var json_comments = new Array("
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sleze69
October 20, 2009 8:02 PM
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The moral of the story is to never buy from Dell Home and to ALWAYS buy from Dell Small Business or above. Does he state that he bought from Dell Home? No. But it is obvious based on the support he received.


According to Dell, SLEZE Enterprises has been a good small business customer for over 10 years.

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7 replies
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LeChiffre
October 21, 2009 12:43 PM
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@sleze69: Nahhhhh, the real moral of the story is to quit bringing your laptop on vacation with you. I leave my laptop, cell phone and anything that YOU can reach me with in my bedroom or den. When I am on vacation and you cannot reach me I like it better that way.

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Falcon5768
October 21, 2009 12:46 AM
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@sleze69: Id avoid Dell Education as well.

We have nothing but issues from them for the last 7 years. If it where not for the fact it's not my decision we wold have dumped them ages ago. Our servers funny enough are purchased through dell small business and THEY support us like crazy. But the fact that its a one or the other situation is insane. Contrasted to Apple where id doesnt matter who you are they support you (the only difference is in who you call in the company for consumer/education or business as they sometimes have different available products), it seems like a poor business practice to have a privileged class.

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zerj
October 21, 2009 3:38 AM
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@Falcon5768:


True about apple, but on the other hand aren't all apples sold at the small buisness prices? Sounds like a different buisness model.


Personally I still buy dell home products (or whatever is cheap) but do so expecting zero support. On my latest $450 laptop, if it dies in a year I just get a better replacement. Its cheaper than buying top of the line.

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BWoodle
October 20, 2009 8:45 PM
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@sleze69: Why should you have to game Dell's system to get proper support?

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StanTheManDean
October 20, 2009 10:40 PM
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@BWoodle:


Gaming the system? Not all. Different segments that are all the same in the end.

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Karita
October 21, 2009 12:03 AM
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@StanTheManDean: Yeah that makes sense. I've always been puzzled by the anti-Dell sentiment here. But I've only dealt with them as the tech-by-default at my office, i.e. the one who knows about computers and thus gets to handle all the issues that pop up. Small business service has always been fast and excellent. I have never used the home side of their business, as my personal life is nothing but Mac.

Maybe that's why I've always been happy with AT&T, as well, despite the hate on the internet for them. My personal account is coded to be attached to a very large corporate account. So I get premier business service (and a substantial discount), and it's been great.

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jimv2000
October 20, 2009 8:58 PM
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@BWoodle: Because Dell's bread and butter is not consumer sales. In other words, if you don't buy business, they don't give a poop about you.

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XTC46
October 20, 2009 8:42 PM
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@sleze69: Sounds right to me.


XTC46 (and every company I have worked for) have been loyal dell small business and enterprise customers.

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rewind
October 20, 2009 8:04 PM
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I have purchased Dell (both new and refurbished, private use and business) for many years. On the business side I had the luxury of the government entity (college) weight to throw around. Fortunately on the personal side I haven't had many issues.

That being said, stories like above and below are steadily proving to me that companies like Apple and HP will continue to gain greater market share while Michael Dell starts wondering where all of their customers went. The business support in general is a far different animal, but when the future CIOs, CTOs, etc remember their low-budget experience with Dell, they will remember to stay well clear.

[blogs.consumerreports.org]

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9 replies
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zerj
October 21, 2009 3:47 AM
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@rewind:


I'm not sure Apple is the answer here either. I'm sure Dell/HP/IBM would give you fantastic support if you were to buy a laptop from them for $1700 (the price of a Macbook w/ 15\" display from apple). However when you buy it for $450 (the price of my latest dell laptop with 15\" display), their should be a difference in support level. That $1300 must buy you something. Personally it buys me 3 more spare laptops in the event that my cheap dell dies. I won't actually buy these spares until the day it dies so I'll likely get a free upgrade to the latest tech with my 'repair'


Now I certainly have low to no expectations on the service of my cheap dell. I think this is really a perception problem for a lot of customers not anything dell does.

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Thumbmaster
October 21, 2009 12:33 PM
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@zerj: When you buy a $499 refurb Mac mini, you get the same level of service from Apple as if you bought a new $5000 Mac Pro. That is to say, you're paying for top notch service no matter what you spent. There is no discrimination based on the cost of your gear. This is true whether on the phone or at the Apple Store. However, there are times when a certain Mac Genius may be having a bad day and take it out on the customers. But that is very rare and only happened to me once or twice.

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zerj
October 21, 2009 4:17 PM
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@thumbmaster:


I think my point still applies here as well. A refurb Mac mini for $499? A refurb machine with a 64MB Graphics Card, 1 GB of Ram, doesn't say $500 to me. It says $120 to me. Heck the very dell laptop I referenced in my last reply has 4GB of ram and a comparable graphics card, and if it weren't for the 15.6' screen would be smaller than a mini.


