What The Fuck is with Dell Technical Support?!

Dell really blows. I've been trying to pay my bill for weeks now and I refuse to pay them the $10 check by phone fee for a credit card that I am paying 20% interest on... I mean, just how much is the 'privelege' of buying from them worth?

Grr... On a funny Dell note, when I got my EVDO card from Verizon it wouldn't work with my Dell laptop so the tech suppor guy, after an hour of uninstalling and reinstalling the same software, the guy said he had found my problem. He had me take down this long number and he said that Dell needed to replace my motherboard so the EVDO card would be compatible LOL

I bought a Dell laptop for my sister when she started Law school with the 3 year warranty. She had the motherboard replaced 3 times and then finally they gave her a new computer because they didn't have the old motherboard anymore. How they make money selling products that don't work is beyond me.

"The Dell 2405FPW UltraSharp Flat Panel LCD Montior I recently purchased ..."

That was your first mistake... :) Of course, isn't it silly you can't get the help you need on the Dell web site? I mean - phones? How 20th century...

Hey, this montior kicks ass. Well, the working one on my desk at work does...

http://flickr.com/photos/jzawodn/59409632/

There's a reason I deal with HP and IB...erm, Lenovo... Dell really has a terrible service. However, if you can buy their business systems then your tech support call won't be routed to India!

Silver linings...

Happy New Year, Jeremy!

That's not a monitor... THIS http://www.flickr.com/photos/spullara/1134457/ is a monitor!

Even more reason to just deal with HP ;) They seem to believe in customer support, even helped debug via their little javachat sessions when there are issues without even having to phone them ;)

Interestingly, I ordered a Dell monitor (the same model, in fact) through an employee discount, and had a similar horror story. In my case, my monitor order was mysteriously cancelled silently (I only noticed because it never arrived!).

I spent a full hour and a half on the phone with Dell, trying to get my monitor. At one point, I had a sales associate try to raise the price on me, lying about the discount for that month being over! Numerous reps had poor command of English, at least one was rude and deliberately transferred me to the wrong place, and the experience just plain sucked.

By way of contrast, at my first job in Silicon Valley, I knew a guy whose Inspiron died. He called up their tech support for help, and was waiting on an answer, when _Michael Dell_ called him, to make sure that everything was all right with the support he was getting. Evidently, at one point Dell would just call up people at random and see how they were doing. I was deeply impressed at the time, which is why I'm so sad to see Dell support so far in the toilet.

On the plus side, their flat panel LCD's kick all kind of ass -- almost worth the customer service nightmare!

Sam: you win. My monitor is a mere second to your 30" beast.

How is it that you (and a couple of others) have been getting the 24"? I just got my crappy 19" CRT swapped out and they gave me a 20" LCD (HP). I'm not complaining, the 20" LCD is far better than what I had. I just want to know who's leg to hump when the 30" Dell comes out. ;)

I really have no idea. I had asked for a 20" to replace my *personal* 20" LCD that had been on my desk at work for 2.5+ years. And I ended up with a 24" monitor.

Maybe you need to buy your own first and then ask them if they can do one better? :-)

That's the problem with outsourcing CS to India. Soon these companies will realize it probably does more harm then they save in $$.

What's that saying? "If I had a nickle for everytime..." I had a shitty customer service experience with someone in Inida I'd be a rich man!

I guess my question to you is, will you continue to do business with Dell? I sure as hell wouldn't. To many other companies that would bend over backwards to have a customer that we don't need to deal with this BS.

Wow, that's even worse than Yahoo! customer care...

it's the same here in Europe - got to stay clear of dell just in case you have to call their tech support, or even sales to be honest - I remember a client that ordered 3 70gb hot swappable drives, nothing arrived for months despite tons of calls and hair pulling then 7 arrived at once - (actually maybe that is a reason to use them!) nah the phrase piss up in a brewery springs to mind - HP and IBM all the way, at least you know they'll sort you out....

Dell lost the plot completey. I just wrote two stories about them on www.brandscribe.com (under Dell). What is sad is that when they started out they set the standard for customer service. Now Service doesn't excists anymore. At least not for the single user. And then they find it strange that they don't make the numbers anymore for Wall Street.

Walt Mossberg wrote a good story about Dell last Thursday in the WSJ. Worth reading.

Please stop blaming this on India -it sounds racist. I've been in the USA for 15 years now, and Customer Service has always been terrible, even when calls were most frequently answered by Americans. Today, Customer Service is _still_ terrible, but it has little to do with India. They follow the same scripts and procedures Americans used to. So please stop blaming this on Indian people. Grow up.

Indian,

I don't think anyone is blaming this on India, the qualms are with Dell, not a race or country. Let's be clear on that.

Yes, support is known to have sub-standard service than front line sales or fulfillment, and that's common in many industries both domestic and foreign, why?

Because support is the bastard child, it's often an 'afterthought' a 'costcenter' and receives less resources.

Sound familiar? This is likely the original driver why Dell outsourced their support overseas to a cost effective solution.

Here's what I believe the issue is, companies downgrading the value of support and finding a lower cost opportunity.

The age old value continues to hold true:
"you get what you pay for"

The only way to get Dell (and other companies) to change their way is to stop giving them business. But the thing is Dell is probably giving you a great price that's hard to beat, especially with the employee discount. As a previous post mentioned, you get what you pay for. Even if home customers stopped buying from Dell, they still have a huge corporate customer base. In general, Dell provides relatively decent support, but then again there are not many other companies to compare them to in terms of price and discounts. Sure they will screw you over every now and then, but I think their major customers' satisfaction is enough to keep them in business.

Personally, I prefer Apple, but the cost is so much more than PC hardware. For me it is worth it, for others maybe not.

Indian: Where'd that chip on your shoulder come from? I didn't write "What the Fuck is with Indian Tech Support?", did I?

No.

I have many friends in India who work in technical jobs. They do a fine job. But this bullshit that Dell tolerates is the problem, not the country in which it happens.

Indian,

I'm Indian too and I *am* squarely blaming this on call centers in foreign countries like India. In the years that I've been in the United States, the customer service has been steadily declining ever since call centers started to be moved to cheaper countries. The simplest things take an immense amount of time to convey. They either can't speak english or can't understand. And if they can/do then they can't or won't help. We all now Dell has their own share of problems besides sucky customer service but callous Indians are certainly not helping. It was a factor when I decided to move away from Dell and to Apple. I get excellent customer service every time and they can speak in English!

Wash off your psuedo nationalism and recall the customer service you used to get back in India and come back to reality.

Anjan

This could have been accomplished on their website in 5 minutes. Use their "Chat With Us" feature, and have an IM-style conversation with a human.

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop for my wife. While purchasing, I was having trouble locating the correct port replicator for this model. I used the chat feature, and after 2 minutes of explaining that I really knew what a port replicator was, and that I really wanted one, the representative had added it to my cart.

A week later, when I received the package in the mail, no port replicator. So I hopped on their chat thingy again, and explained the issue. After asking for my customer number, and looking up my account info, the representative was able to tell me that the port replicator had been shipped separately, was shipping via DHL, where in the world it was currently located, and a link to the DHL tracking website.

All in all, I thought they did a fantastic job. Maybe you just need to stay away from the phone :-)

Btw, some tips on dealing with Dell support:

If you have some piece of hardware that is not working, state to them that you have another identical hardware. For example, tell them you have 2 LCDs. Claim that the old one works fine, and when you put the new LCD in the same system, it does not work.

Next, claim that you also have an identical PC. The old LCD works fine in both systems. The new LCD does not work in either.

You can make alot of variations of this to cut down time. I think my shortest support call to them was 10 minutes, resulting in a replacement part shipped out.

In short: lie, lie, lie.

I have Dell computes and I think they're like anything else these days. If they work, they work great and you get years of good service out them. However, if they're defective, you're in trouble because most companies don't have real support anymore. (Note: there a few that do and god bless them, they're great).

What's sad in Dell's case is that at one time, many years ago, they're technical support was superb. That was before the call site based support and the IVR's.

I would add re: Indian outsourcing that there ARE cultural differences between India and the United States and that opens the door to confusion, misunderstanding and frustration. To make matters worse, and this is in general with other countries than your own, there are often cultural no-nos that can be incredible insults to one culture and are completely benign to another. I don't claim to know Indian culture so I have no idea if something like this exists, but one would think if you make an off-hand joke to an Indian and it turns out to be a highly offensive item, the tech could just shut down on you and not offer quality support. As a customer, I shouldn't have to worry about the delicate balance of not pissing off or insulting someone that might not be in my country. You know??

I'm sorry to learn of the problems you have had with this monitor. When you get one that's working I reckon you'll be very pleased with it.

Here's a curve ball for you all:

Dell support is shite, but then I put it to you all that that is why we buy from Dell...

I buy Dell because I know that they aren't leveraging expensive-to-maintain support into the cost of their products. It's why I **don't** buy from HP, IBM, etc.

Like most of the readership to this blog, I won't ever need technical support on my computer - which I've witnessed from friends and family how draining it must be for the computer company (People calling up to find out how to install a product or recover a deleted file, etc).

When I receive my computers the first thing I do is reinstall windows to my liking - which for Dell seems to invalidates the support (it used to back in the day, anyway).

The Dell monitor in question here is identical (other than outer case) to the same sized Apple Cinema screen. It's the same LG/Phillips LCD component with generic electronics added. But the reason I didn't buy the Apple one, is because the Dell one is half the price of the Apple.

Apple support ain't the best, but it's not bad, and certainly better than Dell. But I don't want to pay for premium support, so I choose Dell.

Sure, if it's dead on arrival than that's about the only time you do need support – but it’s a valid gamble because other than that there's little reason to ever need to call them again (and after 12 months the guarantee is gone anyway, so if it breaks you might as well buy a new one).

I do think Dell should manage expectations better upfront - but I don't think they should improve the support (assuming it would hike up the cost of their products to pay for it).

As a footnote, we’ve had the whole “outsell support to India” thing for sometime here in the UK. It’s not as good, but then the irony is that the companies know this. It’s just part of the progression towards leveraging their business as a value/budget proposition instead of a premium proposition. This polarisation is something we’re seeing a lot in Europe (Ikea, etc) , and no doubt in the States too – WalMart, etc. Let it continue, I say. The choice can only be good for the consumer.

Just went through a phone exchange (under warranty) with Cingular - can't be more happier. Filled out a form on their site, a replacement phone showed up 2 days later. The box includes return label and even the tape needed to seal the box. Total time spent on the process is about 3 minutes with no human interaction involved.

I can't imagine hiring a call center in any country can be cheaper than operating a web server.

Dealing with Cingular's human customer service (and it is based in US) is simply infuriating however.

Jeremy: Sorry for the confusion - but my comment was not directed at your original post, but at Cameron Olthuis' comments.

Anjan: Bullshit. I have called Dell numerous times before and after their call-centers were moved to India and I have recieved the same quality of tech support. I've never had a problem understanding the Indian call center folks - they seem to speak english quite well. Please do NOT accuse me of indulging in 'pseudo' nationalism - thats quite uncalled for. Perhaps _you_ are insecure as a minority in this country, and I guess it is easy to fit in if you openly participate in criticizing Dell's problem on another RACE. What a jerk.

Aaron Brazell: You don't need to worry about cultural differences. Just be patient and polite - as you would when you speak with any human being, be it American or Indian. Its a TECH SUPPORT call, if you are worried about offending someone's culture, just stick to a formal discussion and stay on topic. I really don't see how this can be a problem. Its a global world today, stating that you want to only speak with fellow Americans due to cultural differences with others is quite closed minded. Just my honest opinion.

Speaking of call centers (this one appears to be in US not India)

My wife sound someone's purse last night in SF. I'm trying to find her, and I just called the Call Center of Washington Mutual to let her know I found it.

Unlike your experience Jeremy, the Support Rep Cynthia said she'll call her, and give her my cell number.

I hope this call center experience works for me...

http://jeremiahthewebprophet.blogspot.com/2005/12/delia-desmond-i-have-your-purse-but-i.html

The customer support problems with Dell have been what has kept me from buying the same monitor. Where I worked prior all of our servers and desktops (including monitors) were from Dell. When the hardware went bad (it often did a on servers particularly 10 to 18 months ago when all 15 servers purchased needed replacing in 3 months) it was living hell to get any decent response from Dell.

Now that I am a small business I can not afford the pain of downtime that comes from Dell. It is also why I have been a very happy Apple customer. This said the savings on the same monitor is tempting and has held my purchase in limbo for a few months now.

Oddly, in the past two days I had excellent phone support from Adobe (in the past it has been 40 to 50 minutes just to get them to answer the phone) and has a voice system work beautifully when exchanging flight miles for a magazine (the voice service took 20 minutes of harassing me and not understanding (when asked where I found the offer I said the internet, which the phone guy asked when I opened that software) before saying he could not help me an hanging up). Both of these I was really impressed by. This should be or could be the way things normally work, in fact I make most of my purchase decisions these days on customer service after finding the product I want.

I have had one personal experience with Dell and several business related:

Personal: My laptop adapter/charger broke and after locating the 800 number in my original papers I called them at 10p on a Friday night. Now don't take this the wrong way, but I always find it funny when someone with an obvious foreign accent say their name is "Thom" or "Frank" or whatever. Short story even shorter; my experience was great and by Monday morning I had DHL at my door with a replacement!

Business (here's the bad stuff): A year or two back, we chose Dell to be our vendor as we were really impressed with the 1750 server line and probably spent upwards of $200k in less then a year. Their support at first was OK and we were able to have Dell either come to our network center and fix a server or send us a replacement. Then they introduced the 1850, which by the way is an AWFUL server that draws A LOT of power, and stopped selling the 1750. That's when everything hit the fan. We had close to 50% failure rate on those servers and 1 year later we still have 5-6 defective 1850's that Dell refuse to take back or fix. They even had their head of sales in the NW come to visit, and he personally wrote down the serial numbers for the defective servers; guess what, nothing happened. Also, guess what, we don't shop at Dell anymore but they sure as hell like to contact us via email or phone weekly. "Sure, we may consider buying more servers from you IF YOU FIX THE BROKEN ONES WE ALREADY HAVE".

On a sidenote, Silicon Mechanics (a local, to us, Seattle company) has EXCELLENT hardware and support. I have never seen servers put together this well and cleanly. :)

India:

Nothing personal or against Indian people. I'm sure I'd have the same problems if I called Russia. I should've probably said problems with CS in other countries in general.

I think it comes down to language barrier, cultural difference, and the fact that outsourced customer service doesn't care about the customer.

Again, my comment wasn't meant to be racist and I don't think it was, but I'm sorry you took it that way.

Jeremy, I fully agree with you. Dell support sucks. I once ordered a Laptop for my wife. In the process, I had to contact the sales for some reason. It went to an Indian Call Center. They gave some bull like the model I ordered is out of stock and they will try to give an equivalent one. I was not satisfied with what they offered. But what pissed me off is the attempt made by the sales rep. to convince me to go with her offer using "fellow Indian" card. I thought it was throughly unprofessional. She started asking stuff like which part of India I am blah blah blah. Then trying to pitch her offering saying something as if she is doing this because I am also an Indian. I got so pissed off I cancelled my order with them and then bought one from Toshiba. Dell sales and support techs are totally unprofessional.

I bought the same monitor this summer. The first one that arrived was defective -- there was something wrong with the DVI connector such that not all of the channels were connecting. The image had either a green or purple cast depending on how you jiggled the DVI cable.

I called Dell and managed to get the problem resolved in a single call. Although it did take about 60 minutes, most of which was hold time while the rep checked various things with his manager. They initially wanted to send me a replacement DVI cable instead of a replacement monitor.

Fortunately, I happened to have a spare DVI cable lying around, and was able to prove that the fault was in the monitor and not the cable while still on the phone, thus saving me probably a week of waiting for a useless cable to arrive, and another call.

They were very courteous though, and my replacement monitor came quickly. The replacement works flawlessly and is one of the best purchases I've made this year.

That's why I like Dell's corporate tech support, which they moved "back" from India. When I call the Premier support line, I get someone either in Round Rock, TX or Nashville, TN. A recent conversation went something like this:

them: How can I help you?
me: Got a bad hard drive in a server. I'm the IT guy here, it's definitely toast.
them: What's the service tag of the server, and what size HD?
me: gave them the info
them: Sorry about that! New HD is on the way, you should have it tomorrow. Just stick the bad one in the same box and use the return label.

No scripts, no "have you plugged it in", etc. To contrast, their India-based tech support is completely useless.

I'm considering one of the 2005FPWs for when the Intel-based Mac Minis come out soon, after exceedingly positive experiences with the 1702FP, E171FP, and two E173FPs.

I'm waiting for the personal apology from Michael Dell for ruining Jeremy's happy holidays. ;-)

Oh that reminds me I have to call Dell once again to get the $50 discount they promised after they mysteriously cancelled my order twice, and I spent 3 hours talking on the phone.

Oh that reminds me I have to call Dell once again to get the $50 discount they promised after they mysteriously cancelled my order twice, and I spent 3 hours talking on the phone.

I worked for one of Dell's many many many outsourced tech support call centers for about two weeks until I'd had enough and quit.

They aren't interested in solving your problems, or in being friendly, all they care about is keeping their call times down to a couple minutes. That's how they keep their contracts. For some reason, eventhough anyone who has ever called tech support knows, corporate head honchos haven't figured out that we all know, or that just because a call time was short it doesn't mean that the issue was resolved, or resolved quickly.

You are better off reading your owners manual and online tutorials in how to fix issues with your computer, and as with a company like Dell, just hit up one of those guys at a Dell cart in your local mall and make him help you with things like returns or defective product.

get a Mac :-)

I went through a similar nightmare this past month taking care of some problems that arose on my daughter's Dell Inspiron 600. Dell support sucks, but so does Microsoft, IBM and the others.

Good support? Apple. No question about it. I am a very happy, very satisfied Mac owners. I've had a number of them. When problems have arisen, the Genius at the Apple Store or their technical support via phone has been great.

I'll never buy another Dell product as long as I live. It's Mac, all the way!

Too many senior managers are simply using the wrong metrics. Some of the metrics are probably self-serving, getting them the next promotion out of customer service hell.

There was a story about a company with lousy customer service that was tolerated by their suffering customers, until one day when the director's wife rang up for service.

Things turned around pretty quickly after that.

Dell is a Stock.

There are Three Jeremy's writing posts about Support Centers today...very intersting

Jeremy Zawodny
Jeremy Wright
and myself Jeremiah Owyang

My story has evolved...this Jeremy has had a good support center experience.

http://jeremiahthewebprophet.blogspot.com/2005/12/call-center-that-worked-washington.html

I'm happy with my Inspiron 600M but also have issues with Dell. Here's my anecdote on how their ordering system does not reflect accurate info on anything other than systems.

As an idiot, I left my power converter at a remote office. Luckily, I have a second battery in the DVD slot and always have 8 hours of battery life. I called around LA and of course no one stocks the Dell power supply. I ordered two power supplies from Dell with next business day delivery (ordered on Monday night, expected it to ship on Tuesday, receive on Wednesday). Late Tuesday afternoon, I checked my order status and it was set to "build" with a ship date of that Friday. I called up Dell, did the cue dance for 40 minutes, and told the nice Indian representative that if I couldn't get it tomorrow, I wanted to cancel the order. He researched the order, said it was due to ship that Friday, and said he'd cancel the order. I then went to eBay and bought one nearby.

What happened? Of course the two converters from Dell showed up on Wednesday with the one purchased from eBay. A smaller retail site would have been able to give me an accurate status. Dell, of course, has to put a small order into its system which can't produce accurate information. Oh well, better to have too many than none at all. If anyone needs some extra 70W Dell power converters . . .

BTW, I would recommend that you be really careful with return shipment. In past, On top of their terrible customer service, dell support claimed that they never received my return shipment. My account never got credited and I ended up paying again to get the same item. :(

I STILL don't have the correct RAM configuration in the new Dell computer I purchased. They sent me replacement RAM which was identical to what was already in the system. And when speaking to support outsourced anywhere outside the US there are problems...the kind caused by language barriers.

Does Dell have an Email address to process these requests? It might be easier to do it that way.

I don't think it matter which country the customer service rep is in, if he/she doesn't have a vested interest in the work being done, then there will be little work quality. To a service rep in India doing contact work for a foreign company, it's just a job that has to be faced every day.

It's true; you get what you pay for. Which reminds me of a story:

MUJIBAR

Mujibar was trying to get a job in India. The Personnel Manager said, "Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one. Unless you pass it you cannot qualify for this job."

Mujibar said, "I am ready." The manager said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink and Green."

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister manager, I am ready." The manager said, "Go ahead."

Mujibar said, "The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, 'Yellow, this is Mujibar.'"

{Mujibar now works as a technican at a call center for computer problems. Apparently, Jeremy spoke with him}

This also boils down to (as others have mentioned) the change from "Tech support exists to solve your problem" to "tech support wants to spend as little time on your call as possible".

I started my career in '95 as the sole tech support guy for what ended up being the largest ISP in Oklahoma (before it was Earthlinked). By the time I moved from support to system administration, we had a crew of about 20 guys who knew their stuff - and remained on the phone as long as was necessary to solve a customer's problem.

Nowdays, if a tech support rep spends more than five minutes on the phone with a customer, they're punished for "taking too long". It's not about metrics, its about providing real technical support.

Bill

When listening to full sentences, you could at least guess from the context. Entering a long activation code (guess for which OS :-), mumbled in some inarticulate dialect, that was really a special kind of experience...

Guess I got lucky. I have 2 of those monitors on my desk (http://rodrigo.typepad.com/english/2005/11/desktop_10.html).

However I also had to spend ONE hour with tech support to figure out how to get the card readers from one screen not to conflict with the other (they will NOT work togehter, and had to unhook the USB cable from one screen, and disable the card reader from one...). And it's all running DELL harware with a dual DVI card, etc.

That's why you use American Express or a "premium" Mastercard or Visa. The magic word for these sorts of situations is "chargeback". The cc people won't put up with the indian call center either, and you'll get your money back.

Jeremy Zawodny :- You have not named your blog entry as "What the Fuck is with Indian Tech Support?" but your article sounds more like it, tell me is it Indian call center support persons fault if he does not have enough training at what or how he/she should respond. Is it not the responsability of Dell to make sure that happens. I also want to point out that you have mentioned Indian call center in your article. Why dont you tell everytime you mention 'Dell' put 'American Company' along with the name of the company.
You must remember something Dell will be spending only one tenth of the cost in maintaing a call center in India. Why dont you people as a customer convince Dell to spend more and give the same salary as a call center prof in US would get back in India. You may get the quality of sevice. You asked for, you only get for what you pay dont expect more.

Neither of these is a 30" monitor, but the service on an Apple justifies the investment :-)

http://flickr.com/photos/raganwald/71950017/

To the guy who said that Cingular support was bad let me just say that Cingular's Lubbock call center is second only to DirecTV's in terms of being the most useless and clueless call centers that I've ever dealt with.

Companies like Dell, Cingular, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, and other large companies put customer service somewhere above picking a color for the trash cans in terms of priority.

They know that once you've got their product, it's next to impossible or highly cost prohibitive to switch and so they've got you.

They will treat you badly and you can either deal with it, or do without.

Me...I switched from Cingular to Sprint, from Time Warner Cable to DirecTV to Dish, and I quit using Dell PC's a lot time ago.

And since today is January 1, 2006, I figure I can tell you that I spent New Year's eve 1994/1995 sitting on hold with Reveal's Technical Support.

I was placed on hold the minute my call connected and I got to witness the rollover in the ET, CT, MT, and PT while sitting listening to the lovely hold music on some San Diego radio station they were using.

Boy, I'd sure hate to use Jeremy's blog to chastise you for selective reading but your ranting does need some rectification. This was never aimed at race by either me, Jeremy, or anyone else that agrees that outsourced customer support has gone to the dogs. It is interesting though that you immediately construed it as a race issue. Hmm...

If you were attentive in your reading the observation applies to tech support in Bombay, Beijing, Budapest, or Buenos Aires. Forget Jeremy's personal experience. If you think Dell's precipitous fall from high customer support ratings have no connection with offshoring then you are not only riding the high horse of misplaced nationalism but ignorance too. Breathe some of the fresh air outside and realize that the specific instance of the accented, callous, and ill-mannered rep in India is a specific instance in question here and the rebuke aimed more at Dell. The trend applies to ALL offshore service centers.

It seems you need to address *your* insecurity as exhibited by your COMPLETE misapprehension of the topic and being hyper-sensitive about anything even including the word India. You just opened your mouth again and validated my original point that you're running in the opposite direction. Jeez, chill out and refrain from effeminate name calling.

Sorry, the comment above is for "Indian"

Atle,

Wikipedia also uses Silicon Mechanics, around 100 servers, afer a recommendation from LiveJournal a few years ago. Ours are shipped to Florida. Good people when it comes to dealing with the inevitable problems which happen from time to time.

For anyone buying database servers with write caching controllers and battery backup, do ask them to turn off hard drive write buffering. Not sure it's automatic yet and at least two of their controller vendors didn't do that in the controller, so you could suffer disk corruption on loss of power.

Better customer support experiences:

IBM - I bought a 20" IBM CRT that was slightly defective (one bottom corner was distorted). I called them up, reached a person immediately, no waiting and no voicemail tree. After explaining the situation, they overnighted (!!!) a new replacement monitor to me, along with a return label and free pick-up service for the defective monitor.

Apple - Bring defective hardware to Apple store. They diagnose/fix it there if possible, else they ship it out to the repair centers, and it usually is back in a week.

Neither company offers $500 laptops and $800 24" LCD screens, but you can certainly see what kind of cuts need to be made to offer such deals.

I personally called Dell trying to assist a friend of mine with a new computer his parents got him for Christmas (yes, just last week). You see, it came with no CPU. After being on hold for over an hour (thank goodness for speaker-phones) I got a real person that claimed they never purchased a computer from Dell, yet all the paperwork was in order. I ended up getting to a supervisor named Mark, whom seemed almost decent at first. I was asked how I knew there was no proccessor in the computer, so I told him "after seeing the bios display when trying to bootup, I opened the case and looked for myself." Then they refused to help and claimed that I voided the warranty there might've been by opening the case.

This issue with Dell is still being dealt with. Just another reason Dell sucks ass.

Malidar, just in case you don't know what you wrote is a joke: the CPU runs the BIOS code, so seeing the BIOS screens proves that there is a CPU. If this isn't intended as a joke post, best to tell the Dell people what isn't working, not what you think the cause is.

DELL Sucks!! I dont know how many times my DELL computer has caused me problems since I purchased it. And dealing with the customer service is even more frustrating!! Well I've learned my lesson..

James Day:

Uh, no, the CPU does not "run the BIOS code". The motherboard chipset does that. Most motherboards will post with no CPU or RAM, and just beep at you with an error message.

I had similar experiences many times with Dell back when I owned an Inspiron laptop.

I was so angry after one three-day exchange that I wrote to their European Customer Services Manager and demanded that they pay my phone bill (it came to something like 28ukp which gives you an idea of how long and frustrating my phone calls were).

Amazingly he wrote back and said that although they didn't normally do that in this case he would because (he agreed) my experiences were waaay beyond stupid.

Maybe try something like that?

The difference between good call centers and bad ones is one has knowledge about the product and is also empowered to make decisions without having to consult any manager. This was most evident in my dealings with my Netgear router. (BTW: Both service centers (India & Texas) in the end were not able to solve the problem I called about)

Foreign call centers are talking heads following a script which is friggin annoying. Real tech centers (whether it be American or Foreign) have used the product or know the product, and understand the in's and out's. But the ones which follow scripts are just extended troubleshooters. Which can be annoying if you have already done your homework.

India will continue to be the call center hub, I hope 1) they empower these individuals to make decisions which means 2) cutting down on the bureaucracy 3) better training to know the product and 4) they need better tools (software) so their jobs are easier to do 5) Companies like Dell have to be the responsible because they choose who gets their business which means 6) they will make look for better alternatives which means 7) more competition and 8) better service.

<badpun>"Thank you for calling the new Dell-ee technical support line, my name is ... umm... Bob? How may I be of helping you today?</badpun>

One place I've got to give props to for their customer service is Macromedia. I ordered Flash Pro 8 from them not too long ago, and the disk arrived cracked. I called them up, praying that my call wouldn't get routed to India... even found myself praying out loud at moments "Don't go to India. Don't go to India." Sure enough, spoke to someone with an excellent grasp of English that was able to take care of my issue right away. I had a replacement disk in my hand the next day. That's customer service.

The poor experience with Dell Support is exactly the reason our company stopped buying from Dell.

Saw this list today and thought I would post it for all to have. Enjoy!

http://paulenglish.com/ivr/

I don't want to violate your policy and do not believe I have. "provide a URL to a non-weblog. If you don't have a weblog or don't want to link to it, leave it blank too". I've linked to my own weblog containing pdf files of the documents I quote. If I have violated your policy it is by mistake so please do not "randomly screw with [my] mind". Thank you.

Hello,

I will write about an article from PC Magazine and another from PC World. Both articles provide incorrect information regarding Dell XPS support. I will also provide a brief log of a chat session to obtain software support which ended with the specialist telling me I need to pay $99.00 for software support.

---

Article 1 from http://www.pcmag.com
"Dell's New XPS Luxury Line".
09.28.05.
By Rich Fisco.
Link to article, http://brianzad.sdf-us.org/weblog/pcMag_log2.pdf .

Excerpt from article, "Upon purchase, each owner will receive the phone number and e-mail address of a special XPS customer service representative, which will remain the same throughout the life of the product. ...chat-based support, and an XPS support card that will get you quick access to information and VIP treatment when calling for support or a sale consultation. The XPS support personnel are also trained to deliver "how to" software support, assist with wireless installation and data migration, and will also support popular third-party devices and applications."

My experience with Dell has been different than expressed in the PC Magazine article "Dell's New XPS Luxury Line".
1. The following statement from the article is false, "Upon purchase, each owner will receive the phone number and e-mail address of a special XPS customer service representative".
- The truth is there is no e-mail address.

2. The following statement from the article is false, "The XPS support personnel are also trained to deliver "how to" software support".
- The truth is that Dell charges $99 for "software support".
To receive software support for Dell Pre-installed software will also cost customers $99 per incident.

----

Article 2, From PC World Magazine:
"Dell Aims High With New PCs, Services"
09.28.05.
By Tom Krazit, IDG News Service.
Link to article, http://brianzad.sdf-us.org/weblog/pcworld_log2.pdf .

Excerpt from article, "An XPS-only customer service representative will be assigned to customers who purchase XPS systems over the phone, starting with their first call for help with the new PC. That customer service rep will maintain a relationship with the customer over the life of the product, George (Mike George, vice president of Dell's U.S. consumer business) said. Web customers will be able to access special support pages containing information about their products plus a chat room attended by Dell support personnel dedicated to XPS customers."

My experience with Dell has been different than expressed in the PC World article "Dell Aims High With New PCs, Services".
1. The statement of Mike George is completely untrue.
2. There is no "chat hat room attended by Dell support personnel dedicated to XPS customers".
- The following excerpts from the chat session log indicate that the Dell chat room support personnel were unable to help. The topic was fixing Dell Pre-Installed software named Sonic DigitalMedia LE v7.

----

Excerpts from log with session ID ending in 2168. This "chat" was to resolve pre installed Dell software named Sonic DigitalMedia LE v7. The "chat" ended in a failure to resolve the issue.
***Begin Excerpt***
12/31/2005 12:33:26PM - ME "Hello, I got 1 of your systems with Sonic DigitalMedia LE v7 pre-installed. It doesn't work. This program is not listed on Sonics web site for support. Error: You are using 400 MB of a 700 MB CD-R. Your disk is full. How do I add data to my CD-R that has 300 MB free space?

12/31/2005 12:44:39PM Agent (Nitin Aggarwal): "After reviewing your request for assistance, I show that our technical support department will be able to best address your concern. To resolve your issue, please contact Technical Support directly at: Phone: 1-800-624-9896 Extension number: 7266955"
***End Excerpt***

Please delete the link to PC Magazine in above post. And please replace with "Article 1 from PC Magazine".

Sorry.

That's almost as bad as Yahoo web-hosting customer service. I've been trying to upgrade from domain name service to web hosting service with them for a week and they can't get it to work. They're craptastic.

The issue is not an outsourced call center. I have had good/bad experiences with both US based and India based call centers, and I am sure most of us have.

With Dell, the issue is really that once Kevin Rollins [a classic MBA] took over from Michael Dell metrics took precedence. And Dell has been under increasing pressure from Wall Street to hit their numbers.

Sridhar

After sitting under the tree for three weeks, we've past out 21 day return policy even thoug the new XPS never worked properly out of the box (and now I have to pay a 15% restocking fee to buy the HP i should have in the first place).

And why do we speak with Mitch in Round Rock when we buy the unit (who was very knowledgable) but get Mike from tech support (in some foreign land making a stellar wage I'm sure) who's challenged saying anything that was not on the script and actually knew less about the PC than the 7 year old we bought it for...

I plan on personally delivering the back to Round Rock and letting them know exactly what to do with their 15% restocking fee. Another fine indication of the errosion of customer service in America today, thanks Dell.

I have an internally cracked LCD, have been trying to find a Dell Tech Support person to either tell me where i can buy this part and/or solve this. No luck so far, maybe later on this month i will find some way of dealing with this,. Fuck if i would have known how much a hassle this would be, i would not have bought the damn Dell thing in the first place. suggestions?

You are all dumbass idiots and deserve what you get. Only about 2% of the total population that buy any brand of computer actually have any issues with the system and need to call tech support. Maybe if you removed your heads from your asses and had an original thought your lives would not suck so bad.

I am having a hard time with Dell too. I bought a Ispiron 700m and it had techncal isuues like overheating and a lower hard drive capacity than what I had actually ordered. After several attempts, I could get my computer replaced, but this time the replaced computer had one of the USb ports broken and a metallic sound coming from the rear back. My isuues have not been sorted out yet, inspite of my repeated emails and telephone calls which kept me holding for even two hours at times and then getting disconnected. Now I am receiving phone calls at wee hours from an extremely rude customer care representative saying that if I don't return the original computer they will be interuupting my service!! Both technical support and the customer care of Dell suck!!

Hi all:

I read the entry on Dell tech support, and yes, it's screwed up.
But not just for the reasons mentioned here in the comments.
I'm coming at this from the point of view of someone who works in a call centerI'm not going to stick up for the call centers just because I work in one, but I can tell you that your problems aren't entirely the fault of the agents taking the calls.
First, the hold times.
The reason you guys sit on hold for ungodly amounts of time is because there are too many calls and not enough agents, literally.
The companies don't want to staff enough agents to make sure there is no, or very little, hold time because they make a profit according to the number of calls coming in.
As far as information being accessible, that's a yes and no.
We don't have access to the IVR system, so we have no choice but to ask for the information again, which should prompt our superiors to just get rid of the damned thing, but logic never prevails in these situations, which totally sucks.
The worst part about it though is the fact that they'll hire anyone who can breathe, and once you've been there for a little or over a year, or once you start displaying the capabilities to make decisions for yourself, (in other words, if you're not a puppet), they frown on that.
They don't want people thinking in this line of work, and they'll pay as little as they can get away with.
If it weren't for the fact that there's still a lot of discrimination in the workplace and job market directed at people with disabilities, and the fact that call center jobs are plentiful, and the fact that I like to eat, I'd have quit two years ago.
That, and the people who aren't doing their jobs, (the people who pick up, let you hear part of their office conversation, and then lie and tell you you're going to be transferred to a supervisor because they've told the super about your problem) should be fired, but aren't.
It's one huge corrupt business.

do all of you realize that less than 10% of ALL Dell system owners have to call in for tech support, it's true, look it up!

Re Dell on-line support.
I have spent more time than I care to recall trying to find the email address of Dell Technical Advice. I have found their telephone support quite good but costly in terms of dialling an 0870 number and the difficulty of understanding an Asian accent. I should be able to contact them on line but seem unable to do so. Does anyone else experience this difficulty?

My own problem is that the printing on my screen loooks as though the font needs cleaning,(I know this cannot be so) The letters seem half formed or indistinct, but how can I correct it without an expensive call to India?
Has anyone got their email address?

Many thanks, Keith.

I ordered an Inspiron through my brothers work and it didnt come with any os/drivers. After trying to reach dell support on the phone (800wwwdell) for couple of days, with no luck of course, I came across this site and dialed the number that Jeremy had posted: 18008228965. I got a customer representative within 30 seconds and problem was resolved in 10 minutes. Personally I really dispise Dell and their shithole service, but I guess I got lucky this time.

