# Dude... Don't get a Dell !!!



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

The VP of my company came to me a few weeks ago asking me to rebuild his daughters laptop for him. However, he was lacking the restore discs. So I contacted Dell’s Gold technical support on the 14th of December to order them. It took an extremely long amount of time to get the order placed. So much so, that I even pondered if the rep was playing some sort of game in seeing how long he could keep me on the phone. The total call time was around 55 minutes.

Jump forward about 3 days to when I received the discs. He sent all necessary discs, except the one containing the operating system.  I replied to the email he sent me when the order was placed informing him of what happened, and he called my home within 5 minutes. He was apologetic, and agreed to overnight the correct disc to me for no shipping charge. He promised I would receive the disc on the 19th.

A few days after the 19th, still no disc. So I sent him a polite email just checking on the status. I allowed a few extra days considering the holidays, but was pretty aggravated on the 27th when I still hadn’t received a reply. So I sent yet another email, and this time carbon copied his manager and team leader, whose email addresses were at the bottom of his emails, I assume as some sort of QC. I stressed the importance of receiving the correct disc in a timely fashion. 

The next day, I received an automated email informing me that my order had been "canceled under the Federal Mail Order Act”. I called in to determine exactly what this meant, as the email wasn’t clear. I was told that this was due to the order being delayed, and them not being able to get in contact with me to make sure I wanted to keep the order pending. I was never contacted in any way shape or form, but I didn’t have time to deal with it that day, so I just let it go and thanked the rep. 

Fast forward to tonight. I called back into the Gold Technical support at 6:00PM Central. I tried using the direct extension in the bottom of the reps email, but it apparently "isn't valid". So I just spoke with the first rep that picked up. I was transferred all around the entire company. No one could figure out who I needed to talk to. I either wanted to “reactivate” the order that was canceled, or just place a new order. I was transferred from gold tech support, to normal tech support, to XPS tech support, to the switchboard operator, to the sales center, to the home and small business sales center, to customer service, etc etc. And don't dare ask to speak to a supervisor. They will assure you that they can "handle the matter themselves". If you push the issue, they will get rude. One rep even hung up on me when I said "no thanks, I would still like to speak to a supervisor". Another rep flat out told me that no supervisor was on staff, and that the only way he could communicate with one was by email. I asked him to please forward my phone number on, and have the supervisor call me ASAP. He told me that it was "unlikely for one to call me, but he would forward on my information".

In the end, I was finally able to get the discs reordered from the XPS tech support center, and they even agreed to send them out at no charge (the computer is no longer under warranty). They would only do regular shipping though. But I was ready to get off the phone, so I didn’t even bother arguing.

I am not exaggerating this next line in the least. All I all, I was transferred 11 times, hung up on once, and spent a total time of 2 hours and 43 minutes on the phone... all TONIGHT… just to order one disc. And after explaining my story each time, it seemed like no one cared. I don't think one person apologized to me tonight. I know I could have given up, but I honestly wanted to see how long it would take. That, and the OS disc is hard to come by (XP Media Center Edition 2005).

I’m not one to complain and/or rant. And I wouldn’t have taken the time to write this thread if I didn’t feel like this company had some serious customer service issues that needed to be brought to light. 

I still haven't received a reply to my email sent to the rep on the 27th in which I carbon copied his manager and team leader. I should have my new order within 5 to 7 business days... I guess we'll see what happens. :sure:


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

That's why I always buy the discs when I get a new computer..


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

houskamp said:


> That's why I always buy the discs when I get a new computer..


I do as well. I think he may of had them at one time, but he was only able to find the drivers disc.


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## roadrunner1782 (Sep 28, 2008)

That is just rediculous!!! I give you all the credit in the world for not flipping out cause I know I would have!! When I was just recently in the market for a new laptop I refused to buy a dell because i see the issue with them everyday at my job!!


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

:lol: Sounds like my experience when my Mom's PC got corrupted and couldn't reinstall using the restore partition. I finally got some disks for the old PC that was still under warranty but it took some doing and never have gotten a driver to make the network function. Had to install a wireless PC card to hook it up to the internet. 

It is completely frustrating to deal with technical support in India when there is the language barrier and the reps can't or won't deviate from their scripts. 

I once made the mistake of responding incorrectly to a foreign Dell tech support question about a laptop power brick. He asked if the light was on and caught me unaware so I truthfully told him that it wasn't. Well it was simply burned-out and a meter verified power output, but he flat refused to do any real troubleshooting until the brick was replaced and the light was on.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

I have Dell computers at home and the service could be improved upon most definitely. The mother board failed on my desk top and my biggest problem was understanding the overseas personnel. On the other hand, we have two Dell servers, each with about a dozen work stations in our two store locations. They have been very reliable and support on their commercial account end has been superb.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

I could have had his laptop back to him the next morning.

All Dell. All legit.

If you're going to do this kind of thing for people, you should consider learning more about how it works.