Now I have nothing wrong with apple. They do have a reputation for nice support partially aided by the limited hardware configurations and proprietary SW. Still you are paying a premium for that support.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:41 PM
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@rewind: No - HP won't gain anything on Dell, trust me they are WORSE. Their only answers are 1. reboot 2. restore or 3. ship it to us.

And they barely speak English, they are rude, and their favorite things are hanging up on you or putting you on eternal hold so you hang up.

I bought a desktop from them 3 years ago - worthless piece of crap and they STILL can't figure out what is wrong with it, after shipping it back and forth twice, but won't replace it either.

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CompyPaq
October 20, 2009 10:41 PM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Actually HP's favorite thing after lying to you is transferring you. It actually takes 3 transfers to authorize a computer to be sent in for repair. To make things worse, the reps can't/don't/won't read the case notes so you have to go through everything three times.

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sirwired
October 20, 2009 9:16 PM
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@rewind: HP consumer support is just awful. Maybe they are better on the business side, but they don't care about consumer customers twisting in the wind...

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Real Cheese Flavor
October 20, 2009 8:41 PM
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@rewind: I don't know, I've had better service from Dell. Next business day in most cases.

Every time I've had an issue with Apple, I needed to make an appointment with a Genius (same day or next day) and then be told that whatever was wrong with my Macbook would require them to send it off to a repair depot and it would take 5-6 business days to get it back.

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kexline
October 20, 2009 8:57 PM
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@Real Cheese Flavor: I've had better than that from Apple so far, but yeah, the thing with forcing you to see a genius is problematic. I was looking forward to seeing what would happen when I moved to an Appleless town next year, but they just opened a store there. Scourge. Shiny, shiny scourge.

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WonderKatGoBoom
October 20, 2009 10:51 PM
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@kexline:
I have lived in an Apple-less town. After the longest trouble-shooting phone session EVER, Apple sent me a DHL box to ship my misbehaving baby away. I still got good service, and luckily for me I had access to a computer whilst my computer was being repaired.


On a side note, I'm the unluckiest Mac user in the world, but I still stay loyal. Harddrive fail number FOUR under the belt.. but I did get some made free stuff after that. And tears.

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Karita
October 21, 2009 12:20 AM
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@WonderKat: I've had good luck with Macs so far. Most of the problems I've had, I've been able to diagnose and fix on my own. A couple of times I've called up support and had excellent help over the phone. The one major issue I had (bad power supply) took a few phone calls. But they sent a tech to my house at no cost, even though there is a store 20 minutes from my house. I was happy about that.

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MostlyHarmless
October 20, 2009 8:08 PM
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@rewind: I don't think HP scores much better on that point either.

Also Dell Business support is much much better than Dell Home, andany good CIO or CTO knows that.

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rewind
October 20, 2009 8:11 PM
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@MostlyHarmless: HP has made HUGE gains over Dell on the business desktop side here in Florida, at least for the public college system. IBM has been wiping the floor with Dell on the server side as well.

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CheritaChen
October 20, 2009 10:08 PM
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@rewind: Where in Florida? My community college was all Dell (excluding the oddball stuff used for tinkering in the compsci lab) and I work for a county government that is all Dell.

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AustinTXProgrammer
October 20, 2009 8:06 PM
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Well, the dev files could still be retrieved for use on a portable drive without much effort, but setting up a proper development environment on the loaner system could take days, and it probably doesn't have the power to do it.

On the other hand, a dual SLI system is for gaming and not development (I say this as I develop on an XPS m1710). It is serious overkill for anything but games and 3D CAD design for mechanical work.

The XPS support used to be great, and is now almost as bad as for the Inspiron.

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Oranges w/ Cheese hates what Christmas has become
October 20, 2009 8:18 PM
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@AustinTXProgrammer: I was thinking the same thing. He doesn't NEED sli to do development unless he's doing serious 3d stuff. He's whining because he can't play his games, to boot.

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Cyberxion101
October 20, 2009 8:32 PM
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@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Is he really, or did you just read that into there all on your lonesome? I'm genuinely asking, because sometimes I misinterpret things, and I may have missed the part where he whined about being unable to play games.

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Oranges w/ Cheese hates what Christmas has become
October 20, 2009 9:08 PM
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@Cyberxion101: I did read into it, but I am a web developer myself. If he's not a web developer, but maybe a modeler of some sort then I can understand where he'd need the insane graphics.

In college I bought the bestest best best XPS model they had at the time so I could do my 3d animation course work for school. It still sucked though because it was a laptop and constantly was overheating, but besides the point.

In the letter, Mike himself says he does web development. You don't need SLI for that.

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Radi0logy
October 20, 2009 8:57 PM
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@Cyberxion101: We just read it into there all on our lonesome. Or do you believe that using Notepad++ for web development creates such a drain on the CPU, Memory and Video cards that he experiences \"graphics so jerky that I get nauseous using it\".

