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19053
Happened to you yet? LCD, Vertical Lines
System: Dell Inspiron 9200
Purchased: 2005
Location: Seattle, Washington, UNITED STATES
Problem: LCD, Multiple Vertical Lines, Single pixel lines, One Red (Center), One Green/Yellow (Right side on screen)
Computer is used for ArcGIS mapping, 17 inch screen comes in handy when working right
Telephoned Tech Support: 1(800) 624-9861 at 9:15AM Pacific Time on Tues, Feb 24, 2009
9:15AM, First Customer Service Agent requests for me to pay $49 for tech support. I indicated that the problem was noted in over 100 letters I had viewed in Dell Community Forums so I would not be paying for tech support. I was told that because my warranty expired one year after I purchased the computer, that I must pay. I indicated that people had gone over the warranty and still had their faulty LCD’s replaced. I was told that I would need to be transferred to somebody else. I am transferredfrom the customer service center in India and wait for the next person to respond.
9:25AM, Second Customer Service Agent named Pamela asks for my Service Tag number. Pamela begins a repeated effort at securing a $49 tech support payment. I indicate that this is not a problem which I need to pay $49 for, the matter of a defective LCD which I need to have addressed. Pamela proceeded to swindle $49 in 5 different methods, to which I called her out and told her that she was attempting to take money for defects that had already been diagnosed. Pamela proceeded in battle for nearly 10 minutes before I finally asked to speak to a supervisor. I was instructed by Pamela that a supervisor could only repeat what she had discussed with me. I indicated that this would be fine, to please transfer me to a supervisor. Pamela placed me on hold as she attempted to locate a supervisor. At 9:40, I was told by Pamela that a supervisor was not available, but she would transfer me to a tech support manager to address the RECALL ISSUE.
9:50AM, Third attempt, A Tech Support service agent came on the line and asked for the Express Service Code, to which I also offered the Journal ID # 09055LY0NJ from Wizard ID 341382, from the pages at Dell which troubleshoot your problem. I was asked to hold so the agent could check his resources. When the tech support person came back on the line, he was familiar with the Vertical Line issue and asked for me to bring another monitor to the laptop to see if the vertical lines appeared on another screen. They did not. The technical support service agent then asked me to power down the computer completely, then power up and press the F2 key 5 times. This brought up a grey screen. The technical support service agent then asked what was on the screen, which I indicated that a black and grey backdrop with white lettering was present. He asked if the lines were still there, and I indicated that they were. At that point, the technical support service agent indicated that the LCD would need to be replaced. He immediately went into suggesting that I purchase a $197.26 warranty, which I could be offered a deal for $149.00. I was told that the Warranty was normally $337. I responded by asking why he would perceive that I needed the Warranty. He indicated that it would be offered in case I had any future problems. I asked why he perceived that there may be future problems and how that might be applied to my LCD screen. He then indicated that the money would not at all be applied toward the current issue with the LCD. I then asked if the $149.00 amount was supposed to be the amount for replacing the LCD screen. He indicated that it was not the amount to replace the screen and that he would not be able to offer a price or a discount for the LCD. I then proceeded to say that if the $197.26 was not affecting the outcome of the LCD being fixed, then why was it suggested? As the technical support service agent was hesitant, offering that in the world, there are these problems and these things happen, I agreed with him, but asked if I could speak to his supervisor. The technical support service agent indicated that his supervisor was only going to reiterate what had already been talked about and probably could not do anything. I indicated that it was alright, that I still wanted to speak to a supervisor. At 10:20PM, I was transferred to a Tech support supervisor.
