Studio 1555 issues and dealing with incompetent tech support

i feel your pain... dell support is worthless... i been dealing with it for hours on end... still no better than i was to begin with..horrible doesnt even do justice

I will once again try to relay the story of my torturous encounters with Dell tech support.  Hopefully someone from Dell will respond with a plan to rectify the horrible support that is being provided rather than just censoring the posts by deleting them.

Following is a recounting of my recent experience with Dell tech support.  I hope someone from Dell reads this, and can realize that tech support has endemic problems that need to be resolved or Dell will go the way of other companies that ignore their customers.  Hmmm I guess that is not such a good analogy.  Microsoft ignores their customers and they are now a global giant.  Perhaps Dell wants to alienate their customers.

Let me start by saying that I am a Dell Reseller.  I have sold literally thousands of systems over the last 7 or so years.  In that time I have primarily dealt with Enterprise support, so when I heard or read stories about the poor level of support provided by Dell I was always surprised.

Based on my previous experience I purchased my mother a Dell Studio 1555 for Christmas instead of taking the easier course of purchasing a laptop at a discount store.  It worked OK for about two weeks and then began to BSOD.  I picked up the laptop and took it to my office so I could work on it.  After running some tests I determined the problem was either the hard drive or the controller.  So I planned a quick call to Dell tech support to resolve the problem.

Since the Studio is a home machine, I called the Home and Home Business support line rather than the Enterprise support line I am used to using.  I started by keying my Express Serice Code in response to the voice prompts.  After a minute or so on hold the tech picked up and thus began what would turn out to be a horrible set of experiences with Dell tech support.

Working in tech support I was not surprised that the tech had an accent.  The call started with the tech asking my name, phone number in case we were cut off and e-mail address, all pretty standard stuff.  He then asked me to relate the nature of the problem.  I gave what I considered a fairly detailed description of the problem including the error messages.  This is obviously a ploy to humor the consumer, because the tech started working down an obvious script that had nothing to do with the problem.  It was really basic tech support.  Is the computer on, can it boot, etc.  The tech was so focused on following the script that he had failed to consider any of what I had explained.  Despite this I began to follow the script in the hope that the problem would be solved.  After 30-40 minutes of following along the script, the tech determined the problem was with Windows 7 being corrupt and wanted to perform a reinstall.  I wanted to backup the data and had to get to a client so I told him I would run the backup and reinstall and call if there was a problem with any of the steps.  And so ended the first call.

After returning from the client I backed up the computer and used the Dell Safe Backup utility to wipe the drive and reinstall to the factory defaults.  Following that I re-installed all the Dell driver updates, Microsoft updates and re-installed the AV and other programs.  After that I let the computer run for a while and the BSOD returned.  Again I called Dell.

I keyed my Express Service Code in and waited.  Tech 2 came on the line and asked for my Express Service Code (and I thought why do you not have this info since I already keyed it in).  I then wanted to provide the service ticket I was given during the first call.  The tech instead wanted my name, return phone number and e-mail address.  He then wanted me to explain the problem.  Again I questioned why since all this information should have been in the case notes.  But the tech did not care and pressed on with relatively the same script as before.  After another wasted hour following the support script the tech determined a corrupt driver was the issue, had me install some patches and declared success since the computer had not blue screened during the call.  I was told to call beck if there were any further problems.

After the computer ran for a while I missed the BSOD but was greated with the same error message when the computer failed to boot properly.  Time for another call to Dell.  Oh joy.

The third call started just like the first two.  Enter Express Service Code, wait for tech, give tech Express Service Code, have service ticket number ignored, give name, phone number and e-mail address.  And again I had to explain the problem.  This tech decided to look at the computer and initiated a GoToAssist remote session.  And I had a glimmer of hope.  How foolish on my part.  Since the tech had taken over the computer and muted the call I was able to do some other work and watch the progress out of the corner of my eye.  I saw him check logs, download some drivers, run a Windows Defender scan, Windows update (there were no updates because I had already done that following the first reinstall), run an AV scan, check some other info and then BSOD.

