Dell support not what it used to be.

Parent Cafe
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<p>Some of you may remember the days when you could send your computer in to Dell for service and get it back in a few days. </p>

<p>Not any more.</p>

<p>A month before our D left for grad school at Oxford, we bought a Dell laptop with “Complete Care”, which includes next business day on site repair. A few months ago, it needed repair. Dell UK said that it would be best if she did the repair in the states over break. OK.</p>

<p>D is home on break now, heading back on Saturday. 3 weeks ago, she contacted Dell about the fix. They sent someone to the house (took a few days, not “next” day) who could not fix the problem. Told her it had to be sent to Dell for depot repair, and would take 7 to 10 days total, including shipping and repair time. </p>

<p>It has been at the depot for over a week, with no end in sight. Just learning the status has been extraordinarily difficult. They don’t email any updates. She made an online query, got a reply saying “Thank you for contacting Dell technical support. I am very limited with the information that I am given about systems that have to be returned to the depot. I have notes stating that the system is being repaired but I do not get an ETA for completion.” It also included a number to call for “further assistance”. That number turns out to be for Precision workstation support. They don’t deal with laptops. The number they gave us led to a 30 minute wait, with no clarifying information. </p>

<p>I did learn today, by calling the workstation support number, asking for a supervisor etc. that they admit that they did not meet their own 7-10 day standard, but too bad. We’ll get it when we get it. The rep said he’d send an email to the depot asking them of the status, and that he expected to hear back “next week”. </p>

<p>So D leaves Saturday without her computer, in the middle of writing her dissertation. </p>

<p>We’re faced with the prospect of paying at least $125 for shipping, plus the possibility of customs duties, to send it back ourselves. Dell refused a request to do so. </p>

<p>The good news is that she did back up all her crucial data before we sent the computer.<br>
So she can beg/borrow computer time back at Oxford. The bad news is that she uses End Note, and most of the computers there don’t have End Note.</p>

<p>Moral: </p>

<ul>
<li> always back up</li>
<li> warranties aren’t worth much</li>
<li> even high tech companies may not have decent internal systems. How a computer company with highly automated production and such could not have a common database with depot service is beyond me.</li>
</ul>

<p>Oh yea, I made my first ever BBB complaint today. I doubt it will do much to solve the problem, but at least it will document it.</p>

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<p>Sorry you had such a huge problem with Dell. We bought a Dell laptop for our D when she left for college in 2005 with the extended warranty for all four years (based on the sound advice from my office’s IT person). Maybe she was lucky because the most major problem she encountered was the power cord malfunctioning - Dell sent one out right away - and it’s still going strong (but without the warranty now).</p>

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<p>I’m sorry about all the problems you are having, but when was Dell support considered good? I went through “Dell hell” with my daughter’s laptop 3 years ago. After that experience, I decided that I’d never send anything to Dell for repairs (which they contracted out anyway).</p>

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<p>We had the extended warranty for our daughter’s Dell. The couple of times we had problems with it they diagnosed it over the phone then a tech came to our house (from 100 miles away as that is the nearest big city) and fixed it on the spot at our house. Replaced the mother board, keyboard, and the top when the hinges went out. So the service was good. Seemed like a lot of problems in 4 years though. </p>

<p>Now it needs replacing at 5 years old. She is thinking another Dell as that is what she is used to, I am wondering whether to go with a different brand.</p>

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<p>Dell has been all over the board. Many years ago, when I got my first one, a nice man with a Texas accent stayed with me on the phone for three hours to get rid of a virus. </p>

<p>I got “Bobby” to try to help me solve problems with my second Dell. He was in India. And clueless. I went on
to try a live Dell chat. The rep there typed out “sorry for your incontinence”. I typed out that I was not in need of diapers. Still no fix. I figured it out on my own eventually.</p>

<p>My third (why do I do this?) was bought at the same time we bought a dell for my son. No problems and going strong (four years now) I called once with a tech issue and this time “Bobby” was quite helpful and patient. Also,
son had a motherboard failure and they came out and replaced it the next day. So…not so bad. </p>

<p>So I’m in the market for another and would either buy an HP or a Dell I think. Anyone out there buy a laptop from Costco? I’m wondering how their service package works and if it’s good.</p>

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<p>Buy a MAC. Never have had a virus and the only time I went without a computer was for four days five years ago and it was completely free of charge. I had to be talked through setting up the wireless router, but it was with a regular guy in Texas (actually I have no idea where he was, but he was not Bobby (as I used to have a dell and understand the protocol). I currently have two laptops that are merely outdated, nothing wrong with them except memory and speed.</p>

