Disenchanted with Dell
I’ve bought at least two dozen computers from Dell in the past five years. Three of them are still here in my office, including the PC I’m typing this post on and the server that runs my home network. I’ve lost count of the number of PCs I’ve bought from Dell for friends and neighbors.
In the past year, though, I’ve become increasingly disenchanted with Dell, thanks to support policies that have turned practically hostile. Last year I had to fight for months to get a $200 rebate that I was entitled to. I ordered a PC with this rebate and received paperwork indicating a purchase date that was several days after the actual date on which I bought the PC – and, not concidentally, after the date on which the rebate expired. I was one of many Dell customers who experienced this problem, a fact I uncovered thanks to the excellent Dell support forums. But Dell’s customer service representatives didn’t seem interested in this problem, and it took at least 10 phone calls, my blood pressure rising a few points with each one, to get the rebate. On the last call, the outsourced Dell rep tried valiantly to talk me into settling for 25 cents on the dollar. Nice try.
Last week I had another run-in with Dell. A good friend has a four-year-old Dell Dimension 4100 that still does everything she wants it to do. The trouble is, it has a case fan that sounds like it could qualify for a Nascar event. It’s so loud that you can literally hear it two rooms away when the door is closed. Needless to say, she now turns on the computer, does her online tasks, and then shuts down.
This is a known problem with the Dimension 4100, I learned from the Dell forums, and many people received replacement fans when they complained. Good for them, because the fan is a proprietary part, consisting of a plastic bracket containing a standard 92mm case fan. I have a spare fan, but there’s no way to remove the defective fan from the bracket without breaking the bracket into pieces, and there’s no easy way to attach a standard fan to the case (except by using duct tape or Super Glue).
I found the part number and tried to order a replacement from Dell. After hours on hold, I found that the part was out of stock. Three different reps promised to check on the part’s status and get back to me. None of them did. The last one I spoke to told me I was simply out of luck.
On my 12th call, after complaining loudly, I was transferred to a customer service representative who searched Dell’s worldwide inventory, found the part, and agreed to ship it to me, free of charge. That should have been the response on the first call.
It’s unfortunate when a manufacturer uses proprietary parts instead of standard parts. It’s worse when they don’t keep those parts in stock for the tens of thousands of customers who own those computers. And it’s practically unforgivable when they treat those customers like a nuisance instead of an asset.
I used to recommend Dell enthusiastically. I’m not sure I’ll do so again – and I know I’ll look carefully at my friendly local PC builder first.
52 Responses to Disenchanted with Dell
Part 2: The part has shipped. When we checked the website for the status of order it actually said NEXY DAY , it has no tracking number, status is saying processed but the arrival date is stating Jan 2. That does not sound like Next Day shipping to me. My cousin refuses to call Dell Cust Care hell back after being on the phone with them 3 hours the other night.
I agree with all of the above, a few years ago Dell service was great, now its the bottom of the barrel. For starts I ordered a laptop and gave them my address, it was supposed to be delivered within 10 days. After 2 weeks I called and found it had been delivered to an address I had used 5 years ago when I ordered a Dell Desktop for my father in a different state. When I asked how they had found that old delivery address they had no idea, I waited another 2 weeks and finally got the laptop, but the Netgear equiptment I ordered never came, I called and my fears were confirmed, it too had been sent out of State. I asked them to cancel it as I needed this asap, they said they did, but low and behold it was delivered and I was charged. I called and asked them to credit me and pick it up they gave me a case # and pick-up order # stating ups would pick-up on 11/4/05. Guess what I still have the part and now American Express is fighting with them for me. The wait time for phone help is crazy and yes I too have waited upto an hour, been on with a tech for two – three hours and then disconnected, only to have the whole process start again. Don’t buy a Dell and you won’t have to go to Dell Hell. I just bought an HP/Compaq, its great and the phone service is great. Dell got too big for its own good and they;re no longer customer friendly…. Sorry Dell but its the truth.
