On the other hand, at my last business I had nothing
but problems with
Dell and their shitty tech "support". I had the same problem others have
described--needing them to send a replacement part for defective hardware
and being asked to send in the entire unit so that it could be repaired
there, otherwise they would want a credit card number to secure the
replacement part! What kind of shit is that? Of course, this is after
you have to go through all the asinine motions with their support drones
that you've already done.
Okay, let me get this straight. You bought a system without
onsite warranty, so when they ask you to send the entire
system in to be repaired (which is the usual business practice
I've seen from Sony and Compaq, too), you get upset? You then
Well, aside from making lame assumptions about my experience, I don't know
what incident you are referring to.
They way you described the incident implied you didn't have on-site coverage.
We DID have onsite repair for the desktop. The hard
drive was shot. It
was dead. Since this hard drive had important data on it, and the last
backup was a week prior, we needed to see if we could have the data
recovered so we sent it off to a local data recovery house. In the
meantime, we asked Dell to send out a tech with a new hard drive. But
they wouldn't do so after we explained we'd already sent off the hard
drive for data recovery. THEIR stupid tech support procedures were more
important than their customer's business operations.
You did things your own way, which weren't compatible with the
rules covering on-site repairs. That's why all the policies
are laid out in advance, so you can't create your own and hold
Dell to them.
If you want special treatment, you need to negotiate this ahead
of time.
ask to get the
replacement part sent to you as an advance
replacement and you don't want to give them a credit card
number for a deposit (which is the way most vendors handle
advance replacement), so you get upset at that, too? I find
Bullshit. We'd been doing business with Dell for about 6 months by then
and had several orders. If they couldn't trust us by that time then screw
them. I've never had that kind of treatment from any other hardware
vendor.
Six whole months! Wow, they sure had a lot of history with your
company to base this one.
it entirely
reasonable that Dell ask for a credit card number
as a deposit to secure the transaction to insure you send the
faulty part back. Most people would just trash the bad part
and not bother with returning it once they got the good part
if there wasn't a financial incentive.
So you've run a survey and have analyzed the results and have concluded
scientifically that this is what "people" would do? Or you're just trying
to defend Dell for the sake of nothing else to stick up for today and are
coming up with these silly arguments?
You are the one with silly arguments. You expect a company to bend
over and kiss your ass just because you've been dealing with them
for six months?
I don't need to run a survey. I'm basing this on what I've seen
and what other people have described to me.
It sounds like
the problem is in not understanding the warranty
and the difference between on-site and mail-in repair coverage.
I paid extra for the on-site coverage so I don't have to worry
about mailing my system in or providing a credit card number as
a deposit on an advance replacement.
It sounds like someone would rather argue for the sake of arguing. I
won't doubt you had a good experience. I, on the other hand, and many
other people (a not insignificant number), have had terrible experiences
with them and that makes the company suspect on a broad level. If you
want to be Dell's cheerleader then go ahead and don the mini-skirt and
pompoms for them. Rah rah sis boom bah.
No, I'm not Dell's cheerleader, but I am offering alternate opinions.
From what you've described above, it sounds like
your problems with
Dell are due to your attitude.
And since you brought up surveys, did you run one to find a not
insignificant number of people with problems, or are you arguing
just for the sake of arguing.
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at
http://www.dittman.net/