Dell complaints

2tuff4u2 · conscientious beginner Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 1

Just stumbled across this site while searching google for something related to Dell. It's the first time and probably only time I'll be here. It's funny to see the bitterness of employees who obviously want success handed to them on a silver platter. It doesn't work like that... Hard work pays off, especially at a company like Dell.
I've worked in the tech support dept at Dell for over 7 years and I love it. I have supported everything we sell at one point or another. At this time I'm a hardware analyst in the Platinum (Enterprise) support group. I have never worked with a group of such dedicated and seriously bright people.

I am only speaking only to the people who are griping about their job (or ex-job) at Dell. You get back what you put in. If you want to sit on your butt and try to float along, you will be sadly disappointed when it comes time for review. If you take initiative to improve your skills, you are in a win/win situation. You improve the customer experience at the same time you make yourself more valuable.
To the ones in engineering who lost their jobs due to layoffs, I am feeling your pain... tough decisons have had to be made and unfortunately there was some bloat in the organization that had to be excised. This is why I stay in tech support.

As a note to the Dell haters... Most of my experience has been in the enterprise and I suspect the majority of the sadness here comes from HSB consumers. I will tell you that you have been heard, things are changing, give us a chance.

rustyboots · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:44 am Post subject:

pinto4me · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:30 pm Post subject:

I am so sorry that you have such wonderful feelings toward your employment, and I can say this after a few years with Dell-Hell myself. Don't get to comfortable though, I made that mistake and when they closed the site and put us all out of work, with NO warning, I might add...I had a better thought.
Perhaps the folks on this site, who tried to warn me, have all their ducks in a row and know of what they speak.
I was not an unhappy employee, I liked my job with the Soar team, loved my Manager and ASM's then came the day they told everyone that they could come to work in their PJ's for PJ Day...........Fun stuff right? WRONG
They called everyone into a room and said the Site was closing this second don't go pick up your personal things they will be sent to you, turn in your badge and leave, pick up your severance package.
Well that is all well and good but just think of this....250 people out in the street and a busy one I might add in their PJ's Classy.
Also to add insult to injury, personal items were picked over and only the items they wanted to send were sent. Expensive items, Keyboards, mice speakers, etc. were not returned.
A GOOD company you think???? I think NOT!!!

Steveo · Dances with Hate Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 109

paul_dellcc · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject:

Pffff.

So what's with a guy who's worked for 25 years for Dell Question

Instead of getting a golden watch he's fired.

Shut the fu*k up.
_________________
I see DELL people!!

If we don't remember our past, we can't understand our present and we can put in danger our future...

kalstolyn · Regular Hater Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 12

Well, I enjoyed working at Dell, too. It was actually the best job I had ever had, despite all the crap I put up with. That's all part of working in the call centre industry.

What I did NOT enjoy was losing my job with absolutely NO warning and no rationale. No reasoning as to why me and not the other people who sit around me.
_________________
Customer: "One of your techs just helped me crash my hard drive and we re-put the microwavesoft HP windows. It has built in internet. How do I activate that?"

Me: "Okay, so you called in with a problem, one of our warranty techs helped you format your hard drive and reinstall microsoft windows xp, and you'd like help installing your network drivers now?"

Sometimes we all have to translate from "Customer" to "Not Stupid."

happycamper123 · conscientious beginner Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

I really love my job at Dell. I work in customer care and I love it there. My previouse jobs had been underpayment not enough hours and plain bad managers. I cannot say Dell is perfect but I have found it very rewarding working there. I feel like I count and like I make a difference to one person or another. I have learnt a lot being in Dell. I know that some people are bitter with the recent layoffs and they have a right to be. I am just happy that I still have a place at Dell. I don't think I will leave Dell soon as it has giving me Job security and has allowed me to do things I couldn't do in the past.

