Wow MHC, I'm going to get you guys to call for me next time I need Dell service! Maybe things are different on college campuses? If so, very glad to hear it.
I'm a survivor of "Dell Hell." We were "oh for double digits" with the same 3 yr, all bells and whistles, premium $ "on-site the next day" plan for our two laptops. When we called customer service, we invariably got a rep who said, "we'll ship you something or other" -- even the times the entire screen was smashed and dislocated from the machine and when the keyboard simply stopped working altogether. (Took 10 days for the guy to bring the new screen!) I was never once offered "next day service" although the rep claimed to be looking at my account and suddenly "saw that" warranty plan when I pointed it out. Although promised such service on several occasions, never once did the promised part/service arrive in less than 4 days. On several occasions, they insisted on sending parts that predictably did not solve the problem, then we had to wait for service, which took at least 2 days to arrive.
And the questionable billing practices added to our purgatory. Suffice it to say that with a law degree, 25 yrs of advocacy experience, a certain amount of stubborness on principle, and 8 months (that's right!) of stonewalling and/or unfulfilled promises by Dell reps to correct the account, I finally reached a real human being in the US who understood that you cannot bill late fees on a fully paid on time account, much less charge more late fees for not paying the late fees you agreed had been mistakenly charged and promised to remove (no less than 5 times), then slap even more late fees and interest on those "should have been removed but were not" late fees. Said human being (an independent collections agent, bless her heart) took one look at the account history, apologized profusely, told me we "were not the only ones," and resolved the problem with no further effort on our part. Can you say "class action"?
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