why I was just getting the confirmation for the original order.

Email #8: Mr. Mesia replied to the question about the component. I replied, again asking for explanation of the original order confirmation. As of the writing of this letter, I never received a reply.


***

06/28

Delivery: The computers arrive. Thankfully, there were no delivery issues, as my home telephone number was entered, instead of my work number – despite finally getting them sent to my work address.

Rebates: And, after everything was set up, I logged onto Dell.com to get my rebates, only to find that I was given a $50 rebate on only one of the systems. Order #xxxxxxxx7 included the rebate, while order #xxxxxxxx6 did not. Not surprisingly, my email inquiry has gone unanswered.

***

When I initially placed the web order, the base price of the systems was $649, and with the customization they came to $798 and $814. The more expensive one contained the better sound card. Now, I have two systems with the better sound card, but instead of $814 each, they will cost $853 for one, after the rebates, and $903 for the other. And this is after everything I went through to get them ordered (and ordered correctly.) My order was inexplicably cancelled, the reorder I was instructed to make was complete chaos, email transactions were confusing – or just not answered.

Anonymous said...

I know that my bill of sale from dell is paid up.They still want me to pay almost 300.00 more.
I keep fine records of all checks and payments and their records do not match mine.
When they started sending out the new financial records,they added on things that were long credited to my account and when I called to go over my statements they say that they can only go back 6 months.
I went over my records again and again only to find that I am correct and that if you need help following your money trail to Dell, they can't help you. They want your money, but can't tell you where the added expenses come from.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Peter here from Sydney Australia.
I have had nothing but hassles and problkems and breach of contract in my dealings with Dell. From delivery which entailed waiting at home 4 days in a row for people who did not show to finally being delivered a computer with no speakers to waiting a further 3 weeks for speakers
( so there goes much more time lost than the system was worth before it's even fully delivered) to crash time 10 months later to the same thing waiting for days in a row for Technicians who simply don't turn up and take 13 days to get their even though extra money has been paid for "NEXT bUSINESS DAY" SERVICE ( AGAIN MORE TIME LOST THAN MACHINE WAS EVER WORTH) to not having the problem fixed to Oh... did I mention the hours upon hours upon hours of phone calls and waiting for calls to be returned " absolutely within 2 hours but I can tell you are frustrated and I promise you" day after day while waiting for calls which are never returned - yes forgot to mention that didn't I ... to finally a cusomter Care person who upon being told that we have laws in Australia and your delivery time frame alone has breached them rings back and offers to extend the warranty that I never got by another year to the next person called after the next crash who decides he's cancelling that warranty and I can go to hell to because " that's not even my real name stupid"....finding that the local Dell marketing director for Australia ( Mr. Alvara Del Pozo is giving a lecture on customer satisfaction at a nearby hotel shortly ..... On it goes and the story is still the same - DELL do not honour their agreements - I'd be happy for as many of you as possible to email any dell executive address to me so I can forward complaints along. BUT By all nmeasn email MrDel POzo - at alvaro_del_pozo@dell.com and if you get any other names, email them too Otherwise staff hide behind anonymous false names and we get no where.
put a sign in your car, talk at least one person a week out of buying dell and encourage them to do the same, we are only telling the truth and it will work out like a nice big chain letter to bring the cheating sods down.THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR FAIL;ING TO DELIVER ON PAID WARRANTY. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR WASTING YOUR TIME AND NOT COMPENSATING FOR CUSTOMER LOSS . Spread the message:
DON'T BUY DELL ....

Anonymous said...

I Use a dell latitude d600 (P4 M 2ghz with 1gb ram...)

also before i used a dell latitude d500..

These are the problems i've had with both laptops

D500:
Screen fell off
Power cable broke
Power Supply broke
Left mouse button broke
Had Smoke coming out of the bottem fan vent
Keys Constantly fall off
Battery broke

D600:
Screen is falling off (but hasn't come off yet, have to use K'nex to hold the screen open lol)
touchpad pretty much died
sound keeps messing up
USB is dodgey
Constant overheating (try to play basic games like WoW and i get 15 minutes of 20fps, then 5 minutes of 1 or below fps, and i use 2 cooling pads on the laptop, one behind the screen and one below. doesn't really help much)
Keys constantly fall off
Cracks in case

Oh and my friend bought a latitude D800 and it came delivered with a chunk of plastic missing off the side of the screen about the size of a 2p coin..

End result: DONT BUY DELL.
(No, i didn't buy these laptops, someone else bought them for me :D)

Anonymous said...

We have purchased Dell computers several times over the years and never had a problem, until last week. Error messages about "previous fan failure" came up on our Dimension 4600C. We went through the steps to clear the BIOS, etc., with no effect. Finally got booted up and the fan made a horrible noise, then quieted down a bit. After turning it off and restarting, the same thing happened, only the fan never came on and the computer simply "faded to black".

I called a technician (not Dell, since our computer is out of warranty), and he determined that the CPU fan was dead. We got on the phone to Dell Technical Support and the tech wouldn't talk to my tech, when I got on the phone, I told him the CPU fan was dead and I needed to order a replacement. He asked me why it failed!!?? I laughed and said, how the devil do I know? Then he said he had to check for the part and put me on hold, twice. Finally he came back and said the part was not in stock and he would have to order it and he would call me back within 24 hours when the part showed in stock and I could order it. I never received a call. I called the Spare Parts number, went through the explanation, and he asked me why did the fan fail. I laughed again and said I have no clue, that was his department. I just wanted to order a new one. Finally got the part ordered and it's supposedly shippin today.

I'm really concerned that when we replace the fan, it will turn out there is another problem, and we'll be back to Step 1.

Has anyone ever experienced a problem with a fan failing? What do I do if the replacement doesn't fix the problem?

Also, I really hate to say this, but I really dislike the fact that customer service is handled out of India. Although there was no real problem with English, the accent was difficult, and it is very clear they follow a very strict "script" which is very annoying!

Anonymous said...

I bought my daughter a dell laptop for college. It stopped working after 3 weeks. It took two months to get it repaired even though it was under full warranty. Customer support would set up telephone appointments but never call. They were completely unhelpful. The laptop was only repaired after I made a written complaint to the Better Business Bureau in Texas.

Anonymous said...

I bought an Inspiron laptop for my college student son in April: it failed to boot on delivery and then what followed was 2 months of Dell Hell, including 3 days off work waiting for collections and deliveries, numerous e-mails to UK Customer Care; many many phone calls to the Asian subcontinent, an evening spent dismantling and re-assembling (to no avail), an underlying refusal to refund my money, and eventually a replacement machine which was the wrong spec!. I refused to deal with technical support again so after more weeks of calls and emails I finally got a refund for the missing specification in mid-June and made do with the machine as supplied. The problem? - UK Customer Care had no influence on the outcome via technical support and eventually stopped responding to my pleas for help - a major failing. We would never buy another Dell and I will try to persuade my employers to cancel their (large) Dell IT contracts as well. Advice? - go to John Lewis and buy an Apple.

Anonymous said...

I just trashed my 2 year old Dell 8300 and bought a Sony. In spite of an extra cost in home warranty, I got a non-English speaking rep who said he didn't know what the problem was so he was going to blame it on software and charge 100.00 to talk.

Anonymous said...

I purchased an Inspiron in Feb 2005 (along with a 3 year extended warranty) for my wife to use. In just a few months, the system would shut down if you moved the screen. I suspected a pinched connection and called Dell. Dell quickly sent a box to ship the unit in for repair, in a bout a week it was returned and worked well. July 2006 it did the same thing, I called Dell expecting the same quick turnaround. They sent a box and I sent it in. That was July 10 2006. I called 3 days later to check on it and was told it would be 2-3 days. This was a lie. after several calls, and online chat i was always told the same thing 2-3 days until July 26 when Agent (Deepak_01112728) said it had been on parts hold, the parts were now available and it would be returned in 5 business days. I pressed for a date and he said "...by 3 August ..."; "There will be no more delay" I called Dell August 2 to see if it was on schedule and was told that it was on parts hold. I demanded to speak to a supervisor and was connected to Joey (extension 5377109)and was assured that parts were scheduled for August 4. I was quite irrate and wanted to know if anyone there was capable of telling the truth. Even after reading the exact quotes from the session log with Deepak,(which Joey had on his screen), Joey refused to admit that I had been lied to. All along this process I told the Dell agents that I was purchasing another laptop for my daughter to have for college, and unless I could be dealt with truthfully, it would not another Dell (I have bought 8 Dell computers in the last 6 years, not including this Inspiron) I called August 4 and was told the parts were in and it was being repaired within the next 5 business days (by Agent Johnny_5374972).Saturday August 5 I went to Officemax and purchased a HP 52230. I just wish I had an address to send a copy of the reciept. I recieved the repaired Inspiron August 7. I wonder how long ti will be before the next repair??
Long story short Dell is not dependable. If they had told me in the beginning it would be a 4 -5 weeks for repair, it would be different. I hate being intentionally lied to.

