Dell Support is stupid.

J

Jakalwarrior

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Aug 6, 2005
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Where I work we have all dell workstations and the IT guy was out on vacation. He asked me to go through the BS with the dell tech support on my co-workers computer. They have the nice warranty where they have to come out and fix the things on-site but they first make you convince them that they should.


I told them the thing runs for a bit then totally shuts down after about 10 minutes. When you turn it back on the hsf runs at 100% and there is no post. You have to wait a few hours before it will start up again.

They asked me to try a different wall socket with no surge protector. Fair enough, but had already tried 2 or 3 including the one my workstation is plugged in to. I told them that.

Next they asked me to check for software issues... on a system that won't post some times...

To humor them I was going to boot from linux from my flash drive. The damn thing locked up in the bios while I was changing the boot order. I explained that in an email.

They asked me to follow some set of tests they copied and pasted into an email... to make 100% sure it isn't a software issue...

After restating "IT FREEZES IN BIOS YOU NOOBS!!!" I decided to let someone with authority deal with them since they obviously didn't want to come fix their shit and I am not allowed to crack it open. My guess is the PSU or Mobo and any decent tech should have guessed the same...
 
Several years ago I worked for a company that switched from IBM desktops and Thinkpads to Dell hardware.

On our first call to Dell about a hardware problem on one of our user's machines, conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi! We have a machine that will not power on at all and believe its perhaps a PSU issue.

Them: Ok, lets run the diagnostic disc.

Me: No, you don't understand. The machine will not power on at all. Power no worky.

Them: Ok. What is your address? We will send out a new diagnostic disc.



At that time (circa 2004) Dell was using India for business support. I have nothing against the fine folks there, but yeah, it was like having my mom on the phone providing tech support.
 
Just use the angry and impatient voice. Always works - they become complacent when the voice comes out
 
Bottom line, they're mitigating cost. They're going to make you jump through hoops before they're going to spend their time a money on resolving an issue.
 
lowteckh said:
Just use the angry and impatient voice. Always works - they become complacent when the voice comes out
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This.

Anyway I've had the same issues with ibm, hp, intel, etc. Dell isn't too bad if you call the business line durning the day and get US support.

Intel tried to charge me for tech support before they would RMA a motherboard one time. The board caught on fire. The power regulation circuit fried and let out a flame as it went down. Had to argue with support for 10 minutes saying I didn't need tech support to troubleshoot something that had a flame come out of it last time it came on.
 
If your a company with Dell computers there's no reason why you shouldnt be Dell Certified then you can just order your own parts online...
 
I'm surprised people still don't know how to get the support they want from dell. Just tell them everything they want to know and leave them with no other option except for someone to come out and look at it. No need to be mad/rude. Speak calmly and give them all the answers quickly because you already ran through those troubleshooting steps with someone else, but got cut off and this is your 3rd time calling them back. Playing dumb also works well, lol. :p

My company has no IT department, so each engineer has to handle his own problems, lol. I just tell everyone to leave them with no questions and no other option except to have them come out and fix it, since thats in our contract. Gold/Pro support is great, and I've never spoken to anyone with a "foreign" accent when calling the gold/pro support line.
 
Not being angry will prompt them to keep on trying to "troubleshoot" and jump through holes. The angry voice immediately gets them into "resolution mode" if you can call it that. I've tried being nice and patient with them but they took it upon themselves to keep toying with me.
 
lowteckh said:
Not being angry will prompt them to keep on trying to "troubleshoot" ...
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... not if you tell them you've already done all the troubleshooting with someone else but the call got dropped. Sure, angry works... but I find it much easier to be nice... same end result, regardless. Angry just isn't healthy to me. Its probably because I used to work at a helpdesk in college. I was taught this saying: Its nice to be important, but more important to be nice. I've gotten much further with being nice than rude/mean/angry... but thats just me. And no, it doesn't really take patience... as I'm one of the most impatient people in the world. We all want things done yesterday. :p I can guarantee you that no angry caller got what they wanted from me when I worked the helpdesk, lol. In fact, if they called back, I suddenly had a "foreign" accent, hehehe... ahh... I miss college. :(
 
enginurd said:
... not if you tell them you've already done all the troubleshooting with someone else but the call got dropped. Sure, angry works... but I find it much easier to be nice... same end result, regardless. Angry just isn't healthy to me. Its probably because I used to work at a helpdesk in college. I was taught this saying: Its nice to be important, but more important to be nice. I've gotten much further with being nice than rude/mean/angry... but thats just me. And no, it doesn't really take patience... as I'm one of the most impatient people in the world. We all want things done yesterday. :p I can guarantee you that no angry caller got what they wanted from me when I worked the helpdesk, lol. In fact, if they called back, I suddenly had a "foreign" accent, hehehe... ahh... I miss college. :(
Click to expand...

LOL! That's hilarious! Two thumbs up!
 
use dell chat.. that's what i do.. that way i can work on other things.. it reminds me of my AIM days...
usually i tell them what is wrong, and they want to troubleshoot some, but i just make stuff up.

i did have to pull a server apart the other week though, so it was just psu, 1 processor, 1 stick of ram and it still didn't boot.
the dell guy came out to fix it and was like, wow, you really did unplug everything.. it saved him time swapping the motherboard out (which wasn't the problem, it was the psu, just like i originally thought)
 
scottatwittenberg said:
use dell chat.. that's what i do.. that way i can work on other things.. it reminds me of my AIM days...
usually i tell them what is wrong, and they want to troubleshoot some, but i just make stuff up.

i did have to pull a server apart the other week though, so it was just psu, 1 processor, 1 stick of ram and it still didn't boot.
the dell guy came out to fix it and was like, wow, you really did unplug everything.. it saved him time swapping the motherboard out (which wasn't the problem, it was the psu, just like i originally thought)
Click to expand...

Fun part about that is depending on the board it might have required 2 sticks of memory to run. You have more time to waste with them then me. I would have told them off when it came down to that.
 
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