A Recent Dell Tech Experience (Rant)

I need to blow off some steam so I'm coming here, I hope someone finds this story funny or can commiserate with me or something.

So last sunday I noticed that the plastic base of my Dell 9400 had a quarter inch hole in it, so I called in to Dell requesting that it be replaced because I was getting cut by the rough plastic edges, and I didn't need dust getting in through it. Dell agreed and next day-ed parts to a tech.

Come Tuesday I get a call from the tech, and I set up the time, and everything is going great. That is until he verifies the address, and it is for my home address. This being after I explicity told Dell multiple times I needed it shipped to my school dorm. So fine, whatever, inconvenient, but not earth shattering. So I got back to Dell, and got that issue resolved.

On Friday I get another call, from a Mr. Tom Devlin, who was the tech dispatched this time, for the right address. He comes at around 3:15 and begins working on the laptop. I see him start taking the laptop apart, and think to myself he's being a bit rough, but whatever, I'm good with software and not hardware, so it's not my expertise. I have a class at 4:00 so i leave Tom with my roomate thinking all will be well.

Fast forward to 6:00 when I meet up with my friends. I ask them about the computer and how it went, and they all say "uh...we don't want to talk about it." So I figure they played some prank on me and made my desktop a fat naked woman or something...

Coming back to the room however, I find a note that reads word for word

"The motherboard needs to be replaced, Part will be in on Monday"



What is worse is that apparently when he tried to boot up the laptop and found it wouldn't start, he assumed that the motherboard was bad, and wouldn't admit that he either broke it outright, or reassembled it improperly. My roommate quoted Tom as saying "Wow, it's so wierd, how could he notice the physical blemish and miss that his mobo is dead..."

WHAT THE F***.

So my laptop that, apart from the hole, worked perfectly, was now unusable until monday, that being today. And I received a call at 8:00am which I returned to Tom to set up today's appointment, and much to my frustration, he says his schedule is full and that I'll need to wait until tomorrow...

So as of now, I still have to use my roomate's laptop and it's just a total pain since I have about 9 pages of math proofs typed out that I can't get off the laptop's internal harddrive.

</rant>

So yeah, just had to get this off my chest. Anyone else have some horror stories to share?

 

Yep, thats Dell for you....

 

My XPS 1330 was making a squeaking noise when hitting the left touchpad button. Dell sent out someone to replace the palm rest. When he left my fingerprint reader and the Dell Media Direct buttons weren't working (he mentioned this was his first XPS 1330). 2 days later the next guy comes, barely spoke a word of english, he managed to fit the buttons but the fingerprint reader still was broken. Then dell told me I had to send it back for repairs. Its been 10 days so far, no laptop.

 

You know this is dell skimping out. Instead of hiring real dell trained people they hire independent contractors local to the region that stuff needs to be serviced. They don't work for dell, they just have a contact to go and replace things and send parts back to dell thats it.
It sad that dells letting people that they prob have never met touch their machines and thats why we have so many disappointed customers.

Dell really needs to get serious about providing good customer care. If they did that they would be getting a lot of referrals via word of mouth and they would in the long run be making higher profits.

When will dell learn?!?!

 

Hey, at least you have something. How about being delayed for 60 days. But, your story is quite tragic though.

 

Ouch howardpm, that totally sucks, same to you Jarrod. I guess that's how Dell manages to make a profit, between outsourcing its customer support and skimping on techs, they probably save a ton.

And speaking of outsourcing...when I called Dell to complain about the horrendous service, "William" could barely understand what I was trying to tell him and it took about 2 hours to get it clear in his head that I wanted a different Tech sent out, but obviously that didn't work since Tom called me today.

 

This is the exact reason why I'm weary about having someone come out and replace my sound card...

 

Good Day all

Just found this site all by chance boy iam thankfull.

I got my dell 9400 a few monts ago and it came w/ the windows that we shal not speak its name it hates eveything i run . so i have xp and it runs like a dream and i just love this pc should have done it sonner but owhell .the problem i have is dell never shiped my laptop w/ a expresscard blank and after 5 email to dell and meny phone call to people that do not understand that iam looking for this blank ... i finley get english man that finds a part # FH196 and a price ... i get sent ot some oneelse to buy this card from dell but i want them to just send it to me mmmmmmm look out this is just not happining iam getting NO help at all .. so to all of u can u help iam looking to get a blank expresscard for my open slot were can i get one thank for any help you may have for me
missing parts in michigan

 

You know what, my fringerprint reader also became not working after the replacement of mobo. HOWEVER, I did notice that it was because the wire wasn't fit correctly then I fixed that by myself.