He plays World of Warcraft. He can't stand being without it for even a day. He needs to get over it and he needs to stop crying.

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Oranges w/ Cheese hates what Christmas has become
October 20, 2009 8:06 PM
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One wonders what industry Mike is in that he requires two SLI video cards to do his work as a web developer.

Granted, Dell's service SUCKS unless you're on their absolute Gold service plan (never had any problems at the university I worked for, but have nothing but pain from a normal consumer standpoint)

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LeChiffre
October 21, 2009 12:44 PM
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@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Was thinking the same thing about Mike's computer literacy. I mean, anyone with any \"geek\" knowledge knows NEVER to buy from Dell. Period. NEVER. EVER. Note to Mike: Learn to build your own computers and learn to buy them from a reputable store such as Newegg.com. You'll get more for less and it'll work much better than anything Dell will sell you.

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mizike
October 21, 2009 1:43 PM
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@LeChiffre: You build your own laptops? Really? Cause that's what this story is talking about. Also, newegg sells dell laptops as well and I don't really see how this would have gone differently had he bought the system from newegg instead of dell; they would either have referred him to the laptop manufacturer (dell, sony, etc.,) or to Nvidia directly. It's not like they provide any more tech support than Amazon would if he had bought it from them.

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Haltingpoint
November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
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@CheritaChen: Bingo. I'm the submitter of this story and you are dead on.

There are a couple factors in play here. For my trip (which is now over), it was not feasible to setup a new dev environment. Yes, it is possible to hand code things in notepad...I did that back when I was learning HTML. Unfortunately things are a bit more sophisticated now and I've become quite dependent on my various code libraries.

I decided to spend the money on one AWESOME machine since I am also a big PC gamer (I do game on a console). So while I don't need the SLI cards for web dev work, I do indeed need them for gaming. Given how Dell has handled this situation, accepting a temporary downgrade at some point in the distant future was not an option because god knows when I would get a REAL replacement system.

Additionally, I decided to go with Dell because at the time I purchased it, it was the best machine available for the money and had a supposedly good support plan (learned my lesson on that last one). Some people have all the time in the world to build their own systems and when I was a teenager I did the same thing. Now my time is more valuable so I have to be smarter about how I spend it and purchasing a machine is the better way to go on that. Plus, you don't have much of a warranty when you buy the individual parts and have an issue with the system as a whole.

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CheritaChen
October 20, 2009 10:19 PM
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@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already, et al: Hey, gang, take it easy with the snarkiness against Michael and his high-end graphics. Has it not occurred to you that he is an independent contractor who perhaps chose to buy one really awesome machine which would be suitable for both his entertainment needs and web development? Plus, since it's his business rig, the purchase price should be income tax-deductible.

Besides, maybe he's working on some type of bleeding-edge Web 3.0 thing. Dang, it wouldn't surprise me if we all needed that much graphical muscle for surfing five or ten years from now, the way some of today's online experiences are.

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Kyin
October 21, 2009 11:20 AM
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@CheritaChen:
\"it wouldn't surprise me if we all needed that much graphical muscle for surfing five or ten years from now, the way some of today's online experiences are.\"

Here I will quote Google.

\"This is a demo that demonstrates the potential of rendering 3D graphics in the browser, using O3D, an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. The app shown in the video is coded in javascript and html and runs in a web browser. Learn more about O3D at [code.google.com] \"

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CheritaChen
October 21, 2009 11:27 AM
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@Kyin: There you go. Keywords: hardware-accelerated rendering. Michael knows what he's doing!

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rewind
October 20, 2009 8:13 PM
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@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: It also helps when you do their \"certification\" deal so that they don't even walk through troubleshooting steps. They ask for the technician number, the replacement device[s], the error code[s] and whether we need an installer.

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MostlyHarmless
October 20, 2009 8:06 PM
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You don't really have to source control everything. Just the files you don't want to lose ;)

That however does nothing to fix the fact that Dell provided crappy service.

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zentex
October 20, 2009 8:06 PM
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No Chris, the moral of the story is STOP BUYING CONSUMER GRADE DELLS. I don't care how much your XPS cost you, it's consumer class and not a planned product.

Shell out for the Latitude that comes with a REAL warranty and guarantee's.

I've never had an issue with the ProSupport. NBD or 4-hour, and as a bonus I don't have to talk to someone in india or worry about Dell telling me \"No\". ;-)

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3 replies
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floraposte
October 21, 2009 2:53 AM
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@zentex: Why, if a company gives you crap customer service, should you give them money again under any guise?

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:44 PM
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@zentex: Actually you should know that most of the chat support in Dell Business IS in Phillippines. I have talked to the head of their call center and verified this. And yes, I have had the stupidity that goes along with that regularly - agents can't / don't read, keep repeating the same questions over and over, and don't pay attention because they are chatting to 10 people at once.

