You got to love Dell

[kirk1701™]

Dropped my lappie and broke keyboard.

Guess I should concider myself lucky as it could have been way worse dropping a laptop

 

So, this was last Friday and right away I call and this was about 5PM on a weekend holiday..

 

New Keyboard arrives Monday morning after Easter

 

However, E-Mail says to return broken part and expected that. but no "Way Bill" in the box with the keyboard.

 

I called number in E-Mail and it was a recording to leave a message NO, no one called back in 24 hours so decided to waste some time and try the chat feature in the e-mail.

 

11:24:45 PM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat

11:24:45 PM System Connected with RUKU_142674

11:24:45 PM RUKU_142674 Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support. My name is Ruku and my rep ID is 142674. How may I assist you today?

11:24:59 PM Joe: Hello

11:25:30 PM RUKU_142674 Hello Joe

11:26:23 PM Joe: I had a issue that required a new keyboard for my laptop. I received the new keyboard in mail yesterday but no return air-bill in the box?

11:26:30 PM RUKU_142674 Thank you for the information. I?ll be glad to assist you. Please give me 2 to 3 minutes to pull up your account information.

11:26:35 PM RUKU_142674 In the meantime, May I also have your telephone number, along with the area code to update our records?

11:27:00 PM RUKU_142674 Thank you for the information

11:27:50 PM RUKU_142674 Standard (non-wireless) Dell mice and keyboards do not need to be returned.

11:28:45 PM RUKU_142674 So do not worry Joe.

11:28:51 PM Joe: OK, cool. I was going by the E-Mail I received.

11:28:54 PM Joe: If it is required by Dell that the defective part be returned to Dell, you will find a return air-bill in the box. Please complete the following to avoid being charged for the replacement part.

 

1. Repack all old components (including manuals, cables, etc.) in the same box in which you received the new components.

2. Affix the supplied air-bill to the box.

3. Call 1-800-225-5345 to have the box shipped back to Dell.

4. Please retain a copy of the air-bill for your records.

5. Please complete the above steps within 5 days of receipt of the replacement part

 

If Dell does not receive the part within 10 days of shipping of the replacement part to you, you may be charged for the replacement part.

 

11:29:45 PM RUKU_142674 Yes that is for parts that need to be returned/

11:29:50 PM RUKU_142674 Is there anything else regarding your Dell system that you need help with?

11:30:13 PM Joe: nope, everythings fine, got keyboard in and using it now.

11:31:01 PM RUKU_142674 Great

11:31:06 PM RUKU_142674 Are you satisfied with the resolution provided to you in this interaction?

11:31:21 PM Joe: yes, very much. Thank you

11:31:41 PM RUKU_142674 You are welcome. It was a pleasure to assist you.

11:31:46 PM RUKU_142674 Please give me 2-3 minutes to provide you with the case number for the interaction we had today.

11:31:54 PM Joe: ok

11:34:32 PM RUKU_142674 Thank you for staying online. I have included your Case Number 16 to reference our interaction today. Please keep this on file; it will assist you when contacting DELL. Thank you for contacting DELL Technical Support and allowing me the opportunity to assist you. If you still feel that there are additional DELL Hardware related concerns that need to be addressed, please contact us again at 1-800-873-1420 Or Click on "Chat with Technical Support" at the following web page and enter the Service Tag. http://support.dell.com/support/topics/glo...;l=en&s=dhs

11:34:32 PM RUKU_142674 We will be happy to assist you again. Have a nice day.

 

WOW! 10 minutes and it was taken care of. Just to find out I didn't need to send it back

[lfcrule1972]

Sounds pretty painless compared to most "support" calls doesn't it kirk ?

[Altercuno]

Glad you got a result. The chat feature in the email was a new one on me...didn't know such a thing existed, or is it States only?

[lfcrule1972]

ntl (now Virgin Media) used to do it as well, my father in law had a problem and got it fixed via the same route.

[kirk1701™]

Yep, it was pretty neat. I browsed ImgBurn while waiting for him and between replies

[polopony]

Dell might be getting wise to their less than great service, when they start to be nice its usually means that they saw a drop in sales and someone said gee we seem to be getting a lot of complaints then your experience could be the 1 in 10000

[DasReich]

I bought a Dell laptop, but vowed to never to get anything from them again. The crap they stuck on the thing slowed it down to almost steampowered speed, took an eternity to remove it all. I also found their customer support a bit crap too.

