Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
5270
Truly awful support.
Let's be frank... with the outsourcing of support to the cheapest bidder, it is not uncommon that consumers today get truly awful support. There are varying degrees, such as bad guidance due to language barriers, or incomplete training by corporations, or inability to be truly effective, due to any number of reasons. One thing that should never stand is support that is condescending, rude, or anything other than given with the best intentions to assist valued customers. I have purchased three dell computers in my lifetime. Most recently I needed a laptop that is both powerful (for the myriad of business applications I run to support a global business at a Fortune 50 company), and highly portable (I attend a lot of meetings all over this company's campus). I chose an Alienware M11x R2, with the expensive business class support as this is my work laptop. Generally this laptop has been exceptional. However, as I have recently discovered, the hinges to open/close the screen are going bad. Looking this up online, it appears that this is not an uncommon issue. The challenge I am having is that the hinges have gotten bad enough that recently they have begun to snap off the plastic on the lid/back of my LCD screen. To get help with this, and to order the necessary parts to fix it, I called Dell customer support. I was transferred to Alienware support, and spoke with a "gentleman" named , who assisted me with Service Request Number , Dispatch Number .
was quite possibly the worst customer support agent I have ever dealt with. The last Alienware customer support agent wasn't great either, but really took the cake with his poor manners, condescending attitude, and generally unhelpful demeanor. Why in the world should I ever buy another computer from Dell again if this is the kind of support my patronage gets me? I could go to Sony, whose support my colleague has repeatedly lauded. I could buy a Lenovo. I could buy any number of competing products that are similarly priced, and just as performant. You know... I'm going to do just that from now on. I'll take my patronage to another firm, where my money will be valued, who will provide support in a professional and helpful manner, and where I won't be made to feel like an idiot for requesting replacement parts for a product that was poorly designed, and a failure that is absolutely not my fault.
Thanks Dell, you've made my future computer purchases easier by removing yourself from my list of companies with whom I will do business. Your support is truly awful.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
•
54.9K Posts
0
June 28th, 2012 20:00
My apologies for how it went down. Please let us know how the LCD assembly replacement goes.
XxrynoxX
16 Posts
0
June 29th, 2012 00:00
I have to agree with you, I bought my Alienware M17x R3 laptop on February 9th 2012, because of the complications with the lack of Nvidia GTX 580M graphics cards at the time my order was pushed back from the original completion date of Feb. 29th to March 3rd, then once again to March 9th, then once again to March 15th. Now I didn't really mind the fact that I wasn't getting my M17x R3 when I originally thought I was even though yes, I really wanted to have that bad boy in my hands, but I figured let them take there time and make sure it's done right the first time around. What really got me upset was the horrible customer service. I would get a different answer with every new customer service rep. I would talk to, on top of that most of them had no idea what the actual problem was and lacked the most basic of knowledge on my product or my purchase, the rest made it seem like it was a huge inconvenience to even talk to me. It was by far the worst experience I have ever had with any companies customer service. This basically told me that dell cared more about saving money than it does about it's own customers, that is the only reason a company switches to overseas phone support, to save money, and a lot of it. Spend the extra money hiring people that not only know what their talking about but are passionate about what they do and who actually care about the company they work for. If not the complaints will continue as well as the loss of paying customers and even more important the loss of your once loyal customers. I realize that all problems are not solved as easily as I am making it out to be but all I am saying is that something needs to be done and fast.
Malandragem
3 Posts
0
June 29th, 2012 18:00
Hello Chris -
Thank you for responding to my post. Your effort to turn around a bad situation is not unrecognized. However, I wish I could report that I'm a satisfied customer again... I want to let you know that after speaking with the support agent yesterday, , he neglected to let me know that he was going to schedule an agent to follow up with me and come to my home to repair my M11x R2. While I was at work today I received an automated call stating that a technical support agent was scheduled to come to my home to repair my laptop today. Normally this would have been fantastic, except that did not inform me that he scheduled this! My office is 40 minutes away from home, and I commute by bus. It is enormously inconvenient to have to rush home, as you can imagine. I promptly called Dell support and asked to have the tech support person give me a ring on my telephone so we could work out an alternate time to come and repair my laptop. The repair agent made it clear that I needed to meet him in an hour, or he would not be able to help me until Monday. Frustrated, but desperate for my laptop to be fixed (as it is my primary work computer), I was able to clear my entire afternoon of meetings and push back important deliverables I owe my leadership team so that I could be home in time to get my laptop repaired.
