Dell complaints

[Bug16]

Hi all,

Up until yesterday I would've actually recommended Dell, as I've never had a problem with any I've bought from when I bought my first P90 through them years ago.

Anyway, I recently purchased an XPS420. It turns up and on booting up has a memory failure. Not great. So I call tech support to see what they'll suggest and what their returns policy is (stop laughing at the back!).

Now even when I'm very annoyed I always keep calm and polite when dealing with people like tech support because I'd rather build up a bit of a rapport with them than get their backs up by being angry at them.

The first technician put the 'phone down on me as I was mid way through asking a question. This resulted in a 45 minute wait before I could speak to the next technician. Now this guy was pleasant and helpful. After some basic diagnosis he suggested that I re-seat the 4 gb of RAM. (I've built PC's so I'm comfortable doing that.) Hey presto the PC boots! "Fantastic!" thinks me and I carry on using the computer. However, some six hours later using some more hefty memory grabbing applications it dies again telling me about my memory failure. Rebooting gives the same problem. So my gut feel is that one of the DIMM's is knackered or maybe one of the mobo slots is damaged.

Today I call their tech support, give them my reference number and speak to the most awkward patronising git I've ever had to deal with. Very long story short he wants me to go through everything I've already done before. I tell him it's pointless as what he's suggesting has already been tried. All I want is for them to send somebody around with some new memory that they can fit if they like and they can take away the old memory when they go. No. I have to go through everything with him again. I tell him that he's got yesterday's case reference, he can see what's been tried and that's not worked so what's the next step? Apparently the next step is to put the 'phone down on the customer. Why do I suspect that they're doing this to hit some sort of customer resolution time target?

I'm contemplating letting them fight it out with UK consumer law and Barclaycard if this is how the experience is going to continue! However, is there a known quicker way through the system? I.e. do I have to keep speaking to people in India who, on the whole, can barely manage to follow the knowledge bases script or can I circumvent that and talk to somebody useful?

Yeah, I realise I'm probably hoping for the unachievable but I thought it was worth asking.

Cheers

Edited to add:

My PC problem might also be due to the following (see link for fault and fix):

click here

I'm going to check my BIOS tonight.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

I edited your URL into a format that wouldn't blow the margins away. Panning to read is a pain.

Dell is a profligate stonewaller. It has to be the policies and procedures under which their phone contractors operate. I've had effective support based in India and Philippines, but not from Dell. I think the bottom line is, once they've got your money, you're invited to go shag yourself.

I'm afraid each answerer is going to take you through the same nonsense. They know no other way to do it but follow the script. Fact is, they barely know how to operate a computer, much less how one works or how to fix it. What would you expect them to know for $3 an hour? BTW, there are Indians who speak decipherable English, but those cost $4 an hour.

You can try escalation, either on the phone or on their support website. They don't make it easy to find, it's in the smallest possible font at the bottom of the page, the link is 'unresolved issues'. It's supposed to refer the problem to someone who DOES know something about computers--if indeed Dell even hires those anymore.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[Bug16]

I've just spoken to technical support again. The bloke seemed to know his stuff reasonably well, was actually very helpful and very easy to talk to. He also wasn't pushy to get rid of me which surprised me considering I'd spent the best part of 30 minutes chatting to him.

Currently the situation is that my BIOS is the latest version so the link I posted won't help me (ta for editing it btw. ), I pulled all of the RAM out again, plugged it all in again and I'm currently using the PC no bother. No surprise there and I'm expecting it to die again within the next day or so once I push the machine a bit.

When the PC dies again then they're intending to replace the mobo and RAM. I can't say that I'm overly keen on that as I'd rather just have a new PC. We'll see what happens on that front.

At the end of the day, if they haven't fixed this PC within two weeks from yesterday it's going back as unfit for purpose. I love UK consumer law.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

You knew, right? Microsoft--and all software companies copied them--specifically disclaims merchantability? I wonder if that would hold up in UK?

Merchantability was drawn from common law, predating constitutional and statutory law by centuries. Yet it's unenforceable in the US, except under specific state laws covering purchases over a certain amount or in certain categories like cars.

Texas has a 'deceptive business practices' law, but if it had any real teeth to it Dell would have been shut down 5 years ago. So far, New York has been the only state to haul Dell to court for fraudulent practice. And I recall that New Mexico specifically prohibits one of Dell's terms of sale, but I don't remember which one. The Federal government will do absolutely nothing for you.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[Bug16]

[qix]

They've just given me the run around too. Bought a new 420 from Tescos and there seems to be crack in the mini-viewer screen and the mouse doesn't function as it should. Neither big deals but then there wasn't any fault at all with the money I paid.

