My six month old computer is totally fried and I couldn't be happier.
This may sound like an odd statement, until the whole story is related.
I've had my Dell XPS 400 computer since February 2006, replacing a tried and true Sony computer that finally just aged out and started getting progressively slower. Since its memory could not even be expanded over 1GB, I decided to invest in a new gaming computer. I have owned five other Dells other than the XPS 400 and have never had any serious problems with anyone. The one time I ever had to call Dell tech support was about three years ago, and the person I talked to was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and prompt.
(Let me recover a bit from laughter as I read that last sentence and try to imagine applying it to Dell technical support now.)
Anyway, the XPS 400 has not been terribly stable, right out of the box. It had occasional unexplained crashes, which started getting progressively worse. By two months ago, it was adding bluescreens to the mix, though no more than a couple times a week. By two weeks ago, it was crashing and bluescreening daily. By a few days ago, it had deteriorated to the point where, after bluescreening me six times in a row while trying to log on to get into a BRD run, I realized I had a dying machine on my hands.
I'll keep the summation brief. I spent ten hours with three different Dell tech support people, most of whom I had to keep asking to repeat themselves because I could hardly understand them. I used to have Indian co-workers when I worked at the dot-com and thought I could understand the accent well enough, but it was taking all my concentration to understand them.
Most of the time I spent with these three techs seemed to be centered on (a) proving that I was not an idiot and (b) trying to convince them that I was not solely responsible for breaking my computer. Every interaction and thing they tried seemed to be aimed at blaming me for the problems. One of the techs actively and aggressively lectured me like an errant child about viruses, spyware, bad software installs -- anything that didn't involve the fact that this was a computer with a serious hardware problem. He didn't actually listen to me about anything that was actually the problem, and he came up with all kinds of weird ideas about what was actually wrong with my computer.
An actual interaction, only slightly paraphrased:
Tech: When you go around the web -- yes? On your browser program. You can run into bad programs called viruses. And these viruses can cause all the problems you are talking about.
Me: I know what a virus is. I don't have a virus.
Tech: But viruses cause all your problems. You have a virus -- yes?
Me: I do not have a virus. I have a hardware firewall on the router. I have a software firewall on the computer. I have up to date commercial virus protection that updates its definitions on the fly and I have scheduled full system virus scans that run every night at 3 AM. I do not have a virus.
Tech: Well, you know, too much security can cause problems too.
Believe it or not, the conversation went downhill from there.
I finally convinced the third tech that it was NOT a broken mouse (the first tech believed this and actually mailed me a cheap replacement Dell mouse) and was NOT a bad software install (the second tech, he of the ridiculous "security problems" statement) and was, in fact, a hardware problem. He escalated it to a "technical expert" who had the authority to order a new motherboard and new hard drive, and dispatch a local-to-me, honest-to-goodness, real-life in-person technician to install the parts and reinstall Windows.
I have nothing but good to say about the independent technician who came to my house and spent the following two and a half hours trying to resurrect my dead computer. Replacing the motherboard and hard drive did not seem to help things completely, as it bluescreened while trying to do the initial Windows install. After spending a long time tinkering with various issues and studying the bluescreens, she came to the conclusion that one or more of the four memory modules had gone bad. However, she also couldn't get into the diagnostic functions on either of the two restore disks we had available so she couldn't figure out which one had problems. Still, we'd made progress, and she called the tech line at Dell Tech Support to order four new 512MB memory modules.
The first tech was adamant that the problem was not related to memory, and that there were only three causes for bluescreens: a bad motherboard, a bad hard drive, or software conflicts. She explained, again, that she had just replaced the motherboard and hard drive. "Must be software," the tech said. Exasperated now, my tech explained that she had just replaced the hard drive, so there was no software on the machine. He still insisted it was a software problem and refused to send memory.
In fact, he suggested something that I will be writing to Dell about. He actually suggested that she install only one of the four memory modules, close the box, determine quickly if that module was okay, and then leave, telling me to continue installing Windows and call tech support if I had any more problems! He actually suggested to her that she LEAVE OUT 1.5 GB of my memory, memory I paid for, presumably without telling me what had been done. She said, "I would do that, but I'm not that cruel" and promptly hung up on him.
The second tech actually listened to what she had to say and, after leaving her on hold for ten minutes or so, that he was going to send her four new memory modules and a new processor.
This is the extremely short version of everything that went on. It involved many, many frustrating hours of technical support that mostly produced nothing -- far from being constructive, much of it seemed actively obstructive and geared toward shifting the blame for my computer's multiple woes. I feel vindicated that my tech has had a lot of problems with trying to resurrect this computer and is convinced that, at the very least, bad memory modules might be to blame, though she also now suspects the video card may have an issue as well (the motherboard and hard drive were probably never to blame). Also, far from being helpful, the support line for the technicians seems just as bad as the regular customer support line and also geared toward deflecting blame from Dell for anything going wrong with their products.
I suppose, in today's age of outsourcing, that nobody's computer support is that good anymore. But the experience with Dell's customer support has left me with such a bad impression that I would be very surprised if I ever bought one of their machines again. Advice ranged from actively fraudulant (suggesting leaving out 3 out of 4 of my memory chips to avoid having to pay for more memory) to irritating (how many times do I have to prove I am not a computer moron?) to simply useless (no, my entire system does not keep crashing because I have a broken mouse).
