Dell Tech Support...THE HORROR, THE HORROR!!

[UNCjigga]

OK, some background info first. I bought a Dell 600m in September 2004 for school. I made sure to buy it through Small Business (hooray for American tech support!) and I bought an extended warranty for 2 years with 48 hour replacement service (not the onsite option but better than the base warranty and MUCH better than Dell Home's warranty.)

Well, a few months after I bought it, my standby switch popped off. No big deal, I actually liked being able to close the lid and not have it go into standby, so I didn't bother getting it fixed. Then the built-in mic died (never used it) and then the volume and mute buttons died (interesting how all these components are located within millimeters of each other.) I never sent my machine in, because 1) I was too busy using it for schoolwork; and 2) I was afraid of them messing up my hard drive and me losing all my work.

Well, a few weeks before school was over, I finally had a real reason to send my machine back. My Dell AC adaptor's plastirubber shielding over the cable between laptop and AC brick had become brittle, and part of it had crumbled off exposing the metallic power wire below. Of course, I never noticed this until one day the wire started sparking and crackling and the adaptor kept going on and off. Well, this ended up killing my battery, to the point it can only last 30 minutes after a full charge before dying. Again, I couldn't send it back until after exams and after my trips to San Francisco and DC (I used my port replicator's AC adaptor instead.)

So I finally sent it in to Dell last week to get all these issues repaired, but ONLY after some Indian tech support guy wasted 2 hours of my time and made me jump through hoops before having DHL pick up the system. You see, recently Dell merged their Home and Small Business service teams, so now they are EQUALLY incompetent!! :| So they pick it up on Thursday and I received it this morning. As soon as I open the box, what do I see? My AC adaptor brick, in all its exposed, unshielded wiring glory! Except now it has a sticker on it. So does my weak battery. The form they sent back indicates they replaced the system board and the defective buttons, but no check marks next to ac adaptor and battery. WTF??? I immediately call them up, and after AGAIN wasting 20 minutes to answer stupid questions, here's how the call goes:

Tech: Can you plug in your AC adaptor and verify the green power led comes on.
Me: Ok. [Plugging it in] Yes, the green LED is on, but it is sparking, and...oh wait, the green led just went off.
Tech: Its on? Good! OK, now can you plug it in to your computer, and verify that the 'charge' led appears on your notebook?
Me: Hello, did you hear me? It is SPARKING! I'm NOT going to plug it into my computer!
Tech: Sir, please verify that the adaptor can charge the
Me: OF COURSE IT CAN'T FRICKING CHARGE THE BATTERY! READ THE NOTES FROM MY CALL BEFORE I SENT IT IN! NOW IM UNPLUGGING IT BEFORE IT STARTS A FIRE!!!
Tech: Sir, please hold on while I check something.

[on hold for a minute]

Tech: Sir, is your battery correctly attached to the computer?
Me: ARRRGHHHHH!!!!

So anyways, he FINALLY (after more than an hour) agrees to send me a new AC adaptor, but get this...THE BATTERY ISN'T COVERED!!!! EVEN WITH THE EXTENDED WARRANTY ON A BUSINESS SYSTEM!!! FVCKING ARSEHOLES COULD'VE TOLD ME THAT BEFORE I SENT IT IN!!!!! :| :| :|

 

[buck]

cliffs plz

 

[ModeEngage]

Sounds about right. The battery is rarely covered on laptops. That's retardedly generic though, because their bum AC adapter fried your battery.

Tres lame.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

go back to reading See Spot Run.

 

[Spineshank]

We just had 6 of their PC's crash in the last week.

 

[Looney]

Wow, that's why i get complete care warranty. My first adapter was ripped from my chair wheel, but still 100% usable... but i figure i'll call in and tell them about it, and see what they can do. And they sent me a brand new one for free, and told me not to bother sending the 2nd one back.

Then my second laptop, IXPS2. Same freaking thing, chair wheel tore it up a little, not as ad as the first one... but i figure why not call in get a second one for free (the first torn worn works great, i just put electrical tape over the torn part)! Well, i didn't get a second one for free this time, but they mailed me another power brick, and just told me to mail the torn one back.

 

[Marinski]

Indian tech support is the worse. I once wasted 3 hours with an Indian when my dvd burner on my HP died and I didnt even bother sending it back to them i just bought a new one for 30 bucks. They just want to waste your time with ridiculous BS.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

Learn to read and not be lazy plz

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

go back to reading See Spot Run.

I can't read.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

go back to reading See Spot Run.

I can't read.

thats kinda sad if you just ask for cliffs on the first post, but whatever.

dell tech support sucks. 10 years ago they were pretty good (IMO the pentium 2 days), but now i just hear worse and worse stories by the day.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

go back to reading See Spot Run.

I can't read.

Do you mean, "eye kant raed???!"

Anyway...

I'm glad I haven't had to deal with any bad products yet. I hate dealing with tech support.

 

[DrPizza]

I hate Dell's tech support as well. I did all my own trouble-shooting and was well-prepared after waiting on hold forever. "Yeah, I need to RMA the power supply on my computer - it's shot." "Hello, I am Bob. Is your computer plugged in?" "Listen, I am not your average customer needing tech support. I pulled the power supply from the computer, connected a load to it, and shunted between (whatever the connections are to turn on the power supply). Nothing happens, the fan doesn't even come on. I swapped power supplies with a different computer and it worked just fine." "Okay, here's what I need you to do. I need you to put your computer back together." "Okay, now is the little green light on the motherboard on?" "Yes" "Then, it is not the power-supply" AAARRRGGHHH!