Jax · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:49 am Post subject: Re: I love My Job

The_Insider · Dances with Hate Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 166

very well said Jax

OSRI · Regular Hater Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 29 Location: A01

Jax · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:56 pm Post subject: Re: I love My Job

OSRI · Regular Hater Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 29 Location: A01

debug_yourself · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject:

Jax, while you have some very valid points about working for Dell, when it comes to the Escape Pod, you have no idea what you are talking about.

1st - Yes, the newsletter did have a posting for a couple of editions saying that "Donations" were welcome. The reason that was added was because there were visitors coming in the Escape Pod asking if they could bring us some of their media. It was puerly voluntary. No one was asking for anything illegal or pirated. No one ever brought us anything, so it doesn't really matter anyway.
And you say that Dell "themselves" has "supervisors" sending out e-mails asking for people to bring in digitally ripped tv shows and DVD's? Dell didn't have anyone do it. Supervisors didn't do it. And it didn't say anything about "digitally ripping TV shows or DVD's". The news letter was only distributed by one person and one person only who was not directed by Dell or by management to send it out. He was self motivated enough to create it and distribute it himself to try to bring more visitors to the Escape Pod and to keep the techs updated with what was new in the room. The posting on the newsletter simply said that donations were welcome. If anyone had tried to bring us copywrit/illegal content, it would have been refused immediatelly.
Also, the posting on the newsletter was not in EVERY edition as you suggest. Trust me, I should know. After you were terminated, that posting went away because of the idiotic e-mail you spammed to the entire department. You want to know why you were fired? Because you were sharing your USB drive/key over the DELL network and your drive/key contained CAM versions of movies that came out in theaters the previous week. THAT is not only against Dell policy but is also illegal. THAT is why you were fired.

2nd - You keep claiming that the movies were removed from the media server because of the audit but they were still in the building. You have absolutly no clue as to what you are talking about. The media was DELETED from the media server. I should know becuase I did it myself. The legal dept said movies were breaking copywright, so since we didn't want to get fired and/or go to jail, we deleted them. The TV shows are prefectly legit. It's no different than recording a tv show on a VHS tape and sharing it with your friends. We didn't charge any money, so there was nothing illegal about it as far as Legal was concerned. I agree.

3rd - You claim that the Escape Pod encouraged file sharing. If you had bothered to read the Escape Pod rules, posted in 4 different places on huge white posters, one of the policies clearly stated that USB keys and external hard drives are not permitted in the room. And even with that, we still had problems with people like you trying to steal our content when we were busy. And before you get all upity and make claims about how you saw certain people bringing in their computers and drives to upload content to the media server, those were the Escape Pod workers who have the permission to do such. Otherwise, there would be no new content. The workers did their best to provide content to make the room fun and enjoyable for all the visitors, so no need to give them crap for doing a great job. They even did the majority of this work on their off time and did not get paid for it. If anything, they should be recieving kudos from the visitors.

In my opinion, the Escape Pod was one of the things that made Dell tech support such a fun place to work. You get stuck on a night shift and you miss the latest HOUSE or LOST or Bones, you can take your lunch break and go watch it. Stop blaming the Escape Pod for your termination. You got fired due to your own stupidity.
But hey Jax, don't feel too bad. You weren't the only one terminated that day/week. Several others were fired because they stored illegal media on their workstations and IT found it. Dell wasn't just picking on you.

In the future, I recommend you get your facts straight before slandering someone else's hardwork. Someone who did the work because he loved giving people a fun place to relax for breaks/lunches. Someone who did this w/o being paid for it.

I worked with Dell for 6 years and, aside from be terminated, I am very thankful with my time there. It is true that you can be rewarded greatly if you put in hard work. It took me a few years to figure that out and once I started busting my butt around there, it really paid off. I'm glad I got that experience under my belt and am ready to move on to bigger and better things. I wish it was my decision to leave Dell to move on, but with the severance package, I feel as if I can move on and actually (FINALLY) leave TN. Not that TN isn't great, but been stuck here for a long time and ready to see other places. Perhaps TX or NC will be next for me.