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<p>I had “Dell Hell” (which I never heard of until just now and definitely love that term lol) with two different computers. My sister got her first laptop when she went to college in 2005. Within a week, her fan died. Sent it back and they “repaired” it. A few days after we got it back, the power cord died. Got a new one. It worked-somewhat-for the next year. She had a few issues but got them repaired at a local computer shop instead of sending it in (it was near finals week). Then a week after the warranty was up, the hard drive failed completely. She just got a new laptop (Acer) and has had it ever since late 2006 with no problems. </p>

<p>When I was a sophomore in high school (2007) my parents decided to try Dell again (a renter had just bought a Dell computer and couldn’t pay her rent so she gave us the computer in exchange… so it wasn’t that we wanted it, it was just ours by default lol). It worked great… for two months. Then the power cord went out. Ok, got a new one. Worked fine. Then in June I went to Chicago for a math program. Two days later, my fan died and my motherboard died. I called and someone in India that I couldn’t understand picked up. After about 30 minutes I asked if I could talk someone else (my hearing isn’t great and the accent and my deafness was not a good combination). He put me on hold and then the call was “dropped”. I finally had to send it in, got it about four weeks later in the same condition. They hadn’t fixed anything! I resent it in, got it within a week and was all fixed. It finally died half-way through my junior year. I just gave up and started saving up for my own laptop. I have an HP now and will never buy a Dell again. I have not had a single problem with the HP.</p>

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<p>Depending on your state, you may get some relief through your state attorney general’s office. Dell signed a settlement agreement with many states because of service failures just like you describe.</p>

<p>I’d also check and see what credit card you purchased it on and give the credit card issuer a call – Amex is pretty good about reversing charges when service is not delivered. </p>

<p>Finally, you might see if local small claims court is an option, particularly if you (the parent) purchased the computer. </p>

<p>Our Dell service experience was similar enough to yours that the computer my D took off to college has an apple on it.</p>

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<p>Yes, I did purchase the computer for my daughter, through AMEX. </p>

<p>D has had past decent experience with tech support, while in college, but that was because the university IT folks could do “depot” repairs on campus, and did, with 2-3 day turnaround. </p>

<p>What I found most bizarre was having tech support folks tell me that they had no real idea what was going on, and did not seem to have any way to find out. I even asked them if there was a point at which they would act? Two weeks? A month? Forever? They did not answer. </p>

<p>For myself, I take a better approach. My main machine is a destop that I built myself. I can get any part I need to fix it within a few minutes of the house. And the parts are cheap because they’re not proprietary to a specific manufacturer. (you probably know that Dell, HP and others use proprietary motherboards and other parts not available except through them?)</p>

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<p>My D just had her Dell laptop repaired under the 4 year warranty (broken hinges of course, and some cracked plastic housing parts) over the winter break. She needed to send it to the depot to have it fixed. They actually fixed it and returned it quite quickly. </p>

<p>Another time I had Dell come to the house to fix a different laptop and they did a good job.</p>

<p>Yet another time I just had them send me some parts and I replaced them. They were prompt and easy to deal with on this one as well. </p>

<p>All of the above were different laptops.</p>

<p>newmassdad:
If they’re willing to tell you, find out what the issue is with getting it fixed and back to you. Sometimes certain parts, like a disk drive for example, are backordered for a few days or so and will delay the fix/return. Part of the problem is not knowing the status. If they don’t answer you satisfactorily keep asking to speak to a higher level manager and make sure you talk to someone not based in India.</p>

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<p>I go to notebookreview.com forums to get information on my laptops (Dell and Apple). The Apple XPS forums have been inundated with laptop problems for months. The main problems seem to be related to defective nVidia graphics chips and there are users that have had their motherboards replaced multiple times. The other problems seem related to Intel’s new chips - it appears that Dell has problems with systems with Intel’s new stuff. My guess is that this isn’t Intel’s problem but Dell’s problem. There are lots of folks there that have reported next day service calls. The requirement to send it to the depot sounds like they don’t have enough people to do on-site service. Delays may be due to parts shortages. I read about computer component shortage issues late in 2009 and this may be affecting the supply-chain for repairs.</p>

<p>FWIW, we haven’t had any major problems with our Dell laptops. We have four of them, one as old as 10 years and it still works. I’m pretty picky about selecting the model that I think won’t cause us any problems.</p>

<p>That said, in general, I will be buying MacBook Pros in the future. The ability to just bring it into the local store and not having to worry about viruses and Windows Update keeping me from using my machine is a pain.</p>