Well I have had quite alot of experiences with the crappy Dell service. It initially started off with me getting my Inspiron 5150 a week late, and then when it arrived it didn't work properly, the fan was totally busted, so it kept crashing. I had to send it back to get a new one, so it took another 2 weeks, and I got a free printer and $50 rebate on it. I purchased 3 years of Complete care, after hearing all the trouble people have gone through, and boy have I used it. I have had so far with my Insrpiron 5150, 3 faulty Hard Drives, 3 faulty dvd-roms, 4 faulty keyboards, 1 faulty heat sink, 1 faulty touch pad, 1 faulty internet connector, and 1 broken screen after I got extreamly angry at what was happening with the computer. Now this is a lot, and I have constantly recieved PATHETIC SERVICE from the reps, and the last time I had a problem it took over 6 weeks to get everything up to where I am now, with the faulty internet connector after having a faulty heat sink. So I complained and wouldn't take a sorry as an answer anymore. I asked them what they would do for me for causing all of this trouble, they said i can keep the box that they were shipping the computer in. At that point I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle the guy talking to me. So I asked to speak to his manager, who then sent me to customer service. 2 days later, they told me that I would get another year of complete care for free, making it 4 in total.
So I took it and shut up, but the fact of the matter is I have recieved the crappiest product ever, and the customer service is aweful. I will never ever buy another Dell or allow anyone I know, ever buy one either.
FUCK DELL!

i just got a new dell 2005fpw. Same old blacklight issue..called them up..and in less than 25 minutes of hold/troubleshoot time, the only person who i spoke to authorized a exchange for me!. I guess i got lucky this time.

I'm just an innocent PC user and I am having problems with my mouse, why is is so damn hard to get a questioned answered by dell's so called customer service page? Who can I just ask advice on how to check into an erratic mouse? Thanks for the funny Dell bullshit stories above. Chris

Thanks I found your website on accident, My "customer care" rep. some how made it so I couldn't use my keyboard while we were "chatting" she gave me the legal office. I just wanted to get help with an additional keyboard, had just paid my $1400 balance and my keyboard wouldn't work w/them, works fine now, witchcraft? Now what do I do w/this very expensive elephant in my living room? Thanks for letting me vent.

I purchased a Dell Computer last year for my son. They advertised 1 yr 0% so I took advantage of THEIR offer. 5 months in I get a statement balance is due the next month or finance charges. I call in ask if my offer was good for 1 yr 0% the representative confirmed that it was. I asked why I was told on last statement its now due or finance charges would incure? He checks again and says " oh yes it is due" so I ask him if none of their people know what they are advertising or presenting as offers? Long story short these people are misinforming customers on their phone sales- then they proceed to make your life hell call you continueously at your work number "even when they are told not to call you there" I was in continueous contact with them via mail and home phone regarding their misrepresentation. They sent me to collections I filed a report with full documentation of all calls etc and they pulled the account from that collection agency and gave it to another one and the bullshit started all over again! They are so big that they can get away with illegal harassment. I was in collections for 10 years and the shit they pulled on me was illegal! By the way we purchased a computer the year before paid it in full one payment and had no problems I dont know what the hell is going on with this this past year piss poor customer service and Quality. I WILL NEVER BUY OR RECOMMEND ANYONE BUY DELL do your business locally!!!!

Nancy

I work as a dell software support. Most of my supervisors push us to get of a call in 30 minutes or less; which i find crap. Don't get me wrong but I feel that if you pay $100/An Issue to talk to me that you should get your $$'s worth. They try to push Quality & Quantinty per call; but when you ask them which is more important they say its 50/50.. but in doing so it feels like im half assing it for the customer. To do a Format Reinstall it takes on the average 1 hour; They tell us to tell the customer after we start the format that they should push in the valid entries for the question and call us back whenever that finishes so that the next technician can start the installation process; which forces the customer to wait another 1/2 hour to have to call back in again just so they can get drivers reinstalled. btw. my advice to you is if the technician asks for you to call back after this or that just say "No.. I want you to stay on the line". Unless their supervisor is listening to the call then they will more than likely stay on the phone.

my 2cents

Never again will I purchase a Dell. Every aspect of dealing with their products short comings and customer service is ridiculous. When ordering the lat d800, I was told 30 days, then 3 months later a computer arrives. It's not the $3700 one I specifically ordered with everything I asked for. Junk, just junk. I could have picked up a laptop for under $1000. CS, please, run around. Crashed first time turning it on. A key pops off and they want to replace the entire keyboard. I could go on and on. But the bottom line is, "What a mistake." My advice, don't bother with Dell anymore. Let them get their act together, maybe in a few years. Sell their stock too.

My update from 1/21/06 that I forwarded to Dell. Contacted Dell this a.m., 1/21/06, and got coaxed into the $99 support fee!! No service, long delays and extremely frustrated! I do not want a charge on my credit card from Dell!!!! I have bought two Dell computers, own 100s of share of Dell and I'm fed up with the support. Nice soothing talk, long delays, difficult to understand personnel and no satisfaction. I expect a reply confirming removal of my Visa Charge (nothing was done because I asked for them to just stop after the lengthy delays) and an explanation as to where Dell is headed. Eventually, I was supposed to be routed to someone to get the charge removed, but guess what, I was disconnected! What a company!!!!

Dell computer... It crashed, paid 200.00 for a tech to solve problem.... is not solved, give me someone who speaks english....PLEASE........... they will pay hell getting the 200.00... no fixie problem,no payeeeeee....

Humans are a disease and my farts are the cure!

Hey before you pin your blames on any country ..( I've heard Dell is establishing support-center in Manila cum February and being pioneered by indians) ..let's make it clear that on this blog it is the Indians who provide sub-standard services..

Dell has the worst customer service I have ever experience. I paid all the extra money to have 4 year in-home warranty so that it would last me throughout my college years and they have yet to make it worth the money. The first issue I had it took them almost a month to send someone to me to fix my ethernet port. I am currently on the phone with "Austin". This is the 3rd time in 5 months that I have called them for them to send a technician out. Ever since they fixed my ethernet port my battery no longer works. This happened in July and here it is Jan 2006 and they still have not fixed the issue that they caused. Now they are saying that after a year of having the laptop I am no longer covered under my warranty for them to replace batteries so I need to call another department to BUY a battery. I would not recommend Dell to anyone. My computer was running perfect off the battery until the technician "fixed" my ethernet port. Now as soon as my ac adapter comes unplugged from my laptop the whole system shuts down. Dell can literally kiss my ass!!!!

i work as tech support for an ISP off shore. im from the philippines and i understand your complaints bout Dell tech support. i only wanted to get a direct # to Dell for one of our customers having a problem with her pc. and ALL the numbers i got were busy. tech support? more like radio station. at least radio stations have better songs

I can't even begin to tell you the horror story I am having. I learned my lesson the hard way, you see I was warned and didn't listen. Don't make the mistake I did and buy a Hell computer. Dude, You Got A Hell!

I am (actually was) a loyal Dell customer. Bought a dimension 400 and two Inspiron 600s in past two years. Have been recommending Dell to everyone.

I never move one of the laptops. Use it on a table while watching TV-didn't want a desktop in my den. One day I open it up and there is a triangular blotch on the screen. I call Dell and am told that it is a cracked LCD and since I bought the extended warranty, they sent me a box and a shipping label.

Two weeks later the unit is returned unfixed with a note saying that since I have not paid to have it fixed, they are returning it. No one jad called me during the interum asking for money. I call the number on the note and they tell me cracked LCDs are not covered by the warranty. I look at the warranty which says no such thing.

I went through the calling Dell game as many of you above did. After 5 hang-ups and misdirected calls and 2 1/2 hours of my time, I was told again that cracked LCDs are not covered.

I wrote a complaint letter to Michael Dell. Never answered, of course (Usually "customer service " people intercept letters like that and respond. Guess they can't read English or don't really give a damn about unhappy customers)

So, last night I tried their online IM help. After 20 minutes of listening to script reading (For instance, I started out by saying I have a cracked LCD. His first comment to me was, "I see you have a cracked LCD." Duh!

I asked where in the warranty it says cracked LCDs are not covered. He read from his script that "accidental damage" is not covered. I explained I had no accident. Opened the laptop one evening and it was there.

I asked why the original person diagnosed my problem as a cracked LCD and had it sent in for warranty repair. He checked his records and said that person made a mistake and it will not happen again. (Definitely will never happen to me again cause I've joined the "DON'T BUY DELL" club.)

He says there is nothing he can do for me and will put his supervisor on the line. Supervisor gets on the line and his first line to me is? "I see you have a cracked LCD." I pointed put that he and his assistant were very astute in these matters. (I havce a print-out of the whole conversation. (Some of it would be very funny if it wasn't such a bad situation.)

After going back and forth about accidental damage, he tells me an LCD can only crack from an accident. I tell him I'm not an engineer but isn't it possible the LCD had a minor fault when it was shipped and only now did it crack. He babbles on with his script and tells me he will "escalate" the problem to a higher level person. I explain that I will also "escalate" my compaint to a higher level like the BBB of Austin and the Texas Attroney General, and the Postmaster General for consumer fraud-selling warranties that are not honored.

I am also escalating by joining every site that talks about Dell Hell and adding my two cents. I am telling everyone i know or who will listen-DON'T BUY DELL!

I think they will lose a lot more than the $500 they want from me for a new LCD. And you never know, the Texas Attorney General might agree with me.

I am pretty sure this blog will somewhat enlightened other Dell users

I was contemplating getting a Dell for a family member but have decided to stay with IBM/Lenova. We have many IBM laptops and desktop for our professional services firm and have zero problems. We paid more but got higher quality machines...will stick with IBM and not get involved with junky computers. I feel bad for all those people who have to deal with poor service and all that wasted time.

One follow-up to my note. The day after I wrote my tale of woe, I did receive a call drom a Dell representative based on the letter I sent. Would you believe his name was "Jeremy."

The reason for his call was to tell me they would not honor the warranty. that accidental damage is not covered. He said a crack cannot occur by itself. I told him I would contact all the agencies I mentioned and tell everyone online who will listen.

He politlely did not care.

Ron, I don't know which note above convinced you to stay away from Dell but that's one for us losers! Thanks!

You're right Dell support sucks. I have dealt with it and had the very same experience. I also had the same e4sxperience with HP. As a meeter of fact, it was even worse with HP, because they refuse4d to support the software linking theor PDA two weeks after I bought the device. HP claims the software support was expired, at least according to Gupta or his boss in India. What America needs is jobs and some good tech support from one of the majhor suppliers, and then I will gladly buy with out regrets.

guys, it has nothing to do with the call centers in anywhere in the world. the problem is AMERICANS ARE DUMB AND IDIOT! they DONT even know how to use their own mouse. what the heck! i suggest you go get some lessons from school so you guys wont need tech support service or be LITERATE (read the policy first and other details)enough to know a product before purchasing. that would solve your problem.

I have spent so much time on the phone with Dell ... mostly holding and redialing the # as I have been cut off/disconnected. Charged for something I did not receive and can't get the problem straight. I am so tired that I can't even go into depth about it. I don't have the patience or strength. I agree with everything you people are saying about Dell but 100 fold!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I never buy a Dell product again.

Let me start by laughing hahaha at you for buying anything from dell, secondly i work for dell and what you went through is no big suprise at all. I work for DELL ON CALL.. and u know what, i get paid 13$ an hour to listen to u get pissed off ?? haha ya right... nobody cares there... the work envoirment... let me explain a bit about dell call centers=

age of average workers= 18-26
average knowledge base = shit all
resources for all dell oncall agens = dell intranet ( suackage), www.toughadmin.com, support.dell.com, training.dell.com
my hours = 3 : 30 pm - 12 am
you think i really care about your monitor and how long u stay on the phone with me

and only hardware for dell is in india.. most of the other call centers for dell PC support is in canada

average education of each employee = high school ( i am serious if you apply for dell tech support all u need is high schoo and some tech background)

since the people there dont know shit. we hang up on you everytime we dont know how to take the call, you see the release button on my phone .. so easy....

and god damn you americans are dumb...as if you pay 99$ per incident to get your mouse fixed...

haha all i can do is laugh at yous peoples misfourtunme

i called in sick today, i think i am thinking about quiting my job....

yaaa FUCK DELL.

Have been trying to get my CD drive replaced for weeks. After three hours on the phone and me doing all their diagnostics and taking my machine apart they decided I needad a new motherboard.
New motherboard came and even the repairman said that was not what I needed.
Called back and was on the phone for three more hours...more diagnostics, more taking the machine apart, I had to hang up to go to work.
Called back on the extension I was given the next day and the nuumber had been DISCONNECTED. Started over with a third technitian...he asked if I would mind doing some diagnostics....it was 12:15 am and I had to go to work the next day. I hung up on him. He calls me back and says we have been disconnected, I tried to tell him that I hung up on him and his service stunk. Said he could not order a new CD drive unless I did the diagnotics, I told him he could fill in his work sheet as if I had done it and get me the new part.
Can't do that in India, surprise....we left it with me refusing to do any more with the machine and I told him I will send it back to Dell if he does not get me a new CD drive.
He will tell his manager how displeased I am. Think this will get me the drive I need? Time will tell

GREAT!! I just got home from a 4 hr drive and noticed that some how my Comm Port 1 has gone bad. So i was looking for the dell support # and I saw this post on Google. After reading through most of these post it seems and seeing all the "Great" things yall are saying about Dell. I better get prepare for a long night. I have to get this port working by the moring or get my old comp out and start trasfering some programs and files. Wish me luck boys!!

Hello there:

First I request that my e-mail address be use only to poste this message. I do not want no correspondence or anything of the sort.

I just received an invoice from dell for $99.00 dollars for a "Dell on call, Incident,Spyware and Virus" they say they shipped it. I have not being in contact with dell for over 5 months. I was on the phone for an hour and a half and I was sent from one system to the other and back to the begining and then I hung-up. I am going to try the internet connection. On the invoice it has all my inf. yet I did not order anything.

I REGRET PURCHASING FROM DELL

Jeremy, Jeremy and all...

I LOVE DELL! Before Dell PC computers, I was a Mac freak and swore I'd nEVER switch to PC's. Well, as time went on, a lot of the software was usable ONLY on PC's. I had no choice, an my choice was Dell. I paid$2,000 for a Upgraded to the max Demension 2400. But get THIS. THIS IS THE KEY: I plopped down the cash for the extended warranty. Anyone who knows ANYTHING about buying a PC with bundled software KNOWS (or should know) you HAVE to, because you will need it, the extended warranty.
I've had to call Dell about 4 times and only ONCE did I have to request them to transfer me to someone who didn't have such a heavy Indian accent. Otherwise, NO long telephone waits, NO invoices for support, and the ALWAYS FIX my PC!!!
I saw a show; I think it was Dateline that showed what these poor people have to go through to earn the $2.50/hr. I'm a two year degreed accountant and I know I COULDN'T do what these people do. They have to work the graveyard shift because we are "awake" during their midnight to 6AM time, they are constantly taught EVERYTHING about EVERY DELL product and have EXAMS AFTER working all night long sometimes! Show some respect. The reason you are not getting the "service" in customer "service" is because you didn't pay for it (and by the sounds of it, probably won't, plus most of you are just plain "A" Personalities...you cannot be in a hurry when it comes to fixing hardware or software! If you're a tech, you KNOW that already. I'm not here to insult anyone. Just please remember that in order to make the world a better place, all countries need jobs and it isn't like the United States has a shortage of jobs (especially if you went to college).

I had the same experience as Mike K, and think Dell's IM-style chat service is the way to go. In November, when the hard drive in my Inspiron 5100 notebook dropped dead, I got online with "Chat with Us," explained the problem, and three days later Fedex delivered a replacement drive, with a prepaid mailing label to send back the dead one. No more telephone customer service for me--no matter where the customer service rep is located!

The same horror stories I've just read!
On hold way too long, disconnected, wrong information, unable to understand the "representatives" of Dell.
I was ill & lost my strength to continue so I called back a few days later. After more draining calls to everyone & their brother, I felt like choking someone if I could have gotten my hands on any one of them! Finally Mary said "no problem" & took care of it immediately.
I couldn't believe it!!! I still can't.
Horrible experience, I'll NEVER buy another Dell as long as I live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had problems with my dell desk top. I couldn't take it off of safe mode! I know a little bit about computers enough to troubleshoot myself out of a problem! But this one had me beat so i called dell about 3:30 pm i kept getting disconnected or transfered to someone who said it was another division problem. It seems as if nobody wanted to give me the time i deserve to help me solve this problem!
After 4 hrs of talking to about 8 different people they decided i had to buy a new hard drive! it cost me time and money!! Trying to find answers from there customer service who became very frustrated when i couldn't understand everything they were saying because of there accents, I WILL NEVER BUY A PRODUCT FROM DELL AGAIN !!!

Hi Guys
i have worked for Dell tech Support for a year (ID : 3276686)
and we used take 15 to 20 calls a day ..
well i completely agree with all the points mentioned above ..and also feel that its Stupid to have this question to ask a customer who is already facing a problem

But the situation is :
we are rated less if thease questions and not asked ..
and the voice and accent traners are the people who Dont allow us speak Like normal Humans .. as they have there on matrix to maintain and will mark u less if you dont follow their rules and having a less marking would cost you your Job ..

More over its a night shift job( Which will be accepted by the tech while Joining the company ) and every call you take is a new challenge a new issue that you have never heard .

we do! have all the information about the customer but we need to varify it for security reasons ( or we will get less marking :P)

if there is something to be changed in tech support .. it must be the scorecard that they follow and the stupid ratings they do ..

so the next time you make a call
Please be co-operative with the person on line coz he cant shout at you even if he wants to ..

and Once again .. if some thing has to be changed in the tech support for dell in india ..it must be the stupid scorecard they follow and they need to allow the techs speak like Humans speaking to humans and not like wouldbe english scholors or some thing like that

: Khadri@gmail.com

sorry, i have a dell, at work we have a server and 30 new dell machines (over a year) only one was broken out of the packet and they fixed it pretty quick. I have been a fan :S sounds like i shouldnt be tho! who do you all buy from then? dont say build your own. like thats gunna happen!

anyway, i always find the guys at the indian call centres much more helpful than the people in the UK. belkin's support is awesome! one day we have to learn that you get what you pay for, you pay for shit and thats exactly what youll get.

Viraj Alankar has it right. I know of a guy that when he bought his computer from dell he would call the next day after recieving it and say that he hooked it up, turned it on and only got a blue screen. nothing else just a blue screen. they then tried tech support but he kept insisting blue screen. they gave in and said the hard drive was toast and sent him a new one. needless to say the old hard drive was perfectly fine. so now this guy has 7, 300gb sata hard drives from dell. with his three computers he bought.

I personally don't have the guts to do this.

btw i didn't read the entire forum its way to long. I stopped after Viraj Alankar's post. about 1/10th of the way through.

also I do like the dell telescopic lcd monitors we have at work. and we have replaced over 100 power supplies on our dell gx270 pc's. all under warranty. hp and ibm might be good but you have to pay the price. money is everything. If anyone is thinking about laptops, i would have to say that toshiba is NOT the answer. almost every toshiba laptop we have is nothing but junk. dell's are not much better with ibm comming at the top of our supply.

btw I work for the department of national defense canada. Computer technician.

Hi! I purchased a dell xps system in Jan. 2006.By the third week in Jan. and after countless hours onthe phone with tech support they decided that it would be better if I returned the entire system to be replaced with another which I did. I have recieved the replacement and within 2 days I have spent approx. 15 hours with tech support not to mention the hours spent on hold to speek with tech or customer support. I will be returning the entire system for a full refund while I am still within the 30 day money back guarantee and will purchase a real computer system at a reputable dealer. I am deeply dissapointed, frustrated and bitter with Dell. Dell sucks and they can all go to -ell!

As someone else has pointed the dell chat feature is a little better atleast in my case with laptop problems.
And depending on the time of the day it can be pretty snappy as u are directly connected with a CSR. But its pretty bad during the day... often requiring 30minutes wait time in queues... i have always used it at night mostly after 11pm with zero wait times.

On January 24th, my Dell Inspiron XPS GEN1 decided to give up the ghost. I'd been playing World of Warcraft in my basement with my son when he decided to go upstairs and I closed the laptop to follow, figuring I'd simply power her up and play later. When the time came to resume killing mobs, I pressed the power button and nothing. Dead, cold silence. No leds to indicate charging of the battery, no notable attempt to power up whatsoever.

30 minutes online with Dell XPS support and the tech determined that the motherboard had crapped out, and that he'd have a box sent out for me to ship to a repair depot.

My system is out of warranty, so I was ok with this. a new XPS costs too damn much, even on sale, and it's by far underpowered compared to the GEN1.

So I send my laptop out, get it back 10 working days later (the 15th of February) and upon opening the box, I push the power button and nothing. Dead, cold silence. No leds to indicate charging of the battery, no notable attempt to power up whatsoever. (sound familiar...?)

Now I'm not only upset, but I'm pissed off. I call Dell tech support and give the poor Joe on the other side fair warning and lay into him. He informs me that he'll send out DHL to pick up the laptop and the repairs will be expidited. WTF?!

I call today and ask the tech "So.. what's up with my laptop" and he tells me "Well sit, the motherboard was replaced, it was fully tested and shipped on the 14th of February and.." I cut him off, explained that I recieved the laptop on the 15th and sent it back on the 16th to be repaird AGAIN and I wanted to know WTF was happening NOW!!!

He gives me the "One minute sir" and commences to tell me that they now repalced both the LCD panel and LCD screen (both of which were OK before it was shipped back to me the first time beacuse they TESTED it, remember?) and that I should receive it tomorrow.

Needless to say, the tracking number he gives me says that they actually tried to deliver it today at 10:38am and no one was there to receive it. So, $500+ nearly a month later, and a day late, my laptop is supposedly going to work tomorrow when I take the day off to make sure it get's into my hot little hands. Needless to say, I'm going to make the DHL driver wait at the dor until I can verify it works, so if I have to, I can simply call Dell, SCERAM over the phone, put the laptop back in the box (if I had any incendary devices to replace the battery with...) and send back to their repair depot in Memphis.

Or... simply keep the broken laptop and prepare to take a roadtrip to Tennessee...

I'll keep ya posted.

-Phil

DELL FUCKING SUCKS HADJI'S STINKING CURRY ASS!!!

THE PHONE AND THE CHAT HAS INDIANS READING THE EQUIVILANT OF A THIRD GRADE SCRIPT!!!! I'M CERTAIN THAT IF THIS CONTINUES FOR TOO MUCH LONGER THAT SOMEBODY AT DELL WILL GET THREATENED OR WORSE!!!

Every INDIAN I've ever met in person was very nice indeed...Every INDIAN I've talked to at DELL was an ASSHOLE!!!!

March 1st. I got the call today from Dell that my Laptop will be replaced with a unit that meets or exceeds my XPS in configuration specs since they no longer ofer the XPS GEN1. In addition, I'll get a standard 90 day hardware warranty with the option to buy an extended warranty should i choose to do so.

When I get the new laptop, if it works, I plan on buying the extended warranty immediately. I'm assuming they're sending me either a Dell Inspiron XPS GEN 2 or a M170. If it's an M140 we're gonna have problems....

Will keep you posted. :)

Well... Sad to say this was near the top when I searched for "Dell on Call".

I work in the first and only (so far) US based Dell tech support. When and if you ever ask to talk to a supervisor or manager it is me who you are gonna talk to. We are still fairly new and getting situated as US and India have totally different aspects. As far as calls go they get routed by a computer although we do have a direct number. The problem here is communication not necessarily knowledge of the techs. My personal team of agents that I train can usually handle a call in under 40 minutes or less and have a happy camper and on your way to surfing the web and such...

In regards to the February 1st post many agents are actually retired military/mcse certified or getting it/or have more degrees in IT field than you would need. Although I do agree some may not have as much IT experience...note this...

There are just some things that people do to computers that is seriously the users fault and do the wierdest things to them especially when they try to fix it themselves. A lot of these kinds of issues cant be taught in any school or training... Think about it.

I own five dell systems. All are for home use. They are great systems. I will never buy another product from dell because of their support. You would think that I would be considered a good dell customer buying 5 systems in less than 5 years. No I am a piece of dog crap to dell. They have treated me like crap. I will look for the company with the best web reputation for customer service before I buy again. Even if I have to pay twice the price.
Dell was the best. Now they are quite possibly the worst.

First and foremost, let me start by saying that I'm glad that a Dell support manager came across this page. That in and of itself means that there's an actual interest in the customer service issues that are being detailed in this thread.

As for me, today my replacement PC came and it is indeed a Dell XPS m170. It actually came with a few little perks that I wasn't expecting (integrated Wi-Fi and 1GB of ram as opposed to the 512 I had in my XPS GEN1)

It's a lot like my wife's Inspiron 6000 in feel so I've already adapted to it. I'll be purchasing the extended warranty ASAP. I think 2 or 3 years should give me time to think about where my next laptop will come from. The thing is, I too am a loyal Dell customer. I've got an "original" Dell XPS 400 workstation that's got a P-III slot1 1.0Ghz proccesor and a 128mb Radeon. I've got two OLD Dell Latitude laptops, (one a P-II 300 and one a P-III 800) and in the rack in my basement are a pair of Dell Poweredge 2400's and a pair of Dell Poweredge 2450's. I've even got a Dell GX-270 that I put a 256MB Radeon and 2GB of RAM just to play games with (you have to keep the case open for the vid-card.. oh well. they run hot anyways).

So I know what it is to be a loyal Dell customer, and that's what made this whole fiasco I had with my laptop so discouraging. It took $560, 5-1/2 weeks, and a new Dell XPS 170 to get things right. Some people are telling me that I should be hapy, others say they'd still be PO'd, as for myself... only time and the duration of my soon-to-be-purchased extended warranty will tell.

-Phil

I have been struggling with Dell for over 4 months now. I bought a Dell Inspiron XPS gen 1 off Ebay. I did this because Dell didn't sell them anymore, not even refurbed, and the Gen2 wasn't powerful anough. I called Dell with the service tag before buying and was assured everything was ok. After buying it, I called them back to extend the warranty and was told I couldn't because there was fraud on the account. I went online to transfer warranty (they told me to) and ownership and they refused to do it. Almost 4 months later, and after involving Dell Escalations (512-338-4400 ask for escalations) and even Kevin Rollins, the CEO of Dell, I was told the original owner did not finish paying their line of credit and as a result the laptop we spent almost $2000 on would not be supported by Dell. They wouldn't even let us pay to have them service it because the DC Jack was defective. I thought you and your readers might want to know Dell's email structure. If you want to contact ANYONE in Dell, you use this format... firstname_lastname@Dell.com . That's an underscore between the names. So for example, if you wanted to contact Michael Dell, it would be Michael_Dell@Dell.com or Kevin_Rollins@Dell.com I don't like how they hide behind their horrible customer service. I was even told that they are not allowed to give out manager's names or the number to the corporate office. I hope they get thousands of emails now, in their cushy little offices protected from all of us dissatisfied customers. Oh yeah, Joe Pacheco is an escalations rep, and has much more ability than customer care. Joe_Pacheco@Dell.com Stick it to them.

Oh, boy.
I had a similar problem just last night with a friend's notebook (for which she had PAID for 4 year in-home warrenty). OS was messed up, and they SEND NO DISKS to put it back!! I used my own XP disk to at least get to a command prompt.
I tried the web chat. I told my foreign "helper" in the end that Dell is a 4 letter word, and wrote he should ask one of his friends just what that means. After much worthless banter, and NO solutions, he then asked me to rate the experience. I just wrote back, "You cannot be serious."
I ended up loading the OS off my disk, and using thier site for drivers (which is also rediculas, as there were 12 choices for the wireless driver alone - even with thier "service tag" info input.) They say they are now sending disks to her house, and when I questioned the logic, he wrote back the the "hierarchy" make those decisions. I suggested he send a copy of our chat to the Dell Gods (in prayer).
My opinion of Dell has not changed, except for, perhaps, a deeper, more personal hatred.

JMC

One of the big reasons costs are up and waits are so long is due to everyone and their brother calling to ask dumb-assed questions they could find out for themselves.

The majority of Dell customers (having sold many computers, trust me on this) are 40+ blue-collars who think a computer is a magic box where they can download funny pictures of cats while a hacker rearranges icons on their screen. They have no idea how a computer works, nor do they care because they are clinging to the high school ideal that computers are for nerds. These people will actually brag about their ignorance and then argue with you when you correct them.

Simple remedies for solving problems:
1. Know what you are doing. Would you buy a car not knowing how to drive? Would you go for years never changing the oil in this car? NO. Same with your computer. Know how to use it, and know how to maintain it or else don't buy one.

2. See an error message? Google it. 9 times out of 10 you will find a link to the proper support remedy or a link to someone who has figured out a fix for it.

3. Have a problem figuring out a piece of software? See #1 and #2, then hit F1 on the keyboard. Opens up the help file. 9 times out of 9, you'll figure out a feature this way.

4. Don't like waiting in line on the phone then talking to someone who doesn't speak English all that well? Go online. Use the chat feature. Dell's is found at http://support.dell.com. Think back to high school spanish. It is a hell of a lot easier to read a foreign language than to speak it. Don't use slang and state exactly what the problem is and you should be ok. If they misdiagnose it, correct them but do it politely.

5. If you absolutely have to use the phone, enunciate and don't use slang. And calm the hell down. Most customers call pissed, and it automatically starts the conversation off poorly. Southerners, don't mumble. Northerners, watch your vowels and dialects.

6. Finally, document everything. Get a case number so there is a record.

I can see by the previous comments that a lot of folks have received bad assistance from dell tech support. I would like to ask one question: HOW IN THE HELL DID THEY GET THAT FAR IN THE DELL QUAGMIRE TO EVEN TALK TO A PERSON? I have been trying for a week just to get the right phone number for tech assistance! As for the dell web site....You can stop laughing now!!
One other thing..lucky bob is an ass! I have been a college instructor for 18 years; Teaching programming stuff
to the 40 plus folks that he thinks are part of the unwashed mob! So all he's done is to rip off the 40's selling them hardware & software they don't need, big deal, if folks like him would give their customers the proper tech support they would not need dell support!

I wish I had read this before I bought my computer from that HELL hole called Dell!! My experience was Jeremy's 10 times amplified. And I agree completely, nothing against the Indians, but how can Dell think that treating their customers so disrespectfully can be advantageous to them in the long run? If one more Indian calls my house or picks up the phone when I call Customer Service I swear. Companies like Dell would make you start to have something against Indians - to be honest. Let's just keep it real.

As for Lucky Bob - STFU! If we all knew how the hell to fix computers we'd all be the same and the rest of the world wouldn't be able to run. I'm a professional who expects good service for my hard-earned dollars. Otherwise what the hell did I pay them for?

People, it is evry frustrating to see everyone suffer like this. I have some solutions for you that may be very handy when dealing with Dell. Here is what you do. I am providing a answers to most of your problems. I see most of the people face issuses with the software that is the operating system. it may be XP home, media center or whatever. For those of you who got the system shipped after 2004, there is a utility on your system called pC restore. It brings your system back to the way it was when you first bought it. Go ahead and do it. If the computer was working fine and is not ding so now. Go ahead and do this. See http://wwwapp.us.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?c=us&cs=04&DN=1090151&l=en&s=bsd

For others who face problems with the hardware, try this
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/entry?c=us&clearsystem=true&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Dell is basically interested in making sure that they send in the right part which is why they insist on troubleshooting. That is another reason why you ppl end up 7 hrs on the phone.
Try the chat link. You wont face any problem with accents or otherwise.
If the PC restore does not solve your problem just ask for an OS CD from Dell and reinstall the OS yourself. End of all damn problems.
If you feel you are facing any issues regarding the keep me informed. I will be glad to be of assistance. dont blame dell for your ignorance. service is one one thing, but what do you do with ppl who come up and "I inserted a CD in the hard drive and cant get it out"
That is true. Seeing so many blogs, it seems most of you dont know A about computers forget about Z.
neways If you feel you are facing any issues regarding ur system then keep me informed. I will be glad to be of assistance.

I have just spent the last two weeks getting one stupid hard drive replaced and returned. I have spoken to numerous so called customer service reps. (I lost count) who kept passing me back and forth between departments. I think every phone number Dell has was given to me to call at one time or another over the past two weeks (going into three weeks, now) I know this has been said over and over, but it makes me feel better to write this and get it off my chest: I will never buy another Dell anything, ever, ever, ever. Amen.

Years ago I worked for Digital doing tech support. Compaq bought Digital, then I supported Presserio's. HP "merged" with Compaq, I then supported HP computer's. I then left HP and am now a "Dell ON Call" support agent. The problems with tech support We are under extreme pressure to keep our call times down, so if I can get you off the phone by transferring, that is what I'll do. When I go for lunch my manager comes looking for me toward the end of my lunch and starts harrassing me to hurry up. I have had warnings that I was 30 secs late. There is a department of supervisors who go around harrasing tech who are on the phone for more than 20 mins. These guys have walkie talkies so they can can say Go check agent 1234, he has been off the phone for 30 secs. When I take a call I have to use the dumbest fucking tools on the planet. I have to have no less than 8 tools open. I fill in the same data over and over again I have to fill in 22 drop downs as well as type in every detail of what was done. I MUST use their database of "fixes" even if I can tell you the fix in ten seconds I MUST look it up on every call. If you ask me what is a browser, I am not allowed to tell you, unless I can document where I got that info from. So when a tech puts you on hold to look something up, it is because he is NOT allowed to give you an answer without readuing the "official answer" this takes time. Try typing, troubleshooting, listening, and looking up retarded articles all at the same time. Everything is scripted and I spend most of my time doing inane duties rather than trying to help you. and of course it is all outsourced, so I actually work for Sitel in Ottawa Ontario supporting Dell PC's. If you want tech support for a Dell call our Office and talk to a Sitel manager and ask them why they harass us to a degree that we are about to explode. Sitel phone number: (613)287-5201. Ask to speak to Mike Macara ask him why we are harrassed so badly, ask him if this has an impact on customer satisfaction. I am curious as to what he'l say. Or better yet just aim sitelmentors, sitelcgrondin, siteljaymurphy, sitelroberth, sitelaboxer, siteljhammond, sitelvwpaul ask these guys why they harass the techs so much that few last more than 6 months.

Dell On Call tech that wants to help but not allowed to.

Hi,
Reading through all the trouble Dell customers go through, I feel sorry for them, though this is nothing new to me. Let me tell you my story when I was a Dell Tech in India...In around March 2000, Spectramind (now acquired by Wipro and hence known as Wipro Spectramind) started its operations with Dell being one of the clients. Since it was a pilot process...these guys were VERY careful in screening ppl for frontline support. I cleared 3 technical tests, 6 interviews and was in. It was followed by a month long training...very effective I'd say (as the trainer herself had been trained by an American trainer) and into production after a week of listening into live calls (we were the 3rd wave). Let me assure you, we were a very dedicated group of people, our spoken english as good as it can get anywhere in the world...infact, my customers could never guess they were talking to an Indian !!

But soon things started to go wrong...moment the deal got through between Dell and Spectra...they started hiring the wrong kind of people, training was cut short to a WEEK !!
It became all about numbers, we were pushed to the limits to cap the minutes spent on a call, and take as many as possible...you see thats how they earned...if a call went beyond a time limit..it was Spectr'a loss, not Dell's.

I found it hard to bear with the rot and the third rate people around me. Let me tell you this...80% of BPO workers in India are those who have always been at the bottom of the pile through schooling as well as college...they just don't fit in anywhere else...they have no capablity or competency....this cheap labour is REALLY cheap !!

Forget about an American customer finding it hard to deal with their kinds...even I can't stand most of them, they are totally unprofessional, uncaring low IQ lot...

Gotta go...

I have read many of the comments on this site and many are probably true. I have worked in Dell Gold Support and know the level of service at that level. I can not however speak on the non Gold support. As a tech I would work with a customer until the issue was resolved. There were times when customers made it hard on themselves when they don't follow the techs instructions. I also have worked for apple tech support. So I think unlike many folks I have a true knowledge of the inner workings of both companies support. My current employer uses HP/Compaq. But I can say that the Gold Tech Support techs are well trained and usually will resolve any hardware issue. Apple support is different but not so overwelmly better or if at all than the Gold Support. Do not get the regular support with dell. Pay the premium and save yourself some

What I don't understand is the amount of complaints I've found on the internet about customers not being able to understand the technician they are speaking with. Here's a simple solution: Hang up the phone and call back until you get somebody that you can understand. If you are willing to take the time to troubleshoot the issue, take the time to shop for a technician that you're comfortable with. It doesn't hurt the technician if you disconnect the call and they are not required to call you back. If you're calling between regular weekday business hours you have a good chance of getting somebody that fluently speaks English.

