Dell Support comes through

When I went to set up a customer's brand-new Vostro 200, it ran for about 10 minutes before suddenly shutting down, and then it sat there with the fan roaring and nothing on the screen. Holding down the power button didn't stop the fan. I unplugged it, and it would neither POST nor boot: the fan just roared when I tried to turn it on, and wouldn't stop until I unplugged it again.
I left it unplugged for 15 minutes, and it booted normally... only to abruptly die again in 10 minutes, with the same symptoms.

So, I called Dell Support. The customer had the standard one-year Next Business Day support agreement. After punching in the Express Service Code, I was transferred to a very knowledgeable tech in Austin TX.
I described the problem, and he immediately said, "It overheats. No need for diagnostics. A technician will be there tomorrow with a new CPU, heat sink, fan and motherboard. Sorry for the inconvenience."

If it were an HP, they'd expect us to send it in.
If it were a Gateway, they would have called it a software problem and tried to get us to restore Windows.
But, it's not: it's a Dell business machine. Dell just stood behind it.

 

Good to hear

 

Yeah, I think that's one of the great things about Dell. Not only do they make solid business machines (literally AND figuratively - magnesium alloy!!!), they stand behind their products and their customer service is top notch.

I've recently had some problems with the internal speaker on a Latitude D430, and though it hasn't been resolved, I've been very pleased with the support I've received thus far. Also I'm in IT, and I love how Dell will allow you to skip all the basic troubleshooting when they realize that you actually know what you're talking about.

GO DELL!

 

Good to hear. I had a minor issue with my Latitude D830 that they corrected by shipping me a new Bluetooth module. And I just picked up a Latitude D630 for my 90-year-old grandma. If she runs into any hardware trouble, its good to know that they won't expose her to an inquisition to get her back up and running. (3 year NBD on her new laptop...hopefully she'll outlive it though )

Anecdotally, I believe that there is a very significant difference between how Dell treats its 'business' customers versus its 'home and consumer' customers. Almost night and day it would seem..

 

Had 2 screen swops next business day onsite (both lasting about 20mins start to finish and the techs were suitably professional) and got a free 2nd HDD bay kit - my experience of Dell Small Business support has been excellent.