Poor customer service

I'll preface this with mentioning I have taught computer service tech programs for the last 25 years in as many as 5 post secondary educational institutions. I have often held Dell up as the gold standard for customer service, not only for the computer industry but in customer relations in general.

I can no longer do this.

I have a critical issue with an Inspiron 15-3552 laptop I purchased and had arrive in August. I reported this issue on September 9th. I was informed that I would be sent a shipping box to pack my system and have it sent back for service via FedEx. I have also received other e-mails from other Dell techs saying that I would be sent a packing box to return it by Purolator, by mail, and, that I had to provide my own packing box and send it back.

Note that I have not received the box in the month since this issue started, but in the case where I was told to pack it up and send it back myself, I wasn't provided any information as to where I can send it.

I complained via Dell's Twitter account and subsequently contact by the DellCares Twitter account. This provided a few further different suggestions, with no actual method by which to deal with the problem. One was that I'm actually supposed to be receiving onsite warranty service according to my account.

Now, since I probably trained 250 of the 300 current IT support workers in the Yukon, I pointed out that Dell does not have a service representative here and hasn't for about 10 years. I gave the example where my previous laptop under warranty needed the keyboard replaced, and the service person on the phone couldn't find a tech after 20 minutes. I offered to replace it myself and he agreed.

When I pointed out that there is no tech here, I was rudely informed that there must be a tech here because I have onsite service and they wouldn't have sent a technician before because a laptop keyboard is a user-serviceable part.

This was rapidly followed up by suggestions that I send it back via mail or a waybill, which also hasn't appeared. When I received my next message from another tech, via the Dell Cares account, suggesting that rather than do that, I qualify for onsite service, I tried to contact the Dell Facebook account.

As a side note, everyone of the unsolicited methods for dealing with this has had different names or sets of initials and all have suggested I confirm through them that I am sending back my system. In short, the call centre staff are obviously on a pay-per-service model and get a commission when I commit. it must be a nice one, since I've had more than 10 people try to get it...

I have asked, via both the Facebook and Twitter accounts, to speak to a supervisor regarding my system. I have been asked for times and a contact number and on both arranged occasions, no one called.

My particular favourite was one tech who suggested that he could arrange a phone call with a supervisor in a few hours; however, I had to commit to sending it back through him first. That was when I blocked the Dell Cares Twitter account...

In short, your call centre is far more interested in obtaining a commission rather than providing customer support. And, after a month of this carrying on, I no longer want this computer. My last e-mail said "we should work together to come to a resolution." There is no resolution for this problem, other than a refund.