Anonymous said...

I received a double order from Dell (the only place I could get Dell printer cassettes, naturally) after talking to a poorly Engish-speaking female in India (they presently are the only English-speakers who can do this complicated type of job; at $3.00 @ hour, I might add) and finally gave up and hung up. i then preceded to order online and both arrived in a very short time and i was double-billed, as one might expect. I called India once more and got another poorly English-speaking "Custumer Care" server who HELPED me out by giving me an incorrect identification number to return the double order I had received. When I saw my credit return yesterday online, I had lost over $50.00 for their error. What had been a $103.plus purchase (twice charged) returned $63.00 on my investment. Now, try to find anyone to speak with to correct this ROBBERY! Forget It!

Except for that, I think it is a tremendous "American Shame" that rudimentary jobs such as this must be sent to a country such as India. What it tells me is that an "All-American" company such as Dell isn't proud enough to hire american workers here and wishes it could operate solely in another country to "save" money to make money. No wonder we Americans are looked down upon so greatly in countries who don't have our standard of living - they are being used to make American companies RICH...ER! AND, they know it and resent it!

Anonymous said...

I purchased a DEll 820 with 512mb video. I was specifically told that this was a dedicated 512mb card. Once I get it, I see the bios sees only 256 not 512 or 256 shared only 256.

Dell went through a number of problem solving trials.

Flash the bios
Reinstall video card software.
Claim that Windows overrides Bios and that what the motherboard sees doesn't matter. Backed off when I asked about motherboards that can't handle more than X number of Gigs of Ram or X number of gigs of HDD.
Pressure me into giving explicit descriptions of how performance was affected by only having 256 ram.
Set up tech call.
Cancel tech call, claim that 256mb is shared even though bios can't read it...it is there.
Refuse return, told me I should have read specific documentation about how the motherboards work and the turbo memory. Told me I would need to pay for shiping and 15% restock.

Called Nvidia. Dell 820 is the only motherboard that can not read the additional 256 on the card. There is 256 shared, but the board used may not be able to see the card. LOTS OF COMPLAINTS TO NVIDIA.

Result.... Gave laptop to wife. Bought the remainder of the 15 laptops for the office here at the university from Toshiba. $2,290.00 *15.

Dell does everything to be obtuse and lie. They promised specific performance then treated me like I should know everything about their motherboards...which according to NVIDIA can't even see the ram.

Peter Plantec said...

I wish I had read this stuff BEFORE I bought a Dell 1505 maxed out. It completely failed within about a month of purchase. I'd paid for the top end in home service. They sent a guy with a new mother board. That didn't fix a thing. He said no problem i have to return it to the Depot for repair...have it back in 5 business days. That was two weeks ago. I've spent more than six hours on the phone with dell customer and tech people with the same zero info run around. They then said it was on hold for a new mother board. I explained that the mother board had already been replaced. I get, "Oh, perhps that is not exactly the problem..I can only tell from the notes." I've lost thouands of dollars in missed deadlines and I'm really pissed. Still don't have my 1505. I went to a Dell Kiosk and asked if I could plug my hard drive into (thank god I kept it with me) his 1505 and put some important documents on my Jump drive. He said okay, no problem...wait till he finished with his customer. He kept me waiting almost 40 minutes while he worked with a customer and made the sale. Then when I gave him hard drive ( I had told him exactly what I needed) he said "Oh...I can't do that...don't have a philips head driver. I pulled out my philips...he said well he was technical...I said I'd do it...it was a 3 minute thing. He wouldn't let me. Bastard. Every day I get more angry. I'm on the road at the moment and asked Dell to send it to me here...but It looks like the'll send it after I'm gone...more delays. These people are a pure nightmare. Somebody needs to get to Michael Dell and tell him what's going on.

Anonymous said...

Just got off the phone with Dell Tech Support and Dell Customer Service. What a joke. My new non-working Axim X51v was replaced by a dirty refurbished model. When I called to complain I was told I will have to ship back the original unit to have the warranty transferred to the dirty unit. Then they would consider sending out another refurb unit to replace the first refurb unit they sent me. Customer Care said that is the process and they are unable to change it or offer any compensation for the problem. She told me I had agreed to this by agreeing to the contract the unit was shipped with. Don't buy DELL.

Anonymous said...

I will never buy Dell again. This is the second time we have bought Dell computers for college students and they get to school and they don't work. We have spent hours on the phone and NO ONE CARES. Repairs are done by "second party" companies and Dell says they can't do anything. Well I can DON'T BUY DELL and continue to tell friends and family. I also own Dell stock that will be sold.
Kathy Godfrey

Anonymous said...

Unlike many here I have had great success with Dell & their customer service. So where does my Dell Hell begin. Its with the fact that when they send me a bill, a part or printer ink my city's name is Tierra Madre. Now, I live in Gilbert Arizona but not according to Dell. I live in Tierra Madre. I googled Tierra Madre and can find no such city in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA with that name. DELL - the zip code 85234 is for GILBERT ARIZONA - get it thru your thick head or my 4th computer will NOT be a DELL.

Anonymous said...

This link http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_410?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab shows a picture about 2/3 way down the page of a computer with the IEEE port and the text in the Ports, Slots, Chassis section says it has "IEEE 1394 - 1 front-panel 6-pin serial connector." No mention of this being optional was present. I ordered it and it came without the IEEE. I spent 2h 29min last night with 4 different customer representatives who gave me the runaround and didn't resolve the problem. I called my sales guy today and he said he will fix it. I hope so.

Anonymous said...

# Arnie Diamond Says:
September 27th, 2006 at 3:27 pm

Dell is the WORST tech company I ever dealt with and I was their most loyal customer. I recommednded Dell to everyone. One day my Inspiron laptop showed a blotch in the lower righthand corner. I called in since my warranty is still in effect and I was told it sounds like a cracked LCD. Two weeks later it is returned unfixed with a note that since I didn’t pay for the repair they are returning it. No one ever told me I needed to pay for an in-warranty repair.

After many calls, I was told that cracked LCDs are not covered and that the service person who had me send it in has been reprimanded Their customer service people are taught not to honor warranties. This guy made a mistake by trying to honor my warranty). The warranty said nothing about this. Eventually some person from India told me that accidental damage is not covered. I told them I did not have an accident. I use the laptop because it takes up less space on my desk. I never carry it around. It never dropped. The person from India kept explaining that it is not covered.

I wrote many letters to Dell complaining. Finally, an American from “customer service” called simply to tell me the warranty will not be honored. He said I had to have flung the laptop against a wall or something.

I will NEVER BUY FROM DELL AGAIN AND RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE, WITH THE COMBINATION OF THEIR TERRIBLE SERVICE AND REFUSAL TO HONOR THEIR WARRANTIES, DON’T BUY DELL- EVEN IF THEY ARE CHEAPER! Ultimately they are not cheaper when you count the aggravation, time spent on the phone waiting for tech help to pick up, and their not honoring their warranties. Spend a little more and buy from a legitimate company that wants your continued business and not just your money.

Anonymous said...

My Dell Inspiron lasted two days before never coming on again! I returned it, which like all of Dell's customer service was a saga in itself. And now I'm chasing my reimbursement, I've spoken to four people already this morning and the fourth person can't find a record for my purchase, but all three earlier operators could.
Don't buy a Dell comouter unless you have a lot of time spare to wait to speak to Dell 'Customer Care' on the phone.

Anonymous said...

I like my DELL computer, I have no problems except their "rip off" prices with the replacement ink cartridges for their printers. One cannot buy generic ones. Fair enough, but when I buy their OVERPRICED ONES They have the gall to send you an envelope to send them back the empty ones so they can make more money. IF THEY GAVE ME SOME DISCOUNT ON THE NEW ONES, I WOULD DO SO. I just throw them away. I WILL NEVER BUY A DELL PRINTER EVER AGAIN.

Anonymous said...

