Dell Business Customer Service- A Review

I am sending back my Dell d820 which was purchased refurbished from Dell Outlet and received last week. My reasons are poor screen quality and touchpad with poor sensitivity.

I dealt with their customer service several times and thought someone in the future might appreciate a review.

After receiving the computer, I really disliked the screen. After reading up, I realized that I had the model's worst screen, a Samsung. I decided that the only way the notebook might be keep-able was with a better monitor.

I called tech support at 7pm on a weekday, got India, and was given 40 minutes of runaround from a guy who had no idea what I was talking about. I explained simply that the monitor was poor quality (light leakage, grainy, not bright) and he instructed me to take out my battery, remove the panel above the keyboard and unplug the lcd. At the un-plugging point, I played dumb girl and told him I couldn't do it, since that obviously wasn't the problem. He told me he'd call me the next day with instructions plus he needed to look into a warranty issue (the warranty had not been transferred yet from the previous owner because of staff shortages during the holidays).

The next morning I decided to try again and see if I got luckier with a more knowledgeable tech. This time I waded through voice menu-ing and waited on hold for 20 minutes and finally got India again, but someone new this time. He put me on hold for about 20 more minutes on and off while he tried to figure out what to do. Finally he transfered me to an American tech guy in another department. He okayed a monitor replacement. This guy was clueless. He told me that only Sharp made monitors for the d820. I told him that device manager clearly showed I had a Samsung and that plenty of posts on the Dell forum on dell.com showed that the LG Phillips was the best screen. I insisted that he put in the notes that if possible I wanted an LG screen. He insisted that even if LG was a manufacturer of d820 screens, only Sharps were in stock. Finally he agreed to put it in the notes.

Total time on the phone: about 1 1/2 hours. Way too long. It should have taken less than 15 minutes to tell me that they'd replace it or that I better return it because they couldn't help.
Outcome: Agree to replace monitor. This is excellent.

They say next day service and that isn't true, at least not in my case. Good thing I wasn't a high powered professional, because I wouldn't have been pleased. I originally called Tuesday night and then talked to them again on Wednesday morning. They told me someone would call to schedule before the end of business hours on Wednesday. They didn't. Finally someone called after noon on Thursday and mentioned that they'd be out the same day between 2-4. I brought my old and new computers downstairs (for comparison), set up a work area for the tech, and sat down to read posts while I waited. At 4:10 the tech called to say he was 30 miles away and would I mind if he came out the next day. I'd be the first call at 9am. Well, okay. I would rather he have called a little earlier to let me know, but whatever. So at 9am, I sit down again. And wait. And wait a little more. At 9:45, he calls and says he has a flat tire. (He couldn't have called at 9 to let me know that?). He says he'll be out at 10:30. He shows up at 11. Good news - he's competent and does the job right (and lets me watch). Not only that, but suprise, suprise, he has an LG monitor with him - the good one!

Again, bad customer service, good outcome. 2 1/2 days doesn't count as next day service, but he would have come out at 6 on Thursday if I'd been pushy.

I mess around with the new screen and it is better, but not enough better. Still grainy, dim and light leakage was even worse with no blacks at all on the screen. Just grays. Even with a white screen you could see how much brighter the bottom of the screen was. Also, by this time, I had done all I could with the touchpad settings and at max sensitivity, it would still not register a good number of my clicks. That plus a few other things like a full graphics crash to a terrible looking striped screen caused me to give up on trying to keep it.

This morning I called to send it back. What I expected is no restocking fee due to it's problems and that I would have to pay for return shipping as is Dell Outlet's policy. I spent three minutes on voice menu-ing, only to get to to a message that my call was being transferred and then a busy signal that didn't go away. I tried online chat, but got a message that returns were to be done on the phone and the message gave me a returns phone number. I called it and it took me to the same menu system. 3 minutes later I actually got a live person. She took down all my info, asked me why I was returning the system and told me to hold for 4 minutes. I expected an RMA at the end of this, but no, just a case number and a transfer to the actual returns department. That woman (in true stereotypical style, all 4 tech support people were male and the two customer service people were female) wanted all the info again and she must have apologized about 15 times for all my trouble (excessive, but at least she was nice). She offered me "compensation". I have no idea what that would be as I didn't want to ask. There was no way they could have made it worthwhile for me to keep an unusable computer. She issued me an RMA and told me UPS would pick up the computer tomorrow.

Total time: about 50 minutes
Outcome: better than expected - they will pick up the computer instead of me paying to ship it.

Conclusion: Excellent outcomes to all my problems except the first tech guy who wanted me to take apart the computer for no reason. Very time consuming phone calls would have upset me if I had been a person who was short on time.

 

Similar things have happened to me -

Had a customer that had a bad 230W (p4 w/ ht) PSU in a Dell Desktop, tried to install a stanard ehance 350w PSU, but couldn't due to the fact that Dell is propietary - Called dell, was transfered inbetween departments 3 times until after 2 1/2 hour I hung up and tried the next day, finally got a replacement part shipped after they decided that customer had no more warrenty on the PC - thats fine. I ordered a replacement 230w PSU (which cost me $120, I was selling the 350w PSU's for around $45) So I told them to give me next day shipping since the customer stated they needed the PC back quickly, they gave me next day shipping, After a week, no PSU. I called, they stated that it was next day shipping WHEN it left the warehouse (now mind you they told me it was in stock). I was very irratated and so was my customer, after ordering 2 1/2 weeks later I received my PSU, installed it and called it a day - $150 later and no money made for me, my customer had their machine back, irratated and stated she'd never buy a Dell again. I emailed Dell about their issues, no response, they dont care. Could have cost my customer $75 dollars with a BETTER psu, but because Dell is propietary down to the PSU, that couldn't happen - THANX DELL -
This was around 2 years ago BTW good to see that they still suck, makes better business for me. I have seen more DOA dells out of the box, and had the most headaches with their company, I have no clue why people buy so much from them, but you get what you pay for! Nice post.

 

Well it's cheap. And the Better Business bureau would LOVE to hear these stories. They'd whip dell into shape, even though, frankly, I don't care if dell goes out of business, I have an apple, and Apple is making sick profits.

And before you ask how the hell I got here there was a link on another forum.