 

Glad to see you had such a good result from your little problem, hope they have indeed got their acts together.

 

Wonder if this is available in the UK as well?????

[Altercuno]

If it is it'll be a call center out of India...hello DasReich, you still there?

[DasReich]

Hiya, yea, still here, lurking in the background

 

Forgot about the bloody Indian call centres

[kirk1701™]

I bought a Dell laptop, but vowed to never to get anything from them again. The crap they stuck on the thing slowed it down to almost steampowered speed, took an eternity to remove it all. I also found their customer support a bit crap too.

 

Glad to see you had such a good result from your little problem, hope they have indeed got their acts together.

 

Wonder if this is available in the UK as well?????

 

Yea, mine came with all that trial version shit on it also, taking up 10 gig of hard drive space plus the hidden partition with the restore for the OS and uhhh all the trial software

 

First thing I did was Delete the partitions and format the entire drive and reinstall the OS with *COUGH* my software!

[DasReich]

 

Same as !!!

[kirk1701™]

Maybe I posted too soon, I just got this bill in mail yesterday for $12.00 for the keyboard

 

WHY you ask? Because I did not return the keyboard using the label inside the box

 

yea, that same label which I used the chatt feature for because it was not in the box and was told I did not need to return it

 

Heres just a little bit of the letter second page:

Why am I receiving this invoice?

• You recently ordered a warranty replacement part or system
  

• If you ordered a warranty replacement part:
  
• Check the bottom of your packing slip to determine if the defective part(s) need to be returned.
  
• If your packing slip indicates no return is required, then no action is needed, and this invoice will be cleared from your record. Disregard the invooice.
  

[dontasciime]

Tell them your not paying it and further to that I am now sending you the invoice back and charging you $100 for the temporary storage of the invoice at your premises.

[Altercuno]

Happens all the time with call centers...they seem to make it up as they go along.

 

Add your story to http://www.thisistrue.com/dellhell.html with all the others.

[kirk1701™]

Tell them your not paying it and further to that I am now sending you the invoice back and charging you $100 for the temporary storage of the invoice at your premises.

 

I'm going to send the invoice back with a copy of the chatt I posted above. Lot cheaper at .39 cents but I might add a invoice of my own for the cost of the stamp to mail it to them

[polopony]

Dell might be getting wise to their less than great service, when they start to be nice its usually means that they saw a drop in sales and someone said gee we seem to be getting a lot of complaints then your experience could be the 1 in 10000

 

 

then again maybe not

[chewy]

I heard of a college professor who plugged in his new dell tower and turned it on and it burst into flames in his office,

Dell had a new one delivered the next morning and picked up the old one, no charge!

 

Some people get better service

[Pain_Man]

Kirk got mucho lucky with that.

 

We bought a PC for my wife's (former) best-friend and, naturally, Dell fucked up the Ship To Address, sending the rig to me in Nevada, instead of to the friend in Utah.

 

So I refused it when UPS showed up with it.

 

It took TEN DAYS to get shipped to Utah! Ten friggin' days. I used the 'chat' function (twice!) Kirk did. I talked to 426 (East) Indians and 1 Filipina Customer Annoyance Reps. I sent a dozen emails at least.

 

(You CANNOT talk American CSRs anymore when dealing with Dell. When I quit the company where I was doing Tech Support for Dell, they lost the contract not long after; Dell's moved everything to India and the Phillipines. Why pay a honest American $10/hr when you can pay some incompetent Indian 50 cents an hour? What they think they are saving in TS costs, they're losing in sales. People got so pissed after dealing with Indians and Filipinos whose English was only slightly worse than their computer knowledge. So as soon as they got one of us, they'd spend ten minutes bitching about the Indians. Now there maybe plenty of PC-savvy Indians, but Dell doesn't hire them.)

 

It wasn't until I wrote an email telling them to cancel the order and refund my money that an actual American contacted me and she actually shipped the rig where it was supposed to go.

 

It was a complete and total nightmare of incompetence, stupidity and lies.