I am a member of the United States Coast Guard and purchased a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop in order to have some kind of entertainment with me as I travel to schools and go underway next year.
The Laptop was upgraded with a 1.86 Core 2 processor, Nvidia 7300 Video processor and 1GB of ram. Not being fully up-to-date on laptop specs, I asked the salesperson over the phone if this computer would run games without any problems. He told yes, it should run games fine for a few years.
Knowing that I would be on a ship next year; I also purchased a 4-year warranty.
I receive the computer on Sept. 23rd, and sure enough it played a few games I had around the house, but not as quickly as I had hoped.
On October 1st, I had to attend a school in California, and I took the Dell with me. In the two weeks I was at this school, I encountered numerous problems with the laptop. Trying to install games, for instance, worked fine if the game only had one disc. If I had to swap discs during the install it locked the computer up and I’d have to cold boot it.
If I played games for more then 3 hours, it would cause the computer to lock up and I’d have to reboot (overheating, maybe?). It would also not connect to the wireless internet at the bar on base; this was odd simply due to the fact that the person sitting next to me had the exact same Dell (without the video card) and got right on the network. I worked with the computer for two days trying to get it to connect and I could not.
The final issue that popped up on my trip was that I could not play any DVD movies on the laptop. It did not matter which program I used (Windows Media player, PowerDVD, or the player that is part of XP Media Center) the movie was choppy and the sound stuttered.
Upon my return to Indiana, I contacted Dell Technical support and explained what was going on. They said that they would fix the issue with the DVD drive (all they did was to delete a line in the registry), as for the other issues: They could not help, explaining that since it was not happening now, there was nothing they could do to fix it (never mind that it’s a three-week old computer and I’ve had this many issues with it) I requested that perhaps I should return it and get a new computer, but was told to “hold out” and see if I can get the problems fixed. I was not told about the 21-day return policy.
I found out on November 3rd that this computer would not work. I purchased the game “Neverwinter Nights 2” and installed it on the laptop. The game would not run well. So I adjusted all the graphics options to their minimums and the game would run, but was extremely choppy and had multiple graphical corruptions (lines in the screen, etc.), and the laptop would still restart itself after a few hours of play. The game plays exactly the same on my wife’s $400 Acer laptop.
I contacted Dell customer support again on Nov 6th. when I got on the line with a real person, I explained my situation, and told the person that I no longer wanted to own this laptop and want to return it for the $1495 I paid for it. He told me that I could not return it for the full value because I was over the 21-day limit- and it's 21 days from the day you order it, not from the day you recieve it, and if I wanted to return it I would lose at least 25% of the value of the computer (I would have to eat over $400 to return a computer that doesn’t work). He did offer to make the situation right by giving me a $50 gift card that I can use at Dell.com to buy games- because my computer plays them so well.
I requested to speak to a supervisor and was told that if I talked to a supervisor I would not receive the $50 gift card, which was fine.
I was put in touch with a supervisor to whom I explained my issue with the laptop and that I wanted to return the laptop for a full refund and be done with it. He told me that I was over my 21-day return policy and there is nothing they can do, but since I do have a 4-year warranty; tech support might be able to help me get it running better. I told him that I did not want to deal with tech support again, and I just want to be rid of the laptop and get my $1500 back. Again, he told me that I am stuck with the computer unless I want to lose the $400 on it. He then re-iterated that I should contact tech support so that they can fix my computer. Sensing nothing more coming from him, I accepted this and was transferred.
The tech support guy had me run a series of self-diagnostic test, which all turned out fine and wasted 85 minutes of my life. And just to further my faith in Dell support, at one point in the testing, an error message showed up when we tried to test the optical drive, this message said “There is blank or no media in the drive, please insert a disc with media on it to continue test.” I told the tech guy what the message said and he informed me that my hard drive was bad. I explained No, this is telling us that the computer wants me to put a CD in the drive, and sure enough, after I did that, the test passed. He was at a loss and explained that the computer works fine and there is nothing else that he can do, and to have a nice day.
So, for the time being I am stuck with $1500 electronic paper weight that I am supposed to keep to 4 years. If it cannot run games that are out now, how I am supposed to use it 3 years from now?

Stuart Cooper said...

I placed an order on Oct 31st for a Dimension E320. At the time of placing the order, the website would not allow the Vista upgrade to be selected for this system, despite several attempts, claiming it was not compatible with XP Pro even though it was a selectable option. Having given up, I placed the order without and decided to call Dell in the morning to amend the order.

The following morning I went through the same options on the website and noticed that all was now working correctly. I then telephoned Dell Customer Care to get the order amended. Unfortunately, I was told that this was not possible! Despite my request involving NO physical changes to the machine, I was told that it was impossible for Dell to amend an order after it had been placed! Naturally, I wasn't going to accept that a multi-million dollar company has no way of amending orders, so I asked that my request be escalated and was promised a call back by the end of the day.

Two days passed. No call-back.

On the third day, I received an email from Dell with a new order number. I called Customer Care again, only to be told that the previous order had been cancelled at my request (which I hadn't requested) and a new one created! This was the only way that I could receive the free Vista upgrade. Except - you guessed it - the new order was exactly the same as the first! So... still no upgrade. I complained about this and wasn't able to be provided with an answer and was promised a call back later that day.

Two days passed. No call-back. Again.

Today, my system arrived. I plugged it in and switched it on, to be greeted with fan noise so loud that when I called Customer Support I had to move to a different room to hear properly. I explained the problem and was told that I must go through diagnostic procedures to determine what was making the noise. I pointed out that it made no difference to me as it would have to be returned regardless of the cause - I was then told that I must "co-operate".

Firstly, I have a brand new PC making a lot of noise when it is supposed to be "silent" - I have no interest in what is causing the noise as it will have to be returned for repair whatever the cause ( I wanted a replacement, but was told that was "not possible"). Secondly, as I do not work for Dell, I see no reason why I should spend my time doing unpaid diagnostic work to save Dell time when it returns to the factory,

The PC is supposed to be collected tomorrow to be repaired as I cannot apparently have a replacement. Will anyone turn up? I wonder. And will I ever get my free Vista upgrade? Somehow I doubt it.

Frankly, given the difficulty in making myself understood to Indian folk with a poor grasp of the technology and English, and the difficulty in understanding them, I am so worn down by the experience I've as good as given up. I wonder if that is their intention.

That said, I would love to have an explanation as to why a company the size of Dell can not amend an order, even when it is purely paperwork.

I would also like to have a working PC that has been adequately tested prior to leaving the Dell factory.

I would also like to have the paperwork for my free entitlement to the Vista upgrade.

What are the chances?

Anonymous said...

DELL Inspiron 5150 that my daughter has at school. Hard drive replaced last year. On 10/13/06 the machine goes blank, two technician visits yield no results, incorrect parts ordered, technicians not orering correct parts, technicians not contacting y daughter for a return visit, then I contacting DELL to have the laptop delivered to a service center to get fixed, and herre I am one month later, no update as to status. What kind of redicilous service model is this. For my time and DELL chat/service call time they could have replaced the laptop from the get go. As the owner of 4 DELL products, soon to be 3, I would never purchase another DELL again, nor will anyone who comes in earshot of me. His has been the most horrific customer srvie experience I have ever had.

Anonymous said...

I hate dell. This August I bought an inspiron e1505, when I first got it it had massive problems, it ran extremly slow and would not connect to the internet wirelessly. After hours on the phone with nobody that spoke English I tried to tell them that it had to be the wireless card. Finnaly after a week of sitting on hold and talking aimlessly with customer support I got a hold of a manager who sent me a new wireless card. Now, my period fell off of my keyboard out of knowhere it wasnt loose, I didnt drop it, nothing happened to it, and they better send me a new keyboard as my hardware is under warranty, I have a feeling that they will not.

Anonymous said...

We bought an Inspiron 1505 in Julu 2006. It is now Nov. 26 and it has yet to connect to the Internet. Kara has spent countless hours (every weekend) on the phone with a Dell tech and --nothing. They keep saying "give us one more chance". I am totally disgusted. A laptop that won't connect to the Internet is useless. She might as well have a typewriter.

And they refuse to replace it because they want "one more chance" to make it work.

Anonymous said...

We ordered a DELL on the 8/11/2006 for my son's birthday.

The first thing that made me a bit fed up was that they instantly updated the spec and dropped the price on the machine we tried to buy. A complaint to DELL just got the response that we couldn't cancel and re-order. In fairness to DELL they did ring and say they would ring and discuss after delivery.

That's when the problems really started - we made an appointment for the delivery on the 15th which involved ensuring someone was here all day. Nothing happened! The same thing on 18th, 20th and 21st. We managed (after countless phone calls) to get hold of the actual delivery company who informed us that the items had been marked as 'could not find' or something similar, some time previously. DELL / Walsh Western were arranging deliveries for an item which they knew had already been lost! This led to considerable disruption to us and upset for my son who is only 11. Still had no indication (on 25th Nov) from DELL as to how they intend to resolve the issue. I now see no alternative but to use the 'Small Claims Court' to find a resolution.