10:35AM, Fourth attempt, A tech support supervisor came on the line. It was a peculiar situation, as the person on the line sounded just like the person that had just talked to me. They repeated almost word for word the problems that had been discussed with the tech support service agent I had just spoken with. Upon repeating these problems, I was placed on hold for a moment. The next time somebody came on the phone, the accent of the person speaking was different than that of the person I was speaking with before I was placed on hold. This manager asked what I would like for them to do. I proceeded to say that like the 100 letters that I had in front of me indicating that this is an ongoing problem with the Inspiron 9200, 9300, and 9400 versions, I would like to have the problem with the lines in my LCD rectified, if that meant sending a container to send the product to them or having a technician look at the problem. I was asked by the manager where I got my information. I indicated that I found three sources:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/dell-fesses-to-more-vertical-line-issues-offers-free-replacem/
http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/01/16/41379.aspx
Upon giving the manager these three sources, he proceeded to tell me that the information in these sources really is not accurate a great deal of the time. I proceeded to ask the manager that since I know four people on these sites that have indicated they have had problems, so are you then implying that my friends are lying to me. He said he was not saying that they were lying, to which I replied, “but then you are merely implying that they may be lying.” He then asked for the URL link, and then proceeded to say that it was not working for him. I asked for his e-mail address so that I could send it to him, but he was reluctant to provide one. I finally stated that what I believed that I was experiencing with Dell was a lot of finagling. I also indicated that as a seasoned journalist, I would be inclined to publish the conditions that I had experienced on Dell community forums as well as in other publications. I indicated that with the number of computers and businesses that I have that use computers, while we use HP and Toshiba among others, it is unlikely that we would wish to purchase equipment from Dell again, based on the treatment from customer service that we had experienced. He then said that the request was really out of his hands, but that he could generate a case number for me, if I wished, where somebody would get back to me within 3 days. He placed me on hold again. When the manager returned, he indicated that I could use this case number he generated as a reference and anybody would be able to use that number to give me a response on the status of my request. I am now waiting to find out how Dell will proceed.
Have you had experiences with Dell like this?
David_and_Mark
13 Posts
0
February 26th, 2009 10:00
In order to correct previous post
Content 2nd Edit February 26: Early Morning
RE: Dell Inspiron 9200 Laptop
Problem: LCD, Multiple Vertical Lines, Single Pixel
Purchased: 2005
Time: 12:00 Noon, Pacific Time
Date: February 25, 2009
Today, I received a returned call from __Identity Edit__, answering my appeal to Dell in Case__Numeric Edit____. Less than one minute into the conversation, _ Identity Edit __ became rather aggressive, scolding me for phoning them yesterday. According to__ Identity Edit ___, it was wrong of me to phone when I did, indicating that I did not place my call to Dell at the appropriate time in regards to the LCD failure on my screen, and that based on upon blog information indicating people were having problems (the recall), that is the only reason why I was responding when I did. _ Identity Edit ____ indicated that there is now no warranty to cover the LCD. The tactics used by __ Identity Edit ___ were in a manner of business used by collection agencies or of a workman’s compensation claims adjuster attempting to deny a claim to a loyal employee. With __ Identity Edit ___, there was a significant amount of finagling, with a lack of resolution and an uncompromising approach to managing the problem at hand. __ Identity Edit ___ plowed through the conversation, not allowing me to finish sentences, not allowing me to speak. As a Dell customer, I became __ Identity Edit’s___ hostage.
While I realize this is business and a number of tactics are used in the workplace to make it a business, ___ Identity Edit __ was very unprofessional. When __ Identity Edit ___proceeded to hang up on me while I was speaking, I responded by not hanging up my telephone. I waited for nearly a minute until __ Identity Edit ___ returned to the phone. I continued the conversation with ___ Identity Edit __ while he refuted that he had hung up on me and was merely placing me on hold because he has a terrible cold. I told him I was sorry to hear that he had a cold. I reminded __ Identity Edit ___ that the approach that he and Dell were using were corrupt measures which finagle customers experiencing problems with their machines. __ Identity Edit ___ proceeded to ask me if I had anything else to say. I told him I did. I let
____ Identity Edit _ know that I would continue by publishing the measures Dell used in my circumstance (attempting to charge for customer service from a North American agent, charge for tech support, charge for a warranty, drop the price for a warranty, etc) to finagle me out of lots of money while not fixing my problem. _ Identity Edit ____informed me that it was certainly my choice to do so and asked if there was anything else I wished to discuss. It is painfully evident as a customer that the biggest part of this problem emerges from the outsourcing of consumer satisfaction and tech support agents. While I was initially offered, at a fixed cost, to speak to an agent in North America when I first called Dell, it is apparent that Dell realizes the problem customer’s face, and feels their customers can just pay for the problems if they really desire somebody to come on the line and have them fixed. Should Dell really put customers in the position of paying to have somebody in North America fix their problem over somebody offshore (though some offshore facilities far exceed others)? Thus, I do see that there is a “sweatshop” system at Dell that may not initially be apparent to the customer that is deciding between a Dell and an IBM, Toshiba, Sony, or a Macintosh. I could have paid all of the fees along the way, but it really would not have put me much closer to having the system fixed. The tactics used by Dell were “teasers.” Thus, dealing with Dell over the course of two days has been a system of tactical communication maneuvers with offshore agents. Having a computer LCD that displays a GIS accurately should not be so difficult to accommodate. I am going to investigate the computer purchases for business’ and home better in the future by evaluating more closely how the companies rate for customer service interaction. Still, when I hear that the nature of my problem stems from a recall on a computer part and I cannot get the company to fix my problem (even if I have to pay a small price for it) that is when business (Dell) is being managed badly. In that case, it is necessary to it is necessary to alert people of Dell’s actions. Dell has never offered to approach the part problem, recall, cost or no cost for part. They have merely finagled fiercely to secure funds for something else other than the problem at hand.
