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Dell Customer Service

  • Thread starter Nepenthes
  • Start date
OMG... I am sooo furious right now. I just spent an hour trying to get a hold of a supervisor at Dell, and it seems like their protocol is to put you on hold, transfer you to a non-functional extension, and then hang up on you. This happened to me with 6 different "customer service" clowns. I am SOOO enraged. The 7th time calling back, I got the same CSR person (Rahsheek), and I just cussed them out. What ever happened to good old American Customer Service? Now I am connected with a bunch of people in India (Niha, Jahyer, Rahsheek, and a bunch of other names I couldn't pronounce), and none of these clowns can help me. I have been reading on the internet and I just found out that apparently there are a ton of other people who have had similar problems with Dell. All of this never would have happened if the first guy I spoke to earlier today didn't hang up on me after making me wait 20 minutes to tell me something that took him 10 seconds to check. I ordered a Dell 30" monitor like a week ago and all I wanted was to check on the status because the internet was having problems pulling up the order. At the prices of these monitors, you would think I could speak with someone who actually worries about accountability. None of these CSRs did and they were all ruthless. I have never been so horribly disappointed with customer service in my life. After this monitor comes, I am never giving money to Dell again.

Has anyone else had to deal with Dell?
 
I haven't dealt with Dell's offshore surrogates recently, but never had a problem back when I did. My most recent South Asian CSR experience was for my home wireless unit and I thought they were great and very patient, since it must have taken them 1/2 hour to guide me to the solution.
 
Cussing isn't going to help you. Being yabo isn't going to help you. Ever. Ever. Ever. In fact, if you're overly nice and say "No problem! Take your time!" and " You're so helpful!" and you start a conversation by asking how they are today, things will go so much smoother for you. They just may put in a little extra effort because you could be the first person who's given them any respect all day. Maybe all week.

Immediately ask for a second-tier customer service representative, by the way. Always. Before you hang up after your problem is resolved, ask if you can be compensated somehow "for your inconvenience". They can and will authorize free gift cards and upgrades (if you're lucky on the upgrades..). If they ask why, which they shouldn't, just tell them that in the past you had a service technician tell you to always ask for second-tier support. Don't waste your time with first-tier support, but still be very graceful and polite. Grace takes you places when dealing with anyone.

If you really can't understand them, ask to be transfered to a North American call center. They can do that, but it might make them feel bad :( I'll never buy a Dell again, either. My laptop arrived with a defective screen, and the keyboard was buckled so there was a hump, along with the control panel cover. Send a tech with a new screen, with was also defective, a keyboard and sent hinge covers instead of a control panel cover. Called again. The same tech came out with a GOOD screen and a replacement control panel cover. NOW I love my computer. It's awesome. I love it. I just don't think a computer that cost as much as mine did (not to be conspicuous, just stating the facts... it's a really good laptop) should come NIB with three problems. Never buying a Dell again.

I also got a free gift card :)
 
We recently bought a high end workstation for 3D animation, did a lot of research and that is the very reason we went with a company called BOXX, rather than Dell or HP.

BOXX has excellent satisfaction ratings and when you have problems you speak with a support person in Austin, Texas.

We just can't afford to fool around with "customer no-service" with equipment crucial to our business.
 
If I were you I'd just cancel my order now and spare myself the heartache. I have had 110% bad experiences with Dell. For example, my old roommate's Dell came pre-loaded with spyware, and almost every time I unbox a Dell product with someone (it's been a long time since I've owned anything from them) there are parts missing or wrong. The best one was probably discovering that the factory had installed the wrong type of RAM when my buddy ordered extra memory. How did we know? The smell of burning electronics after plugging it in.
Dell is to consumer electronics as Velveeta is to cheese.
~Joe

PS - If you're worried about getting a quality monitor for the price, take confidence from the fact that Dell doesn't really make any of their own products, they just put ugly cases on stuff from Hitachi and the like. I wouldn't be surprised if most of their profits were derived from their credit department. Grr. Angry Joe.
 
