I’ve been in computer misery for the past two days, ever since my brand new Dell computer arrived. Suffice it to say that it took 10 hours to transfer the data from the old to the new. Then I had to re-load a dozen or more programs, personalize the desktop, get my cookies back on all my subscriptions, etc. etc. And my address book is still nowhere to be found.
And today the CD/DVD drive acted up, necessitating a call to Dell Gold Tech Support. The first tech said he doubted that anything was really wrong with the drive and suggested that the problem was really caused by a bad Quicken disk. I bought a $40 upgrade of Quicken, which I didn’t want or need, and was able to download the program.
Hours later, the CD drive would neither read nor write and I called tech support again. The second guy did an hour’s worth of diagnostics on the drive and decided that, as I’d said this morning, it needs to be replaced.
15 Minutes Too Late to Honor Next Day Service
However, since I was on the phone with him until 5:15 p.m., it was now too late for Dell to ship out the drive in time for it to be installed on Wednesday. It would have to wait — despite me paying through the nose for next day on-site service — until Thursday. So at the end of the 4th hour of being on the phone with Dell today, I lost it.
Not Good Enough
I told a customer service supervisor that they simply have to compensate me for my time; for the total incompetence of the first tech; for the ridiculousness of the second tech not ordering the drive before 5 when it was clear there was a problem. There needs to be some consequence when a customer is put through this type of runaround.
So Dell is sending me a digital camera to make me feel better (don’t know how many pixels) but the damn service guy won’t be here until Thursday. But I don’t feel better because my computer still isn’t working properly. Proof of my theory: you can’t get what you want even when you pay for it.
This is what passes for customer service these days. Astounding that Dell is still number one.
Dell Tech Support Sucks
BL Ochman | February 1, 2005 | Permanent Link | Comments (20) | TrackBack (
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Categories: Business Communications, Case Studies, Commentary, Don't Believe the Hype, Marketing Strategy, Worst Practices
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B.L.,
I just went through a similar situation evening with BellSouth. I have two lines at my house and they sent me a bill for the second one (which is bundled into the first) for X dollars. I called last night, the guy told me they’d never received any monies in spite of the fact that my bank had already debited the account two weeks ago, so I had to call them again tonight.
Turns out they had applied my money to a “inactive” phone number/account. Basically, took my money, didn’t apply it to the bill, and claimed they’d never received it. Only when I called them back tonight did they acknowledge what they’d done – take the money and not credit my “other” line, which was included in the same bill anyhow.
I feel your pain.
It’s scary how much pain consumers have!
Won’t dell be surprised when “Dell Customer Servcice Sucks” shows up in top search engine results in a few days! :>)
I write a computer column for an area newspaper and I’ve been getting emails from people complaining in the same manner about Dell and their customer support. I think more people need to be warned about them.
Send it back
Dear BL,
I really wonder what you were trying to achieve by writing a blog about dell’s “(in)/competent” Tech Support. May be if you can explain your situation to me, i think i can help with your computer.
Comming to your cookies…etc etc etc….
all that all you had to do was take an image of your old hard drive and placed it in the new hard drive. and i am sure DELL DOES NOT TRAIN ITS TECHS TO MAKE A IMAGE. the reason being dell does not offer a imaging software.
about your addressbook…you always get to archive all your mails and address books no matter what software you use for your mails. and if you do not know how to use that…”i will be more than glad to walk you through the process for you…”
you cannot transfer your cookies reason: the cookies are specific to a particular computer+user+your network card type+ the time you last accessed.
But all i can say is ….you got a good deal on the whole since you also got a digital camera…..
i guess this is a good strategy to fool a big company ….coz 99% of the times the DVD/CD Rom drives do not fail.
looking fwd for your post…
~Jay
Consumers may spring for the latest online deal from companies like Dell. But you always get why you pay for. Why not support your local Computer store, you could even bring in your old computer and have them assists you with the change-over.
These types of bad experiences will always occur in mass market cheap goods. But as we see, “cheap” things many require an expensive investment of time at a later date.
So many middle and lower market consumers frequent mass market chains then complain about it. Why not spend a little more up front for personalized service?
Dealing with Dell is like dealing with traffic court, motor vehicles, a 50-person line waiting for the one bathroom, the cruise ship flu and food poisoning… all while watching a horrible car accident.
The worst, the worst, the worst and even “worser than worst” f—ing service one could possibily receive for anything, anywhere. I am doing my best to tell everyone I know to do business with anyone other than Dell…. it won’t make a dent, but at least it will give me some satisfaction for all the wasted time. Here’s a copy of another note I just posted….
