I believed in Dell until now. We own two Dell computers, a three year old desktop and a one year old Laptop. We bought Dell because we believed in their commitment to the consumer. We continued to believe in Dell after our first two purchases because we never had to contact Dell customer support or technical support until we purchased our new Dell Inspiron 8200 just a few weeks ago.
We were moving from MD to FL and ordered our new Dell laptop in time to have it delivered and tested before our move. Just before the date we were to receive the computer, Dell sent an e-mail stating that the computer would not arrive on the date we expected... Shipping would be delayed for two weeks. I immediately called Dell customer support and cancelled the order because we would no longer live at the shipping address. The order was cancelled, or so I thought. The day we were leaving, UPS delivered the computer we had cancelled. About 10 days later we had our modem connection installed, set up our home network and opened up the box for the new laptop.
From this moment on, we've been chained to the phone with Dell technical and customer support. The computer did not work from the first time it was booted up. The computer freezes up constantly giving the blue screen error messages about the nVidia drivers and/or hardware problems. Or we get serious error reports as the window states "Your system has just recovered from a serious error" We have window fragmentation where numerous open windows all show just a part of the window with part of the desktop showing through. The cursor moves wherever it desires when one is typing... It just goes to another paragraph above and starts typing in the middle of a word. The computer freezes if the screen saver comes on, if it hibernates, if I open a webpage or an e-mail. I was never able to try out any of the programs installed in the factory other than Word which froze the first time I tried to use it.
I've traveled around the world talking with Dell technical support... Sometimes having a very difficult time understanding the techs from Asia and India. I've sat on hold forever, been disconnected as the tech puts me on hold to find an answer, passed around from tech to tech without anyone being able to fix the problem. One tech would give information that conflicted with the info giver the hour or day before by another tech.in fact numerous techs told me the 8200 and XP have a real problem that Dell is working on but cannot fix and so they had me turning off (by unchecking) all kinds of things I did not understand what they were for. Daily, sometimes two or three times a day, sometimes twice in one phone call, we updated the video drivers and something called Bios. We did a system repair that did not work, we reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled everything only to have the computer freeze during the installation process... Then back to downloading the disp_nv4 and bios updates again and again. Each day that first week as I spoke with techs for hours at a time, sometimes numerous techs the same day about the continuing problem I told them I had no confidence in the computer I bought. I just moved and needed a computer to do my work and wanted an exchange. I did not have the time to spend all day every day on the phone with Dell techs. "No" they said, not necessary... This is a software problem and all software problems can be fixed... Guaranteed! Each day I was told that what this tech was doing would absolutely fix the problem, but it never did.
I was put on hold, transferred, lost connection, told to do something and would be called back in 20 minutes. Told the tech was going off shift and would call back when he returned to work. Told he had to look something up and would come back on line and never did. Only one time did a tech call back as promised. Most of the time I had to call back, go on hold forever again and start over with a new tech. One tech told me he had to send me four disks to reformat the drive and install the factory installed programs. When I received the disks I called back as instructed and the new techs I spoke with would not use these disks. I could not find another tech who knew why the previous tech wanted to use these special installation disks so we used the disks that came with the computer. The very first screen appearing after the installation was that the computer recovered from a serious error. "Good, " the tech said when I told him what was on the screen. "The system recovered from the error by itself." Yikes I though to myself... Does he actually think I am going to think that is a good thing. It took about 5 minutes for the computer to lock up after the installation. This time though I had some new problems. Every time I clicked on something the computer put up a screen message saying it could not locate the file which it did locate because it opened up behind this message. The cursor still typed wherever it felt like going to in a document and the video driver message was back again.
A call back again to the techs and I was told to wipe out everything again and reinstall everything! Again! All to no avail since the problems continued.
By this time I had had it. I told the tech I just did not have the time to continue to spend all day and evening on the phone with them doing the same thing over and over again with no improvement. I had a job to do with this computer and could not do it. I had to have a working computer now.
Inbetween talking with techs and working on trying to troubleshoot the problem I was also in daily contact with customer support. All but two of the customer support reps were absolutely rude. I asked them to please help me get a working computer because I needed it and was not only not getting any work done, but was weary of being on the phone with Dell all day. At first the customer support reps told me that I had an obligation under the sales agreement to troubleshoot problems with the techs. Each day I called I asked them to define what they considered reasonable time to spend troubleshooting a brand new computer. Was it days, weeks, or months? How many hours a day did I have to spend to satisfy my obligation?
The real problem I found out is that the thirty days I had until the computer was forever mine did not start when I received the computer, but way back when I ordered the computer. The time they spent stalling and telling me that I had to spend time troubleshooting the computer was evidently a ploy to get me past the 30 days. The fact that they did not ship the computer on time did not seem to affect the 30 day limit. When I forced the issue I was told that I could not receive an exchange of a new computer even in the 30 days window because once I opened the computer it was used and therefore they would send me a refurbished computer in exchange. I could not believe what I was hearing. I called four different times that day to both technical and customoer support because I thought the rep and the supervisor I talked with just had to be wrong. How could Dell who I thought was known best for their great customer support have a policy like this for their customers.
It was my opinion that Dell should have been apologizing to me for sending me a malfunctioning computer and wasting so much of my time.instead they acted as though they were the customer and I owed them for buying their product.
I do not expect all equipment to work perfectly as designed but I do expect a company to stand behind their product and replace it when it obviously has some severe problems. And as a paying, third time, loyal customer I expect to be treated with respect and kindness by their customer support personnell. I actually expected Dell reps to say..."We are sorry for all the trouble this computer has caused... All the time you've wasted trying to troubleshoot the problems. Let us make this up to you by sending you a new computer and how about us adding something special to the order to make up for our mistake!!!" I actually expected that of Dell and instead was told I could have this computer replaced with a refurbished one. No Thanks... My confidence level is at zero. I do not want to deal with another computer that has already shown a problem they think they have repaired. My computer is going back to them for a refund they say they will give me but will not send this guarantee in writing. Onward to the next battle since I will not send the computer back without this statement in writing. Seems simple to me if I could just get the customer support person to call back as she said she would. I will of course never buy a Dell again because there is something wrong with a company who would rather return the purchase price then send a duplicate new computer. Oh, by the way the refurbished replacement computer also comes without any period of time to make sure it works. I was told by four different reps that whatever they sent me for exchange I had to keep... Not even one day to make sure it works they told me... UNBELIEVABLE BUT ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
My wish is that Dell would call tomorrow saying that they made an error and all that I was told is just not true about their policy... Reality check... This is not going to happen.
Joyce
Gulf Breeze, Florida
U.S.A.
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