Dell complaints

[JAChandler]

This email was sent to an "executive support team member" as a result of her response to a 9 page letter sent more than a month before any reply / investigation into Dell's failure to provide properly a properly configured laptop for transferring digital microcassette tape to DVD during a 50 day trip to aotearoa / New Zealand. the computer was equipped with a micro-firewire port when the camera required a 6 pin firewire connection. Attempts to solve the problem through Dell New Zealand were ludicrously unsuccessful, and upon returning to America it took weeks and weeks to get Dell not only to comprehend the problem, but to stop sending me cables and instead to send me the appropriate PCI card to provide ports to tranfer tape.

As a result of Dell's total failure, I spent 50 days in Aotearoa doing original basic research and have less than 20 hours of video to show for the trouble. I've tons of blank DVDRW's that I couldn't get the video from the 24 sixty minute cassettes to the computer and had to spend time every day deciding which tape to sacrifice in the hope that the next day's fare would prove more important than the first.

As an ethnologist and a cultural researcher in the field of mental health, all I can say about Dell is that I do not trust them to support my research any longer. I will use this experience in future lectures as an example of corporate culture overwhelmingly failing to provide for customer needs and the dangers of relying on supposedly "global" companies in mission critical technological roles during research projects. In my opinion, Dell employees I have had contact with were woefully trained and completely unable to provide appropriate solutions to problems of their own creation.

I will never purchase a Dell machine again i n my life, and I will fervently recommend to future employers that they consider any other vendor alternative prior to considering Dell, regardless of cost.

Dell's generosity is "staggering" - they credited me an entire $150.00 "for my inconveiece" then said "sorry." I'm cosidering legal options. Here is the email thread to Ms. Mugge. The mails are in reverse order.. the first being the last.. the last being her first email to me last Friday:

----------------- starts here --------------------------

From: Jessica Chandler [mailto:Jessica.Chandler@asu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:09 PM
To: Muegge, Connie
Subject: RE: Dell cust # 77369975**


Dear Ms. Muegge,

Thanks for the additional credit, but I'd much prefer it if you bothered to investigate and tell me precisely why it is that Dell New Zealand couldn't help me at all. The reality of the letter is quite true, and certainly Dell has ample recordings of the telephone calls made to discover where the system broke down, and what steps will be taken to ensure such insanities do not occur in the future.

I was quite specific in my needs; I am not techonologically naive. This never should have happened and you've no true conception of the trouble it has caused. The trip was university sponsored; obviously my sponsors were "disappointed. "Things happen," this is a truism; but they shouldn't happen in such a "perfect storm" of incompetence. Somewhere along the line, someone should have been able to understand precisely what the difficulty was and to have airlifted the appropriate solution from America if necessary.

Take a look at a map of New Zealand and see if you can find Mt. Taranaki on it; then you will see just what constraints I was operating under and why it was so difficult for me to manage a solution on my own. I relied on Dell, and that was a horrific mistake.

You folks should have moved mountains, and instead you hung me out to dry then took a month and more to escalate the issue to someone in authority. None of your front-line people apparently could understand what part was required, and it took my calling a technical support person and explaining the situation. That support person was quite capable of understanding the issue and finding the correct part number, so clearly it was not my explanation that was at fault. That leaves a long chain of evidence indicting Dell Sales and Dell Customer Service, who apparently have less comprehension of computers than a social worker.

What steps have been or are being taken to deal with this mess; surely you must agree with me that it's a mess? Why couldn't I get in touch with anyone by telephone at a level appropriate to the necessity and the remoteness of my location when the part would have done any good? Why was I sent parts that merely replicated the issue rather than fixed it? Why on Earth would Dell hire people who repetitively do not understand the concept of 6-pin vs. 4-pin ports and cables, and leave the burden of solutions to customers in the middle of the rain forest?

Why didn't somebody bother to push a small "PANIC" button, when they realized that you had a researcher on the ground, armed to the teeth with the latest in modern technology, with a computer that didn't work?

Once upon a time in my life, I was the owner of a same day shipping company that sub-contracted to Federal Express in order to do all their "same-day" shipping. It isn't as though I don't know the reality of how easily and quickly this problem could, and should, have been solved while there was still time for it to have been "just a bump in the road."

