Ranty McRant: Dell

[Ker_Thwap]

So, I shell out $704 to Dell for a nifty new PC and flatscreen monitor a few weeks back, spend a day getting updates, transferring my data, purchasing new software, etc.

Then last week, my sound stops working, I spend another day updating drivers, and trying various system fixes. Contact Dell, they'll send a service tech to replace the motherboard. Spend another day waiting for the technician to show, watch him pull apart my PC, transfer the CPU's and stuff to the new motherboard, as he's finishing up, he mentions "I hate when a pin is bent on these refurbished boards." Huh? Did you say "refurbished?" He closes it back up, and it turns out the board also has a new service tag, and he doesn't know how to change it. He'll set up another service call.

I call Dell this morning, and tell them I want a brand new PC, because I didn't pay the refurbished price. The nice woman starts babbling about how refurbished doesn't necessarily mean refurbished, blah blah blah... I politely interrupt her and tell her I don't want to argue about the definition of "refurbished." She apologizes and tells me she'll request a "system exchange."

Well, that was easy, kind of. Dell will ship me a box to return the week old refurbished PC, I ship it to them, they ship me a new one... in two to three weeks. I kind of got what I wanted, but I'm back on the old PC for a few weeks and will have to commit yet another day to transferring data, updating and reinstalling that newly purchased software.

I bet they spit in it.

[Keller]

I bet they send you another refurbished machine.

Dell is such a shitty company.

[Marl]

wait until you are no longer under warrenty if you really want to see crappy customer service

[Warriorbird]

As shitty as my Toshiba has been...their warranty service has been great.

[Stretch]

The easiest thing to do with companies that disappoint is not to buy their shit anymore.

Companies that I have had a terrible customer experience with:

Dell
Lenovo
HP
Compaq

...fuck

[Asrial]

I called HP's tech support once, on a computer outside manufacturer's warranty, and for the first 15 minutes of the phone call the tech was trying to upsell me an extension of the warranty.

Finally he got the hint that I just did NOT want it at which point he switched gears to "well, without it, I can't help you.. I recommend going online to our free.. blah blah blah."

What annoys me so much is that I hadn't even had a chance to tell him why I was calling.

[Elgrim]

If you get a laptop, go ASUS. Best customer service I have ever experienced. And this coming from someone who has been in IT for 17 years now.

Hands down, ASUS blew me away with their customer service.

[Sean of the Thread]

I've only dealt with Dell on the corporate account level and the service was good once you learn to speak Indian.

[Buckwheet]

I've only dealt with Dell on the corporate account level and the service was good once you learn to speak Indian.

Out of curiosity, how much volume do you do with them on the corporate level?

I have rarely had a problem with them on a corporate account level. But in terms of volume, one installation of the servers would be on average $25,000 to $50,000. I have orders of this size every couple months and that does not include the orders for another company.

[AnticorRifling]

At the enterprise level I had zero issues with HP, but when you're throwing that kind of cash at them of course they play nice.

At the consumer level I've had great results with Toshiba and Lenovo. My biggest bitch with Lenovo is price point, they're just too expensive for what they are in my opinion. But yeah aside from custom gaming rigs every laptop I've ever purchased has been and probably will be a Toshiba.

[Cephalopod]

At the enterprise level I had zero issues with HP, but when you're throwing that kind of cash at them of course they play nice.


Same. We have enterprise server support through HP, and I'm on a first-name basis with the 24x7 local techs that we have. That's what we pay them hundreds of thousands in yearly support contracts for.

User-level support? Not so good.

[Buckwheet]

I agree with the fact that when you are throwing that kind of money at them they place real nice.

Which is why I was surprised to hear someone say "once you learn to speak Indian." in relation to Dell.

I was wondering if someone knew something I didn't. I have written up a proposal for my office in regards to hiring someone and self building everything locally from a vendor selling Supermicro hardware. I shelved it because we got a new contract with Dell and it made the difference so thin that the justification over the change seemed moot.

Buf if I have to worry about someone calling my support number with Dell at 2am and getting someone they can't understand. I will switch in a heartbeat. I can't even begin to put a "cost" on a customer complaint regarding hardware support.

[Alfster]

When I was looking to buy a new computer I looked at Dell's price and lol'd my way to tiget direct.

Ended up building a much much better computer at about 3/4 the cost of the Dell. That's including the money I shelled to my buddy to build it for me.

[Buckwheet]

Sure, I do what your buddy does, in terms of building custom computers for people.

The question becomes one of opportunity cost when that machine goes south on you. Not knowing you technical expertise, if you called him and he spent say two hours fixing the problem at no charge, the fact you paid him money at the start slowly erodes.

This is the problem I had when I didn't charge people for computer work. Even if it was a small amount. The amount of time I was spending building custom rigs for family/friends was then outweighed by the constant hours spent supporting those users.

Getting something from Dell might cost the end user slightly more or not be as powerful, but in terms of me supporting it, I just hand them their in home service warranty and they call them. Not me. Nobody is going to pay my consulting rates for basic desktop support. Thats what Geeksquad like service is for, but if people are that tight on price they want to order the parts and self build they aren't going to want to pay that either.

I just charge for my consulting time and move on. I don't have employees making $8 an hour while I charge $90.