<p>I will go to Dell for desktops for high-powered systems. They are cheap and I can usually fix problems on my own.</p>

<p>I had a look at End Note: $300 - wow! I always go with Open Source if possible. My friend swears by LaTeX for papers.</p>

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<p>My Dell laptop is a total POS and Dell customer service has been awful. I would never buy a dell laptop, but for some reason my dad has an affinity for them. Mine has had so many problems it’s unreal, and I hardly even use it for anything.</p>

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<p>BCEagle91,</p>

<p>The odd thing in this case is that there were no odd parts needed. She had spilled coffee on the keyboard. That put out the DVD drive. and one trackpad button was flaky. The only reason the tech could not fix it was because his “order” called for a new MB. To replace that, he needed to take out the battery, which would not release. No rocket science, no video chip problems and such. </p>

<p>You would also think they’d notify the customer if there was a delay due to parts or something else? Even an automated status update? Too much to ask for. </p>

<p>End Note? Graduation gift she wanted, at academic prices. Still not cheap, over $100, but the time it saves is worth it at that price, at least to her.</p>

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<p>Liquid spills are a major problem with laptops and can cause a lot of damage. Our kids used laptops when they were quite young but we required them to use external keyboards and mice. If there’s a spill, the cost of a fix is $10. Techs do motherboard replacements on site.</p>

<p>I’ve done one spill: I had a bowl of soup on my desk and it spilled onto the external keyboard which was, of course, ruined. I just grabbed another one. My wife has spilled orange juice into one of our laptops and the keyboard is sticky. We have to use an external keyboard with it. In general, our kids have been very careful with their stuff.</p>

<p>One advantage of Mac OS X is that you can take the disk from one machine and stick it in another machine and boot up. You can even boot from the disk in another Mac using a Firewire cable. With Windows, the OS is generally tied to the hardware so you generally can’t just take a disk and use it to boot another machine.</p>

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<p>I love the AmEx warranty program. It only kicks in once the original warranty has expired & provides you up to an additional year. It was great when we were having a problem with S’s Sony laptop & ended up getting a full refund, including evaluation fee creditted back to our AmEx. </p>

<p>We are working with AmEx on D’s broken HP laptop & will see how it goes. HP kept trying to get us to buy their extended warranty program when I asked them how to get an estimate on repairing the laptop. AmEx said they will send a box so D can send it to the company they use for an estimate & figure out whether its worth repairing or not.</p>

<p>Laptops seem much more fragile than desktops; H keeps all our desktops serviced but none of us can fix the laptops (they’re under various warranties anyway). </p>

<p>I’ve never heard great things about Dell’s customer service either, but we don’t have any Dells under warranty anyway.</p>

<p>Very frustrating for your D. Hopefully, she saved off all the files she needed BEFORE letting anyone service the computer & can take that with her when she goes wherever she needs to go. That’s what we always have our kids do BEFORE their broken machine leaves their residence.</p>

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<p>

mathson spent last summer debugging nVidia chips. It was interesting to here his take on why they had so many problems.</p>

<p>My laptop died yesterday, but it was a Lenovo.</p>

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<p>newmassdad,</p>

<p>My d had problems last semester with her Dell laptop while studying in the UK. She managed to somehow nurse it until she came home for break before leaving on 1/29 to another country for another study abroad. The IT’s at her UK school were not able to help at all.</p>

<p>Since she had purchased it in 2007 through her university, they did some checks by phone w/her, and called Dell to have them come to our home. It needed a new MB and fan. We were very pleased, because she had so little time, and since it was still under warranty I was not going to buy a new computer.</p>

<p>We have two other Dells and have never really had any problems.</p>

<p>What are your D’s plans? Mine would die w/o her laptop.</p>

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<p>Too late to edit, but D’s departure date for 2nd SA was 12/29, not 1/29. She was only home for 10 days, so her uni really helped the process a lot.</p>

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<p>gloworm,</p>

<p>D backed up everything to a portable drive before we sent the machine in. She plans to borrow computers. We offered to let her take her old notebook from undergrad. She declined. Good enough for Newmassdad, but not for her!</p>

<p>What is sad is that D could have lived with the problems (she already had!) if she had known they would not get it back by the time they promised. </p>

<p>I still can’t figure out how they can be so misleading regarding service time and then not even follow up, even when they promise to do so. It will be interesting to see if the BBB complaint makes things better or worse. But how could it be worse with them holding the machine with no information on when it will come back? Do these folks have no performance standards? (wish I could be that cavalier about service commitments at my job!)</p>

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<p>What happens when you attempt to go up the management chain to get answers to your basic questions?</p>