Issuing credits for pennies is a soporific; a "gift" designed to show remorse without accepting responsibility or accepting liability. I'm much more interested in underrstanding how such a global institution, dependent upon consumers good will, could abandon a researcher in the field.

I am about to graduate, and to begin working internationally for a large Non-Governmental Organization associated with the United Nations which is involved in healthcare in Haiti, Somalia, and Zimbawe. We're putting clinics into remote areas using cargo shipping containers which are being outfitted as portable clinics with the latest in medical technology, satellite communications, and remote surgical equipment. Each of these "container-clinics" is designed to provide, along with two staff members, for the medical needs and care of five thousand people, and each will be placed strategically (several thousand per) throughout both countries over the coming decade.

Can you imagine trying to explain to a dying man in Haiti that we couldn't get the lab results downloaded off the satellite uplink because we're waiting on the proper part from a computer company, and they've sent us a cable not a networking card? I'm the social worker, not the doctor; can you guess which of us will have to have the conversation with the dying man and explain to his family what happened? Do you honestly think that family will have access to the courts or the capability to seek justice and redress for the damages done?

I am a social worker, and my speciality is diversity and indigenous, refugee, and immigrant cultures; translating mental healthcare for populations that have never heard of such things, and are more worried about whether or not they'll starve or die of dysentary tommorrow than whether or not their computer crashes every time they start it up. But as these technologies move into more and more remote areas, the necessity of their operating reliably and of my being able to work in concert with, supported by rather than opposed to, technological providers in the supply chain becomes ever more critical.

I'm about to start "playing" in "the real world" Ms. Muegge, after nearly 20 years at university in order to "earn my spurs." I deal in systems and social structures, and in corporations too for they are systems themselves with cultures of their own. What I'd really like to know is "What is going to happen differently next time; for surely there will be a next time."

It's a big, wide world out there, with lots of companies looking to sell things for a profit. There are even some out there who look toward the long-view and see the sale as the beginning of a relationship rather than the end of a task designed to maximize profit at minimal expenditure of time and effort. Those are the companies which, over the course of the next thirty years or so of my productive work-life, I will recommend when asked for input on mission critical technology purchases. As of now, Dell isn't on that list I assure you.

Odds are that you and I will never communicate again on this issue. Given my experience with Dell to date, the odds are that no further investigation will be done, and that no one there will take the time to unravel the systemic thread which lead to this fiasco, and then to train around the problem or to establish new policies which prevent customer abandonment in distant lands. If I were a betting woman, I'd bet heavily on those odds and I'd likely win.

The question really isn't about money for my trouble, for you can't pay money for what was lost; like a life, the events that weren't recorded on this research venture are born once, live in the moment, then pass away forever. The question here is about corporate organizational structure, training, policy, and practice - the very meat of social work and the very heart of business / personal success or failure in the world of business and governance.

What I learned from this lesson was, "Do not trust Dell."

I'll be honest with you, what I'm interested in knowing is just what on Earth it was that Dell learned from this? Or is the reality that it does not ultimately matter at all to a corporate behemoth that knows it can depend on flash commercials to mislead the public into thinking that it cares, in order to make up for the lost revenue that will surely accrue as mistakes like these continue to mount without changes to prevent them from EVER happening again.

I don't trust your company; I will communicate that mistrust at every appropriate opportunity from now until the day I retire. I will remember in my head those wonderful memories, those moments in time which I would have shared with others and used as teaching materials; slices of history of an attempt by an indigenous population to uplift itself by simultaneously producing a music festival and a scholarly conference on world peace, and I will think of what I don't have to show for my money and why. But mostly I will think of the fact that when I was forced to write a letter, rather than being connected on the telephone to someone who could actually solve my problem, the response I got was an email that still was unaware of the present status of the case in question and how it came to be.

