Dell studio XPS series no longer supported by Dell chat?

I called dell yesterday to talk about throttling problems and as part of the conversation I asked why I was un able to connect to Dell chat anymore. Which I often prefer to use rather than talking on the phone (save minutes, save my neck, and I don't have to take notes because I can just save the entire conversation).

Well the guy entered in some codes and said he couldn't get it work, and then he told me they must have dropped the studio xps line from dell chat.

I don't know if this is the official word from Dell but I've been un able to use it for the past month and I'm fairly annoyed about it. Its not as if the studio xps are outdated computers...

 

I think, that is a line of BS he was telling you. I think it is problem on Dells end, that they are not trying to fix.

As long as you have a Warranty on your lappy, Dell Chat Support is supposed to support it.

For a bit of time, I was also having probs getting thru to chat, depending on what web brower I was using. Then, I was just erroring out with funky error messages (not 404).

I bet, if you were to call back and sit thru the agonizing D(h)ell Hold, you would prolly be told something different when speaking to a different Rep.

Unless, this really is something new, and Dell really wants to tork off even more of it's customer base by limiting the best way of Contact it has for alot of us......
Cin...

 

it's not worked in the UK for most of 2010 as far as I know

I have an m1530 with 2 years warranty left, when i put my service tag in I get:

"Thank you for contacting Dell Chat. We are sorry to inform you that the Chat support is no more available for the product selected. For complex technical query, requiring an immediate response, please contact our technical support phone hotline. For non-complex technical query, please contact Dell technical support by E-mail."

 

Yeah I used to be able to use the chat whenever I needed help. Now they always tell me that chat is not available for large business laptops or something (I used my dad's employee discount) so I guess they assume its for a company or something....I don't really understand what the deal is since I used to be able to use chat...it's quite annoying since all I have is a cell phone so I have to burn through hundreds of minutes just to get my laptop working...

 

If they really have dropped this Its going in my list of reasons why I do not want one of the Studio xps models anymore. I would prefer a product that is fully supported by dell.

 

it does work, i just got my dell xps 1640 repaired last week, it was threw the online chat but it took me quite a few trys to get to their online techys, there seems to be dificult to connect to their servers, i kept getting disconnected until i tried it at night around 8pm.

 

Mine was purchased as a consumer laptop and the chat doesn't work for me.

Maybe it's a region thing - dropped in the UK (all of Europe?) and still working in US (and other countries?)?

I just had a look on the site again (http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/chat/en/hardware_chat?c=uk&l=en&s=gen)

It lists "Dell Chat currently supports: OptiPlex, Latitude, Vostro and Workstation product lines." I guess it's out for xps and inspiron lines then.... can anyone with an 'in warranty' inspiron system in the UK check?

If you go to the "contact us" support page for home users it doesn't even list chat as an option anymore either
(http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/dellcare/en/contact_technical_support?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml)

Whereas if you go to the same page in the business user support section it does list chat as a contact method
(http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/dellcare/en/contact_technical_support?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=anavml)

 

I was just on the phone for half an hour and got absolutely NOTHING solved. I got transferred around 5 times before the last guy tells me Dell is having routing problems between Canada and the US. Meanwhile my laptop is so fricken hot with the fan blowing 100% and all I'm doing is web browsing...I'm about ready to say the hell with D3ll, return this and buy something HALF-DECENT.

 

the Dell rep that I spent over an hour and a half talking to today said that dell is updating their servers starting last thurs/friday and ending some time this week. He said that this was to blame for extended wait times. Perhaps after that things will improve although I highly doubt it. All I know is i spent 30 minutes just waiting to talk with a person today and then an hour running tests just to end up replacing the motherboard and fan for the first time on my brand new 1640.......crappy GPU/ Motherboard in m1330 to throttling in the 1640.........which is worse??? I suppose the 1640 is still relatively usable so I can consider it an improvement.

 

This is total b.s., and something new. According to the Dell web site, they no longer support XPS via chat. I thought XPS was thier "premier" line and that you had "better" support? Total crap....I can't stand calling them, getting transferred around 5 times and spending hours on the phone. Agonizing.

 

With the plethora of new Inspiron versions, and the continued existence of the Studio line, I am willing to bet that they may be doing away with the XPS line altogether... possibly simply merging it into the Studio line itself.

Just speculating...

 

Its pretty incredible I am talking with dell about getting a replacement right now and I asked (firmly) that I not get another studio xps. Because of throttling and also because I would like a computer that is fully supported by the three years of warranty I have left.

Waiting to hear what they'll say right now

 

Well, if they offer the same as me the only thing you can go to is a studio... BLAHHHH...

 

I'm ok with that

 

I had a studio before and the plastic build was pretty weak imho...

 

I think Dell is making so much money with the Alineware that it is the only multimedia line they give a crap about. The XPS line has simply been ignored or small upgrades have been made to keep it selling. But, I haven't seen any committment the line. The Studio line is a poor substitute for the XPS. The only machine I like coming out of Dell these days is its mobile workstation - M4500.

Dell is a mess these days anyway IMO. After using Dells for 10 years exclusively, we have given up on the company. We don't use Dells anymore.

Bronsky

 

I can see that but I did the math and I'm pretty sure that getting a 1749 replacement is my best bet at getting my problems fixed with some nice upgrades .

Also the new 1749 seem to have quite good build quality (at leas the ones I've seen).