OMG... I am sooo furious right now. I just spent an hour trying to get a hold of a supervisor at Dell, and it seems like their protocol is to put you on hold, transfer you to a non-functional extension, and then hang up on you. This happened to me with 6 different "customer service" clowns. I am SOOO enraged. The 7th time calling back, I got the same CSR person (Rahsheek), and I just cussed them out. What ever happened to good old American Customer Service? Now I am connected with a bunch of people in India (Niha, Jahyer, Rahsheek, and a bunch of other names I couldn't pronounce), and none of these clowns can help me. I have been reading on the internet and I just found out that apparently there are a ton of other people who have had similar problems with Dell. All of this never would have happened if the first guy I spoke to earlier today didn't hang up on me after making me wait 20 minutes to tell me something that took him 10 seconds to check. I ordered a Dell 30" monitor like a week ago and all I wanted was to check on the status because the internet was having problems pulling up the order. At the prices of these monitors, you would think I could speak with someone who actually worries about accountability. None of these CSRs did and they were all ruthless. I have never been so horribly disappointed with customer service in my life. After this monitor comes, I am never giving money to Dell again.

Has anyone else had to deal with Dell?

Damn, I am sorry to hear that. My girlfriend dealt with something similar with Dell and was on the phone for a total of two hours (to solve what turned out to be a minor problem but was disconnected while being on hold four times) with someone who called himself "William" but could not pronounce that name if his life depended upon it.

When I had an minor issue with my MacBook, I reached someone in Cupertino within minutes who didn't pick up their English at Berlitz. Damn thing cost a bundle but Jobs has his elves working double-time at Apple . . .
 
I had literally years taken off my life from the stress of dealing with Dell tech support.

I'm the sort that has almost infinite patience, but they tested and surpassed my limits. I had a new computer that didn't work - kept getting random errors and couldn't really do anything. So I called. And called, and called. No suggested fix worked. Finally, they said they thought my hard drive was faulty. So they came and picked up my hard drive. When they brought me a new one, I found it didn't have Windows or anything installed on it! I called back and said "there's nothing on this hard drive." They said I should use the backup discs I made of all the software. I explained I couldn't make backup discs because it never worked. and shouldn't that have been included? They said that since it had been 30 days, it was my responsibility to have made backups or called earlier, and no, they didn't ship any backup with the machine. I explained that while I purchased the computer more than 30 days before, I never opened the box till now. And I also explained that even if the computer did work, there's no way I could have made 71 discs (actual stat) to back up all the software on the harddrive, and please give me a hard drive with the software. They refused. I got angry. Turns out this was during a brief period where Dell didn't ship backup software at all. You had to make it yourself. Seriously.

Then I found that even the new hard drive didn't work either anyway. So I said, OK, look, give me back my old hard drive since that wasn't the problem in the first place, and when we get whatever was wrong fixed, I'd make the million disks of backup. They said "sorry, we contract out that service and they don't keep or track the hard drives, and our agreement with the software makers, including Microsoft, prevents us from giving you another copy. I got much, much angrier, as they actually thought that was legit.

Anyway, after 17 service calls (I counted them, it literally was this much, though a Dell rep took the opportunity to dispute me on that), they finally relented. But this was a couple weeks in, and more frustration and stupidity than I could ever accurately describe here. Turns out it was a bad cable from the drive all along. Now I don't care if they have changed their policies. They were uniformly rude, unreasonable, and even though I don't have a temper, they weren't even sympathetic. I will never, EVER buy a Dell again. EVER. EVER!!! I recommend nobody else does either.

Capslock
 
Cussing isn't going to help you. Being yabo isn't going to help you. Ever. Ever. Ever. In fact, if you're overly nice and say "No problem! Take your time!" and " You're so helpful!" and you start a conversation by asking how they are today, things will go so much smoother for you. They just may put in a little extra effort because you could be the first person who's given them any respect all day. Maybe all week.

The only reason I cussed that CSR out was because I had been polite way too many times and kept getting hung up on. At that point I wasn't even looking to have the issue resolved anymore, I just wanted to yell at one of the many people that had already hung up on me. You can only get stepped on so many times before blowing up in anger.

Being overly nice is what had me waiting 20 minutes in the first place, only for the CSR to repeat to me what I asked him in the first place and then to put me on hold without telling me he was doing so. Then he hung up on me while I was on hold. The term angry really doesn't encompass my attitude at that time.
 
I had literally years taken off my life from the stress of dealing with Dell tech support.

They refused. I got angry.

after 17 service calls (I counted them, it literally was this much, though a Dell rep took the opportunity to dispute me on that),

But this was a couple weeks in, and more frustration and stupidity than I could ever accurately describe here.

