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A Dell Customer Service Dispute

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Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#31

Post by cjslep »

foota wrote: post #13
Nition wrote: post #11

Reading the separate petition about the same support rep that's linked from there[1], the corporate nonsense is worse even that what's described in the Facebook post. [1] https://www.change.org/p/prawin-k-dell-com-dell-computers-fi...

Seems like these are different situations under the same support rep. I feel bad for the rep honestly, they're probably not allowed to do any more and I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up taking the fall for this.

Support reps are always allowed to do more. There's always a path of escalation that ends at the CEO. If a Dell-partnered senior exec (like from Fry's or Best Buy) was having a terrible customer support experience trying to RMA their Dell device, you can bet that if it didn't get resolved ASAP that there'd be a Dell exec personally flying out a new device and repairing their business ties in-person.

It just sucks for us little guys, because the only way to apply the same pressure is with publicity.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#33

Post by lucaspiller »

bArray wrote: post #22

I've had experience with Dell, but it was a nice one. I'm from the UK, so not sure if the service is better than the US counterpart of I just got lucky. Like an idiot, I bought a cheap 3D printer called OneUp, built it, plugged it into the laptop and blew the laptop up. The 3D printer company both refused responsibility for printer replacement and laptop replacement despite somehow putting 240V onto the USB like due…

I had the same around 8 years ago. My girlfriend spilt Coke on her laptop, and half the keys stopped working. They sent a guy to repair it (for a £300 laptop with standard warranty) he said "looked like someone spilt Coke on it", and proceeded with the replacement. I didn't get any charges for the repair even though it was obviously accidental damage.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#34

Post by foota »

cjslep wrote: post #31
foota wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like these are different situations under the same support rep. I feel bad for the rep honestly, they're probably not allowed to do any more and I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up taking the fall for this.

Support reps are always allowed to do more. There's always a path of escalation that ends at the CEO. If a Dell-partnered senior exec (like from Fry's or Best Buy) was having a terrible customer support experience trying to RMA their Dell device, you can bet that if it didn't get resolved ASAP that there'd be a Dell exec personally flying out a new device and repairing their business ties in-person. It just sucks for…

True that the path exists, not that they're supposed to use it for some guy trying to get his laptop fixed.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#36

Post by dang »

npsomaratna wrote: post #10

Did someone change the link? This originally pointed to: https://www.facebook.com/Dell/posts/10206079690990070 , but it now points to the change.org petition referred to at the end of the aforementioned FB post.

I think we briefly thought the first post was pointing to that one, and then realized it wasn't. It happens!

Separate observation:

Customer rage anecdotes that inevitably tell only part of a story—or that at least cannot be reconstructed accurately from public info—are not a very high-quality genre on a site whose guiding value is intellectual curiosity. There's a standard downweight that we put on submissions like this.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#37

Post by raverbashing »

digital_ins wrote: post #3

Dell's focus on selling cheaper laptops has resulted in treating the consumer as fungible; and that's the reason for their absolutely appalling customer service. You're starting to see this across industries where their products and services are commoditized. Quite surprisingly, when the service / product turns into a commodity (due to competition), so does the customer (due to budgetary constraints)

> when the service / product turns into a commodity (due to competition), so does the customer (due to budgetary constraints)

This. And then the Dell brand means the same as some OEM Chinese brand

And this is why Apple can charge what they charge per MB (even with all the shenanigans)

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#38

Post by joefreeman »

bArray wrote: post #22

I've had experience with Dell, but it was a nice one. I'm from the UK, so not sure if the service is better than the US counterpart of I just got lucky. Like an idiot, I bought a cheap 3D printer called OneUp, built it, plugged it into the laptop and blew the laptop up. The 3D printer company both refused responsibility for printer replacement and laptop replacement despite somehow putting 240V onto the USB like due…

I've also had a great experience with Dell customer support (also in the UK). Half my screen was flickering (think it must have got knocked in my bag), posted on their support forum, they sent a guy out to my house to replace the screen, no charge. Much better experience than I ever had with Apple.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#39

Post by cestith »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #15
digital_ins wrote: post #3

Dell's focus on selling cheaper laptops has resulted in treating the consumer as fungible; and that's the reason for their absolutely appalling customer service. You're starting to see this across industries where their products and services are commoditized. Quite surprisingly, when the service / product turns into a commodity (due to competition), so does the customer (due to budgetary constraints)

I understand why this school bought the laptops they did, but I have to point out: The support costs of the requested help for these laptops outweigh the actual laptops themselves value, and certainly Dell's profit in it. Cheap laptops include cheap support. If the school had purchased business-line PCs which are more suited to large organization use, they'd likely A. have gotten much better laptops, and B. gotten dr…

They paid for the warranty assigned to whatever cheap laptop Dell sold them. It's now up to Dell to honor that warranty in a reasonable manner. It's not the customer's fault if Dell miscalculated the cost of providing the unit. That's Dell's calculation to make.

Re: A Dell Customer Service Dispute

#40

Post by keithpeter »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #15
digital_ins wrote: post #3

Dell's focus on selling cheaper laptops has resulted in treating the consumer as fungible; and that's the reason for their absolutely appalling customer service. You're starting to see this across industries where their products and services are commoditized. Quite surprisingly, when the service / product turns into a commodity (due to competition), so does the customer (due to budgetary constraints)

I understand why this school bought the laptops they did, but I have to point out: The support costs of the requested help for these laptops outweigh the actual laptops themselves value, and certainly Dell's profit in it. Cheap laptops include cheap support. If the school had purchased business-line PCs which are more suited to large organization use, they'd likely A. have gotten much better laptops, and B. gotten dr…

Just wondering: would refurbished core-duo Thinkpads with something like neverware's ChromeOS on them be a better way forward for a cash strapped school?

Cheap to buy, the machines have survived N years so by a Darwinian process any clunkers have been removed from the pool and they are built to a decent standard to start with. ChromeOS would imply cloud storage so students don't lose work &c. Depends on the use cases I imagine.

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