I Hate It I Hate It I Hate It

I need to stop reading this forum. It's very depressing. I've been a Dell customer since around 1992 and haven't had much of any problems other then minor software and hardware stuff I was able to fix myself over the last 16 years. I currently own a XPS 730, a one year old Inspiron 531 Desktop, and an XPS 1210 Laptop that I've owned for at least 2 years with no real problems. Believe me when I say I feel terrible hearing about all these problems you people are having. It looks like Dell needs to get their act together, and take care of their customers in need, or they will lose their customers!

I hear you, Atbglenn. I've owned nothing but Dell computers and my family has as well - and besides the problem I had with the cooling on my 730H2C last month(which was resolved within a week)...we've had zero problems in about 9 years.

 

Luck of the draw, I guess. I don't know. But it does get to you after a while reading the posts of the troubles that some people have. 

Aurora51,

 

 Your right when you say "It's the luck of the draw" Luckily you and I have had good luck with our Dell's. But still, we are all part of the Dell family, and when someone is suffering with a "Lemon", we all feel the pain. :(

 

 

Edit: I had correct the spelling or your name...Sorry about that

I'm not defending Dell (my new PC is a home built) but I do part-time PC support and I've seen "horror stories" about other PC vendors including HP, Gateway, Acer and even IBM (when they sold their own PC's).

These are just machines, built by people. Of course some are going to have problems. Your problems are unfortunate but come on. You said yourself that you have other Dells without problems. One bad experience and your bad mouthing Dell like they just killed your dog. Every computer company has the same problems. Maybe you could describe your problem or problems and someone will most likely be able to help you.

A lot of people out here don't know anything about computers and rely on the manufacture to sell us what they say we are getting and something that will work in most cases . Then they say well you should have read the Manuel before you bought because what we said in our ads is not what we meant . Not to say anything about the run a round you get when you try to get help I buy computers to play games on mostly and when a company tells me that this is the gaming system to have should i believe them or not like i said i don't know much about computers IM lucky to be able to set one up let alone have to try and fix one so that it will work and this is my forth Dell  the other three worked just fine out of the box sure you people that can build your own tinker with the bios and what have you are just fine but people like me get the shaft

   D

CD60,

If you have not had reason to have to deal with Today's Dell Tech Support count your blessings. It isn't that there are lemons out there, it's Dell's new way of trying to make you as the customer feel that somehow it's your fault that you got a Lemon. They don't know how to fix the problems and they make you do stupid stuff cause they don't want to come out and say that they don't know. Dell Tech support is a bunch of people that are either Mushrooms of the engineering Arm Of Dell (kept in the Dark about problems) or they are just playing "cover Dell's behind".

     When I had my 630i, I got the same person ( i believe) 3 times for the same problem in Chat. The 2nd and 3rd time he said that he had not heard of the issue before. Given my system had many separate issues and I lived a Brand new computer repair life, this gets very anoying very quickly. "Let's do a format and reinstall, this should fix the problem".... Ok maybe the first time but every support contact?????

      On a different note... Have you made any progress with SMP?

Sean

EDIT: BTW my systems arrived with problems that had anyone at Dell done any testing on... It would/should never have shipped. Then Dell requires you to finish what should have been done by DELL.

When you get a "lemon" out of the box, remember that Dell does have a return period that you can return it for credit, refund another system, etc.  It's 21 days from the date it was shipped for most systems, I don't know if that is the same for XPS systems.  In many cases when you contact Customer Service to request a Return Authorization they will offer to send you another new one set up exactly like the one you got and that potentially will solve the problem as you will get a new system to replace the "lemon" PC (and hopefully it won't be a lemon too).

Get your case escalated to dell's "Global Escalation Management Team"

When you reach this level, there is no bull. The "Executive Support Resolver"

wants your issue resolved period and will do whatever it takes to acheive

it.

 

Once you get one of these guys, keep there info-e-mail, phone ect. For

future issues you can then just contact them directly and bypass all the 

bull.

fireberd,

Dell tech support does all they can to stall you til out of the 21 day timeframe. Then customer service tries to tell you that you are out of the 21 days. Most consumers do not know that if the issue is logged inside the 21 days... they are still covered. Dell TS nor CS will advise to this effect as they know that a large portion of those customers will never research it to realise the truth of the policy that Dell is bound to. Hence, Dell keeps the $ most often and apparently feels no remorse. I know this to be true as they tried this with me on my 630i.

     Thank God for Chris_M or I would probably still be in that fight with Dell CS. Unfortunately for a great deal of Dell customers, they never find this forum and are stuck with their LEMON. After the 21 days a customer is stuck with inept TS. Hence the rants that are seen on this forum. And for the replacement offer from CS... You will be stuck with the replacement as CS will not extend another 21 days for the new Box. Unless that customer is lucky enough to find this forum and Chris.

      The major point is that if you get a lemon, you will have an unneccessary BATTLE with Dell to get a resolution and Dell TS and CS will do nothing to help you get one.

      Argue and justify this all you want, but if you haven't been there then you just don't know the misery of the Dell LEMON owner.

Sean

Sean, I've been through that and got a refund for a Dimension 8250 system.  Admitidly it was in the "fine print" but I was able to find the return policy and take advantange of it with that system (and I bought a Gateway after that and it worked great and had all standard ATX components in it - no proprietary motherboard, SoundBlaster sound card, connectors, etc).

 

 

 

 

When I got my Dell XPS 730, I had nothing but complaints as well.  I spent almost 2 weeks troubleshooting with Dell support on the phone. (Got my cell phone bill was 13 hours of talk time :smileysad:  ).  I finally had enough and demanded a new system from them.  Got it in, and happy as can be now.  I have to agree with everyone, every once in awhile you get a lemon.  Give their wonderful Tech support (heavy sarcasm) a chance to troubleshoot it, and if that doesnt work just request a new one.  The XPS is a great series of computer though, and if you get a working one you will not be disspointed. 

Oh yes the lovely "21 days".  Yes the key to making your exchange as pain free as possible make sure to ask for a new one within that time frame.  ....And that is time from when it was shipped not when you receive it....

One update from my last post.  In the era of the Dimension 8250, Dell had a 30 day policy not 21 days.  I agree Dell is not the Dell we used to know when all the tech support was US based. 

 

When I was working (I'm retired) I managed a large Federal Government LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk.  We had Dell workstations (PC's) and servers in the network and my Help Desk tech's had to be certified by Dell before Dell would accept our troubleshooting down to what part was bad.  Other companies, including IBM, did not require that - just Dell.