Im keeping this short as even in writing this im sure Dell will not even care.
In 2011 i bought a Dell XPS 15 laptop with all upgrades. Why because I live in hotels and travel a lot.
CPU(2.4Ghz), 8GMemory, 2GB video card, Blue ray burner, Xfi soundcard, TV card, extended battery, 720G Hdd, whopping $2200.
Sadly like all things electronic sometimes things go wrong, and as an IT consultant I understand. What i do not understand is the inability to support customers in a manner that makes sense.
On the first report of issues (laptop will not power on) Dell support sent me new motherboard but to Georgia and I live in California, the tech who had to do the work was not willing to drive 3400 miles( I don't blame him).
So another motherboard was sent. This time to the correct address. After 30 min the tech reported that the new parts were not working.
Sigh, so now dell sends me a box to ship the laptop off to Texas repair depot.
About a week later I get the laptop back and violla it starts up and stays on for a whole 15 seconds! yay!
On the support call with Dell again only to be told its a virus. Hmmm really!!! While I'm in the bios there is a virus that shuts it down!!!. I don't think so.
2 hrs later and my patience is really thin, I am informed to Send my laptop back. They supply another box and pre-paid shipping.
A week goes by with no call or update from Dell so I call them, 45 min wait to be told that I did not ship the package.
Ok now patience is gone.... i give them the tracking number as well as the person who signed for it. Now getting bounced from "manager" to "manager" over 2hrs later I'm told that they will get back to me to find out where it has gone.
4 days later I call dell, and got lucky 25 minutes wait. But that was short lived, not only could the person barely understand English but the answers made no sense! Again another manager, 2hrs later after playing pass the customer, I'm informed that the laptop was sent to the wrong facility. Great!! Par for the coarse.
2 weeks later and after much frustration and yelling accompanied by pathetic "we understand what you are going through" I got shipped a replacement..
When the laptop arrived my heart sank.
CPU (2.1Ghz) 16GB Memory, 2GB video card, 720 GB hdd.
NO - Blue ray burner, Xfi soundcard, TV card, extended battery...
NO service tag on the bottom, the service tag in the bios is not recognised by Dell's support service.
Contacted Dell waited the allotted 45 min only to be told "this is all we have in inventory" and " its an upgrade"
Well i have 14 days in which to return this laptop, oh and BTW it cannot run prime 95 for longer than 7.25 min without blue-screening. Now I know why there is a refurbished sticker on the bottom.
Who am I? The guy who fly's from client to client, migrating email on microsofts platforms. Some times I work with companies of 45000 users and sometime as low as 5000 users.
My knowlage on how customer support should be : Very High.
My influence on companies tendancy to move vender platforms between Dell, HP, Lenovo : Significant!
Oh and just for the record, Deluxe Entertainment Services will not be choosing Dell as their new sole hardware supplier. I wonder why?
One dissatisfied Dell customer
-Z