I Hate Dell

I got in on the $20 x360 controllers for Windows they had a while back. The primary reason for buying them was for the wireless adapter for the PC. Well one of the two I bought didn't work. MS said it was Dell's responsibility since it was an accessory (good luck trying to find any support information on the 360 controllers for Windows on their site or phone system). Dell wouldn't issue an RMA for it to be replaced, they said I could just return for credit (fat chance on that deal). So I have a spare controller cheap, which is nice but didn't get he wireless adapter I need to actually use it with my media center PC. I spent probably two hours trying to get someone to take resonsibility for a broken brand new item before giving up since it just wasn't worth the effort.
 
It took, if I remember correctly, two supervisors before I was able to get a new laptop battery out of them. The battery went crappy after less than a year owning the machine. Crappy, as in the gauge was completely wrong, so I'd go 90, 89...down to about 45 or so. Then it would go from about 45 to "Low power, shutting down." I treat my batteries very carefully as I remove them when they are not charging and do not expose them to excess heat. I only use the battery when necessary.

Once I got high enough up, they agreed to overnight me a new battery and send me a prepaid shipping box for the defective one.

Moral: Hang on long enough, and make enough (polite) noise, and they will actually help you as long as you can jump up and down and say "Warranty! Warranty!" (which was a week from expiring at the time).
 
@TwiceOver - Ahh... I think I have your leads. Dell once came to my house for a warranty repair on a laptop. Brilliant job as they replaced the motherboard after I snapped the headphone socket. They also replaced keyboard and screen because they were "dirty". ARF!!

But a week later... a box was delivered. And inside were 20 (yes TWENTY) power leads just like you were looking for. No one ever came to pick them up. I never ordered them. Never worked out why I had them.


Cheap Indian Call centres - a nightmare. Notice how they will hang up on you mid-sentence if they can't solve your problem? I assume this is so they can tick "disconnected" instead of "unsolved" on their charts.

@ Mr Steven - Nothing worse than someone painfully going through a script without turning on the braincells. Who hasn't had this happen to them? Gawd only knows what happens to non-technical users when this happens to them...
 
I've bought a Dell laptop, (P3 in it so it's very old) and monitors. Yet to make a service call.
 
It's really hit and miss with their support team.

I tried RMAing a monitor once (2407) that was still under warranty. The DVI connector in the back had become loose and would lose video synchronization from time to time. Wiggling the plug via the cable would sometimes return the video. Pretty simple right, WRONG! Their tech support wanted me to reinstall drivers and try the monitor or a different system with a different cable. I explained to them that I could watch the plug move inside the monitor as I wiggled the cable; they didn’t seem to understand. Finally, after I was approved for a RMA, they were unable to look up when the monitor was purchased and requested that I find my original invoice. Mind you, I buy roughly $100K in hardware from them a year. Online invoices only go back a year; hard copies are kept in a huge storage unit. There’s no freakin’ way I’m gonna’ rummage through a storage unit full of bankers boxes for an invoice for a $500.00 monitor. I eventually gave up on the monitor, took it apart and soldiered the plug. It’s been OK since.

Another problem I had with them involved a Laptop I recently purchased. The touchpad would randomly stop working on reboot. I ran all the diagnosis and installed the drivers numerous times without success. The technician was convinced that it was a driver issue and wouldn’t issue me a RMA. Finally, I told the technician that I was done with them and would circumvent their RMA process and fix it myself. I found a replacement touchpad on eBay for 8 dollars and some change. 6 days later I replaced the touchpad with the one I purchased from eBay; it has yet to give me any problems.

Just today I had to RMA a power supply for an XPS system. It took me no more than 5 minutes to have the technician send out a replacement. He asked very few questions and didn’t require me to jump through any hoops.
 