January 16, 2006 morning, ordered a Dell B110 with a free upgrade 17′ Flat Panel Monitor for $912.99. I guess, that should have sounded to good to be true. Everything went well, until the product was shipped to the wrong address by Dell’s distribution wareshouse at: 11550 Stone Hollow Drive, Austin, Texas. The UPS shipping label was correct but the contents in the box was wrong. I found a packing slip with this other guys computer info. Evidently, Dell sent me this guy Joseph’s computer which was NOT at all as good as the one I ordered. I called him up and left a message on his machine to call me back. He did and he said “that his name was on the box”. I said “Yes, it is going to be, because my name was on your box”. I told him to contact Dell the next day and I would do the same. I call Dell of the morning of 1/25/06. Dell made arrangements for DHL carrier to pick up the wrong box at my home, which DHL did, and took it to this guy Joseph home, but I was NOT ever given my correct box! As of today, 2/1/06, I have NOT received my computer that I paid with my credit card. I have called Dell at 1800wwwdell at least 10 times and they either hang up on me or transfer me back to the main menu to get another customer service rep that hangs up on me or tells me to call another number and that person tells me to call back to 1800wwwdell! I had to tell my story at least 12 times, only to get nothing resolved. Between my wife and I, we are very upset with Dell and from this horrible experience, we vow NEVER to purchase from Dell again! From seeing other letters from other folks, were going to write a letter to Michael Dell at the corporate headquarters in Texas and see if we can get the computer that we purchased. Obviously, this guy Joseph isn’t giving up our computer, and since its been 7 days, I wouldn’t be surprised if its been striped of my hard drive or missing something inside. Besides, I don’t want any problems with the warranties of the B110 computer. I just received a call from a Dell Supervisor. I’m suppose to get a replacement but isn’t that what the customer service rep told me before? I told the Supervisor, “okay, but I’m going to call back to customer service and find out if one has been order”. He said that he was going to work on it and hopefully by this weekend that it will shipped. Is this another stall tactic? Or if this Supervisor is on the level, I hope that they don’t do a RUSH job on my computer and its going to have defects. Don’t let this happen to you, do research on your item before buying. I plan to the next time! We have learned our lesson! Good Luck to you all that read this letter!
Okay so Dell really does suck! I’m only sorry I didn’t read these sites before I made my purchase. I bought an Inspiron 9300 in December. Everything was great. I had been a Dell customer for years, and had never had a problem with them. 40 days into my purchase my computer stopped working. It was as if it was just a prop. I called tech support, and after they decided it was really dead, they said they’d send a tech the next day. I never received a visit, but i did get a phone call that night asking me how the visit went. The next week was a haze of conversation after conversation with Dell reps that could not help me. After the tech (not a Dell employee) finally came, he saw that Dell had sent them the wrong piece. I waited another 2 days. The new pieces Dell sent were not the right pieces either. The technician actually told me that I shouldn’t have bought a Dell, he recommended several other companies that have been making better products these days. Macs and Toshibas. I called tech support for another round. A manager? finally came on the phone with me, I swear the “supervisors” are just other employees that they pass teh call to, they can never answer questions and hardly seems interested in anything you are saying, they do apologize profusely though, don’t they? The man I spoke with “Roy” was no help either, I had wanted an exchange at first, but by this point I wanted a refund. His final say was ” As you know sir, we are in the Phillipines, and unfortunately I can’t be of any further help to you” What the heck does his global location have to do with him helping me? It was at this point I developed a sudden dislike of outsourcing. . . I have never had a problem with it, no opinion I guess, but man its completely deteriorated Dell’s standards of customer care. “Roy” promised me a call from a US representative, but its been a week and I have yet to hear from anyone, and my computer is still dead. Yes I am suspending the payment of the computer until I get to speak to an actually representative, even if I have to drive to Texas to do so. By the way, I bought a Mac and even though the system takes some getting used to, its really user friendly, and I recommend it. Good luck to all of you on your respective Dell created hells.
I love my DELL… the support is good…
I recommend you to buy HP rather than this lemon dell system.
Dell Indian Tech Support SUCKS!
Go TEAM Philippines
I will never own any Dell products. I tried to. Placed the order by phone, spoke at great length with the seller about what I wanted; even made him repeat the order back to me stating all the specific components I wanted my new computer to have. The computer arrived lacking a CD-RW. Then true Dell-hell began.
Phone calls to the company were 1 to 1 1/2 hours each time and were basically unproductive. It quickly became obvious to me that Dell’s error was my sole responsibility to repair, my time, my effort, my endless hours on the phone on hold.
End result, my frustration level quickly rose to new and sad heights. I yelled and screamed, I became uncivilized, someone I hope never to see again. I cancelled the order and, finally, after more too-long phone calls much more screaming and yelling, obtained authorization numbers to return the computer. Dell reps informed me that I would have to pay the shipping costs (to me and back to them) myself and would not be reimbursed. I was so furious with them by that time I would have paid whatever it took to cut the ties that bound me to them.