Oh and best of all - they WILL screw up phone numbers and addresses they give to the tech - every time, guaranteed.

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zentex
October 21, 2009 12:33 AM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: unless they employ god-honest rednecks in the Philippines, I've never gotten it.

Then again, I may be getting some non-normal call center based on the fact I'm a dell reseller, and I've always been told for the last 9 years that the support that comes with the dells I sell stays in the US (it should, for what it costs). I dunno.

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downwithmonstercable
October 20, 2009 8:07 PM
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I'm behind him 100%.


Side note: If the trip he's talking about is a vacation, then take a freaking vacation. Leave the work at home.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:46 PM
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@downwithmonstercable: Haven't you heard? There are no more real vacations any more ---only working vacations in corporate America. Why do you think they gave you a Blackberry or synched your Iphone with the Corporate Exchange Server? Hmmmm?

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dmuth
October 20, 2009 8:07 PM
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Are we sure this was a vacation? I did not see it described as such in Michael's email. Maybe it was a business trip?

That doesn't make Dell's behavior any better, but I think it would be helpful if the headline more accurately reflected what happened.

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CheritaChen
October 20, 2009 10:23 PM
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@dmuth: I'm thinking the same thing. It looks like Chris read \"trip\" and \"travel\" and translated those into \"vacation\" without additional evidence. Of course, I know that my own vacation would have been miserable without my computer, but that's just because I'm one of those antisocial boring people who prefer to read stuff while sitting in the hotel room over going \"out\" and doing \"things.\"

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hunter3742
October 20, 2009 8:08 PM
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If it seems like the part you need might be hard to find, unless you're dealing with a local tech, the computer is in his hands, and you see the part sitting on the table, you should NEVER assume you'll get the part and service in the time promised. Doubly so if you're dealing with a company like Dell or, worse, the Geek Squad...

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DoubleEcho
October 20, 2009 8:08 PM
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I'm reminded daily why my company cancelled their lease contract with Dell (5000+ PCs and laptops). We once had a Dell tech say to a user \"It looks like you live in BFE West Virginia\" while I was conferenced in with her on a desktop hardware issue, when he didn't recognize her city name. That went over well.


They've also lied about parts availability, sent wrong equipment to users which cost them a day or more of work, and the Gold Support is generally clueless.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:47 PM
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@DoubleEcho: Isn't that like a military base out there? lol /sarcasm

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chocobo
October 20, 2009 8:22 PM
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@DoubleEcho: I don't understand. What's BFE? Did she live in West Virginia? What exactly was the problem, I'm not seeing it.

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cecilpl
October 20, 2009 8:40 PM
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@chocobo: [www.urbandictionary.com]

A rude way of saying \"in the middle of nowhere\".

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vorpal_hamster
October 20, 2009 8:38 PM
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@chocobo:
Bum F**k Egypt. It's not a nice thing to say.

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H3ion
October 20, 2009 8:12 PM
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Between home and office, I have five Dell computers, laptops and desktops. All work and the few times I've needed technical support, it's been forthcoming. I use their chat support because I can't understand most accents with my hearing issues. I don't understand why there are so many reports of problems with Dell on this website. Maybe I'm just lucky. But just in case, I back up daily to an external drive that can be hooked up to any of my computers.

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amberlink
October 20, 2009 8:21 PM
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I called dell when I purchased a Dimension system with a 3-year service plan. Called and called and called. Tech support kept insisting that it was a software issue, I KNEW it wasn't and that the graphics card was fried. They MADE me pay $99 and finally talked to someone in Canada who laughed and confirmed it was a hardware issue and refunded my $99 and transferred me back to tech support after about 3 more hours arguing with support they finally agreed to send out a card. The next morning about 1am, I had a voicemail on my phone, recorded it and even sent it to Dell because they kept refusing that it was them. Stupid tech in India actually CALLED ME from the 1800 number (the voicemail wrapper information confirmed this). On the voicemail, the tech threatened to come over and \"f*** me in the a**, you dirty motherf*****\" and so on and so on for about 3 minutes of verbal abuse. I sent the recording to Dell Executive team. After A LOT of denials and my saying I was going to send it to enough online sites they offered me a (now defunct) Dell MP3 player. I never took their offer.

Dell customer support is crap. They shouldn't be allowed to talk to customers.

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4 replies
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LeChiffre
October 21, 2009 1:07 PM
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@amberlink: You should have sent a copy to the State Attorney Gen Office. Oh you could have made some waves with that tape.

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Dunkelzahn
October 21, 2009 11:33 AM
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@amberlink:


I'm not buying this. Any person in their right mind would have followed up with a lawsuit, or at least threatened legal action until Dell coughed something up.


Plus, I don't think Dell would be stupid enough to offen ONLY a Dell MP3 player over a serious accusation such as this.