Research is my business; getting things right the first time is not always possible, but when they go wrong I move mountains to make certain that we understand what happened, how it occurred, and how we can prevent it from failing again. I have no sense of that sort of committment from Dell, nor any hope that it will evolve over the years. Clearly there is poor communication between departmental entities, and once the sale has been made the handoff to whichever "support" department deals with issues is not authorized to take the needful steps under important circumstances to remedy problems caused at the sales level. Further, though the service department states it can and will communicate with the "bank" which is Dell Financial Services, either this cannot be or was not done.

I'll finish this letter by closing with a series of simple factual statements: the postal letter and emails, along with the analysis I have provided to you, cursory though it is, and my statements and recommendations as to the locus of your company's problems, is in part what I have done for a living for the vast majority of my life. I'm a 43 year old professional, a once again returning graduate student, not some pimply-faced twenty year old on a rant. I've owned my own businesses, and I've consulted to help save other people's as well. If this "incident" ends here for your company, then I strongly suggest you seek alternative employment elsewhere.

Size does not equate to invulnerability; service after the sale is what it is ALL about in the retail trade; especially in high-turnover technology with a limited useful lifespan. The market is always shifting, and customer relationships mean everything when speaking of long-term corporate viability. You can file this case in some folder and call it ended, and for you that will indeed be the end of it; but the consequences to your company will be enduring and long-lasting if nobody bothers to figure out what happened and why.

If you blame a plane crash on "pilot error", assuming argumentum that the pilot wasn't killed, do you put the pilot back behind the seat of the next available aircraft without ensuring she won't do it again? How many crashes does it take before it begins to effect the bottom line? How many crashes are you personally willing to be a party to before doing the research to decide whether or not there's a systemic issue operating here, rather than blaming the pilot? If the research bears out the idea that there's a flaw in the system, who do you tell? Will they thank you for doing so, or will they fire you for digging up facts that they'd rather have been left in ignorance of?

I know I am not an isolated case with Dell; I've since done my research rather than believing the pretty commercials on television about "built for your needs." If you offered me a million dollars to search out the flaw in your system related to this incident, and to suggest policy / procedural changes to "fix" it for Dell... I would say it wasn't enough, turn my back, and walk away. That is how disgusted I am with the entire situation, even if the computer is a pretty nice product and would have more than adequately served my needs had someone at any point in time really acted like a professional and truly given a damn.

Isn't that a horrible thing to hear a customer say? "Nice machine; wouldn't buy it again from Dell if it were the last computer on Earth. Works just fine, for a machine; it's the wet-ware of the company, the people and their attitudes that really scares me when it comes to depending on them for things that can make or break my own career. I can't afford to be scared of the people I pay to support my efforts. For my own professional safety, I can't partner with Dell."

They wouldn't give me the proper "fix", and they wouldn't give me a telephone number to escalate. They gave me an address to write a letter to, and it took a month after returning to the United States for the letter to generate a response at a higher level. When that response came, it was operating on bad data that was stale and out of date, but the real situation existed and was known in the corporation, somewhere hidden from prying eyes of those who would too late investigate and attempt to correct the matter.

Don't tell me there's not a problem... it's as clear as a bright sunny morning and would make one Hell of a commercial for Gateway Computing.

I'm all out of free advice today... and even if I sent an hourly bill for my time, your company would just lose it, refer it, or shred it. Take it for what it's worth, I'm actually somebody with the organizational expertise, the supply chain knowledge, the business and supervisory experience, and the consumer nightmare, who is paid to have such opinions from time to time; not many people are.

There are significant and substantial problems within your organization; you can choose either to be part of the solution, a risky proposition at the best of times, or you can "go with the flow" and collect your paycheck.

The choice, my dear Ms. Muegge, is entirely up to you as to where you go from here; I wish you luck when choosing. I hope you figure out what "the right thing" is to do with this story, or if not this one then the next which may be even worse, though I find that difficult to imagine from a personal perspective. I hope one day you wind up President of Dell because you took the time to look carefully, and to listen to the tapes of the voices of desperation... the voices of Dell customers abandoned on the side of a volcano in the wilderness, in these new and growing markets to which global capitalism is taking us.

If you can't support your product in the bush or on the moon, then you've got no business being there until you can.