I shipped the computer back, wrote a three page letter to the president of the company, accepted the loss of money and washed my hands of the whole thing. So many companies and businesses I deal with, locally and otherwise conduct customer service and sales courteously, quickly and without wasting my time, I will no longer patronize any that won’t.
End result, three months later I get a phone call from a Dell rep. I swear she heard my teeth clenching over the phone as I struggled to remain civilized while speaking to her. Dell reimbursed me for my shipping costs. Thank you, Dell. That too-long-delayed act restored a little credibility and integrity for them. But then they reimbursed me again; I returned the second reimbursement with a polite letter. They reimbursed me again after that and I shredded that check. Never Again!
Dell is EVIL and WONDERFUL… depending on who you are. Order through the “home” line and it’s horrible. If you work for an IT company or are aresseller who buys in bulk… they rock. At the office i work for, I can buy low cost computers and get things MOVING with my Dell rep. But I can’t believe the horror stories I hear when it comes to single PC purchaces. These peole should be lined up and shot. Dell tech support absolutely sucks. …but the sun is shining if you’re a reseller or a bulk buyer. I hate you Dell. I love you Dell.
Dell has received their last dime from me as far as I’m concerned. I have purchased two computers from them in the past five years and am extremly unhappy with their performaces. As soon as one attempts to upgrade at any level on a Dell, the craziness insues. Trying to get support from Dell is laughable, trying to get support from someone who speaks English as a native language is improbable. I think the big wigs at Dell ought to stop lining their pockets with all that saved money from farming out there customer service calls to India and pay attention to their consumer’s needs. I have spent countless hours on the phone trying to receive tech support that I PAID for and nobody seemed to know what the heck was going on. Each time I called in, the previous representative had made NO notation. I changed my address with Dell no less than 8 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one ever updated my address and it still remains the old address to this day. It was like some insane customer service nightmare!!! I FINALLY, quite by accident, realized if I kept calling and calling and calling, I may just get a Rep out of Candida and that, for awhile, was my saving grace. At least I could understand what they were saying. I feel that the India reps have no grasp of the English language and are very poorely trained. I purchased my Dell here in the US – What’s more…when you buy a Dell, the Reps speak English clearly, and are as helpful as can be. I Hate You Dell.
I never even got my notebook, but I did see the box in the hands of the ups driver, as he attempted delivery, that I had to refuse because Dell had tried the “bait and switch” scheme on me, that they are being sued for on the west coast by multiple purchasers, who are sick of their techniques. I ordered, after being “baited” by a print ad in my local newspaper, an Inspiron b130, with the configuration I needed, for $499, but was invoiced $899, the full price. I called in the order, my mistake, rather than placing an online order. Evidently, Dell doesn’t honor the sale price in the print ad, unless you order the item online, none of which is stated in the ad. So after the multiple “customer service” assemblyline confrontations, and offers of 15%off, free printers, $50 “coupons”, I had to cancel my order. Now, I am mad, and I contact the clown who had actually sold me the thing, and after a few rounds with him, and being told that the $499 price was for a lesser-equipped machine, which was nowhere-to-be-found in the print ad, I get him to admit he had not done his job very well, and he was in round rock, not in bangladesh. So, I hope to get my card credited in full, and go on with my original plan to get a toshiba. When you peer over the edge of the pit, and look down into dell hell, remember the ground is crumbly….
I would like to share a recent visit to Dell Hell that is memorable in a very negative sense.
I maintain PC’s as a large portion of my income, so I try to keep up and keep an open mind when a system has problems.
I was called on this week to check out a new Dell Dimension B110. The complaint was no video. I went to the customer’s home and began diagnostics.
The machine was acting rather strange, so I attempted to isolate the problem. It appeared there was a video or processor problem. As I worked with the machine, I really believed there may have been a processor failure.
I got Dell on the phone speaking with an Indian female who had a hard time communicating. She was nice, but was very language impaired.
I identified myself s a service technician and trainer on PC’s and Windows and reviewed the steps I had already taken. 45 minutes into the conversation she asked me where I had the monitor plugged in on the back of the tower. I simply lost it! I told her I am not a rube, I do this for a living and I expect to not be treated like a moron. I asked for a supervisor. Time passes, passes, finally a supervisor (male, Indian) picks up. He does treat me with more respect, but then puts me through a series of hand stands that takes all told 129 minutes, 16 seconds on the phone.
The disposition reached was the monitor had failed, shorted in the 5V circuits and had threw the PC into basically a failure mode similar to processor failure.
OK, I am fine with that. Now lets get a monitor shipped out. Well, wait there is a problem! This PC was a gift (brand new in the box, I set it up 3 months ago). Dell required the name of the ORIGINAL orderer to process the replacement monitor. Problem is, this was a gift through a promotion with one of the Auto Auctions my customer buys cars through (he is a used car dealer). Well, now, after over 2 hours on the phone now we must call customer support and transfer ownership. Well, that process took the better part of an hour more, then when we were transferred back to Tech support to get the case number released to finally ship the replacement monitor, there was a problem AGAIN. The support person wanted the original purchaser’s phone nmumber to look up the replacement. I saw red again. The support person became very defensive and abusive telling me I was getting too excited.
Finally after much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth and 190 minutes total on the phone with Dell, they relented and agreed to ship the monitor.
Dell has had a reputation of quality and service, but at this point with Micheal Dell saying 30000 more jobs will go to India to support Dell products, not only will I NOT recommend Dell, I am going on a one man crusade to prevent my customers from buying ANYTHING more from Dell.
Do yourself a favor, go to a reputable local computer assembler and have him use off the shelf standard products and build you a machine. You have a much better chance that way than with DELL!
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook computer last June. I connect it to a video projecter with an s-video cable to project images during church services. It worked great until a few months ago when I hooked it up and turned it on to only have black & white images from the projector. The projector has color when connected to other devices. My computer has color when connected to a projecter through another port. After trying a lot of different things that did not fix the problem and talking/emailing with Dell reps, they decided my s-video port was bad and they would replace it (under warrenty). I sent it back and got it back this week. Wouldn’t you know it, when I hooked it up for the first time yesterday, I still have black and white on the projector. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with tech support yesterday. Of course, I had to repeat my story again. This is only about the 12th time answering all the same stupid questions they ask. Of course, each time there is a little bit different accent from the person on the other end. I had to repeat things several times because of the language issue. They finally said they would replace my system board again and also my video card this time. I must send my computer back and do without it for another week to 10 days. My frustration is with the difficulty of being able to get through to a human being and when you finally do, the person has difficulty with English. I own a Dell Desktop we bought about 4 years ago that has served us well, my son has a Dell desktop that he has had good service from, I convinced my father to buy a Dell, and my mother-in-law, as well, my but unless they make some compensation for me in this case, my family has bought their last Dell Computer. the headache with this one has not been worth it.
There is hope for Dimension 4100 users plagued by fan noise:
I have been having a similar noise issue with my Dell Dimension 4100 fan. The PC was used for 5 years (still working, and going onto its 6th year of operation). The fan could be heard from rooms away!
Today I managed to replace the fan with a generic 90 mm case fan. Contrary to this journal entry, the fan is NOT a proprietary part, and is not fixed physically to the plastic enclosure. A flat-headed screwdriver can be used to pry the fan out of it, which reveals 4 small plastic “pegs” that the fan simply snaps onto. (The pegs insert into the 4 holes on any generic 90 mm case fan). The fan-enclosure assembly then attaches back onto the case.
The new fan costed me only 5 dollars CDN from a small downtown computer parts store, and the system now runs absolutely silently.
Dell Hell now includes Dell Fraud:
I recently purchased an XPS 400 from Dell (my seventh Dell computer). One of the purchase options, for an added cost, was installation of the new XPS and removal of the purchaser’s old computer. I selected this option, not for the installation service, but rather for the removal and environmentally safe disposal of my old Dell computer. California (the state in which I live) has very wise and strict environmental laws on the disposal of environmentally unfriendly products such as computers.
Dell charged my credit card for its advertised removal service and charged my card as well for the appropriate California disposal tax. That all seemed quite reasonable to me. On the appointed day, the Dell contract installer/disposer came to complete his functions. After completing the installation, a simple task that anyone even mildly experienced with computers could easily complete, he then informed me that he was not authorized to remove my old computer in accordance with my Dell purchase contract. Rather, Dell had included in my XPS 400 shipping box two completed DHL mailing labels. The Dell contract person informed me that I was responsible for installing my old computer in the packaging in which my new XPS 400 was shipped and then for packing the boxes with my old computer with the care that was required for DHL to accept them for shipment.
My old Dell computer had a monitor that was about 12 inches deep. My new XPS 400 had a flat screen monitor. I pointed out to the Dell technician that it was physically impossible, because of the very different monitor sizes, to insert my old monitor into the thin box in which my new flat screen was shipped. He readily agreed that it was impossible. He further stated that many of his Dell customers faced this problem.
The Dell removal promise is in fact a fraud for which purchasers are charged but Dell subsequently refuses to undertake. For the reasons stated above, it is impossible to comply with Dell’s instructions to place the old computer components into the new shipping packaging.
I was forced to pay to have a local disposal firm remove my old computer. I continue to retain the two totally useless DHL shipping labels that Dell sent to me to remind me never to purchase another computer from Dell.
Just got off the phone with Dell customer support — at this point I put them on speaker phone for the entertainment of anyone in the office listening in. I have logged in over 12 hours — spoken to every single department twice — and filed an online trouble ticket 3 times. I think where Dell really saves money isn’t in the outsourcing of customer service … but the fact that ultimately the majority give up, let themselves be ripped off and move on. How many lost consumers does it take to ruin a company? Unfortunately for those of use hoping for a bankrupt Dell, they apparently take extremely good care of the large corporate clients. The home and small business users of the world are just out of luck.
I ordered a Dell laptop 8 weeks ago today for £800. It still hasn’t arrived. I have contacted Dell by email and on the phone on literally 32 separate occasions to find out why it hasn’t been delivered when the money left my account weeks ago. I have been lied to, cut off, transferred, told they had lost my payment record … I cannot believe how AWFUL their customer service is and am APPALLED by the treatment I have recieved. I have written to the BBC Watchdog programme to complain and intend to take the matter up with the UK Office for Fair Trading. If you want to buy a laptop don’t buy Dell!
I found this post by searching Google for “why is my dell so loud.” I too have bought Dells many times, mostly at work. Their Optiplex line is a workhorse and I have never had issues with them. This Dimension though, seems cursed. I can not even listen to music on this computer. I have the exact same issue. I recommend Dell to everyone, but it is the last time. Dealing with their support on this issue and it never being resolved is enough for me.
I found this site when I googled “Dell D810 Noisy Fan”
I have to say I’ve never contacted Dell home support or sales. I work for an IT dept and we use dell laptops and servers and their Latitude laptops and Poweredge servers and support have been great. I have a Dell D810 that has a fan noise issue when the unit gets up to operating temp. I called Yesterday at around Noon and they said the part would be orderd and a technician would call me the next day to schedule repair. He called the next morning at 8:30am and said he had the part and wanted to schedule time for the repair. As of right now at 2:30 he is here fixing the unit now.
Just like other manufacturers there is a consumer model and a business model. The Dimension and Inspiron are light use cheaply made systems. The Latitude, Optiplex, and Precision systems are the higher class standardised business machines desinged to give years of service without failure. Compaq also had this scenerio, the Presario line where junk, but the Deskpro series where workhorses that you installed and almost never had to go back to them.
I remember 8-10 years ago you bought a PC and automatically got the highest level of service. Which you expected because you paid a couple thousand dollars for the system. Now that the manufactureres have been pushed into providing these cheap and affordable systems one area that is easy to cut is warranty and service. These are now sold as upgrades to the systems. When we buy a server we don’t settle for basic service we upgrade to gold service which gives us a dedicated support number to bypass all the first line support folks and a 4 hour response time. Sure on a laptop or desktop it may add $350 to the price to get that but if you depend on it it’s a small price to pay. So you get what you pay for, that support cost used to be built into the price but now is an option. They have actually had to downgrade areas of their support infrastructure to handle the calls from the people who only opted for basic service. In the old days you would have been put directly to what is now 2nd teir support.
I bought a dell dimension with up grades. after a week or two the thing started freezing up, I called support and explained that computer froze and the mouse would no move the cursor, so they sent me a new mouse. 2 weeks and 84 1/2 hours later of troubleshooting on my end , with them it still freezes and I had to scream and swear at a esclation agent to get them to send me a new computer. we did soft restore, hard restore ( loose data) , reformated the drives, removed partitions and reformated the entire drive, added just thier software, still froze. india support sucks, phillipene support much better, but if they paid me 10 bucks an hour for my time, the would mowe me a computer and more. the final straw I tell the escalation specialist I amd disabled and am not supposed to lift things, she says just pull the machin out and swap memory sticks, I tell her I am disabled and really should not ben or lift the computer, she say it will only take a minute, so I do, and drop the memory stick under the mother board, and end up holdiong the computer over my head to shake the stick loose, then she finally says , after I yell at her about my back and the crappy treatment, she will send me a replacement computer,
don’t buy dell computers, their service is a joke. and I have built computers in the past, but they say,no, we have to do this first….
DON’T BUY DELL