Dell complaints

[RockJock]

This Inspiron has been a nightmare since they refused to honor the 21 Day Total Satisfaction Guarantee. I'll leve out all those details, though, and skip to the current chapter.

Since day one, I've had a power problem. It frequently takes two or three tries to power up the machine (press power, lights come on, lights go off, press power again, machine POSTS). My first tech support call, I was told the laptop needs to be plugged in. That's right folks, you need to plug in your laptop to turn it on. The technician telling me this didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

After a tech came out to fix my other problem (bad multimedia keys), I called to complain more about the power issue. They sent out a motherboard & CPU, and the same tech came out to install it. He stripped a screw last time he was here, though, and as such was unable to take the machine apart to install the new parts! So he left, and a week later (yesterday), a DIFFERENT tech came to finish the job. I think it should be a general rule that whenever possible, the tech that starts a repair should see it through. This second tech shows up without proper tools and has to borrow my screwdriver to take the computer apart. It's also clear to me that he hasn't studied his docs, because he was here for 45 minutes and it was obvious he couldn't figure out what to do. He took out a few screws, pulled and yanked, then looked for more screws that might still be holding it together. Then he gave up and said it would tke him 3 hours to finish, so he's going to leave because he has other customers waiting on him! What is that crap? I purchased the three year ultimate warranty, which I thought included 24 hour response. It's been a load of crap thus far. What can I do? I called before this latest screwup to complain about the problems and they gave me a $150 credit (what the hell am I gonna do with that anyway?). Can I complain anymore, or will I get a "we've already given you a credit" line. I don't really want the credit to be honest. I want my money back so I can by a whitebook or something.

This has been a nightmare! Does anyone have advice?
Thanks
RJ[/i]

[Badger]

When did you purchase the laptop? You have 90 days for a system exchange if three major parts are faulty, and if they're replacing the CPU and motherboard, one more major part and you're set to go.
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[Dell_ate_my_dog]

where do they get these people?!

[Sprocket]

OK for the first thing, havingthe same tech visit. I know in our service center, we try to always have the same tech run a repeat call, specifically because that tech knows what he is looking for. Sometimes its not possible, and sometimes we forget about it totally. We cover large areas, and if a tech is already booked in a different area for that day, then a different tech needs to run the call. in that situation we usually try to fill each other in on it though.

Stripped screws. Happens more frequently than you might think. Usually its not so much us stripping them as it is the factory. The get put in with powered screw drivers. If they dont go in straight, many times they don't come out. I come across it here and there. Its why I only use manual screwdrivers. I don't even own an electric one.

clueless techs. Sounds like you got a temp. Most if not all fulltimers have their own toolkits. I have 4 or five, and at any time there is 2 in my van. (I have a habit of forgetting tools, so I keep spares) and I keep a lot of other crap in my van, that I might just need one day. haven't used any of it though.

Only once have I come across a laptop I just couldn't get that stripped screw out of. I called in, Informed dell of the problem and ordered a palmrest and bottom plastics for it, informing them that I would need to break the plastics to release the screw. I kept the parts from that service call with me, ran back the next day with my plastics, snapped the old ones, cracked it open, rebuilt the laptop with new parts, good to go.

Most onsite techs strive to satisfy a customer. We don't do this job because its a job, and we sure as hell don't do it for the money. By the time I've finished paing for gas, maintainance etc...there isn't much left. We do it because we are good at it, we love doing it. I love driving, I love fixing computers, and I enjoy the satisfaction I get from a happy customer that was lost without me.

As far as exchanges within the first 21 days. If you ask for it/demand it, they have to honor it as far as I know. I'd call in, insist(politely) on being transferred to the PDMC (portables dispatch management center) explain very calmly and politely what the issues you are having are, and see if you can get any resolution that way. Offhand, my guess is either a bad read switch, bad keyboard bezel (with the buttons) or a bad palmrest. Offhand it doesn't sound like either a mobo or cpu problem though it could potentially be a flawed circuit in the mobo. not near as likely though as the issue is intermittent, mobo issues are usually constant.

Cheers
Just another onsite tech
_________________
Stress relief.
1. Place circle on wall.
2. Bang head into circle.
3. Repeat step 2 as needed.

[RockJock]

The reason the mobo was being replaced was because of the power problems. What was happening there was that I'd hit the power button and it wouldn't POST. The three keyboard lights and the power light would come on, but no motors (fans or drives) would spin up and the LCD wouldn't come on. Three seconds later, it shut off. Hit the power button again and it comes on.

That tech that came out for 45 minutes only to say he'd come back again later didn't show up until 5pm yesterday - even though he was supposed to come first thing! Oh, and he also didn't bring a screwdriver, again. He took about three hours to do the job, and he did it poorly. I had to observe and offer my assistance when he got stuck (couldn't find what screws were stll holding the plastics on, couldn't figure out how to remove the wireless & modem cards).

Once it was in pieces, he broke another piece (I believe it was the video card support bracket)! He said he'd call it in, but he didn't (I know, b/c customer care called me today and they didn't know anything about it). He also had some screws leftover, and he's missing other screws. He put long screws in short-holes, so the case is actually being pushed apart instead of pulled together. He also couldn't figure out why the touchpad didn't work. Even after I showed him that he hadn't connected it! And then, he didn't exit from 'manufacturing mode' and didn't verify the BIOS. Had he done so, he'd have noticed there was no Service Tag. Then he would have tried to set it. And then he would have found that something wasn't right, because the BIOS wouldn't take it. I had to do all this myself with the customer care call this morning. After an hour, she felt I still had a bad mobo and wants to send a new one. So this is still a massive pain.

Speaking of the BIOS issue, please correct me if I'm doing this wrong here. I have BIOS A10, and there are no passwords set (won't let me set any because there's no service tag). I got ASSET.COM from the downloads section, and tried running it in a command prompt and from a boot cd. "asset.com /s xxxxxxx" and get an error every time.

Thanks everone
RJ
P.S. Since this began, I've been careful to stay cool and collected with the people I talk to on the phone. It hasn't been easy, but I know I can't blame them for these problems, and it won't help any if I do.

[Sprocket]

Setting the service tag in the laptop isn't actually necessary as far as i know. when we swap the mobo, we run a service tag utility to tattoo the service tag into the board. Asset.com is actually a different utility, mostly used by large corporations to tag their asset number into the board for remote management reasons. It sure sounds like you got a temp (although there are a few really bad techs out there). no screwdrivers, not knowing how to take it apart, sounds like a temp, or someone really new to the job. when they call to set up an appointment, tell them you want a different tech than the one that came out.
_________________
Stress relief.
1. Place circle on wall.
2. Bang head into circle.
3. Repeat step 2 as needed.

[UpstairsToHell]