Having had a look about on the WEB similar problems seem to be common for DELL customers. I won't use DELL again despite being a customer for years. When things go wrong they seem incapable of sorting it out. They just seem to think that you're greatly honored to be a DELL customer. Customer service consists of broken promises and inactivity.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell laptop in June 2005. I left for an overseas deployment in July 2005. While overseas my motherboard crashed. I had a hard time getting it fixed because they wouldn't ship it back overseas. Once returned, the motherboard crashed again. This time I waited until I returned home in May 2006 (I had only six weeks left when it crashed the second time). I returned home and the motherboard was replaced only to have it crash a third time. It was fixed again, only to have the hard drive crash....one day after my warranty expired. Needless to say, Dell wanted me to pay for a new hard drive. After a few correspondences, Dell replaced my hard drive with a refurbished one. I lost a majority of my deployment pictures, not to mention pictures of my family too. Two weeks later, the mother board crashed again for the fourth time. I gave the laptop away. Unfortunately, I purchased another laptop before my second overseas deployment in June 2006. Dell sought fit to close my account due to missing two payments. I missed these payments due to not having computer access at the time because of where I was stationed overseas. When I got to a computer with internet access is when I found out my account was closed. Dell advised me that I had to pay the payment in full. I advised them that under the Service Members Credit Relief Act that I could not be held accountable for a missed or delayed payment with good probable cause. Dell still refused to reinstate my account to allow me to make payments on my account.
I have never dealt with a company that has put customers last like Dell does. I will never never purchase another Dell or Dell affiliated product again.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that any company that has the customer service that Dell has, can survive. We have spent HOURS on the phone to people in India who don't seem to have a clue and keep asking the same questions. People LIE and say they will phone and then don't, and Dell has a careless disregard for other people's time. I am now wasting a whole day wating for Dell to Call...they didn't, and then to arrive...I hope they will but I'm not holding my breath. I will NEVER, NEVER advise anyone to use Dell. They should remember the old adage....if it's godd, you tell your family, if it's bad, you tell EVERYBODY. Well, I am doing my best to do the latter!

Anonymous said...

Dell diagnosed my screaming video-card fan over the telephone as an obvious virus attack, which is a software problem that relieves them from honoring the on-site hardware warranty I had purchased. They did offer to help me reformat my hard drive if I paid $100 for this software "support". I bought a new video card and installed it myself, curing the problem (natch). A colleague pointed me to this web site, where someone had posted the web address of the Texas Attorney General's office. I contacted them and they forced Dell to reimburse me. I highly recommend this approach. The Texas AG office is relentless on this. Web address is: https://www.oag.state.tx.us/forms/cpd/cpd_getcounty.php

Ruth said...

I have just hung up the phone after spending 6 HOURS trying to get someone at Dell to drop their script and either A) fix my computer or B) honor my warranty -- we paid for extra coverage -- and send me a new computer.

Every person I talk to insists that they are the one who can repair my system. I tell them that we have "24 Hour At-Home Customer Support", which apparently doesn't mean what their website says it does. The website defines it as: "At-home service provided via third-party contract with customer. Technician will be dispatched if necessary following phone-based troubleshooting often the next business day. Availability varies. Other conditions apply."

The (many, many) people I have spoken to on the phone claim "24 Hour At-Home Support" means that I can call them any time I want to and that the "3rd Party Support" is really just a guy who knows how to install the new parts that THEY determine I need. They then proceed to do a bit of this and a bit of that ... and IF they manage to correct the presenting complaint, they leave me with a whole new set of problems. Yesterday a supervisor who called himself "Victor" said he could fix the intermittent blue screen problem we had been having ever since last Thursday, when their technician took control of my computer to help me reinstall Windows XP. He walked me through the set up utility, had me click here and there ..... and left me with a permanent blue screen, unable to launch Windows at all.

Then he hung up on me. So far, three of Dell's techs have hung up on me as soon as they realized that they had not only failed to fix the problem, but they had made it worse.

Since Nov. 30th, I have spent over 20 hours on the phone trying to fix this problem, 11 of the past 24 hours alone. The hard drive was reformatted on Nov. 30th and, when that failed to solve the problem, replaced. We have a new power source cable. According to the tech who put in the new hard drive -- THE ONLY PERSON FROM DELL WHO HAS EVER SEEN AND HEARD THE SYSTEM IRL -- the loud noise we're hearing is coming from the fan motor on the video card, and we need a new one. I cannot get anyone on the phone to accept his diagnosis.

Today's round robin was capped off when "Kevin" managed to get Windows up and running, while simultaneously erasing the printer drivers. He then fobbed me off onto some guy who supposedly specializes in "printer issues", and I was asked to go over the computer's history again.

That's when I lost it for the final time and insisted that I need to speak to someone working on my continent, who is authorized to actually DO SOMETHING. He told me that he was going to send this to "Higher Management", who would get back to me in 24-48 BUSINESS HOURS.

I moved from "lost it" to "apoplectic" and told him that if I don't hear from "Higher Management" within 24 hours .... I am getting my lawyer involved (it helps to have one in the family). I will also be calling the Better Business Bureau and filing complaints with the Attorneys General of Massachusetts and Texas.

I have a warranty. They obviously cannot fix my computer, so it should be replaced. End of story.

Oh, and a word of advice to anyone who answers tech calls at Dell: when you're faced with a situation like mine, saying "I understand, and I promise to help you" when the customer is describing her voyage through the Circles of Hell doesn't, actually help a bit.

Anonymous said...

Here I have posted an overview letter the the chief BS'r at Dell's Home/Business section.


December 14, 2006


Mr. Rosendo G. Parra,
Senior Vice President
Home and Small Business Group
General Manager of Home and Small Business
Dell Inc.
One Dell Way
STED
Round Rock, TX 78682-2244

Re: Complaint re: Technical Support Operations

Mr. Rosendo:

In January, 2004 I purchased an Inspiron 5150. As you know a class action was filed against Dell for non-disclosure and other issues. While I supported this class action I believe that it is your Technical Support that is the root of your problem aside from not advising consumers of defective hardware in the laptop.

I understand that some technical calls go to either Manila or East India, and I have worked with both places to solve minor and major problems. These people speak very broken English and are very hard to understand. I found dishonesty in these people almost more than their absolute inability to understand hardware problems. In almost all call the techs are referring to manuals while trying to solve specific problems, or they put me on hold while they are, I assume, getting information from a supervisor who are also the problem at times.

May I suggest that you get on a computer and pull up my file and look at the problems I’ve had with Tech Support. I assume there will be a record of my behavior – duly warranted – along with my hardware issues.

Dell must bring the technical support department back to the United States in order to give your customers the “policies and practices important in ensuring that Dell is governed and managed with the highest standards of responsibility, ethics and integrity” - referring to your shareholder meeting in the “Corporate Governance” statement as to the Board of Directors’ function.

In investigating Dells performance and complaints on the Internet, there are 500% more complaints about Dell’s customer service issues than any other computer manufacturer! How can Michael Dell make statements in both Dell’s Code of Conduct and in the Board of Director’s Corporate Governance when you have enormous problems with your Technical Department and customer satisfaction.

My next problem with technical support will be directed to your Board of Directors in a lengthily, well-detailed written report. This is how aggravated I am about the so-called customer service I have received.

In referring to personnel ‘lying’, on every occasion that I would be given a phone extension number for “if you have any problems at all”, Dell has a message that ‘this number is no longer in service.’ Call 1 800 724 4246 and you’ll get a voice mail message. Then call 1-800-624-9896 EXT 7284246 (VICTOR 01108517).

Further, the statement’s by Dell in the Code of Conduct and Michael Dell’s BS introduction to the shareholder’s is just junk that he is dedicated the shareholder’s when it should be Dell’s customer’s Dell should be gratefully for and who brought Dell and its shareholders billions of dollars in business?

Mr. Rosendo, take pride in your position and make significant changes regarding your technical support problems.

Anonymous said...

I will not EVER purchase another Dell product. From day one I've had nothing but problems with the idiot children they hire in India. My all in one 962 has stopped scanning and faxing properly, after maybe 10 uses in the last year. Of course, I am now out of warranty and they won't do diddly squat about their defective product. I'm going right back to HP products. Dell's printers and customer "service" are absolutely useless.

Nancy said...