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sleze69
October 20, 2009 8:42 PM
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@amberlink: You didn't take the offer? Well then...can you post the recording?

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:49 PM
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@sleze69: Yeah I'd like to hear it to to use to negotiate our rates with Dell Business support when the contract renews ;)

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HunterZ
October 20, 2009 8:33 PM
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I bought the same model as the one mentioned in the article (XPS M1730) a little over a year ago and have been using it as my primary computer. I got the 8700M SLI cards (middle option, one step up from default) instead of the top option because it would have added well over 50% more to the cost of the laptop.

After I'd had it for only a few months, a dog knocked it off of the table it was on and caused the LCD screen to shatter internally as a result to the point where the screen was completely unusable. Fortunately I had bought a decent warranty plan and was able to get it replaced without a ton of hassle - I had to explain the circumstances to a string of foreign CSR's that were hard to understand both because of accents and moreso because of the really quiet phone connection that seemed to result from being transferred a million levels deep in Dell's phone system, and then I had to wait for the last CSR to type up the order for 20 minutes while muttering to himself (at least I knew he was reporting the right stuff!). It then took a couple of weeks for them to fix it, which wasn't horrible.

The only problem is that the replacement screen developed a red vertical line only a couple of months later (probably due to either a poor-quality replacement screen, a bad installation job, or undiagnosed secondary damage that didn't get fixed), and now one of the USB ports no longer works (the connector seems to have worked itself loose internally over time). I'm planning to send it in again for repairs once I build a new desktop so that I don't have to be severely inconvenienced while waiting for them to repair it.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 9:52 PM
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@HunterZ: And that's why there aren't dogs in most work places. Well, one reason anyway. Yes, I'm sure your dogs are wonderful, just keep them outside or at home, thanks.

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Dunkelzahn
October 21, 2009 11:35 AM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer:


I didn't see anything about this being in the workplace...

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erin_w (formerly femme_dork)
October 21, 2009 2:59 PM
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@Dunkelzahn: Agreed...could have actually BEEN at home or at a friend's place with the computer.

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heltoupee
October 20, 2009 8:36 PM
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Dude needs SLI'ed 8800m GTX's for web deveolpment?!?!? Wow, that's hardcore, and completely unnecessary for even the most demanding web devel environments. I could see if he was doing 3d modelling, but then anyone in their right mind would not be using stuff from Dell's consumer line, and they'd be pissed that their nVidia Quadro cards died. He's just mad he can't play games on his business laptop on his trip. There's lie #4.

That being said, he'll still be able to do his web devel work on the loaner laptop (hell, you can do it on an iPhone in a pinch). It still doesn't make Dell's customer service any more palatable, however.

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Haltingpoint
November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
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@heltoupee: Original submitter here.

This machine is my \"do everything\" machine. I do web work (internet marketing) on it for my main business and have all my work files on it for that. I also am a big PC gamer, hence the SLI cards. Given how Dell has handled this, I do not trust them with delivering an interim replacement system and then giving me an equal replacement system down the line.

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El_Fez
October 20, 2009 8:44 PM
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On the other hand, dude - it's a vacation! Sure it sucks that Dell put the thumbscrews to you, but have some lemonade instead. Put the laptop down and enjoy some sun/outdoors/away time!

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3 replies
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SnoopyFish
October 21, 2009 12:06 AM
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@El_Fez: I don't think he said vacation. He said Trip. Could have been a business trip.

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erin_w (formerly femme_dork)
October 21, 2009 3:00 PM
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@SnoopyFish: That's exactly what I was thinking. \"Trip\" can mean any number of things; the only hint that it was a \"vacation\" was the Consumerist headline.

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Radi0logy
October 20, 2009 8:51 PM
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@El_Fez: Clearly he can only enjoy vacation if he can play World of Warcraft on max resolution.

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tinyhands
October 20, 2009 8:47 PM
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I can appreciate Michael's frustration, but he hasn't been \"lied\" to. He must realize that the people who answer the phone have no information other than what's been entered into their support scripts. It's not like they can just walk over to the warehouse door and see how things are going in there. The real problem is that one end of Dell doesn't know what the other is doing. But that isn't an active act of deception, it's incompetence. Know the difference.

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christador
October 21, 2009 1:01 PM
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@tinyhands:

It actually is a lie resulting from incompetence. A lie is the opposite of truth. Did they tell the truth? No. Did they know they weren't telling the truth? Perhaps not, so maybe a shade of gray but it still leans on the lie side because what they promised didn't happen.

The consumer product line is really just that--they expect you have time to sit on the phone with India and mail in your product for 4 -6 weeks when you have a problem. Spend a little more money and don't be enticed by the superstore's lowest price on a PC or laptop. You'll likely be disappointed in the end.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 10:03 PM
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@tinyhands: I'm afraid you are unfairly shoving the reponsibilities of knowing or caring how Dell is run on consumers and business consumers. It should be transparent to them, and flawless. Dell should do as they promise, PERIOD, or if they know they can't, warn the customer in advance, don't make the customer sit and wait there for nothing and then have to do DELL's job of communication for them (have to call Dell to find out why).