The surprised tech came back on the line and said his session had been disconnected.  I told him the computer had BSOD with the same error as previous times.  He asked to be re-connected and I did so after rebooting.  Again he took over, muted the call and went about looking to see what had happened.  After another little bit he came back on the line and told me that the AV program, Webroot SpySweeper with AV was the culprit.  He had made some changes and wanted to call back in the first part of the afternoon, between 1 and 2 EST.  And the call ended.

Again the computer ran for a while and then BSOD.

Since the tech suspected Webroot (which is on the Win7 compatibility list) I uninstalled to see if that would make a difference before his return call.  Again the computer ran and the BSOD returned.  So I decided to reinstall Windows 7 yet again and see what would happen.

I reinstalled the OS, installed the Dell and Microsoft updates and nothing else.  Again the computer ran for a bit and then BSOD.

Satisfied that my diagnosis from the previous day of a hardware problem was the real problem, I waited for the return call from the support tech.  1 o'clock came and went.  2 o'clock came and went.  Then 3, then 4 then 5.  At 5:30 I figured there was nor return call coming so I again initiated a call to tech support.

Just as every other call started I keyed in my Express Service Code and waited.  The tech picked up and began what I anticipated to be the now typical litany of asking for the Express Service Code, but no, this tech wanted the Service Tag.  I gave it, but this tech was completely unable to understand my Chicago 'accent'.  So I gave it using the phonetic alphabet.  The tech still struggled to understand my thick accent but finally managed to get the Tag.  It was a similar struggle to give my name, phone number and e-mail address (which he never got right).  Again I was asked to explain the problem.  By this time I had become somewhat testy and told the tech to just read the case notes.  He again asked me to explain the problem.  I did.  When I got to the part about the error message he asked me to slowly read each line.  Again the painful process of slowly reading the error and listening to the tech butcher what I had just said.  Frustrated, I told him again to just look at the notes.  Not listening to me he pressed on.

I a moment of complete disgust I asked to talk to a manager, I had tolerated enough.

Instead of following the Golden Rule:  the customer is always right.  The tech wanted to discuss my request.  I now demanded to talk to a manager.  The tech finally aquiesed.  After a bit of a wait the "manager" came on the line.

All my previous case note had obviously been written in disappearing ink (or electrons as the case may be) because the "manager" now requested an explaination of the problem as all previous techs had done.  I gave a much more brief account including the error message.  When I mentioned the error message the "manager" asked me to repeat it.  I again said the message must be in the case notes and was told no, it was not there.

So I again read the error message.  When I got to the second line the "manager" stopped me and said there was an obvious problem with the hard drive and that it needed to be replaced.  Astounded I questioned, "really?"  And was told yes, that error message is quite clear.

After a very brief time with the manager (maybe 15 minutes) it seemed my problem was solved.  This was much more like the support I was used to.

While I await the delivery of the HDD, and hope that solves the problem, I have to reflect on my horrible experience with Dell support.  And I now understand why many consumers say they will never purchase another Dell.

I'm having a big problem with Dell support at the moment.

I bought a Studio 1555 laptop October last year, and everything was going great until Christmas. My battery had stopped charging and needed to be replaced. So I e-mailed Dell support and told them this but they for some unknown reason refused to accept I needed a new battery so they sent me a new charger instead. Obviously it made no difference so I e-mailed again, and once again said it needs a new battery. But then they decided that the motherboard was the problem so they sent someone to collect it and take it to be fixed. I was told it would be back in 5-6 working days, and today, almost a month later, I finally got it back, exactly how it was when I sent it. So now they are accepting the battery needs to be replaced and are sending an engineer out tomorrow with the battery and also to fix the motherboard in case there is a problem with that.

 What is wrong with these people, how is it that I, a 15 year old boy with no computer training, was able to realize the problem straight away, and they couldn't see it. I just hope that tomorrow it will finally be resolved, but honestly I'm not gonna get my hopes up :emotion-6: