i’ve fell in dell hell already and i don’t even have the laptop yet.

Dell builds in Texas because of Texas’ 38% rule (To be sold as “NEW” in Texas, the product MUST contain a minimum of 38% NEW unused parts. The remainder of the parts may be “pulls” or refurbished parts!!!!!)

Bruce

p.s. An added thought. Don’t you think it’s kind of funny that if you call Dell to buy something, you get someone that sounds like a regualr rosy-cheeked, red-blooded American? But then when you need help you’re lucky if you can even understand what they’re saying? I’m guessing if Dell used the same approach to sales that they do to customer service they’d be in Chapter 11 by now.

I bought 3 Dell laptops at one time. One for me and one for each of my two children. The first mistake I made was that I paid CASH for them. DON’T EVER PAY CASH TO DELL. You have no recourse once you do. Well, I didn’t like my computer as soon as I got it. I told her that I need to click and go, but you would click and wait and wait and wait, and then finally — no, wait, and wait, and wait, then maybe — no, wait, and wait, and wait — yes, finally it got there. Well, that’s not click and be there. I wanted to return it for a better model. NO, the people in India would not have it. After one year, we have replaced the hard drive, replaced the keyboard, replaced screws, replaced rubber pieces, replaced the power cord — and I’m sure we’re not done yet because I have another three years of service (lucky me). But this is the good part of my story.

When I needed the keyboard, power cord and screws and rubber pieces, that took a 1-1/2 hour conversation to — you guessed it — India. Then it took another 8 phone calls and two on-line conversations and — you guessed it — I still don’t have what I need. But they are “so, sorry,” (and you hear the words, “so, sorry” more than anything else and I can’t tell you how many times you get to hear them say that). But you haven’t heard the best one yet. The reason they tell me that I didn’t get my parts is — and this is good — because the computer system that Dell utilizes has a glitch in it that deletes part of the order, so they will have to order it again — and again — and again — etc. I sincerely believe this is Dell’s way to avoiding honoring the warranty by not sending me what I ordered and then thinking that I might go away.

Now what do you think these parts cost? Well, the keyboard is $10.95. The power cord runs about the same. But the screws and rubber pieces make up the bulk of the $228. I don’t even believe that for a second. Lucky for me it’s under warranty? I really have some accounting issues with this one.

How about last week when I called Dell because my daughter’s laptop wasn’t able to connect to the internet. I spent a very lengthy time online (3 hours), and eventually was told that I would have to reinstall windows. Well, Dell doesn’t send you that disk with your computer, so you have to WAIT until they ship it. (I think they believe that maybe you’ll never need it while your computer is under warranty and then by the time you do, your warranty will expire and you can BUY it from them. I have an issue with not getting a disk for EVERYTHING they have on my computer because after all, I PAID for it.) One disk shipped to me took 4 days (but I got a keyboard overnight – go figure!!) Then I called to install it because I couldn’t figure out how to do the “repair.” Well, this guy (from India) took me through part of it, (you see, the first time it asks you if you want to “repair” or “reinstall,” you have to tell it “reinstall” and then later you tell it to “repair.” Makes no sense to me but I think that’s a Microsoft issue) and then he just disconnected the phone call without any notice. Of course, you know, it started to have problems, so I had to go and make another call to connect to a Dell online representative. Well, it’s a half hour wait (each and every time) just to connect to one. I told them what it was doing. I asked if I was going to lose anything on my laptop because if so, I needed to back it up. From day one they assured me that was not the case. By the time this person was done, I was completely locked out of my computer. Then he told me I would probably lose everything (a little late, you think). Then he gave me the phone number of the “experts at Dell.” What was I talking to, “the idiots at Dell?” Then I spent another four hours on the phone with a “supervisor” getting my laptop back up and running. The total amount of my time when my laptop didn’t connect to the internet? About 10 hours with Dell. The actual time it took to correct the problem once I got someone who knew what they were doing? About 10 minutes. I guess Dell can afford this when they’re paying people in India. The problem is, I’m the one losing money dealing with these incompetent people. But Dell doesn’t care about that because they have my money, and they’re honoring their warranty, and they don’t care about me as a customer, so my hands are tied.

I have never gotten service the first time, or second, or third, or…NEVER. I tell every prospective customer I see at any Dell kiosk in a mall that it is the last time they will EVER speak to someone in this country, the last time they will EVER speak to someone who speaks fluent English. It is the last time they will get ANY service. It is the last time they will see their money because there is no such thing as a “refund” with Dell if you are not satisfied, there is no such thing as return the product and get your money back, there is no such thing as satisfaction guaranteed. It is the last time they will have their sane state of mind, and they will spend the remainder of their days on earth regretting the day they purchased a Dell.

As Americans, we need to take a stand. We need to do EVERYTHING in our power to put a stop to the big, bad Dell Corporation that is partly to blame for the sad state of affairs in this country job wise, and is definitely to blame for the terrible computers that it produces and the terrible “service” that they give us. It does not seem that we’re going to get help from our government unless there is a major uprise of all dissatisfied Dell customers. We need to contact the U.S. attorney general, the attorney general in the state that you are in, and copy all of those to Dell (but only if you feel like it because they don’t deserve this courtesy) and to the attorney general in the state of Texas. Since Dell is a publicly traded company, you can also contact the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. They have obligations to us and they need to be forced to step up to the plate if they want to be a “U.S. Corporation.” We spend our U.S. dollars and we should be given U.S. service!!

Anything short of this will only lead to more dissatisfied customers while Dell keeps putting our money in their bank account. WE need to take a stand. If our forefathers could take on England, we certainly can take on Dell!!

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

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.