I started having trouble with my Dell Insperion on August 10, 2008 I contacted chat tech support from Hubby’s computer to report that I was getting a blue screen of death. 3 techs and 5 hours later at almost 2 in the morning we decided that I would have to wipe the disk and reinstall the operating system.
I’m not complaining about the 5 hours. It’s to the tech’s credit that they were willing to try everything before telling me that I may have to lose all my data.
The Dell techs have always been patent and polite. I should know, I’ve spent many, many hours on phone and chat with them. I try to return the courtesy and remember that no matter how frustrated I am with their company, they are doing their jobs and most of them are willing to go the extra mile for me if Dell is not tying their hands.
Due to the late hour I was not prepared to start a project like reinstalling the operating system so we ended the chat.
I spent the next day double checking that all my kids pictures and important documents were backed up. I contacted them again on August 12.
I got a fantastic tech, Margaret. She started to walk me through the process and made sure I had all the appropriate disks and downloaded the appropriate driver. While we were doing this the computer shut down on it’s own at random times.
The chat had taken longer than I expected 2 hrs. Again, not complaining about that, these techs go over the top to make sure I don’t lose my data and I appreciate that. However, I had a playgroup to get to and she wanted to research the mysterious shut down problem so we ended the chat.
When I got back to Margaret that afternoon she had found the problem. Like I said, when Dell allows them to they do their jobs well. I’m a big fan of the Tech Support people. Individually, as people, they are awesome. How they got hired by Dell I will never understand.
The laptop needed a new hard drive, system board and processor.
I have “Next Day, Onsite Service” Warranty. Paid a very pretty penny for it too. Lots of pretty pennies. I’ve had to use this several times in the past so I know that the “next day” is not exactly accurate. The tech rarely receives the parts next day.
This was happening on the 12th and I was leaving for Los Vegas to attend the New Media Expo the next day, Wednesday. I would be there Thursday and Friday so I arranged for a tech to meet me there and dragged my non working Laptop to the NME with me.
The tech did show up and installed the new parts on Thursday August 14. That night I tried to install the operating system with no luck. Contected tech support by phone. Long story short, after replacing just about everything except the fan, the fan needs to be replaced. It was running hot and causing the laptop to go in a continuous cycle as I tried to start up. So I dragged my laptop and all the install files all the way to Vegas for nothing.
This was Thursday night. No way to get the part to the tech on Fri and they don’t count Saturday or Sunday. I arranged for the part to be sent to a tech in CA for Monday delivery and repair.
Monday came and went along with a call from the tech saying that not all of the parts arrived so he would not be able to do the repair until Tuesday. Thursday to Tuesday = 6 days! NEXT DAY SERVICE MY ASS!
It was late Thursday so I’ll give them a one day pass but still Friday to Tuesday is hardly “next day service”.
I arranged for the tech to meet my hubby at work on Tuesday with the computer since I would be out and about with the kids and didn’t think playgroup at the park with 8 toddlers would be the ideal setting for computer repair.
The tech replaced the parts but the laptop auto shut down upon start up. They started it up again and it appeared to be working. So Hubby started the OS install process. That night I tried to finish the process. I contacted Dell support again to find out what the driver order should be. While I was on with Support the computer shut down…multiple times.
Fortunately the tech who did the repair earlier that day had made an incident report about the laptop shutting down so there was proof that I am not a lying cheating customer, just trying to get a free replacement laptop.
After leaving me with no computer during the one and only tech related conference I will attend this year, they finally agreed to send a replacement. Remember I have the Super Duper Wazoo, Covers Everything, We will fix it NEXT DAY, warranty! With out that I wouldn’t have gotten anything.
Finally, a replacement laptop was on it’s way. But that is not the end of the story. No, not the end at all. I am still not a happy customer. But this blog post is long enough, it’s getting late and I’m tired of typing. Look for part two coming soon.
Tags: Computer, Customer Service, Dell, Tech Support