Dell Computer Corporation
Hell on Consumers

Dell receives an "F" from me for customer/techical support and for the quality of their computers.

I am incensed by their failure to stand by their warranty, teriible technical advice, and their policy of replacing parts with refurbished parts.

I went through the same story as most other Dell customers, long waits on hold (20 minutes, 1 hour, and then 20 minutes). Technical support people who would not do anything unless I followed their script. (I'm fairly knowledgeable about computers.)

I have a failing DVD drive, still under warranty. 9 out of 10 times it won't read any CD-ROMs or DVDs, plus it starts to spin, then slows down and won't read the disk. And of course I tried reinstalling the drivers, rebooted with all autoload items off, and opened up the computer to check the connections. The tech ignored all this and made me do it again. Because my drive read a CD-ROM once after rebooting into DOS he declared that "there was nothing wrong with the drive." I told him I had said it worked occasionally, that it was failing and was not completely dead and I wanted a new part. He told me "Windows was corrupt" and that I needed to reformat my hard drive and reinstall everything. I couldn't believe it! When I refused, he said there was nothing more he could do. Unless I tried his final solution he wouldn't give me a replacement. I was incensed.

The next day I called again but after an hour on hold I gave up.

The following day I put the DVD drive on a non-Dell system with a completely different Windows setup. No surprise, it didn't work.

That same day I called customer service and asked for "Warranty Repairs". I was told there was no such thing, only a tech support guy could authorize a replacement. I told them my tech guy was flat out wrong! I got in a big argument about it. The rep got off the phone to check with her "supervisor". The rep said I could talk to another tech support.

He started the same old script. I said I did all these things already. He kept arguing with me and I kept yelling. I said over and over again "It is not Windows, I put in in another computer it is not Windows. Reinstalling Windows does not repair failing hardware." He finally put me on hold and talked to his supervisor. He came back on and said they were replacing it under "Customer Dissatisfied" not under "Warranty Repair", in other words, they are still saying nothing is wrong with it!

He flat out told me the only reason I was getting a replacement was because I had tried it in another computer and it didn't work! Now if I was a typical customer/new user I would probably not have the knowledge or even access to another computer to perform my drive transplant. That is unacceptable!

Because I had read other usenet posts, I asked him if the "new" drive was actually new or refurbished. (He didn't volunteer the info.) He said refurbished. I said I wanted a new drive, he said no can do, it's against policy. I said "So you're replacing a broken drive with someone else's broken drive." He said it had been tested/fixed yada yada. He said I had to take the refurb or nothing. So, what choice did I have? And of course he took my credit card # in case I don't return the defective drive.

So now I'll wait and see if I get the replacement and if it works. My keyboard is acting up too (since day 1), but I'm not going to bother.

I am by no means an isolated incident. I was particularly appalled by the number of posts about people who had on-site warranty service and Dell techs showed up weeks late ot not at all; how everybody had to fight for repairs; how Dell shipped systems late and started their 30-day satisfaction policy on invoice dates, not shipment received dates ensuring that some customers never had a chance to try their systems out; the problems people had with Dell Financing; and people who returned defective new systems and were given refurbs in their place. It looks to me like Dell pulls every dirty trick in the book that they can.

I think people are really ticked because many of them bought Dells on their customer service reputation. They may have been true years ago, but not now.

I also recommend systems to people, I won't recommend Dell. I'm also a stockholder in Dell, I'm going to dump all the stock at the next opportune time.

Don't buy dell.

Company: Dell Computer Corporation
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Round Rock
Address: One Dell Way

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