Anyone who designs customer \"service\" this way is an absolute FRICKING MORON and they should NOT be in business, nor should they employ FOREIGN PEON MORONS to do the work. And while they are in business they should be sued and fined heavily for the havoc and damage they cause to business operations and people's lives.

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Haltingpoint
November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
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@tinyhands: Original submitter here.

I was indeed lied to. When you specifically ask someone something, cite numerous sources that would indicate the contrary and then have them guarantee that something will happen despite the numerous opportunities you've given them to state otherwise, it is a lie.

When it happens multiple times, it is multiple lies. When someone promises to take ownership and call you at a certain date/time and they don't, its a lie.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 10:04 PM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Instead of being allowed to carry on like this state of service is \"normal\", let alone \"acceptable\", and let alone redefining \"service\" in the industry to \"shit in your face and laugh at you\" levels.

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tinyhands
October 22, 2009 3:13 PM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer:
Please don't misunderstand, I am in NO WAY legitimizing Dell's support model or blaming the consumer. It's just a matter of terminology: Incompetant != Intentionally Deceptive. Saying that Dell \"lied\" is like yelling at a retard for shitting on the rug. They just don't know any better, but that doesn't mean that your Bukhara isn't ruined.

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XTC46
October 20, 2009 8:48 PM
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As a person:


I feel for you, your laptop is not functioning they way you want it to, and that sucks.


As a Tech:


Backlogs on parts happen, they offered you 2 solutions, 1 of which would have had the card replaced and you able to do your work without going through the trouble of reloading all your software and transfering data, it just wouldnt look as pretty as you like (which you can be mad about, but shouldnt be a deal breaker.)


You should have taken the temporary replacement, then just waited on the card. Dell doesnt make the parts, they just put them together. They probably dont have an ETA on when you will get a replacement, but losing your place in line isnt a huge deal since it isnt like they are only getting 1 card at a time, they are probabaly waiting on a batch of a few thousand, and its unlikely you will not get one on the next shipment.


Also, if you dont like the solutions they offered, offer another one (it just cant be \"give me my video card nowwwww\"). You are right about them not setting the proper expectations, but you knew there was a back log.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 10:24 PM
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@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: As another tech for large corporate, small mom and pop companies and my own consumer home clients for over 10 years I couldn't disagree more. The miscommunication, incompetence and lack of real, valid acceptable options displayed in this story is appalling.

In my tech job I am on point to have people up and working like 5 minutes ago. No tech isn't perfect and neither am I, but if I can't keep a promise I let someone know in advance, and we keep spares. If I didn't I would lose my job and I really resent others who can frankly just not give a fuck - ever - and abuse people and keep theirs.

The current laughable state of affairs exists precisely because 1. consumers have been forced to expect it because companies like Geek Squad and Dell don't care and 2. techs get jaded like you and forget why they are in business (to make people succeed around technology and make it work for them) and won't put themselves in people's shoes.

It is one thing to say, and I might agree, that people breathing deeply, being patient and not taking themselves too seriously when confronted with these things may help, but it is quite another, which you did in your post, to lecture and armchair quarterback consumer victims telling them that Dell's crappy behavior is somehow their fault anyway. It's not.

To the rest of you, I'm sorry to say, but in the Dell \"world\", you pretty much have to get ready for a fight every time, don't EVER give them the benefit of the doubt, double check everything and document like crazy, and let them have it as mistakes happen. Believe me, they earn it every second of every day.

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nstonep
October 20, 2009 9:14 PM
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@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: All dells are sourced and made in china from what I know. Though they have to stock some parts domestically for repairs. They were just riding the \"just in time\" lightning...it's always tragic for warranty purposes. Though they don't really care because they view it as you getting something for free.

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Aaronjk
October 20, 2009 8:48 PM
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And what would the OP have done if they had said \"Sorry we won't have cards till February.\"? You'd still be on the trip with a borrowed laptop, and all the files you need on the dead one!
You're screwed either way.

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Batwaffel
October 20, 2009 8:56 PM
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I love how Consumerist isn't afraid to tell people the honest truth about these corrupted companies. No wonder I recommend this site to everyone. :D

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nstonep
October 20, 2009 9:12 PM
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I don't know...dell b-fed him but if it's a vacation you shouldn't bring your computer otherwise you might as well stay home.

Maybe it's just me but...a vacation is disconnect...it should stay disconnected. Bring a phone in case you get kidnapped by the earth liberation front ;) though...no signal ;( must have t-mobile.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 10:26 PM
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@nstonep: Not so - much of people's private lives goes with them on computer now. You must not be that into computers or you would realize that.