Does this excuse Dell's CS shortcomings? No, of course not.
Neither does it excuse yours.

I can only hope you checked for a restore partition and found none.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

As a follow-up, I decided yo see how long it would take to find a copy of Dell OEM XP MCE available for immediate download.
Turns out to be about two minutes.
And the ISO has SP3 slipstreamed to save even more time and effort.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

deltafowler said:


> I could have had his laptop back to him the next morning.
> 
> All Dell. All legit.
> 
> ...


First of all, I'm pretty sure I know plenty about "how it works".

Not that I need to explain myself to you, but I work in the IT department of a fairly large publicly traded company. I have pretty much every resource I need readily available. All Dell, all legit. But there's not many companies out there running XP Media Center 2005, so that's the one thing I didn't have at my disposal.

Considering the hard drive had already been completely formatted when I received the computer, I can assure you that no restore partition was present. 

Please explain to me exactly what _my_ "shortcomings" are again...


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

deltafowler said:


> As a follow-up, I decided yo see how long it would take to find a copy of Dell OEM XP MCE available for immediate download.
> Turns out to be about two minutes.
> And the ISO has SP3 slipstreamed to save even more time and effort.


And if you knew anything about Dell, then you would know that the keys are coded within the restore discs. So that's not exactly the "legit" way to do it now is it??


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

I know plenty about Dells.
I know that my Dell disks will install on ANY Dell machine.
I can change the key to match the sticker after the installation, or I can leave it as it is. Either way, it passes WGA checks and updates like a dream.

PM me if you can't find that download.
Maybe the poor girl can get back on Myspace by the weekend after all.


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## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

AirRocker said:


> And if you knew anything about Dell, then you would know that the keys are coded within the restore discs. So that's not exactly the "legit" way to do it now is it??


Amen I believe they call it a Tattoo.

As for your pain trust me, you, me and a cold beverage one day! I'll tell you about how unhelpful Dell was with the P4 computer I had that turned up to acutally have an undisclosed Windows compatibility bug that was so rare MS had me ship them the machine and they bought me a brand new Dell.... Of course through this process Dell was clueless....


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

I do this stuff for a smaller business with about 50 locations. I can never get an English speaker the first time around. It truly is disappointing.


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

AirRocker said:


> And if you knew anything about Dell, then you would know that the keys are coded within the restore discs. So that's not exactly the "legit" way to do it now is it??


I'm not defending DeltaFlower's attitude, but his/her info is correct. Any Dell OEM windows O/S disc will work on any Dell PC. As for legality and legitimacy, it is all on the up and up as long as you have a license for the O/S (i.e. the COA sticker on the PC). Several million Dell users have the same Microsoft product ID. It's OEM VLM and it's the way Microsoft does things, at least with XP. Now, as for the source of this supposed legitimate XP install disc image, that I might question.

Having said all that, I have usually been satisfied with Dell. I have had a few issues with their support but none as bad as yours. My last issue was getting a DVD-RW drive in my (warranted) laptop replaced. The CSR I spoke to was in India, but he was knowledgeable. After I gave him my symptoms, he immediately apologized, saying he knew it was a bad drive, and realized I was capable of dealing with the replacement, but that he would have to get me to run some test to satisfy his boss.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

I have not called Dell in over two years.
Online chat is the best way to deal with them.
There are no accents.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

rudeney said:


> I'm not defending DeltaFlower's attitude, but his/her info is correct. Any Dell OEM windows O/S disc will work on any Dell PC. As for legality and legitimacy, it is all on the up and up as long as you have a license for the O/S (i.e. the COA sticker on the PC). Several million Dell users have the same Microsoft product ID. It's OEM VLM and it's the way Microsoft does things, at least with XP. Now, as for the source of this supposed legitimate XP install disc image, that I might question.


I know that any Dell disc will work on any Dell PC, but I did not have a MCE 2005 disc laying around... and that's what he would like reinstalled on the computer.

I should have also clarified that the VP (his daughter) is not in a huge rush to get the computer back, as a new one was purchased for her for Christmas. Otherwise, I would have found a way to get a working PC back to them the next day. I merely posted this story for informational purposes, and to demonstrate their terrible customer service. It's a bit comical to me how long it's taking just to receive a simple restore disc. Had this been a more time crucial matter, I would not have let it drag out for this long.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

deltafowler said:


> I have not called Dell in over two years.
> Online chat is the best way to deal with them.
> There are no accents.


Their "gold" technical support is usually very good, but wasn't able to help me with this issue. They are North American based.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

roadrunner1782 said:


> That is just rediculous!!! I give you all the credit in the world for not flipping out cause I know I would have!! When I was just recently in the market for a new laptop I refused to buy a dell because i see the issue with them everyday at my job!!


I do my best to keep my cool when dealing with Customer Service (of any kind). You just have to keep in mind that the person you're dealing with isn't the one you're mad at... just the company they represent.  You also are more likely to get what you're looking for with a pleasant attitude.


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## mikep554 (Feb 14, 2007)

Dell Enterprise Gold support used to be awesome. I could call up with a failed hard drive in a RAID 5 array, and ten minutes later (including all hold time) have a new drive on the way, to be delivered within 4 hours. It usually went like:

Me:"I have a bad drive"
Tech:"What does the event log say"
Me:"1000 messages from the controller saying failed drive"
Tech:"I'll get a drive out to you"

Now, they have reworked their support. It is a nightmare to get anything out of them. Also, their warranty pricing has gone WAY up. We are pretty small potatoes, only buying about 3 or 4 $10,000 servers and 30 $1800 workstations a year. We used to LOVE Dell; now, not so much. We've been pricing HP and others to see what we can get for similar prices.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

I was good until the sales rep I dealt with went on to greener pastures. Now that I have all of the equipment I need, service is next to impossible. I need a refresh on my equipment, but I'm thinking of just getting a bunch of refurbs and continuing with the same Dimension stuff I already have. I've got a Ghost Image of my "Gold Standard" and it works on three different models, so I'll be my own service department from now on. Dell, meanwhile, gets no more of my business.


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

Dell has been a mixed bag for me. If I want to do things myself, Dell seems to work the best and I use chat too. But if I use their service for warranty items, it sucks huge.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Back in 2006, I purchased a brand new computer for my mother that was XP. I immediately Ghosted 2 disks.... the first one was just prior to the "first boot" screens, while the second one was with all the software installed and patched.

I did the same thing with my main box when I did a rebuild in April-May, 2007. Since this was a home build and (more importantly), _my box_, it's a custom install with a nLite XP install. After installing XP and installing all the patches, I made a Ghost image, and promptly forgot about it.

Flash forward to last weekend. I picked up a 1GB SD card for $2.90 to replace a old 128MB SD card for my GPS. (Yes, it was a impulse purchase along with a 200GB "scratch" drive for $50). However, the map software refuses to run with SP3. Fortunately, I had the scratch drive, grabbed the Ghost image of SP2, and was able to resolve the issue. I then promptly upgraded the image and software to the following FOUR images:
XP SP2/IE 6
XP SP2/IE 7
XP SP3/IE 6
XP SP3/IE 7
Now, about that Vista 64 install which I almost never use.... what version of Ghost can I use for images? Ghost 2003 (!) seems to have some issues.


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## SteveHas (Feb 7, 2007)

Use a Mac 
problem solved...


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

And a whole new set started... :lol::lol::lol:



SteveHas said:


> Use a Mac
> problem solved...


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

MikeW said:


> I was good until the sales rep I dealt with went on to greener pastures.


Mike,
I can connect you with a guy I deal with if you want.
He trains salespeople and he has been stellar for me and my customers, alwasy beating deals I've found elsewhere.
Send a PM if interested.


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## txtommy (Dec 30, 2006)

deltafowler said:


> I have not called Dell in over two years.
> Online chat is the best way to deal with them.
> There are no accents.


Same here. Very good experience with Chat in solving any problems that I've had.

We have 4 Dell computers, 2 purchased this Christmas. All 4 came with every disc needed to reinstall all software including the operating system for no extra cost.


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## xIsamuTM (Jul 8, 2008)

go to illwillpress.com and look up the tech support clips under "toons"


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

AirRocker said:


> I know that any Dell disc will work on any Dell PC, but I did not have a MCE 2005 disc laying around... and that's what he would like reinstalled on the computer.


Yeah, I understand that as MCE is "rare". I have a box full of Dell-branded Windows XP, Office, Vista O/S install discs at home. We have gone through several Dell PC's in our family and a few times when I've had something like a hard drive or DVD/CD ROM drive replaced, they send a whole new set of discs. That, combined with all my Microsoft Partner crap and other M$ freebies and I almost need a database to keep up with what belongs to which computer!



> I should have also clarified that the VP (his daughter) is not in a huge rush to get the computer back, as a new one was purchased for her for Christmas. Otherwise, I would have found a way to get a working PC back to them the next day. I merely posted this story for informational purposes, and to demonstrate their terrible customer service. It's a bit comical to me how long it's taking just to receive a simple restore disc. Had this been a more time crucial matter, I would not have let it drag out for this long.


Hey, here's an option, if you don't get satisfaction from Dell - just have the VP buy a copy of Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate).


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

deltafowler said:


> I have not called Dell in over two years.
> Online chat is the best way to deal with them.
> There are no accents.


You are right there! Their chat CSR even seem to be better qualified than the guys on the phone. I always wondered if it was because they were handling multiple chats where the phone reps are single-tasked, and therefore the reps on chat are more experienced.


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## Canis Lupus (Oct 16, 2006)

larryflowers - *slap*



LarryFlowers said:


> And a whole new set started... :lol::lol::lol:


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Interesting - Dell to move European workforce from Ireland to Poland
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dell-to-slash-Ireland-work-apf-14001080.html


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