Big Dell Problems

I apologize in advance for the length of this posting, but I am a Abused Dell customer and do not want you to become the same. Before you buy any Dell Product or Service, you may want to read what I went through and why I have had more then enough of Dell’s lies, misrepresentations, misinformations and insults from its employees to last me a lifetime. I want nothing further to do with Dell or any of its products. If you bought Dell you might want to return it and get a more reputable brand. If not you are going to do this then you will end up in Dell Hell like I did. I do not want you end up like I did and that is the reason I am writing this.

1). It started from my very first dealings with Dell. Dell sales personnel in order to make a sell and get a commission misrepresented and provided misleading and false information about both the customized Inspiron 1705 laptop they sold me and Onsite Warrantee and Maintenance Agreement which I paid extra for.


2). I paid more than $2,600 for a customized Inspiron 1705 laptop. It was a major lemon. That “new” laptop was put together with low bid Asian parts of questionable integrity and refurbished parts that were known to be bad or just on the edge of failing. Within a very short time almost every part in the system was replaced two or more times including the four hard drives that died. One hard drive only days after being installed. Dell was well aware of these problems, yet continued to sell these and many other defective machines and products. Their only major concern was how much profit they could make. Once they had your money, the only thing they want from you was for you to go away and not bother them. That is how they designed their technical support. The less they have to do for you, the more money they make.

3). They completely ignored the Onsite Warrantee and Maintenance Agreement I had paid extra for and put me through hundreds of hours of Dell Hell trying to fix it. Even thought the laptop had a number of obvious hardware problems Dell tried to tell me it was a Windows problem or software issue. Dell doesn't want to replace defective hardware due to cost. It is much easier and cheaper to have customers try and use Dell Technical Support and be told it’s all a Windows or other software’s problem. Protect Dell’s Profits at all costs!!!!! Hell with the customer. If you enjoy mindlessly reinstalling Window, losing your data and then spending hours and hours of reinstalling and reconfiguring all of your programs numerous times, you really like love Dell’s customer and technical service.


* When I purchased the laptop, it was explained to me by my Dell sale person, that if I paid the extra money for the onsite warranty a technician would come out to my house, diagnose and fix any problem I had with the laptop. The impression given to sell this service was it would be local, face-to-face and the technician would do the repair work.

* It was never mentioned to me once that I would be dealing on the phone with technical support, many of which were both English and technically challenged, almost 10,000 miles away in India where you will spend hours and hours on hold. One US technician who was forced to deal with them stated “... they are not competent to diagnose dandruff.” Another one stated “Dell's 'tech support' now knows about as much about computers as a Radio Shack clerk knows about radio”. When dealing with them you are frequently disconnected and have to explain the same facts over and over again. Dell now quaintly refers to this as Remote Diagnosis. You only learn about it when your computer breaks down and you need technical support. Once Dell has your money and you have their lemons- you are screwed.

* It was never verbally mentioned to me or stated in writing on any of the documents Dell provided to me that in order to receive Dell’s Technical Support that I would be responsible for providing diagnostic and other tools, partially disassembling the laptop to check for defective or loose parts and manufacturing errors and I would be responsible for removing defective parts and installing the replacement parts. When I received a second replacement video card and third hard drive, I was informed by Dell’s Technical Support that I would have to put them in myself We do not send a technician out for such minor things.

I thought that was what the Dell sales person had lead me to believe was what I was paying Dell the extra money for.

If I had known this was the case, I would never have bought the laptop or any Dell product.

Examples of some of the things I went through when dealings with Dell Technical Support. The same thing will probably happen to you if you buy Dell and have to use Technical Support