On December 2, 2005, I bought a Dell computer for my children (Christmas gift). This transaction has been made through the phone.

During the first week of January, I called my sales representative, Mr. François Emungania, to let him know that the computer I had received was not the computer I thought I had bought. Mr. Emungania told me that he would call me back but he never did. Today, the situation remains the unchanged:

I Have a French computer (although I do speak French, my children do not); I have a single CD/DVD drive (I asked for a double drive); I had a 90-days trials of the McAfee Security Suite (I wanted to buy 36 months)

Today, I was finally able to talk with Mr. Emungania. He told me that he didn't remember he had to call me back, that it was my responsibility to check the quotation he sent me and that it was probably too late to do anything anyway.

Mr. Emungania is right. I didn't check the quotation he sent me mainly because the quotation he gave me was really the same as the quotation I was getting from the Dell website. However, I totally disagree when Mr. Emungania says that there is nothing I can do. I can tell everyone what I think of Dell, using blogs and other means to do so. And this is exactly what I'm going to do.

Firstly, no offence to any race....but americans/canadians/europeans (for that matter, ppl of any country) should learn the basics of using a computer before buying one. You learn how to drive a car before you buy one...not buy the car and then learn how to drive it....right? I don't mean to say that you have to master it before you buy it....just learn the basics. You will end up taking it to a mechanic to have it repaired if something goes seriously wrong....but minor stuff, you can handle by yourself. Similarly, with computers, if you have a basic idea (very basic) of how to use one (just the very basic DOs and DON'Ts) you would not have so much trouble with technical support. Technical support is there to help fix issues....not give you a free course in using computers.

A lot of what has been posted on this blog about the need to keep the time spent with the customer on the phone down is true and it does affect the quality of customer service, so blame the business model and the powers-that-be in america/on deputation in India instead of blaming the race/people/country...whatever. The hurdle in providing customer service here is not the fact that the agent has no intention of providing proper support but the rules/regulations/policies/procedures etc. that is imposed by the parent company and the management at the higher level in India prevent him/her from doing so.

I personally had no problems whatsoever in getting myself understood when I was handling calls and (just to let you know) [dell's email survey form has a section where the customer marks the understandability of the agent on a scale of 1-9, 9 being the best] I had always scored either an 8 or 9 on each and everyone of the surveys that were sent out to rate the support I provided. It is true that the odd agent might have a very strong accent and is difficult to understand but that is not true of each and every agent.

It is sad to see someone of Indian origin put down his own roots in favour of his adopted country just to blend in or just to do the "in thing", it really shows his insecurity and if he could not be true to his own roots....i don't think he can ever be true to any adopted country...I am referring to Anjan.

3rdEnglishspeakingpoet.....you haven't the faintest clue....it is better you find something better to do than to post rubbish.

monkeypox....get your facts straight before you open your mouth....I am an A+ in hardware and trust me....there is no way a computer will POST without a CPU. Please do post some links, in case there are any, that point to a computer that can post without a CPU.

You know technology is great nowadays and sometimes it's just absolutely WONDERFUL (sarcasm!)You do definitely get what you pay for although there are a few things that that doesn't apply to. I love the 99cents stores, but if I didn't have to I probably wouldn't. Long story short, APPLE-MAC IS THE SHIT! They may cost more but they are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better!!! I've had different brands of computers; TRUST ME ON THIS ONE! Customer service pretty much sux anywhere. That's inevitable because nobody likes hearing about how their product sux and nobody likes having to tell people how to fix their shit all the time!Hence, the automated recordings! What you need to do is just spit out the extra cash for something better and then you won't even need "customer support"! Tell me I'm wrong!

My experience with Dell Customer Support three years ago was TERRIBLE! I was on hold for more than an hour, and finally got patched into some ANGRY AMERICAN in New York or New Jersey. What a terrible experience! Made me sorry I bought a Dell.

Fast forward a couple of years: I make the call and get patched into the call center in India. Total time on hold: 7 minutes. The woman was great, great English skills, got the problem solved.

Sorry for everyone with sucky service with Dell. My experience with the Indian call center was the complete opposite - sure beats being on hold for an hour plus.

Hi

How many of you Americans know where is the start button. You say that Tech support in India,is difficult to understand, and we dont know about computers. I say that you dont know about computers. I work for a call center in America, and people are using computers when they dont know how to go to Google.com ( take ur Dham Computer and throw it in the garbage can u nitwit ) Dont forget 80% of the software engineers in your country are Indians who are doing a fantastic job. Just to let you know that just 20% of computer users in America, who dont know about computers call in for tech support, and the 20% of them are here posting comments on this site :)

I used to work for a company that was outsourced by Dell in Ottawa Canada and it was ridiculous! Dont get me wrong the people were great but the outsourcing company was always compleatly overhauling the way they conducted business. After my 2 days off in a week i would sit to answer calls untill I asked what had changed. They lost the contract and Dell opened a service centre across the street. THere is equal blame between the outsourcing company and the problems that Dell caused the outsoucing companies employees from mismarketing what "technical support" means and covers. Let me tell you I'm happy im done with that contract. Any other contract would have been great.

I have always been a big Dell fan but something has happened and the service is diminished. I have a one-year old Dimension 4700 with tons of data. Surprisingly, no shockingly, the hard drive acted up. After calling Dell, they said they would send me 2 cds that did not come with the original purchase....xp and diagnostics. They arrived the next day and a techie took me around the block 5 times (1 hour & 45 minutes) very politely. He ascertained that the hard drive had failed and arranged to have a new one sent the next day. However, he made it very clear that the technician would remove the old, and in with the new but would not hook anything up that he had to unhook and would not stay to establish that I was still hooked up the the Internet, etc. So here I am, a consumer who paid for an extended warranty spending hours setting up my computer again not to mention the lost information although most of it was backed up. Unfortunately, I had already received a shipment of a new Dell laptop the week before. If this had happened before that, I would have certainly gone to a different manufacturer. Be cautious with extended warranties. All they do is "patch" problems but then the onus is on the consumer and frankly, at 71 years of age, I am not happy that I had to sit at the PC for hours to put it back the way it was. This is not exceptional service and I am holding my breath with the new hard drive and my new laptop.

I COMPLETELY agree! I could go on for days with my problems with Dell. Their tech support really does suck. I can't tell you how many problems I've had with Dell within this past year. And now they voided my warranty because "there was too many problems with the laptop."

Simply put, Dell is garbage and so is their tech support.

I own and run a small computer sales and repair shop . Dell Tech support definitely SUCKS . But so does the "tech support" for HP and/or COMPAQ , GATEWAY , ETC.... They ALL are farming out their support to india . Here is the REALITY CHECK : Soon "they" will not only be providing tech support , "they" will be manufacturing , marketing and selling computers and laptops from "over there" .Problem? YES . The PC's will be cheaper , the JOBS WILL BE GONE , but nobody will give a F*#K , since they got a computer or laptop for only 100 bucks (more or less) .Is that bad ? YES.Cheaper seems better , BUT , Why do people get "concerned" and indignant about losing jobs like Textile , Steel , etc... to "third world countries" , and then they buy a PC built by some poor kid making 2.50 a day in China or India ,and they tell everyone what a "great deal they got".
If you purchased a nice new pair of shoes , ( OR shirt , pants, toaster , hat, microwave , etc...) For only $3.99 , would you not at least wonder for a milisecond HOW that is POSSIBLE ?? Someone is getting "SCREWED" , and that may not concern you now , but trust me , someday , IT WILL .

All u sadistic american and european cheapos, firstly u guys dont know how to use any electronic gadget....
secondly u guys think that as soon as an agent picks your call he understands ur fuckall problem, solution - give him some time to understand whats wrong with your laptops or computers..
And if you guys dont like speaking to any indian to get tech support..its better you stick your phone up up ass and take your screwed up equipment back to the shop from where you bought rather than calling for support and making us laugh at the issue that you have - which cud have been solved by a 5 year old indian kid.
So i recommend that all u american idiots go through a test before u guys buy a computer, so that only the ones who know how to use a computer land up with one---cos its better we provide support to them rather than all the other illiterate cheap fucking chums who have no idea as to how you switch on a computer.

I purchased a Dell 10 years ago and had trouble from the get go- 2 hard drives-3 mother boards later it still was screwed- I even had a Dell tech tell me that I was "hitting the keys to hard on the keyboard that is why 4 or 5 windows would pop up at the same time when opening one program"He said Dell Keyboards like a LIGHT touch Oh and he said this while laughing and telling someone else that he had told the stupid woman on the phone what was wrong with her system. In all that computer had 91 tech calls in less than 2 years. I finally took it to someone else and he fixed it in 2 hours- seems they had some cables stuffed so tight that they would short out when hot.My hiusband still uses it to this day for e-mail. I bought a Gateway and 7 years later ZERO trouble.I did put in a new graphics card and Gateway tech helped me to install it even though it was way out of warrenty. My kids just bought me a gift--A new Dell computer- my son said it is "different" for this system- it is an XPS 400 with the Gold package service- although there are no numbers to contact anyone.They have also paid to have someone set it up and transfer all my files. This way if it does not work out of the box they can fight with that guy.I hated to give back a gift but was tempted to return it for a full refund and go buy a Gateway.I have heard all kinds of Dell horror stories and have had to spend 30 min on the phone with Mujabar who could not speak English-- and it is not even out of the packing materials yet.I kept saying what did you say and he finally just hung up on me.I called back and finally got an American-I am praying I do not have another Dell from Hell on my hands-- hmmm might have a priest come in and lay hands on it before powering up for the first time. LOL

I recently got an Insiron 1300 with the accidental coverage 2 year warranty. This is supposed to cover anything. Dell tried to sell me the call center support for 79.99. Wrong. My wireless card wouldn't hook up in a coffee shop. On line support didn't know shit about anything. I called 12 times and spent 2 hours and 15 minutes on the phone and got nowhere. I'm the owner of a business and I don't have this kind of time to waste. I did go through the same total bullshit of getting disconnected (hung-up on me), transferred to 8 different departments (I guess one support department isn't enough to keep up with the junk Dell is trying to pass off), talking to managers, teaching Dell reps. how to do their jobs after I learned how to do their job in the first 10 Minutes, talking to foriegn countries and no resolution of the problem. Eventually, three days later, and a total of 18 phone calls and three hours and 20 minutes later, I downloaded a patch that should have been on the original load up. I'll repeat the question here, "What the FUCK is up with Dell support?"

I bought a Dell Inspirion lap top for my daughter. Within 6 months, mother board and some thing went bad and Dell replaced. We had to spend long time on phone help and send the laptop twice to Dell. Then just when the one year warranty expired, again mother board and A/C adapter went bad. Now this time Dell will not take care of the problem and they wanted to charge us for the parts and labor. We decided to junk it. It is probably the worst purchase I made for spending about $1200.

Dell support is not the best... but they sell more machines than anyone else, if their company is big, its because they've managed to keep the MAJORITY of customers happy, be it through low prices or good support... but any big company will have dissapointed customers... its just the way the world goes... I used to be a tech, in India, not for dell or any other call center where everyday consumers would call... I enjoyed the job coz I was given the freedom to think and apply solutions without reading from scripts... my job involved providing support for software deployment and mantainence for network managers/admins, therefore i did not have the frustration of having to explain where a 'Start' button is... we were offshore, but not outsourced... however I have seen and been to an outsourced call center and monitored calls... I have to admit that any agent, whatever race he/she belongs to, who can handle 40-50 different types of people with different needs and with very limited computer knowledge, really needs a pat in the back...
It's easy to say what should be done... like providing better training or better pay etc etc.. bottom line is.. Dell sells a very very large number of PC's... if the call centers hadn't been outsourced... hold times would be a lot longer than it is currently... free support may not have existed anymore... truth be told... even India doesn't really have the numbers of skilled people to do this job, simply because only a small minority of the population are free from a strong regional accent, and of that population, most of them find good careers as Engineers, Developers, Analysts, Admininstrators etc etc... Unfortunately, because like companies like Dell require a huge number of people... outsourced companies are forced to recruit people that may not fit the profile... that is why you sometimes get poor service... I respect everybody in this thread who have not blamed a particular race for Dell technical support... if Dell technical support one day decides that Indians will receive a software engineers salary working a normal day job instead of graveyard shifts... believe me, you'll find extremely good techs answering your calls... but thats not gonna happen is it? I do not work for Dell, I'm a network engineer now in a private company, however I do know that Dell is the largest, or atleast one of the largest PC makers currently, and hence I do not think that you are making a mistake by buying from the company... one of my machines is a dell and most machines in our organization are dell and they are fine too...
Being an IT person I've never had to call Dell support but i did get a quick reply when i mailed them asking for one of the media that should have came with the machine...
And please remember, if you are calling technical support, you are talking to humans, who are proabably not IT gurus but are sticking it out (if India, through the night) trying to get ur machine fixed, as fast as they can, as correctly as they can(in terms of quality monitoring), and as politely as they can. Put yourselves in their shoes and you'll find it easier to empathize, then you won't be so demanding...
P.S. - a lot of silly topics have been covered in this thread including a theory of POST without a CPU??? but the point is that Dell is just as good as any other company in my neutral opinion...

Another story, sorry for the length... But Dell Computer and Dell Financial Services really suck.

Five years after I returned a defective computer to Dell Computer, Dell Financial Services has hired Oxford Management Services to harass me and my family to compensate them for a defective product, which has not been in my hands since July of 2001. I have been receiving phone calls from Oxford Management Services at the rate of 2 per day 7 days a week since January 2006.

The Dell Computer web site is filled with claims of superior product reliability and superior customer service. In fact, several large computer magazines have given awards to Dell Computer Corporation for their superior customer service. In January 2001… yes way back in 2001, I was in the market to purchase a computer for my small business. After a bit of research on the internet I decided to purchase a Dell Computer, I was convinced after visiting the Dell web site and reading about their self claims of superior customer service and product reliability. I decided to lease this computer rather than buy one simply because the technology seemed to be changing so rapidly. My first mistake was not reading the fine print in the lease that says a computer could only be returned within the first 30 days after purchase.

Unfortunately, the computer I received was a lemon. There were several things that were not working properly right out of the box. The first was the CD drive to the laptop. The particular laptop that I purchased was the Inspiron. To use the CD drive in this laptop you had to disconnect the disk drive and insert the CD drive. The problem was that the system would not recognize the CD drive. After several email communications we found that the CD drive was not configured properly, so by week three we were finally able to get the CD was working.

The second problem was connecting to my internet service provider. For some reason I could connect but not navigate. I use the internet to order from several of my suppliers so I felt it was important to take some time out to trouble shoot the system. I didn’t have a great deal of time to spend trouble shooting this system but then that’s why I bought a Dell because I didn’t think I would need to spend time as a computer technician to get it to work on all cylinders. To make a long story short I went back and forth between my internet provider and Dell tech services each stating it was the other’s problem. By now I am into about five weeks into fooling with the computer. Dell finally sent a technician out to the house to replace the modem and it still didn’t fix the problem. At this point I am getting really frustrated because I have been spending time at work and taking time off work to try to get the computer working. The technician felt that it was a software problem with Windows ME. He felt that it probably was not configured properly and that was why it wasn’t maintaining a connection with the internet provider. He suggested that I contact Dell tech services and have them reinstall the ME software.

That night, after closing my business and working all day at my other job, I spent several hours trying to get in touch with a Dell technician. After finally succeeding I explained my dilemma and we began to reload the ME software. She said it would take about 30 minutes and outlined the steps to reinstall and sent me on my way. Well the reinstall failed miserably as I received several fatal error messages during the reinstall process. By this time I am tired to the point of crying. The last thing I wanted to do was try to get back in touch with a Dell technician. In my moment of despair and frustration I boxed the computer up and shipped it back to Dell Computer Corporation. Big mistake!!!!.. about a week later the computer was returned as an unauthorized return. By now, needing a computer for my business, I purchased a generic laptop from a local computer store. I am happy to say that everything worked, right out of the box. The only difference was the operating system was Windows 98. My frustration with the Dell computer resulted in my decision to stop making payments to Dell Financial Services. The bottom line was that the product was defective, I wasn’t having any luck getting it fixed and I didn’t want it any more. So when the computer was returned to me I started making phone calls and writing letters to Dell Computer Corporation and Dell Financial Services to get this issue resolved and get them to take their computer back. The phone calls proved to be a fruitless attempt at resolving this issue. When I talked with Dell customer service they told be I needed to be talking to Dell Financial Services. When I talked to Dell Financial Services they said I needed to talk with Dell Tech support. When I talked with Dell Tech support and explained that I was not interested in spending hours on the phone trying to get the computer to work and that I was not satisfied with the product and wanted to return it they told me I had to talk with Dell Customer Service. And around I went several times before I started writing letters to Michael Dell and Dell Financial Services. All the while I am getting bills and delinquent notices from Dell Financial Services and Dell Acceptance. I think it was sometime in June when I realized no one was going to respond to my letters I decided to make another call to Dell Financial Services. Although I had been told several times by their service department that they would authorize a voluntary repossession of the unit it didn’t really happen until the third call. One month later I was contacted by their contractor to arrange an authorized shipment back to, I think, Dell Financial Services. The computer was finally gone at the end of July and I thought this nightmare had come to an end, wrong.

On October 9, 2001 I received a call from a collections agent assigned by Dell Financial Services. The purpose of the call was to basically threaten me with legal action if I didn’t give Dell Financial Service $1250 for the computer I returned. I requested this in writing so the conversation was followed up with two letters, one of which stated that my option was to pay $1250 or they would take me to court. Nothing about getting the computer returned in working order. Basically the collections agent told me that Dell Financial Services and Dell Computer Corporation are two independent companies whose transactions are financial in nature and they don’t communicate with each other on technical or customer service problems.

I am curious how many consumers have gone through the same gauntlet as I have with Dell Computer and Dell Financial Services. And, yet the awards keep coming their way. I am still flabbergasted that I have not received any written correspondence to my five or six letters to Dell Computer, Dell Financial Services and Dell Acceptance. Currently, the collection agent has admitted sending me the wrong letter. The correct letter reads that if I pay the $1200 all red flags will be lifted and I can attempt to get the computer back. They won’t however tell me whom I need to talk to in order to get the system back. When I ask is it Dell Computer or Dell Financial Services they don’t know. I am convinced I will get nothing because I have again attempted to talk with Dell Customer Services, a week has gone by and I have not received a return call. In my opinion if Dell Computer were so consumer minded they should pay Dell Financial Services the $1250 and extend me an apology for the aggravation I have put up with during the last year.

That’s the story and aggravation my family and I have gone through with seemingly no end. I recently wrote Randall Choate of Dell Executive support but as usual there is no return response. It’s amazing how relentless corporate America can be on the little guy.

Why do you thing it is necessary to use profanity - especially the F word. It is nasty and shows what kind of person you are in that you don't care about kids or anyone else that might be offended because of it. Who cares that you didn't get what you wanted from Dell or anyone else - try a little courtesy - it goes a long way.

If DELL has a bad support - i can say the same about SAMSUNG. almost all companies nowadays are shitting on a customer. Even if you buy the high-end product from them. They are not interested to help you! The only thing they are interested are your money!

Does anyone know which company has the TOP-quality products and TOP-quality support? maybe Eizo? or who?

Hello there,

I am glad someone wrote this about dell. Hey I have a question about a problem I have with my compyuter. MY PRINTER SUCKS AND MY SPEAKERS, PLUSS I WAS RIPPED OFF! the last part was my fault for not saying wow $1,200 is too much for a low grade crapy computer. So here it goes I need to fix somethings on my computer please someone help me, I really do not want to call the bad bad people that waste your time at the dell call centers.

I bougth my inspiron 5150 2 years ago it cost me mo than 1800 USD ( It is all money that I save ofr three years) but right now it complete DEAD. I don't spend 1800 USD for the thing that only 2 years.
05/22/2006 when I used that Dell to check email and it turn off automatically. I couldn't turn it on and more.
Then I went to my friend house and chat with DELL hardware support. He/She ask me to remove all thing from my Dell and said that my motherboard was Dead.
And tranfer me to Out-of-Warranty Department, I told to the lady, she said I have a best system on the wolrd ( what is she mean?) they cost me almost 500 usd ( to fix it. It is nothing for dell but with student like me it is big money. They charge it right away, I don't have it then she said call back when you have money and turn off the fone. I go to school in this summer, and I have go to my frieng house to borrow his computer. I spent 1800 to bought the system that only work for two years. Then I go to google to find the other way to fix my computer but I find out that alot people have same problem with me on same system.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/10/23/consumer.htm
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/10/23/consumer.htm
And my friend she in the OK, she have 5100 system. She told me that system onlu run for 15 - 30 minutes and turn off with out notice.

My system right now. When i put AC power. The power light only flash one time and turn off.
When i get power out, I turn on with battery but nothing happen.

Anybody know some way to fix. I don't thing I will send it to dell to fix. Because they cost me 500 USD and warranty for me only 90 days. I don't want to put 500 to buy 3 months to used that Dell. Who know after Dell fix it that problem come back or not?

I'm sorry my English too bad, but i'm so upset right now.
Thank for read it. Thank for your help.

To Phuc Mai:
Thanks for the information as I have a Dell 5150 that has not(yet) shut down automatically... It sounds like harware on your machine has already burned out due to heating so you may have to get parts replaced... The Dell 5150 is of poor design, I know this from the way the fan is almost always at full speed even when I run just a few programs in a cool environment...so you have to take extra care to make sure it doesn't overheat...
Your friends computer shuts down without notice after 15-30 minutes? Computers are designed to shut off immediately should the processor inside being overheated... if this is continously happening... u should check to ensure that the vents for air flow are not blocked and that the fans in the machine are working... try opening it up and cleaning the dust out... it may help...

Wow, great conversation and dialogue on this blog!

Good news for us American workers is that there is likely to be great activity (jobwise) in tech support area in the coming years, due to increased supply/demand.

Number of reasons:
1. Many of these jobs are coming 'back home' due to the downsides of low-cost outsourcing to foreign countries (as in case of Dell)

2. Anyway there are fewer 'entry-level' software jobs these days, new graduates will seek experience by starting out in the support area; likewise companies may view this as a good place to start out.

3. There are so many displaced workers in the software industry in general, oftentimes these people can contribute quite effectively in support roles while retraining skills.

On this note, does anyone have a good estimate of what a tech support engineer job should pay, specifically at a company like say, IBM or Dell?

Jeremy - although I certainly understand your frustation and your right to post - do you REALLY feel it necessary to use the ENTIRE "F" word that shows up in an area for all to see?? Why don't you edit it to just say "F" for the benefit of others who have children that will see this or others who may be offended? If you have children of your own I am sure you will agree and edit your original post??

Respectfully submitted and Requested!!

J Price:

I see. You're one of those people who think that words are somehow bad, ideas can "harm" kids, and that kids aren't smart enough to know the difference between good and bad.

Perhaps spending more time educating your children is in order?

I agree with some of your replied comments that the use of the F word can be a little upsetting to some. However when you become so totally frustrated with a complete shower of shit that is DELL Computers, I can understand its use. I have a Dimension 3000 PC that every time a fax is received it completely freezes the whole system, resulting in having to shut down using the Tower power button. I have tried all ways for Dell to sort it out now the Bastards tell me it is a Software problem and that I have to payout for their advice!!!! So much for the £105(UK) that I have paid for a warranty. They are a complete bunch of Bastards and I would not buy from them in the future

my windowsXP OS needs to be reinstalled on my 2002 desktop. obviously, a complex problem to solve over the phone.

after reading this blog, i now get it! I get Dell! They *really* don't care. well, now that i know that i feel strangely better.

so, when the dell tech rep in india asked if he could "hang up and call me back in 2 or 3 minutes" but then never did, he was happy because:
* our hour-long support call was now "over" and looked better on his time-spent per call
* he really didn't have to call me back
* he didn't have any guilt because he did not "release" me himself because I agreed that he could call me right back.
* now i must start all over with some other rep in india (or where ever, it really doesn't matter) would have to ask me all the same questions over and over just to get me back to the place where I am stuck.
* and since the next tech swears there is no "ID" # or name or anything identifying said "call-back-tech-guy" in the notes ... nobody knows that he didn't solve my problem and didn't call me back. (I mean, why would they actually put something in the notes about who is working on the case.... since they don't really care it doesn't really matter).
*and even if i am transfered to the "manager" i still won't have my system restored.
* given the technical experience, i probably wiped out my OS for nothing... there could've been a way around it.
* my last call with tech "john" (who really couldn't speak english) was my last call with dell. i'm done with them. i type this from my powerbook.

breath. breath. don't waste energy or anger on them... breath.

I've had so many bad experiences with Dell, I don't even know how many, I'll count them here.

This is for an Inspiron XPS I bought about 2 years ago.

1. Battery died a month after I purchased my laptop.
2. Had speakers replaced.
3. Motherboard replaced twice.

Ok, here's a good one.

4. My computer crashed, they sent a technician and sent a hardrive. The technician said there was no need to change hardrives, and that he'd take the one that Dell sent. I told him I prefered to keep it and return it myself, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the original one.

Dell NEVER received the hardrive, there was no record of it ever being shipped.

They were charging me for it, they were even yelling at me, I complained to supervisor, he said they wouldn't charge me.

5. My hardrive crashed again, had to have it replaced again.

6. subwoofer replaced 3 times.
7. Motherboard replaced yet again, the thief was sent to my house again, he messed up my computer, now i can't even turn it on. He kept on losing the screws, he couldn't put together the computer again.

So now, I'm waiting for yet ANOTHER motherboard, memory etc....

I'm so fed up with Dell, I'm never buying from them again!

Jeremy, I agree with everything you wrote in your blog. Dell sucks. I got a E510 back in March and I regret buying Dell. Their support sucks, their "on call" support is a joke and they make crappy products. My next move will definitely be a Mac.

I have spent 5 hours last night on the phone with Sean from India, he wants to come to US and live in Vegas, because the stock memory from Dell they shipped Crashed my computer. I had to reformat my computer, 3 times, and have been trying to ship the memory back. What a hassle, I waited on hold for 45 minutes for a supervisor who could not resolve the issue, simply supplying shipping for their faulty memory. I will never purchase Dell again. I has taken 3.5 hours on their famous customer service to correct the issue, now I am receiving calls on my cell from Dell asking if I would be interested in their products! What happened to Dell!

Dealing with "Customer Service Representatives" from Dell (and most other large US-based corporations who have outsourced customer support, to be fair) has become a Kafkaesque experience for most US consumers, especially those of us who are old enough to remember what quality customer service and support was like decades ago.

Believe it or not, customer service people used to bend backwards to please the customer, and they even were given actual authority to get things done on behalf of the customer, including refunds, replacements, shipping, sending out repairmen, etc. It was a one-stop, one-time encounter and the customer was king. The old customer service and support people had to know a lot about the business and the merchandise before they were allowed to interact with customers. Back then, when we consumers got someone who acted anything like today's Dell Customer Service rep, we would make indignant complaints to a manager who took us seriously, and we would have a reasonable expectation that such a customer service rep would be reprimanded or fired for her unbelievable incompetence. Today such apparent "incompetence" is how a Dell rep is trained to interact with customers.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

My favorite illustration of woeful inadequacy on the part of Dell's customer service is a recent one. As I chatted online from my workplace computer with a service rep to request a replacement of my hard drive which had crashed and died the night before on my home computer, she actually asked me whether I was "now using the computer in question" to chat online with her!

(If you didn't get that right away, please reread the above paragraph.)

And yet this is typical of what happens when service techs are trained to handle customers instead of being trained to have real knowledge about the product requiring service. I think of it as "virtual service," providing a realistic illusion of helpful customer service while not providing any level of meaningful service in the real world.

For example, every time I get transferred to a new customer service rep, the new rep insists that I provide her with my name (and spelling again), full address, phone numbers, tag numbers, model number, etc. even though the last reps I just spoke with also took 10 minutes to extract all of that information less than an hour before. If each rep doesn't already have that info sitting right in front of them on the computer screen the instant a service call is transferred, the whole computerized service system is a joke.

If a Dell employee is reading this post, please forward it to your manager. Thank you for using GurlZone NYC's Room for Rant. Is there any thing else we can do to provide you with the illusion of assistance today?

Wow, I am amazed at the problems being exposed here. Troy, I also purchased an e-510 after putting up with a --yes--a packard bell for over 8 years. Thought Dell was the mother of all pc's. Bullcrap!!
My monitor--a dell 1707 fpc--will not run with my radeon x300 in digital mode---the card is also a fraudulent ripoff--so after telling me to check connectors(bent pins etc.--Duh...gee I never thought to check)--they finally sent me a new monitor. Asked for the serial# and sent an exact replica of the model line that doesn't work.
It does the same exact thing with all drivers re-installed, etc. Goes into power sanving mode in digital and will not come out.
The kicker is that I don't even think they tried the new monitor with the same setup before shipping it to me--must be cheaper to send out another cheap crappy monitor, than to waste time figuring out the real problem.
Waiting now for them to reply--hopefully they will send a replacement monitor that was checked out and works in digital mode with my current card--Later--Ed

Jeremy

We just discussed this blog post as the 'consumers taking charge' at Bloggercon

Doc Searls is taking notes here:
http://www.scripting.com/docNography/bloggerconIv/Day001/usersInCharge.html

I've been a representative in Manila for almost a year now and yes, it has to do with Indians not trying to troubleshoot the issue, they just escalate the case without troubleshooting.

No wonder our account is pulling up all the supports because they see too many improper escalation tags when a level 2 support was formed in Manila.

Its not being racist or discriminatative, I just noticed that they are techie enough but they lack customer support skills.

Well for those who are members of DON'T BUY DELL club, one word for you guys. "ILITERATE!!" A lot of american calling in because they don't know how to use the computer in a right way that it would last. Most americans thought that a CDROM is like a cup holder! Americans calling in and a lot of them is not aware what type of warranty they bought and what type of issues are covered.

For those americans doesn't know different types of warranties, ***we have this ONSITE SERVICE, dell will send out onsite technician for a part replacement considered as FIELD REPLACEABLE UNIT not applicable for parts that is considered CUSTOMER REPLACEABLE UNIT. Come on, those are the parts that is so easy to install.

***RETURN TO DEPOT WARRANTY, only applicable for FIELD REPLACEABLE UNIT again.

***COMPLETE CARE WARRANTY, covers accidental damage. Everything that is cause intentionally and by nature, is not covered. A must have.

***warranty that would expire has a different department, as well issues not covered by your warranty.

The reason why representative ask for your information is for ownership verification, and it is required by Dell. If we'll not ask for your name would it be ok to address you "How may I help you iliterate customer?" instead of "how may I help you Mr. _____ ?"

The reason why we walk you guys to some troubleshooting steps is to narrow down what really causes the issue. So that just in case there would be a part replacement, we can guarantee you that it would resolve the issue. If you don't troubleshoot, no guarantee. It would prolong your burdens!!

If you want good technical support from Dell then claim that you're disabled. That could be anything and they can't ask what your disability is. If they still refuse to replace a part or something, ask to talk to a supervisor and work your way up the chain. I had a technician tell me this once, he said that they don't want a lawsuit so if you need service, just claim to be disabled.

I had a similar experience. But in this case they sent me the wrong monitor. When I called to tell them they didnt believe me. Then they finally looked up the SN and found I was telling the truth. Then they tried to convince me to keep the lower grade monitor they had sent me.

Dell support does suck!

Total time on the phone was way over an hour.

Hey "Tech. Support From Dell" you're the Illiterate one. You spelt it wrong. You're no smarter than anyone calling in, you just read from a cue card, or cue binder. I'm sure there's some stupid name for it that you "technicians" call it. Funny how if you're so smart, you're stuck working a not even American minimum wage job doing "tech.support" Yeah you're real literate... you're probably living in a third world country anyways. Oh and if you're so smart, how come you aren't working a real job? probably because you can't get one. I don't mind Indians or any other race, but when they insult the American race, then they have a problem.

Jeremy,

I would like to apologize for the poor experience that you had while working with Dell Support.

Dell is committed to serving our customers.

To that end, we have been working to address issues that have been brought to our attention from customers such as you and your readers. Thousands of technicians are currently being re-trained so that they can address a wider range of issues to help reduce the number of call transfers.

We continue to add call centers in the United States and around the world, and we've increased the number of support representatives to help alleviate hold times. These additional agents also allow us to provide more ways to help our customers--including e-mail, chat and the Dell Community Forum. These options should allow you to resolve problems such as the one you describe with your monitor quickly and easily online.

We have also recently expanded our DellConnect service to all small and home business customers in the United States. It is a tool that allows a technician to troubleshoot and help solve a customer's computer problem remotely over a broadband connection.

If you or any of your readers have feedback on ways Dell can provide a better support experience, please e-mail me directly.

Respectfully,

Geoff
Dell Customer Advocate
e-mail: customer_advocate@dell.com

Hi guys and Gals .. this one is getting worse and worse

an Ideal call goes this way

we hear the Tring tring and we gotta pink it up with in 3 rings and its a big mess..
we pick up the phone say " Thank you for calling Del what ever support "
may i have ur name and ur service tag please
most of the times becouse of the VOIP line we have proplems listning to the service tag and that stpid sticker is some ware in like back of the computer /below or some strange place
so finally until we get that stupid numbers we cant proceed
so we get that and we see all ur information on our screen and we gotta identify the user
meaning we must ask u for ur details

we warify it and then ask the problem which most of the times can be fixed But we gotta Document that supid talks we have for documentation so we have to speak Shit like hows the temprature there ..where do u like what do u F'ing do and all that

So we type all this and we submit and the application hangs most of the times or all the data is lost and we gotta type em back before the next call
they use this stupid thing called the DSN tree ( Dell Solutions network ) and YES we read out from it coz we are not asked to use our knoledge but stick to what is there )

now we do this and for the personal record we gotta save the calls we take
and as soon as this part is done we gotta say thank u for caling and hang up for the next one to ring immediately ..
so this is a process of like 21 or 22 calls continously
we when asked breaks dont get them coz there are many calls in the Queue waiting so we got to take them when ur supervisor pleases its a really shitty job it kills u
and the management does not want to add more people coz they wanna save money they used to give incentives but now its all over u work or ur gone

and when we get across some weird problem we cant take help from google
coz most of the sites are blcoked we cant take help from the person next to us coz we gotta be speaking to u and if we put u on hold for more then a min then its a problem your manager will be shouting from his desk ..
Well i guess this is how life is at dell
so better be prepered for the worst .

Hey guys, I was working with Gateway technical support 2 years back. As few other techs have mentioned, you guys must learn the basics of computers before getting one. I remember the day when I booked a HDD sale for a 17 year old user. The user asked me for a tech to fix the HDD which costed him $200 wherein the HDD costed only $149. I insisted him that I would help him to fix it himself to save the user's hard earned money. We feel for you guys, you try to do the same. Try talking politely and try appreciating the tech, trust me you will get the best of service from an Indian. I gurantee this.

Try not to blame everything on India. I have heard an American asking for the billing of Bellsouth ISP to be shifted to India as people in US did it inefficiently.

God Bless !

Hello
I am an American and I am completely satisfied will Dell services. Everytime I call, I agree I'm connected to an Indian - but they are EXTREMELY NICE and helpful! In fact, most americans mistreat and are rude. I have had a wonderful experience with the Indians and Dell! No problems so far, and I have purchased MANY Dell products! Keep up the good work Dell.

Thanks

I worked at Dell for two months, and since then, I have tried to convince anyone buying a Dell to not buy one because of their sucky service. I bought a laptop from Best Buy, made by Gateway. I got my phone call and questions, along with my restore DVD ordered w/in 10 Minutes.

My last 2 years experience with Dell's customer service has been absolutely dismal. On top of usually not being able to understand half of what they say in rapid heavy indian-accented English, I'm very often being promised a follow up call which I almost never get.
Granted, they all are very polite, ask if it's OK to call me by my first name, apologize profusely for their coworkers broken promises, try to help, mostly unsuccessfully, assign yet another case number and then give their phone extension to leave a message only never to be heard from again. It sure looks like they all are being trained to play the same obvious silly game.