“I’m worn out trying to deal with Dell’s ineptitude. Absolutely the worst service I’ve ever experienced… Dell service makes motor vehicles look like the Ritz. I wish I could laugh it off, but after over 30 hours of frustration with an endless list of incompetent people unable or unwilling to take responsibility for anything, I resorted to seeking any platform for making others aware of how poorly Dell responds to any problem. Any price is worth buying from any company other than Dell. If you see computers being sold out of the back of a truck, jump on it before risking a purchase from Dell. As far as my experience, I wish Michael had done anything other than sucker me into buying his equipment.
Please pass this along to anyone and everyone that might expect any service along with a computer purchase.”
I can certainly understand your frustration. Bad service really sucks, and it’s sad how often a company is represented (like in this case) by one (or a few) bad employees.
Personally, I’ve always had incredible service with Dell, so could be just the luck of the draw with techs.
The question to me, however, is whether Dell is better or worse than any other large company doing similar things. Would you say that Dell is alone in the problems, and that someone like HP would never give you problems like this?
I have to say though, while the computer might not have been fixed right away, giving you a digital camera to make up for it (and I assume still coming up a day later than expected) is a pretty good deal.
Hope things are working again!
Don’t get me started about HP! Customer service in general is in a sorry state. Glad your experience has been good.
And yes, it’s all working now.
BL
I had a real laugh when I read that transfer data took 10 hours. And you’re expecting to be everything the same on new computer like on old one. Come on! Give me a break!
I’m computer pro for more than 7 years and changing computer is like changing home. It will never be the same! If you want it to have the same desktop, same windows installed, same software – don’t change it or spend 2 days or more to configure as the old one.
People, stop expecting something which never can be done.
Regards,
Mike
I was justified, if further frustrated, when reading the problems others have had with Dell Computers. Upon receipt of my new Insprion Laptop, I spent no less than 5 hours on the phone with tech support. I’m certainly no techie expert, but I’m not a total novice either. So, as I’m following the step-by-step “try this” instructions of Mr. Tech Support, I realize that he’s explaining to me how to reformat my hard drive to get my new computer to work. Yes, you heard me correctly – reformat. You know – that “Are you sure you want to delete everything on your disk (you idiot)?” command. Fortunately, I knew enough to ask the question. As I’d already installed quite a bit on my new system, it sent up a red flag. As it turns out, that was the only way. So, having my new system for 1 day, I booted up, checked it out for an hour, spent 5 hours talking to God-only-knows-where-tech-support, reformatted the system, then spent another two hours reinstalling everything a second time. Now, I will say that I haven’t had problems since then. But I don’t know that I’d call Dell’s Tech Support even if I did. I hate to think of what I would have done had the problem come up later when I had a hard drive full of files.
Yes , HP support sucks too! They have the worst customer service, they refuse to honor their warrenty on computers still clearly under warrenty and their solution to all computer troubles or issues is to wipe it out and start fresh again. They refuse to look at your system to make a diagnosis and they basically just want you off the phone. Oh, another thing, don’t bother asking for their managers, they dont have them. Not one person we spoke to including their QA dept. has a manager. Another crappy company who doesn’t care about the consumers who bought their product.
The long and short of this story is my 7 month old computer won’t boot. It’s in a loop. No safe mode, no any mode, it just wont boot. This all happened one lovely day in October 2005 when I decided to start my computer so that I could use it. Crazy, I know, hitting the “on” button can certainly stress out a machine, but I did it anyway. So it starts to boot and them “whamo” it freezes up. Huh, thats weird. So I do what most people do, I hit “ctrl,alt,delete” to get it to reboot. Yah, well that was the beginning and the end of it. It’s now stuck in this loop that won’t boot in any mode.
We called HP Tech Support. We’ve spoken to 5 people now. All of them say just wipe it out. That’s all the warrenty covers. Nobody wants to look at it to see if they can fix it without losing my data, that’s way out of the question. They have no trouble with us taking it to one of their “authorized service centers” – Best Buy – and paying out the nose for them to look at it but they themselves at HP have no interest in the customer, service or holding up their warrenty. They happily offered us the option to buy a warrenty upgrade which we promply asked “Why in gods name would I pay anymore money to you people when you cant honor the warrenty we have now”???
Here’s something you guys will love too, the QA guy, Darren, said he didn’t even own an HP, he built his own computer. What does that tell you? Their own employees don’t buy their crap, So why should we??
Another side note: eMachines has ranked higher in Customer Support in Consumers Reports than HP. eMachines??? Can you believe that?
Powerbook or Powertank?
Scott Stevenson, purchased a Powerbook from Apple, he literally beat the living daylights out of it, and it works. He says that the airport express card works, and that it still boots. Obviously by the picture you can tell the LCD or optical…
The Apple Blog on ABC News
Seems we just can’t get out of the news. Today ABC News published an article that included a few words by yours truly.