 

Then they gave me a $32 (!) "refund" for my "trouble." Nice touch, but I still haven't figured out how they settled on $32 American. It wasn't the sales tax. The shipping was free, so it wasn't that. It's as though somebody pulled it out of their ass, "Ok, we'll give him, mmm, $32, how's that sound? Good? Ok, cut the check."

 

Dell. I did Tech Support for them back in 2002. What a nightmare. I will NEVER buy a Dell for myself. No way, no how. They actually shipped a DVD drive with a bent data connector pin!! I know the customer didn't do it because it took 20 minutes to tell the shithead how to open the latch to get inside the rig.

 

With my new screamin' fast Gateway rig, I bought the Idiot/Kid insurance. For $49 for three years, if I knock it off my desk or my kid spills a Coke on it, I get a new one. Nice.

 

 

 

 

Sounds pretty painless compared to most "support" calls doesn't it kirk ?

[lfcrule1972]

Hee hee Since ordering my Dell I don't believe I have ever used any of their "customer service" providers so can't comment really other than that for me at least the PC has been ok, cheap and cheerful really.

[kirk1701™]

Yep, I know the feelin' Pain_Man

 

Now, here's the rotten truth to the whole CSR that some may already be aware of.

 

When you call dell you are not really talking to a CSR working for dell, you are talking to someone working for the outsourced company dell uses; for example convergys.

 

www.convergys.com

 

I know, I used to work for convergys till they closed the call center and moved the operation to india

 

I worked for convergys but did tech support for ameritech DSL and we were not allowed to tell the end user where we were located nor were we allowed to tell them we were outsouced, we were employees of dell if asked.

[cathater]

yes and if they and the car companies don't wake up soon, they'll have to start paying better wages there so they can sell their product and we can give crappy support with an english accent!!!!!!

 

!0 years since I've had a raise, everything costs way more including the ever increaseing taxes. I haven't been caught up on my bills in 3 years. Late fees getting so big I can't buy my prozac anymore. But thats OK, it saves me a lot on VIAGRA, women won't date me anymore. Something about being crabbie, irritable, mean, ornery, selfcentered, domineering, sadistic, and a couple other words I can't spell well enough to find in the dictionary:rofl:

[Pain_Man]

@Kirk:

 

The outsource "provider" I worked for was Client Logic (which we wage slaves referred to as C*nt Logic). (http://www.sitel.com/.

 

The company was a ridiculous joke. They docked our pay for taking a piss! I kid you not. If you were off the phone queue for more five minutes, they docked you 15 mins pay.

 

I was paid $9/hr. B4 I signed on they had a bonus program that could raise your pay to $18/hr. Naturally, that didn't last long. As soon as they replaced the floor manager, his first move was to drastically slash the bonus program (which, I'm sure, led to his bonus increasing dramatically). Naturally, nearly all the really good TSRs bailed, leaving a collection of morons and part-timers like me. Though I didn't work there long.

 

Interestingly enough, they didn't care if we told them we were a contractor or not. I worked there in 2002.

 

Tell me this: were you forbidden to help customers back up data? We were told we'd be fired if we helped a customer to back up data in anyway. They claimed that there'd been a lawsuit where a customer supposedly lost data while a Dell TSR was helping them to back it up and the court found Dell responsible for it. The logic, I don't need to explain, is ridiculous.

 

Yep, I know the feelin' Pain_Man

 

Now, here's the rotten truth to the whole CSR that some may already be aware of.

 

When you call dell you are not really talking to a CSR working for dell, you are talking to someone working for the outsourced company dell uses; for example convergys.

 

www.convergys.com

 

I know, I used to work for convergys till they closed the call center and moved the operation to india

 

I worked for convergys but did tech support for ameritech DSL and we were not allowed to tell the end user where we were located nor were we allowed to tell them we were outsouced, we were employees of dell if asked.

[Pain_Man]

Sorry you're having tough time, my friend.

 

Not everyone's got it that bad. And there are companies that treat employees decently. My wife's, for example. She works for an architecture firm in marketing.

 

My wife's had $5000 raises (and bonuses) three years in a row. She started at $7 an hour and now makes $27/hr.

