Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Friday, January 31, 2003

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  yeimi — Jan 31, 2003 2:09:04 PM — # ↩

  what I find incredibly sad is that Dell supposedly has one of the top rated customer services and they are so god aweful it makes me wanna pull my hair out. my older pc is a dell and the motherboard is shot. i want them to replace it because it's under warrently, but they have to run all of these tests on it first for fun, and they transfer me back and forth to the "right" department about 10 times (each of which time i have to wait for 30-45 minutes listening to elevator renditions of rod stewart). no one thinks they're the right department, i give up after about 3 hours. I've been procrastinating the inevitable for weeks and the Dell is collecting dust in the corner. grrrrrrrrrrrrr
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    Kiran Jonnalagadda — Jan 31, 2003 2:25:24 PM — # ↩

    Interestingly enough, two differing opinions on Dell:
    
    Pro: http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,12160,00.html
    And Anti: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20030115.html
    
    I like the second more because it's written with the voice of a customer rather than a journalist.
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    Kiran Jonnalagadda — Jan 31, 2003 2:27:16 PM — # ↩

    Oops, this is the Business 2.0 article I meant to point to: http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,46293,00.html
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    davecorun — Jan 31, 2003 5:00:40 PM — # ↩

    I've got a dell laptop, and I absolutely love working w/ them.
    
    Here's the trick. Say you're "servicing a customers machine" and you need "second level support". Also, don't go into the Home tree on their phone system, go straight to Business Support.
    
    They will think your a tech for one of thier distributors and push you right through. From there you can tell them whats wrong and what parts you need shipped.
    
    If you have on-site warranty like I do, just say that you'll give them the customers address and they can set up the meeting for the next day. It's then dispatched to another 3rd party which will actually service your machine on-site. Just lie the first time you're on the phone w/ them, say your name is "jammy" or something, and that the customer's name is Jen. They don't know better, and they really don't care anyway.
    
    My Dell Inspiron 7500 has been serviced probably 4 or 5 times now in the last 3 years. Each time i basically get a new machine b/c I start making stuff up thats wrong w/ it. Every time I throw in that "there is a black spot on my screen larger than a dime". Thats the keyword to get a new LCD screen. They'll do that 3 times during your first warranty period w/o asking questions. I've extended my warranty onto a 4th year now b/c it's been so worth it for me.
    
    Ok, I'm done. ;)