As we all these larger companies, they are searching for ways to increase profits to "make their share holders happy". The thing we must remember that the board of directors usually have a large bonus riding on how profitable the business is not how many complaints exist.
As for the call centres in India well there are good and bad elements to this. The staff are generally very well educated but they are forced to read from scripts. So this leads back to the way the businesses who contract out the work should keep a better handle on their representives.
Me, I have been generally happy with the equipment from Dell. The service has not always been great, but who's is?

_____________________________
http://www.stty.co.uk

Buy Dell and you purchase aggravation. Doing business with them is doing business with a den of thieves and the most inept people in the world besides want your comp screwed up get India on phone and aside from not understanding them DONT follow their instructions or you'll rue the day. Here's hoping people stop buying their products and they hit the skids.

As such dell's tech support is pathetic. Why do ppl actually bother to wait over the line to get some answer.Use your common sense , just drop a mail or hit the nearest Dell dealer and get a refund/replacement.

PLEASE WRITE YOUR STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL ABOUT YOUR DELL COMPLAINTS. IF WE JOIN FORCES, WE CAN FORCE THEM TO IMPROVE OR GET OUT FO THE MARKET PLACE.

Not only is Dell Tech Support shameful, their product quality has declined with the service. I am a past Dell supporter. My last laptop is my last DELL purchase.

First, the computer came without the needed software, so I had to hire a technician to restore my system when I had a problem. They did FINALLY send the software after several calls, but they sent the wrong software. It was for every Dell but my own. They told me they had been temporarily out of the disk that I needed so it wasn't included in the packaging. Finally I received a disk that told me that it was the right disk, but guess what? It's not.

I was in Myrtle Beach this winter, and found someone else with a Dell. She was having problems and needed to reinstall Windows. She never received any disks. She was told that they were temporarily out, but that were now back in stock and they would send them. Hard to believe.

What this? For lack of less than $1.00 per customer, Dell will not offer restoration disks with the computer? Dell is willing to sell incomplete units? I find it hard to believe that there is no restoration disk even if you ask for one. YOu need to call them and ask for the various files and go through the India-based tech support, which takes hours, to get what you already paid for?

Now my warranty is expired and I can't find the files I need to restore my computer. It's barely a year old. This company should be put out of business.

The motherboard has broken twice - from normal use: plugging a printer and mouse into the two USB ports. Finally, after 2 broken motherboards, which is the only way to repair the USB ports, I decide to buy a docking station so that the USB connections can stay plugged in, but guess what. Normal use of the docking station destroys the mother board,

DO NOT BUY A DELL!!!!

My experience w/Dell support echoes Jeremy's. Never, never a Dell again!

Jeremy, are you aware that when I go to your site within a few seconds a notice comes up from Explorer which freezes the page, followed by "this page cannot be viewed" ???

No. This is the first I've heard of that.

Spend an extra hour seeing if you can find a better company, before you buy from Dell. Dreadful tech support. It does not appear they are even trying to help.

I paid extra for Dell DataSafe. They market it as a way to make your data very safe from all manner of threats. But it comes with little or no documentation. Upon realizing this, I used my paid Dell support to try to figure out how to work this feature. In 5 or more calls I could not find anyone at Dell with a solid grasp on how DataSafe works and how it should be used. Now, richly, my system has failed, despite taking every normal precaution. And Dell has nothing to say about how DataSafe may be used to recover my data. I notice that Dell has pulled back the marketing for this add-on substantially in the six months since I bought the machine. I have probably called Dell ten times since I got this machine, and gotten the run around an average of 90 minutes each time. I do not believe Dell has assisted or resolved any of those issues during those wasted and non-free encounters. In each case I had to call a consultant or Microsoft to get any real help. This is abominable. It is so common that Dell is obviously aware of the magnitude of this problem. Either they are unwilling or unable to fix it. Very sad. I talked with three Dell support people yesterday; it is not clear that they were listening or trying to understand. Rather than deal with the issues that just might solve my problem, they chose to change the subject, and change the subject again. They told me to run the diagnostics. It took 4 hours. When I called back to report the results, the new agent told me to do something else and was not interested in the diagnostic results. Perhaps they make good hardware and have good prices. But we would be better off if they lowered their prices by a nickel, dropped the charade, and offered no tech support. It's better than bad tech support.

I have a dell computer that was crashing constantly. My son called Dell Tech support for help. Unknown to him, they sold a 1 year service plan to him on my Dell Preffered account for $235 plus tax. When I got my bill the unauthorized charge was on my bill. That was Sept. 29, 2005. For 10 months Dell has been jerking me around. Ater paying $99 because thats what I agreed to pay my bill is now $435. Three letters to Dell later and 30 hours of talking to idiots and on 3 different occasions of being told it was handled, I'm still getting bills and idiot phone calls. To cut this short, anybody who buys a Dell computer is asking trouble. I tell all the idiots at Dell I talk to my mission in life is to badmouth Dell computer to everybody I talk to. I think Michael Dell had better get in touch with his company before it gets run into the ground. He sits in his ivory tower in Texas and rolls in his money. Someday maybe he will lose everything. One last thing, while talking to Dell Financial, I was transferred from India to Canada for a 3-way conversation. During this 3-way, the rep. in India was arguing with the rep. in Canada over whos responsiblity it was to fix my problem. The Canadian rep. was a customer care rep. I informed them it was completely clear as to why I was having this problem with my account. Even when it is corrected some other idiot comes along and changes it back. Don't buy a Dell

the morons and thiefs at Dell

I can’t stand Dell's customer service! Three times I have had the same problem with my billing statement. And three times I have had to call and explain that they are idiots and need to learn how to read the amount noted in a check. I always send much more than the minimum payment and yet they have only accepted the minimum amount.... I'm sending them a check that is worth more than what they want.... Don’t you think they would want the extra money??? And every time I have called I can’t understand a word that they say to me! It’s so frustrating! So my initial plan was to purchase a Desktop after I pay for the laptop... I still plan to do so, but it for sure wont be from Dell!!!

ANJAN U ACTING TOO ASSHOLISH!!! I DON\'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE @#CK U HAVE THE PROBLEM WITH INDIANS BUT R ACTING LIKE ONE BIG KICK @$$ INDIAN critisising INDIANS for nothing. dude they have neutral accent and they understand every fookin language that U will never even hear of in ur life. so stop critisism and go deep by the facts. If being dumb is the point of discussion the I have seen americans to whom if u ask to open there windows XP (being real inteligent and so called developed brains, in short AMERICANS) They open their windows. N here THE WINDOW IS THE REAL WINDOW IN THE WALL.

It's not just Dell...

As a long-time HP customer (between notebooks, printers and desktops for the businesses I own, I've probably spent $250,000 over the past 5 years on HP products) my recent frustration with their Indian tech support call center has lost HP my business for life.

For phone based communication, the poor English skills, lack of understanding of what customers are trying to explain and the need for me to continually ask them to repeat what they just said because I can't understand them, makes the communication process break down to the point of no return.

Don't get me wrong... I am all for outsourcing as a great way to bring costs down and build shareholder value. But when you outsource something as critical as your customer service and support to individuals who your already frustrated customers cannot understand, you are making a huge mistake long term.

Just my $0.02 (or for HP just my $250,000 in lost business...)

Eric

I need to correct the record. I am the same person with the above note dated July 15, 2006. Just when it seemed hopeless and that I might actually need to throw away both hard drives on my six month old Dell computer, I found a great, great Dell Tech Support person...in Panama of all places. At first she sounded terrible and I had no confidence in her, especially after all the other nonsense. She went through 100 steps, including some very outrageous ones like redoing the BIOS and unplugging the harddrives. She fixed it perfectly to the point where I did not lose any data. In the end it was not Dell's fault. It may be more due to Microsoft (because Windows was corrupted) and APC (because the battery-backup failed). I wanted to set the record straight. In all Dell spent a good 10-25 hours with me on the phone so they were not cheap about their time. The last person was stellar (calling me 5-8 times, emailing me many times). So it is a mixed bag and they are capable of horrendous -- and excellent support in my experience.

I bought a dell computer back in 2004 and sold it to a friend of mine. I paid it off in 2005 october and as soon as I paid off the computer I went to cancell my account to clear up some credit. They told me I ordered a hard drive. I said I sold my computer along time ago. I talked to my friend that I sold the comp to and he told me that he ordered a hard drive and cancelled it. But for some reason they charged my account. Its a very good friend. He gave them all his information and somehow it went to my account. And they charged the account the same day I tried to cancell it. The hard drive was originaly ordered and cancelled in august of 2005. They charged my account in October. I have all the paper work. They told me to fill out an affidavit and everything. I sent it more than 10 times and nobody said they ever recieved it. Now it is on my credit report and now way to fix it cause they always transfer me to another department, keep me on hold for 30mins or more than hang up on me. I filled out all the paper work and its almost been 8 months and they still havent fixed it. My fried called many times...I called many times and they wont do nothing. They ruined my perfect credit. Now I cant get approved for that car loan. Never had a late bill in my life and I refuse to pay for an error that dell made. What the hell is going on over there. Please any help would be appreciated. Isnt this illegal what they are doing? I filed with the better bussiness bearue and Dell said they would fix the problem. When the case was closed they pretended they didnt know anything. Back to square 1 . Please help.. can I sue or anything Im serious. Its ruining my life. Cant even get a loan or apartment without proving my point with all my documents. Please from the bottom of my heart some suggestions. Sincerely George Cozac
Email: Gcozacu@hotmail.com

No one at Dell will try to help; all you get is the run around from their Customer Service reps, all the way up to the Corporate Office. They really don't care about their customers. I purchased a Dell laptop, and printer a few months ago from Dell. I use it mostly for photography stuff with my digital camera. I was hired by a company to do a photo shoot of their 20th anniversary party. Everyone was dressing up in 20's outfits. So the company wanted me to come take pictures and print them that night off of my printer so that everyone could have a keepsake from the night. They wanted the pictures to be in black and white. So thinking I just needed black ink I went online and ordered black ink. (Well first be aware if you purchase a Dell printer, you can't get ink anywhere except from Dell). After ordering the black ink I thought I had better call just to make sure that I don't need the color ink also. The lady I spoke too said that I needed the color ink also to print pictures. Then she recommends that I get the Photo Ink. I said that was fine had her send that. Then I asked if I needed anything else. She said I needed the black ink also, so I kept both on order. Order came day of the job. Went to put the ink in the printer, and the photo ink would not fit in the color slot, it was designed to go into the black ink slot. So I called Customer Service again, got gentlemen that told me that the Photo ink did go into the Black ink slot. Then I asked him about needing the color ink, because I had not ordered any color ink based on my last conversation with Dell. He said that I did not need to have the actual ink just have the cartridge in the color slot that the printer would pull the ink from the photo cartridge. So I did this. Started printing the pictures, everything was fine at first. But then the color ink ran out, and I didn’t have anymore. The pictures start printing with red strikes through them. So it was impossible to do the job that I was hired to do. Because the people at Dell don't have the knowledge about their products that they need to be offering help to someone that calls in. Needless to say, the Company was very upset, they were going to pay me $600 for the job, and they cut that in half. They were going to hire me for all of there events like this to be their photographer. Now they will never hire me again. With photography, the way you get clients is word of mouth, being recommended. Well that will never happen from this company. So I have lost 1000's of potential dollars. I have called and called the customer service line trying to get to speak to someone about this, but all you get is a run around. Customer Services agents who are not authorized to do anything, their managers and supervisors, who can do nothing but send an email to the corporate office. Corporate office that doesn't care enough to even give you a call back. One Manager I spoke to promised that she would have someone call me back that day, and that she would follow up with a call to me to make sure that someone had called back. She never called and no one from corporate called either. So I call back and everyone claims that there is no way to get back in touch with this same lady. So I speak to another manager James, who promises that he will have someone call me within 15 minutes and that he will also call me back to make sure that someone has contacted me. I got his extension before we hung up. 30 minutes later still no call. So I call back, the extension that he gave me was a 5-digit number and you need a 7-digit number to get through. So he gave me the incorrect number. Going once again through the customer service rep, and their manager, each time wasting my time with me having to tell the entire story again. This manager finally gets me back in touch with James. He then again promises that someone will call me back in 2 minutes. I hang up with him and Sameer from the corporate office calls me. I explain the entire story to him one more time, he then promises that someone will give me a call back on Monday this was Friday. Monday came and NO call back. I tried to email Sameer, because no one will give you a phone number where you can reach them. No response. I emailed again, still no response. I called back to customer service; they will not get me in touch with Sameer, even with seeing in the comments that he was working on my case. They will not get me back in touch with James, claiming that they have no way of getting in touch with them. This guy Joey says that he is going to email Sameer again for me. I get off the phone with him and email Sameer again. Finally Sameer does give me a call back claiming that his boss Dennis Roach is going to be giving me a call that day. I never hear from Dennis. They are just giving me the run around hoping that I will just go away. Dell doesn't care about their customers. They are such a big corporation now that they think that they can't be touched or hurt by one person. But I plan to make sure that everyone knows how bad Dell's customer service is after the sell, so that hopefully no one else will have to go through this same thing.
If you have been through this same kind of experience please feel free to contact me at malkii1104@yahoo.com

Malcolm

Sure wish I found this sooner. Tried to buy 2 computers from Dell, one notebook and one desktop. Long story short, each one came , each one was wrong each one took about all the experiences I have read here to return and then Dell was OUTRAGED at the very idea that I thought I was due a refund of my money, about 2800.00. Imagine my nerve wanting the customer to be right.Well after all the folks in India and the what else can I do for you tdays, about a month passes and credit comes back and now I need a neww cardtridge for my printer(also a dell) and of course its not available at the computer store. Another scam! My motto is DELL NEVER AGAIN, better to see my children sold to commies as sex slaves than buy another dell!

Why are you all such a bunch of sheep? There are thousands of perfectly able computer assemblers out in the world who use premium quality Intel kit, so it is not going to be any worse than from Dell. They won't just build it in a couple of days or less, they will actually put in it what you asked for and if you have a problem, they are at the end of a local phone line. If you got hooked in by Dell's marketing and cheap pricing you have only yourselves to blame. Next time, do a bit more research and consider a local assembler. If he has been going for more than 15 years and uses decent quality kit you are on to a winner.

Yes, we used to be sheeps buying at DELL's, which once used to be a very reliable and successful company. But things change: Dell lost market shares to Lenovo and HP and its online support never was really helpful, admit it. Their local technical support contractors were, on the other hand. Over here in Europe, Dell's support is now somewhere in Chechia or Slovakia and they have lots of taped music to listen to before you get through to a live person. These people are all really nice (as long as you don't ask for real help). But the information they give you leaves you confused.

Example? My Dell Dimension 9150 managed to have a power supply failure last Friday, only a few months after being purchased. All right, such things happen. PCs sometimes won't start at all. But mine was dead, d-e-a-d. I changed cords, I switched wall outlets. Then I called Dell after somehow finding their real phone number somewhere on a prospectus (since my PC did not work, I could not find the number online - this message here is written at a friend's PC). But instead of really helping me, the Dell online person asked me to unscrew everything inside, losen all cards, taking out the memory chips etc. When I declared not to do so a) because the blinking amber light of the power switch actually means power supply failure and b) because the device was still under warranty and I had paid lots of bucks in advance for their "3 yrs. at home repair service", the dispatcher or supporter on the Dell line told me that a technician would contact me on Monday July 31. Well, this was yesterday. So I called again, had of course another guy on the phone who initially told me that he rather sent me a new power supply which I would be getting already tomorrow! Great, but then he talked to his manager and suddenly was very unfriendly telling me that my "contract" with them (the 3 years at home repair) was meant thet a technician would "contact" me somewhen within 5 business days (not actually meaning repairing the darn machine, only contacting).

I remember the days not so far away when Dell was proud of sending technicians (in warranty cases!) on the very next business day. These days are long gone. Over. Either you have the right service package or Dell laughs at you. In my case, and I went through all my papers, this option was not an option when I online ordered the machine. (I know, Dell finally wants to change this mess of online offers which seem to change every minute, starting with the USA this year).

In my function as a freelance advisor for private customers I used (!) to tell people to consider Dell as a reliable partner. My last customer was a lady last week, one day before my machine broke down. My conclusion: She will be the last one I ever advised to buy at Dell's. What good is a company when the service is absolutely useless?

End of the story, and hopefully soon of another arrogant company. Hello, Chinese. Hello, Lenovo. Asia is coming. Sorry old world. Not knowing what service is? Forget about us as customers.

Dear Michael Dell: If you ever happen to read such lines, don't you feel sorry to having left the sinking boat a bit too early? Your spirit is gone. But who cares about private customers anyway? So enjoy your billions and look back to a company which no longer should bear your good name. What about "FELL" or "HELL" or "YELL"?

MJM from Switzerland

I'm British from Liverpool, Merseyside, England...I have to say "What's the Fuck Wrong with Dell? Those Fuckin' Indian bastards...who need to make a living too...no worries there.....but what the fuck is Dell's problem when we...who invented the bloody language, English, can't understand these Indians fucking hooting when they try to speak my language when giving technical support.....FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm getting a mac after the hell i've gone through with dell. They hire "technicians" and "support" agents who don't know their ass from their brain and make pennies an hour. They ask dumb questions like "is it plugged in" "is it on" and other dumbass questions. I'm never getting another dell. I've already had to replace the hard drive and my CD burner won't burn CD's and I called them and asked for warranty replacement and they thought it was a software issue and referred me to their Dell On Call service which is the biggest joke ever! That service is for morons, they charge you 99 dollars to hook up a printer, "remove spyware" and other stupid stuff. Just go ask a neighbor or call a local geek and they'll tell you for free. Dell On Call has to be the stupidest thing ever and it's just a way for dell to suck up more money (as if outsourcing to useless third world countries didn't give them enough money). Michael Dell is in his billion dollar mansion and all and couldn't give a rats ass about the consumer, he just wants more money. I'd rather give my money to apple because they care about the consumer, they changed my battery in my ipod that's over a year old and way out of warranty for no charge. They also have ENGLISH speaking people. Indians call us americans illiterate when they're the ones who can't get jobs and live in a third world country and doing support jobs making pennies an hour, yes they're real smart aren't they! NOT!!!! I say fire the Indian clowns and run dell out of business, if I had the chance I would sue for every penny that I could and I would run them out of business. That new slogan "Purely You" that they're using is B.S. doesn't mean squat! another way to mislead the consumer as usual! Never get a Dell, their support is all 7-11 clerks and their products suck!

I know how this will sound--but a fact is a fact. If you want courtesy, competence, first-time understanding, no ceremonial dances like "I'm so sorry you're having that problem", etc., all in good English!, pray that you'll get a Filipino--in the Phillipines or in the US. Through the years, I've never found one--not one!--that disappointed me (I am not Filipino!). I've found the same thing in banks, hospitals, etc. Don't know how these people do it, but they do. Try it!

omg im on the phone with dell support now. they are the worst!!! three phone calls later and one million transfer only to have them tell me that they have no record of saying they were going to replace the battery THEY TOOK OUT OF MY MACHINE WHEN I SENT IT IN TO BE FIXED. its six months later and i still have no battery for my laptop thus defeating the purpose of it being a LAPTOP! i spent $430 for wat?! something told me to just buy a new apple!!!

I hate Dell. I never have been a fan of theirs. Not sure why. But I was working at a company last year and they decided to buy all new computers from Dell. Great i thought since the comps were old. Biggest mistake they made! We had SO many problems. And talk about wait times... I walked into the Tech guy's office at 11 am and he was calling Dell to get help because everything he was trying wasn't fixing the problem. at 2 pm that afternoon I went back in because my comp STILL wasn't working. He was still on the phone. So just say no to Dell. They are just awful.

Much has been said bout Dell and its support in India, to say the least i understand why u all do not understand wht the Indian tech's say, its just tht we are technically too sound for u folks, and if its so aggravating why dont u try our American couterpart...ull understand everything they say but wont get the issue fixed.
And BTW just for your information we have a Resolve Rate far better thn other sites working for Dell
What you all need to understand that Dell wouldnt keep its suport in India if the support was all bad as u all are making it sound, Dell the company arguably having the best business model and a leadership team isnt stupid enough.
People mention tht Apple and other like HP do not have to a high wait time...its so obvious isnt it ...the number of people using those machines is not even in comparison to the Sheer size of Dells customer base..therefore no customers...no one calling...no wait time
Which computer company offer u a complete free support...none
Try other and then mark my words
U'LL COME BACK TO DELL

Dell Dude:

Your spelling and grammar speak volumes. Are you so lazy that you can't burden yourself to type "you" instead of "u"?

Wow.

I just tried to buy a notebook from DELL, I had the order all placed and was told I was going to get the 20% discount that was offered. When we got the confirmation email they had charged us the full price. I tried for 3 days to get this resolved, no customer service person would or they said could help me, but they could cancel the order which I did. I spent 5 hrs on the phone in 2 different days and 1.5 hrs on the phone in one stretch to only get hung up on. I was repeatedly hung up on, and when I emailed the customer support they couldn't help either. I talked to a supervisor and emailed the supervisors and they sent me the regular brush off email "we are sorry and will look into it." This is how they treat their "valued customers"!!! So much for the award winning service and support the ads talk about. Also the customer service and sales are in the Philippines and they wouldn't tell me where the email support is located, but by looking at the names its India, or Pakistan, etc. Dell isn't an American company anymore. I would like the whole U.S.A. know they have sent all jobs over seas and want us to buy their products. At least HP is still here in the U.S.A., they have an assembly plant in Omaha, Ne.

For the current and former Dell employees on this blog, what do you think of all the call ctr/tech support outsourcing? I'm curious to know how this impacts employee morale.

What the fuck is up with dell?I am (was) a big fan of dell but my dell computer is crashing everyday now i am starting to wonder...

Dell Claims they're trying to clean up their image. Over 3 years later and a Dell Hell web page I was accused of lying and never calling for SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with your opinion of Dell products and theier tech support. I have purchase at least 5 Dell systems within the last 5 years and each has failed and had hardware issues within the first 2 years. Most repairs, of course, out of warranty. I have replaced 3 hard drive, 3 cd drives and various other componants. You call for support and you are outsorced to some foreign individual reading a script from an instruction guide. Pretty pathetic. A billion dollar company manufacturing pure garbage and we continue to patronize the company. No more. The buck stops now. I think I would be better off at a garage sale. Any recommendations for a "QUALITY" system would be appreciated.

Sincerely disgusted,

Michael Merkin

I bought a GX620 off of e-bay along with a whole bunch of computers over the years, don't plan on using Dell support as I know they suck, and have had HORRENDOUS experiences with them in the past, but the 620 does kick ass though. For me, the only way tech support works for me is fixing it myself. If I can't fix it, I just give it to my electrical engineer neighbor or let Mr. Baseball Bat do the work.

I just purchased a new XPS 400. I had a bad experience trying to negotiate a returned item I decided I did not want, resulting in 30-45 minutes of my time wasted. I wrote Dell, explaining that I had brought 3 Dell computers since 2002, the last for me in 2000, and was shocked by the poor service I received from a customer representative. A main issue was the person's accent, and the hope they got what I wanted correct (I hadn't received by computer order which had a separate purchase number) Anyway, to make a long story longer, I received a message from an apologetic manager and a $50 gift certificate I hope I can use anywhere??. Otherwise, I am a very satisfied customer, amazed with the efficiency of the company, i.e. I tracked the order all the way to it being placed on the truck at 4:a.m the day of delivery. The delivery of my computer and peripheral items (two separate deliveries - UPS and DHL?) were precisely timed and one order arrived with 20 minutes of the other. I would suggest to Dell fewer customer service numbers ( I have about 10), however, faster access to customer representatives, more monitored phone calls between the customer and rep, and follow up on all customer dissatisfaction calls. Will I purchase another Dell - I certainly will, if I am alive the next 10 years -my purchasing cycle. The word on the street is still that Dell's service is bad, especially the New Delphi connect ion, but I don't agree. Oh yes, from the time I purchased my first Dell over six years ago, the easy installation instructions I have always found a pleasure to work with. Very user friendly. Moreover, the system set up now, where a customer service rep can actually access your computer is excellent. I told the rep I hoped she could not see inside my study, since I was sitting at the computer in my underware - I got a laugh - so they have a sense of humor.

Wow, so glad to find this site.

Wish I had seen it when I bought my Inspiron 4100.

We live way out in the mountains and have recently set up our off the grid power system and invested in satilite internet.

Due to not having a land line or cellNow we find out that our "old" lap top is not combatible with Vonnage router/HP Photosmart printer due to having a USB 1.1 port. We have XP Home SP #2. Have spent literally five full days with a shaky satilite hook up and Vonnage service trying to access the Dell Support site to find out how to download from the net if possible the high speed usb 2.0 device manager/driver.

Yeah, I am not a computer expert, but I can read and have tried my best to fix my problem. It is a two hour drive to the coast to get to any kind of tech help at $65.00 an hour.

After accessing a web blog on usb port issues, I attempted to go and buy a 2.0 port to plug into the 1.1. The nice young man at Staples said to not waste money, as I needed a 2.0 memory card.

Two more days trying to find out the "correct" card to purchase.

Been on the Dell Chat queue for 15 minutes and wow, I am now number 3, hope I can get help. Started the help chat at 10:48, just ended it at 11:13.

Had questions on upgrading the usb port and how to register my microsoft software (due to being in the boonies I could not do it on line or on the phone).

The rep gave me a confirmation code I will try and told me to just buy a plug in able usb 2.0 hub with extra usb ports and that no driver or host manage is needed. I will go to Staples, buy it, keep the package and try i.

It seems that a lot of folks here are experts. I am trying to do the best I can with the lap top I have, as I am a not so well paid for teacher and cannot easily "upgrade" my system or purchase a new one. It was great to read all the posts above and I will come back and let you know how I fare.

Also, my lap top gets really hot when operated so I purchased a under the lap top fan. It seems to be helping.
Thanks for the tip on the Dell Chat.

Dell sucks ass big-time. They told me I couldn't get help
on configuring an add-onn that I made to my system because it was third-party hardware. Fuck dell, never buying from them again. They wanted to transfer me to a department that
was going to charge me for this support. and yes, fuck dell's india tech support, i fucking hate not understanding
what tech support is saying.

Duh, after spending $40.00 bucks at Staples to buy a Belkin Hi Speed usb 2.0 notebook card and installing it, I noticed on the HP Photosmart all in one printer/fax/scanner that there was a set up menu. This was after I re-installed the printer software. And was increasingly getting upset that my documents would not print.

I after pressing set up, I discovered low and behold there is a setting for either High Speed USB 2 or Full Speed 1.1.

By selecting the Full speed the printer now works like a charm. I also deleted all other printers from the computer. Thinking that maybe the amount of space they took up might be causing a glitch.

The gal who helped me at the Dell Chat earlier today was very professional. She did say that the USB Host controller would be part and parcell with the plug in card I bought. Plug and Play was the term she used.

Not so, I had to use the cd to load the driver and that helpled I guess.

I don't know how anyone can navigate the Dell web pages with out getting stressed out.

So my dilema is do I truly have 2.0 usb ports with the Belkin or just more 1.1 ports?

The only problem I had with Dell Chat, was that the send button froze and I almost lost my "chat" time for being unresponsive. Also my warranty expired in 2003 (I only bought a one year contract), the tech did not want to help me. I told her I "expected" help after spending close to 2,000 for the lap top. I was polite and so was she.

She emailed me a transcript of our chat and a case number, as well as us_acs_team1@dell.com, with TEAM 317 Email Dell Inc. She gave me the case number and said to be sure to use the Service Tag number.

Now, I am trying to reinstate my microsoft software, using the product key code she relayed to me. When I called microsoft for activation and registration, they could not help me because it was an OEM key code.

May God have mercy on us poor tech illiterates : ).

Teach

i went thru the same thing and am sorry that i bought into dell. My job was also outsourced to india and the hardest thing to do was to train my replacements for my job. Cheaper is not always better which is no wonder that dell recently posted a 50% profit drop.

I currently work for Dell on Call technical support, and I think I have an idea why the service is the way it is...

1) Call centres are not too particular when hiring people, if you can fill out the application, you have a job.

2) Training involves a week of sitting and reading "modules", which have no relevance or importance whatsoever to the issues that we face. After that, out on the floor you go!

3) Most people (where I'm at), view it as a temporary job, and therefore, don't have a very good attitude or work ethic.

4) The policies are ridiculous. Yes, we have all your information on our screen when you call in, but we have to verify for security reasons, which is silly when you think about it...Anyone who knows who you are can find out your service tag and call in under your name.

5) Turnover rate is so high, that you have to do something pretty serious to get fired. As a result, people get away with a lot of stuff.

6) Those people who actually like and enjoy their jobs want to help you (even if the issue is out of scope)...Too bad management would rather they get off the phone quickly then staying on until the issue is resolved.

7) Whenever there is more than a 5 minute waiting time between calls, management decides it's time to "thin the herd"...So if there is even the slightest rise in call volume, you are going to be waiting for awhile.

8) The tools that we have to use never work properly. Ever. This includes the phones...So the next time you are disconnected from a rep, it's probably because the phone decided to randomly power cycle itself.

9) The only way to find an answer to anything (since our scripts are completely useless, as I'm sure you've all noticed) is to google it...Too bad most of the sites have been blocked by the company. The more useful the site, the more likely it is blocked.

I actually don't mind working for Dell on Call, I just wish the management/policies were a little more efficient...

dell are so loaded with cash thay don't even care if some customers who got finnance and aint paid it, thats why thay want the 10 percent fee, and thay save so much money from indain call centres. thay pay the indain call centre reps peanuts, and thay work long hour shifts.....

I was in Myrtle Beach this winter, and found someone else with a Dell. She was having problems and needed to reinstall Windows. She never received any disks. She was told that they were temporarily out, but that were now back in stock and they would send them. Hard to believe

Ok so, I'm on my Inspirion 600m Notebook (which by the way, I rarely use) creating a table in Excel and the computer shuts down. Re-booting did not help nor did following any of the subsequent prompts, so I call Dell. First question, why do automated menus ask you for information that they claim will help move your call or issue along faster just to have the support person ask you the same exact information? Ok so let's get to my lovely support person. He instructed me to do a few things informed me that I needed to re-install my operating system. I've move several times in the short time that I’ve had the laptop so I really was not sure where I could put my hands on the disc so he offered to mail me a new set – “hold on please while I get you a case number and dispatch number.”

After a good 15 min he comes back to say that actually my hard drive needs to replaced. This will be shipped to me, when it arrives I need to yada-yada-yada... hold please for the case number and dispatch number. I watched an entire episode of WorkOut and was still waiting. About 15-20 minutes later my cell phone ran out of juice and here I am today with no case number and dispatch number. This saga is not over so I am taking a deep breath before I totally rag Dell support, but I gotta tell you, it don't look too good!

I contacted them this time via the on-line chat and I gotta tell ya it was oh so much better. My interaction began @ 8:04:15AM and ended at 8:24:30AM. The tech was courteous and provided me with the case and dispatch # for last nights call as well as today's case #. Of course this is not the end since I will have to contact them again once my hard drive arrives. I'll keep you posted.

As a former member of the dell expert centre in Cherrywood Ireland you would not believe what goes on in dell, they will do anything to save money and I mean anything. For example they knew for years that the powervault 220s array got shipped with faulty incompatible cables which caused entire disk arrays data to be lost and they would only replace these cables when the cusotmer rang in with another problem which was nearly always related to the cables, they also avoided paying tax on their 39160 scsi controllers on the poweredge 2650 which was shipped originally with a tape drive attached to the perc (raid) controller again to save money, what they did here was sent out thousands of scsi controllers from their service stock which they never paid any tax on as it was missing from the original order. The quality of their management is crap and nothing more than the McDonalds of IT, their HR department is totally incompetant especially the HR Manager Wendy "seven bellies" Murphy she's a management muppet and knows f*ck all about how the place works or the day to day life of a tech and she doesn't care either, it's funny how all the friends of management get on in that company. Nepitism is rampant, for what it's worth I would never and will never buy a Dell their products are cheap unreliable and the sole purpose of the company is to make as much money as possible at all costs.

I can relate to what a good many of you are typing in regards to Dell and the lack of qualified support. I called Dell ordered a replacement battery for my laptop which was supposed to be covered under the extended warranty. When I called to order the battery, I was told that was not what was wrong, so I went through their steps, replaced a perfectly good part with another perfectly good part. I called back still complaining of the same problem, (the laptop would not stay running without the charger system) finally someone (very hard to understand) confirmed what I had stated originally that the battery was bad - however that is when things got a messy. They informed me my extended warranty did not cover the battery and it was going to cost me - I stated, fine, ship the battery that I would pay for it, as the laptop was useless to me unless I was going to sit at my desk with it plugged in all the time. They ended up sending me the wrong battery - I couldn't believe it! I called them back explained the situation. I was first asked how did I know it was the wrong battery, what a joke your kidding me, right? No they wanted me to try and put a slim long battery into a slot made for a deep and wide battery. I argued with the tech, said it won't work unless I get my hammer out and pound it in, the batterys are two totally different batterys. After convincing them they shipped the wrong battery, they informed me I needed to ship them back the battery and reorder the battery that was to go to my laptop. I reqested they send me the correct battery and do a "call tag" on the incorrect battery sent. They refused to do that, they forced me to pay for shipping me the incorrect part, and again for shipping the incorrect part back to them. Then they had the nerve to call me repeatedly asking me if I was satisfied....what a joke! I did not order the battery again, I am not paying Dell to ship me wrong parts so that I can pay to ship them back to them....so here I sit at my desk using a useless laptop unless it is plugged into the charger and wall outlet. I am frustrated with Dell at their support, to which is hard to understand, their lack of caring if they shipped me the wrong part, and the whole mess of it. I used to recommend Dell to folks, now I just tell them buyer beware.
Thanks for letting me vent!
Ann

Call all major institutional investors and tell them what you have gone threw. I have had it with this joke of a company. They do not stand by thier products you have to spend days on the phone to get help. I will do all i can to help others avoid the hell in Dell. I would like to see the stock down to a penny everone write, call and complain. The U.S. Consumer protection division is a great resource to complain and so is the BBB with your states DA office. This company has fallen so far from the great company they were it is sad.

Hi Jeremy

I am going thru this problem right now with Dell, it's been several days, I am a graduate student and I need to process my data on my laptop. Apparently, the LCD backlight was off, this after waiting 2 hours by cell phone (which lost power during the middle of the wait) and 40 mins on chat. It's upsetting to say the least. . .

vijay

Hello, I worked for Dell last year as a tech support rep,
Im in a latin america queue, and yep I can confirm all that you people are stating: Dell uses refurbished parts that means they can fail anytime, we the techs have to stick to many unnecesary rules tru the call (scripting, following decision trees, documenting every case) Its a frustrating job, specially when you deal with angry customers that have called many times.
It's the companie's policies the ones that sucks...
At least in my country as long as you speak english you're hired, it doesnt matter if you dont know anything about computers, they think they can teach everything in a month...what a joke.
The supervisors never take the calls, so what I would advise you to do is to ask for the legal department address so you submit a complaint to a company who really doesnt do anything to keep happy customers and workers!!!!

Dell is horrible to say the least. My pc, now 11 months old, has been rebooting itself for four months. We've lost data, time and hair chating with nice people in India and Bangladesh all swearing they're going to resolve the problem. It's apparent they are made to wear you down running test after test, anything as long as they can temporarily get you up and running and not have to replace parts or the pc.

They finally sent a tech to install a new power supply. He was in and out of my house in ten minutes literally answering my questions as he was leaving telling me to make clanging noises over the phone to convince them that the machine was breaking down.

PS the power supply didn't solve the problem, I reinstalled the operating system, lost tons of data and I'm back on with the nice folks in India who are paid two dollars a day and a used yak. Unbelievable.

Just a quick note related to an-anything-but-quick go-around with Dell. It took nearly a month to work through problems associated with a hard-drive crash. I spoke with people around the world and most of their guess-work was totally wrong. Many of them simply lied to me... promising to call me and never did. They sent me the wrong CD necessary to reload various drivers. My calls were transferred to never-never land.

I normally don't swear, but I used the "f-word" repeatedly to myself because I couldn't believe or tolerate the level of ineptitude.... and the last thing I ever want to hear is one more "I am very, very sorry and we will do everything to help this time."

All I can say is that Dell is finally getting what they have coming to them. Hopefully, people will totally stop buying their products... and with a bit of luck, maybe we can watch the company tank and experiencing some level of retribution knowing the company is in the type of pain they forced their customers to suffer. To Hell with Dell!