Chris_B said:
At the minute my 2407wfp has the common problem of the power button cover spinning around, have to line it up straight for the button to work. Havnt tried calling about it yet as theyre bloody annoying to talk to.
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My 2407 had the same problem last year. The solution was pretty low-tech, but it hasn't failed me in over a year. Once you spin the power button into the correct position, apply a small piece of Scotch tape over the button to keep it from spinning. While the tape is slightly visible, it works and that is all I care about.
 
I only ever have problems with Dell when I am calling about something that is not mine or have no info of the original owner for.

Otherwise i've called them enough to know exactly what to say to get what I need in a short amount of time.
 
Remember when a lot of us bought those 20" monitors a few years back that was a super good deal, only to find out they had bad firmwares and the colors didn't blend like the vga outs? The DVI was crappy! I'm sure if I searched the forums, i'll find the link... Needless to say, I didn't bother calling dell even though they knew it was a problem. I ended up selling them for what I paid for them. The guy didn't care cause he used VGA anyways. LoL
 
When dealing with Dell, the first thing I do is ask for a North American customer service agent. Most of the time it's a painless transfer, but occasionally I have to demand it.

If I hear any solution that even sounds like it's off a script, I ask for my issue to be elevated. Again, sometimes I have to be forceful about it, but it eventually is given to the next level. That usually solves whatever problem I have.
 
Something very obvious might be derived from this comment...
For every nightmare story a customer can tell, there are dozens of nightmare stories a tech support rep can tell.
And I'm not referring to tech superiority complex telling n00b stories.
The problem on both sides is every time they are told it somehow gets worse, 10 minutes becomes 15 minutes etc.

And while there are legit issues at times that a customer should not have to put up with, more often it is improper expectation on the customer end. I'm sorry the customer is not always right.
 
In the UK there is already a bit of a backlash against these awful call centres. It is getting pretty noticeable that many companies are bringing the Call Centres back to the UK. It is so much easier when the person you are talking to actually understands what you are saying.

(Earlier his evening I spent 10 painful minutes on the phone to Paypal. Fighting the language barrier where the call centre person clearly was only understanding one word in ten I was saying. Took twice as long to solve my problem than it would of if it had been UK or US based Call Centre. With excess amounts of frustration raising in my voice.)

The lousy call centre is the main reason I DON'T recommend Dell to my clients. I will only recommend companies who actually care a toss about their clients.


@Kyle - my suggestion is to email your complaint and a link to this Forum Thread to Michael Dell himself. Surprising how often hassling the CEO of a company will get fast results. Especially when you run a site like this. ( Do your own Googling on this - but it looks like [email protected] )

I had a client join an ISP in the UK with an Indian Call Centre. And months of not connecting her to broadband, messing up the installation, leaving her without broadband for months. I then found her the email address of the CEO - who was a little upset at being emailed while he was on his honeymoon. His PA called my client. And she was online within the fortnight.

Get someone who cares a toss to get the bollockings delivered to the correct place. Call Centres will always ignore you.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
lol This thread just put me off from ever buying a Dell monitor, thanks guys.
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You do realize that when you see a "post your Dell hate" thread, its only going to be full of..... Dell hate.

A lot (pronounced A WHOLE LOT) more people do not have problems.
 
I bought a dell laptop once and the registry got corrupted to where I had to reinstall windows. After several separate phone calls I was unable to get a hold of anyone that understood "I need a windows installation disk". Eventually I was able to talk to someone through the text chat that understand and mailed me the disk. I received it a day or 2 later :p

I recently bought a tv from dell, I don't anticipate even trying to call them if I have problems ;)
 
I've had nothing but superb support from Dell's business support team. However, our company switched to Lenovo a year ago so I'm not sure how well Dell does now.
 
Jeesuz, I just gave up and bought another one. Maybe we will figure this out. Anyways, we always need monitors around here for editors.
 
Sovereign said:
I treat my batteries very carefully as I remove them when they are not charging...
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Completely unnecessary. Laptop batteries have logic boards that stop charging when the battery is full and only trickle charge to top off as needed.By removing them from the system frequently, you only end up putting more wear on the contacts.
 