Best regards,
Jessica Ann ChandlerMSW CandidateASU School of Social Workc/o Dr. Juan Paz, MSW Program CoordinatorMail Code 3920411 N. Central Ave., Suite 800Phoenix, AZ 85004-0689NOTICE: This e-mail (and any attachments) may contain PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL information and is intended only for the use of the specific individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain information that is privileged and confidentialunder state and federal law. This information may be used or disclosed only in accordance with law, and you may be subject to penalties under law for improper use or further disclosure of the information in this e-mail and its attachments. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the person named above by reply e-mail, and then delete the original e-mail. Thank you.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Connie_Muegge@Dell.comSent: Wed 14-Mar-07 01:20To: Jessica.Chandler@asu.eduSubject: RE: Dell cust # 77369975**
I am very sorry for the issues caused. I only pulled your case Friday and did try to see what happened. I e-mailed you as you surely have a very busy schedule and playing phone tag makes a bad situation worse. I will follow up with the credit and issue another 150.00 credit for your trouble.I will cancel the paperwork and issue the credit. I will e-mail you the credit number once I have it set up. Thank you Connie



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jessica Chandler [mailto:Jessica.Chandler@asu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 5:52 PM
To: Muegge, Connie
Subject: RE: Dell cust # 77369975**
Importance: High


Dear Ms. Muegge:

Does no one there talk to anyone?

Several weeks ago, perhaps even a month or more ago, after having finally had time to cope with the computer and to use the card which was sent to me so very long after the fact to transfer what little video I had onto dvd, I sat quietly and analyzed the realities at hand. Having finally gotten the equipment to work as it should have, long after having lost the chance to utilize it for the purpose it had been intended for, at least NOW I am certain that it works and can do what it is I need for it to do.

The reality is that it is the service not the equipment which is at fault; it was the salesperson's stupidity, Dell "International's" failure to assist me when I was onsite in Aotearoa / New Zealand, and the continuing lack of service and understanding of Dell Customer Care upon my return which was the issue, not the computer itself. If the salesperson had sold me the proper card in the first place ALONG with the machine, there never would have been a problem to begin with and my degree wouldn't be at risk.

In any case, I decided weeks and weeks ago to keep the computer simply as a matter of "better the Devil I know, than the Devil I don't." This doesn't mean that I like Dell, or that I approve of the tactics of mistake so prevalent in your company, or that I would ever possibly consider buying another Dell product if my life depended on it. What it does mean is that I am uncertain as to whether or not any other company in the business of selling technology bothers to train its sales and customer service personnel any more competently than does Dell and since I know this computer can in fact NOW do what it was purchased for, and that my career will continue DESPITE the damages done to it and my reputation by the failure to return with all that I needed from my Aotearoa project.

I've paid the payments to date, and paid another $35.00 in late fees to "the bank" thinking that the $100 credit your "customer care" people said they would credit to the account would take care of the payments for this month and the next. Apparently the credit was never issued or takes longer to clear than any other normal transaction; not that this suprises me given how no one there talks to anyone, and how "solutions" cause more problems than they solve. And so, in consideration of this continuing lack of follow through, I have made arrangements to pay directly from my accounts in order NOT to lose yet more money to "late fees" charged not by Dell but apparently by some corporation which has no connection to your company other than misrepresentation by name.

I'm keeping the computer. Do not initiate paperwork to pick it up. The delay between the reality of the letter and the need for speed in reply has been such that the situation has changed. If anyone there had given a damn when I was in New Zealand, as you apparently now can move heaven and earth to recover the equipment, we might all have salvaged the situation and come out of it smelling like roses. As it stands, this is a failure on the part of Dell which I will carry forward as a consumer for the rest of my days, and which I will readily communicate to all and sundry when speaking publicly on topic of challenges relating to research.

If you wish to be of any service at all, you might bother to check and see whether in fact anyone at Dell Customer Care actually did credit $100 toward the cost of the machine "for my trouble." If we were billing out the actual cost of what was lost, please believe me that the "trouble" would cost far more than that indeed.