I purchased my Dell two years ago and haven't had any trouble with it... I've purchased my new gaming machine and extended the warranty to 3 years. I don't for see any problems, but when I do I will tell them what part I need.

Being in the computer business, call centers are the worst. I'm not talking about Dell call centers, I'm talking about all. If you are having troubles with the person on the other end, ask for another. I know this is easily said than done... but when calling a call center, you are always getting tier 1 support. These are the people that have no idea what they are talking about.. but just reading from a script. If I need something and they dont give me what I want... I always ask for a supervisor.

I recall providing tech support for a family member who owned a company. He had an HP computer with a bad hard drive. Even if I wasnt a techical person, I would know that it was bad as it was knocking and clicking. I called the 800 number and was directed to India. (I don't want to sound racist) but I have a hard time, and dont like, talking to people with broken English. The person on the other end required some tech info and personal info... he asked me to do so basic diagnostic steps. I informed him that the hard drive was bad and needed replaced. He insisted that I perform the steps he was asking me to do... this is when I go upset and told him that I do this for a living and demanded that the hard drive be replaced as the computer was still under warranty... after being put on hold for a minute or so, he can back on and asked for a shipping address and cc number to hold the $ if the bad drive wasn't sent back.

My suggestion would be to demand the item be replaced, ask for the persons supervisor, or the second tier support. Usually the second tier support is rerouted back the country of origin. Never be to nice as the other person will always try to keep from providing replacement parts.

Hey ya guys from the blog and across the globe

I perfectly understand the way one feels when things dont work the way they are meant too,

In the end finally its just a machine and we are people trying to figure out wht went wrong. just give the right answers and please have PATIENCE and a l`ll bit of humanity will go a long way int he way people communicate across continents and also try to believe in dell's policy for once, I am sure u will return a happy customer. Dell have the best custom made PCs in the world afterall.

till the next blue screen caused by microsoft and not people from dell or people from INDIA.

take care chao;-)
deepak vsnl bangalore

I work as a third party repair for dell PC's and other products. Let me clue you in on what has not been said so far in this blog. Any parts replaced are "Refurbished" If your system is straight out of the box, you get someone elses broken part to replace yours. I have (which is quite common) been to a customers site 3-4 times to replace the same part because it fails within a short amount of time.
The facts are if you order a new system and it doesn't work it is replaced by refurbished parts. In other words if you get a new car and it breaks down, they replace the part (under warranty) with something out of the junk yard.
I have worked on dells going on 9 years and to this day Dell has consistantly proven that PT Barnum was right....there is a sucker born every minute and they buy Dells.

My boyfriend bought me a Dell in April, and none of the programs were with the code that went with it. The first day after reading all the information. "two days latter" none of my programs came with the code to put in or it came with a picture of what the disks should look like. It is now Sept and they sent me the wrong utilt. disk along with out date programs and a gerneric worm. Which my anti-virus program stated it was attached to the dell utit disk. Still have not finished updating or cleaning it out some days it works and other it just dont. I have written, chatted, allllll over this country and they are all very nice however i still have a frigen paper weight that works when it wants when it not updating for two weeks..
Thank you for listening cause they don't and they have helped at all....

I have had an automated receipt of my problem saying I will receive word in 72 hours. Do you have any human beings in your employ? jgus1238@aol.com

HP technical support rocks! I have 5 HP computers, and any time I call the tech support based in India, they do their best to resolve the issue. The chat support is absolutely free! Hence, my 6 year old HP laptop works fine! Thank you HP!

Dell techsupport always sucks. HP does their best in customer service and technical support. Support techinicans located in India are the best. They listen carefully and patiently.

Indian Techs are not the issue...though it does sound reactionary people poppin' off 'bout "India" like that...
i think it's just part of how circuitous and distant the whole loop to getting help on one's Dell is.
Like a Mad Global Conspiracy to thwart anyone attempting to get accountability and results...

I am trying to find out which of these many serial numbers is THE serial number for my Dell notebook. Uff Da!

Thank you. I now know that I am not insane.

Ok, so now Dell has a way to access your system and fix your system remotely. Its the best thing!

I'm now into my seventh hour of attempting to deal with the morons in India, trying to get replacements for three bad touch panel monitors. I thought I'd finally pulled it off yesterday, after only six hours and three calls, but no! I'm simply not that lucky. They overnighted replacement monitors, and "generously" upgraded us from 15" to 17" (meaning they didn't have the 15" anymore). So, I get in to work today, grab one of the replacement monitors, hook it up and find out it's not a touch panel monitor! AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!

So, here I sit, listening the staticky, stuttering, violin music and waiting for today's moron to figure out just how badly yesterday's moron flubbed the deal.

*sigh*

No kidding. I ordered a laptop and specified to have 1 single chip of 1GB ram. They sent me two chips 512MB ram. Now all they want to do is credit mym account by $50. $50 won't even cover the cost of what they should be replace. I am very dissatisfied with Dell. Hope this gets.....Just got off the phone...gave me a lousy $100 credit. Oh well. My next computer will be a sony.

Dear KnoxZoo and Jay,
I know what you mean about not getting the proper credit and incorrect parts. I posted on this blog on Aug. 29th about the same issue. I had read several folks who used Dell's financing, so glad I never applied or went for Dell's financing offer...I went through a different credit card, and when Dell wouldn't give me the satisfaction of full credit including shipping costs to me, and shipping costs back to them (for the incorrect part) I called my credit card company explained to them the issue, and they took care of the problem. I agree with most of you, my next computer will be anything but a Dell...
I wonder if any one of the top reps. from Dell has even seen this blog, and the lists of complaints....one can only hope so, and hope they choose to change their policies. In the meantime, all we can do is contact the BBB, and other affiliates to force Dell to change their bad policies of charging to send the wrong parts.

I have dealt with Dell tech support twice since buying my "business class" note book and up graded warranty 5 months ago. Long story short. Never again. Never will I ever buy another Dell product as long as I live. Their tech support is the worst on the planet!

Called Dell Customer Service : 18008474096 1 2 1
@ 9:24, September 28, 2006

RE: Order # 054459332 / Ref # 064772947

"Sasha"
"Address? Postal Code"
- ...., ......
"Do you have an order number / id number.. etc.."
- I have an order number and a reference number
"The order number would be great"
- 054459332
"How may I help you today?"
- Calling regarding my Dell Axim, I paid and didn't get my Axim
"Thanks for holding, because this order is 3 years old, i'll have to send an email and they'll get back to you within 24 to 48 hours"
- Yeah i've been put through this before and they haven't contacted me
"Ok.. let me check.. .. sorry, customer care only deals with orders 30 days old.. and this is a 3 year old order.. last call was a year ago"
- Noo.. i called on the 7th...
"last call was.. 917 days ago... "
- can't be.. no way.. been put through this too manhy times, any numbers i can call
"unfortunately no.. we'll have to wait for the email"
- there HAS to be someone I can call
"I'll pass you to my manager Laura"

Laura
"How may I help you?
- Hi, Laura?
"Yes"
- I order my Axim and it hasn't come
"You have to wait for a call back"
- Yeah.. i've been through this
"there is nothing i can do to assist you..
- Really?
"Yes, there is nothign I can do, you'll have to wait for the email"
- Is there another number i can call?
"No, you'll have to wait for us to call you back"
- There has to be a number
"No there isn't"
[silence]
is there a boss? can i talk to your boss?
"there is no body available to take calls"
sent an email address?
"No"
"There's nothing we can do for you"
- i don't think it's good enough..is there any numbers i can call? any one i can contact?
"Sorry there is nothing i can do"
... [ repeat.. repeat ].. "Sorry there is nothing i can do", "Sorry there is nothing i can do", "Sorry there is nothing i can do"
-You know very well there is
"No.. "
... [ repeat.. repeat ].. "Sorry there is nothing i can do", "Sorry there is nothing i can do", "Sorry there is nothing i can do"
[silence]
"How can I help you? is there anything I can assist you?"
- Yes.. can I have your boss' number?
"No"
- Why?
"I told you.. he doesn't take any calls"
- If he doesn't take any calls, what does he do? If you don't help your customers, what do you do?
"Sorry, there is nothing I can do, thanks for calling"
[click]

Well I've dealt with Dell on a professional level for the better part of a decade and have had no trouble like you mention with support. Most of the time mistakes happen due to people getting upset with the automated system and sending themselves to the wrong department by pressing the wrong options. By the time you get to support you are probably insulted that you have to explain your problem to someone whom you to believe of less intelligence than yourself. If you act like an a$$ you will be treated as such, fact of life so don't whine about it. Admittedly, there is a bad apple in every bunch and these situations have always been resolved quickly. I am exposed to the entire product line from business/government level to Inspiron to XPS in 3d mapping applications. The PC's (3000+ users on a multilayered all Cisco shop that we also maintain front to back) and 8 full freestanding Dell server racks, each full of servers always operate within acceptable failure limits. And when they do fail the problem is resolved quickly according to whatever contract applies, including the limited manufacturer's warranty if applicable. They are a very large business and have to cover their assets by making you answer questions you believe to be inept or irrelevant. Otherwise they'd be replacing anything any Joe Schmoe tech out there says he needs replaced. As good as some people may be, you still have to follow some guidelines to ensure you're not replacing something that doesn't need replacing. Even if you and the person on the other end of the phone know what needs to be done, you still have to go through the motions. And as far as verifying serial numbers and addresses; that's just good business. They are protecting you by making sure that some other guy isn't calling and having a new monitor shipped to Timbuktu. That's just good business plain and simple. That is why companies like Microsoft and Dell are on top. Is it right? Not necessarily. Do I agree with it? Not necessarily. Is it going to change? Definitely not. Is it a fact of life and big business? Yes. Is pi$$ing and moaning about it going to help? No. Should I suck it up, meet them on their terms to resolve the problem as quickly as possible? Absolutely. Next time take the time to find out the correct people to call. Good business practices allows Dell to have close manufacturer relations and offer systems (COMOPARABLY EQIUPPED)and servers at far better prices than their competitors. I price Sony, Dell, iMac, IBM, Alienware (now Dalienware) all day long and just do not see anybody coming close to their prices on systems equipped option to option exactly the same. Maybe you should have spent a few minutes browsing the site by the way, and you would have found that you could have in fact resolved this problem via email fairly quickly. You could have emailed the correct people in less time than it took you to blog about this. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh as I am sick and tired of hearing people whine about this same thing over and over when I've never had any trouble with it and talking about how poor Dell products are. I guess that's why most governments and business go with Dell, because of their poor reputation and product history. I guess we should all switch over to overpriced iMacs running essentially the same internals now that cost twice as much. While we're at it, we'll switch over to open source and OSX as it IS inherently more stable, but then we won't have nowhere near the products (or hardware, notably graphics) available to our use. ::End rant::

I'm not bitching at them.. i just want to talk to somebody so I can get my 3 year old AXIM or preferably my money back.

-Alex

In response to Alex....Now that is a bit ridiculous. I don't understand how it could be a 3 year ordeal. I do alot of sidework for small business networks and I find it easier to order a pc from Dell or other companies just to save time, but when you start adding custom options it can sometimes take awhile. Now that Dell has taken over Alienware, I can now use high end products like that without having the wait. Yes, I can build them myself but my family time means more to me than spending a few hours putting together a pc and loading the OS. 3 years for an Axim though? I just don't get that at all. They're not exactly cheap either, I'm pretty sure I'd call everyday so they would have a log and want me to leave them the hell alone. Good luck on that!

Log my calls? If they did that, my 'last call' wouldnt be 917 days ago.

Long story short, they said my credit card couldn't go through and that if i wanted it, i should wire the money directly to their account. From their, for the first year, i was told to call their fraud department everytime I call in. to which I reach a mail box asking for info and that theyll call me back in 24hrs which they failed to do miserably.

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE.
I could write forever but basically, I am a CORPORATE account customer and have been on the phone for over 2 hours....does anyone have the VP of customer service email address?

I have had too many bad experiences with Dell. I am now ready to start a class action lawsuit. If anyone is interested, please contact me with your detailed experience (documentation would be a plus!). I am contacting my lawyer.

In my experience DELL REALLY SUCKS! I will never buy a dell again. About 10 years ago I bought a laptop out of a magazine ad. When I got it I realized that it didn't have a modem. In the add it said that it did have one. When I called to complain and get them to handle my issue they either hung up on me or said that it was my fault for not asking for a modem. I called back so many times and talked to so many people, it didn't seem to matter what I did. It was hopeless so I sent it back and got a refund for the computer but got screwed on all the shipping. I can't believe they are still in business. I imagine they take care of their "good" customers who buy in bulk for companies but at the same time screw everyone else.

My first Dell was my last Dell, customer support was hard toi find, tedious and basically non-existant. To find a bad power supply the "off shore" tech wanted me to open up the machine and start plugging and unplugging cards (never told me to turn off the power). As he went through his script, I stated I performed the manual repairs he read off ( without actually doing them) before he would send an out of town repair man to repair under warranty. In addition, the repair man told me Dell sold me a machine without enough memory to run the programs installed on it. As my kids went to college and needed computers, I never again considered Dell

We have leased several laptops though Dell Financial over the years. These have all been business leases with monthly payments ranging from $150 - $60. Several years ago if your payment was a day or so late they would send you a letter saying the payment was due and please submit it. This usually happen when the payment had already been sent, but maybe not received by Dell.

Now they have their broken English Indians call you 5-10 times a day demanding to know where the payment is, this starts on the first day the payment is late and for as little as a $60 payment. We don’t make it a habit of paying our bills late but if a bill is due on 20th and they get the check on the 21st I don’t expect to get 5-10 calls about it. Also, when you pick up the phone these people from India demand payment information or check numbers etc and even though this is a business account they will call my home number and cell (and I have no clue how they got these numbers). Screw Dell Financial for these kind of tactics not only will I never finance anything from Dell I will never buy or recommend a Dell to anyone. I have know clue why a company would use tactics to harass their customers.

Good thing i was assigned as DELL tech support for corporate and business units, although we have a time limit for each call, it's making sure that the customer is satisfied that comes first. By the way, it's based in the Philippines.

I am so glad to see that I am not alone the disgraceful service Mr Dell provides to his customers. Does anyone have any idea where he is getting his info when he says his tech service is the best in the industry? I think he is getting his info from the BUSH administration. I can't tell you how many times I had to say 'say that again' and having to repeat myself over an over again. I can't tell you how many fustraiting hours I spent on the phone and still have the problem after hanging up. I wish I knew how to send Mr Dell all of the above comments.

I have the same problem - just getting the managers. Dell has my Inspiron 700 (mailed 9/25/06 received by Dell 9/27/06) Of course they did not call, I been calling, but no response from their respentative (who asked me 6 times my phone number) Finally, a manager who kept me on line for 20 minutes with no answer - will have to call you back before the end of the day. Yeah - sure!
Are there anyone out there who knows what to do? All I want is my laptop back!

I have explained a dozen times that they need a different tech support for technicians, that they are costing out company big money by making us jump through so many hoops, over and over. We should be able to use our login and have them create an rma when they reply. STOP WAISTING OUR TIME!!! We should send them a tech support bill!!!
Jason

I have been having trouble with Dell support since June and my computer was putchased the last of April. Dell needs technical support that has a good command of the English language.

So many complaints are heard now and everytime about Dell. Why dont they do something to improve their services?? For outsourcing voice, chat, email or back-office support, visit the website:
Order Taking

My Inspiron 9400 may not have burst into flames like some others BUT there is something seriously wrong with the graphics and power supply, as well as Dell's response to this. If you allow Windows to use any amount of graphics acceleration, you soon get corrupted pixels and things progressively deteriorate with the screen blanking out, flashing in that manner right until Windows gasps and presents the infamous blue screen of death. You can also say goodbye to high-res. graphics but beware when the system resumes after suspend/hibernate, you have about 20 seconds and then that hangs too. It also has bad pixels in the CMOS settings and they move around depending on what option you are scrolling through.

So I informed Dell, assuming (foolishly in retrospect) that something would be done. After all, the machine is under warranty; it even has a 3-year next business day on-site service option. That was 2 weeks ago...

In the meantime, I have received an email that instructs me to clean the screen, yes, they want me to gently massage out the bad pixels. Only humour prevents me from orienting my body to face in the direction of Dell Central (where is that anyway?) and thrusting an angry middle finger right through the flimsy LCD.

My disdain for the first message must have been anticipated, the next upped the ante by asking me to reinstall all the drivers. I suppose it is to open the legal possibility that the user can be blamed for messing the machine up totally. I ignored this possibility and did not only reinstall all the drivers but also updated the BIOS. That was done, one Saturday afternoon later, without any visible improvement.

Yesterday, after some prodding, the company agreed to send a courier to fetch the machine (what happened to the on-site service?) and I provided a precise full physical address with two contact numbers and a map. The promise was to arrive between 9am and 5pm, which sounded a bit vague and vacuous to start with. I diligently finished making backups and deleted my personal emails/folders. At about 4pm, I was informed to please not be worried, but there would be a slight delay, perhaps until 6pm, this was 'due to other deliveries that needed to be done'. I left well after the new time, the machine still in my possession.

Today, in a call that took about 40 mins, I managed to speak to 4 people, 3 of whom were somewhere near Bangalore:

call centre contact C: had trouble distinguishing between the letters J and G and must have been in a trance of some kind - as there were long intervals during which neither he nor I said anything. I asked to speak to someone else.

receptionist R: felt compelled to return my verbal critique but mixed up the tenses so badly it appeared he was telling me what they were already doing to the PC which was still with me. He also slipped in an infective at the moment of transfer to his 'boss'.

call centre 'manager' M: this was an interesting case study in passive resistance and abject apology. This was also far less creative that it sounds, as there was the disturbing sense of a script reading. I have the impression this was a manager without any real power. At my insistence, he mustered some hard-needed courage and allowed an audience with the dispatcher.

dispatch bright star D spoke recognisable English thank you, but squashed the hopes for my brief feeling of respect moments later. Apparently they did send someone yesterday, but the system shows that the address was wrong. I was then presented with an amusing variation on the true address, with the wrong part said in a different tone of voice, perhaps betraying the lie behind it. What was I offered? Well, the pickup was arranged for tomorrow, but no specific time was given and I was told almost gleefully that he cannot reach the courier by mobile phone.

Maybe Dell cannot be held responsible for the clueless approach of the courier, who may not have GPS in the fleet vehicle and consequently may struggle to find streets or postal codes. The call centre staff was mediocre and the dispatcher had a bad attitude that can only point to poor/absent staff incentives and a culture of neglect that has filtered down to the lowest levels.

The next PC I buy will not be from this firm and I will also make sure I only buy from someone who has a real and verifiable address. Maybe we need a government ordained service level agreement between suppliers and ordinary consumers, with automatic penalties for lax responses. It should also escalate, like traffic fines do, with passage of time.

As for the company, I think if you have a four-letter word for a name that starts with D and rhymes with hell, then reform is probably not possible. Even a good product cannot forever prop up a rotten business. I shall be glad when the day comes that the liquidator arrives and rings Dell’s final bell.

An update on the soddy state of affairs mentioned above. Since time passed, I once again decided to attempt communications, sent an email with a plea for help - this did not elicit a response and was simply ignored. I next faxed a map of my location to a service number. It was a feat of internet wide data mining to get a fax number for this multi billion corporation but I had the idea that an email can be ignored, but hardcopy might catch the eye of someone who is willing to work. No such luck. Back to basics. I re-entered my earlier complaint on the Dell website where a promise is made to reply within 24 hours. 3 days later, someone did call from an unlisted number, left a message on my mobile and said there would be another phone call. No number was left to enable me to reach them again. This company seems to believe in one-sided communications, i.e. they only tell you something when it suits them and usually that does not amount to any commitment.

Today I received a phone call from someone who spoke proper English who asked me if the machine has been fetched. How can they not know that it is still not collected! The question is meant to mislead and disarm. The impression is left that someone cares about the problem, but those are just words, nothing is actually done towards solving the problem, as the rest of the conversation proved. No new date for collection was made and the caller appeared unmoved by a promise to send a letter to the account manager. I can only hope that when the machine reaches them, the refund will be forthcoming.

Looking at the other posts, it seems there is something consistent about the problems. Is there anyone reading this who knows how class-action lawsuits work?

I am an indian too and I work as in a TECHSUPPORT Process. I can imagine the frustration and anger when your Hardware does not work.

But what can a Tech Support Agent do when the Company puts in Policies and procedures that does not make it easy for both the TECH Support Agents and Customers.

When a Tech Support Agent, let it be in India, Africa, Philipines etc etc, listens to the problem for the first 10 minutes, we know if the Hardware has to be replaced or not.

We would love to replace the H/W ASAP with out wasting time and irritating a customer who is obiviously upset with his/her Hardware Issue.

And I guess if any of you had a Company, you would also look into cutting costs as much as possible.

I would like to Apologize to everyone who called me and ended up not getting their issue resolved.

I am a dell Tech and have been for two years. I worked at an outsourcer (Sitel corp) in Ottawa Canada for the last two years, prior to that I worked for Sitel supporting HP computers, prior to that I worked for Adecco, supporting Compaqs. I have worked in tech support for more than ten years. The problem with all of them is time. We are pressured to take as many calls in a day as possible. This is the primary concern with outsourcers. Dell got so fed up with SITEL that they cancelled their contract, and opened up their own call center right across the parking lot from the Sitel center. Dell is hiring 1500 techs. While most of the SItel employees were offered other positions within Sitel,supporting Microsoft, Bell Canada etc, many of us just did the logical thing, went across the parking lot to Dell. The Atmosphere is totally different at Dell. Time oa a call is not even measured. They are big on FCR (first call resolution) In other words if a cust calls back that means we did not do our job. The Indian call centers are run by only three or four companies and they pressure their employees to get off the phone as soon as possible. As of six months ago Dell had over eight thousand phone numbers. If you bought your pc on the internet you called a certain # if you ordered it by phone another #, so each model had several diferent numbers to call for support. Right now my job is to try to improve that. We were able to get rid of the Sitel #'s and within a year or two all North American calls will come into either Ottawa, Edmonton, Virginia, or Round Rock. What we are trying to do now is have only two numbers for tech support. One for commercial products and one for consumer. Of course no one tech can be an expert in all consumer products, so there will always be transfers, but there will be less numbers and less dropped calls. Right now our customer satisfaction rate is about 85%, which is above average. Dell is not perfect, but we are working on it. By the way when people say that HP support is better than Dells it makes me laugh. At SITEL we just looked on our phone and used the script for whoever was calling. One minute it was a HP caller... Thank You for calling HP bla bla bla, five minutes later the same guy would answer thank you for calling Dell bla bla bla. This is the world of outsourcing.

Dell Tech in Ottawa Ontario, currently working on improving the XPS queue.

build your own pc no stupid call centures, and no stupid parts all of dell parts are cheap and cheerfull, thats why thay are cheap don't get me wrong dell are great systems but when there is a problem with the system then welcome to hell dell it's a sad world most of the companys are the same now, most of the computer companys use cheap labour and send there call centres over to Third World Countries thats why there is so much identity theft and fraud, welcome to year 2006 and people still don't learn from there mistakes

I read your original experience of purchasing a Dell through an employee purchasing program and it was like a "Vietnam Flashback". I had such a similar experience it was de ja vu. Except I was put through the IVR debacle calling various 800#'s and extensions for about 125 minutes from work. Anyway just wanted to say that I spent $400 for a motherboard and harddrive and was shipped back my laptop with a note after 24 days of it being sent twice to the Dell Memphis,TN repair center. 1st time they said it was of course the motherboard (not cover under warranty) then I get it back and it still giving me "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" error. I call various 800#'s and extensions and am told I need to send it back it's the hard drive. I send it back to Memphis and get it back with a note inside saying the hard drive was replaced but that I need to install Media CD's but that they are out of stock. Finally I get Media CD's of course with no instructions or protocol. I wrote Michael Dell and I realize he will never read my letter of anger but I did mention in the letter that I purchased an HP laptop which was more expensive but I will gladly pay more for competent customer service. Dell is a joke and it makes sense to me now why HP has surpassed them in total sales this year.

I agree with Unknown, Dell policies are designed to bilk as much money out of the customer as possible. The policies and procedures are almost as frustrating to the employees as they are to the customer. Especially when the customer starts yelling at the employee for doing what Dell pays them to do. It's even worse if the problem is software, because then you are transferred to fee based support, which is $99 per incident (which is not fun explaining to the customer, believe me). And when Dell gives their warranties names like "complete care" and "total coverage" and other vague misleading terms, it gets even more unpleasant.

Hello everybody .... this is jessica from India ... worked for Dell Tech support ! It is not as bad as u people describe it ! We work to serve you better ! any questions please shoot them !

Hire American tech support or at least use people whose first language is English. Discontinue charging illegal sales tax on after-warranty $49 consultations; in fact, I strongly recomment your refund of these taxes you have collected. All of them.

I was in Dell hell most of the afernoon unsuccessfully trying to communicate with numerous Indian personnel about whether there is a warranty on the out-of-warranty technical support; Now "Brian" from Customer Service has called me back to say your $49 consulting is indeed guaranteed. So, which is it?

I bought a Best Buy VPR brand computer 4 years ago that has not missed a beat and am writing this on it. Aside from their horrible extended warranty and technical support that had me trying to make a microphone work in a speaker jack, I think I'll stick with them and Comp USA who are local, reliable and scrupulous.

Dell used to have the best reputation in the business so I bought one. I've been out of warranty since January and just crapped out this afternoon and had been on the phone for literally hours trying to get help to no avail. So I will say goodbye, so long, avoire and relegate your computer to the dump where it belonged all this time in the first place. I will not be back, and I will talk to all my friends and colleagues about my experience from dell.

This is too funny...your server is down. Dell no doubt.

Tech Support POLICY ?? Gives you the presumption you will be speaking to someone versed in Electronic Circuits and their applications. WRONG - you are talking to a person, usually Latin, Mexican,Indian,etc. that knows absolutely nothing about how Computers work. They are reading from script furnished by Superiors that probably know less. They can give you the Formats and the list of probable causes, which by the way, are too numerous to mention. In 99% of Support/Help situations there is no way to contact REAL Technical Gurus.
While we are bitching on the subject, POLICY -- how 'bout Microsoft Support. Or should I say Microsoft Millioinaires Support, since you would have to be one to participate. I agree HP has great Support. DELL, non existent.
You know,.. wouldn't it be great if we could just talk to an English speaking Agent. All these Computer Companies are in the communicatios business, yet they do not meet the first requirement .. intelligible (and intelligent) communications ! One would think, since their sole income is from guys like us... we would at least qualify for some consideration.

I work for Dell technical support and I like it. Great pay, great benefits, easy job. However, I have worked there for a few years and am A+ certified. I work in the Dell chat and apologize for all of your problems. I take care of the people that get in contact with me. The problem is that you have a 50/50 chance of talking to someone who knows anything about computers. More than likely, you are going to speak to someone who has been there for about a month and has to google to figure out how to run disk defrag or something like that. So, I'm going to give you a few pointers. I also suggest chatting in instead of emailing or phone support. That way, you don't have to bitch about accents later on, or waiting 10 days for an email response.

1) If you chat in and the tech asks you to "Please give me 2-3 minutes to look up some information for you" more than once, he knows jackshit about your problem and is on google trying to see what to do. If they say it more than once, you will be on the chat forever, disconnect and try again.

2) If you know the problem with the system, and it is a hardware issue, tell us that you swapped the defective part with a known-good part from another system. We will replace it on the spot, if in warranty.

3) Don't chat in pissed off wanting a manager, you won't get one.

4) Don't chat in about stupid shit. I had someone say his computer won't come on anymore. I asked him some general stuff and got to the point where he was having some overheating issues. I was about to have him run some tests when he said he would be right back, he had to go and get the laptop out of his fridge. He's shit out of luck sorry.

5) Whining won't get you anywhere with us, we know Dell sucks, you know Dell sucks, but be patient and someone will take care of you. It may take a few tries to find someone that knows their stuff.

6) Another thing, if you chat in, you only have five minutes to respond, otherwise you will get disconnected.

7) If you have talked to several people before, you still have to enter the ownership info. Everytime! We can't answer anything until you do so don't bitch about it. We can't do anything about it.

8) The scripts should only cover the opening and closing statements. If you keep getting "scripted answers" in the chat, the tech is on goole or microsoft copying and pasting. You should just disconnect and find the info yourself, or chat back in and try someone else.

I have a ton of other info if you want it, just post a question and I'll try and answer it. If you don't like anything I said I really don't care, I still get my paycheck on Friday. Have a great day!!!

Okay, so tell me why I should buy a Dell again? Seriously, we have Dell as our corporate standard worldwide, but I won't touch them anymore. If you're looking for a home system, by all means, go ahead, you'll get decent bang for your buck in the way of bundled hardware/software/speakers/etc., but I just don't have the 50minutes plus to get a battery, or dead a/c adapter replaced under warranty! Users that come to me for a home unit insisting on a Windoze PeeCee will get Dell's url, and a happy send off. I call IBM, and the part & a tech (if needed) are dispatched in no time flat ... all told, 5-10 minutes maybe. So until I get my hand slapped for NOT BUYING DELL equipment, I'll just kep right on NOT BUYING DELL equipment ... yup, no servers, no notebooks, desktops, or monitors.... Big Blue & Apple is where it's at for us, and since I can run XP on a Mac now, who needs a crappy looking Piece of Crap when you can get something that actually looks cool, works the way it should & can be fixed without the script jockeys making you jump through hoops for the simplest thing UNDER Warranty no less ... just swap out the F'n part, it's covered & save me the "is it plugged in" check list crap! I've blasted every Dell rep that's ever called me with the same info (more or less) listed here by me and many others, but I'm soooo done with Dell, that I won't even bother anymore .... if you want less hassles and better user experience with your hardware and OS.... get yourself an intel based mac, and get your shit done instead of being on hold for what feels like an eternity .... life's too short, make good use of the time you have!
Alhoa from the great white north!

Are you listening DELL? .... didn't think so!

After mistakenly buying three Dell systems in a three year period, I have finally opened my eyes to realize Dell, as a company, totally SUCKS! On all of the systems, I have had to spend hours on the phone going through series of holding and being transfered. Not to mention the computer operated answering system that always misdirects your call. In case you do not know, some areas require touch-tone phone inputs, while some contain voice recognition. Whatever the case, the system really does not help. Most recently, I had to have my Inspiron 600m notebook sent to the service depot for a simple repair covered by my eleven month warranty. This was the second time this computer had to be sent back. Once because the touchpad was smashed when I received the computer. This time it was for problems with the plastic casing around the LCD screen. At the first of September, I made three calls to finally get a return box sent to my address, which happened to be shipped to my neighbor instead. Dell had the address wrong and I called the day I got the box and corrected it for them. I sent the computer back the next day via DHL services. After not receiving my computer back to my door by the first of October, I called Dell to find out what the problem was. According to the technician I talked to after being transfered and on hold for over 2 hours, I learned my system had been lost at the service depot. By this time my warranty had just expired. Therefore, they refused to speak to me unless I was transfered to some department that handles out-of-warranty calls. After arguing enough to make the person realize my problem occurred while the computer was still under warranty, he transfered me yet again. This time the technician handled my problem and assured me my original system would be returned or a replacement would be ordered. A few days later my original computer was sent back...repaired. However, upon opening the monitor, I noticed open screw holes around my LCD that had previously been plugged with rubber plugs to match the gray plastic. Not only that, my hand became lodged in a hole in the side of my notebook where a DVD/R drive had once been. I immediately dialed a 1-800 number I was given. The lady I talked to was very nice and she said my parts would be delivered in a few days. She gave me all her extensions and even sent me an email! To top it off, her English skills were quite impressive. Well, weeks go by and now it is the sixth of November. My parts have not been shipped. Where could they be? She said they would be here by now. So I found her number and dialed her extension. A guy answers...apparently not her. So I told him I must have the wrong extension and apologized. I called back and tried the extension again. The same guys answers. So, maybe he can handle my problem. Supposedly the woman does not work for Dell any more. (I wondered in my mind if my problem could be related to her termination?) Well, Mr. India does not want to speak with me because my warranty is expired. So he transfers me to the supervisor. Obviously he was not in high enough rank either because he did not handle my problem. He said the parts could not be shipped since I was out of warranty. So, you are telling me that because of their error I have to pay or be stuck with a useless laptop? Right...that is totally understandable. I paid &1,500 for a computer I can only look at and still be disgusted by the ugly screws around my monitor. After talking,or arguing actually, he agrees that Dell will send my parts; IF he can get the correct part numbers. He promises he will call me back in 24 hours to tell me how this will be handled. Today (November 7, 2006), I get home and see Dell's number on my caller ID. So, I get right back on the phone. Hold...hold...transfer...hold...finally, it is ringing. Someone answers, but due to his heavy accent and extremely fast speech, I was unable to make-out a word he said. I just gave him one of my three case numbers, he pulls it up on his computer, and what does he say? You guessed it: "Sorry, but I notice your computer is out of warranty. BLAH BLAH BLAH I can transfer you to BLAH BLAH BLAH and they can help you with your problem...for a small fee." I try to tell him the situation but he seems not to understand English or he just does not care because he will not get paid to help a poor person with no warranty. He sees that someone was supposed to call me and tells me they were not able to contact me. Hello! Why do you think I am calling YOU? After he babbles on he finally tells me that he cannot help, but HOPEFULLY the person that tried to contact me will call back tomorrow. Yeah...kind of how you called when my computer was lost at the service depot. But for some reason I get this feeling that someone WILL call back and my problem might get solved since it has been going on for over two months now. Lets pray.

I forgot to mention in my big long paragraph, yes, the chat may be a wonderful addition to a "great" company that hires people with no experience to Google problems, but if you are out of warranty but have a problem related to the warranty, then you are just out of luck. The system will not even let you connect to a "certified award winning technician." And as for the guy above ("an actual computer savvy dell worker") that claims to be a technician at Dell, who contradicts himself in his writing, I do not tent to trust people that simply want attention. And as for emailing Dell, I do agree with him, you will not get a response. And by the way, to the "savvy Dell technician," do you make it a habit to Google negative comments related to Dell? If so, apparently your great job with benefits is not enough of a life for you: use your great benefits and take a vacation.

And personally, i do not have the problem with the actual technicians...it is not their fault they have to follow the strict policies. By no means do I inflict my anger to any of the hard-working technicians who try their best. I do however have a problem with Dell and its poor ability to properly handle many simple situations. Just thought I would post this before I get cussed at by all the Dell-loving fanatics.

hi all,
well i had experiance with DELL HP and IBM and i would say all the calls that are routed to india are the best...
they care about the cust i.e they are polite...
no like the people in USA who are RUDE....
as of now i work for a bank and i am using DELL laptop and i am very happy with it...

i called DELL tech support that they want to help us...
well if you start shouting in the begenning of the call every one will get pissed off...

but in india you get best cust service...
i will add one more thing...

i had worked for DELL Desktop support for 2 years....

Hey Kacey, you're right, I don't like what Dell does, I just like my job. And by the way working their is not my life, I'm a student in college working their on the side so if I had the time to take a vacation trust me I would. Also, we don't transfer you on chat if you are out of warranty, we can handle your problem, it just takes a few minutes to get approval to send you an out of warranty part. I understand you don't like being on hold, who does? But we can't just hit a button and make your problems go away in 2 minutes.

By the way, I googled "Dell technical support" and this was the second listing, so no its not "a habit to google dell problems". I was looking for a specific article. Don't hate on me, I just work there, I don't even buy Dell computers.

Hi All...I needed a video card replaced on a two week old system. Here is the latest from the tech support guy who ordered a new card from me. Please, give me your thoughts!:

Hal,

The reason the box says refurbished is that under Federal Law, no part can be labeled as "New" if it is not shipped in its original packaging. Since Dell buys in bulk, once the items are removed from the pallet, they have to be labeled as refurbished as they are no longer in their original packaging. No, we do not specify "refurbished" on a part, but it is due to this Federal Law which is why it is labeled that way.

Thank You,
XXXX
UID: xxxxxx
Case: xxxxxx
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
(Tech’s Name):

Just got back home on Tuesday and saw the DHL package which was
supposed to be a new video card. The outside of the box is marked
very clearly "REFURBISHED" with a date of August 22, 2006. I am not
very happy about this so, I have not opened the box.