I’ve spent about 3 hours on the phone with Dell over the last
month, trying to get my 16 year old daughter’s 2005 Christmas present (an Inspiron 6000) fixed and now I think it's the vertical line problem with the LCDs at www.dellverticalline.com. I've already told them to send
it back because I just couldn't waste anymore time or my life on their stupid customer service run around. But now I realize if you don't say the right "almost a lawsuit problem" they will blame it on your handling of the product. Here is what happened to us:
> I was busy moving, so my daughter took it upon herself to call in and try to get our “under warranty” laptop repaired. She said the word “dropped” and we are totally hosed now. The laptop’s audio never worked right, the keys started to fall off randomly and then the LCD screen went (which I now am sure is the vertical line issue that Dell won’t acknowledge). She’s 16, she knocked it once harder than she
thought she should and felt responsible and was honest with them. Now they say the motherboard needs to be repaired and we have to pay $798. I flipped at that and guess what … the price changed to $490 plus taxes. I gave them a choice since I knew we were doomed because she said “dropped” … I offered $200 to fix the LCD since I knew her words couldn’t be erased off their work order AND we would buy the 3 year, $209
accident insurance OR years of my badmouthing Dell and never being a
customer again. They wouldn’t budge. So you know, I feel much more comfortable giving the
> probably $400 repair money to a local businessman and making sure I tell everyone that Dell products aren’t worth the hassle of the
guaranteed repair needs.
>They need to tell the customer service people not to say, “Thank you for chosing Dell” at the end of an angry, unsatisfying call! I
said,”You are kidding right?"
Now that I've found www.dellverticalline.com
I am trying once more to get this
resolved. This time when I mentioned this website and that I think that is our LCD problem all along, the customer service tech guy was gone while I was on hold for, no kidding, 10 minutes. I think that means I have a slightly better shot at getting this resolved than I did earlier this morning.
But again, based on problems I've read all over the web in Dell Hell, if I pay for a 3 year $209 warrantly I'll just go through this again, won't I!?
OH ... guess why I haven't been getting emails?
Because their spelling system ... "f" as in frank, "u" as in unbelievable, "t" as in tirade, "t" as in tired of being on hold, "o" as in ornery, "n" as in "nuff" already, "b" as in bizarre, "a" as in AAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh, "y" as in you're kidding me, "m" as in mad as hell, "e" as in error, "d" as in despicable, "i" as in idiots, "a" as in the A word @yahoo.com FAILED MISERABLY and they've been sending my emails to futtonmaymedia@yahoo.com instead of suttonbaymedia@yahoo.com.
Dell Hell is such an apt description. And I'm am trying to be forgiving of the language barrier, everyone needs a job. But this system isn't working. The problem started when my daughter couldn't understand a word the customer service guy said and vice versa. This is just an inexcusable business practice.
Please go to www.ihatedell.net and complain there as well.

Anonymous said...

My hard drive crashed on my Inspiron after 6 months. 3 times they sent the wrong hard drive, and 2 of those were refurbished (used) hard drives; they even said they ran out! I was not able to work from home for 2 months. But dealing with Dell Hell was a full time job.

They replaced it with an upgrade Inspiron but the keyboard and screen broke within 2 months.

I asked for their address to complain, but they refused. I reported to BBB. A Dell rep called and told me to send the computer back and to stop talking about it; she also implied I was one of the few with problems.

Warranty? What Warranty? HAHAHAHA. btw, thought I came up with Dell Hell - so many of you beat me to it.

Anonymous said...

I have over the last 7 years purchased 5 computers from Dell. I have seen a steady decline in their customer service and have vowed to NOT make another purchase through them again. My last purchase, a laptop was supposed to come with a rebate. That was over a year ago and I have not received it, and when I call Dell I get 1) An individual whom I cannot understand and 2) No satisfaction at all in regards to the rebate. I have had a few other issues over the past few years and one being that I had a $1500 balance that I paid off with a Bank Check in total. It took me nearly 4 months and threats to go to the BBB and my attorney general before they would credit my account for that and continued to bill me!!!! I was required on 3 separate occasions (after I originally paid them in full), to make a COPY of my bank check, along with my billing statement and send it to this "special" dept and they would correct everything. 3 times I did this and then went to the Better Business Bureau and Attorney General. It was very quickly rectified once the BBB and Attorney General got involved.

I feel for the most part, in my experience anyway, that their product is a decent one. Of those 5 machines, I have only had one that has given me a problem and it is only 2 years old. It is going to need a case fan. The model is a Dimenion 4600C and I have actually read on the internet alot of problems with this particular model and the "thermal event" error message and the case fan malfunctioning. My main computer that I purchased in January 2002 has never given any trouble. I have upgraded memory but that is about it. But back then, I don't think India was involved and in general, they made better products and better Tech people (Americans). I did continue to purchase until the last couple of years when their support and the issues that I had caused me to rethink ever buying from them again.

I find it very unfortunate that they cannot give better customer service/tech support/product and are out-sourcing American jobs to India and to individuals who are NOT tech support people. I think the problem with Dell is that they sell the product, get the money, and do not care about the consumer, especially the sole individual. Greed...bottom line.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely HATE Dell!!!! I have never had so many problems with any other company, ever! They are so absolutely incompetent it is unbelievable!!!! I purchased my Dell with my sister's help, who is a computer know it all and web designer. She told me what to purchase and I chose every component she recommended. When I got my inspiron it did not have the DVD burner I ordered, nor the blue tooth installed. Dell told me it was my fault and gave me a measly $35 coupon! I ordered the burner Dell recommended for my model and paid the difference. But, when the part came, it was the wrong one! Another long phone call and email chat later, they were supposed to send me the correct burner (for only $5 more) and I would send them back the wrong one. Instead, they sent me back the same wrong burner!!! Another long phone conversation did not resolve my problem. The rep (in India!) said they refused his request to swap the correct part for the incorrect one and my previous order had been cancelled. Instead he just gave me a refund and told me to call sales. Who has time for this crap???? I asked for a number or address to lodge my complaint but had none to offer me. What a joke! I have now spent countless hours with Dell trying to resolve a relatively simple problem. On top of all of this, the printer I ordered with my Dell also has glitches, but I cannot even get to that yet. who the Hell has time when you're in Del Hell? Never again. I'm going with Mac next time. I hope more people learn what a crappy company Dell is. Their big selling point--excellent customer service--is a big joke b/c they do not give these people the authority or the skills to handle problems, which inevitably arise. I hope they get exposed for what they are--an incompetent company that does not exist to please its customers anymore, though it got so big, presumably on those same customoers. Well, if this happens to others, which it surely must, Dell's stock will be falling fast.

Anonymous said...

I purchased a Dell Dimension 5150 in April 06 and it was a great machine until the infamous DVD+R combo drive stopped working. I called technical support and they were very polite, we tried their usual gammet of "try this, try that". I went through the motions, but I knew the drive was screwed. Anyhow, still under warranty, they said they would send a replacement drive to a local vendor who would then contact me and make arrangements to replace the drive. No problem, except its been almost a month now and when I e-mail Dell asking what is happening, I keep getting these apologetic e-mails that this "I assure you that your situation is not indicative of the quality service Dell is capable of providing." but still no action after almost 4 weeks. I'd like to say Dell's customer support sucks, but it can't suck, it doesn't exist! If my problem isn't fixed in 5 days, I'm never buying a Dell again. As it is, I doubt that I will ever buy one again. There's a reason Dell are the cheapest (maybe next to e-machines) on the market.

Anonymous said...

I purchased three Dell laptops two years ago for my children. Because they are kids I purchased the "Complete Care extended warranty" something I never do, and would never do again. The sales person assured me this would cover parts, and next day in home repair by a technician. Right! 92 days after the computers arrived a key fell of the keyboard of one of them. I called customer service, and spoke with someone in India. I was told the manufacturer's "generous" 90 day warranty had expired. I explained purchasing the "Complete Care Warranty". The C.S. person told me that warranty did not cover parts. What else could it possibly cover I asked. "Nothing" was the reply.

After several rounds of phone calls between the nice fellow who sold me the "Complete Care Warranty" and the nice folks in India, I was finally patched through to someone in Idaho and had a keyboard the next day.

Problem solved? Absolutely not. Fast forward to December 30, 2007. One of the LCD screens failed. I checked online and found that my "Complete Care Warranty" was still good. Chatted with Dell C.S. who said a new LCD would be shipped to a technician who would contact me to install it. I thought "Cool" Dell finally got their C.S. stuff together.