This was followed by 1/2 hour to an hour of taking things apart, removing RAM, etc., attempting to reboot... eventually expecting him to reach the conclusion I reached after 5 minutes. But,l eventually he concluded "It is your motherboard that is bad." So, I gave up, bought a cheap power supply, and the computer's been running just fine ever since.

 

[j00fek]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: buck
cliffs plz

go back to reading See Spot Run.

ROFL PWNT

 

[fbrdphreak]

I bought a Dell 600m

There's your problem. The 600M's are terrible.

 

[PokerGuy]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

I bought a Dell 600m

There's your problem. The 600M's are terrible.

No, the problem is buying anything from a company like Dell where you know the tech support is going to be that horrible. Unless you plan on not having any kind of support, in which case getting a cheap lappy from them could be worthwhile. If it stops working, you can fix it yourself or move on to a new one.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I hate Dell's tech support as well. I did all my own trouble-shooting and was well-prepared after waiting on hold forever. "Yeah, I need to RMA the power supply on my computer - it's shot." "Hello, I am Bob. Is your computer plugged in?" "Listen, I am not your average customer needing tech support. I pulled the power supply from the computer, connected a load to it, and shunted between (whatever the connections are to turn on the power supply). Nothing happens, the fan doesn't even come on. I swapped power supplies with a different computer and it worked just fine." "Okay, here's what I need you to do. I need you to put your computer back together." "Okay, now is the little green light on the motherboard on?" "Yes" "Then, it is not the power-supply" AAARRRGGHHH!

This was followed by 1/2 hour to an hour of taking things apart, removing RAM, etc., attempting to reboot... eventually expecting him to reach the conclusion I reached after 5 minutes. But,l eventually he concluded "It is your motherboard that is bad." So, I gave up, bought a cheap power supply, and the computer's been running just fine ever since.

omg... that's horrifying :'(

 

[ubercaffeinated]

What you are supposed to do is pretend to put everything back together. Just go through it all and just go uh-huh, it doesn't work, the entire way through.

 

[Blazin Trav]

Yep Dell's support sucks. ****** outsourcing.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Battery is only cover for 1 year, no matter if you buy extended.. this applies to many company , not only dell

 

[Banzai042]

Recently the network port on my dell laptop died (but the network port on the docking station still functioned), and it took me almost 90 min to convince them to let me ship it back to have the mobo replaced. Most of that was me saying "As i said before, i reinstalled windows after this problem (not related, i waited a month for school to end, and in that time i decided to reinstall, because it was my dad's comp before he got a different one, and he had all sorts of random programs i didn't care to deal with), and the reinstall didn't help, yes i correctly installed the drivers." My favorite gem from that little discussion was the following comment
dell rep (obviously copying straight to support chat from manual): Unplug your cable or DSL modem and router for 5 seconds, then plug it back in, it may take a few minutes for the router to find your mac address and assign an IP address
me: The problem occurs on a large college network (I didn't mention that i doubted networking would appreciate me telling them that dell said i should shut down the routers for a few min)

But here's the fun part, i finally get the computer back, and then go out of town maybe 2 or 3 days later. When i get back and i go to use the laptop it turns on for half a second, then suddenly everything dies. No power indicator light, no response to power button, no battery charge light, nothing. It took dell 2 hours to diagnose this as a dead mobo. My dad and I had to then spend another hour convincing them to fix it, because in the period between when we got it back and when it died the warranty expired, though we finally got them to say that they would fix it since their previous repair obviously didn't work.

So much for the best tech support in the industry. It sounds to me like they decided to make their old tech support the "special XPS tech support" that people pay more for and give the shaft to the rest of the buyers.

 

[neutralizer]

I have yet to send my D600 in yet, but there are loads of problems with it. The hot key panel is completely dead. Seems like the buttons have shifted because if I press it down hard enough, it works. My wireless LED is dead. It freezes a lot. The network card causes my laptop to crash. A sudden unplug of the AC adapter causes the system to crash as well. Good laptops my ass.

 

[Adul]

I hate dell support with a passion. it is worse the living in hell. Yeah batteries are only covered under a 1 year warranty. You have to shell out for a new one.

 

[Chrono]

sad. isn't uncjigga indian himself? you're hatin' on your indian brothers that smell of curry.

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
I have yet to send my D600 in yet, but there are loads of problems with it. The hot key panel is completely dead. Seems like the buttons have shifted because if I press it down hard enough, it works. My wireless LED is dead. It freezes a lot. The network card causes my laptop to crash. A sudden unplug of the AC adapter causes the system to crash as well. Good laptops my ass.

Dude, that's the exact problem I had. BTW, the D600 and 600m use the exact same system board/chassis layout (except mine is plastic and yours has some magnesium in the casing.)

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: Chrono
sad. isn't uncjigga indian himself? you're hatin' on your indian brothers that smell of curry.

Being Indian isn't the problem. I've spoken with 3-4 different Dell techs from India and they've all spoken and understood English very well. Its their PROCESS that sucks--they will make you jump through hoops and waste hours of time and there is NOTHING you can do to get around that. That said, I've heard that if you get a Filipino tech, you'll get MUCH better service. I don't know why that is.