Dell Customer Service Issues?

[superboy123]

Hi,

I am thinking of purchasing a Dell Axim (624 Mhz) but have recently heard stories of Dells Customer Service that madec me think otherwise. Have any of you encountered bad CS from Dell? How does it compare with other companies such as HP, or Toshiba?

Thanks for the help

[Zab]

I cant say how it compares with the others becuase i havent dealt with the others. But, my last dealing with Dell CS was in 2001 and i had a very good response and tons of help.

But,

I have heard that since Dell outsourced to India the CS has gone to crap. Personally i havent had an experience with their new customer service. I ordered a new Dell Axim (624 Mhz) the other day. Fortunately im one of the lucky ones and my uncle who im fairly close to works at dell so if i have any issues i go straight to him. Im interested to hear from anybody who has dealth with Dell CS lately.

[moonlights]

Hi -

I dealt with dell customer service about 6 months ago. I purchased an Axim and I had major issues with it. It kept deleting and changing settings on me. It also would randomly reset the keyboard software after 30 minutes of use. So I called them, got some guy who barely spoek English, ,who told me they would send me a new one and that I would have to call DHL to schedule a pickup for the broken one (I think). They sent the new one, and I called DHL to scheudle a pick up, turns out Dell had already scheduled one without telling me. DHL told me I had to call Dell and get a number for the pickup, I called Dell, by now I had received a "new" Axim which amazingly did not work either, and told them I wanted to return both and get a refund for the axim and the keyboard. I had to talk to the customer service rep, then his supervisor, then the manager. They couldn't understand why I didn't want to try a thrid Axim. After over two hours on the phone, I finally go tan appointment scheudled with Dell, called DHL to confirm - turns out that Dell had scheduled it for a different time then they told me they had! I talked to DHL, who was gret, scheduled for a time I could be there and returned both Axims.

Also, I didn't get my refund in a timely manner - they had it for two weeks and I still hadn't gotten my refund because they "lost" one of my shipments. Amazingly, after talking to my credit card and disputing the charge, Dell "found" the missing Axim and gave me my refund.

On a side note, I bought Toshiba, which was less expensive than the Dell and did more (I got a great deal) and I have had no problems with it. I also own a Toshiba laptop and in the three years I've had it, I've had no problems.

:evil: :evil:

[tanalasta]

Dell's customer service is in one word: frustrating

This is because there is no storefront or sales person to happily chat to in person. Their support is outsourced to India. IF you're willing to wait in a queue (no other option really) and call their phone support, they can usually resolve the issue - eventually. Just be aware they are willing to spend an hour running through almost all possible troubleshooting solutions via the phone before they are willing to be give you an exchange, refund or repair. So save yourself a lot of time, attempt these yourself and tell your tech that you've already tried with no success if you run into trouble.

Email support is almost non-existent - the technician (even after an extensive technical explanation) will often resort to posting you knowledge based articles you have already tried or read - resulting in another "politely written" email and two day wait. Slow. At best.

Otherwise, their tech support isn't "too" bad and I've had a reasonable experience with them. I have a Dell desktop PC and not a PPC mind you. Don't let it deter you from getting a Dell Axim - they are honestly good machines.

[Vidge]

I preordered my X30 on 5/21 at full retail. On 5/27, they had a discount running so I called to get the price reduced. No can do - have to cancel first order and reorder. I'm thinking OK - if that's what it takes. But now instead of 1 order, I have 3: one for the PDA, one for the cradle and one for the case. The case and cradle (with no power supply) comes overnight (using my own Airborne account). Following the conversation on Aximsite, people start getting their units - mine stays in "PreProduction." So I start calling. Twice I was told they were going to expedite my order. The thing finally ships but not overnight - somebody screwed up and sent it UPS ground (so I paid for overnight shipping for a cradle and case I couldn't use for about 10 days). The thing gets here on 6/8 and it's defective. On 6/10, I order an advanced exchange - 3-5 business days then overnight shipping. On 6/17, I start calling again since the thing is not moving. By 6/24 I was livid. That day, Dell tells me there was something wrong in the processing and they needed to cancel my order and start all over - another 3-5 business days at the earliest before shipping. I thought about it overnight and said - heck no. I called on 6/25 and arranged for a return. NOW I get somebody who says they can ship me a unit on the following Monday. I didn't believe it. They were supposed to come on Monday to pick up the defective unit. No show. Finally showed up Tuesday, 6/29.

On 7/12, I tried to check the status of my credit but Dell changed their website and this part is not working right. I did get an email on the evening of 7/12 saying that my X30 was received on 7/12 (WTH?? How could it take 14 days to get the damn thing???) and that I need to allow 10-15 business days for the credit to be processed.

Service is not a word Dell understands. They have had my money for 5 weeks and I'm looking at another 2-3 weeks before I can get it back. I'm done with Dell.

I did buy 4155 a week or so ago but I got it locally so that if I want to, I can return it.

[PetiteFlower]

I've had decent experience with Dell CS. It's time consuming and it can be frustrating and a few people have problems like the ones posted here, but they are the exception. 99% of the time you will call CS, jump through their troubleshooting hoops, and then they will send you a new unit.