My preference (call it what you will) is to have a new card since
this computer is only two weeks old. I am sure you did not put in a
request for a refurbished card...did you?

Thanks XXXX...I will wait to hear from you.

Hal

I never knew there was a DELL HATE BLOG... Funny, cause I use to work there a while back. There is a lotta cheap labour out there and definitely half of them are nervous morons who learnt to fix computer in a 3 month crash course after they joined. People get paid 200 $ a month to do that. Heck, I dont blame them for their Technological Ignorance cause farmers make more. Dell Corporate Support was in India but moved back due to complaints arising from different companies. Consumers are a different ball game altogether.All the employees are from backward states and had some shitty schooling and just made it to their "200$ dream job. Pathetic, I tell you. I some some server guys saying they got quick service. Thats because their equipment get that kind of service duhh... Critical data, down time no go. Of course dell would fix it. They have bad servers by the way nothin compared to proliants or netservers. Nice to see you guys got a place to unwind after a bad experience out there. People embrace technology to be such a important,crucial part of their lives yet dont spend time learning even a little about it, which definitely beats the shit out of me. Cheerios Until next time or I may go on forever !!

I can't believe it, I type in WTF (addreviated here though) on Google and I stumble on this. What's even more scary is Jermey had the exact same problem I had, almost a year later, AND with an Employee Purchase Program and the LCD screen! Mine though was a BRAND FREAKIN NEW Inspiron E1705 laptop, barely used and it's broke.
Not going into the details of the call, Jeremy said it all, but I'm not one to hold back on the Indians and I let them know their English sucks and I couldn't understand what the hell they were saying. SO after getting xferred I got to one I could understand. Then after finally getting the dispatch # (on-site repair) I hung up, only to realize I fogot to mention the Internet port was also f*cked.
This time I thought I'd be clever and less stressed by using their website (I have more then one comp.) and adding that to my wish list for the tech. to fix. So I tried the interactive method and got a tech. named Tyesha or some variation there of. I gave her the previous case #, dispatch #, that #, this #... you get the idea. Then asked that she add the port problem it to the techs. ticket. Get this, she wanted to trbl shoot the problem!!!! OK.... did you read the case??? What part of "the screen doesn't work/goes blank right after booting" don't you understand???
At that point I called the dispatch phone #, yep another Indian, and tried that method. No go, tech will have to prove it him/her self and order that part too! THIS IS A BRAND NEW COMPUTER!!!!!!!!
SO what was suppose to be fixed in 1-2 business days took 3 days for the part to arrive. The tech called today, can't make it till next Tuesday, didn't know aboout the RJ45 port problem and will need to figure that out when he gets here. "Probably will need a new Mother Board."
BTW Dell employee, I can tell you are going to college. Your apathy for the customer proves you're not too recently out of your diapers. You need to take a course on Customer Relations, it deals with understanding the frustration of people who paid good money for your shitty product and understanding that at that particular time they'd really like to hit your snotty, arrogant (with no legitimate credentials) head with a 2X4.
Oh, and some of us do know about computers, I was building 8086,80286,etc. (even know what those are?) computers when you were a drip down your Momma's leg.

Thanks Jeremy.

I used to be a big supporter of Dell and had excellent service from both sales and tech support. Recently that has all changed and I, also, will not buy another Dell. My last three calls for tech support required a 30 minute hold on wait followed by a pleasant 30 minute discussion of the problem (with short breaks) but no solution. In each case I was promised a return call or e-mail ,which did not occur.The waste of time is very annoying.It seem apparent that simply answering the calls is "service". I don't think it is the country where the support staff are located that is the problem but rather the new corporate "ethic" where the bottom line is all that matters and false advertising is better than customer support A consumer boycott of companies like Dell is necessary.
Wally

I have only dealt with Dell recently because our company has a coporate account with them and we get some nice discounts. The computers I have purchased work okay because I cleared everything on them when they arrived and loaded all my own software, but the "free usb printer" they sent me never would work. I called them and they sent me a new one, but it does not work either. The printer is good, it is how they are running their software, not very good.

I recently read about their new dell2dell blog and agree that the Blog does not seem to perform its primary function of allaying fears and getting right down to just speaking plainly and openly. It does read more one-sided like a marketing brochure.

A friend of mine recently interviewed at Dell. He told me of a very bizarre ordeal. He was interviewed in person in Phoenix Arizona, then flown out to Dell for a one day process. He said he interviewed with people who did not seem to know what job they were interviewing him for. One person who interviewed him, took him out to lunch, wearing old jeans and a tee shirt. Not a very professional image for an interview, considering he was dressed in a full suit for the interview. He had to constantly follow-up with them, even to the point of calling the coordinator because the recruiter failed to give him her number. He was subsequently interviewed a few more times by phone before they said "Not a Fit".

When he followed up with another executive to give him some data he promised in the original meeting, the executive was very excited to hear from him and assumed he was made an offer and wanted to know when he was comming onboard. He told me he was embarrassed to have to tell him that he was not seleted. The original executive who wanted him flown out did not even know that some other part of the team said "not a fit". Bizarre to say the least……

I have recruited people in my past positions and can tell you that I would never fly someone out if I did not think they were a fit for the job. Subsequently, I told him that I believe the hiring managers may have viewed him as a threat to their jobs, but I would rather think they had more integrity than that, but I have heard of far worse blunders. Not hiring qualified people because they may be too good, only hurts the business in the long run.

Reading the blogs and hearing stories of the hiring process concerns me. I don't know if Dell really knows what they want or which direction to head in, and quite possible the overall problem with their recent decline. I would not go as far as to blame this on M. Dell or anyone else at the top. I think they have grown so fast and not hired the right people managers to keep things on a major business level. Trying to run the business like it is still in a garage may be why HP is slowly overtaking them even with the recent HP scandals.

I try to keep an open mind when it comes to Dell, and really was not allow all the bad press, “so-to-speak” blur my judgment, but I have to admit after heating about their interview process and subsequent lack of follow-up and resolve, I wish to reserve judgment.

Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences here. It has convinced me that buying anything from Dell would be a mistake on several fronts and is not worth the hassle if something goes wrong.

Dell is absolutely AWFUL. The customer service is the worst I have ever seen. I am on hold right now waiting for a supervisor (again). What's funny, the representative I was talking to said there were no supervisors available, until I said I would just call their Corporate offices. AMAZINGLY, he is now trying to find someone to talk to me

Hi InDELLible Impression. Drip down my Momma's Leg.. Impressive. I wonder 8086,80286 what the f**k does it mean? Does it mean it is a x86 processor from Intel that came out in the 80's with a 16-bit state of the art processor chip during those days. 8086 ?? Beats me. Are you referring to the 8-bit A.L.P chip with floating point/stack/pointer capabilities and a clock frequency of 5 hz ?. Heck, are you Charles Babbage ? Wooo. I empathize with your situation and definitely would not like to get myself entangled in that mess. Dell Support needs to seriously take time retrospect their Consumer needs.. By the way I hold a Masters in Computer Applications and am in R&D. So f**k you ! I like the fact that Jeremy got this up and running and actually got a lot of people I know in Dell to look at this. Learn Something. Do Something about it. People pay sweat money for the stuff they buy, at least I do.. And I don't take bullshit for an answer when something goes wrong. Never get personal my friend. This is a community where people share their opinions and generalize.. Not hit at the people puttin stuff in here and ESPECIALLY not my family. If you think your real important, why don't you shoot a mail to micheal@dell.com and maybe, just maybe he might kiss your a** and give you a XPS bundled with all the technological marvels Dell offers and make your day ! Convenient is'nt it??

**Jeremy - Please keep this running, it provides valuable insight to the customers and their grievances to the world, especially Dell itself at large. Great going.

Wow I think you guys had some bad luck. The service I have at dell was a lot more remarkable then something like best buy or HP. You guys complain about waiting an hour and having your service or part the next day. Well when i was dealing with best buy they told me they need to ship my laptop to HP for the repairs and it took almost 2 months to get my laptop back! it was ridiculous!

However when i bought a dell and about a year later I had some lcd color problems, I called dell and yea i waited for about 15-20 min cause i called in the morning when they probably really busy with business calls. But when i got through i told them my problem and they sent a technician the next day to replace my lcd.

I'd rather wait on the phone for a while and have service next day then wait 2 months for a simple repair on my laptop.

Developing... Well, I am started down a similar path with my purchased 30 day Dell On Call support. Used 866-940-3355, spoke to a person soon w/o much IVR delay, gave him my serv ice code onfo & short desc of problem ("cannot play DVD" - XP mediacenter); he them transferred me to software/set support. It has now been 20 min. (during which I am told that have "overwhelming" demand and that I can purchase additional incident coverage on line -- this is a laughable juxtaposition). I bought this PC under employee program and I fully expect to be told (in XX minutes) to be transferred (and wait again) to a different person for that program (as if the original person couldn't tell that). This company is wondering why they are now losing sales to HP (i.e., not enough sales although they have "overwhelming demand". Do they realize how insulting this is to customers -- my 5th Dell in 10 years, but the next will likely be back to HP/Compaq -- recently have improved from the bad late Compaq days. I doubt I have patience (need for abuse) to see this through and will start fiddling with settings and download various updates. gulp.

Update - after 60+ minutes in the queue, cordless phone battery died - I give up for now. Will try to fix w/o Dell help, hopefully not makeing thing worse (use Restore). Over the years, as local PC guru, I have recommended to many friends to go with Dell (and they did). I wouldn't want my friends to go thru this (and still stay friends?), so for sure those recommendations end as of now. Would this be a Deceptive Trade Practice under Texas law (where Dell and I are)? --> triple damages ($49 for 30 day Dell On Call), but a class action could be a good number/settlement. Any Texas plaintiff lawyers reading this?

On the refurbished parts problem mentioned above. If you read your warranty, it states that you may receive refurbished parts as a replacement. These parts have been factory tested and are as good as new. If you are having problems or questions, I suggest the checking out the Dell Community forum. This is an area where different people pass along there answers to a problem that you might have. I have found that this has answered my questions/problems and I did not even have to call up. Yes I do like Dell. But I do agree with a lot of the problems posted here.

Well to clear this all out. It has nothing to do with where the customer service is located or who is employed there. Its all about the policies that these companies have and enforce on the CS. So no matter what you do, even knowing your problems these agents will not help you because its against your job. They are made to understand how to handle people in the shittiest way and treat them like pigs. This by the way applies mostly to DELL. I have used computers from all of the companies and sure electronics break down sometimes and we may need help on others to sort things out. But DELL has the poorest of them all. Companies like HP, IBM, Emachines, Sony etc. Why do you think they manage to pull them selves off better from DELL. Its because they understand the customers needs and are prompt at it. It may not be the same in every case. But most of the times.

9:48:12 PMSystemWelcome James Lee ...

9:48:12 PMSystemConnecting to server. Please wait...

9:48:12 PMSystemConnected to chat2.us.dell.com

9:48:32 PMSystemNV XPS John D. has joined this session!

9:48:32 PMSystemConnected with NV XPS John D.

9:48:32 PMNV XPS John D.Thank you for contacting Dell XPS Hardware Warranty Chat Support for Business! How may I help you?

9:49:06 PMYouI am have some provblems with my graphics card and was woundering if you could help me.

9:49:32 PMNV XPS John D.Sure, what kind of issue are you having?

9:50:09 PMYouEvery time i try to play a game it turns my screen blue and forces me to restart my computer

9:50:34 PMYouby pressing and hold the power button

9:50:44 PMYouuntil it turns off

9:51:12 PMNV XPS John D.OK, have you run the diagnostics on the video card?

9:51:49 PMYoua guy named James had me do it and it passed

9:52:12 PMYouand i contanted ATI and they referred me to you

9:52:12 PMNV XPS John D.OK, have you reloaded the video driver?

9:52:32 PMYouyes i have

9:53:12 PMNV XPS John D.What driver are you currently running?

9:54:02 PMYouthe latetest one that ATI has put out for the 9700

9:54:42 PMNV XPS John D.OK, the Dell driver is the only approved driver on that system

9:55:02 PMNV XPS John D.That may be why you are having a problem

9:55:13 PMYouhow is that possable? if ATI makes the card

9:55:32 PMNV XPS John D.Because the Dell drivers are modified for your system

9:55:38 PMYouand i have instaled the one form Dell just to make sure

9:57:18 PMYouCan i ask you something way off topic?

10:02:42 PMSystemYour agent has been disconnected from the system, you are now being transferred to your original queue. Please stand by...

10:02:42 PMSystemNV XPS John D. has left this session!

10:03:12 PMSystemNV XPS Joshua F. has joined this session!

10:03:12 PMSystemConnected with NV XPS Joshua F.

The only thing that i asked was for a new graphics card that to much to ask? Not only that but when i asked if i could ask a question way off topic i was dissconneted.

To top that off Joshua F. was no help just like the ten other people that wanted to give me the run-a-round. To even sweeten this whole deal i have a lawsuit pending for when they put the cheap batteries in the laptops. I have the lawsuit because it cast me over $49,000 dollars to repair my house and cost me $50,000 dollars for medical bills for when it gave my three year old girl third degree burns on here face, half of her neck and her hands. I DONT WANT SOME DICK HEAD WORKING AT DELL TO SAY HE IS SORRY. THAT IS NOT GOING TO FIX WHAT HAPPENED. And Jeremy sorry for all of the vulger words but put yourself in my place and tell me how pissed you would be..

To start with, this topic is close to a Year old and still going strong !! Suppose it should speak for most of the content but that's a one-sided view ...

A little info on the Techie of Indian origin who's takin time from his lunch break to make sure that the record is set straight ... I've been with the DELL Badged site in Bangalore [Not a Call Center that handles Multiple clients] for over 2 years now - Started off with the Corporate Segment and moved to the Consumer segment [Voice] before landing in Chat Support.

Now I know most of you'll have trouble understanding an accent [Indian/Filipino/anything that sounds unintelligible] , Let's face it - IT CAN BE FRUSTRATING!
But here's where you have the option to start over, If you feel that the person on the other line would take a lot longer to address your issue because of the communication barrier, start over -- It's not the best solution but it should save you considerable anguish and explaining your self over again ... DELL has a couple of outsourced sites that offer support IN ADDITION to their own badged employees - The chances of you being routed to either are equal.
Nowadays, with the advent of DELL CONNECT, all you really need is a Broadband connection and the technician can REMOTELY connect to your system and diagnose the issue. Of course, for Hardware issues like LCD Pixelations or NO VIDEO, this may not be possible but there are alternatives.

A lot of people opt for DELL because of their competitive priced systems but tend to skimp out when it comes to Warranty services - Let me let you in on a little fact before you buy ANY product ...... YOU NEED TO RE-THINK YOUR PURCHASE IF YOU DON'T INTEND TO OPT FOR AN IDEAL WARRANTY PACKAGE !! Hardware will eventually fail, be it Lenovo [IBM for those who have just returned from Time Travel]/HP/Gateway etc ... If this occured within your warranty, YOU ARE ENTITLED TO A REPLACEMENT ! Which brings us to the process that this requires - TROUBLESHOOTING !
So you may be the certified engineer that your wall claims you to be - We are required to perform some basic t/s to CONFIRM the source of failure and replace the appropriate part, I read a few threads on this post and noted the "advice" provided - LIE ! Dude/Dudette - We do our job the way we do because that's how we do it -- If you expect a proper diagnosis, you better be honest. Would you take your Doctor to court if he prescribed some other medicine based on the symptoms YOU faked? Doesn't matter if he didn't see through the charade [ Which he may:) ] , fact is that you were incorrectly diagnosed because you led him to believe so... I've come across so many instances where the Customer tried to convince me about his idea about what was wrong with his system - Persuasion was stretched to the limit that day and eventually, when we agreed to do it MY WAY, and I called back a few days later to check, i received a quiet 'Thank you - Everything works fine now' and he hung up on me! Gratitude !!
Another thing that irks me is the way an Indian is treated because of the way he tries to convey the words in his head - With Chat support, it's usually a grammatical error but that won't stop you from rubbing it in .. Not evry1 had the education that I received but we all did go through the same training process - And I admit that it annoys me at times but as long as you get the job done, we can live with it ..... i could go on and on but what I'd really ask you, dear Reader, is this ---

** Try the Chat option, If possible, chat from another system so that we can t/s there and then [Restarts for the changes to take effect usually require a new session to be started.]
** You may have expert advice on what needs to be replaced but we still NEED TO try out a few steps to make sure that WE don't ship out a wrong part [This is where most of the customers come back and are ready to listen to us]
** We need to verify your information to make sure that we are not giving in to someone who's stolen your identity [You'd be suprised with how many culprits actually get away with this]
** DO TRY THE STEPS WE SUGGEST - I don't have to explain the importance of proper troubleshooting
** If the issue is Software related {And I'm referring to NON-DELL software}, don't expect DELL to fix it for you for free - You chose to have the specified software installed [Be it Windows XP or Photoshop] They have their own support options and certified technicians. I usually get the odd-ball who suggests that I fix the Software related error because it happened on her DELL and not her HP - Doesn't matter if the scenarios were different, the fact that the Hardware YOU Paid for works is what you need to know.
** For the love of Data security, BACK UP REGULARLY !!
The Hard Drive will crash or a Virus will invade your abode of privacy - And you will lose your data, When a reinstall is the only option, don't blame US !! or DELL !!
Look in the mirror.
** If you have a Inspiron/XPS Notebook or a Desktop, and you want some ideas on what you need to do about your issue, try the CHAT Option !! It's Fast, can be done at your own pace and you are spared the 'accent' that seems to bother most of you out there ...

I really do believe in the changes that we make to our customers, i wish I could post the raves we've recd but that's for another day!! I strive to fix each issue that comes my way - I'd only expect the same if I were the consumer. There are a lot of like minded folk who work here, all they need is someone who will take them at face-value and let them do their job.

To all the people who had a bad experience, I know apologizing won't help now but I'd like to believe that things change - For the Better !
If there's anything I can ever do to help, drop in a line at romnvodka@hotmail.com and I'll get around to replying to you after I rid my account of all the spam!
[Please mention RMZ-DELL in the Subject line]

Cheers!
RMZ

I have a Dell laptop, Inspiron 1200, and it got really slow after 15 months. I decided to reinstall the original software and had problems doing it. Calling Dell, we (stuck boyfriend on phone, I have no patience for doing this stuff) we actually got great service. One of the things I've discovered is that being unfailingly polite to customer service and tech support people gets me very far. I won't kiss butt if they're rude or unhelpful BUT I ask their name, thank them during their search or the process, and usually watch television or something else while on hold so I don't lose it. AOL was a different matter. Unrelated but...I won't even take a FREE account from them after hanging up on the a/h after 38 minutes and screaming "you just don't get it" after he offered me countless variations on accounts and I said "I don't need it, I get a free ISP from my college."

Anyway...I don't think I'd buy a Dell again though. It just seems to slow in comparison to the chicks and dudes at school with Compaq and other laptops.

I've had a DELL Inspiron 5150 for nearly 4 years. It was perfectly fine for over two whole years. Then this summer it wouldn't turn on. Not for anything. So I called Customer Service, and it wasn't too bad. I had the get the motherboard replaced. (Weak.) As luck would have it around the sametime my powercord needed to be be replaced. So I took care of that as well. This was all while under warranty and the service as fast and fairly humane.

Then August passed by and my warranty ended.

The computer itself has been fine. (A bit of a surprise after reading many threads on multiple motherboard replacements.) My problem has been that stupid powercord. My second one died. I tried to find a non-Dell replacement, but I had a my senior project to finish and so I ended my search early to get my computer running again as fast as possible. Now about a month later my third Dell powercord as failed me, (but the computer is fine). Lucky for me the term is over and I can try again without being in a hurry.

As an aside I'll mention that the costumer service was very sub-par after I wasn't under warranty.

Of course my main issue that Dell apparently cannot make a powercord for one of their own laptops. Epic Failure. Never buying from Dell again, (yo).

WTF! is such an accurate statement as it relates to Dell Technical Support. I remember way back when they had the best customer service when I bought my first 8100 Dimension. Now as rarely as I do call every call requires hold time so they can presumably look up the necessary steps to correct your problem. At the risk of sound like a xenophobe most of my technical support conversations employ the word "what?", "can you repeat that?", or "excuse me?" from my end of the conversation. I have had better success when I'm lucky enough to get their Phillipines Technical Support sweat shop.

In any case, right on Jeremy!!!!!!!

Indian,

Shove the racism card back in the deck and get real. I'm sick to death of every non-white on the planet childishly yelling racism every time the screw up a job. Dell's support sucks and the blame goes to the people providing it no matter what nationality they are. Personally, I think the cheap bastards should move their support back to the U.S. and contribute to the economy that makes them most of the billions they pay their executives and investors.

I too have suffered Dell's stupidity. Law office with 6 Dell Dimension 2400's. biggest mistake we ever made. After of hours of phone calls and debating over what number is what on the freaking machine, the third guy to help me told me, "Dell does not support the XPS and we do not have drivers for it." Sorry.

So after doing some research, it's just an Intel 845gv with a 'Dell" stamp on it. Drivers easy to get. Now, you'd think the prick at the help desk, at 3 am would maybe tell me something that would help, but he was so focused on seeing if I was within warranty or if they needed to charge me that he burned up hours of his time and mine.

I'll NEVER touch a DELL again. And I'll never trust an Attorney that has one either.

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!

I purchased two DELL servers with two scsi drives in each server supposedly configured for RAID 1 at the factory.

When I received the servers and tried to install my OS, it couldn't find the hard drives. After much toing and froing I opened the server cases to discover no cables to the hard drives, then after some more digging...no back plane to attach cables to even if there were some.

It took me 10 days to get the point accross to dell the the hard drives weren't actually 'attached' to the motherboard and therefore I could not install any OS onto them.

They of course had be go through every diagnostic they could run me through just to come back to the point that I had made earlier. "Ahhh...your hard drives are connected to the motherboard...." DUH!! What a waste of time.

I doubt I would purchase another DELL.

To the post about Complete Care...complete care covers Accidental Damage of hardware, you spill a drink in your keyboard..covered, drop your portable down a flight of stairs? Collect all of the pieces and you're covered, in order to get standard troubleshooting and parts replacement I believe you may have to have the Next Business Day Onsite contract, 'Nothing' sounds like a pretty bad response to that.

I recently purchased a new XPS system through Dell with their Dell Preferred Account. On the day it was supposed to be shipped, I checked my email and it said it was "canceled". Okay? So I looked further into it and found the reason behind it all. According to Dell's financing department, "This order has been canceled because the associated lease financing was declined." So right off the bat, I figured it had to do with something on my credit. I had this gut feeling that from here on it was going to be a catastrophe of phone tag. After calling Dell at my house like 5 times before I actually could speak with someone on this issue, I had to go to my work and call them using my work phone. I guess the problem was all because of my home phone number. Because the phone number is in my girlfriend’s name they got all super retarded for some reason and canceled my order. So while I was at my work calling them several times over again because of poor re-directing of the calls, horrible accents, and being disconnected, I finally got on the phone with someone. After over an hour dealing with Dell’s menagerie of bullshit, they finally corrected the issue. With that in mind, I felt this sense of relief, but I was still mighty pissed off. About two days went by and the email for my order was still showing that it was canceled. So I yet again called Dell’s crap hole customer service line and got through rather quickly for some odd reason. She explained that the account was active and there was no block on it. So at this point I’m like, WTF? I guess the email I had was no longer good and was from the pre cancellation. The bottom line is that Dell’s customer service department sucks really badly. I was so pissed I was half tempted to cancel the order, but they’re the only computer company with decent computers that would give me financing. It’s funny to know that this was all over my home phone number being under my girlfriend’ name. So I guess they would rather miss out on my $2000 because my home number is not under my name. What some fucking imbeciles.

Background:I have an Inspiron 1000; used no more then a few hours every month. Also purchased an extended warranty, still in effect. Problem: the LCD went bad, a long but successful call resultedf in receiving the promissed prepaid UPS shipping box. This was Dec. 12, 2006. Now a month later no laptop and I am unable to get any info from anyone at Dell. I tried to call several of the 800 numbers, went many ways on the phone tree choices. So far 8 calls, all lasting 45 min minimum (unless it disconnects in the middle). If I am lucky I get a human and if I am really lucky our English is similar enough to undestand each other. The "hold" periods are very long but the agents always find my record but none can tell me where the unit is, what the problem is and when I can expect to get it back. Politely they promiss to look into it and call me back, but no one ever calls back. I will never touch a Dell product again but I would still like to get my lapyop repaired and returned. Can anyone give me a contact number, an address, the name of an English speaking managerial type so I can attempt to get my unit back. John

AHAHAHA DELL SUPPORT!! HAHAHAH what a joke!
i have a nice dell 9300 inspiron laptop
one day i get this huge problem, right before midterms/finals ( O NOOOOO!!)
the windows would just not start, i mean this thing was REALLY messed up, nothing like ive seen before. I called dell and waited for like an hour, once i even fell sleep waiting! they only helped me in tell me that they need more money. I had already purchased a 3 year premire coverage and then they said that its not covered. BS!! MOFOs!
i then ended up screaming and yelling.
then i hung up and and then went on another pc to only GOOGLE my issue. what the heck, it worked, and google was able to solve me issue.
THANKS DELL FAGOTS!

does anyone knows some problems in Dell technical support regarding problems in servers?

One thing you all should know...Every time you call into Dell, no matter which number you dial (unless you have a direct extension), you will be routed to Dell on Call, which is a fee based service....The reps are told to force contracts on people, even if the issue is covered under warranty, even if it means LYING...But instead of yelling at the phone rep (who is completely powerless to do anything), why not just never buy from Dell again?...Another thing is that the person you are speaking to (unless you are a business customer), doesn't even work for Dell, they work for an outsourcer that has its own agenda...to earn a profit. Since these outsourcers are paid by the number of calls taken instead of how happy customers are or how many issues are fixed, you wind up with people who give you the runaround so the outsourcer can earn more money...It reminds me of a parasite sucking contentedly on its host.

wow, I work for Dell here in oklahoma city. I'm not sure if they have moved all the Desktop support over here to oklahoma (yes in the united states). but from the looks of it it sounds like the video controller cable came loose from the system board. there is a cable that connects from the "mainboard" of the LCD to the screen. this is a common problem seeing that DELL does not make there monitors at all. its really either a SONY or Mitsubishi monitor. I was just ramdomly crusing the internet looking for serial numbers of the bad mainboards on the SX/GX mobo's.

I WISH I WOULD HAVE READ THIS BEFORE BUYING A LAPTOP....

I had to call tech support a day after I received my computer because I wasn't aware that the new computers don't have the pararell port, just the usb port. I needed one for my HP printer that I have. Needless to say, I called them and for some reason they didn't know what I was talking about and I got transferred from department to department for about three hours and I wind up getting the wrong converter. I asked for 24 pins not 36 pins. No one could seem to understand that. It makes it so much worse when you can't understand what they're saying!!!! I still don't have the right converter.

well Jennifer,

You need a "Docking station" they traded off size of expansion slots. you can also get hubs that go from USB to DB25. your also looking for a 25pin connection not a 24 pin. as for the 36 pin. they might of thought you we're looking for a DVI (video) Adapter instead. who knows lol. the tranfering of departments is you being sent from a level 1 to a level 2. lol you guys need to start asking for me!

you might want to check your local PC club (that's the name of the store) Or a CompUSA. Steer away from huge chains like Best buy or ultimate electronics as they will overcharge you alot. You can also check online sites like www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com.

I'll also post this for you guys as this is open information.

The dell power supplys are not Standard ATX power supplys. this meaning that you cannot use a dell power supply on another computer or vise versa. it'll smoke the computer. the +12v lines and the grounds are in different places. this is important information when upgrading you dell's graphics card or buying more hard disk drives. as these er 250w power supplys don't cut it.

I've spent about 30 hours of time trying to solve a problem with support online or on the phone and still not fixed.
They replace the mother board but now I've to install the OS and for some reason the POS PC is not taking it, NEVER buying a Dell again. Support not only sucks but I wish they would just tell me they dont know WTF they are doing so I can go somewhere else for help.

I have had problems with my Dell Inspirion laptop since day one. Since I had access to techs at my parents' business, I just had them take it back to the initial settings and started from zero each time it crashed. Since I couldn't depend on this particular laptop for storage of anything, I purchased another Dell laptop which works fine. I also own 2 Dell desktops which are terrific. However, my Inspiron has been a lemon since day one! I finally had to call Dell support when my parents' tech guy had to have surgery. This was the 5th time that it had crashed in 15 months. Talking with Dell support is a nightmare. I spent nearly 5 hours on the phone with them. It's impossible to understand them not because of the accents so much as the horrible phone connections. I finally demanded that they just tell me how to get my computer back to it's intial settings on the day that I received it. (If they had bothered to send me a Windows CD or given me instructions in a manual, I could have done it myself!) I also asked that they replace my computer at that time since it was still under warranty but no such luck. I spent over an hour downloading a "fix" but my computer completely crashed again in less than 5 weeks with minimal use.

First thing, I sent my empoyee out for a bottle of wine before I called Dell support. After over an hour, they finally agreed to send another hard drive. I had it installed and then proceeded to install everything else I needed for the 7th time. I then called and asked them for compensation for my lemon computer since I have never been able to use it properly. I have never been able to store anything on it that I wasn't willing to lose. They first offered me $45 because it's a really old computer, then $60, then $100. I refused so they had a "manager" call me back. She offered me $75 which I refused since the first person had offered me $100. So she said her last final offer was $100 and that she was the last person in the hierarchy that I could reach. I told her to forget it and that in the USA we have other legal rights for this type of claim. She then gave me another last final offer of $150. She wanted to put it against the credit card with which I purchased the computer. When I told her that that credit card number wasn't valid anymore, she finally found the record of the other Dell laptop that I purchased. She had said earlier that she couldn't see any record of another purchase! How convenient. Don't even get me started on the invoice that I received for the refurbished part that they sent me. What BS! Plus, if I can't understand their accents with my experience with international companies, who can? What is this outsourced service company's deal. Do they make $$$ off of every bad computer that Dell sells if they don't have to replace it?

hi, I work for dell tech support (desktop support) and this is what I have to deal with everyday.
1) Some horny bastard visits every porno site on the net, gets a virus and then calls tech support. He also takes the time to explain why the system sucks.

2) A lady with a possible obsessive compulsive disorder vaccuums the inside of her system and then bitches about why it blue screened and why dell tech support sucks.

3) The customer wants to return his new dell system because he doesnt want to set up windows (the initial setup), he assumed that all he needed to do was turn on the computer. and yes he also wanted internet access to automatically turn up.

4) Some "good old boy" with a horrible accent keeps saying that he doesnt understand me.

5) A customer calls with with an expired warranty for help with windows 98, and then wants to talk to my supervisor because I cant support him. upgrade anyone?

6) Customer takes 10 minutes to find the address bar on IE.

7) me - "hit the f8 key continuously"
default response (age/race/location/marital status NO BAR) -" The what key ? "

8) The cust took the system to a local tech,because it wouldnt power on. the motherboard was the source of failure. The tech then calls up and asks for both the motherboard and the dvd drive. Refuses to troubleshoot.

Its not about Dell technical support. Its about respecting another man's job. Hold times do suck I know, but a quick tip for lower hold time and quick service -

- Punch in your express service code after dialling the 800 number. Dont ask me what an express service code is or I'll break down.

- keep reference numbers handy

- Ask for an Incident/ Case number

Your computer is not a toaster, its the technology that heralded a new age. Try not to do stupid shit like add memory cards without getting the specifications.
Buy an antivirus program. And also remember, everytime you click "allow this program" on your favourite adult site, it WILL allow the passage of parasites.

When you call tech support, YOU WILL HAVE TO TROUBLESHOOT, its in your contract...read it - unless ofcourse it was broken/ bad when you got it. Mr. Dell didnt get rich giving away parts.

Make the effort to understand the reps. They're doing the same for you. Your accents is as thick to them as theirs is to you. English may be a second language to most of the reps, but they wrote their Examinations, CV's and attended their interviews in English. The average rep (Indian) knows atleast 3 languages. Diction differs.

If you dont like the idea of talking to someone from another country - Stay indoors. Either stop buying Dell products or learn to understand that service comes a price. Anything does for that matter.

I guess that enough for one post. Time to get back to the grind. I will gladly answer any questions you might have. mail me at rayjd2@hotmail.com

I got a new Inspiron E1405 in october'06 and around november'06 the hinges started getting loose on me. I called the customer service and she walked me through tightening the hinges. Another three weeks the hinges come loose again!
I call the support and the guys wanted to fade me away, so he said that he will send a replacement for the laptop. I waited for a week, but nothing happened!
I again call the customer service, and they said that nothing has been sent to you and they cannot offer me the replacement and all i will have to do is to send it to the service center for them to fix it. I agreed even though i would have to do without my laptop for a week. The laptop goes to the service center, meanwhile i get a call from the automated center saying that your laptop cannot be fixed and it has been delayed by another week. I promptly give a call back all pissed off and aparently i get the laptop back in couple of days. (name of the rep handling the resolution case was Tushar)
I checked the work order from the service center and it clearly stated that the technical guy (ass hole) only tightened the hinges and sent me the laptop back. I did mentioned to the other Tushar that if you tighten the hinges in your service center it wont work because i had already done that once, to which he assured that they will take proper care of the matter!!! My foot care would have been better than that!!
Another three weeks the hinges go loose again, I called back Tushar - no response for 3 days. I was all pissed off again and gave a call and happened to talk to Ivan - another dell resolution guy. He says that you will have to send the laptop to service center. I got agitated and demanded to talk to his supervisor, who happened to talk to be Mr. Andy Oaks Dell Customer Resolution Team Manager, another guy in the pile of useless fellows. After arguing for about an hour or so, he said that I can go to BBB and file a complaint against Dell. But that will not slove this issue. To solve this issue i will have to send the laptop back!!!! I argued why should i send it back to you, it was your mistake that your ass hole technician did not fix the laptop when you had it at your service center. To this he said i will give you a gift coupon of $50 if we are able to fix it this time and if not we will give you a replacement.

I send the laptop back. I received the fixed laptop! I did not get any coupons back. And the fix they gave me was to replace the LCD screen (I know this because my previous LCD screen had a key scratch on the top and the new one does not have it). But now the LCD screen has an inherent defect scratch. you dont see it on the outside. But when you turn on the laptop a hair like area of the screen has an inbuilt scratch.
So now i am totally pissed off, all i want is a new laptop, pay me for all the time for which they had the laptop at their place, pay me for all my phone bills and all the mental stresss I suffered in talking to all those garbage customer care personals.
I gave them a call on Saturday February 3 and today on february 5 and spent an hour talking to Vineet- customer care supervisor in India, asking him to make Andy Oaks give me a call and spare me from the trouble of explaining the whole case again to Dell Hell customer care people.
I want to ask all of you! Give me the contacts numbers or emails of all the superiors or managers at Dell. I want to talk to Michael Dell. Also how advisable it is to report this to BBB. I want to make Dell/Andy Oaks/Ivan/Tushar and all those Dell Hell customer reps to pay heavily for this mess!!!

I appreciate all your help.
Thanks

I had over an hour on the phone with these morons who don't know the difference between network and internet before getting 'cutoff'. Since then I've called back and sitting on hold currently for 36 minutes with no end in sight! I've also called in from my cell phone obviously pissed off and worked my way through the maze saying I wanted to buy something. Amazing that they answer those phones so much quicker. This guy has me on hold too looking for some tech support help for me. At least the guy from sales actually sounds concerned. Maybe it's because I asked for a return autorization day two of owning a $3K laptop? They don't get this POS networked it's going back! DELL should just leave network settings alone!!!

Hiren Patel-

You could try getting in touch with Anna Simpson of the Care Resolution corporate team. Her direct extension is:

1-800-624-9897 extension 728-3973.
Her e-mail is anna_simpson@dell.com or anna.simpson@dell.com, I don't remember which.

I have had to deal with her, and she is just as unhelpful and incompetent as the rest of her co-workers, but responds very well to the Better Business Bureau. Be sure to include everyone you spoke to and everything that happened, including the bit where they promised to send you a coupon but never did. It shows their inability to follow-through on anything. At the end of your report be sure to write that you will never do business with Dell again and encourage all your friends and family to do the same. Also have every single person you talk to at Dell leave messages on the voicemails of the corporate team members. They don't give out that sort of contact information to them on purpose, so it's important for you to give it to them. If you can, ask to be transferred to a Customer Care manager, or even another lowly representative, and get as many of them as you can to leave voicemails. Also include in the Better Business Bureau report that you had all of these representatives leave voicemails for the corporate team to call you back, but that they still never did.