Supposedly, my new memory and processor are being overnighted and will arrive tomorrow, day after tomorrow at the latest. In the meantime, I am gaming on the old, tired Sony and dealing with serious local lag, but at least it's not crashing.
Oh, and in the morning mail? A bill from Dell for $11.83 for the mouse.
So why am I happy that my computer is fried? I'm not happy that it's fried, but I'm happy that it really IS fried and it's not my fault that it's fried. I hate to say it, Dell -- but I told you so.
--------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Friday
Apparently, it was bad memory all along -- at least. It acted about 75% better when the motherboard was replaced day before yesterday, so I actually suspect it may have been both the memory and the motherboard. Once the motherboard was replaced, at least it was booting Windows with stuff plugged in the USB drives, but it was still crashing and bluescreening on some operations.
Now, after the tech returned and replaced the four memory chips, the computer has worked perfectly ever since. In fact, it's been like having a totally different machine. It's working better than it ever did, even out of the box. Of course, it's hard to say whether the motherboard may also have been involved, since it did start acting slightly better after the motherboard was replaced too, but replacing the memory finally did the trick.
I am back to using my Logitech mouse (sending back Dell their cheap mouse with a polite but very strident letter), which has never been the issue. I am back to using my "problematic security" with the same configuration I used before without any hitch.
So, eventually, the problem has been fixed, but I feel like it all happened despite Dell's technical support rather than because of it.
Had I not kept insisting and repeating my demand to the third guy I spoke with to give me an address to ship the computer back or give me the number of a local tech I could call, I feel like this computer would still be sitting in a corner acting like a giant doorstop. It was only after I got stubborn with the third guy at Dell tech support that any action happened and my computer got fixed, and after I had spent hours and hours repeating the same inane and largely pointless stuff with two different techs (I told the second tech what the first tech had made me do and he still made me repeat it). I give far more credit for that to the wonderful independent tech who came to my house -- and even she had to fight with Dell's technical support to get anything done.
While I am sure a portion of Dell's tech support issues exist between the keyboard and the chair, there is definitely a culture of "blame the idiot customer" going on in customer tech support that is not only counterproductive, it's actively offensive, more than occasionally wrong, and in my case, there was even one suggestion that was outright fraudulant. Dell, are you even monitoring what these people are saying or doing?
PS. To all those who commented -- thanks for your feedback. To all of those who called me "he" -- hint, Renata is a not a guy's name. :D
----------------------------------
UPDATE - Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
The response from Dell Customer Advocacy was rather amazing. Here's what happened:
Will wonders never cease: another Dell update
This may sound like an odd statement, until the whole story is related.
I've had my Dell XPS 400 computer since February 2006, replacing a tried and true Sony computer that finally just aged out and started getting progressively slower. Since its memory could not even be expanded over 1GB, I decided to invest in a new gaming computer. I have owned five other Dells other than the XPS 400 and have never had any serious problems with anyone. The one time I ever had to call Dell tech support was about three years ago, and the person I talked to was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and prompt.
(Let me recover a bit from laughter as I read that last sentence and try to imagine applying it to Dell technical support now.)
Anyway, the XPS 400 has not been terribly stable, right out of the box. It had occasional unexplained crashes, which started getting progressively worse. By two months ago, it was adding bluescreens to the mix, though no more than a couple times a week. By two weeks ago, it was crashing and bluescreening daily. By a few days ago, it had deteriorated to the point where, after bluescreening me six times in a row while trying to log on to get into a BRD run, I realized I had a dying machine on my hands.
I'll keep the summation brief. I spent ten hours with three different Dell tech support people, most of whom I had to keep asking to repeat themselves because I could hardly understand them. I used to have Indian co-workers when I worked at the dot-com and thought I could understand the accent well enough, but it was taking all my concentration to understand them.
Most of the time I spent with these three techs seemed to be centered on (a) proving that I was not an idiot and (b) trying to convince them that I was not solely responsible for breaking my computer. Every interaction and thing they tried seemed to be aimed at blaming me for the problems. One of the techs actively and aggressively lectured me like an errant child about viruses, spyware, bad software installs -- anything that didn't involve the fact that this was a computer with a serious hardware problem. He didn't actually listen to me about anything that was actually the problem, and he came up with all kinds of weird ideas about what was actually wrong with my computer.
An actual interaction, only slightly paraphrased:
Tech: When you go around the web -- yes? On your browser program. You can run into bad programs called viruses. And these viruses can cause all the problems you are talking about.
Me: I know what a virus is. I don't have a virus.
Tech: But viruses cause all your problems. You have a virus -- yes?
Me: I do not have a virus. I have a hardware firewall on the router. I have a software firewall on the computer. I have up to date commercial virus protection that updates its definitions on the fly and I have scheduled full system virus scans that run every night at 3 AM. I do not have a virus.
Tech: Well, you know, too much security can cause problems too.
Believe it or not, the conversation went downhill from there.
I finally convinced the third tech that it was NOT a broken mouse (the first tech believed this and actually mailed me a cheap replacement Dell mouse) and was NOT a bad software install (the second tech, he of the ridiculous "security problems" statement) and was, in fact, a hardware problem. He escalated it to a "technical expert" who had the authority to order a new motherboard and new hard drive, and dispatch a local-to-me, honest-to-goodness, real-life in-person technician to install the parts and reinstall Windows.