BTW, those of you who got defective units more then once, that was not CS's fault, that's the hardware people screwing up. CS did their job fine. And again, most people don't have problems with their hardware and of the ones who do, most of them will do the exchange and the second one will work fine.

Now the BS on the shipping time/date, that's another issue. Advanced exchanges are supposed to ship out via overnight on the next business day, period. No charge.

[SteveHoward999]

I have never had anything but great service from Dell in the 6 years I have been using their products.

For a short while I experienced Indian tech support which was difficult due to the tech support staff having strong accents, so they were hard to understand. More recently this has not been an issue.

Faults have always been addressed right there and then over the phone. New parts have been sent out and arrived next day. If a part is no longer stocked, or out of supply, they give you the next best thing - so I now havea 60 Gb HDD in my laptop :-)

My fiancée recently dealt with Dell support for her Axim and was amazed at the speed and efficiency of the response ... a new Axim next day, no quibbles for a minor screen fault.

Be aware that the people who shout loudest are those who feel the service has been unsatisfactory. The overwhelming majority who are happy with the service they get tend to say nothing.

A recent survey in the UK put both Dell and Compaq at the very top of the tree, with about a half or one percent score difference between the two .... if I remember right they each had a rating of about 85 points although i am unsure exactly how the ratings were arrived at other than it was through a survey.

I would confidently recommend Dell computers and Dell PDAs to anyone.


Steve

[minimage]

I like Dell, but they've once caused me to wonder if the feeling's mutual. Putting aside my mild bitterness over the tech support being in India (where's the hope of my finding a higher-paying tech support job if companies keep shipping them out of the country?), my last experience (ok, maybe it was the second to last) with Dell tech support was abysmal. The call must have lasted about three times longer than necessary, thanks to my having to ask the guy over and over to repeat what he was saying, and with my having to try to get the fellow to understand what I wanted from them. After all that, not only did Dell ship me the wrong part, they shipped me only one, when I asked for two. I gave up on the whole mess; my Axim's warranty was nearly over. I was telling my mother just last night that we can hope she never has to deal with those guys, since she bought a Latitude. Anyway, with the exception of the class action lawsuit for my model of Inspiron, I don't have any more Dell systems under warranty, and I really must admit that Dell support was fine before the India BS.

I will still happily wear my Dell long-sleeved polo, Dell tee-shirt and Dell visor and keep my drinks cold with my Dell koozies...but I'm watching those guys.

[Hyperluminal]

I've been using Dell notebook PCs for the past few years, and I have to say that their CS is, in general, very bad.

When I got my first Dell notebook a little over three years ago, it turned out to be defective (it would freeze up and die randomly). Dell told me this problem was very rare, and eventually got me a new motherboard. That didn't help. So they told me they'd replace my system. However, they said it could take up to four weeks to get a replacement! So a few days later, I saw a good price on another Dell notebook, this time with a very high resolution (UXGA) screen. So I returned my first notebook and got this.

Now not only did this one have the same exact problem, but it was a completely different notebook than the one I ordered! It didn't even have the UXGA screen. Admittedly, these first two notebooks were refurbs. But still, this really shouldn't happen. So, after dealing with many layers of beaurocracy, I finally got a system replacement for this next one. It actually worked, and it had the UXGA. The one I ordered also had a DVD player, and this just a CD player, but I figured it wouldn't be worth the work to get it, and accepted it.

This one worked for a few months, until it developed a weird problem where it'd get a fatal blue screen stop error every so often when coming out of suspend or hibernation. Dell wasn't very helpful. I tried calling Dell a lot of times, and most of the time we got nothing done. They just kept trying the same diagnostics and kept trying to give me software updates, when I had already done that. And way too many reps simply instructed me on how to disable suspend and hibernation (they didn't ask me if I wanted to disable them, they just told me where to click.. if I had actually done it, it would have disabled them). Most of the reps I spoke with were more or less inept. I did have a few reps who really knew what they were doing and were helpful and friendly, but they were the exception, not the rule. In face, I had one rep who was very friendly and helpful, and we thought we had fixed the problem. She told me that if it came back, to leave her a message, and she gave me her extension. Well, it did come back, so I left her a message, but she didn't get back. I waited for like a day, but then I just called Dell CS because I got tired of waiting.
I actually got her, but just by dumb luck! She told me that she never got my messages! By the way, most of these incompetent reps were Americans.

Once Dell switched to Indians, it just got much worse. Whereas before most reps were incompetent, now they're completely inept. They don't know at all what they're doing. They're also very difficult to understand. I eventually did get a new motherboard (by an American), which seemed to help for a while. But soon it came back. I called Dell, and they were completely inept at how to actually fix it. In this time, I sent my PC in to Dell twice, and while I got it back very soon each time, they did absolutely nothing. They flashed my BIOS (even though I already had the latest revision), and changed some basic display settings. That's it. Oh, and they also got dirt on my screen; this would be the biggest change they made each time.