Not so. One day later I receive a phone call from an english language learner who tells me Dell is having an internal computer problem (Sounds like Microsoft) and my LCD shipment will be delayed. She promised someone would call me back to keep me informed. Right! checks in the mail...

This morning I chat with another Dell C.S. rep. She actually typed that my "Complete Customer Care" warranty does not cover parts. When I asked what it did cover she typed "nothing." I'm ready to crawl through the phone lines and strangle someone!

I recall having saved the nice fellow in Idaho's phone number. Amazingly it still works. Different guy but he eventually says my LCD will be here Monday, and my warranty will be straightened out.

I bet!

Anonymous said...

We have a $50 Dell Gift Card that came with a previous purchase. It doesn’t expire for another eight months and is branded by AmEx. I tried to use it online last week to purchase an APC surge protector, but there was no place to enter a gift card—only coupons. I tried entering it as a coupon, but it said it was invalid.

So I tried the website listed on the card and the site isn’t there.

So I call the 800 “call to order” number and… the rep can’t use the card, either (he only has a coupon entry spot and he also gets the invalid error). He has NO idea what to do and suggests I call the other 800 # on the card.

So I call the ‘other’ American Express 800 Customer service number, explain what happened, and the rep says something to the effect of “you need to talk to Dell regarding this card, here is the sales number.” She doesn’t care I was just talking to them and they sent me to her.

So I call the Dell 800 # she gave me and am routed to sales, where I get another Dell rep that has no clue. She suggests I call back again to hopefully get a rep who will know how to deal with it! Of course, each call requires me to go through the phone number/name/address confirmation.

So I call again and…you guessed it, another Dell rep that has no clue about the gift card ("Are you sure it’s not a coupon?"). This rep suggests I need to talk to Dell’s customer service and NOT sales. She forwards me.

So now I’m waiting to talk to customer service and I’m very irritated at this point. And guess what? The customer service person says I need to talk to Sales. NOOOOOO! I told her “I’ve been with sales (home and business) multiple times and they are clueless and gave me to you!” Okay, she says, let me put you on hold and I will get a new number for you to call. Fine, whatever. Minutes later, she calls and gives me the number… to the AmEx customer service line that I called in the beginning!

How can NO ONE at Dell or American Express have any idea how to redeem a gift card?

On Monday, I decided to try my luck ordering online again. Imagine my surprise when there was now a spot to enter a gift card! Interestingly, there was apparently $100 credit on my “$50″ gift card (my purchase was approximately $90, giving me a $10 remaining balance). Because this paid for the entire order, I did not have to enter a credit card.

When my boss received the confirmation email, it showed we had ordered THREE UPS units for a total of $290 (although the gift card was still listed as the only payment). Of course, this was one of the only times I hadn’t printed out the final order confirmation screen… so I had to call Dell and they say “Why yes you ordered three” and I say “I did not” and I was told that since they hadn’t been invoiced yet (or wherever we actually are in the ordering/billing/shipping process), it was possible to alter the order. By the end of the call, the rep said it was too late to alter the order so we would be receiving three items and we should send back two. She gave me a case number and said she would call to check up on the items’ arrival and return.

I then learned that someone from Dell called my boss last night to say the shipping address didn’t match the billing address… Interesting, since we didn’t technically have/use/need a billing address due to the gift card. But even so, we’ve ordered from Dell multiple times with the same shipping/billing information, so why the problem now? Anyway, the rep said something to the effect of “You have ordered three items for a total of $290″ and my boss said “No, we didn’t, plus we used a gift card.” He said “Do you want to use your preferred account for this?” No, we wanted to use the gift card. So he was clueless and was supposed to call back, which he never did.

Then we get an email saying that “While processing your order, we were unable to obtain credit card authorization from your bank or credit card company for this purchase.” Well, it wasn’t a credit card transaction, but I called the CC processing center to try and fix it. Of course, since it wasn’t a CC transaction, she transfers me to the gift card section. Of course, the gift card rep can’t help me (since I apparently have to redo the order, only ordering ONE unit), so she transfers me to sales—except somehow I can’t get sales or get put on hold and I hear this (after 10 minutes): "We’re sorry, we cannot continue to process your call. Goodbye."

Of course, each transfer requires me to go through the name/address/billing information. And when I called the regular 800 number back to get sales, I had to go through everything again. I told the rep I wanted to change the order to one unit. Fine. I want to use the gift card. Fine. Except that—are you ready?—he can’t get the gift card to work. He tells me he can place the order, but I will have to call the gift card people to get it working/figured out, and then I will have to call him back. And he tried to give me a case number.

At that point, I lost it. I told him to cancel the entire order and I would not be ordering.

Is it too much to ask that Dell teach their customer service reps how to use gift cards? Or to ask that reps could handle all issues, instead of being transferred eight times—and still not getting a resolution? What is the point of handing out Dell *Valued Customer* gift cards if it’s impossible to use them online and no one knows how to use them?

My boss (whom I was trying to order from) loves Dell, but after this experience, we will no longer be ordering from Dell. We certainly don’t feel like a valued customer after this experience.

Anonymous said...

Dell dishonors warranty/ownership transfer! 1.5 years after I successfully transferred the PC in to my name, it needed service. I called Dell and they told me to bad, we are not honoring it now. We don't care if we sent you a confirmation on the warranty/ownership transfer. So I'm screwed!

Debbie said...

My frustration is with Dell's Help Desk/Tech Support. If you are not on Dell's "special" customer list you will go through hell getting anyone from America to assist. Every time I called the 800 number I had to grule through someone in India, who I could not understand and who was not able to understand my problem. I finally had my issue resolved when I was given a work order number and then "connected" to an American Help Desk Assistant. They won't give you the number because they know you will call that number the next time.

Thanks, Michael Dell for selling out your American customers to India. Why doesn't Michael Dell (anonymously)call HIS techs in India (or wherever) and try to get a problem resolved. He would (or should) be so embarrased of who is representing his DELL name. But when you have the money he does he has others do that dirty work, so he will never experience what we do.

Shame on you Michael for getting too big to be a real person in a real world.

Anonymous said...

Last week I ordered an Insiron E1705 ($1733). To do so I had to give my SSAN, phone numbers, e-mail address, etc. I received an e-mail from the "salesman" confirming my order and stating that the shipment would be made within two weeks.
Today, a week after the order, I checked the internet to determine the status. The order had been cancelled. They "said" that they tried to call me on the phone (I was probably on the internet) and never thought of using the e-mail address I gave them - so they just cancelled the order without the courtesy of telling me.
Thanks a bunch, Michael Dell.

nocando said...

So... I wanted to buy a Dell 1505e (excellent erviews in the trades) for my Bro in England. (I'm in the US.) To keep everything consistent, geogrpahically speaking, I figured I'd make the purcase on Dell's Euro web site.

No go. The shipping address and the billing address have to be the same.

I buy the laptop from the Dell USA site. Receive it, tweak the settings for the UK, and mail it on to the UK.

Simple enough?

This whole process took more than three days of extraordinaryily frustrating telephone conversations and e-mails with non-Enlgish speaking Dell customer "service!?" individuals, two of whom simply hung the phone up on me, one before I even got three or four words into telling her what happened and the other, who wished me a Nice Day and hung up mid "conversation."

(This is not counting the several pick-up/hang-up experiences I had.)

The Dell tech guys I spoke with regarding the geographic specs and compatibilities of the model were, simply put, clueless. One of them had to go to a "supervisor" to answer just about every question I had for him. Often his supervisor-assisted question would be exactly the opposite of hs initial unassisted response.

I've owned my Dell Inspiron 700m for about two years now and it's largely served me well. (I'm not a game player, and I still have about 82% of my storage space available to me, so maybe that light load helps.

I'm in line to buy a new laptop. I will NOT buy a Dell, not because of the product (Fingers crossed on my Bro's 1505e) but because Dell clearly rates its customers somewhere between dog poop and pond scum.

Anonymous said...

I have a Dell Desk top I bought a year ago. the printer spool is not working. I have tried for 2 months, and still unable to make contact with a live person. today I made another try and after spending 20 minutes talking to a robot, it connected me with a line that sounded like it was underwater and I could not understand one word. I am a Dell stockholder and plan to go to one of the shareholder meetings if I can find out where they are held and to whom to speak
any info.
amyg93@aol.com

Dr. Robert Graves said...

I just bought two Dell Inspiron laptops last month. In less than four weeks, the 'M' key popped off of one, and the other laptop's power cord just stopped working today. I have to say that I find Dell's craft-manship to be seriously lacking, and its customer service is even worse.