I bought my girlfriend a computer online. The monitor broke but it was still under the extended 3 year warranty based on what it said online, i call them and they tell me they can't help me and to call another dell number, i do and they tell me its stolen. I say that impossible and give them all the information from the guy who i bought it from. I contact him and he says thats impossible, but dell wont tell me who reported it stolen so I can fix the situation therefore , no way to fix it, warranty does not apply, laptop is junk. F*%K you Dell!

:confused:
 
My old Inspiron E1705 had the video card go bad. I called Dell, and after some troubleshooting they decided to void my warranty because I removed the hard drive. Mind you, on these models the hard drive is secured with two small screws, clearly marked on the bottom of the laptop, and the drive is intentionally designed to be user replaceable. Doing this somehow broke the video card. Randomly.

After replacing the video card myself (to the tune of over $400), the whole "bad nVidia laptop GPU" fiasco broke loose. Mine ended up being one of the "potentially affected" models that qualified for replacement.

I won't be buying another Dell.
 
yang88she said:
I've been on the phone w. Dell so many times, that I now speak in an Indian accent
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I went to a tech college for 5 years of my life. It came fluently when I talked, and I'm pale. Now Ive gotten it under control and Ill break it out when necessary. But as far as Dell's tech support, Ive heard nothing but bad things. Whereas Apples support staff knows next to nothing, but they are good with people, yet they are the highest rated among companies for customer support.
 
Back in high school, I saved up enough money by working to pay for at least half the cost of the laptop my dad was buying. It was my gift to him. Laptop came and worked perfectly for 2 months after which I wanted to bash it over Dell's head.
 
neokeelo said:
I bought my girlfriend a computer online. The monitor broke but it was still under the extended 3 year warranty based on what it said online, i call them and they tell me they can't help me and to call another dell number, i do and they tell me its stolen. I say that impossible and give them all the information from the guy who i bought it from. I contact him and he says thats impossible, but dell wont tell me who reported it stolen so I can fix the situation therefore , no way to fix it, warranty does not apply, laptop is junk. F*%K you Dell!

:confused:
Click to expand...

What? This has nothing to do with Dell. If you bought a monitor flagged as stolen, that is an issue with the person who sold you the monitor (aka the person who possibly stole it to begin with :p)
 
Yeah, I have a lot of Dell Hate. I have a 2407 monitor, it developed some stupid problem where the corner of the screen was peeling or something, you could see right through where there was supposed to be pixels. Took me at least 3 phone calls to get this resolved thanks to the non-existent system tag. I had to look up on google wtf to tell them when they demanded a system-tag. It's pretty sad when I have to look up that kind of information online because they can't train people properly. Oh well. Thanks for reminding me not to buy from Dell!
 
Yup.. even the fixed machines broke... LCD screens going out, video, PCMCIA slots, HDD's, dock ports, NIC's, screen hindges just snap in half for no reason. I thought it was the users at first... but its not... We had IBM's prior with no issues expect when a users cracks the screen. We had some laptop that got so hot even with the fan spinning that it would bubble the paint on the bottom and turn the COA to a nice brown....
 
When I bought my Laptop, non of the drivers would work properly. Everything kept hanging and it wouldn't let me set up my home network link properly. They asked if they could look at my system, and with my permission installed something called 'Dell Go' or some such. The guy started moving programs, changing settings and even my damn desktop. He spent a good 40 minutes doing this. He told me I needed to reboot, and could he do so.. I agreed.

My system wouldn't reboot, it got stuck mid driver load and hung hard enough to where I had to pull the battery to make it reboot. Again making it hang. I had to reformat the drive and reinstall using the recovery disk.