Unfortunately, this means I'll be working over the weekend, all due to the extremely poor support of . Had he told me in advance that he would be scheduling an agent to come to my home tomorrow, I would have been able to alter my schedule and work from home today, or tried to have the agent come early this morning so I could go in late. Instead, because I was notified last minute and completely unexpectedly, I had to give up working the latter half of my day, completely renegotiate important work that my manager is expecting me to complete, and will be working over the weekend. I cannot express how extremely disappointing this is, let alone how frustrated I am.
The traveling computer repair agent was great, and my laptop is back up and working again, but the experience of getting the technical help from and his lack of notification about the agent being sent out has only made my already poor opinion of Dell/Alienware technical support even worse. Honestly, I wasn't even sure that was possible, but here I am: thoroughly disgusted with the help I received from him. This reaffirms my stance that I will never order another Dell/Alienware product again, and that I will broadcast to every individual I know, or whoever asks me, that they should look elsewhere when seeking high performance laptops.
You may balk at that, and say that I have no voice... but you should know that I work for one of the largest software companies in the world and my primary responsibility is to engage with technology students worldwide (there are over 7.2 million students involved in my program, some of whom I perform on-campus visits with to do application development and product outreach). I frequently get questions and comments about this Alienware laptop from the students I engage with, not to mention the dozens of coworkers I coordinate with to perform my job duties. As you can imagine, the feedback I will give to my colleagues and all of the students I meet with will be poor. Simply: I had the absolute worst support experience of my life with Dell/Alienware, and I will never buy from them again. It is a real shame too, because up until this experience I was a massive fan, who regularly praised this laptop. I have personally purchased three Dell computers in my lifetime. My next purchase will be a Sony or a Lenovo and I will never buy another one of your products again.
In the future I hope you will hire customer support agents who understand that this product is not a run-of-the-mill junk laptop. That it is a marquee product, with a reputation to uphold, and that serving your customers in a professional and friendly manner is the lifeblood to loyal patronage and word-of-mouth support.
Regards,
Neil
Cenobitez
348 Posts
0
June 30th, 2012 07:00
Did you buy this through the For Home or For Business sections of the website ?
Typically business support has been amazing here in the UK and only the home support has been bad, I'm hoping you bought from the home part or it maybe a sign of things to come :(
Malandragem
3 Posts
0
June 30th, 2012 14:00
Hi Cenobitez -
My company has an IT partnership with Dell, allowing employees of my company to purchase Dell computers at a very slight discount. Since I was looking for something powerful to run the types of applications necessary to perform my job duties, and I'm a gamer, I chose an Alienware. Although I got a very small discount on the laptop through this IT partnership, the additional extended support warranties I've purchased were not at a discount. I opted, since this is my primary work laptop, to pay extra money (at no discount) for the extended support and warranty on the laptop.
I'm not asking to be treated differently, or with any special care. I just want good support, from people who want to help their customers. I would expect this for both general consumers and for business class folks like me.
Cenobitez
348 Posts
0
June 30th, 2012 15:00
I can tell you 100% for a fact, Dell Business Support is so very different to Consumer Support at least here in the UK, and according to others on here the same in the US.
Comparing the two in my experience of half dozen Consumer Contacts with support and 100s of Business contacts, business is 100s of times better, its like comparing economy on a plane to business class.
I personally expected Alienware support to be the same as business given the similar costs, or even better but sadly its not.
In the end Dell generally come good, but sometimes its hard work, I just hope things look up for you now :)