I have nothing but good to say about the independent technician who came to my house and spent the following two and a half hours trying to resurrect my dead computer. Replacing the motherboard and hard drive did not seem to help things completely, as it bluescreened while trying to do the initial Windows install. After spending a long time tinkering with various issues and studying the bluescreens, she came to the conclusion that one or more of the four memory modules had gone bad. However, she also couldn't get into the diagnostic functions on either of the two restore disks we had available so she couldn't figure out which one had problems. Still, we'd made progress, and she called the tech line at Dell Tech Support to order four new 512MB memory modules.
The first tech was adamant that the problem was not related to memory, and that there were only three causes for bluescreens: a bad motherboard, a bad hard drive, or software conflicts. She explained, again, that she had just replaced the motherboard and hard drive. "Must be software," the tech said. Exasperated now, my tech explained that she had just replaced the hard drive, so there was no software on the machine. He still insisted it was a software problem and refused to send memory.
In fact, he suggested something that I will be writing to Dell about. He actually suggested that she install only one of the four memory modules, close the box, determine quickly if that module was okay, and then leave, telling me to continue installing Windows and call tech support if I had any more problems! He actually suggested to her that she LEAVE OUT 1.5 GB of my memory, memory I paid for, presumably without telling me what had been done. She said, "I would do that, but I'm not that cruel" and promptly hung up on him.
The second tech actually listened to what she had to say and, after leaving her on hold for ten minutes or so, that he was going to send her four new memory modules and a new processor.
This is the extremely short version of everything that went on. It involved many, many frustrating hours of technical support that mostly produced nothing -- far from being constructive, much of it seemed actively obstructive and geared toward shifting the blame for my computer's multiple woes. I feel vindicated that my tech has had a lot of problems with trying to resurrect this computer and is convinced that, at the very least, bad memory modules might be to blame, though she also now suspects the video card may have an issue as well (the motherboard and hard drive were probably never to blame). Also, far from being helpful, the support line for the technicians seems just as bad as the regular customer support line and also geared toward deflecting blame from Dell for anything going wrong with their products.
I suppose, in today's age of outsourcing, that nobody's computer support is that good anymore. But the experience with Dell's customer support has left me with such a bad impression that I would be very surprised if I ever bought one of their machines again. Advice ranged from actively fraudulant (suggesting leaving out 3 out of 4 of my memory chips to avoid having to pay for more memory) to irritating (how many times do I have to prove I am not a computer moron?) to simply useless (no, my entire system does not keep crashing because I have a broken mouse).
Supposedly, my new memory and processor are being overnighted and will arrive tomorrow, day after tomorrow at the latest. In the meantime, I am gaming on the old, tired Sony and dealing with serious local lag, but at least it's not crashing.
Oh, and in the morning mail? A bill from Dell for $11.83 for the mouse.
So why am I happy that my computer is fried? I'm not happy that it's fried, but I'm happy that it really IS fried and it's not my fault that it's fried. I hate to say it, Dell -- but I told you so.
--------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Friday
Apparently, it was bad memory all along -- at least. It acted about 75% better when the motherboard was replaced day before yesterday, so I actually suspect it may have been both the memory and the motherboard. Once the motherboard was replaced, at least it was booting Windows with stuff plugged in the USB drives, but it was still crashing and bluescreening on some operations.
Now, after the tech returned and replaced the four memory chips, the computer has worked perfectly ever since. In fact, it's been like having a totally different machine. It's working better than it ever did, even out of the box. Of course, it's hard to say whether the motherboard may also have been involved, since it did start acting slightly better after the motherboard was replaced too, but replacing the memory finally did the trick.
I am back to using my Logitech mouse (sending back Dell their cheap mouse with a polite but very strident letter), which has never been the issue. I am back to using my "problematic security" with the same configuration I used before without any hitch.
So, eventually, the problem has been fixed, but I feel like it all happened despite Dell's technical support rather than because of it.
Had I not kept insisting and repeating my demand to the third guy I spoke with to give me an address to ship the computer back or give me the number of a local tech I could call, I feel like this computer would still be sitting in a corner acting like a giant doorstop. It was only after I got stubborn with the third guy at Dell tech support that any action happened and my computer got fixed, and after I had spent hours and hours repeating the same inane and largely pointless stuff with two different techs (I told the second tech what the first tech had made me do and he still made me repeat it). I give far more credit for that to the wonderful independent tech who came to my house -- and even she had to fight with Dell's technical support to get anything done.
While I am sure a portion of Dell's tech support issues exist between the keyboard and the chair, there is definitely a culture of "blame the idiot customer" going on in customer tech support that is not only counterproductive, it's actively offensive, more than occasionally wrong, and in my case, there was even one suggestion that was outright fraudulant. Dell, are you even monitoring what these people are saying or doing?
PS. To all those who commented -- thanks for your feedback. To all of those who called me "he" -- hint, Renata is a not a guy's name. :D
----------------------------------
UPDATE - Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
The response from Dell Customer Advocacy was rather amazing. Here's what happened:
Will wonders never cease: another Dell update
69 comments:
I came across your site from digg.com and after reading this, I thought to myself, how many times have I been down that road. I used to think that when calling tech support, if you gave them all of the things you've tried in order to resolve the problem, that it would shorten the call and possibly be more productive in finding a resolution. I, too, have come across this problem, even with Dell, where they pretend you're an idiot and ask you to do things either you've already tried or that make no sense at all.
