Dell Customer Service... (2 Viewers)

[Todd Stout]

...SUCKS!
Okay... I feel better now.
Whatever happened to customer service? I just got off the phone with Dell Tech Support and Dell Customer Service which didn't do anything for me but piss me off.
I called Dell tech support to once again try and get some assistance in fixing the CD-RW drive that no longer works properly since upgrading to WinXP a few months ago (see the link below). After running through the usual questions once again I was told that they were sorry but there was nothing they could do at this time. I was told yet again that they would look into my problem and get back to me. Good thing I didn't hold my breath after they told me that over a month ago. The woman I spoke with suggested I log a complaint with their customer service department and gave me the extension number.
THAT'S where I have a major problem. The guy that answers the phone immediately takes a defensive position with me as soon as I can utter the word "problem." He somewhat snidely says, "We don't deal with problems here, that's Tech Support's area." So I have to explain to him that Tech Support gave me that extension to log a complaint and I hear the same thing out of his mouth yet again. He must have told me that "problems" are not his area and that I need to contact Tech Support about 10 times during the course of this conversation. I really started getting pissed at this guy so I asked, "Why did Tech Support give me this extension if you can't do anything for me? He responded, "Sir, I can probably give you an idea." Before he could finish (figuring he was going to make a remark about MY attitude), I interrupted him and said, "NO... I was not pissed off at all until I got on the phone with you. THAT IS NOT WHY THEY GAVE ME YOUR EXTENSION." Anyway, he ended up telling me he logged a complaint about Tech Support and not even about my problematic CD-RW drive. What a waste of time. That guy was really pushing my buttons and really has no business working a customer service job.
I thought the whole idea of Customer Service was to allow people with problems with a product an outlet to complain and hopefully get the problem resolved. In Dell's case, it appears to be a place to instigate arguments with customers in a very defensive tone and piss them off into telling 100 of their closest friends that Dell sucks. Boy... if that's the case, it worked.
Hopefully I don't sound like I'm whining or anything but I'm really ticked off and I needed to vent.
Original CD-RW problem thread

 

[Dennis Reno]

Todd,
Its not a whine, its the truth. In 1996 I purchased a Dell with the extended 3 years on-site warranty. Two years later it locked up. Re-booting did nothing. Dell support spent hours on the phone with me. Turns out a storage device (anyone remember the SparQ drives?) was the cause of the problem. It was not a Dell problem, it was a Dennis problem. When we discovered that I asked the tech how much I would be billed for the hours of trouble shooting. His answer was "Nothing, that's what we are here for."
Fast forward to this week. A co-workers laptop HD crashes. The laptop also has the extended warranty. We try several times to boot with no luck. We contact Dell and tell them our problem. After spending nearly 45 minutes trying to get the PC to boot (which we knew it wouldn't do) they inform us that we have to remove the HD. We flip it over to find super tiny screws that have been stripped. No one has ever touched the HD, it was shipped that way. When we explain the situation, the Dell rep tells us that unless we remove the HD and give him the serial number he can not help us. We tell him again that the screws are stripped, that they must have been shipped during assembly. He tells us that Dell will not take responsibility for that. According to him our only option is to ship the notebook to Kentucky to have the screws tapped out! At our expense!
We finally, using brute force (including a rubber mallet, small steel screwdriver and a large pair of pliers) were able to remove the HD. Dell did ship us a replacement, but we have spent 6 hours loading all the software back onto it

 

[Todd Stout]

In the process of trying to get this problem resolved I have wasted countless hours on the phone with Dell and also on the PC trying to get the CD-RW drive to work properly after upgrading to XP (the upgrade was even purchased through Dell as a special $20 upgrade offer). This PC is still under warranty, everything is OEM (including the XP Home install CD) and now my drive doesn't work. I asked tech support if they could replace the drive with one from another manufacturer and they said no, it has to be the same drive. Well that won't do me any good, both drives I've had included the same firmware and had the same problem. The drive just does not work properly under WinXP.

I guess I'll just have to "step up to the plate" and buy a new drive. This whole expeience with Dell has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I'd think twice (or three or four times) before I bought anything from them again.

 

[Michael*K]

A friend of mine told me today that he called Dell yesterday because his machine was locking up at the end of the boot process. The customer service rep said that he'd research it and call back. He did...after midnight! My friend was SO pissed off. Not only did he and his wife freak at someone calling at that hour, the tech wasn't even able to provide advice to get the machine running.

 

[DanaA]

You most certainly are not whining. You're telling it like it is and poor customer service appears endemic in our society today. I'm spending a lot more time considering how companies treat customers before spending my cash now. Fortunately, there are still some companies that reach out to make their customer's happy, but, sadly, it's not as commonplace now as it once was.