Regards,

Jessica Ann Chandler
MSW Candidate

ASU School of Social Work
c/o Dr. Juan Paz, MSW Program Coordinator
Mail Code 3920
411 N. Central Ave., Suite 800
Phoenix, AZ 85004-0689

NOTICE: This e-mail (and any attachments) may contain PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL information and is intended only for the use of the specific individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain information that is privileged and confidential under state and federal law. This information may be used or disclosed only in accordance with law, and you may be subject to penalties under law for improper use or further disclosure of the information in this e-mail and its attachments. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the person named above by reply e-mail, and then delete the original e-mail. Thank you.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Connie_Muegge@Dell.com
Sent: Tue 13-Mar-07 07:11
To: Jessica.Chandler@asu.edu
Subject: Dell cust # 77369975**


Ms. Chandler:

I have your letter in hand here at Dell Executive Services. Dell Financial Services is not a part of Dell, INC. It is a bank. Please advise where and when you would like to have the system picked up. I have a contact at Dell Financial Services. I will advise that you are wanting to return the system and get the phone calls stopped. Please advise. I truly regret the frustration this issue has caused. Please advise when you want the system picked up. I will be sure DFS knows you are returning for a full credit. Whatever you have paid in will be refunded. Let me know when you would like for me to pick it up. I have all ready started the paper work so when you say pick it up I can submit it. Thank you.

Connie Muegge
Dell Inc.
Executive Support
Care Resolution Center
Americas HSB Care
1-800-624-9897
ext 72-68324
connie_muegge@dell.com

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Welcome, Jessica. Yes, your needs fell into the huge gap between what Dell's sales model is marketed as, and what it's administered as. Marketed as, customer states application and salesman fills order accordingly. Administered as, customer states application, salesman types keyword (like 'video'), search engine comes up with highest-markup catalog items matching keyword, salesman picks the one his metrics tell him to and tells customer "yes it will do that" with the greatest imaginable disconcern for whether it will or not.

No offense Jessica, just to scale this whole event to the real world. Part of a degree candidate's challenge is finding out how the real world works. Ordering research equipment and finding out in the field that it doesn't do what the salesman said, is how the real world works. So is 'global support' sales companies who drop the ball once they have your money.

Further, business correspondence written to a thesis model is not likely to be read the way the writer intended. Introduce no more than one key issue, support it with 3 and no more than 5 peripheral issues/anecdotal journals, specify the resolution you wish. The nominal format is 3 paragraphs of 3-5 sentences each.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[JAChandler]

The "short and sweet" and highly specific emails including the part numbers to solve the problem got absolutely nowhere at Dell... never did... seems to be that only when you rant that problems actually get solved. I dunno.. my impression was that Dell paid by the word roflmao

[ShaftDu]

[Mideastcoast!BT]

I understand your concern and frustration. But let me get this straight. You purchased a computer for the purpose of transfering tape to DVD, in the middle of nowhere. I don't know about you, but, it seems to me it might be a good idea to try it out BEFORE you got on that airplane. It seems to me that you might have found out that it didn't work as advertised and made a simple trip to the local Best Buy and purchased the necessary cards or what ever before you left. That way you would not had to make that decision of which tape to over write.

About those container clinics, its a good idea, may I suggest you have a team try them out before you begin mass production. Piss Poor Planning Prevent Proper Operation.

Or as we said in the Fire Department. When you are up to your final spincter muscle in aligators, it is not the time to figure out who had the bright idea to drain the swamp.

[MADMATAGAIN]

I am not reading all of that. If you want people to listen you had better shorten it a little.

From what I can gather you should have planned and tested better.
_________________
System of a Down=this generations Beatles.

MORE COWBELL!!!

Winter sucks!!!!!!

X-H2o.com

"Dell is still the best way to go at this point in time for most users and for sure most businesses"....Me.

[diashto]

Okay.. since i made myself read that entire thing.. a couple things popped out at me.

1) You assumed that someone who was supposed to sell you something actually knew what the difference between a 4 and 6 pin cable was. They were trying to sell you something, plain and simple.

2) You assumed that everything would work out of the box, when clearly, you were going to be doing something that the computer was not origionally intended for. My car's spedometer goes up to 140mph, but it's not intended to drive faster than 75ish or so mph on the highway.