What I cant figure out is why too much security is bad? Isnt more secure better? Being more secure is going to prevent viruses and spyware from taking over a computer, however, I do realize that too tight of security could lead to not getting where you want to go on the internet.
It really does surprise me that so many tech companies, especially the larger companies, do not have better customer service. And what happened to Dell's customer service. They used to have really good support. Now, Im afraid its getting to the point where they're all in India, and are reading from a cheat sheet, while sitting in their living room praying to a cow.
Anyway, sorry to hear about your computer and your misfortunes with Dell Customer Support. Fortunately, it was still under warranty.
As a former IT Specialist for a medium sized corporation a few years ago, I recall a brand new Dell Desktop running XP that bluescreened due to FAULTY MEMORY.... back then, the Dell Tech Support wasnt overseas and I was able to get a new SIMM shipped immediately. I think Dell needs to bring the Tech support back to the U.S., otherwise they risk losing a lot of their customers who will go elsewhere.
I had almost the exact thing happen to my new Latitude 610, which I had just bought through the new company I had just started working for last July. My new employer was not happy about my being without a computer to start my new position, for almost 3 weeks. Dell sucks.
Yeah you should get a Mac.
It sounds as if the Dell Tech support individual may have instructed the On-site Techie to replace the malfunctioning SIMM... in order to do this, the Techie would have had to use trial-and-error to find the SIMM which was giving you problems. These instructions may have been lost in translation, or the Techie just didn't understand what they were supposed to do. It's very rare for more than one SIMM to go bad at once, so replacing only one of them usually fixes your problem. The Dell Tech support individual was right in instructing them to only replace one module, rather than all four.
I think you should consider getting a Mac or a mac mini.
Having worked for an Authorized Service Provider of Toshiba of Canada, Limited, I know firsthand the problems of technical support. Fortunately, I can give props to Toshiba for hiring good people who know what they're talking about for their techs' support line. Even the consumer tech support people were knowledgeable enough when I called them b/c the tech's line was closed (regular business hours). They even recognized that I was a tech and could send parts through to me.... So, my personal advice to anyone buying a computer or electronic device today, study forums on their tech support so you know you're not going to shafted the odd time you actually NEED help!
Well, you know... The tech could've determined, rather easily, which of the memory modules was bad (if that was indeed the problem) by pulling them all out, and testing each one individually by seeing which one would cause the blue screen. That's how you do it without fancy diagnostic software.
Get a Mac. You'll be much happier.
Hang in there, Ren. Last month (June 2006), Consumer Reports did a survey that concluded with this finding: Free tech support from most computer manufacturers is dismal. The two exceptions were Apple (laptops and desktops) and IBM/Lenovo (laptops).
It's sad that as of a few years ago, Apple and Dell were very close in their tech support scores with Consumer Reports. I think some of that, at least, has to do with Dell's decision to outsource their tech support to India, while Apple continues to provide support from its Austin, TX, office.
Oh let me tell you my Dell stories. Yes, that's right, plural.
At work I had a Dell rep run me ragged diagnosing a blue screen issue on an Optiplex computer. It was in fact one of the memory sticks because I could take it out and the system wouldn't blue screen on me.
Tech was adamant that we run through the script. I told him that I was paying for Gold technical support and damned well expected it. Now ship me the part.
Part they sent didn't work either. The next one they shipped did.
Dell is having problems with desktop memory lately.
Then of course there's the XPS M140 debacle. I have one and the SO has one but his all of a sudden couldn't connect to the net. Tried enable, disable, system restore points, etc. all to no avail.
Dell had me reformat the machine and re-install Win-XP to come to the conclusion that I'd already come to - a bad wireless mpci card. You don't know how I cursed that technician out.
I never had this problem when tech support was based here in the U.S. But then I didn't have a computer scientists trying to solve my problems like you do know when your call goes to India.
Wow. That's crazy. I hope you get your equipment from Dell.
I hate the outsourcing Tech Support, and I hate even more that you can't understand them. It makes you want to ask the guy: what's the weather like in india?
That's why I build my own computers.
Good luck! Down with Dell!
Very well written, I'm sorry you had to deal with such undereducated tech supports, but I'm glad that you got to deal with an honest person trying to make a living at the end.
I particularly like how you finished off the article.
A++, would read again.
I've had the same problems with a $2000 Dell laptop. It had a dead keyboard as well as a dead sound card. After going through probably 10-12 techs on the phone (all, who as you said, aim to believe that you're an idiot and it has to be your fault) I had finally gotten a keyboard replacement, but nobody has been half-witted enough to help me with the sound problem.
It's onboard sound, I just need a motherboard replacement for my nice $2000 dell laptop. It's been hell and I've eventually given up the process of bothering with those people. That experience also ended my relationship with dell and buying their machines.
To be fair though, my family has bought two dells in the past all which have worked wonderful, and way back in the past we've had good experience with their tech support. The outsourcing of their support seems to really have made that company go downhill.