“For someone who’s hesitant to make the switch to Mac and OS X, this is just another reason to make it mor…
That is it? You got all huffy and pissy because it was after 5:00? Not good enough? Compensated???? WTF?? Who the hell are you? I had to take my computer back to where I bought it and wait over a week for them to replace a video card, and you are getting bent out of shape over an extra day? Damn you are spoiled, I want your life. You have a little French maid bringing you tea and cookies as well?
Alan: It was early in the morning when I called about the problem. The non-English speaking person who refused to honor my Gold next-day on-site service contract caused me to have to re-purchase software I already had when the problem was that the DVDR drive was defective.
I escalated the call up to management by making several calls and wasting an entire day of my billable time. And when I finally got to someone who could actually do something and who spoke intelligible English, THAT’S when i was told it was too late for them to honor the contractl
The point is, the first so-called tech support person to whom I spoke was so totally clueless that he had no idea what to do. So he blew me off. But, since my business relies on my computer, and since I had just spent several thousands dollars on a new Dell, I persisted.
You’re damn right I expect to be compensated. When someone screws up there have to be consequences. And the only way that will happen is if people call them on it.
Thousands of Dell customers have had the same or worse experiences than mine. I paid for on-site service. If you had to take your computer somewhere to get it fixed, you didn’t.
And no I don’t have a French maid. I have a handsome houseboy to bring me bons bons. :>)
I had the same or worse issue with dell. Two weeks after recieving the computer, it went dead on me. It wont power up or do anything. I spent hours and hours to get tot the right person. Tech support told me that comp should be replaced because it was two weeks old then eveytime I get transferred I will disconnect. Then I atleast half an hour to get to customer service and they told me to contact tech support with this issue and again I was transferred and disconnected. This went on for atleast 10 times, about 2 days pissed about this. Finally a tech support walk me tru on opening the computer and diagnosting it. I build computer before and I dont want to deal with this. I didnt really have a choice, and really pissed me off because I dont think they have the wrong diagram. After twenty minutes I finally able to convinced the tech support that she has the wrong diagram. Lots of things were out of the machine and he wants me to pull the cpu out of the motherboard, and this the time I went berzerk. And finally they agreed to send a third party to check out the computer. Motherboard was replaced after a day Im on the same situation again and freaking computer is friend. Another 3-4 days of pissed and tryin to get some help on freakin by now 3 week old computer. Finally able to talk to someone, this time american accent not foreign and they said they replaced the motherboard and power supply. I told them the tech only replaced the MB not the PWS. They argue with me and I told this doesnt make any difference because of my 3 week old lemon computer is freaking busted. Same tech came after 1 week and replaced the MB and PWS. The computer is now working. I WILL NEVER EVER BUY THERE PRODUCT AGIN I PROMISED MYSELF. I was back on the site today and I forgot username and password. So I created a new one. But unfortunately it wont let me use my credit card. LISTEN TO THIS, THE TECH SUPPOST IS TELLING ME I NO LONGER HAVE SOFTWARE SUPPORT ON MY COMPUTER THATS WHY HE CANT HELP ME WITH MY LOGIN ISSUE WITH DELL DOT COM WEBSITE. I would probably need to buy software support for someone to assist me with my log in in there website. jerk…..
DELL TECH SUPPORT SUCKS. ITS OUTSOURCED TO INDIA.
IF YOUR TECH SUPPORT CANT READ,WRITE & COMPREHEND ENGLISH, WHAT GOOD ARE THEY ??
AND THERE IS NO TECH SUPPORT IN THE U.S , WHERE MOST OF THE PRODUCTS ARE SOLD.
How much do I need to live in Bangkok per month at average condition? Since I am moving to Bangkok to work from July, I would like to know the minimum expenses I need to live in the city per month, including housing, transportation, food, traveling, etc. Is $450/ month enough to rent a condo? I am also looking for a place near the skytrain or mrt to live, if you know any pls let me know. My office is on Sukhumvit road. Thank you!
Well I never thought it would be me. Im a brand loyalty person, like American cars, but buy Sony tvs, and up to last year always bought Dells. I have a company with 7-12 employees and 12-16 computers and a server. Always told people to buy dells. Problems started 2 yrs ago wanted to replace my server, they totally never followed up on a potential 15k sale! Bought a different server. Put almost 4k down on a dell precision laptop M6600 with next day pro support since I don’t want down time on my personal computer. What a disappointment. Had resume and video card problems, they eventually sent a tech to replace the mother board. Problems again in about a year. took about 30 minutes and about 4-5 phone transfer to even get to pro support. THey note this time there was a known problem with compatibility with the AMD graphics, 2 tech days later, and another set of motherboard, processor and graphics card change, its off to the depot now. This time more delays as they investigate a “liquid spill” which apparently in two days of work the tech in my office and I saw no evidence of. Tried to resolve this but after telling me this just today, they cant get the depot any communication till Monday,
Former extremely loyal Dell Customer, Buying an MSI tonight, whatever that is. Maybe I’ll be a future