1) Dell’s Telephone voice response system disconnects me multiple times before reaching the Dell Technical Support representative
2) The Dell Technical Support Representative disconnects me
3) Representative puts me on hold for an unreasonably long time while he/she does further research, On several occasions I decided to see how long this could last, the record is almost five hours and then they disconnected me without talking further to me. This is referred to those who have experienced it as the infinite on-hold. It has been documented as happening to many people.
4) When asking for a manager the Dell Technical Support Representative tells me "my manager is in a meeting" or "all the managers are in a meeting.” Yet I can hear the manager talking to another employee in the background
5) I try to call the Dell Technical Support Representative back at the extension he/she gave me, but the extension either is invalid or does not exist.
6) I try to send a message to a Dell Technical Support Representative at the email address he/she gave me, but the address is invalid and is bounced back as being undeliverable.
7) The Dell Technical Support Representative promises to call me back but doesn't
8) The Dell Technical Support Representative promises to call me back, but instead leaves a message on my voice mail saying "If you still need help, call Dell at 1-800-624-9896 [the general start-tech support-all-over-again 800 number]"
9) The Dell Technical Support Representative says he/she is escalating my call and that someone will call back within 2 hours, but the return call takes much much longer than the promised two hours. Often it is the next day if at all. I am still waiting for one from May 2008.
10) The Dell Technical Support Representative says he/she is escalating my call and that someone will call back within one hour, but the return call never comes
11) Several times my case was closed by a Dell Technical Support Representative even though it was not really resolved
12) I call back after a long, fruitless call with one Dell Technical Support representative, I give my case number to the new Dell Technical Support Representative, but there are no notes for my case and I had to start all over again. On certain days that happened with every call.
13) After hours and hours of frustration and no results I ask the Dell Technical Support’s Indian representative to transfer my call to a U.S. representative, but he/she refuses. I was informed you deal with us or not at all if you want technical support.
14) When it became apparent after many attempts at trying fixing it that my laptop is a lemon I ask for my money back or a new laptop. Dell Technical support tells me they can do nothing and I need to call Customer Service. Dell Customer Service tells me they can do nothing I have to go through Technical Support since they are they only one who can authorize it. I call Dell Technical support back and they tell me I have to call Dell Customer Service and give me a number assuring me they can help me. It was the number for Dell sales.


4). Dell refused to honor the Onsite Warrantee and Maintenance Agreement stating I would have to send it into Dell Repair Depot. I did this and they repaired the wrong part and sent me back the same nonworking laptop. From what I understand this is s common occurrence.

5). Dell lied about the replacement computer they were to send me to replace Inspiron 1705 laptop. What they did send me was a cheaper, technologically inferior, underpowered Studio 1737 laptop that was even a bigger lemon than the Inspiron 1705. What do I mean by this? In less than 10 months the Dell Studio 1737 laptop has done the following

> Blue Screens of Death
> Black Screens
> White Screens
> Washed Out Screens
> Failing Video Card- Causing screen to pixilated and then crash.
> Failing Hard drive
> Computer freezing. Have to physically power down to restart.
> Every Individual program on the Studio has frozen or crashed numerous times- IE7, Outlook Express, Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, QuattroPro, Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro, etc., etc. Administrative Even Log has since January 2009 recorded 2957 Errors (Application, System, Hardware, etc. including yesterdays Blue Screen) and 2373 Warnings.
> Keyboard Letters Sticking
> Computer laptop randomly has started shutting down all running programs and returning to Desktop or completely dies. I of course lost all my unsaved work. I do not trust this computer and have been force to frequently save data to an external hard drive.
> Sound Completely Disappears
> Speaker Distortions- Sound comes out garbled.
> Fan has gotten louder and is noticeable.
> There has been a burning smell from time to time.
> USB Ports work intermittently. Currently every time I use most USB devices such as mouse, scanner or printer I get the following message. USB Device Not Recognized. Reinstalled every driver and replace USB cable. No luck.
> CD / DVD Burner has given an increasing number of write errors. Randomly the program states DVD had been recorded successfully, but when you try and read the data you cannot. Had to buy an external Sony 840U CD/DVD Read/Write Drive



6). When I called Dell Technical Support to complain that Dell had not sent me what it had promised I was told in an Indian accent “ You cocksucking, eating Americans should be happy with whatever we send you! Now go away” Click and all I hear is a dial tone. I tried to complaint to a supervisor, but was suddenly disconnected after relating what happened.

7). I sent a complaint letter regarding the previous happenings to Dell Headquarter in Round Rock, TX. The response was rather than deal with it in USA, they sent me back to India which was part of the problem. During an illegally taped phone call (when they call you Dell does not tell you every call is being recorded), the previous problems were either completely ignored or whitewashed over. The obvious hardware problems with the Studio 1737 were diagnosed as Windows or software caused. I am sorry, but you will have to reinstall your Windows operating system, etc., etc., etc.