Tagging a laptop or netbook or i-device along on vacation isn't the exception any more, it's the VAST standard.

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sleze69
October 21, 2009 11:31 AM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: I couldn't agree more. I take a laptop with me on every vacation so I at night can enjoy looking at the pictures I took each day.


That said, I think Chris mistakenly inferred that this was a vacation. No where in the letter does it state anything other than \"trip.\"

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AirIntake
October 20, 2009 9:30 PM
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Looks like Dell was quite reasonable. If you truly use a computer for work, then you should always have another computer available as backup. Real companies do not operate critical systems without a spare. If he truly makes his living using this laptop, then it should be no big deal to just buy another one, and deal with Dell after the vacation. Also, it's a damn vacation, you shouldn't be doing work at all! Yes, I just blamed the Op, oh well.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 20, 2009 10:30 PM
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@AirIntake: No, they really weren't.

How many vacations have you taken YOUR computer on? Be honest!

Further, I get really tired of people blaming whatever consumer calamity on people, especially in stupid irrelevant ways. People have a right to take their laptops with them wherever - if their concept of vacation is playing video games and surfing unemcumbered for 5 days what the hell is wrong with that? It's THEIR vacation. Or if they want to cheat themselves on their vacation and do free work for their employer, although you and I wouldn't, that is THEIR vacation.

Stop stupid irrelevant critiques...the point here is Dell not someone's vacation details that are none of your business.

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AirIntake
October 21, 2009 2:22 PM
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@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Dell offered to repair it as fast as parts came in. Short of Dell inventing a star trek replicator, they're doing the best that they possibly can. Their phone service was a little inept, but compared to most phone service, I'd say they were still above average. And no, I have NEVER taken my laptop on vacation, especially not for work purposes.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 21, 2009 3:37 PM
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@AirIntake: Stop using the OP's vacation as a reason to excuse the sloppy HORRIBLE service at Dell. This happens routinely with them whether people are on vacation or not. Dell simply cannot handle timeframes they indicate, understand them or meet them, let alone communicate them as this story and millions of others annually prove.

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That's Consumer007 to you
October 21, 2009 3:35 PM
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@AirIntake: I think you meant Holodeck. Regardless, you clearly have no concept of customer service. LYING repeatedly is NOT above average!!!!

Whether you personally disconnect or not on your vacation is irrelevant to the OP's experience.

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Thain
October 20, 2009 9:40 PM
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Not trying to blame the consumer here, but no one who depends on their computer for work should EVER have just one computer. If you can't afford to be without your computer, you can't afford to only have one computer (or only have one computer powerful enough to do your work), because one day, your turn at the wheel of misfortune will come and the perfect storm of backlogs, delays, and backorders will mean there is no way your system can be repaired within your timeframe.

If you rely on your computer for work, it is a VITAL work expense to not only have a backup system, but keep that backup system updated at least once a week with all of your work files (Microsoft has a great synchronization tool called Synctoy that can be used to do this almost automatically).

Should Dell have been more honest about the backlog? Of course. Honesty is always the best policy and tends to avoid a great many crapstorms. Should he blame Dell for ruining his vacation? No. Repair schedules almost NEVER mesh with personal schedules, and expecting them to do so is tragically naive.

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MrEvil
October 21, 2009 4:14 AM
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@Thain: I agree. And you are quite tactful in your comment. I rely on computers for my business as well (all my invoicing and billing is handled by my out of warranty Dell latitude). Should this laptop fail on me, I have an Eee PC in reserve to get me back up and running. I backup my client and billing DB's nightly.

I also have Plan C should the Eee fail. I have a spare Latitude that's the same model as mine with similar CPU and graphics. I can swap my parts out inside of 20 minutes and have a fully functional system.

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tisk01
October 20, 2009 9:43 PM
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Why are you bringing your laptop on a holiday?
Dell offered you two soloutions, (to which you rejected, for a reason other than what you've listed here), why did you not suggest on of your own?
You knew there was a back log of parts, so you've gone into this with negativity and setting yourself up for disappointment.
Sure, they did'nt offer the best solutions, but they offered some and still you didn't help them help you.
And you have the gall to complain?

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Haltingpoint
November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
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@tisk01: OP here...Neither solution was acceptable for the situation. The inferior replacement machine would have taken forever to ship and who knows when I would get an equal replacement.

I do have backups of my files, but I have no backup development environment (probably a mistake) and that can be a major task to recreate.

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40-40-5
October 20, 2009 9:51 PM
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The worst lies are the blatant lies.

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mm16424
October 20, 2009 9:58 PM
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This is why you buy a proper warranty if you need quick repairs.

Who the the hell expects their laptop to be fixed in under 2 weeks without an in-home service plan?

I've had the dell I am writing this on fixed twice (m1330 motherboard/power connector issues. Full mobo replacement). Dell each time was here in 2 days to fix it.