I can understand why others are so angry with Dell. Especially if they only had a year or so invseted in the company. To those people, I wish you the best of luck and I would be more than happy to help you out in any way I can. North Carlolina has alot of internal Helpdesk jobs found on Monster and Career Builder. If moving is an option for you, perhaps that would be the way to go.

Jax · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:54 pm Post subject:

debug_yourself · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject:

First, let me just apologize to the creator of this thread for getting it completly off topic. I'll try to wrap this up now.

Jax,

You didn't "leave" dell. You were terminated. And if you "Never Looked Back", then why do you have a lawyer involved and what do you expect to get out of it? (That is a serious question. I'm curious.)

Look man, I wasn't trying to start a flame war here. I realize I came acroos like a bit of a prick. What I was stating about your termination was what I heard and the fact that someone came in the Escape Pod one day and gave me an address on the Dell network that they dubbed "Matts Flashdrive" (which I had been too and seen the CAM movies but didn't copy them because I hate CAMs), which is what clearly led me to believe that it was your flash drive. You know just as well as I know how bad Dell is about being a rumor mill. If I am wrong about all the things that happened and I was just talking out of my ass on the last post, I sincerely apologize.

However, as far as the newsletter goes and the content you claim it asked for, you are dead wrong. how do I know? becuse I was the one who created and distributed it. I was the ONLY one. I know exactly what I created and I know for a fact that I never posted anything on the newslettter asking for people to bring in copywrit material or DVD's. If people did bring in DVD's and they were ripped by other workers in the Escape Pod, I did not know about it and I apologize for calling you a liar. The GTSA that you said took the movies and put them in a drawer, he or she was never give the permission to do that. So, in essence, those movies were "STOLEN" from us. No one in GTS had any business doing anything with any content in that room. He/She must have stolen them just before we (actual Escape Pod workers) erased them.

If HR in fact told you that your TV material was "illegal" then that goes to show how poor the lines of communication are at Dell. It was probably 2 different people in legal answering the same question at 2 different times. Anyone here can agree that downloading of TV shows is a gray area.

The EP worker that you saw downloading content on a laptop. I know who you are talking about. He was not wanted in the room and it took a long time to get him out of the room. He did alot of things that we had to repeatedly tell him to stop doing. However, my point still stands that he was using his own equipment and own resources to get this material, pirmarelly for himself but also shared it with the room. How else would you expect we got the content for the room. We can't sit at home all day digitally recording shows as they air, then cut commercials out, then compress it with DivX. We'd never be able to sleep. I still dont' see what your gripe is about that. We were getting the content on our own time, on our own systems, for the VISITORS. It was a gesture of kindness. Not something for you to crap all over.
But I do agree, if you were fired for something we were never told we couldn't do, that is not right and I hope you get justification. Best of luck on that.

And what exactly have you heard about my career at Dell? Aside from getting some crap from some managers, my employment wasn't that bad. Once I got my ass into gear and did hard work, I was rewarded and moved up in the ranks a little. I do not regret any of my time at Dell. Sure, things get tough once in a while, but that's life.

I hope from this point on we can refrain from the flaming and name calling and wish each other the best of luck in our future endeavors.

And just for the record:
The only reason I got so defensive about the Escape Pod is because I took great pride in my work for that room. A lot of the work done in the room was done by me. When you make a jab at the Escape Pod in the floorwide letter you sent when you got terminated, that is one thing. But to go outside the boundries of Dell and slander the name of the Escape Pod and the hard work I put into it, I just feel that goes a bit too far.

You are more than justified to be ticked you got fired for a seemingly bogus reason. I guess you and I are just coming at this from different angles. You, on the perspective of management firing you for something you believe they approved in the Escape Pod. Me, just taking the Escape Pod work too personally. But I'll tell ya, management had very VERY little interaction of what we did in that room. It was mainly run by myself and a handful of others. They really only started to take notice when the audit was coming around.