3) You could have purchased a camcorder that wrote directly to DVD-R and bypassed the requirement for said cable completely, and saved yourself all this trouble in the first place, as well as given you a much better medium to edit the video with (from digital to digital, rather than having to convert from analog to digital).

4) You assumed that the people you were talking to on the tech support end should automatically understand that you needed a special cable to hook up to your equipment, an application that, as stated before, was not origionally intended for that computer.

5) Not everyone they hire to be on the phones is going to be technologically adept. Those that are wont be on the phones long, because they'll either move farther up the totem pole, or they'll find jobs that will pay them more for their knowledge.

6) The part you were looking for was obviously of an advanced nature, being that if it were somethign simple, it most likely could have been handled on the first or second try. This woudl be true with nearly any large computer manufacturer. It would be nearly impossible to stock the phonelines with enthusiest-level techs, and keep the prices so low (and it may be tough to admit, but i bet price was one of your motivating factors for choosing Dell in the first place).

7) The "panic" button that you mentioned? Those are for people who buy more than 1,000 computers a year. One person, no matter how eloquent, makes little difference to their bottom line.

If you dont have an IT department that's rigorously testing your satellite uplink and working out all the bugs in the equipment before you send the units out to haiti to treat that dying man, and who aslo has a hot-swappable unit available in the eventuality of a hardware failure.. then you're the one doing the disservice. Nothing that critical should be without a backup. Nothing.

[MADMATAGAIN]

Sounds like another company trying to pretend they don't need IT people.

me "Hello sir I'm here to replace your hard drive."

contact "You are you going to reload windows for us, right? We have no IT on site and we don't have the image CD's but "they" said you would reload everything and have us back to the way we were"

me "I'm sorry someone flat out lied to you. Did you get their tech #?"
_________________
System of a Down=this generations Beatles.

MORE COWBELL!!!

Winter sucks!!!!!!

X-H2o.com

"Dell is still the best way to go at this point in time for most users and for sure most businesses"....Me.

[diashto]

[MADMATAGAIN]

LOL. That is actually almost exactly what I say word for word.

I was just goofin.
_________________
System of a Down=this generations Beatles.

MORE COWBELL!!!

Winter sucks!!!!!!

X-H2o.com

"Dell is still the best way to go at this point in time for most users and for sure most businesses"....Me.

[Mele20]

All of you responding are just proving the writer's point. Dell is a company full of mostly functionally illiterate folks incapable of even reading, much less understanding a brilliantly composed series of letters. You guys even try to tell the writer to write shit because that is all that Dell will be able to comprehend! How fascinating. You also seem quite jealous of this writer's intelligence. Again, very interesting.

I thought these letters were among the most thoughtful, succinct analyzes of Dell's problems that I have encountered anywhere on the internet. But maybe that is because I too can think and write and I have a PhD also which certainly doesn't make me a knowledge whiz about computers but that is where Dell support comes in play. I too made a reasonable assumption that the personnel ...sales and support that I was dealing with was well trained, well educated and understood the computer issues.

At least the writer thinks the hardware is well made and useful. I find that particularly interesting since that has not been my experience since the late 90's regarding Dell's hardware. To the contrary, I find it mind boggling that my 8300 had massive failures beginning at about one year of age and was finally exchanged for an XPS 600...Dell's best consumer computer and that now that computer has experienced sudden, massive failure this past Tuesday at one year of age. I also find it surreal that Dell Premiere support doesn't answer the phone after over an hour on hold on three different days...not to mention that my in house NEXT BUSINESS DAY tech support is a ludicrous impossibility due to Dell's refusal to use the one shipping company that can get parts here overnight and the Bantec Dell field tech's irresponsibility in hanging up on me when I called him because he claimed I was not taking phone calls so he suspended both cases when in reality I have not left my house all week except one evening for three hours. No, I think Jessica is entirely correct in her analysis of Dell's problems. Unfortunately, she is also correct that Dell will pay no attention and will continue to hemorrhage customers.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Not to flog water of a different color under the horse, but I feel the writer's observations about Dell spot-on, as well as the subsequent observations that taking untested equipment--even otherwise-reputable equipment--on a critical mission abroad without backup is assumptive to the point of naivete. Call it a lapse, or a pisser of a lesson, like never airing a spare tire then needing it and it's flat (I've done that).