Trying to contact Dell has been extremely frustrating as I have been hung-up four times, placed on hold for over 20 minutes at a time, and have been treated with disrespect and suspicion by the people I have actually been able to have brief conversations with before being placed on hold again or transfered only to be hung-up on.

If you would like more information or to ask questions about my experience with Dell please email at donotbuyadell@yahoo.com.

Don't buy a Dell. I spent almost $2000 on Dell equipment and have regretted ever since.

Anonymous said...

I work in the Roseburg call center, the first issue is the mandatory 2 to 3 hour overtime in our " slow season " and the expectation to hit our assigned goals when over 70% of our calls are people that after 4 hours begin to hate customer care out sourcing. to the agent this means ( for example ) 4 calls per hour or 52 calls in a 12 hour shift which means 36 calls are non sellable due to hanups, ghost calls, system tests people just wanting to know why thier vista upgrade cd hasnt been shipped, or why Customer Care keeps haning up on them or puts them on hold for 30+ minues, or the worst they get 3 to 4 hours of the " Dell Shuffle ". S in order to do my part to be proactive in dells new

Customer Experience Improvement Led by "Resolve in One"
As previously announced the company is investing an incremental $150 million this year on its Customer Experience initiatives and is seeing signs of improvement in key external and internal indicators. By increasing the number of agents, average hold times for U.S. customers have been reduced from nine minutes to three minutes in the past year. In addition, the company has reduced call transfers by over 30 percent and has improved first contact resolution rates by 20 percent. “Resolve in One” reflects Dell’s goal to resolve issues to a customer’s satisfaction on initial contact.

I take it upon my self to do the best i can to be the last person the customer needs to speak to to get thier issue resolved, very much to the dislike of my manager and ASM. I am old school you take care of the customer 1 at a time to the best of your ability no matter if your a sales agent or not, you do your best to make the unsatisfied customer satisfied or at least do your best, ignore the manager and asm that are only concerned about thier personal pay check and remind them.. my pay dose not depend on my manger or asm it depends on me. how ever the manager and asm's pay depend on thier agents. if they continue to pressure and mico manage and increase the stress already at absurd levels with the job every one looses, but if they realize taking a militaristic approach we all loose.if they take the approach that each team member is human and understrands things differant from one person to the next, and apply thier "Managment training aproporatly" metrics would go through the roof in a positive way and every one wins, as it is now they ride the agents too hard the wrong way ie you take 6 calls in the first hour they are all over you but at the end of the day your at 3.0 calls per hour what need was thier for all the stupid micro management and the stress created by it. or they have you work a 12 hour shift 4 call per hour= 52 call for a 12 hour shift which falls right in line with each call lasting 15 minuts as per the expectations set when we all went through traininig they harp on you give you verbals or writtens for what to make them selves feel like the big cheese? well to all the managers and asm's you can kiss my @#$ the customer is and always will be first with out them we are out of a job. so you do right by them on every call no matter how absurd or how long it takes, the customer on your phone is the most importaint person to dell untill a resolution has been found that is right and accecptable by the customer you then have some one who will call dell back and brag about how well they where taken care of. call times, close rates, metrics, and stacks mean nothing if we dont take care of the customer thats on our phone now!

Managers that feel its ok to say to you you have been on that call 40 minutes you need to get back into the Que and for some reason the customer hears this what do you think happens well for me i lost 4 sales and 7 computers totaling over 17000$ and was told by the customer well if thats how dell does buisness they will not get another dime from me! what do you say to that? how do you handle that situation other then saying yes sir/maam that was my manager/asm and i have been instructed to end the call, then you get a verbal for insabordination and then it happesn 2 or 3 more times, to which you say yes sir i have been instructed to end the call and get back in the que ( which got me a written this time ), which tells the customer on the phone that they and thier wants or needs take second plcae to some one else.... thats plain assinine, and real bad buisness. so they can fire me or what ever but i will continue to do my best to be the last person any customer talks to weather a sale or a problem or just a follow up to check thier order status weather the managers or asm's like it or not. simply becouse its the right thing to do by the customer. and the right way to do buisness!

Anonymous said...

I have an Inspiron 5160 with the persistent power problem (battery will not charge, charger not recognized) and the green stripe on the monitor. This started in July 2006 right after the one year warranty expired.
I called, e-mailed and generally struggled to get them to fix it, but Dell would not as the warranty expired.
To my suprise, I looked at the Dell website and found that Dell has extended / re-activated the warranty on the laptop.
I called them last night and had a completely different Dell phone experience. They were nice on the phone, and arranged for return shipping for a motherboard and screen replacement covered under warranty. I even received an e-mail with confirmation.
Something big has changed at Dell.

Unknown said...

On February 22, 2007, I received my order for a Dell Inspiron from Dell China. The following day, I informed my sales representative that it was defective. I have telephoned and emailed such that Dell China clearly understands that I have a defective unit. Nevertheless, still now (February 28, 2007), Dell has communicated no plan of action.

The details of my case do not constitute merely poor service, but a breach of contractual duty. The fact is that Dell China manufactured and shipped a defective computer and never fulfilled their contractual obligation to ship me a computer in good working order.

Unfortunately, my sales representative and the technical support agent think that by stalling, this issue will disappear. I have tried to escalate my issue to their supervisors, but they refuse to answer emails and screen my calls by caller ID.

As I am not able to escalate to Dell, I have little choice, but voice these unfair practices to consumer protection agencies.

If you would like more information, please contact:
craik_chen@DELL.COM
Julian_Zhu@Dell.Com
Leo_ma@Dell.com

Anonymous said...

I recently purchased a laptop computer from Dell. I have purchased both personal and business computers for many years and have always choosen Dell and have been happy with the product and customer service in the past. What a mistake I have made to choose Dell again! I immediately began having problems with my laptop, everything from a mobile card that doesn't work to error messages concerning drivers that are not compatible (all drivers and software were loaded by Dell). I have tried the customer service and tech support route and have been transferred to India or Malaysia and who knows where else, hung up on, lied to,and ignored. As an English speaking customer I think it's reasonable to expect FLUENT English from tech support. I notice all of the sales people I dealt with are FLUENT in English.
I am currently waiting for a return authorization from Michael Dell. I have sent three letters with no response yet.....wish me luck. I won't buy from Dell again!

Unknown said...

Purchased Dimension 3100 Series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor 524
Order number: 169665000

“Dell is committed to our customer experience, and delivering the highest standards of reliability and quality with all of our products.”

Here is a summary of my nightmarish experience with Dell.

Regrettably my NEW printer DOES NOT WORK. This is the fourth printer used on this Dell computer that was purchased this last July,

I explained to you on our last telephone conversation, when I installed this last printer, the same kind of error messages occurred that were seen with the other printers.

“Looking for new hardware” And something like “defective hardware.”
“Make sure printer is connected to computer and powered on”

I changed USB cable, I changed power cable, I turned the printer off and on, and I also switched to the LPT (?) type of cable.

When I told you this, you felt satisfied this was the solution and the problem all along was the USB port. I was frustrated over your suggestion because I had now gone full circle and KNEW that wasn’t the problem. With printer # 1, the LPT was originally replaced because it was considered the problem, now you were hoping it was the solution. With my tinkering, I finally got the printer installed and working. It printed maybe a half dozen documents.

The printer is now frozen and not printing at all. I am back to receiving messages that “Document failed to print.”

I have also encountered problems with Outlook, the same as before. For example I can’t view the calendar work week or month. I have also had the computer freeze while working in Word and had to shut it down and restart.

I bought a computer to use in my office. I bought BOTH THE HARDWARD AND INSTALLED SOFTWARE. The computer has not been reliable or stable since purchase. I have spent more than 5 hours last week alone with Dell, five times as long with not only Dell technicians, but I was also was sent to Microsoft, Symantec. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS A SOFTWARE PROBLEM, RIGHT?

There have been problems with Scandisk (returned to Dell) and Palm Zire 22.

One Dell assistant insisted it was a memory problem.

When I purchased the computer sales person recommended which model to buy and what to install for the needs of my law office. I encountered problems with several applications like Outlook, Anti virus program, Quickbooks. And there were printer problems.

Literally,hours and hours were spend on the telephone with techs from Dell, Symantec, Microsoft, Quickbooks and HP. Last week on one day alone I spent more than 5 hours with a Dell tech.

I hired and paid a technician to run an anti virus program. ($160.00)

Then I am told the pc as it came to me didn’t even have enough memory for Outlook alone! So I spend another $150.00 on memory sticks.

I have spent $450 on a new printer and ink cartridge.