That's amazing. At least the tech you had was honest and probably equally as irritated at their support. I have to deal with Dell Tech Support every day... luckily it's mostly their business support and most of them are state side...
I do, however, completely relate to their troubleshooting efforts trying to make the end-user sound like an idiot.
It takes the patience of a saint to deal with tech support like that. You've got my digg :P
As a fellow XPS 400 owner who has also had problems with the system, I'd have to say this is right on par with my Dell experience. My system, on arrival had at least one fan with bad bearings. The noise was actually louder than that of my box fan. Dell of course insisted there was no problem and had me walk through a wide array of tasks from simply unplugging the computer and plugging it back it, to trying to suggesting that the noise was because the computer was on a surge protecting power strip, despite my explaining to the tech on the phone the fan needed to be replaced and unplugging it was going to do nothing. It took several hours and phone calls finally get Dell to have a technician come to replace the fans. /Missing the days of 3 year warranties and technical support that did not end with being accused of causing the issue.
I'm now SUPER familiar with most Windows manufacturers, but I will say that I have always had good luck with HP support on my printing equipment.
However, the best support I have ever had has been from Apple with my Macintosh systems. If you have one of their stores near you (www.apple.com/retail) or decide to look into it, I'm sure you'll agree their people are polite and courteous. I've never had a problem with their service. In almost 15 years of use. :)
That's a crazy story!
Renata-
Found your post via Digg
(http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Dell_tells_repair_tech_remove_1.5_GB_of_customer_s_RAM_and_leave)
Tech Support always used to be worth _something_ years ago (worked in the industry myself for a short time before moving off to web design), and now it just seems companies like Dell dont understand that it STILL needs to be worh something.
Tech/Customer support is crucial, and nothing beats being able to talk to a nice knowledable person (preferably with an understandible voice/accent) when your in trouble.
People always wonder how Dell can sell their stuff so cheap.. and I am afraid its things like this (cutting corners) that let them offer those 38% rebates "with free printer".
Next time for a gaming machine, go for home built - you wont be dissapointed!
-Nick (Rochester, NY)
Get an Apple next time. They are suppose to have much better tech support.
Seems to be a common tactic at customer support these days, just be glad you didn't have to deal with aol's tech support instead, or god forbid, as well.
As far as testing the chips goes, she spent the better part of an hour shifting the memory around trying to figure out which one was acting up. Unfortunately we couldn't seem to make it crash on command. It was always one of those seriously annoying intermittent problems. It may not even be the memory at all. It may be the video card. But we'll know after today, hopefully.
I work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and we have a contract with Dell, where we may purchase their machines at a slighty lower cost. I assume, however, that we call the same tech-support number as you do and have the same on-line support as you do as well (I just grabbed them off the support web-site, so by assume, I mean "I know"). Recently, the power supply went out of one of our machines and after submitting the problem via their online support website, I was greeted by someone who seemed to be American (in speech) and we quickly diagnosed the problem and since we decided that the issue was either in the motherboard or PSU, and I couldn't test one or the other, she promptly shipped both items to me, overnight (via DHL) and included a return mailing sticker. I had the PSU replaced within 10 minutes of the package's arrival and sent the replacement motherboard back with the broken PSU, no problem.
I'm sorry to hear about your problems, but I don't believe that this is to be considered the norm of Dell Tech Support. Most people only complain about it, but rarely have I heard good things. You can read my entry on my experience on my blog at: http://utkwes.blogspot.com/2006/07/dell-tech-support-from-optiplex.html
I'm sorry to read your sad tale and hope it gets resolved soon.
Could it be that both Deb and you got the stupid run-around because you're female? It wouldn't be surprising in this field... I'd hate to be right.
Oh, and I just got a bill from Dell for $11.83 for the mouse.
Wonder if the Dell blog will have the balls to tackle this. Paging Jeff "Dell Hell" Jarvis...
I have to laugh at all the comments that merely suggest the solution is to get an apple/mac. It is just a shame that for a gaming rig, a mac won't make you that happy... unless all you play is WoW.
Seriously man, get a Mac, especially now that it can run Windows. It is also able to run windows much faster than any competing Dell, I have personally played Fear on my friends MacBook Pro with all details and highest resolution and it kicks ass. And for the tech support stuff Applecare is located in Texas, and you also got many Apple Stores across the country and many more to open soon. Hopefully you get a good working computer eitherway.
I'm the tech/Sys Admin for a small company and I had a similar experience with Dell tech support at work. -I had a workstation with a bad power supply, so I called tech support and explained the problem along with what I had done to troubleshoot it. The support person's response: "Is the computer on?"
Me: "Uh, no. It won't turn on, that's the problem. In fact, I have the power supply here in my hand. It's bad, I just need a replacement sent out."
Dell: "Ok. Please open it up the power supply..."
Me: "No."
Dell: "Yes, we need to be making sure the connections are ok."
Me: "You want me to open the POWER SUPPLY. -?"
Dell: "Yes, please."
...to make a long story short, he was probably calling the computer the "power supply" (!?!), but if I didn't know better than to open it up Dell could have a nasty little lawsuit on their hands.
I have to agree with Sourlout...
I own both Macs and PCs and I play World of Warcraft. Macs CAN run WoW, but I wouldn't suggest getting one for your main gaming computer.
I LOVE macs, and i recommend them for everything and everyone except for gaming.
