Dell complaints

[SalomonOrangge]

Round and round i've gone trying to exchange this piece of junk external DVD RW which was a gift for my mother's birthday. 1) The unit wont power. 2) I was assured that the external boasting an eSATA connection was made specifically for ALL Dell Laptops and Netbooks. I was skeptical of this last portion, but was assured that all was in order and if there was a problem i'd be able to rectify it later on.

YAY! AWESOME!

Ordered the junk on November 6 and was told it would take 2 weeks to get there. Fine. That's no problem since my mother's bday is on December 12. I received the package on November 22 and immediately wrapped it up, excited that mom would be getting something that she actually wanted and would match her laptop with the nice shiny black finish.

And... it didnt work. The unit wont power, the eSATA connection is crap. I've tried hooking it up directly to the mobo of my rig and nothing. I've purchased half a dozen eSATA to USB adapters and nothing is fixing the situation.

But guess what? Since i'm outside of the 21 day grace period by which i can rightfully return the item, i have been stonewalled. That would be 21 days as of the INVOICE DATE which happened to be the date that the order was processed, not the date that the order was shipped. So, November 6 started my range of return, not the day i received the item on November 22.

WTF?

I've been on the phone for HOURS with these people. Half the time i get some idiot who cant speak english. The other half of the time i'm being put on hold, only to be immediately transferred to some other idiot who cant speak english. The few people that understood a few words of the english language basically told me to suck an egg, and that i was out of luck. So sorry. Bye.

Never again will i buy a Dell. My father got the run around with these people when he bought his desktop, and i got the runaround for a month and a half after Dell "lost" the order for MY laptop after it had been ordered and billed.

[Tailmon]

Welcome to Dhell Hell!
Sorry about your "Typical Dhell experience."
They stalled you untill they could get past the 21 day point on purpose.
Contact your local BBB and State Attourney General. If you paid with a Credit card contact them and Dispute the charges and see about charging back your money. They sold you defective product.
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Former employee of Dell and can say that they
definitely Suck!

[SalomonOrangge]

Yah... great to meet ya. Too bad its under these circumstances.

I'm putting in the complaint via the BBB now. Just need to be sure of the Dell Computers addy.

[incident_man]

DHell has found ways around the BBB. For best mileage, file complaints with your state Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission. The BBB just accepts whatever DHell tells them as truth, without doing any follow-up on their own.

Incidentally, DHell's address is as follows:

Dell, Inc
One Dell Way
Round Rock, TX 78682
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Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

[JeffX]

That is common place for Dell. Contact your Attorney General and contact your credit card company.

[SalomonOrangge]

Just figured i'd update you guys.

I entered a complaint about Dell with the BBB a while back as per my original post. I received a call from Dell Corporate in Texas today concerning the timeline of my transaction of payment all the way up to the receipt of the item and my dealings with the Dell "Customer Service". This was the first American person i'd spoken to since starting this debacle. Yes... he was American. No accent other than the Texas drawl.

Long story short, because i put in the note to the BBB and threatened to contact the state's Attorney General, it was finalized that Dell would send on a replacement. That replacement being the CORRECT item for my mother's laptop. Said replacement would come with a pre-paid UPS label and box to send back the conflicting device and that would end it.

Thanks for the input on the ordeal. Last order i'm ever doing with Dell. Glad its over.

[Cielo Azure]

I would notify Attorney General Abbott's office of all the communications and efforts necessary to get resolution. Otherwise, there will be no record and no end of customers having to "jump through hoops" and state intervention for DELL to comply....

[XWiseOneX]

To summarize, I just don't like it when companies put their customer service on the defensive with third world countries. Cheap labor, and the seemingly obvious national differences make customers piss off and yet statistically, they save more money...

If Dhelll would actually develop more of their centers to countries closer to the US....even Mexico God forbid...it would be more pleasant but India is just fail...

[FieldTech101]

try being a field tech and have to be put on hold for 5mins while you just ask a simple question because they dont know anything, you cant understand them and they take forever for anything, they seem to want to test everything even though you tell them what the problem is, and why is that when you get a Alienware computer(one of the harder of the computers) you get one of those guys? They do not stray from their script.

[100pcob]

I've tried being a field tech. I was a field tech for over three years and, other than the annual "rate adjustments" (aka pay cuts), I enjoyed it. Tons of non-reimbursed employee tax deductions, independent travel, only seeing the boss three or four times a year...

And most importantly, the biggest benefit was saying "no" when customers demanded after-hours or weekend work, and being backed up by my boss, who (after the EU escalated the call) would confirm, "nope, we don't do overtime after-hours or weekend work, too bad."

Nowadays...it would suck. The worst part of Dell field work are the mandatory 12-hour days with no overtime, thanks to "Dell Nights and Weekends". DNW basically tells the tech, "Do anything the EU wants and make any appointment the EU wants, or we will can you." Dell and their Qualxserv henchmen force techs to update all calls by 1030am, yet also force them to work up until 9pm on after-hours work (not even considering the Saturday AND SUNDAY work, getting out of bed and driving 80 miles round trip for a lone $29 SUNDAY call?! Screw you!).

http://www.dell.com/downloads/ap/services/Night_and_Weekend_On_Site_Service.pdf

[Sandeep]

I joined this forum today. I am Indian and I too got shafted by DHells lousy service. But I take offence to your racist "tired of Indians" comment. Dhells lousy management (which is mostly American by the way) set these policies and practices into place which say "screw the customer as long as we make bucks" - the Indians or frontline employees (whichever race and nation they belng to) are just implementing what the Big American Bosses set out as "acceptable policy". By the way it was the same American Bosses who took the decision to shipout support jobs to India and other countries. If you feel happy by shooting the messenger and licking the a.. of the American with a Texas drawl (who caused your problem in the first place) you're very welcome.

Oh btw, think of the best computer company you have had a good experience with - chances are they too get services out of India. Not the messenger its the management which is a problem.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Sandeep, I don't think anyone meant to disparage people of India as a whole. It could have been worded more considerately, but it wasn't meant as racist.

As you note, the 'quality' of service at Dell is a result of US management, subcontractor management, policy and procedure all conspiring to deny service. It would be the same no matter on what continent the phone was answered.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[Sandeep]

Absolutely agree & understand. But I did think it was necessary to seperate the problem (Dell management & policies) from the symptom (frontline support). Disparaging a particular nationality only dilutes the sh_t DHell shovels on all of us. So let's all get back to hurting the real culprit in all of this !

[Altair75]

Yeah, I'm sure wherever Dell sets up a call center, they only hire the cheapest labor, and then shackle them to a brainless script so that even if the employee had some snap it would get numbed out and the would soon realize it's easier to coast in neutral than try to work around the script.

Also realize that any Indian who speaks English is going to be smarter than the average American mouth-breather, the only difference is that Dell can hire the Indian for less than American minimum-wage, which in the US is barely livable pay, even welfare/foodstamps is better. Something the average American is smart enough to figure out.

The problem is the call center people are forced to use a script that was written by people who realize is worthless, so they just go through the motions of writing it and every decision tree ends with 'reformat and reinstall'.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

A Dell-India agent told me they pay $3/hr. Accomplished English speakers expect $4. So there's the first issue. The next one is, $3 is live-with-your-parents wage. Cost of living in developed India is nowhere near as low as you might think.

If I'm not mistaken, the average education in India is superior to that in the US. India made a very concerted effort to do that, starting decades ago. India is called a 'developing' nation but their intellectual capacity is already highly developed, likely in the top 10.

The trouble with Dell-India has nothing to do with India, it has to do with kikey Mikey. (No, that's not a religious slur, it's a behavior set.)
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'