Sorry for the 'lecture' about business writing--if I were really that good at it, I should have been able to get a job in the last 5 years . Maybe the gravitas of the writing is what got it escalated--underlings saying 'I can't make heads or tails of this', if for no other reason than their workload didn't allow time to sift through it. Whatever it takes, eh?
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[DAMAGEDandINSANE]

Listen, I agree with everything you say about Dell being run by sick, twisted, grasping, lying, incompetent, criminally insane neo-Nazi assholes. I still fantasize about tearing off all their arms and beating them all to death with the wet ends and, one by one, tossing the remains into a pile and setting it alight. It's the defining goal of my life.

But I have to tell you New Zealand is not without resources. I lived there and had fairly extensive camera maintenance performed in Auckland and photo supplies and services in places like Thames, Rotoroa and Dudedin. (I was mostly living in the national parks.) The Lord of the Rings would not have been made there if there weren't local merchants and distributors with normal access to spare parts for electronic devices. It's remote, but it's not Kyrgyzstan.

Kiwis are famous for the Number 8 Wire philosophy. They like to think that they are possessors of a distinct ingenuity in making things work from what's at hand. If you'd had run down to New Plymouth and gotten into contact with a couple of local merchants, you may have gotten help. If not there, a quick purchase of a cell phone and 5 minutes at an Internet cafe looking up phone numbers could have put you in touch with video smiths in Auckland. Moreover, as a visiting pa'fessah, you probably could have called upon some of the local academics to guide you to local, maybe even university, resources. They would have been impressed at an American caring about their cultures and natural history though they probably would have harangued you about Iraq. (I got yelled at for Cap Weinberger's secret trade embargo plans against NZ as retribution to the ban on nuke-armed warships in NZ waters.)

Dell is a criminal enterprise no doubt but once it was apparent they had no interest in helping you, you owed it to your own research to find another way. The stuff they sell is all off the shelf and would be of little mystery to someone experienced with that class of technology. At worst, you might have gotten best advice on finding local replacements.

The lesson is clear. If one way isn't working, there are probably seven that are waiting to be discovered and exploited. There always are. Opportunity is like math. It's just there in the universe, waiting to be conceived.




DAI

[82vett]

IMHO
classic example of book smart
real world dumb
82vett

[Mideastcoast!BT]

I agree you just don't take a mission critical piece out on a job unless it has been tested. This guy should not have done it. If I was the on footing the bill for his trip, I would have fired him for wasting my money by not testing it prior to the trip.

As for Mele20 comments about the banctec tech. I am a Banctec IBT. Let me fill you in on the policies and what probably happened. Some time you may have changed phone numbers or somewhere along the line the wrong phone number has been put into the system. That results in the wrong number being genrated on the work order the tech received. If you were lucky tech support put the correct number in the first line of the comments. If he was long winded he put it near the end of the comments. BUT only the first two lines of the comments made it to the work order. That happens a lot. IF he has time, he might call Tech support for a better number. Do not expect him to spend $2.00 for his cell phone 411 to get a number. Banctec will not reimburse him for that money. Mostl likely from your comments he is working from his car. He does not have a office to go to. He is dependant on his District Team Leader to email him the work orders. Once he gets the days work orders he prints them out on his own computer's printer. He then drives to DHL to pick up the parts. He most likely gets more work orders than he can do. BUT he only has 5 work days to complete the work order. At the start of the 6th day he must cancel the work order and send the parts back to Dell. Is this fair to you, I would not think so. Does the tech care? Most likely, but please remember that you are dealing with a guy who likes his work, but has not seen a raise in years, but likes the work. Oh by the way, he has seen several pay cuts. I have. What is the solution for you. A couple of work days after the dispatch was generated, call back in and ask tech support to have Banctec escalate your call. Then have the indian call the tech, leave a voice mail with the tech with your primary and alternate phone number. If your call is not returned in a day or two, do it again.