Should I buy a Dell??

[The Receptionist]

I dont think so

one of our customers has a Dell server,

the raid card has failed just outside of warranty,

the customer is quite happy to buy a new raid card,

so I called Dell

they have an overseas call center

after half an hour I was able to find out the part number,

but that person could not give me a price or tell me when it would arrive, or what delivery fee would be,

so he transferred me to another queue and my nightmare began

while it is good that I never had to wait more than 15 minutes to speak to a real live human being it is BAD that the people I spoke to had trouble understanding plain English and after asking me what I wanted transferred me to another queue,

the new person in turn transferred me to another queue,

that person transferred me to another queue,

the new person in turn transferred me to another queue,

that person transferred me to another queue,

the new person in turn transferred me to another queue,

that person transferred me to another queue,



are we beginning to see a pattern here?

not only did I know exactly what I wanted but I also had in my hot little hands a part number,

but do you think I could find anyone who could actually sell me the part?

in frustration I called corporate headquarters in Sydney,

told them the trouble I was having and was told

“don’t worry, no more queues for you, I’ll put you straight through to an executive sales person”.

Well it must have been Golfing day or something,

because I was diverted to another queue


somewhere in my travels I started to realize that I was speaking to people I had already spoken too

and they were transferring me to people they had already transferred me too

then it dawned on me,

the call center staff are either so bored they pick one poor sucker and play ring around the office with him,

or they are so frustrated working at Dell that they are trying to make the company go broke.

or, more likely, they get paid for each call they answer.



After 150 minutes on hold and queue dancing I gave up,



I’m going to tell my customer that we cannot get the part they need,
and we will give them a discount on a new IBM.



And from now on there will be no more repairs or upgrades for Dell units,
I will simply send them to scrap metal recycling.



I have a headache…

[Fragony]

Nothing is more annoying then truly bad customer support. Even better when you get some random bill for something you didn't order, and aterwards you get the wolves at your door 'you should have called money please'. Yeah right, like I am going to listen to some computervoice for 3 hours straight only to be disconnected.

[Xiahou]

In my experience, competent phone support is quite rare. Most just read from the knowledge base on the screen in front of them and then seize up if they get knocked off script.

[naut]

I've never had any trouble with my Dell Laptop. The soundcard in my families destop failed a while back though which is annoying. I don't have a server though so it doesn't really compare.

[caravel]

Dell are very solidly built cases, both the desktops and laptops, though the hardware is often budget low cost/performance. The problem with the desktops is that they often utilise non standard form factors and other Dell specific parts, so replacements from 3rd parties are often difficult to come by. Dell's support I'm not familiar with having never used it and having never bought a Dell. The Dells I've worked with have been at work and not for personal use. I've found that their downloads archive is almost if not totally complete, and I have still been able to download drivers for laptops that were built in the late 90's.

Unfortunately what you have described is the nature of telephone support. Generally companies will get good telephone support from their suppliers but joe bloggs on the street, at the retail end of it, tends to get the poor kind of support you have obviously been a victim of in this case.

[Sigurd]

I must say...

I have never had trouble with DELL customer support; in fact I experience it as one of the best customer supports available.
You just need to have the right support level.

Whenever we bought a new server for a customer, we made sure we included either the silver or gold support in the price (it is really not that much).

Take my 3 year old D600 laptop that I bought out of my company for nearly nothing. It had 100 days left on its warranty. There was a small crack in the plastic and it missed a rubber cushion dot on the side of the screen. I called the customer service and they sent a guy the day after who replaced the entire casing with a new screen.
This laptop when fairly new had a problem with its WiFi adapter, I called the support, the guy that answered took care of my case and within 5 minutes the phone conversation was over. The next day a repair woman came and changed the main board of my laptop in my office while having a great and casual conversation with me. She replaced the mobo in 10 minutes and sat for another 15 to see that my laptop was working properly.

Oh, and they all were Norwegian, from the first phone to the repair man/woman.

This is my experience with DELL.

Now... Microsoft or Lexmark support are other stories
They apparently outsource their support to India or something. Needless to say the communication is difficult at best and the culture clash is hair ripping.
I still get phone calls for a case I had with a Lexmark printer 3 years ago. I don't understand what they say and the quality of the phone line is like someone trying to contact me from the other side of the galaxy. When I finally understand that it is about a Lexmark printer I tell them: The case is closed, stop bugging be with this.

[caravel]

The next day a repair woman came and changed the main board of my laptop in my office while having a great and casual conversation with me. She replaced the mobo in 10 minutes and sat for another 15 to see that my laptop was working properly.

Personally I think you just made the fault up to have an excuse to call out the repair woman.

[Sigurd]

Personally I think you just made the fault up to have an excuse to call out the repair woman.

Funny how people always interpret repair woman with a hot babe in shorts and a tight t-shirt with a tied knot over the belly. This was not the case and she was not that good looking.

She had a mouth of a dock worker, but was incredible funny.

[Blodrast]

Sigurd, but your example just reinforces what Caravel said: that corporate clients get good customer support, while regular joe's ...

[Veho Nex]

NOOOOOOO DON'T BUY A DELL

For some reason my dad likes them but we've owned 3 of them and every time warrenty runs out the computer breaks. Every freaking time

[Togakure]

I paid $1200 US for a Dell laptop with 2 GB RAM, 7200 RPM 100 MB drive, 256MB Nvidia, 1.8 core duo processor,etc.. It runs Oblivion fine. I am very happy with it, and have had no significant problems.

My previous computer was a Micron (formerly Zeos) which lasted me about 6 years and no technical problems worth mentioning. I seem to have good luck when choosing computer manufacturers (*knocks on wood*).

[Gregoshi]

I've had nothing but positive experiences with Dell hardware and their customer support.

[Papewaio]

For better servers and support you go HP-Compaq.

Dell is fine for user side, but they aren't as good as they used to be.