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Haltingpoint
November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
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@mm16424: OP here. I have the best support plan available which includes in-home service and weekend support. The issue was the availability of components/replacement systems.

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SnoopyFish
October 21, 2009 12:04 AM
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That's not very responsible to have all your work files on one computer/HD especially a laptop. Webdesign on a laptop sucks ass and makes data backup a pain in the ass.

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haoshufu
October 21, 2009 12:43 AM
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OP should have read some Dell support stories before diving into their most expensive support contract.

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Quatre707
October 21, 2009 1:00 AM
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All of that sums up to \"Dell can't fix the laptop yet because nvidia is still manufacturing or shipping the parts\"... There really is nothing Dell can do about this. Why so serious?

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incident_man
October 21, 2009 3:01 AM
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I used to work for DHell and can tell you that I'd never buy one again. It doesn't matter if its one of their consumer systems or one sold through enterprise. DHell started getting chintzy back in 2004 when Kevin Rollins and his Excel Spreadsheets and Powerpoint slides convinced Mikey that he can save a buck or two by outsourcing his support and R&D teams to India and China, respectively. Their consumer systems are junk, engineered to last just long enough to make it out of warranty, if that long. Their business systems aren't much better. Their Optiplex 270 and 280 motherboards had bulging capacitors that caused video failures; even the replacement boards had the same problem because DHell's Chinese contractors used substandard components in the manufacture of the boards. These days, DHell desktop and notebook systems run too hot because their chintzy contractors can't figure out how to write a BIOS that can properly control the cooling fan. It's no wonder why they slipped to number 3 in worldwide pc shipments, even though they are one of the cheapest brands around.

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colorisnteverything
October 21, 2009 12:05 PM
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@incident_man:


I agree with everything you have said. Because of the way my mother's work is (large company), she is able to purchase a small business model with a discount. I am one of those kids who went to college with such a machine. I have a 5 year old Inspiron 6000 that worked like a dream, but the drama started with my new XPS 1530 which I bought to do design on. Boy was that a bad choice! As a replacement, they sent me a 1640 which is not only huge but also overheats and BURNS me, crashes like no tomorrow, leaks LCD screen, and has the cheapest looking bottom that I have ever seen on a computer!


I actually can't believe it!


I am now waiting on a backordered replacement for the replacement and have just bought a netbook to avoid using the thing because as a student, being without a computer for 8 weeks just to get the first replacement was too much.


I will never EVER buy a Dell again!

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MrEvil
October 21, 2009 4:07 AM
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For those of you touting Apple's on-site repair. QualXServ (whom I used to work for) handles Apple on-site repair and since they bought banctec they handle all of Dell's on-site repair as well. Tech support is a different matter entirely though.

However, the video card issue with the 8800m is nVidia's problem not neccessarily Dell's. If you read about 8800 series graphics cards you will find folks with DESKTOP cards having trouble with those GPUs. I myself had to send in a eVGA 8800GTX due to constant graphics crashes and artifacting in games. eVGA didn't even bother repairing the card, they just gave me a 9800GTX in exchange. Unfortunately it's no so easy to do that with a Laptop even if it does have modular video cards.

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nnj
October 21, 2009 12:53 PM
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Why bring your laptop on vacation? A vacation is a vacation, to detach and get away. Give your mind a break. Come back refreshed. I think we can all manage a few days without connectivity. I don't see why I need to spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles to do my job in a hotel room. Just stay home and do it. Now the guy is all stressed out over nothing. Did he even enjoy his trip? Oy vey! Just my opinion.

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anim8rjb
October 21, 2009 4:17 PM
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The m1730 weights like 15 pounds anyway so it's not the best 'vacation' computer. He should just admit that he wanted to play WoW on his vacation.

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Lewisham
October 22, 2009 8:04 PM
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The moral of the story is not to buy Dell XPS laptops. My research lab made the mistake of buying 15 of them, at least 6 or 7 have had problems that required an on-site tech, 3 that were visited so many times that a different system was eventually granted.

They are not built well, those desktop components should never be slammed into laptop bodies. Every XPS has the paint bubbling off the exhaust ports because they run so hot.

They are terrible, terrible computers.

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Cantras
October 22, 2009 8:12 PM
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I now have a machine with graphics so jerky that I get nauseous using it,

No! You get nauseated! The *graphics* are nauseous, that is, they cause you to become nauseated.

[/copy editor twitch]

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SubKamran
November 13, 2009 4:36 PM
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I just had to write a paper on the challenges Dell faces, a big one being its atrocious customer service and parts quality.

My own Dell E1705 (4 years old) power adapter just started having issues, the seemingly-widespread \"could not determine your power adapter\" error and now no games work because... I have no idea, really, lower power? Used to play Oblivion on Ultra High and now can hardly play Torchlight... which works on my Intel graphics tablet.

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