Now I don't care if they have changed their policies. They were uniformly rude, unreasonable, and even though I don't have a temper, they weren't even sympathetic. I will never, EVER buy a Dell again. EVER. EVER!!! I recommend nobody else does either.

Capslock

Max, you hit the nail on the head. I seriously can't describe accurately all the trouble they put me through. I was on the phone for almost an hour and a half today, most of which I was on hold listening to a stupid song that elicits a Pavlovian kill response in me now. From what I understand, this is nothing compared to what some people like yourself have had to endure, so I can only imagine how angry you were.

As for a change of policies, you must be referring to the software policy, because their customer service is worse than ever.

Daniel
 
  • #10
I waited a couple of hours, but in the end got what I wanted. I WAS frustrated, I just held it back. I've never been hung up on; I'm sure it was an accident. I've accidentally hung up before, and they called ME!

I did have a guy want to argue with me about what an LCD screen is supposed to look like. I am not stupid, and an LCD screen should not look like it has glitter stuck in it. It shouldn't look worse than a 10 year old SDTV. I asked for someone on second tier and then it was problem free.

I did a clean OS installation before doing anything. I had read that have a lot of crap you don't need or want.
 
  • #11
I've never been hung up on; I'm sure it was an accident.

An accident is when it happens once or twice. 6 times in a row is not an accident.
 
  • #12
Has anyone else had to deal with Dell?

I try not to think about it. After the misery Dell's "customer service" put me though, I've moved on to other brands and will never never NEVER buy another Dell anything. EVER! :censor:


That said, I still have my old Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop -- using it right now, as a matter of fact. Will probably keep it as long as I can find non-Dell parts to replace the parts that fizzle out
 
  • #13
Oh Dell, lol.

I love when someone picks up with an accent so thick I can barely understand them, and tells me their name is Bryan, or Joe or something like that haha.

Every time I call I have to wait for at least 45 mins to speak to someone, then they tell me to do things that I know aren't related. Usually I'll call with a problem that I know the exact cause of, I just need a solution. I don't like them telling me to do totally unrelated things and wasting my time when I know there's no point.

I have an Inspiron 1520 right now, and its great except that it crashed within 2 days of getting it, and sometimes the clock randomly sets itself back 2 hours even though I reflashed the bios in an attempt to fix it. I'm about to get a Dell tablet PC because med school is forcing it on me. Hopefully it will be at least semi problem free.
 
  • #14
Let me give some experience with DEll myself. I got my Inspiron 9300 maxed out 3 yrs ago now. I extended my 1 yr warranty to 3 yrs total. In the time I have had my HD replaced 2 times, my LCD once, my motherboard once, my battery once and.recently my keyboard twice (once each yr)....hmm...I think thats all. At the time I bought my lappy dell was the leader of laptops with the best affordable powerful laptops with good video cards. However, now I wouldn't bother with dell anymore. Yeah....they do use their Indian call centers a lot...but I guess its better to call them during the night time. I found that calling at night means the que (wrong sp. :p ) times are shorter. The one thing I am satisfied is the free shipping of replacements with UPS with prompt immediate delivery.
 
  • #15
I have owned multiple Dell's for many years. Based on many experiences, here is my recommendation:

- purchase their 'Gold' tech support (I think that's what they call it now). It was 'guaranteed' to have a US-based tech answer the phone when I got it. This service came standard on my existing 'workstation' computer a few years back. Today, it's an option available for a fairly small premium. If you do not purchase this service - do not buy a Dell. With this service - Dell is still worthwhile (mostly based on the fact that almost all of the other companies stink). Of the dozens of Tech's I've had with this service - close to 100% have been very good.

I purchased a computer for my Dad and had to deal multiple times w/ their offshore customer service - wow! Eventually I read about asking for US-based rep on a message board. Nope - they're on to that. You will get transferred to a bogus extension or simply disconnected. From what I've seen, they have all of their bases covered. If they sense the call is going bad, they will find a way to disconnect or transfer you so they do not get hammered for bad service. If the call goes well, they will ask that you speak to their supervisor to confirm that you are happy (it must be a rare occurrence). While I have dealt with other company's Indian-based support, Dell must hire their rejects as Dell's offshore service is the worst of all...
 
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