Eventually I decided to just call them and tell them I wanted a system exchange. They didn't listen. For about a month more, I strugged with them, trying to get them to replace my system. Finally, I got an Indian woman who didn't seem to understand me that well, but got me my exchange. So I got my new computer. About a year later (just recently), my video cable became loose, and Dell correctly diagnosed it. So I guess they do sometimes get it right.

Although, with my pre-replacement PC, at one point the video cable became loose, and caused the screen to go red if I gently touched the back of the screen panel. Guess whose fault the first Dell rep I talked to told me it was, after clearly describing the problem? Windows XP.

Suffice it to say, I won't buy another Dell product, computer or otherwise, unless I really have no choice...

[PetiteFlower]

Re: Disabling suspend

As far as I know that's what Microsoft also recommends doing if you get errors coming out of suspend. It's not really necessary to let it go into suspend, and it tends to cause more problems then it solves. Also this is a Windows problem (most likely) not a Dell problem.

[Hyperluminal]

Well, about this having been a Windows problem, this happened on a completely fresh installation of Windows 98 (somewhat old computer) from the Dell restore disk, with absolutely nothing installed but a handful of Dell drivers, from a CD which also came with the computer...

Suspend and hibernation, by the way, are very important on notebooks. You can't always leave it on, but you also often can't afford to shut it down whenever you don't use it for a prolonged period of time...

[tthiel]

These days Dell has horrible customer service. It's pretty clear that they take their customers for granted. Moving support to India has intensified the problem and also made me less liable to order Dell for both personal and Corporate purchases. Corporate Tech support btw has been moved back from India because business customers were complaining about poor support. I do beleive Dell's customer service used to be very good but I guess they feel they no longer have to provide good support to get customers. They figure they have the name and they are cheap so they don't have to provide decent support. Read any forum or review of Dells products and you will see a flood of very angry people who have had all kinds of terrible experiences with Dell. There have also been alot of articles in various PC magazines about how Dell's support has been declining as well.

[Sven Johannsen]

Plus side story. Had a mechanical problem with my sync connector on my X30. Called support. Had a bit of trouble understanding the guy at the other end, but that didn't make him dumb, just meant he was not using his native language. You'd be surprised how many support persons in India actually have degrees. Sometimes it hard to understand the Governor of California, and he lives here. Anyway, got through the problem. This was Saturday. He was going to ship me a new X30. I got the notice of attempted delivery Tues (second business day), in my hand Wed, I backed up the old one, restored to the new one. I put my old on in the box and took it an the prepaid shipping slip to DHL for return.

In essentially two days I had a new PPC at no, that's no, cost to me. They didn't even ask for a credit card to secure the shipment, in case I decided to keep them both.

I was pleased.

There are a lot of issues that are a lot harder to diagnose than a mechanical failure in the connector. My recommendation is to hard reset your PPC if you think you have an issue and see if it still exists. If it doesn't it is not Dell's (or HP's or Toshiba's) problem. If it does, it would be advised to check around the forums or google just to see if this is an OS problem or 'feature', i.e. that is the way it works (or doesn't work) which is again not the OEM's problem.

Most support is based on solving fairly common problems by going through a script. It is very difficult to troubleshoot problems ad-hoc, over the phone, without having a significant amount of experience. You can see by reading here, that sometimes issues aren't very cut and dried, even for folks that may be very familiar with the exact problem you have. A first level support person likely isn't going to have that breadth of experience. They likely don't even own a PPC. Be patient. Not sure what the answer is here. It just stands to reason that if you get popular, and your products sell well, more folks will have problems and need to call support. Plussing up the staff with folks that are experienced when they walk in the door isn't that easy, especially when you look at what you can afford to pay a first level support person.

[EricR]

Hello,

A guy in my office has been without his Dell for almost four weeks now. And that's since Dell had him send the old one back saying they would send him a replacement overnight! 8O :oops: :evil:

On the other hand, about 6 months ago my iPaq 2215's headphone jack quit working and HP gave me 48 hour turn-around to fix it -- and they provided overnight shipping both ways!

Last month my joystick (d-pad, pointer-thingy, whatever-you-call-it) failed. I submitted a warranty case on-line and they sent a box with pre-paid overnight shipping for the 2215's return. A couple of days later HP called and said it was "damage" that I would have to pay to fix, and not a warranty repair. To which I said "WHAT?". The guy on the phone said he'd escalate my case to a manager. Later that same day a manager called and, based on prior issues (the headphone jack + infamous side-grips) agreed to send me a new replacement. Two days later it was delivered via UPS overnight!

Thank-you HP -- for providing me with outstanding customer support! :D

[PetiteFlower]

This is about DELL service, not HP! Can we stay on topic here? I'm sure there are just as many(if not more, due to larger customer base) horror stories about HP's customer service.

I wonder why your friend sent his Dell back prior to receiving his replacement, that's not the way the warrenty is supposed to work. They're supposed to send the new unit FIRST, and THEN you send back the old one, so you're never without a unit at all.

[wshwe]

Dell definitely has support issues. No one forced Dell to ship their support to India.