Naturally, I was mad as hell. I got everything up and running, all my programs reinstalled, and then called them back. Nobody knew what I was talking about, had no record of my previous inquires, problems, or any pending requests, and only a basic listing note of my having called, asked for an assist, and supposedly hanging up on the tech while he was investigating 'problems'

I had a few names saved, and kept demanding to speak to a supervisor, but strangely couldn't make any real progress. Dell Support informed me that if I wanted to set up my network the way I described, I would have to use the Business version of Vista, and that it wasn't recommended on a 32bit platform. I asked how I could go about getting Business 64, and they said it wasn't available as a purchase, but they would speak to their Manager about the problem.

I was kept on hold for almost an hour, and then got hung up on. I called back and ran thru the auto recordings for ever, nobody would pick up. I didn't get the call back I had been promised in case of a disconnect either. I tried again the nest day, and after getting the run around for over an hour, was told the request for my getting 64bit Business was being expedited, and to give them a few days to contact me for the shipping info.

I was satisfied, and waited a week. Then another week. I called back 16 days later and no-one knew what I was talking about. I was told that Dell didn't carry Vista Business, in 32 OR 64 bit, and the closest I would get was Ultimate. I spent the better part of the next 2 hours explaining my problem, none of which did anyone there have any record of.

Eventually a supervisor told me he was recommending they send me Vista Ultimate 64, and asked me to wait the 10-14 day shipping period, as he was expediting the request. If it didn't show in 2 weeks, I should call back and he would deal with the matter personally.

20 days go by and nothing shows.... so yeah, I call back. Nobody knows anything about my previous support tickets, there are no notes, and in no manner or form would they be willing to send me anything other then the basic DVD media that my laptop shipped with. No supervisor I was transferred to had any knowledge of any of the names I had, the days I called, or the job tickets they had given me.

I ended up going out and buying Vista Ultimate 64 myself, installing it fresh without all the bullshit Dell software, and got my network up and running the way I wanted it.

Fuck Dell, in their lying ignorant non-tech asses. The tech I dealt with who screwed up my system didn't even understand the concept of 'quick format' for an external 750gb USB hard drive. He wanted to do a slow format which would have taken close to 7 hours.
 
can suck my left nut. it has a recalled graphics card, the 8600 gt-m, and all the usb ports are loose so my mouse will randomly stop working and when i attempt to game...or at least i used to before it frustrated me to the point of where i've almost thrown it like 5 times, it will stop working every other time i move it..grrrr. when i called dell they said call nvidia, when i called nvidia they said call dell. and dell hung up on me like 5 times while trying to get them to rma it, and another 4 times when i tried to get my vista cd. thus far, vista cd fixed. laptop still not rmad :(
 
trugbilddrachen said:
Yup.. even the fixed machines broke... LCD screens going out, video, PCMCIA slots, HDD's, dock ports, NIC's, screen hindges just snap in half for no reason. I thought it was the users at first... but its not... We had IBM's prior with no issues expect when a users cracks the screen. We had some laptop that got so hot even with the fan spinning that it would bubble the paint on the bottom and turn the COA to a nice brown....
Click to expand...

Unless a laptop is Apple or Lenovo I'm not touching it. Dells are such crap.
 
I got the biggest runaround of my life trying to buy two damn Vostro notebooks from the small business store a couple of years ago. Turns out my credit card company put a hold on my card becuase of two 700 purchases (the Vostros) which I promptly cleared. I call dell to clear it up on their end and get put on hold with financial services, then tranferred to TECH SUPPORT, the transferred back to financial services. Somewhere along the line I shit you not I ended up at talking to some guy at Dell's like... enterprise level financial services. I told him I just wanted to make sure there was no hold on my card for two laptops and he chuckles and says I'm sorry man, we deal with multi million dollar accounts in this division but I think I can help you out.

Turns out the enterprise guy was American and very friendly/helpful. The "others" in the lower level departments... not so much.

Never again.
 
Streak said:
My 2407 had the same problem last year. The solution was pretty low-tech, but it hasn't failed me in over a year. Once you spin the power button into the correct position, apply a small piece of Scotch tape over the button to keep it from spinning. While the tape is slightly visible, it works and that is all I care about.
Click to expand...

