In May/ June I purchased a Dell laptop computer. This computer would've been my 12th Dell to date. I've never had any issues with Dell computers in the past and felt comfortable purchasing this one.
Since day one there have been minor issues here and there with the computer. Most were worked through and some I just learned to live with (i.E. Touchy DVD drive).
In August, the computer would start to freeze every so often. It was a random thing and I couldn't reproduce it, so I just chalked it up to I may have hit something, etc.By October the computer started to do it alot. It would freeze 3 - 4 times in a 6 hour usage period. Again, it was random and there was no way to reproduce it.
I contacted Dell about this at the end of October/beginning of November. I used the online tech support and they remotely accessed the machine and ran a few things. They told me they believed the resolved the issue and to contact them again if I had any further problems.
3 days later the machine froze up again. I waited a little bit (about a week and a half) before contacting Dell just to see if it was a fluke or not. I contacted Dell again and again they ran some systems diagnostics tried a few things and told me it was fixed.
Again, the machine started to freeze again. This time when I contacted Dell they said it was a virus. The transferred me over to a tech who again remotely accessed my machine and went through it. Once he was finished he told me that the anti-virus software that I had on my machine was no good and he told me I should purchase theirs. He then recommended two programs for me. Webroot Internet Security Essentials and Webroot Spy Sweeper. I agreed to purchase them based on his recommendation and the new hopes that the system was in fact repaired.
A few days later the machine started to freeze again and now it developed a new symptom. The laptop was now getting very hot to the touch and it made a weird burning smell. I shut down the machine and immediately contacted tech support. This time they said it was a hardware issue. They sent the necessary parts to the repairman who came out and replaced the parts; this was Friday, January 1st.
Now instead of freezing, the machine will just shut itself off. It does this with no rhyme or reason and totally without warning. The screen just goes black and the machine shuts off. Additionally, several times after restarting the machine, it will open up about 56 webpages. It's only done this 3 of the 12 times it's shut down. Very odd.
Once again, I contacted Dell. I explained to them that I didn't know how long I had before the machine shut down and I just wanted to get through this as quick as possible. I provided them with all of the info necessary as well as a pretyped up blurb of what the issue was (I pretyped it so that I could cut and paste in case I got kicked off). After talking to 3 reps and massive repeating of the problems, I agreed to return the machine to Dell so they could look at it in house. The first argument started when Dell insisted that they had already sent me out a box. They provided me with Fed Ex confirmation that shows a box going to a completely different address as well as being signed for by someone that wasn't me (I live alone so I'm the only one who can sign for it).
I asked them to just ship out another box because I didn't want to lose this rep and have to restart. The rep told me I'd have to find the other box. I explained to the rep that I never got the 1st box, I never requested the 1st box, so I'm pretty sure the 1st box was not sent to me and the Fed Ex # must've accidently been placed in my account.
It took over 45 minutes to get a new box scheduled to be shipped out to me.
The customer service was horrific; every time I had to contact Dell it was HOURS of time spent repeating things that they were told repeatedly.
Additionally, to get back to the software Dell had me purchase, I received the software 7 days after the order was placed. Two days later, I attempted to install the software. I installed the Internet Security Essentials without a problem. I then opened the Spy Sweeper and tried to install that. An error message came up stating that I already had a more current version of the software installed and the installation was stopping. Confused, I went through my system because I had never installed any Webroot product before. After going through everything I discovered that the Essentials disc had the Spy Sweeper on it already, so there was no need to purchase the Spy Sweeper alone. I immediately contacted Dell regarding this and after 2 1/2 weeks of ignored e-mails and promised returned phone calls, I finally was able to talk to someone about this today. I got transferred to a total of 15 people in one phone call, customer service refused to help me, transferring me to tech support despite the fact that I told them that it wasn't a tech problem. Tech support confirmed it wasn't a tech problem and transferred me back to customer support. After going back and forth I was rudely told that "Nope, sorry, no returns the software is open". I explained that it had to be opened for me to have made the discovery. He stated that he didn't care, it was opened and no exceptions were going to be made for me.
I could understand if I went and made the decision to purchase both products on my own, but the Dell tech told me I needed to have them and sold them both to me at the same time. I feel cheated out of the money for the second program. I tried to explain my point of view and got hung up on. I called back again, was told in a very snotty tone that I had already been talked to and told NO RETURNS and when I tried to talk about it he hung up on me again.
I've been a Dell customer for years, but I have to say, no more. The computer causing the problems isn't even a year old and it's been a constant problem machine. Between that and the horrible customer service I've received, I no longer intend to purchase anything Dell.
I realize that I am just one person, but I am one person with a voice and if my report here helps just one other person from making the mistakes I did, and then I accomplished something.
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