Good luck, and let us know what happens!

i have spent so many hours on hold that the $7000 dollars i spent on dell is $9500 if my time were an issue.

dear dell,

your employees have come up with so many ways to screw your customers that it will take many years to fix

i asked for an email address of an enployee and i was given an incorrect adderss,i asked for the correct address and i recieved another one,also incorrect,this happened again 2 more times.i believe the address of his boss is also a lie

dell-- 6979898737--$2500 and it never ever worked--why do i have to diagnose it for the third time (2 hours plus each time) why won't you fix the computer you sent me allready defective and broken

network card or software that dell instaled i don't care

xps xpress shit

clayton macbeth 203 435 0058

4 returns
an extremely expencive laptop that never worked
20+ hours on the phone

Ok folks, I'm going to do something dangerous for this topic...I am with Dell tech support. I am not here for any other reason than that I stumbled on this by accident. I am in the US, I have worked for them for 5 years, and I'd like to go over a few bits of the complaints I've read here.
Indian tech support, 90% of the phone support is back in the States, that being said the 10% who do get to speak with India, can get around that easily, go to customer care and the paperwork filled out saying you are running a small business from home, why you might ask? Easy the 10% are home users, the 90% are businesses, which is the bread and butter for Dell, not home users. Perhaps a little harsh here, but home users do get screwed. Ok, finding someone's info, in tech support if we don't have a case #, order # we can't pull up squat, especially a monitor, the serial number only shows that it's a Dell product, it doesn't give us anything that will set up a case so we can replace it. Looking up a customers information can be quite challenging, especially if it was bought via a employee purchase program, there's literally 1000's of numbers there, if you can't help us with some information, we can't help you. If you need help and have a business listing call this # 18008228965 and then hit option 3 and put in your system's express service code, not the service tag. I help out my customer's as much as I can and, just so you know, intially I wasn't going to be hired as there was a morality test I took that said I was too honest! I've lasted 5 years and multiple managers and coworkers who screwed up and have not pushed for promotions as then, I'd be in a position NOT to help folks. And HP Gateway and other companies, my wife has worked for them.....their policy and procedures aren't much different from Dell's.

Ok, i've had Fujitsu laptop for 5 years, and never (i mean never crashed on me). I am a programmer, and I consider myself knowledgeable about pcs. I recently purchased dell laptop E1705 with maximum features. but what the hell? i have dual core with 2 Gig RAM. The laptop freezes when coming from standby mode or hibernate. called service, after 2 hours, nothing, they promised to call back... they never did... i track the problem down to video driver, download the new one they recommend, and still same issues. i can not get anyone at dell with enough knowledge to tell me what to do... NEVER AGAIN, NEVER BUY ANOTHER DELL. I highly recommend Fujitsu.
thanks

I am surprised this blog is still active. Just the words "fuck dell" in google brought me here.

I was an employee of Dell in India, take my opinion if you like. I was a call auditor for four years..

-Yes, sometimes it is frustrating to deal with India. There are people who asks you "What kind of computer do you have?" even if you start of saying "I have a problem with my laptop."

-They are FORCED to read/follow scripts. Even if it makes sense to replace something, you just can't do that(Dell has its own reasons for doing that which makes sense from Dell's point of view). So they are forced to read scripts.

-They are 1000 times patient than their American counter parts.

-I am not sure why your call was cut, and as far as I can tell, I can bet both my balls that anyone CANNOT cut your call, just like that. There is a system that tracks all the calls disconnected by the rep and those calls are analyzed by human beings. One such incident- you're out of Dell.

-Yes, some times, training was pretty bad. They have 4000 calls forecast and they have to have people on board and they just dump in, if you know what a mouse, keyboard and a monitor is.

-At the end, I didn't find HUGE difference between the quality of tech support in the US(compared to India). I know this as I now live in the US and call people from local gas company till local phone company.

-For those people who think that Apple's support is in the US, get ready!. APple has a huge call centre in India and it is growing.

And yeah, dont expect great support for the $300 you pay( I am talking about avg price). It just doesn't work. Before you call Dell, do your research, try out and THEN CALL.

Also Allan, "You and I know that for a fact that 90% of Dell's support CANNOT BE brought back!" For the price they offer, they just can't do it. Michael Dell was in India last year to open a "DELL OWNED" call centre in INdia. Dell now has around 14000 employees in India(95% of it are tech and customer support.) and it keeps growing as long as Dell cuts its prices.

To sum up- Stay cool, you can't avoid India(not just Dell). Do your research before you CALL.

@Ogman- "I'm sick to death of every non-white on the planet childishly yelling racism every time the screw up a job" So is every white American, but right now American economy is so fragile(and fucked up, in American terminology) that you just cant do all the jobs by yourself(white Americans). You need India, China and Mexico. I bet my balls for that and feel free to bet yours too..

And Dell will just COLLAPSE, if they even think about getting their support back to US. Just out of question. Not just Dell but every company that relies on India and China.

Its sad from an American's point of view, but hey, you can't be world's #1 forever.

@Ogman- Its irrelevent here, but why no one in the world had balls to cut America on Iraq? Its just because it is worlds #1. And if you want to be #1 for a couple of more decades, you have to rely on India and China.

Later they will take the control of the world anyways.

Bottom line- "India is inevitable if you want a computer for $300".

This is normal. We live in a capitalist world and profit is the only objective, even at the expense of the best service. The optimum is to have an outsourced center in India, that's just the way it is unfortunately.

Guy from IT

My regret with Dell came the moment I hooked up my computer. They had sent me the incorrect manual to my computer to start with. I also got sucked into Dells tech support system other wise known as satans asshole, without any results.
At the time when we purchased our computer Dell was pushing their commercial about, picking up the phone at any time and have a person on the other side to help with tech support. Do you remember these commercials where the man would be sleeping in bed at night with his wife, wake up and phone Dell tech support and they would be right their? He didn't need the support he just wanted to see if they were there and what they were doing. His wife would then tell him to go back to bed. Ha, ha, ha, a real gut buster except it is all a lie. The Dell tech people on the commercial were Americans and you could actually understand them and they actually spoke to you without being passed around for 60 minutes to only learn that they need to transfer you, get your information again and to tell you that there is nothing wrong with your computer.
My computer is just 2 years old and now I'm geting the blue screen and I think this is the begining of the end. I purchased an expensive computer off Dell too in the neighborhood of $3,500.00 and it has sucked from day one. I am going back to Gateway and Gateway had it all over Dell.

me working with a call center in india..since a long time right now working with a uk based semi-technical process..
this is all is about the services provided to u by a company...u know when they outsource a business to call center in india they just give us tools to check the status of the customer...imagine when u call and that tool is not working properly the information we see is not right what we can do in it..we just say what the tools say...yes at time some people act like foilish when it comes to customer services coz they r trained properly but they r not able to grasp it...and then they do foolishness on the call...but need to tell u one thing that our center got the best scores from the customers even more then the uk center...
so dont say we cant understand the accent...we got the irish customer also and if i am not wrong there accent is the most diffcult to understand...so dont blame indians

I feel like I'm a lighthouse in the path of a tsunami, but here goes.
I got a nice, mid-to-high-end system from Dell last July. One month later, my CD-DVD drive broke. I did some research, and decided that I needed a replacement, so I went on to Dell's website. They have a "chat" script that you can use instead of a phone, kinda like IRC but minus all the cool-ness. Got connected to 'Ash', who went me through the motions of troubleshooting from Windows rebooting my computer, the Dell system diagnostic, etc. She left me her email address so I could email her and tell her how it went. Well, it didn't. So I emailed her. Later that evening, she contacted us by phone. Her accent sounded Indian, too. She had me jot down a service number, told me that they'd have to send me a new drive, and had me send back the old one when it arrived. It got there before the weekend, and it was the same type as the one before even. Just like that. Almost a year later, and this one still works.

I guess either I got lucky, or you got unlucky. Huh.

HELLO, really dell is very bad, i just purshassed 3 new dell XPS 1210 for 2600 CAD dollars each and right now i have benn waiting to update the audio drivers from their website to work with vista for more than 40 min and i am stll waiting, this is the stupid link
http://support.dell.com
don't trust dell anymore
cheers

I can care less if they are in India, China, or even Iran, as long as they can trouble shoot the problem, or at least take the issue down, and find a solution. The frustration is that after i have contacted them for about 6 hours now, and still the issue is not results.

Radix, I'm gonna have to call bullshit on ya dude. When I call tech support, I get calls in the US or at worst Canada, on the business side. Not India. Not, anywhere else. The North American Continent. Sorry that I have to break that to you. That's been a fact for several years, tech support is in NA. Customer care, no clue, don't care, not my dept.

DELL SUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!! BLOOOOOWS!!! AND SUCKS AGAIN!!!!

Yes! Finally! A place to have someone listen to me whine and complain about Dell! Ready to hear my pitiful tale?

The only reason I'm bummed out now is because I have to tell it again. This will be the fourth or fifth time!!

The other times were to each new person that I spoke to at Dell. This was my first and last time of dealing with these guys.

December 2005...

I foolishly gave into the "credit trap". I should have learned my lesson, years ago. Now, I'm paying for the ad that read: "ONLY $249 !! - YOU can own a DELL computer!!! - EASY monthly payments of $22!!"

I will probably NEVER be able to pay it off.

The worst part was yet to come, when I tried to make an already under-powered computer into something I should have bought from another source.

Most good people may eventually get to Heaven... the rest... must suffer eternity... in DELL!!!

Of course, my new Dell computer arrived a couple of days late, due to the holiday season. No big deal. The free printer was two weeks late. Lexmark... a REAL no big deal.

The CD drive made a sound like an electric can-opener... A "Dell-authorized technician" had to be contacted... as it turned out - it was the guy at my local computer store, a block from my house. He explained, "Dell 'farms-out' the work to the lowest bidder. Some techs won't do their work, if it isn't a reasonable cost/expense job". I could have sold you a much better box for the same price and payments too! Thanks, neighbor.

The delivery of the CD drive came after another week. The new one still sounds like a noisy car-window being rolled up and down.

January 2006...

The next step "to DELL and back" was upgrading the graphics card - Now why would they sell me a 20-inch monitor when I didn't know to ask if their puny 3 Meg on-board "card" could handle game graphics... duhhh?

Dell tech: "you should to order bigger computer for game play"

The first graphics card came after several phone calls to "Tech Support" (Live from downtown India) it was almost a month in arriving (because of the holiday). You can probably guess that it worked just fine and was the perfect card for my now memory-upgraded computer... but no.

These guys built the thing, they should know how to fit it out.

The card didn't work in the computer. Obviously, it must have had some defect. I installed it with online tech help. How could it not be right?

Here is the most classic line any Dell tech ever uttered:

Dell tech: "You must first to download the BIOS".

The BIOS!? "What are you talking about?" The computer is running fine. It had a BIOS when if left the assembly line for final testing didn't it?" "Yes, but you must please to update the BIOS, I will give you address to download."

After going along with this stupidity, the card still did not work. I sent it back according to tech instructions and they sent a new card of the same type to me.

It did not work either. So I contacted the minions of Dell.

Dell tech: "You must first to download the BIOS".
Me: "No! No! Don't tell me this again! You are reading from a script, aren't you?"
Dell tech: "Yes. I am sorry. Did you download the BIOS"?
Me: "Sorry. Yes. Download. YES! No. I don't need the BIOS! YOU MUST UNDERSTAND ME... THE GRAPHICS CARD DOES NOT WORK THE COMPUTER SCREEN IS BLACK IT DOES NOT WORK!!!"

Dell tech: "The graphics card must be returned if it's not work".

February 2006...

Dell tech: "the right graphics card is in the list I am sending you, just select one of them from the list."

Wrong card.

Dell tech: "please send back to "braker-K" for re-shipment"

Why is it every company with a BIG K or a crooked letter in it's logo - SUCKS!!!

March 2006...

Graphics card number four was the right one.

I know that sooner or later you are bound to run into a forum of like-minded people on the Internet. This looks like the place...

here are a few examples of the responses that I received:

PAWAN
Rep ID 0190429

How are we doing? In an effort to improve our service to you, Dell randomly
surveys our customers. If you receive a survey from Dell by email, we would
like to hear about your experience with us.

05/25/2006 12:20:38AM Agent (Shivani_01112455): "Jef, i apologize for the inconvenience but as the system warranty has expired, the system is no longer supported by this department."
05/25/2006 12:20:56AM Agent (Shivani_01112455): "You can call us at 1-800-624-9897 for further support."
05/25/2006 12:21:16AM Jef: "Yeah Yeah I know... thanks $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$"

DELL SUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!

Okay, here's a long string of comments.

Well, I think I have to set the record straight completely.

Here is how things go, on OUR side of things.

First the scripted greeting we HAVE to read, or our quality scores falter.

"Hello and thank you for calling Dell Hardware Warranty Support my name is (Name) how may I help you?"

That, is a pain in my neck. Before, we would have one like this: "Hello and thank you for calling Dell Hardware Warranty Support, my name is Blair, and may I have your First and Last nme please?"

Boom, name done. First part of our retarded verification process.

Then we "HAVE" to ask if this is a new or existing issue. Or again, we get penalized.

Then the fun part of getting the information to verify.

We start with the Service tag or Service Code, and no. Regardless of what you think, or what we do, we will NOT have your information, unless we get one of those two items.

After that, we "USED" to have to verify the Address, Zip, EMail, and phone number before we could get into the problem. Again, the lovely scripts we have to read.

Now, thank jesus, we just need to see if your name matches what is on the account, if yes, right to troubleshooting, if not, then unless you know the company name, or the adress, you are S.O.L Yup. I love it like I live a root canal.

After that lovely process, you, the customer, are probably getting antsy, since you probably got hung up on by Bob, and waited 2 hours to get to me.

Now after you state how agitated you are, and probably one or two swear words go my way (Which I can hung for, but don't.) we get to the issue at hand.

Hard drive not working? Alright. I know I have to replace it, but if I don't go through this pre-scripted troubleshooting a 12 year old could use, I can't send it to you. Sorry!

Yup. That's just it. If I don't use this pre-scripted troubleshooting riggamortis, my qualities stats decline. And I might send you the wrong part.

(It may sound like a cheap defense, but I'm sorry, it's the truth. I think you'd rather wait an hour to get the exact needed part if any, then wait another 3 days to get another part.)

Now, if you havent pulled your hair out yet, I have to copy in a Journal of what we just went through to determine you have a bad Drive. (Often you tell me you have a Return Code 7 and I bull my way through clicking. I'm good like that. >.>) And I start the dispatch process.

More stupidity goes on, such as doublechecking the address you gave me five minutes ago, and theh I have to navigate through a maze of parts etc to get that exact match HDD and create the dispatch. Then I give you the Case number and DPS number. But wait! Theres more!

I THEN have to give you the: Repeat phone number, explain the return policy, summarize the "entire" call, tell you when the part "SHOULD" (but probably won't) arrive, and lastly ask if I can help you with anything else.

Then you hang up muttering about how dell sucks.

Well good sirs and ma'ams. I concur whole heartedly.

But unfortunately, I'm only a Phone monkey. I can't just say "Bad Drive? You swapped parts? Oh, sure, here you go." I'd be let go so fast my head would spin.

But here's the kicker. The Round rock sites CAN do that. They can just throw out a motherboard to shut up a whiney customer. (No offense to you nice people. ;P)

We can't. Bottom line is: We're trying to help. But the way things go, we have to follow these sripts we're given. We're only doing our job, which is to try and help you get your computer working. Work with us, and we'll work with you.

I'll leave you with some tips for faster service:
1. Say you have a like system, and already swapped parts. (ONLY if you are 100% positive of the failed part. We have a little something call repeat dispatch. If the agent sent the wrong part the first time, he gets marked on it. And you don't want to have us nice techs fired now do you?)

2. Don't bother asking for a Manager. They are as we say, non-technical. This what our managers do: Make sure we sign in, and sign out on time. Take care of our payroll. And make sure we take and return from our breaks on time. Period.

3. Kindness will get you somwhere. Cursing swearing and smide remarks will either get you hung up on, or on the techs bad side. And the release and mute buttons are literally "---" far apart. And no, I don't know why. I've hung up on people by accident more then once. >.<

4. If they tell you "I'm sorry you're in the wrong department." Ask them "Are you going to transfer me with that transfer software you have?" IF they say no, ask them for the direct number. If they say yes, you'll probably get over to the right department.

5. And last but not least: Remember that we have to read these scripts, it's not that we want to, or that we don't trust your judgement. It's a fact of keeping our jobs and feeding our family. Just like you people have to do.

Thank you for reading folks. I'm going to bed, as I got work tomorrow. Yup. You might be talking to me tomorrow if you got a broken Optiplex or Latitude. Here's hoping to a little more understanding.

Dell has gotten a lot of bad press regarding customer service. Now I know why.

In November 2006 I purchased a new system from the Dell Outlet. It was the XPS 410 with Windows XP Pro. According to Dell's FAQ, this is eligible for the Express Upgrade to Microsoft Vista. However, customer service says my system is NOT brand new and is instead refurbished. I'm sorry, but to me the system is brand new. I don't care whether it was scratched, or returned, or failed final testing and had to be patched. To me it is NEW.

The policy enforced by Customer Service is inconsistent with the FAQ below. I would think every high-end XPS system would be eligible. I guess not.

Here's the FAQ:

What do I need to be eligible for a Microsoft Windows Vista upgrade?
=====
- You must have purchased an eligible Windows Vista Capable1 or Windows Vista Premium Ready1 system with a licensed copy of Windows XP Home, Windows XP Home – Media Center Edition or Windows XP Professional no earlier than October 26, 2006 and no later than March 15, 2007.
- You must redeem your upgrade online no later than March 31, 2007.
- You must provide valid credit card information at the time of redemption for payment of the upgrade fee (as applicable) and associated shipping and handling charges.

What if I did not select the upgrade to Windows Vista™ at the time I purchased my system from Dell?
=====
If the qualifying system was purchased during the program eligibility window, (October 26, 2006 – March 15, 2007), that system is eligible for an Express Upgrade from Dell. Customers will not be allowed to redeem an upgrade after March 31, even if the system was purchased during the eligibility window.

I ordered a Dell laptop for my dad and it arrived with a monitor problem. You could turn it on, but the image displayed was just a jumbled mess. I called dell and someone explained that there was a problem with that monitor and they don't have a video driver for it yet. They would be releasing on in January (this was September). So I offered to purchase an upgraded monitor if they would send a tech out to exchange them. Seemed like a good solution. After all, they are the ones who had shipped me a computer with a KNOWN ISSUE. I was actually offering them an out, but they didn't like it. They transferred me to a guy who first would not verify what the previous rep had said was true, and then refused to send a different monitor than the one I originally purchased, even if I paid for it. They offered to send a tech out to exchange the monitor for the same one, but since it was a video driver problem, that wasn't going to do anything. He then suggested that I wait for the driver to be released…which would be in four months! I spent all afternoon on the phone with him, but he wouldn't budge. Basically that was their only solution, wait four months to be able to use a brand new computer. I finally told him he leaves me no choice but to send it back for a refund. I wish that was the first computer I bought from them, because I wouldn't have bought the one I have now if I had had that experience first. As it is, I had previously purchased an inspiron 5150, which I have since learned is a total dog, and the company has discontinued it. It has a graphics card that won't play multimedia without skipping and can't be upgraded because they put the cheapest possible motherboard in the thing that they could. I ended up with a very expensive laptop with lots of ram which I paid extra for, a hi-res monitor which I paid extra for and the top of the line cd/dvd read write drive which I paid extra for (which is toast after less than a year of minimal use) but it can't play movies or even you-tube without hanging up because the graphics card is crap and the mother board is too. So, the question is, why sell hardware for systems that are incapable of using it? The only motive can be to con people into buying (expensive) crap that will just have to be upgraded or tossed if they want to do the things they were lead to believe it would do in the first place. I honestly get the impression that my computer was put together from outdated crap they have jamming up their warehouses. They were successful in pawning off one such system on me. The second one I returned for a refund. Now I am suffering through my inspiron 5150 experience until I can again justify the expense of a new computer. Every time I use it I am reminded of how I was conned. My next computer with NOT be a dell. Never, Never again. Dell = Hell.

DELL REALLY SUCKS

i have a broen usb port and i have only had the laptop for 3 months (in the year warrenty still then) but, there isnt a warrenty because they only sort out software issues and stuff that doesnt fuckin go wrong with the damn things.

Did you take out accidental danage cover when you bought the laptop?? "as i got it for christmas as a present, i havent a clue"

total suggested cost for repair = £235 (for a new motherboard) NOT the repair of one usb port) they said the cheapest they can do it for was £195.. to be honest id probably do better takning that money and boyign a new fuckin laptop thats NOT dell manufactured. (because if you dont know, they suck)

I call up the head office which is literally just 5 mins down the road from me and i ask about the engineer that is in the ascot area tomorrow (the guy in india told me there was going to be one in the area) and they said they would put me through to technical support, i just said that wasnt what i was asking. (im assuming the engineers come from the base in bracknell because thats just roudn the corner from ascot) she kept repeting herself that she would put me through to tech support, and i said no i dont want that thankyou. She asked "did you want dell services" i said no obviouly not... and she said oh well you have the wrong number and hung up. Dell UK 01344 860456

Bitch.

I stumbled onto this board today after having a full blown hissy fit over my Inspiron 9300. About 2 weeks ago I turn it on and get the blue screen with the message of Unmovable Boot error. Everything from the diagnostics onboard said hard drive. I call out of warranty suppport as it is 18 months old. Paid $1200+ for it. The CSR in calcutta said they would send a box for $199 and it would show up bright, shiny, and working as they go all through it! She said to keep the hard drive, but I said that was indicated to be the problem as it won't start windows XP Media edition. I make sure she has my winter address in Florida. Fine, Box arrives the next day and off it goes to Memphis. I check order status a few days later and it says something about a power adapter shipped and lists my summer address in deserted Montana, the second package has an invalid DHL tracking number. I call support and they tell me that my laptop was repaired and was signed for by my receptionist. Dude, that was the empty box that came first. I am assured that the laptop will come to FL.

I get the power adapter delivered, didn't know I needed it. Today a week later I see a slip in the box that I am to return the old one. How was I to know....

I get a message on my machine that the motherboard is now bad and needs to be replaced for another $299 (total is now $498). How can it be a motherboard? Since I have $199 in I go for the $299 additional. That night it shows shipped, but it really was not for 5 more days as it was held for repair. I am going nuts hoping it does not go to the frozen wasteland up north..........

Finally today it comes!!! Yipee!!! I notice that it is my unit, with all the dust and spots it had, along with a big new dirty fingerprint on the screen. I plug in the battery, plug in the power adapter, push the power button and ta-daaaa THE SAME BLUE SCREEN!!!!! SAME BOOT ERROR!!!! I grab the phone and have a fit. He says oh you have a bad hard drive!! I said then why did they charge me $498 and not fix it?? Does everyone get charged for motherboard just to raise profits? It didn't even look like anyone had messed with it (I will put a piece of tape on the case next time to see if it was broken to get into the case)He said Oh, the repair people don't look at the hard drive or actually turn it on.... Then how do they know if it is working or not?? I have the same exact problem..... and out $498
He then says he will mail me a new hard drive. I said, and you expect ME to replace it? I paid you a small fortune to fix my laptop and now I have to do it and of course I have a piece of paper for an operating system as it does not come with the software. I had alot of programs installed when it arrived new and want it to be like it was. He insists that he will send disks and to call when they arrive.
Big question now, is is there any way to get back the data on the drive? I can only get the screen that is blue with the error and the one saying that windows was not shut down normally, but it will not boot from any of the ways it lists. I have no experience in trying to do this and really see not much online to try.
Sorry to vent, but I think if you charge almost $500 it should at least turn on to the windows welcome screen. Over the past 2 weeks I have spent hours on hold, on wait for chat and 14 emails getting the addresses on the invoices to list the Florida address (even when spelled out exactly with 3 lines of type they can't get it right and it is now a mash up of both addresses combined, how it made it here I will never know). I should have just sent it in to one of the places that list on ebay for service, it would have been less hair pulling.

First off, there are plenty of problems with Dell's tech support system. When you get to be such a huge entity, things aren't going to work correctly all the time. So, as a former Dell tech, here's some tips for people in the future.
#1. NO...and I repeat...NO technology is failproof. Dell uses the same parts as any other computer system. Dell is a brandname. Same as HP, Gateway, Alienware, etc. NO computer company makes all of their own parts. Therefore, just because a part fails, doesn't mean it is a Dell problem. Can be the exact same part failing in a HP computer. It just happens.
#2. The constant asking of information is for security and accessibility. Dell keeps a profile for every computer/electronics purchase. If we ask you for your e-mail, phone number, address etc. It is NOT because we are morons and "should have it". We are UPDATING your profile so that if you have to call back in, the next tech and access it faster. This is ALL connected to your TAG on your system. *Side note on the Tag...the first time you put it in, it routes you to the appropriate qeue for your system, according to warranty and tech knowledge. The second time you are asked for it is for the tech to look up your profile. Be patient, the info is there, we just have to get to it.
#3. Even if you have done the troubleshooting yourself and then called in, we are still required to run through it quickly to double check. Imagine how many Dell systems are out there, and how often Dell gets ripped off by people looking to score a brand new piece of equipment. We are just looking to make sure what is wrong is really the problem and the customer isn't looking to make a quick buck.

Now, to support you against Dell's support. :P
A lot of Dell tech's have been preprogrammed. The same training is given to all techs, and not all are going to be computer geniuses. If you are having trouble with a tech, politely ask to be put back into the qeue for another.

Another helpful tip. Dell's support is split now. If you would like to talk to more hekpful techs IN America, then opt to buy the upgraded support package "proudly" named Dell Gold Tech Support. Well worth the money for less wait time and smarter techs. Being a former GTS, I can proudly say that not one of the customers I have had call in left angry. Because we are usually faster than normal techs at solving problems, we can go the extra mile for callbacks to make sure the system we have helped fix or replace is working properly.

Buuuuuut...remember that even then, there will be better techs than others, even in GTS. If you feel your current tech can't help, ask for another, or his immediate supervisor. We WILL try to make you happy, it's not our goal to frustrate the hell out of you.

One last thing...when you call in frustrated, remember that the guy on the other end of the line is a human being too. We get calls ALL day hearing peoples problems. It's our job, it's what we do. If you put yourselves in your shoes, a simple "Thank You" goes a long way. Even if we didn't get your problem solved right away.

Hope I helped clear some of that up. :)

When you pay a couple thousand dollars for a product, you should not have to figure out how to work their tech support system or pay extra for what you used to get automatically 10 years ago, especially when said machine starts to fall apart in less than a year.

I just sent Dell a letter asking them not to send me any more advertisements. I won't be buying any more of their products until they improve their customer service. And, yes, that means hiring Americans or Canadians. Those people in India may be very nice, but they simply can't do the job. So, buh bye, Dell. And FYI, don't think that switching to HP/Compaq will be any better. Same crappy machines. Same crappy technical support.

Well...where should I start?

Lets see...in August of 2006 I purchased a dell Inspiron E1405 laptop, have had it for 8 months and I am already experiencing my second problem. First it was my left henge which became loose. I never dropped my laptop...I seriously take good care of it. Well I had to send it in and it took a freakin' month to get it back. While waiting, I practically angered myself since there was no laptop in my dorm. Well 3 months after January (when I recieved it fixed) the opposite henge became loose. I was raising hell on the phone just yesterday. You know...laptops are designed to have the screen adjusted to where you feel comfortable: designed to flip open and clos, but obviously these henges aren't strengthy enough.

So I called them and told them how I felt. Basically discussed that I wanted to return my laptop and take my business elsewhere, but they told me I had only the 21 days satisfaction period from when I recieved it to return it. Hey don't they guarantee great products yet it seems as if they don't trust in there own products...I mean come on....21 DAYS!!! If you really guarantee a awesome product that will satisfy customers give me a full month or two. (HUH!) Well me and the representative came to an agreement of sending me a new laptop.

ANd...

I hope this laptop will last me roughly a whole two years before I experience any problems. I have three years of college left!

Dell you need to recognize!!!

-Fern

I just had a wonderful experience with Dell in an online chat. Yes I have sat on hold for hours at a time trying to talk to someone I can't understand. The online chat with a "representative" took some time but the solved them problem with my notebook keyboard. Dell is by far the easiest support group to work with. Try getting something done with Apple or HP and you will know what I am talking about. As for the guy who doesn't want to pay the $10 fee online to pay his bill? You already pay 20% interest on your stuff because you are an idiot. You should have to pay a $20 online fee to pay your bills!!!!!

I just wanted to elaborate on comments by "Dell Outsourced Employee".
The scripted greeting. It definately sucks. It also changes all the time. (For my department it now stands at, "Thank you for calling Dell insert department here. How may I help you?" I don't know how many surveys it took to come down to this one but, fan-friggin-tastic. May we keep it please?
I'll ask your name and service tag. (I know it's a pain in the neck but that tag is how I'm going to look up the specs on YOUR computer. So unless you'd like me to pore over the records of every Tom Smith who owns or has owned a Dell, please just suck it up and make sure I have it correct the first time. And, yes, sometimes the information is right in front of me. I'll ask you to please verify some other bit of info and we're good to go. (try this at home: Read this and ask someone to write it down, "0nmm8hsx". And that's an easy one.) Here's an insider tip. Use the express service code. It's entirely numeric so less confusion. Even if you can't verify a single thing and you got the machine at a swap meet ten years ago I am still going to give you all the free phone tech support you can ever want. Yup. That's right. Don't let a tech tell you different. It is Dell policy to never refuse telephone support. (Waiting for the catch? There isn't one. Here's how a little knowledge about how your computer works comes in handy. We won't refuse support as long as it's "in scope". What that means is beyond the scope of this reply but is worth a page of its own. I warn you. After you're educated on the meaning of "scope of support" it won't make the reality suck any less. You'll just be more able to appreciate when it does.
Then I listen. (Stop laughing! I serioulsy do.) If I interrupt it's because I'm reading the case notes and realized you've called in 3 times today before you got transferred to me and you probably don't want to repeat everything yet again. But go ahead and have at me. I'd be pissed too if I were in your shoes. Which brings us to a big problem with technical support. The type of person you want diagnosing and fixing your complicated and very technical issue (geeky, brainy, good with computers.) does not, generally, have the greatest social skills. (sucks on the phone. Doesn't get asked out on a lot of dates. Empathy, compassion..um..what?) Every tech can't be a geek like me and be blessed with twelve(not a typo) sisters with all the natural compassion and phone talking ability that comes with growing up in that fresh hell. Alas! That is not what big corporation wants. Yes, I spend way too long on the phone but, heck, I figure I'm not only going to fix your issue but I'm going to spend at least equal the time you spent on hold checking your machine out for all the stuff that looks like it might be a problem in the future.
Troubleshooting. If you're at least a little bit savvy with your own machine please bear with me. The stupid nitpicky crap I have to check with you is only boring if none of it pans out. Don't take it as an insult to your intelligence. Everyone misses small stuff sometimes. There is not one smart guy you know that hasn't slapped himself in the forehead because the disk isn't in the drive, or there's a cable loose or the monitor is off...
Getting hung up on. It should never happen. It's my opinion that any agent who deliberately hangs up on a customer should be fired on the spot. That said if I have to disconnect you from the call for being abusive you'll have had plenty of warning before hand. (I've never had to do it yet.) If we accidentally get disconnected I'll try my best to call you back. Understand, though that I can't just pick up the phone and start dialing. I have to get a supervisor to approve the outbound call and place the call for me.(Yes folks that sucks!) So if they see lil ol me waving my hand in a sea of cubicles before you get mad and call back then lucky us.
Lastly, speaking as one who really does love what I do, I feel for you. If someone can tell me how to staff a room full of qualified, empathetic and motivated technical support phone gurus and turn a profit I'm all ears because for what they pay us it's amazing that anyone who doesn't absolutely love it stays. Computers are complicated. I'm amazed every day that Windows even works.

When it comes to tech support via IM, I wonder if Dell even has people on the other end of the line. After all, software exists to answer IM for you.

Have a look at this actual IM transcript of a Dell support session and see if you don't agree.

http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/26/another-reason-not-to-buy-dell-anymore/

Wow... sounds like my call today.. I talked to someone in Feb and didn't get the thing in the mail that they were going to replace..called again in april.. they needed to process some info so call in a while.. called back today and spoke with 5 people and ended up doing the same thing as last time and have to call back in five days. meanwhile they say my one year warranty is expired so I can't get a replacement anymore and it hasn't been a year since I purchased the laptop but their records indicate that I am wrong somehow?!?!!

As I write this I am on HOLD (ignore) to Dell about my 20GB MP3 player for the aw hell so many times I have forgotten, we have 6- dell computers and will replace with HP's and I will purchase an i-pod PLEASE<PLEASE if you are thinking about buying a dell product DON'T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My laptop recently had a stop error 00..0050, which turned out to be the result of my video card going sour. I had a lot of trouble getting proper help from dell support but having just had a positive experience I thought I should post.

Part 1: (the us) I bought the laptop in the states so I originally called the states to ask for help, as well as emailing the us email tech support people, as well as getting online and chatting with a representative.

My support email resulted in an automated response that misidentified my problem and began my long path towards wanting to strangle something/someone.

My online chat was the most frustrating of all. The support person could not understand what I was writing well enough to help. As well the support person didn't have enough experience/training/intelligence to help in any way, shape, or form in the original confirmation/identification of my problem. This person mostly seemed intent on telling me that since i had bought it in the us, and i was in taiwan, there was nothing to be done...

Of the three people I talked to on the phone, one was actually somewhat helpful. The other two seemed mostly interested in routing me to a different tech number to solve my problems or telling me that nothign could be done for my situation. (i'm in taiwan now and they don't service in taiwan, since I bought in us, or so they claimed) The one helpful person mostly just told me that i could A: bring the laptop to the states and they'd fix it (or mail it to a friend in the states) and thus access my states warranty, or B: I could purchase an international warranty. But in the end the main advice was to contact the taiwan dell support folks...

Part 2: (Taiwan & India?) I ended up calling 5 different numbers in total, which spawned off from the original taiwan number given to me by the us tech folks. Each time i talked to someone they would tell me i had the wrong number (in understandably bad english). The 5th number had me on hold for over an hour, which i gave up and hung up on... given that the hold voice sounded suspiciously british accent (aka india support?) and i can only imagine they would laugh at me and redirect me to taiwan.

After the interminable hold, having gotten no new number to follow, i tried the 2nd number i received again and lo and behold i got someone who actually knew what i should be doing and how to help me.

It mostly seems like the vast majority of the support folks simply didn't know A: anything about computer hardware and/or my problem, and B: what they should be telling me to get help. A serious lack of knowledge. I just so happened, seemingly, to run into a tech support person who knew what to do. It feels like i won at bingo!

What can i take from this other than that dell support folks need to be better trained 100x over. I suppose one can also learn, try try and try again, maybe some day you'll get a smarter and better trained suppport person.

Dell's customer support has definitely had problems in the past. However, Dell has taken huge steps to improve this situation. I'm sitting here in Phoenix, AZ waiting for a call from a Dell customer to come in right now. Call me brainwashed if you want but I'm proud of what I do. I think that Dell has some great policies to ensure customer happiness and provides some awesome tools through support.dell.com. The problem is that there are too many people to support and managing the amount of people needed to support them is a nearly impossible task to do well. I can tell you this though, all warrantied support for Dell's latest and most popular line (XPS) is handled right here in the US by a whole heck of a lot of well trained, very geeky guys. Don't quote me on that. You may start off elsewhere but you should be able to get one of us without too much difficulty. The hold time has been about a minute or 2 lately. Most of us are sitting around waiting for calls. This service isn't the gold standard, it's just the standard warrantied service. Also, someone mentioned that Dell has lifetime support policy and will help you no matter what. This has changed but a lot of older computers may still have that. You can find out for sure at support.dell.com. Anywho, nobody has good customer service anymore. But Dell has picked up a lot in that field.

Hello,

If all you guys are sick of horriable technical support from all the computer makers in general, check out Aquabox PC, Inc. We're a small PC company that builds and supports its computers out of Orange County, Calif.

www.aquaboxpc.com
or
1.877.AQUA.808

Howdy,

I have been Dell’s victim for the last 10 to 12 years. Trusting their bait and switch and other deceptive marketing, I invested in their products and once invested, I have had no choice but to endure their routine practice of evasion, fraud, deception (lying), broken promises and abuse for many years.

