I was in the market for a new laptop. I had always used HP products in the past, but my most recent HP laptop had a critical failure only two years after purchase so I decided to branch out. At work and a previous employer we always used Dell laptops. I never had any complaints with them so I decided to do a little research. It turns out there are a good many people who are very disappointed with Dell due to their customer service experiences. That made me a little fearful about purchasing from them. However, I noticed from a recent Consumer Reports quality survey that almost all latops are within several percentage points of each other as far as returns for service so I figured it would be "sixes" no matter who I bought from. Also, I liked the Dell Outlet store for its prices and selection. I picked out a decent refurbished laptop for around $1000.00 USD. It took about 5 days for it to arrive. Immediately upon taking it out of the box and powering it on I noticed that the screen had been installed poorly. The LCD was too high and too far left effectively cutting off about 1/4" of the top and left side of the screen. Even though it was only 1/4" it was very annoying. I also noticed a dead pixel near the middle of the screen. Even though it was "used" and refurbished, I was not going to settle for a shoddy product. I contacted tech support via the chat option on the Dell Support page. Within about 4 minutes I was chatting with a tech agent. It took about 10 more minutes to get my problem across, but once the technician understood he was ready with several options. I was pretty upset because I had trusted them to send me a properly refurbished laptop. I told the technician that I wanted to return the defective laptop for a full refund. The technician asked me to give him a chance to fix the problem. I was very reticent to trust him because I had heard all of the negative comments online about Dell. However, I am a trusting person by nature, so I asked him what my options were. He stated he could setup an exchange where they will send me another laptop of similar design and when it arrives I could simply return the one with the poor screen. Or he could dispatch a technician to my house to replace the screen. Since the laptop was mostly functional I decided to accept an exchange. The technician put me on with a supervisor named Sanjeev. Sanjeev apologized sincerely for my troubles and then explained the process for the exchange. He assured me that the replacement would meet or exceed all of the specifications of my original purchase. He also promised me that I would receive it in 10 - 15 business days. I told him how worried I was about receiving another defective unit and wasting more of my time. He also promised me that the replacement would be in perfect working order. After I ended the chat session, Sanjeev emailed me with transcript of the chat and with a follow-up email explaining the process for the exchange. He also gave me a contact email address and his phone number and extension. He gave me very specific instructions on how to contact him if I had any questions at all. A few days later I came home from work and had a message on my answering machine from Sanjeev with an update that the exchange was still processing. Several days later I received another phone call message from Sanjeev updating me that the exchange was ready and would soon be shipped. Yesterday I received the replacement laptop. It was, as promised, in perfect working order and, in fact, is better than the one I originally ordered. When I emailed Sanjeev to ask a few questions he responded within 24 hours. They also sent a pre-paid FedEx label so all I had to do was put the old laptop in the box and then drop it off at the nearest FedEx. I want to commend Dell on this customer service experience. They could have just as easily accepted my return, refunded my money, and then sent me packing to some other company.instead they took the time to put me at ease and then made the problem right. They kept me informed every step of the way and were ready to answer my questions in a timely manner. I also want to commend Sanjeev for taking the time with me to make this problem right. I know that many people have had problems with Dell tech support / customer service. I'm hoping those days are in the past because my experience with Dell was better then I could have hoped for.
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