What do you think?
osprey4
4 Operator
4 Operator
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34.2K Posts
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February 26th, 2009 15:00
Hi, David and Mark:
You're more like to get a helpful answer if you...
1. Post in the laptop video forum, and
2. stick to the facts.
Rebel9
2.9K Posts
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February 26th, 2009 20:00
"What do you think?"
I think you need more tags!
a26red
5 Posts
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February 26th, 2009 20:00
hi im sorry to bother you but i read ur reply and i liked how honest and on point u were. i really need info on how to hook up my speakers can u help me. i have an inspirion 530s and i dont know where to plug in the bigger orange plug...if u can help thank you...ang
rheaweng1
3 Posts
0
February 27th, 2009 13:00
Dell's customer service is HORRIBLE! I just got a laptop about two months ago and if I had known how horrible their customer service is, I NEVER would have bought a Dell. Not in a million years. I bought my laptop online and in "building" the computer, you have to check what you want. There are items that Dell recommends and some of those are warranties. I purchased ALL of the extended warranties that were offered so when I called with my prboblem (not being able to download Adobe Flash Player because I have a 64-bit operating system and Adobe Flash Player requires a 32-bit and as a result, I can't do anything interactive, watch video clips, play games, etc.), I thought surely they would be able to help me with the problem. Well, I was told that I had a software problem and that I did not have a warranty that covers software questions and that if I wanted them to help me with this particular issue, it would cost $149.00. If I wanted to buy the software warrantly, that would cost $200.00 per year (notice that they do not offer an extended software warranty).
When a person buys a new computer, it seems to me that the most problems they will have is with software and getting all of their programs to run properly, etc. and that's why they don't offer or "recommend" a software warranty when you're building your computer. They get you to waste your money on warranties that you don't need (by telling you that they recommend these warranties, and for someone like me who isn't very computer savvy, I believed them and bought the warranties) so that when you call for help with software, which is what most people need help with their computers for, they can then bilk you for more money when you're in a desparate situation. Disgusting company. I hate them!
I can truely say that purchasing a computer from Dell has been the worst buying experience of my life. Now I'm stuck with a computer that for the most part, I can't use. It's like buying a lemon without any lemon laws. Truely despicable!
I'm glad that you are posting this on the message boards. Another place to post this is on ripoffreport.com. In fact, I'm going to do that myself and then write a letter to the CEO's of Dell and include a copy of my poting on ripoffreport.com. I'm also telling everyone I know not to buy Dell computers. They are a terrible company with very dishonest business practices. Hopefully, if enough people speak up about them, they will change the way they do business. Thanks again.
osprey4
4 Operator
4 Operator
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34.2K Posts
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February 27th, 2009 14:00
Adobe flash player can be run within a 32-bit browser on a 64-bit OS. A simple answer that any Google search would have found.
eskymi
1.1K Posts
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February 28th, 2009 04:00
That is your gripe, that you can't do stuff because of Adobe Flash? You are getting made at the wrong people. Should be angry with Adobe Flash PLayer.
It'd be like buying a car that can do 100mph, but you are mad at the car company because you can't do 100mph because the state has posted 55 mph speed limit signs.
Do you even read the agreements you purchase? I read Dell's Liminted Warranty policy and it says HARDWARE like 31 times in it. Then it says SOFTWARE and mentions 5 or 6 times that it's EXCLUDED from coverage. All it takes is a little effort on your part and you would have found that out. Oh wait, typical person....I want somone to do everything for me, I don't wish to do anything and then I have someone to blame if it doesn't go my way.
And sadly, as OSPREY pointed out in the time it took to write your rant, you could have solved your problem by googling (why is it always google, why not Yahooing, or asking, etc) and fixing it. I have solved many a problems by yahooing and finding a solution online. Many, many problems.