On many occasions, whenever I have tried to extricate myself, they called and promised to make amends, repair their defective products, provide tech support to help me deal with their mistakes and failures and I trusted them.

Later, when time came for them to deliver, it was always the same old run around and deceit.

If Dell was an Airline company, they would have killed hundreds of thousands of people by now!

I would like to be part of any and all action taken against this unscrupulous, greedy, vicious, predatory, criminal company.

Can you offer any advice and information?

Dell printers are the worst. During 1-1/2 years under my extended warranty, I have had to return 3 All-in-One Printer 962. Upon needing to return the third, they told me it was discontinued and I would receive an "upgrade," which proved to be the #946 which was smaller, slower, and cost me $200.00 to install with my wireless set up. Only after using it, did I notice -- this CAN'T be the upgrade, because it is so slow and horrible. Dell then admitted it had made a mistake and sent me the WRONG upgrade. Then ensued a catastrophe as they failed to help me on every score. THIS IS A TRULY SICK COMPANY. I feel absolutely cheated, harassed, imposed upon --- both in time, energy, money, inconvenience. I WILL NEVER BUY ANY DELL PRODUCT AGAIN. This has been the worst product I have ever purchased, and Dell has been the WORST company to deal with. There should be some LAW that protect consumers from such abuse from a supplier.

I bought a dell computer well over 2 months ago. 2-3 days into the order process I found out how long it was going to take for me to get my order, so I canceled it. It has been over 2 months and they have still not given me my refund.

The first month I called every week, and each rep insured me that they were mailing me a cheque with my refund. A little bit into the second month I kept calling saying I had not gotten a cheque, and they told me that they do not send cheques as a form of refunds, and that i have to call my bank and they will request a withdrawl from Dell. Now they said it will take ANOTHER month to get my money. How much do you want to bet that they are SITLL bullshitting me? Last time i ever deal with dell. terrible customer service.

Now i know why everyone tells me to buy from HP & Lenovo. Fuck you Dell. I want my money. I'm a 16 year old kid, and you've taken my $1000 for the past 2 months. fuck you. fuck you.

I need serious help. I bought a Dell Inspiron 5150 back nearly 2 months ago now and have yet to get a working machine. From the very beginning I've had serious issues with it and have been making phone calls and sending emails and am getting absolutely nowhere and so frustrated that I just want to return this computer and buy one from HP. I can't take this aggrivation anymore and have lost around 20 customers and roughly $45,000 in annual business since these problems began. I can't take it anymore and have got to have resolution immediately or I might as well shut my doors for good. If I lose anymore customers I'm out of business.

The details:
William J Lockard

Order Date 4-2-2007
Customer Number - 81764374

Order Number - 598324609 & 598325952
Financed and ordered on a Dell Preferred Account

Tag No GDXNRC1

First Case number - 161196050
Second Case number - 161197106
Third Case number - 162380539
Chat Session Log - 11177307
Fourth Case Number - 164541727

Yet another email sent 5-30-07 - Was told the problem was escalated to the REC in Texas. Adam UID: 141169 Case: 164541727.

Activities with Tech Support:
Uninstalled McAfee
Reinstalled Vista (was not told I'd lose all installed programs btw)
Ran full diagnosis 7 times with both US and UK tech support

I have various other emails and contacts but the meat of the story is below:

First I find this on the thisistrue.com/dellhell.html site:

"After reading this page a Dell employee (and long time True reader) passed along some helpful advice, responding to my note that I bought the Inspiron 5150 when it was quite new, and that it was discontinued very shortly after. She wrote: "It's been my experience that our systems are either so solid they are still working years after their warranty, or are so bad they disappear quickly. It occurred to me that you might be a good person to pass on a tip that was given to me by a veteran tech at Dell: Never buy a product when it first comes out. Wait a month, then check the Dell Outlet. If you see too many of them available, the system is not a bargain at any price." Good advice."
So problem 1 is that they first sell me a system with KNOWN ISSUES!!!

I also find another site that repeats over and over that the 5150/vista/mcafee combination DOESN'T WORK! Nobody at Dell told me this and I'm SURE they knew.

Finally escalated to customer support after Tech Support gave up. Ms Vinishaa Parthipan promised to email me to get an address to which she'd be sending the new system. This was Thursday May 31. By noon the next day, I'd still not heard from her. Tried to call customer support and was told I was absolutely not allowed to speak to a customer support manager by some rude switchboard employee. Explained to him how upset I was and how his behavior was making the situation much worse. He replied, "I really don't care. You're not going to speak to a customer service manager. You can speak to Tech support." I explained to him that i'd already spoken to tech support a dozen times and they could no longer help me. Their words. Not mine. And they'd transferred me to customer service. I finally got Tony's supervisor on the phone who said he'd transfer me since I'd already spoken to them once. Then I got disconnected.

Finally contacted by Vinishaa Parthipan Customer Relations UKIRE late on the 1st and asked for an address for a new system to be sent to. I emailed back immediately asking for an estimated delivery date.

I was told that it'd be 10-15 working days before I could get a new system with XP instead of Vista. Informed her that I was losing business daily and really needed it sooner. She committed to 7-8 working days and would confirm a delivery date soon. On the following Monday, she'd still not put the order in and said she'd get to it on Tuesday. As of today (6-13-07) I've not received the PC or even a delivery date. Ms Parthipan has no business in customer service and in my opinion should be fired. She's ignored every email I've sent in days. Has NOT followed through on her promises. Has not delivered what she said she would and I'm convinced she didn't even put through the order like she said. I informed her that I approve the purchase orders for the World's 3rd largest engineering firm computers and up until this point all of them were purchased through Dell. I've now cancelled many of them and directed them to be purchased through HP. She apparently didn't care that her attitude and rudeness is losing business now for Dell like Dell has for me. I've lost over 20 customers for my photography/graphics business because I couldn't deliver on my contracts without a working machine. I can't take this anymore. All I wanted was a working machine. She promised to get me the same laptop with Windows XP instead of Vista. All I asked was to get it in a timely manner. I've done everything I was asked to do and am now being ignored and I don't understand. This was the 2nd machine I'd bought from dell and after this will probably be the last for me and for the corporation I work for.

I will also be posting this to several blogs and to my website along with the companies intranet and a global email throughout the companies 35,000 or so employees if this isn't resolved within the next 48 hours. I've been poorly treated, lied to, jerked around, hung up on and am thoroughly disgusted by this entire experience. I literally cannot take anymore. I was even getting late charges because I'd financed through Dell and hadn't made a payment yet because I didn't have a working machine. Fortunately they were the one group willing to work with me and understand. Please ya'll I need help. I just want this resolved one way or the other and it MUST be resolved immediately or I'm finished. This business was to be my retirement and if I lose the customers I have left...well I'll have no choice but to join the NY State Attorney General because it's all I have left. Don't let them ruin my business and DUDE DON'T GET A DELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I purchased my 3rd Dell Desktop at the end of last year and it was not up to par of what I wanted. I asked for them to put in a wireless card and it came without it. They sent me a wireless card and by hand I installed it with customer support but the sound was messed up. I had asked for a different sound card.
I wound up returning the entire computer, CPU, monitor and of course left the wireless card inside but did return the box it came it.
I returned it ALL.
I kept getting bills for it..
I keep getting bills for it..
Now my bill is a negative -$5.37 and please pay 15.00....
I had spent over 20 hours on the phone with them.
To my horror I just found out that until the credit was applied they put me into COLLECTION, and now in 30 days it will come off.
I WANT TO SUE THEM FOR DOING THIS TO ME..
THEY MESSED UP..
THEY PUT MY CREDIT ON THE LINE..
WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?

Calling tech support always sucks. I have a dell desktop with a hosed media reader card. I've been putting off calling them because I don't want to deal with someone from india reading from a script.

OK, let me start by saying that I work for Dell. It's a wonderful company to work for, and the products that are coming out now are amazing. The customer service sucks ass. I work in a department that we can do almost anything to fix the customers PC, except dispatch parts. I had an issue with my notebook PC, before I started working for Dell. The issue was that the DVD drive was jumping. so i call in, and after 10 minutes, the tech tells me that we have to reinstall the operating system. I tell him that is an unacceptable solution, so i hang up and figure it out myself. turned out the drive was reading in PIO mode.

that's issue number one. issue number two was a short time ago, when i wished to purchase a monitor (2407WFP) with my employee discount (which in Canada still amounts to more that the MSRP of the same monitor in the US), and was getting messed around by the online order system, saying that i wasn't a recognized customer, whatever that means. I called in to find out what i could do, was transferred to deparment that wanted to process the order for me, but only use a fraction of my discount. I told him that he wasn't listening, and I wanted to order the monitor online, using my full discount. He transferred me to a department that "might be able to help me". I get through to someone else, who takes all my information, proceeds with the order, asks for the coupon ID, and tells me he can't help me because I'm a Dell employee, he transfers me to the switchboard, who transfer me right back to the same department. I hung up at that time, because I had bee on hold for more than an hour cumulatively, and transferred a total of 6 times.

I never ordered the monitor. it's just not worth the hassle.

Well, I'm a first time Dell owner and not tech savvy. My monitor is distorting all of the images (text is fine). I've gone through all the procedures in the manual, the auto-adjust, and the website FAQs to no avail. So I emailed the problem to tech support.

I got a very prompt response -- telling me how to fix my blank screen. :-)

What do you think about having a faulty Dell adapter for a notebook and having to send the adapter with the nokebook to the warranty?
This happens in Romania.

I have a dell dimension 5150. It has taken to a "Sonic Update Manager" program on start-up. It flashes through a series of panels finally requiring the insertion of a mysterious disc. Eliminating it required 17 to 20 clicks on cancel and X's. I took to nerver turning the machine off, using standby to by-pass the problem. Unfortunately it figured my tactic out and it now comes up following standby, and has become unremovable. It's always running as a window on the desk top. Anybody know a good tech who takes plastic to consult. I don't want to go to India.

After nearly 2 years, this post is still being commented on! Kinda says something about the state of technical support these days. I work in the I.T. dept. of a large organization and I have to agree that their business support is not bad. As for consumer support? Well, I don't have any Dells at home ;-)

By the way, here is a funny clip on outsourced support from a Conan Obrien Show:
http://www.noob.us/humor/conan-obrien-nbc-tech-support-in-india/

I've been fighting a losing battle with Dell since March when I purchaed a new computer which never wowkred properly. Finally after almost 20 hrs (documented) on the phone with Tech Support in India and encountering all the problems you all describe I was told that "something is wrong with Vista". They sent a disc to install XP which didn't work. I was then told by "Delia Baptista" that I could return the whole system for a full refund - she would arrange for it to be picked up. Bottom line? She's not returning my calls and I'm stuck with a system that doesn't work properly. Any suggestions?

hi... iam a hell's oh sorry is that dell employee.. well... lemme tell all the thing that are F***ed up in dell... POLICIES... dell is so much tangled into policies that it forgets customer service.. i have worked with dell's rival company and belive me things are much better there...but i wont recommend any od them..got fopr customization buit ur own pc..get them built you wont loose belive me iam a hardcore tch.. been into this since 5 yrs.. been a programmer a low time hacker(left it now) NOW what happenes in dell is not a fault of any tech it's all about numbers and policies... you get numbers and you get scores customer service is laid in S**t.. in fact tech are not judged by the survey that you guys fill..... anyway if you need any help or any info or need to know ways to get your issues refunds or compenstaion out of dell lemme know i'll tell you the ways... my id is jason_hitme@rediffmail.com and yes iam an indian any problems? if yes then F**k OFF othervice cool... iam a human and i dont feel good when a eldery women cries on phone that she cant send christmas greetings to her childers grand childrens cause nobody would help her.. when a lonely guy has to live with his cats while he can be chatting with prioess leya for godsake and get some love....thanks

Just curious: Does Dell ever call back?

guys he is right, its not about the product being defective or you getting a lemon..... its about the attitute..., a couple of mnths back i was working wid dell tech support for portables, i work'd over there for 3yrs & have a pretty good idea of the business at DELL..., not being defensive towards my ex-employer but tell you what....you guys are lucky to have this kinda service..., all you tech-savy geeks talking about switching to HP, IBM & all dat cr@p...., temme about a single computer H/W manufacturer who will support a customer configure his outlook settings on a dell system dat is 7 yrs old, warranty on the same being expired 6yrs back......grow-up you morons and stop cribbing about things.,coz for evry hundred computers sold....only 2 morons like you call back for issues.....and most of issue being irrelevant to dell.., i mean c'mon you people....how the heck on earth can you think of demanding (i repeat, not expecting but demanding) support from dell for you forgettng your windows password, wireless network key.., and help configuring firewall settings of mcafee as its conflicting wid your internet traffic..... i mean c'mon, add some sense to what you expect from a H/W manufacturer.....if any of you "POSH" people happen to be a canadian then i guess you really owe Dell tech suuport coz you get support for your cr@ppy s/w issues aswell.... you dun wanna contact ISP for your internet issues...(be it even wireless), coz you know they are more than glad to dump you.., well i heard someone talking about INDIAN tech support, how good and efficient is the tech support of your own origin is somethng i have vitnessed and experienced.., evrytime we read a case-log posted by a tech in AMERICA's region....damn we just have a hearty laugh at the foolishness of techs over there.., the language used in a ethical documentation of a customers data... most importantly we laugh at the poor techincal knowledge of the techs out there....lol....
tell you wat, a 7th grade student in india can be a better tech, compared to the tech support run by you guyz......(may be you elementry school guys need more on this)
we certainly are stealing your jobs and reason is simple..... you guyz aint efficient enough for the jobs man....! in short "YOU ARE NOT WORTH IT"
now talking about the class of your customers seeking tech-support...evrytime you guys come-up wid a funny issue....evryone over here...we just put you wierdo's on mute and laugh our brains at you WHITE FOOLS.., well pardon my language but i guess you guyz dun deserve an apology..lol,
now comming to someone over there talking about accent and whateva..., 40% of you guys dun even know to speak english man, and trust me those spanish and french people are more gentle and humble wid no ego.... you guyz need to learn basics of being civilised.... once again i agree wid the previous guy... be human dude...!
for the lady over there who claims to be a dell employee... gurl you dun term it as jumping (and i wonder who recruited you for tech support), its a very very basic t/s done to convert optical drive output from PIO to DMA, secondly am pretty sure that the person who suggested you a OS reinstallation should be one located in your neighbourhood...lol, well nothing suprising lady, i have loads of such instances of technical blunders dun by you guys....again, remember i talk wid data....!
And for the rest of the morons over there........ am pretty sure that you guys have one of the most low-end systems..., you dun wanna pay more for better performing system and hence you turn to dell for its attractive prices but dun really look upon what your needs from PC/portable are...?
i mean how cud you expect a low end portable like DIM 30000 wid integrated video and 512MB ram to support your games like world of warcraft.., get a life dude.., when you expect somthng good...... pay accordingly,
For the gentleman over there who doesnt wish to call tech support as it might get routed to INDIA.... tell you wat...you guys will go crippled the day we asians stop working for you...,
why caliberate indians in other fields..... talk about tech stuff...evry god damn manufacturer be DELL, HP, IBM or even APPLE have 90% or thier H/W components manufactured/assembled in asia..... imagine a day when you dun get what you want... appreciate the service what you getting dude,
guess you had enough wid indian tech support, may be now you need to experience an indian punch on you white face giving you a black-eye for the rest of ya life.....

I used to work for Dells Technical support and I will shed some light on the Tech Support issues. Fist off, Dell is the worst company to work for. Second, they are the worst company to buy from. Now with that being said, when tech support asks you for info that they should have, its to make sure they are truely talking to the owner and not some homeless guy that stole it and got the number. Long wait times, no shit. So calls that I got where 3 hour calls that was something simple like plugging it in to a wall outlet (no lie!). If you think the tech support screws the customer over on the phone, let me tell you how they treat their employees. First off I was fired while on Medical Leave of Absence. Had 5 days left on my short term disability when I was "let go." Now let me know if I am wrong but if you are covered under a short term medical leave of absence then you should be able to have a job when you get back from it right? Not in Dell's eyes. "Oh jeez, it is showing here that you have not been to work in a month, so we are going to fire you." Anyone else see the bull shit here? Then on top of that, I never received a letter telling me the reason i was terminated. Instead I got a letter telling me my benefits now that i was no long working for dell. Thats nice, thanks for the months of hard work and your going to stick it to me like we used to stick it to the customer, nice job, should have known. So know I have to call into HR to find out why I was fired, and this is the answer I receive, "I am sorry, but it shows you are no long employed with Dell. So I will not be able to give you any info about why you were fired. Click." Real fucking nice huh? So if you get an itch that needs to be scratched about buying a computer, do me and all of Dell a favor, build your own, you get a better warrenty(?) and you dont have to go through the bull shit of getting parts replaced. "Oh your motherboard erupted into flames, dont worry we will send you another one." I still dont know how Mick Dell could ever let stuff like the above mentioned things happen at his company.

Dell Support does suck ass. I am having a problem with the very same monitor. Mine actually worked fine for 2 years and then suddenly stopped working on the DVI port. I spent several hours swapping components with two PC's and Two vid cards to isolate the issue to the monitor or DVI cable. Finally I called DELL and after going through all of the annoying automated questions, finally got someone in India who had me retry many tests I had already done and then some. On the phone 2 hours. They decide to send me a replacement DVI cable. I wait a few days. Replacement cable comes, same problem. I try more tests at home to make sure I have really done all the possible scenarios.

I call them again, go through the annoying automated messages, finally get someone. After another 1.5 hours on the phone they decide to send me a replacement monitor which comes in a few days. Its a refurbished model. It has the same problem. I think, hmm, maybe its not the monitor. I go buy another vid card just to make sure. The new vid card has same problem to both monitors using two different PC's.

I call them again. This time they dont know what to say. They think I'm full of it. They finally agree to send me another monitor. I wait a week and a half, nothing comes. I call them again. This time I'm connected to El Salvador. They run me through a bunch of questions and tests I have already done. The people on the phone have to repeatedly put me on hold to go talk to their supervisor. 5 minutes each time. I'm on hold now in fact. I've been on the phone with them for 45 minutes so far this time.

Its obvious that their tech support folks are not qualified to intutiviely debug these problems. They are cheap labor, given a list of questions to ask and hopefully resolve the typical problems. When they hit a scenario that their list does not handle they don't know what to do. I've wasted something like 10 hours by now trying to debug this problem or sit on the phone with them. Why can't they just give ma a local service center to bring the monitor for diagnosis and fixing it? i have asked for this 4 times today. No response to that question.

There is no question, DELL support sucks wads. Otherwise this has been a fabulous monitor up until now, but don't expect them to follow up well on the warranty or save you any time.

its a far cry from how they started. I remember I bought a PC for my parents about 10 years ago through Dell. They had some issue. They called Dell and 2 days later there was a new replacement computer on their doorstep. Totally great support, no hassle. My experience now has been nothing but a huge hassle.

iam workin with dell.. lemme know ur issues i'll help u unofficially geeting them resolved... yeah dell sucks..its the scorecard and stupid policies

Dell support in Spain is really really really shit ... I ordered a new desktop a few weeks ago, it left Ireland well over a week ago, and arrived in Spain just over a week ago, and it still has not been delivered .. even though I live just over 100 KM from the warehouse. Apparently, they have "lost" one of my packages in transit, but they couldn't tell me what was in the box, when I am going to receive what I ordered (not a few days overdue), or what the hell is going on.

Dell's cutomer service really sucks in Spain, and I don't underdstand why their staff have problems speaking Spanish, never mind English.

Boy, Amen to this. Actually, I think it is part of a new scam. Now that Dell and others can not longer count on rebates to screw people, they have set up barriers in foreign countries to maintain revenues since YOU CANT SEND THE FUCKING THING BACK TO "Don Johnson" IN PAKISTAN. My computer has not worked since I got it. I called customer support and I told then my order number a few times and they acted like they couldn't understand me. However, there is no way he could NOT understand me. It was completely crazy. So, I decided not to pay the bill and now they are calling me and giving me a hard time. I told them I was not intersted in paying for a product that didn't work. He told me that until I pay, I would not receive technical support. He kept saying "Lady..." Which just really pissed me off. Then he told me I could pay right now through my checking account and get transferred to technical support...but it would cost me $13. So, I hung up and said forget it. So, basically, I can't get support to fix my product until I pay for it, but it is broken so I don't want to pay for it. I just feel completely stupid for buying the thing in the first place. I am going to go get a new HP.

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FIRST I THINK YOU ARE A LOW LIFE THAT USE FOUL LANGUAGE
I HAVE DELL COMPUTER LOVE AT NO PROBLEM NEVER . YOU HAVE PROBLEM MR ASSHOLE USE YOUR BRAIN . PLEASE DONT USE FOUL LANGUAGE .WHEN SOME ONE CRITICIZE USA THE AMRICAN TELLING YOU TO LEAVE . DONT LIKE AT USE OTHER COMPUTER
BY THE WAY MICROSOFT FRONT PAGE INDIA TECH SUPPORT VERY GOOD LIVE THEM

Have any of you had an Inspiron 8500 blow an LCD and battery charger at the same time? We figure it may've been a surge. But we've replaced the LCD 3 times and it quit again after 2.5 months, so we're wondering if there is something internal that is blowing out the LCD when we turn it on. Thanks.

I ordered a fan for my dell laptop and have been getting the runaround from dell customer care and also the corporate headquaters. I ordered this part on Aug 27 and for some reason my order was cancelled. I was assured that the part was going to be sent again and on Sept 16 I called them back only to get more bullshit from the care assholes. I have never had such bad service in my life for anything. All I wanted was a $14 fan and now it is Sept 17 and they can not tell me when the part will be shipped. I am going to buy an HP and write letters about this bullshit service anywhere possible. dell SUCKS BAD! DONT BUY IT!

Dell sux and sux and sux. I have spent the last month trying to get a refund on a hard drive they charged me for and then never delivered. They keep telling me the refund is being processed and will be in my account in 2-3 working days and that they can't be more exact because of their finance department!

I got a number for the finance department who before I could launch into what I wanted with the relevant reference numbers given to me put me back to customer care!

I've now been on hold for 24minutes (this call). Why can't they just sort themselves out! My cheap harddrive is no longer so cheap when you consider my time on top of all this!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH *££"?)(£*

I purchased a new desktop dell Inspiron 531S in August. It only took 4 days to deliver, but it kept freezing up when left on for a couples hours and had to power down and reboot to get it to work. Finally after a dozen calls and many hours on the phone, doing everything from a restore system (which it failed to do), a dell connect, and a complete reformating, it still failed to work properly. Finally dell replaced the PC, which took approx 14 days to receive it once the replacement had been approved. The replacement dell Inispiron 531S with Vista Windows Basic has the same problems as the firt one.... It freezes up. Been on the phone yesterday and today doing dell connect and it has not solved the problem.........It appears that Dell does not check out their PC's before shipping them.

Laptop from dell was making a high pitch buzzing sound which was extremely annoying.
So I called dell for return, went through the annoying IVS then was put on hold for 23min. Not exaggerating. Horrible.

Not to mention the guy who picked up told me he cant help, and I needed to call different department.
I don't know how you can stay on the line for that long.

You've already got plenty of Dell CS horror stories on this blog, so I won't burden you with mine (which mirrors Jeremy's and many others already posted.

My question is, which corporate vendor--Toshiba, Hitachi, Sony, et al--is currently providing adequate customer and tech support? Another poster has already bad-mouthed Apple and HP, while touting his own small enterprise (which would entail nightmarish communications and logistics, for those not in his locale). Please help! My four-year-old top-of-the-line Dell laptop is running on borrowed time.

Hi American Idiots,
First of all understand this, Dell is a multimillon dollar company & Mr Michael Dell started off from the scratch. If all you assholes thinks he's rich so u can take away money from him/the company. just realize that he's not running a charity. its a damn multimillion dollar bussiness & the bloody american government is in his pockets better bussiness beareu throws away the cases aways or probably into trash & this is a true incident that happend. so guys realize and then demand!!
regards,
looser!

"looser" - You have our sympathy; you must be working in Dell's Sales Department. BTW, great handle, and very apropos, but it's spelled "loser", not "looser".

reading many of your comments , i would also like to share something .
I am working with dell for technical support over phone , and yes i agree that it is frustrating when you have some issues and we guys are putting you on long holds . And there are so many people who are frustrated with the policies of dell. BUT these policies are planned for your security and satisfaction . many of you are told that this is wrong que and i have to transfer the call and so on ....

WHY DOES THIS HAPPENS ?

when you dial number for DELL TECHNICAL SUPPORT
it ask for system service tag or express service code ..
these two thing are identification for your system... which include
1. which system
2. type of system
3. contracts
4. from where you have bought your system
5. what is on the system
6. address
7. and also have records for your issues

SO when ivr ask for service tag . it is entered incorrectly which gives wrong identity to machine and hence your call is routed to wrong department who dont have access to your records , which is for your security , therefore to help you better the call has to be transfered to right place ..

AND VERIFYING SHIPPING ADDRESS ....
yes we have all the records but still we ask for it just to confirm ... which is for your security reason..
IN THIS TIME " POLIES , RULES , PROCEDURE "
BUT BUT BUT ... THEY ARE MADE TO HELP YOU BETTER

...

ONE MAJOR QUESTION
some of our customer says " I HAVE PAID FOR SERVICE , WHY SHOULD I PERFORM THE STEPS YOU ARE GUIDING ME , SEND SOME TECHNICIAN TO GET THAT THING FIXED"

that is correct that you have spent a good amount of money for this ...

BUT for your information you have HARDWARE WARRANTY AND THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE PAID FOR ...
so just co-operate performing some troubleshooting steps before you get to a solution .,,,,now question is why ??
BECAUSE if we dont do this we never going to find out what problem was..and in case of replacements , what if we replace your part but the problem is still there? make sense?

i have answered some questions but not the all . however if you have any concerns , feel free to mail me at bpsk11@yahoo.com
your comments are really appreciated

regards
BHUPINDER

Hi,

Went through a couple of blogs here the I have friends working in the Dell Tech support..
The reason behind customers facing a hard time is firstly,suppose dell gives out 100 laptops 20 of them have bad hardware...(cost cutting) and these machines run up to blue screen as soon as the user turns on the laptop...secondly the call pressure and ridiculos parameters are always high...and thirdly most importantly the quality of labour in the call centers is soooooo bad they are undergraduates mostly and others are the worst of the bunch who are big zeroes in life...could not get a better job hence got through a call center...

You guys whine way too much. Original poster says he's got an employee discount to buy a flat screen monitor. Multiple people have said it, you get what you paid for. Dell is probably the only company out there that sells systems at a very very very afforable price. It has to lack somewhere to provide such cheap prices. I don't believe tech support lacks that either but many of you seem to disagree.

The reason why they ask for the PPID code on the monitor is to check wheather the monitor was in a recall program. If it is, they have to follow a different procedure. They ask for shipping information again because people move. Would you like to take 1 min out of your life to verify the the shipping information or would you like to wait a week to find out it has been shipped out elsewhere. You may not have moved, but people do. So they ask to verify. If the agent doesn't ask you, the dispatcher pushes it back, saying the shipping address has not been verified even if the address is correct.

I am not sure I should bore everyone with case details, but seems dell hell is pretty hard to get out of. I wish some customer care organization would look into dell’s malpractices and sue them.

I had ordered a computer from dell on july 3rd this year and opened a Dell preferred acc with dell finacial services. However I had cancelled the same account the same day and provided an alternate means of payment.

Dell screwed up big time and shipped the computer 90 days late and charged the cancelled Dell Preferred account and not my alternate means of payment.

I have meticulous record of the case through case numbers and email records and employee id. I have called dell and DFS numerous times.

They understand and acknowledge the issue but say they can not resolve it. They keep referrering me back and forth between Dell Financial service and dell customer care.

They even took my credit card number on 3 different occasion to charge it instead.They however failed to charge it and are now threatening me ruining my credit hostory.

Does any one know any consumer organizations who can look into this and provide some legal help

Michael Dell this is a snapshot of your crappy management skills and your crappy organization

I am writing to keep the general public updated how bad it is doing buisness with Dell.

My only request to people is: DONT BUY DELL. DELL HELL IS THE SCARIEST HELL.

Here is my story in case anyone cares. I have been arm twisted into paying dell financial service money that I never owed them And that is today November 10 2007. Fresh of the mint, eh!!!

My case goes like this.

I ordered a machine on july 3rd 2007 and opened a DPA with dell financial services.

I had cancelled the DPA because of high interest rates and authorized payment on my personal credit card.On the same day as the account was opened.

Not only did the computer not ship , it took 90 days. Dell promised me bunch of discounts if I hang in on there. Which unfortunately I did.

At present I have the sucky machine, they never gave me the credit they promised. And instead of charging my person CC they ended up charging the DPA account. I am harassed daily by collections department even as I have tickets open with DFS and with DELL.

I have read similar stories from other people, I didnt believe them. Now I DO!!!

My plea to general p[ublic, DONT BUY DELL. GO WITH HP, IBM or others.

I used to be a big customer, ordering numerous hi end machines for my company.

NOW I KNOW BETTER. I WILL MAKE SURE I NEVER GET ANOTHER DELL FOR MY WORK PLACE. IN FACT WE JUST SWITCHED LAST WEEK TO IBM FOR ALL COMPANY NEEDS.

Apparently I am either extremely lucky or things are not all that bad with Dell and their Tech Service.

Folks always are fast to complain but hardly ever offer up the opposite..things which solved any problelm to complete satisfication of both parties.

I hate to screw things up re this site regarding all the complaints against Dell, however I have purchased since the early 90's three Dells for myself and two more one each for my son and one for my Daughter. I now have an XPS Gen 4 used since Dec 2004 and plan to buy the new XPS 420 in the near future...Why?...because of all the fine service I have had from Dell so far.
OK I have had problems but tech service has been nothng but outstanding in solving any problem,. Replace hard drive, replace motherboards, relace mouse, replace CD-RW.
I know this sounds like a ot of repalir but in some five computers over some 15 years it really isn't too strange.

I trust with my next Dell computer I will have the same success we have had with the last five computers.

Now flame if you will

TO ISIS-SETUP
i am an undergraduate ,working with dell ..you mean undergraduates cannot do it ...dude have one-on-one technical test with me and lets see who wins
mail me bpsk11@yahoo.com

I have nothing but praise for dell and their customer support. Five systems in 9 years and they all still work great. Now Norton Symantic on the other hand...beware. I've switched all to McAfee.

Will,I have tried 'em all and finally wound up now with Kaspersky.

I was a consultant for DELL designing contact center upgrades for them. One of the projects DELL had me do was a customer avoidance program in which a customer who purchased a cheaper system would be held in the IVR (thats the automated voice systems) for 7-12 minutes before being sent to an agent. DELL's recent policy was to create customer abandons and thus less calls per hour.

There are a few levels of customer service. Those who buy an XPS or any other higher end system will not be sent to an Indian call center but a Round Rock Agent. Most (not all) centers in India are in fact outsourced to non-DELL companies under contract. Dell now sees the error of this but its a bit too late.

Everyone in this business (Call Center and Telephony) knows the issues with Bangalore, India. Most Americans do indeed have a problem with their accents and they do NOT!!! follow the same scripts as user "INDIA" states in this BLOG. Calls are paid by volume taken and its very possible to get cut off or not get the assistance you desire.

I don't own a DELL for these reasons and if you are thinking about a new system...buy APPLE. Apple operates one of the best call centers, the OS and the system are from the same company and you will get positive level of service. No matter what people think....get a service contract and know what you are buying when you purchase one. ASK.."will if get a USA agent?" How long is the turn around for repair?.

D.

I was listening to NPR - some computer program - and they mentioned that a blogger had been unhappy with Dell Tech Support and that it caused Dell all sorts of headaches.
Good.
I Googled Dell Tech Support and - this was #2 on Google.
Good.
They have managed to totally tick me off for all the same reasons, plus a few more, and I will be notifying them (now that I've thought about it), how incredibly bad they are at keeping customers and will be telling them to bribe the hell out of me to not be unhappy anymore...
If that works, I'll note it here!

Tech serivce... I had my fair share of those , 4 times with gateway (shitty ass lemon product, no lemon replacement, do not buy from them...ever!), and 1 with apple. They are the most inexperience, techno unsauvy tech "supoop" people I've ever encountered. Seems that Apple is going down the same ally as dell or gateway....My only advise is..... DIY build your own , at least you will have to deal with the problems with the manufacturers, PC makers like gateway only honors the 1st year and trick you to buy the extra 3 years which should have been yours for free in the first place

You're all right that tech support is extremely difficult to understand and usually seems to be just reading from a script. But in my case, tech support actually tried to be as helpful as possible. The problem was customer service.

After swearing to swear off Dell when I bought my second Dimension desktop, I recently caved and bought a monitor from them because I needed a flat panel that I knew would be compatible with my two-year-old Dell PC. I picked a model and called Dell customer service, who promptly convinced me to upgrade for just ten bucks more. I asked them if this upgraded model would be compatible with my current system, and they said yes...Turns out it's not.

Because I was moving shortly, I kept the monitor in its original packaging, thinking that I could always return it during the 90-day warranty period if something came up. To my surprise, when I unpacked the monitor and realized that it was indeed NOT compatible with my system, I was told that they had a 21-day return limit, which had now passed about two weeks ago, and I would have to return the product at my own considerable expense and wait for a refund. They were unwilling to do a simple exchange in which they would send me a different product in return for the current mistake. Since I work from home and am on the computer all day, the lag between returning the monitor and receiving a new one would be detrimental to my business. Given that I bought the monitor on DELL's recommendation for satisfactory compatibility, I thought this was quite unfair and told them so, but they wouldn't budge.

I'm going to sell this monitor and buy another (non-Dell) from Amazon. Dell has lost me as a customer, and judging from your post and others, mine isn't even the worst example of the stuff they've pulled on people. I would urge anyone to consider other manufacturers instead of Dell, and if you MUST buy from them, beware of misleading customer service reps who just want to make a sale and strict short return periods (not even a third as long as the already short warranty). In other words, never order one early for Christmas or a birthday, in preparation for a move, or any other such circumstance because if they send you the wrong product, too bad for you.

hi guys..
im an engineering graduate working with the dell canada technical support.so there is no need to say that only people without very less educational background or people who get no other jobs go for ts jobs..and dell gives almost 3 months tarining before they let u experience the real stuff..i see that some of you guys had a very bad time with the ts..dont just keep blaming the technical support and looking at only the bad exp.i personally know lotsa people who are happy dell users..most of the customers that i have dealt with ahve become my very good acquaintances..u should also think that the people who answer your calls are not merely answering machines but real people.There were days when we never get any breaks during the entire shift(we have to literally beg for breaks)and its mainly because there would be people waiting for us to help them with their systems..so we are staying up late at nights and answering all the calls.And when an agent answers a call he has to go through certain procedures,like verifying the tag number or express service code before he gives u the support..all the calls taht u make to dell will be monitored and an agent has lotsa written policies and procedures to follow while answering it failing which there are chances that he could be either thrown out or given a red alert(which is a very serious issue)or a one-on-one with the HR and the manager..also the agent has certain call targets for a day..which if he doesnt meet within the working hours he will hav to give an explanation..and each and every call should be within 20 to 25 minutes..so u cant say that they deliberately make u wait..because its affecting their ranking and also their appraisals too..and before any shipment is made the agent should compulsarily verify the shipping address..because the address that u gave while u purchase the system neednt necessarily be the same address to where the item needs to be shipped..there could be a change of address..and also it comes under the policies..dnt be too over critical about anythng..i know that sometimes u get irated..but what most of the technicians at dell wants is to provide the best support in less time..

to avoid waiting for long time on calls try out few steps that is given in the support website(www.support.dell.com) and then inform the agent the steps that u have performed.if he is sensible enough he wont let u do it again..

Hey Sammy if your so educated,,why can't you find the shift button?
This is funny that everyone is still posting about this, since the original post was in December of 2005...
Anyway if any of you that read this are prior posters,,PLEASE read what you have posted again,,,Maybe you will see how damn ignorant SOME of you have been,,lol
And if this post makes you mad,,well your probably one of the idiots. The fact that you are reading this,or responding to it is an explanation in itself as to why the system is the way it is..
Jeremy has a point that service sucks with Dell, I say that is a moot point,,..
Service sucks in general with most U.S. based