My new laptop won't power up.

I just waited for half an hour, and got to a desktop support guy, instead of Inspiron laptop support.  He gave me a phone number, extension and a 9-digit incident code.  Then he transferred me to the right department.  I waited for another half an hour on phone and no one answered.  I called the number he gave me and entered the extension.  Then the phone system asked me for an 8-digit code.  I tried to remove random number from my 9-digit code to no avail.  Well, too bad.  I called the dell number and waited for another hour.  Then I hang up.

See my own thread which I am going to start after venting about this problem.

The laptop came with no user manual.  There is no troubleshooting guide whatsoever.  The support website has random information on various different pages.  My problem has to do with power up.  I couldn't even find up-to-date information on new batteries with self-test button.  The message played over phone while I waited kept talking about support.dell.com/fixit or something like that.  I can't find such page.

What happened to the award-winning customer support?  Where is my new purchase rapid response phone number?

I have had nothing but good customer support experiences before with my previous Dell purchases.  What happened in the last two years?

Message Edited by fredhsu on 03-03-2005 10:36 PM

Awful.  Terrible.  See my thread about my Inspiron 5150 dying.  I went round and round with people last year when my desktop died, and never got anywhere.  We've had people promise to call, and they never do.  We've been given the numbers to call and no one answers.  Any time I ask for a manager, they're in meetings.  I wrote letter and after letter and when I finally got a reponse from Dell the person on the phone was plain rude. 

We switched to Dell a few years back after poor service elsewhere, and you're right, it's been in the last couple of years that things have gone downhill with Dell too.  Guess we'll be going elsewhere ONCE AGAIN.

I am sitting here laughing at you guys. When I need to talk to Dell support, I do not call. I always email. You have to wait a while for them to return your email, but you can do things and not stay on the phone. Also, the email troops are more competent than the phone rangers so your problem will be solved faster and more accurate. Try it out:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/en/emailcustomercare?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Ah, but Fenderguy, you should not laugh.  That's not nice.

For some who are not well-versed in computer-ese, like my father, who has totally given up on getting real help from Dell at all, they need someone to help walk them through it.  He's relatively new as a computer user and really needs the personalized help.  He wouldn't even have a computer if I couldn't help him.  So email is not really an option for everyone. 

Remember that are those out there who are not as brilliant, as educated, as computer savvy as you, apparently, are.

Type?  My Dad? 

Now I'm laughing...:smileywink:

Maybe I could rephrase my point. If all possible, email Dell. If you have absolutly no way of emailing Dell, then call. Do everything you can though to email, this includes friends, kiosk at the mall, library, or another personal computer. Otherwise, call Dell.

Just trying to be helpful to all those people who complain about the terrible phone service.

Bad point, good point, Fred. 

Leave the signature alone.  Don't make it personal.

And he does make a good point, Fender, when he says that it's a little tough to use email on a failed machine.  If my husband didn't have a laptop (the one I'm using to post this) I certainly wouldn't be online.  Mine's dead.  I'd have no choice but to call, and their phone service is pretty poor.