My suggestion:
Get a mac for everything else, so that at least you'll have a machine that CAN play WoW and do everything else you need, but buy a different PC for gaming.
I'm right there with you. About 3 years ago my Dell desktop went dead. Being an Electrical engineer I took the thing apart and recognized that it was either the memory or a bad hard drive. 3 Months, 2 Techs, and a very large cell phone bill later I had the last Dell I will ever buy working again.
Its not only hysterical but pathetic when people's answers to problems are always, "Go get a mac." or "Try downloading Firefox instead." Its a shame that people are helpless idiots. But thats really what this story was about.
Sorry to hear of your problems. Glad they ar eont he way to being solved. I'd love for this story to make it to Dell, so they can see yet another story of why moving their tech suport stateside could prevent them from losing any more customers.
I used to own dells but got sick of incredibly long wait times on the so-called "gold" technical support line, and having to prove I didnt have a spyware and virus infected machine. The company has such a large volume of customer technical support calls it isnt a major surprise they cant keep up, and they have pressure to only send parts if they absolutely have to, but the end result is an impossible experience where you always feel like they are trying to scam you. I would recomend just getting a computer from a smaller builder like velocity micro. You just call in, leave a message on the tech support line, and they call you back in 10 minutes. It is also someone in the US and they are extremely knowledgeable about what to do instead of just blaming you for the defective pieces in your computer.
At least I know that I'm not the only one that Dell has sent bad equipment to. I have had my Dimension B510 since the middle of April, which I purchased through our Dell Employee Purchase Program(EPP)at work. Itran for all of four days before I started getting the blue screen. I spent 30 hours with six different service tech's of course all outsourced, went through diognostic testing, removed every board in the PC, formatted my drive four times, reloaded the operating system four times, was sent all new memory modules, two of which ended up being bad and had a service tech come to my house to replace the mother board which was not bad. By the time all was said and done, as of two weeks ago I now have a pc that works with an extra 512mb memory module because the onsite tech was so fed up with Dell sending out untested parts that he just left it in for me. Source of the original problem was a bad 1-gig memory module. Your right the svc tech's tried real hard to make it my fault, but I may get the last laugh if I send the email I have in draft form of my experiece with Dell hardware and the wonderful support they provide to the other 80,000 employees in our company.
I'm a sys admin for a civil sevice office in the North West UK. We had a problem where out of over 200 DELL machines 10% had over the course of 2 years problems with, yes, faulty memory. They even had an engineer come out each and every time to replace the memory sticks rather than just fedex them to us to replace.
And for the people who say "use Firefox" -- I use nothing else and haven't used anything else for ages.
Interestingly enought I have had good luck with Dell support (Although it was 18 months ago) I got an American From Texas even. I told him I'm an IT manager and this is what I have done and I think the NIC is bad. He said hmm ok sounds like your right but lets pretend you did these things OK. And he walked me throught the lame list. I basically just sat their and said ok done ok done ok done. because I had done all thoose things. He said alrightly lookslike you have a bad nic I'm going to send you a box and we will replace the NIC and send it back should be about a week is that ok or do we need to do a live swap? I said week is fine its a bosses computer and he will be out for a week. The laptop went away came back and worked perfect. All I'm saying is at one time Dell had good support and I wish they would bring it back
I loath Dell. We use Latitude D600 latpops at work, and they are awful pieces of junk. I have already had the motherboard replaced after a little more than a year of use because the NIC died, and the HD replaced because it crashed (I had to run the hard drive upside down just so the heads wouldn't keep crashing while recoving the data). Talking of the HD, I am pretty sure that we have now had a 100% failure rate on those junky Hitachi Travelstar drives, sometimes more than once per machine because, get this, Dell ships us the _same drives_ as replacements. They certainly have big ones!!!
Please, do yourself a favor: get a Mac. And keep writing!
To all the Apple-fanboys (and girls) that keep suggesting to get a Mac: Macs are not gaming machines! And the author specifically stated that she likes to play games. GAMES! not one game - but many GAMES. So STFU with the "get a mac" and go spend $10 on a latte.
Well I ordered a computer from dell they never charged my c/c and called me 3 months later asking me what i ordered i hung up on them but they keep sending me there current catalogue, so now I build my own pc every 2 years or I could go buy a mac and spend a fortune on new software.
Take a look at http://www.buzzmachine.com/?tag=dell for some more stories about "dell hell" This guy is not a tech journalist but he tells his experinces with "Dell Hell" as well as others.
They charged you for the mouse? When I was working for a lawfirm here in NY, we used to call up Dell and claim the keyboard was broken (plugged in but not detected) and they would send us new, free keyboards (yay for a multimillion dollar lawfirm scamming KBs from Dell!). If you didn't seem so tired out from all the arguing with Dell, I'd tell you to complain about the mouse bill.
"He actually suggested to her that she LEAVE OUT 1.5 GB of my memory, memory I paid for, presumably without telling me what had been done. She said, "I would do that, but I'm not that cruel" and promptly hung up on him."
--- I liked that the tech was a GIRL
--- And that she reacted that way!
Calling back, to get someone different should not be a secret to good customer service, but to the uninitiated it can be.
The minute your realize you are NOT being heard CALL BACK. Get someone else. Sure it is a pain but getting the right person on the line is half the battle.