Ive actually been meaning to do that, i never think about it till the button starts to spin around again, then something else crops up and i forget again.
 
I had two $100 gift cards. In the proses of a transaction both cards where emptied, only one credited to purchase. After hours of calls (and them hanging up on me over and over again) I let the $100 go.

I still wont buy anything from them..... ever!
 
Steve said:
<super thick Indian accent> Mr. Steven, you built your own Dell? This I cannot believe.

*click* Tom hangs up.
Click to expand...

ROFL!:D
Be comforted knowing that your aggravation had made my day!
 
I called in for non-functioning internal wi-fi for a friend's laptop about 2 years ago. After 3 phone calls I got an agent whose name and information I got before the call started (the prior 2 calls I was hung up on). I let this agent know I would report him to his supervisor if I was hung up on again. I got an RMA, sent away the laptop, and when it came back they had included a Dell router. I don't know why, but the laptop wi-fi still did not work.

I called Dell again, went through Dell hell and in the end the moron told me he was going to send me another router. I don't know why they were sending me Dell routers for free but at that point I told my friend I would take the two routers off his hands and buy him a wi-fi card.

I really don't understand how these business practices are good for anyone. Everyone I know comes to me for their computer advice and I've said nothing but "never buy Dell!" for two years. They also gave away 2 routers for no reason. It's just nonsense. Dell is a company I will never do business with again.
 
I was sure you had ties to Dell Kyle.

A few years ago I had a problem with a Dell order and I thought it was you I contacted (maybe not?) and you forwarded it along to someone at Dell. I got a call from Dell Executive offices, and my order ended up shipping the very next day, with free overnight. Granted this was years ago - and I think you'd just done an article about how Dell had started to 'get serious' about getting enthusiasts to purchase their products.
 
Ualdayan said:
I was sure you had ties to Dell Kyle.

A few years ago I had a problem with a Dell order and I thought it was you I contacted (maybe not?) and you forwarded it along to someone at Dell. I got a call from Dell Executive offices, and my order ended up shipping the very next day, with free overnight. Granted this was years ago - and I think you'd just done an article about how Dell had started to 'get serious' about getting enthusiasts to purchase their products.
Click to expand...


My only tie to Dell consists of my credit card. And yes, I used to have contacts here in Texas, but all those guys were shitcanned a long time ago when Dell did its first big round of layoffs here.

If it makes you feel any better, every word you read here now came through a Dell server. We are 100% PowerEdge now days. Bought them all last year when advertising dollars were good.
 
I always recommend getting the tech's ID number at the beginning of each call. They all have them, even if they claim they don't. I have filed many complaints against these boneheads that terminate the calls, or who just don't have any common sense. That is why it is important to get their number.
I had a women who kept telling me to go into the bios and check the power settings on a machine that didn't have any power. I had already replaced the systemboard and needed a power supply. After asking for her super, since she didn't understand "No power", she disconnected the call and filed a complaint against me, claiming I was unwilling to troubleshoot. I was so happy, because there was a record of who she was. I then filed my own complaint, and so did the customer. I bet she didn't last too long.
 
i used to have dell xps m1530 and i contacted them twice once was bout the fingerprint sensor not working, a tech came to my house and replaced it, second time i did an online chat with them because i wanted to get the speaker covers replaced and she sent one out and i got within 3 days.

i also used the online chat once again to get a power adapter which they gave for free.

i think their service for the xps series is the best.
 
We only order from dell mostly so we can support are customers better I only need 3 sets of disks for restores. xp vista 7 they take care of 99% but when dealing with there support its web chat or nothing. it takes like 3x longer for simple stuf (dead hard drive ship me a new one). but it takes half the time for a more messed up problem (new notebook will blue screen after you install office even after 3 restores and all new drivers passes all tests) it takes half the time and they email you the chat log so you have evidence. you also can get plenty of work done at the same time and even if they blow you off its just the ahole in the box not "mike" or what ever he is calling him self for that call.
 
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