 

yes and if they and the car companies don't wake up soon, they'll have to start paying better wages there so they can sell their product and we can give crappy support with an english accent!!!!!!

 

!0 years since I've had a raise, everything costs way more including the ever increaseing taxes. I haven't been caught up on my bills in 3 years. Late fees getting so big I can't buy my prozac anymore. But thats OK, it saves me a lot on VIAGRA, women won't date me anymore. Something about being crabbie, irritable, mean, ornery, selfcentered, domineering, sadistic, and a couple other words I can't spell well enough to find in the dictionary:rofl:

[kirk1701™]

@Kirk:

 

The outsource "provider" I worked for was Client Logic (which we wage slaves referred to as C*nt Logic). (http://www.sitel.com/.

 

The company was a ridiculous joke. They docked our pay for taking a piss! I kid you not. If you were off the phone queue for more five minutes, they docked you 15 mins pay.

 

I was paid $9/hr. B4 I signed on they had a bonus program that could raise your pay to $18/hr. Naturally, that didn't last long. As soon as they replaced the floor manager, his first move was to drastically slash the bonus program (which, I'm sure, led to his bonus increasing dramatically). Naturally, nearly all the really good TSRs bailed, leaving a collection of morons and part-timers like me. Though I didn't work there long.

 

Interestingly enough, they didn't care if we told them we were a contractor or not. I worked there in 2002.

 

Tell me this: were you forbidden to help customers back up data? We were told we'd be fired if we helped a customer to back up data in anyway. They claimed that there'd been a lawsuit where a customer supposedly lost data while a Dell TSR was helping them to back it up and the court found Dell responsible for it. The logic, I don't need to explain, is ridiculous.

 

Yep, I know the feelin' Pain_Man

 

Now, here's the rotten truth to the whole CSR that some may already be aware of.

 

When you call dell you are not really talking to a CSR working for dell, you are talking to someone working for the outsourced company dell uses; for example convergys.

 

www.convergys.com

 

I know, I used to work for convergys till they closed the call center and moved the operation to india

 

I worked for convergys but did tech support for ameritech DSL and we were not allowed to tell the end user where we were located nor were we allowed to tell them we were outsouced, we were employees of dell if asked.

 

Since we were a Internet service provider that was our only responsibility, make sure they could send/receive e-mail and connect to the internet via IE from one PC only.

 

If they were networking or behind a router, we could not help unless they connected directly to the westell modem and had the client software installed

 

On my last week after handing in my resignation, I had a customer tell me he was going to confrence the president of Ameritech in on the call because I could not get him connected due to a DSLAM being down. I told him he could confrence god in on the call it wouldn't do him anygood.

 

He called back and got the other call center who then reported me to the opts man. My boss got the paperwork from the operations manager to have me fired, only by the time he got around to it I was gone

[Pain_Man]

Gotta love that. LMAO.

 

That's one of the great things about part-time jobs. You can quit or get fired and it doesn't affect your employment record at all.

 

I had a part time job once I absolutely hated, so I just ditched my shift one day. I called back the next and said, "Just tell me I'm fired and I'll be in to get my check next pay day." The stupid bitch actually lied to me. "Oh no, you're not fired. We just have to talk." Of course, when I got there, I was fired. But technically I'd abandoned the job so they couldn't fire me. The dumb asshole was too stupid to even realize that. When I did get my last check they tried to get me to sign some bullshit. I looked at the store manager and said, "I know I don't have to sign anything and you know I don't have to sign anything. Now give me my check." When you know your rights, it's a lot harder for them to fuck with you.

 

Conference in the president of Ameritech? Don't you love it when customers try that kind of horseshit? They're so stupid they think they'll actually scare you or something. What a joke.

 

If a customer got to annoying, I would "accidently" hit the disconnect button. "Sorry, bawse, there's so many dern buttons on this heah phone, I jes' gets all confused when they's yellin' and cussin' me."

 

Fuck 'em. Dell. What a joke. If you've have a Dell and it works for you, great deal. But they'll never get any of my money again. Never.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, I know the feelin' Pain_Man

 

 

He called back and got the other call center who then reported me to the opts man. My boss got the paperwork from the operations manager to have me fired, only by the time he got around to it I was gone

Edited April 18, 2007 by Pain_Man