I have replaced the USG and other cables and the surge protector.

I have lost hours and hours of billable time, probably 40 hours as a conservative estimate. My hourly rate is $225.00. I don’t get paid for hanging on the phone with various techs.

Finally a tech is suppose to arrive tomorrow to replace the mother board..

Too little, too late.

What will Dell do to meet it’s mission statement?


sallyanderson@saalaw.us

Anonymous said...

Sent my 2 month old Dell B130 laptop to Dell for repair. I received my laptop back today - BROKEN and parts missing.
When I opened the box there were plastic pieces sitting in the button of the box. They are part of the Express Port's spring-loaded push button used to eject an express card. The Express Port door is MISSING and the Touch-Pad mouse doesn't work now either. Who do they have fixing these things? A hippopotamus!
How do they expect me to eject an Express/PCMCIA card with a broken eject button.
They are the WORST!!!
When I talked to customer service they said they would send me another box to ship it back in because my contract does not cover sending a technician to my home to do the repair properly. MY CONTRACT ALSO DOES NOT INCLUDE HAVING DELL BREAK MY SYSTEM EITHER OR SENT BACK WITH MISSING PARTS.
The RIGHT thing to do would be to dispatch a technician to my home to fix what Dell broke. When I sent my system to Dell it had a battery-charging problem. Now it has another problem CAUSED BY DELL SERVICE TECHNICIANS. He Dude, you’re gettin’ Dell’d

Anonymous said...

I was billed by Dell Finiancial services for almost $400 for a purchase I never made. After numerous calls and complaints, I still don't know what I allegedly purchased. How do I get them to remove this charge from my account?

Anonymous said...

I bought an XPS 410 in 11/07. 90 days later the hard drive failed. Forget about calling Dell, you can't get through to tech support by phone. Chat is better if you have another PC. But here I am 4 days later and still waiting for the tech to show up with my replacement hard drive. I will never by Dell again.

Unknown said...

I purchased my Dell 4600C back in 2004 and I had problems with it from the beginning. However, around this time last year I would randomly get the "Internal Thermal Event Failure" and my computer would shut off and not reload for quite sometime. When I would call a representative they would just have me run a systems diagnostic and that is it and once that was over with, they would say the problem should be solved. This has happened several times throughout the past year. Finally, I get the "Thermal Event" message and a message saying "Fan Failure"... So, I try and fix it myself to no avail.

I once again go through the tedious process of contacting Dell customer support, this time to order a new part. I end up talking to an Indian girl who didn't really know what she was doing or what I was saying. I called them two weeks ago and ordered my part and I never received it. I called this past Monday to find out where my fan was and after talking to two different associates, I was told the order was cancelled because the customer wasn't happy with it. To say the least, I was irate, but I reordered the part.

I get the part in today and when I called to have them help me install it, I was on the phone for over 30 minutes and didn't get anywhere with the technician. When I asked to speak with a manager, the manager told me that he was going to send me back to the techician. This was after I told him I was having communication problems with the technician and I wanted him to help me get the original heat sinker out of my bloody computer.

I talked to the technician for another 5 minutes (without about 4.5 minutes of it silence) before I basically told them they ruined my life and hung up the phone.

Anonymous said...

I've just purchased a Dimension E521. When it arrived, there was no sound. A quick call to Tech Support put that right. Full marks, Dell!

Some days later, it started to crash unexplicably - when no user was logged in. Whilst Tech Support (the inevitable Indian call centre) were extremely accomodating and infinitely courteous, the language barrier made it very difficult to get the message across as to exactly what the problem was, and equally difficult for me to understand the solution they were proposing.

After a considerable number of on line chats, and a home visit from a not particularly impressive technician, the problem was still not sorted.

I finally obtained a solution when, by luck, I managed to get connected to a native English speaker in Tech Support (Northern Ireland) - problem explained and sorted within 10 minutes!

But why did it have to be so protracted and difficult??

It's about time that Dell recognised that out-sourcing their tech support to India might save money - but it can have an extremely negative effect on customers' perception of Dell as a whole.

Furthermore, there appears to be no way of contacting Dell by phone other than by the "if your problem is such and such, press 1" approach.

Anonymous said...

I'm thrilled to know I am no the only one having issues with the worst company on the planet...after having ordered an Inspirion laptop, six weeks later, it suddenly needed repairs. I then called Dell to get this figured out and the little Bangledesh guy verified my address FOUR times (even calling me back once). About a week later, my computer has made it back; however, it's an hour away from me in another town because they never updated the address despite all the verifications. I now have to drive down there to get it. I've never hated the customer service of a company so much, and I encourage everyone I know to never purchase from Dell.

Anonymous said...

My mother bought an Dell Inspiron 1150 with a 4 year extended hardware warranty (on site service with n/w) for my 21st birthday at the end of September 2004. It started having problems at the 20 month mark in June 2006.

The laptop would not recognize the ac adapter when plugged in. I looked it up in relation to the model I had. People mentioned a design flaw and Dell saying it was the motherboard. Sure enough, that's exactly what Dell said it was after troubleshooting.

Dell sent out a technician to replace the motherboard, but even after disassembling it and trying to figure it out a few times, he was still unable to get the laptop to power on. Dell said to send it in to their Depot. They replaced the system board, palmrest assy., keyboard, and heatsink. When it came back, it worked again.

A few months later in September 2006, the hard drive went bad, so Dell shipped a replacement drive.

December 2006, had to replace the motherboard twice as the first was doa.

April 2006, replaced the motherboard a fourth time. The laptop had high cpu usage from the first time I went to use it again. I troubleshooted back and forth with Dell until August 2007. At that point they insisted it could ONLY be the result of spyware or a virus. I wrote them back with this:

If you are so sure that this problem can only be
the result of a virus or spyware, prove it. I've had this laptop for 2 1/2
years. I've never had a problem with high cpu usage until the last time Dell
replaced the motherboard.
In that 2 1/2 years, Dell has had to replace the motherboard 4 times, and the
hard drive twice thus far due to a design flaw combined with an inadequite
heat sink and fan that progressively causes damage to the motherboard and
hard drive. The last and fourth time Dell replaced the motherboard in April
this year, they installed a different type of motherboard than in the past as
this one automatically shuts down the laptop when the tempeture gets to high
wheras previous ones did not.
This problem with high cpu usage was not there before the last replacement of
the motherboard, however, it was there immedietly after. If I was visiting or
installing something that installed a virus or spyware it seems strange it
would never have occured in 2 1/2 years until Dell replaces the motherboard
but then I can't manage to use my brain enough to avoid reinfecting my system
with it immedietly twice in a row after formatting and replacing the hard
drive. I'm not a tech person but you are asking me to suspend disbelief a
little to far with that one. Does Dell install viruses and spyware? Sounds
just as absurd as your claim.
Maybe, just maybe, the problem lies in connection with the new choice of
motherboard? Maybe, just maybe, Dell could avoid a lot of trouble by not
selling lemon computers knowing most people do not purchase an extended
warranty. I realize you are just an employee and not Dell itself but don't
continue insulting me by pulling random solutions out of your ass and
expecting me to believe you know what you are doing.
_______________________________

A week and a half went by with no response other than a customer care survey email. I emailed them about it and told them if they didn't at least make an effort to fix it as obligated by the two week mark on the 7th, I'd be contacting the BBB. Next day, there's a reply stating they'll be sending a tech to replace the motherboard. I was surprised at that point considering their previous stance and that they didn't try to confirm that was the problem unless they knew all along and didn't want to bother with it.

Anywho, the tech comes out and replaces the motherboard a fifth time and updates the bios. It fixes the high cpu problem but the laptop starts freezing one to three times a day. I contact Dell about it and they say sometimes that happens when the motherboard is replaced as the OS holds information on the old hardware. They instruct me to reinstall the OS. I save off what new files I have since the last backup, and start the reinstallation process.

So, Windows XP is now reinstalling, 34 minutes remaining while I go in the next room took cook dinner. I come back out a half an hour later and it's still at 34 minutes with nothing to indicate its doing anything at all. I realize it had frozen again, and power it off and try to power it back on. The laptop will not boot and merely shuts back off. I email them back via my Treo regarding the situation. Has to go back to the Depot to be fixed.

Get it back from the Depot, they replaced the cpu and it works fine again, but we all know it won't last before the motherboard and who knows what else needs replacing again.

Pain in the butt but I consider myself lucky as hell my mother got the extended warranty. *sigh*

cheap computers said...

Dealing with Dell tehnical support is a nightmare--just beyond belief in the sense that you have to experience it to really comprehend just how bad it is.