Loved this story. Thank you for sharing. Better still DELL will feel this since it made DIGG.
AHH! The power of the blog!
What is with all this get a mac crap, get a Lenovo/IBM.
"I think Dell needs to bring the Tech support back to the U.S., otherwise they risk losing a lot of their customers who will go elsewhere." Actually, I bought my computer from dell, because I knew that whatever went wrong with it? I can tech support myself than any staff that I've ever met. And if something *does* go wrong with the hardware? Hello, local computer store! And if it costs as much as I had to pay to get this computer ($547 total), then I'll probably wind up buying a new one.
As it is, the only Dell computer (out of the two I've owned) that I ever had a problem with was Windows ME, and that's because it was a buggy OS to begin with. And we have trouble with our Dell 1995 computer that got upgraded to 1998, but I imagine that's not so much of Dell's fault as it's the computer being old.
PS : I totally sent your link to Dell and told them this is why I didn't buy their tech support, so, hopefully, they'll see this, and maybe cut you some slack or something.
The whole "get a mac" thing is seriously annoying. Every last friend I have with a mac has had at least one hardware problem. "Get a mac" doesn't solve the problems, it just makes Steve Jobs richer.
As for your Dell, I totally sympathize...I bought a Dell Dimension 3000 and opted not to pay the ransom they wanted for the spiffy graphics card, telling myself I'd add one later. Know what they did? They sold me a motherboard THAT HAD THE AGP HEADER REMOVED ENTIRELY. "Not gonna pay us to upgrade? Then you never can, HAHA!"
After it started having increasingly frequent bluescreens, I finally did the right thing and built my own custom machine from newegg parts. And I've been deleriously happy ever since.
I'm thinking about taking the old Dell out to the firing range and making a YouTube video celebrating Dell's quality.
For anyone who comments from a business about the tech support being decent with dell, you were dealing with decent tech support. The enterprise customers pay extra to receive call center service thats based out of the United States, not a foreign country where they run through a script of "american" names.
Though if you're a large enough business, you dont even have to DEAL with techsupport. You just submit the online form with what you need, and you get it. Generally within the next day or so. That support is decent.
Sadly, I used to always recommend deal to friends and family who wanted decent priced machines. Now, I actually recommend eMachines or Compaq/HP. Both have far superior support, and are much easier to get replacement parts with.
Next time call and say that you are a business customer.
Wow. My mouth dropped open when I got to the "let's leave out 3/4 of his memory" part. Unbelievable. And I thought that my problems with Toshiba tech support were bad.
Please continue to post to keep us up to date on your progress. Sometimes, publishing the problem can have an amazing effect on the speed with which it gets resolved. That was very helpful for me (as seen here).
I have seen so many complaints about the Tech Support staff from India. And it created a opinion as if the tech support is bad because it came from India. No it is not. It is because companies like Dell hire people with very little knowledge about computers and have them answer customer calls.
There are lot of very good tech people in India. But it will cost a lot to hire them, and companies don't want to pay a lot for free customer support.
So, please don't shoot the messanger.
I had an issue with an ex's Dell laptop.. it had windows ME on it (enough said right there) and when I tried to wipe the drive, it wanted a password to get into the bios. Now I had asll the paperwork and box that it all came in.. but no password for the bios to be found.. the 1st tech I talked to said that I didnt need to wipe the drive and I didnt need the password and hung up!! I was LIVID!! but atleast when I called back I got someone who could talk to me like I knew what I was was doing (and I do!) and happily gave me the password and said that ME was the biggest mistake ever for windows...
That sucks so bad, but it's just one more reason for me to never allow anyone to build a computer for me again. It's so much easier to do it yourself!
XP problem.
Could be a Windows problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=909095
To the people who suggest you should get a Mac, Macs have had a fair share of problems recently (sticky mouse buttons or bulging batteries anyone?)
Just because you have a problem with one computer manufacturer it doesn't mean you should ditch the whole platform.
That said, they are very pretty!
Brothers and sisters. I would like to mention that the problem is not with the technical support only, but the sales department as well. I wanted a quote about Dell server of which it took me two weeks to get it. To my suprise, it took less than 5 minutes
to generate it although I got it two weeks later.
Dell must start restructuring, or else, the business will not go bad as they are not the only computer suppliers in the globe.
From '98 to '01 I worked for a company where all wintel hardware came from Dell. Support was good, from the lowliest Dimension right on through to the server and storage. All was well, and I was quite enthusiastic about Dell.
From '03 to '05 I worked for another company with an all-Dell wintel farm. Support sucked, from the lowliest Dimension right on through the Servers, although the storage group was still OK and clueful. _Any_ support call would take at least 90 minutes just to get to someone who spoke comprehensible English; nearly half the issues eventually ended up circumventing the support chain by setting our account manager (we had our own dedicated account manager, to give some idea of volume) on it and having him fight it out. It was not unusual for them to refuse support on anything that wasn't running Windows. Broken PSU in a large server? Sorry, can't do anything until you bring it down, boot Windows and run this Windows-only configuration utility. The fact that it smells like burnt electronics and blew the mains fuse is not sufficient to ship out a new PSU. Aaargh.
