After experiencing a black out in the middle of working on a word document I had reason to call dell tech support to find out what or why my computer just went black. I was told since the computer was no longer under warranty; they would require 59.00 for a service tech to fix the problem. The fee would be good for 30 days and cover the same issue. If something additional were needed in order to complete the fix, it would be additional. I agreed.
A simple random diagnostic, which took all of 5 minutes to perform on the computer, resulted in a passing grade yet nothing seemed to change. I still had a black screen and still nothing was fixed. I was told I would need to speak to someone in the solutions station and was forwarded to them.
When transferred to this new operator, I was was told that since the warranty had expired, another warranty would have to be purchased before they could help me with a fix. When I explained that I had just paid tech support $59.00 for a 30-day warranty to cover this issue, the operator in the solutions center department explained the fee I just paid for only covered a hardware diagnostics. I would now have to pony up another $250.00 for yet another warranty before they would be able to recover data and get the computer back up and running! WHAT? When I balked about this rip off I was promptly put on hold while the tech agent spoke to his superior. He returned to the phone after about 2 minutes and explained either I would have to pay $89.00 to have them help me reinstall the computer to factory settings or I could pay $129.00 to recover the data. He also mentioned that since I was not fully informed by the first operator that my first fee was limited to only hardware diagnostics he was offering a reduced rate.
I would think any reputable tech department would have identified the problem from the get go, referring me to the correct department prior to shelling out a useless fee to their department. Rip off and money grab is all it is. I only paid $400 for the hard drive, so I saw no justifiable reason to now pay another $250.00 plus what I had already paid ($59) to fix a computer that could be replaced for only $90 bucks more?
Fortunately my data is backed up except what I had been working on for the past two days. I decided not to purchase the additional $89.00 tech fee to restore the computer on top of the first $59.00 I just shelled out, since that would have been nearly half the cost of purchasing a new hard drive that would come with with a warranty. The computer is already 2 1.2 years old and more then halfway through its useful lifespan anyway, so I thought it best to invest the money into another newer hard drive. Needless to say, I wont be getting a Dell Dude!
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