8). The final straw was when this piece of crap Studio 1737 laptop desecrated the memory of my recently deceased Father, a decorated World War II Veteran and destroyed part of my families history that is irreplaceable due to a failing hard drive. I was doing a tribute to him had temporally transferred the information from an external hard drive that was starting to be flaky. I was going to put transfer it to a new one, when suddenly the Dell laptop goes ERR ERR ERR. Screen went black and computer dies. I managed to start it again, but all the pictures and documents were gone. Trusting a Dell is like spiting in a hurricane.


The above is why I have had more then enough of Dell’s lies, misrepresentations, misinformations and insults from its employees to last me a lifetime. I want nothing further to do with Dell or any of its products.


Just so you do not think this is the sour grapes of one person, to see the international scope of Dell making defective products and services as well as screwing its customers when ever possible, try any of the following

YouTube to Advanced Search function where in This Exact Phrase box type in Dell and in All of These Words Box type in problems and you will come up with 1,120 video clips of people who have problem with Dell and its products. Then try Dell Hell. Also large number of entries on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Do the Same with Goggle or Bing or Yahoo or any other search engines. With Goggle for Dell Problems you get 102,000,00 hits. If you do this and look at some of the hits you will learn about


Heat-Cold-Heat stress, Bulging Capacitors, Defective Power Adaptors, Defective Motherboards, Exploding Batteries (destroyed homes and cars), Defective LCD Screens, Defective Graphic Cards, Warped Cases and Keyboards, Defective Speakers, Electrical Shock Problem. Defective Touch Pads, Contamination of Laptops with Human Pubic Hairs and Other Substances, Etc.

You will also find out about the large numbers of Better Business Bureau complaints, the international and USA lawsuits- Dell To Pay New York $4 Million In Fraud Charges Settle or Dell to Pay $3.3 Million to Resolve Deceptive Practice Claims or Chinese Consumers Sue Dell, etc. etc.

There is an entire army of people on the internet who have been screwed by Dell including former employees and they have gotten together and put up a number of websites to document and share their experiences with others. You should visit these before making up your mind to buy Dell. Some of these are

I Hate Dell- The Webs #1 Complaint Site
http://www.ihatedell.net/
Huge site back to 2005

My3cents.com
Dell Computer Corporation complaints and reviews
http://www.my3cents.com

Businessweek.com
Hanging Up On Dell?
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_41/b3954102.htm
33 Pages of Dell Customer complaints

Complaints.com - Consumers in Control
http://www.complaints.com/
Almost 1700 Dell Complaints

Consumerreports.org
The numbers behind the Dell lawsuit
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2007/05/the_numbers_beh/comments/page/1/#comments
Large numbers of Consumers complaining about Dell products and services

Consumeraffairs.com
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/dell.htm
Pages and pages and pages

Etc.

Remember all of Dell’s pretty commercials are nothing but propaganda to separate you from your money. As for most positive reviews many are written directly or indirectly by Dell and its personnel.

Dell’s current slogan Yours is Here

If you buy Dell, just hand them your wallet and bend over.

 

Why didn't you ever file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau?

I don't even bother trying to deal directly with Dell. A BBB complaint is much less hassle.

 

backup things that are that important to you.

 

I hear you, an experience like that can put you off a company for life.

I had a similar experience with HP for the laptop in my signature, thankfully it ended successfully as I was given a full refund.

However, the damage has been done and I won't buy HP PCs/laptops again (printers yes).

Its unfortunate when you can't get decent support from a company.

 

I am sure most of the folks on this forum are aware - the Dell support for the "Home" computers seems to be predominantly in India but the Business line is supported by folks in North America. I think people looking to spend more than a certain amount should try and get one the computers from the Business line - particularly those that are willing to pay for service.

The folks in India supporting these computers have very often never seen them and are usually of little to no help. They are just reading from a set script. There is no point in blaming them for this issue - this is a Dell issue!!!

 

Also agree, Dell UK Business Support have been great when dealing with them at work.