So Dell, pay attention: I'm a Unix sysadmin. I order a lot of servers, none of them running Windows. Our wintel hardware is running either Solaris/x86 or Linux. Our Sun sales rep loves us, as does our HP sales rep. Dell is nothing but the punchline of bad jokes anymore, and it'll be a cold day in Hell before I buy or recommend another Dell product. To contrast this, around '00 Dell was excellent and was my _first_ recommendation.
And if anyone from Sun is reading this: your server support people are clueful, but please re-educate or fire your workstation support people lest your reputation goes the same way. We're >.< this close to deciding not to buy another Sun/amd workstation even if they are cheaper and faster, just because of the aggro you're giving us when one breaks (and they do, no matter how much you try to deny that).
Typical Dell junk techsupport.
peoples....peoples...
listen, everyone saying "get a mac" is not saying "apples are perfect, dells are crap" or implying that switching platforms will rid you forever of computer hardware issues. from from it, as i have had several hardware issues with my various macs over the past few years (motherboard, ram, screen..) so yes, macs are far from perfect, but the issue here is SERVICE. apple has incredible service: twice, i had to send my computer in to them and both times i had it back within TWO business days. and only after being on the phone for at most, a half hour. you may think i'm just the "one in a million" but i have friends with similar stories.
there is a reason apple's CS is rated the highest by consumer reports.
Their tech support are american-accented, very knowlegeable, and never try to blame you for your computer issues.
To all the idiots who keep telling him to get a Mac, did you read it at all? He uses this machine for gaming. He's not going to be doing a whole lot of gaming on a fucking Mac mini. Get your heads out of your asses, would you?
For what it's worth, I've never owned anthing but Macs, and I own a two-week-old black MacBook, so don't bother accusing me of being anti-Mac. Telling him to get a Mac mini for games is like telling him to get a microwave to bake a cake.
Hahaha all you tools saying "Could be windows problem" or "get a mac". Pathetic fanboys. To person A) Could be a memory problem. Because that's what fixed it. To person B) Has there ever been a mac that has crashed due to bad memory? If yes, STFU and GBTW!
"Telling him to get a Mac mini for games is like telling him to get a microwave to bake a cake." Well, I suppose if it's a small enough of a cake...
Wait, you're in Rochester? I'm in Rochester too!!
I suggest trying CompUSA next time. There's one out here, in Henrietta, on Jefferson rd, across from South Town Plaza. I think they fix computers there. You'll have to pay for it, but I bet they won't tell you that it's all your fault.
PS: My dad is like that too. If I have spyware on my computer, he says it's my fault [[rolls eyes]]. And if I ever use his old computer that's a print server currently, and something goes wrong with it, he blames it on me....And then apologises two hours later, because it wasn't my fault at all (and I accept his apology dispite the fact that he had me in tears because he kept screaming at me, simply because he was frustrated). The computer's just old (well, DUH!).
In case you're wondering, yes the old computer is a Dell. It originally came with Windows '95, and dad upgraded it to Windows '98. He had no problems with this computer until about 3 years ago, when the computer was 7 years old, and the floppy drive started to fail. And if he had problems before that, it was with a tape drive (the kind you put a 20GB tape into), but it didn't bother him enough to deal with tech support, I don't think. He doesn't believe in dealing with tech support anyway. Neither do I ;)
i'm surprised that, after the mouse, he didn't suggest the back space key.
customer service everywhere is like this. i tried talking to someone at cingular (and that right there is problem enough!) about a treo and the girl had no idea what i was talking about. as well. glad your computer woes are solved!
I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
I'm scared about my tech-support karma. I've had a pretty good experience every time I've called. My luck is going to run out soon.
My new cable modem wouldn't activate, so the girl who sounded about 17 or so re-flashed the firmware remotely, and we talked about ponies and ping-times while waiting. Everything went smoothly.
Then my first generation Dell PowerEdge's SCSI bus died after the warranty expired, but I just switched over to IDE and its kept on working ever since. Perhaps their older computers are more resistant to dying untimely deaths.
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As a side note, are the "Get a Mac!" comments really necessary? It's a hardware problem, not an OS war.
It could just as easily happen in a Mac mini.
But then you'd have to spend half an hour just to open the case. :P
(Please do not smite my iMac G5 for that joke, Oh god of Apple...)
I am another unfortunate owner of a Dell XPS 400, and I'm having a lot of trouble right now.
I got this computer August of 2006, and at first I was amazed at how much faster it was then the old and slow computer that my sister and brother inherited from me. About 2 or 3 months later, it started making weird noises. The fan is incredibly loud and annoying, and nothing maked it quiet except for putting it in standby for a few hours which isn't convinient for a student like me.
I finally got so fed up that I moved the system from its origional spot in the cabinet under the desk onto the top of the desk behind my moniter. That shup it up...for a few weeks. Then I had to do the same routine as before; put the computer into standby and do something else for a few hours. It was around that time that I named the stupid thing "Baby" for obvious reasons.
One day, the fan noise magically vanished.
I almost screamed in delight. I could use the computer and it wouldn't make noise! It was like some sort of belated christmas present.
Up until now.
Now, it's gone back to making that annoying fan noise again, except this time it dosn't stop even after I put it on standby for over 5 hours. Becuase I know next to nothing about the inner workings of computers, I don't know how to fix this problem. Can someone please help me get rid of this noise?
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