Huge amount of hassle: last episode, on the phone half an hour (at my expense), guy went away, eventually came back, said "thank you for your patience" and dropped the line. Great joke. I assume that's their technique when they don't know the answer.

So I emailed and got a reply demanding to know how the viewer became cracked and a photo. I've sent a pic and told him it appears to have been caused by Dell's inadequate quality control as no sign of it happening in transit.

The tone suggests they aren't aware of their legal position in the UK. I've told them unless the problems are resolved promptly I'll have Tesco collect it for a full refund. And they need to know that Tesco are ruthless with crappy suppliers. If Dell give them problems they'll be out of their stores. I noticed John Lewis stores have already stopped stocking Dell products.

I've also asked the price of a replacement mobo. As it seems to be a proprietory Dell BTX board I'm none to happy being reliant on an outfit like Dell. If they are asking an unrealistic price then the system goes back regardless. I'm glad I learned about their customer relations within their 28 day refund period.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

There's a trend wherein retailers are no more charmed with Dell products than their customers. Dell is going to find out the hard way that they are the only retailer which doesn't care if they piss customers off.

Word has gotten around computer buyers that Dell is bogus. But nothing like it will when news gets out that retailers are dropping them for the same reason.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[goody]

Hmm, interesting. Never seen this site before today, read three or four posts and made the single post above in the name of "qix". Came back to the message "You have been banned from this forum". Not even an email explaining why.

There was a block in the cookie and on the IP address. Had to zap the cookie, grab a new IP and reregister.

Would anyone care to explain or are they always that welcoming around here. Even Dell aren't that paranoid.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

I'm the admin, and I can't explain what you saw. There are no membernames on the ban list. None. Both your accounts show as active.

Certain IPA ranges within Russia, Denmark, and Germany are blocked, because they were spamming us to death. And registration through gmail is blocked, because the spambots are programmed to use gmail--apparently they have the weakest confirmation that the registrant is a person not a bot. No UK ranges are blocked.

Again, no individual accounts are currently banned, and very few ever were (those were being REALLY nasty, chronically). The forum does not ban arbitrarily. Anyone who has ever been banned from here doesn't need an email explaining why, as they have been given 3 chances to alter their behavior and refused. However, software does screw up, that's the only thing I can think happened. Wait, there's one more. If you screw up the security code entry more than twice, it won't let you try again for a bunch of hours.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[qix]

I couldn't see that my post was so offensive.

If it helps, the blocked IP was 217.44.142.235. I may well have screwed up the code, can't remember, but it was definitely the IP that was blocked and could reregister a few minutes later when I swapped it.

<ot>I assume the spamming you get is from spambots? I run some fairly busy forums where we get around 35,000 visits a day and found the most effective block was an additional question in the registration. The more unusual the better as the usual CAPTCHA techniques just don't fool the software now. Gone from shedloads every day to where I can't remember the last spammer we had.</ot>

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

No blocks have been changed this month.

I know there's better security ware than we have. But I'm just the acting admin, not the owner. He determines what will be installed and what will not, and he's hesitant to change it since it's more or less working as it is.

The IPA you quote is within the banned Denmark range. It is not the IPA you posted from within UK. That is why you got the message. Stay the hell out of Denmark and you'll be fine.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[hotrodlincoln]

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

If you had to chase down these porn spammers, HRL, you might not be so fond of Denmark.

Or WOULD you?
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[hotrodlincoln]

[Bug16]

I thought I'd let you know the outcome of what happened with my XPS 420.

Very long story short everything is now sorted.

It's been an interesting experience dealing with them. My recommendations for people who are experiencing a problem with their Dell PC are to politely keep on Dell's back. Call them up daily, write the date, time, who you're speaking to and what they told you to do down. When you're speaking to them be polite but firm.

Say that you're extremely unhappy and push to get the manager on the 'phone. Trust me it can be done as I spoke to the manager twice quite easily. Once you've got the managers ear things start to move very easily and quickly. They can also speak English very well and really do know how to kiss your arse in a very pleasing manner.

I ended up getting a free 8gb data key out of one of them and some free powered speakers out of another as compensation for my problems with their support staff being putting the 'phone down on me as I was talking to them. Ok it's small beans but if it's free I'll take it, then flog it on ebay!

Would I buy another Dell? Not a chance!