Terrible Support

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I am having serious doubts about the quality of support Dell are both able and willing to provide, so I am posting here to see if I can get any resolution and to allow others to see what they might encounter.

I have had a fault with the AC adaptor of my laptop. Further investigation on the internet would suggest that this component is designed to fail, but that's another story.

I contacted support last Thursday (20th Aug) they said an engineer could come out the next day. Unfortunately due to business commitments this was unsuitable, so I asked if Monday (24th August) would be ok. I was told this was all fine and was left thinking how great the support service was.

Sadly I was wrong. Firstly the engineer tries to turn up on Friday (21st Aug), the next day which I couldn't make. I contact Dell to let them know about this and confirm Monday is still fine, which they do. Ok minor hiccup, it happens.

Come Monday (24th Aug) I have cancelled other appointments and stay in waiting for an engineer. It gets to 3pm and I am thinking its quite late so I contact Dell. Apparently there has been a misunderstanding, which means someone at Dell thought 24th August was 24th September and entered that in their system, but don't worry they will come tomorrow. I tell them tomorrow isn't really suitable, but book it and I will try to be available, as I desperately need the laptop in action.

Now on Tuesday (25th Aug) an engineer finally turns up. Great, except he turns up with a new bottom plastic for my laptop, a motherboard and a kettle lead, but no AC adaptor. The motherboard has never caused a problem, so foolishly I let him change it anyway for the reconditioned one he has thinking it can only extend the life of my laptop. The bottom plastic he takes away again and same with the kettle lead. The motherboard changed we have no way of knowing if it is ok, as he has no spare AC adaptors and my battery is dead. Before leaving he arranges for me to have an AC adaptor couriered to me the next day (26th Aug) and gets a call logged with Dell to say how poor the service has been and that I am not happy. He tells me Dell will call me back, usually within 4 hours.

Wednesday (26th Aug) comes round and finally the AC adaptor arrives. Finally my problem is solved, except this is just the start of more trouble. Getting the laptop started, straight away windows says it needs to run a recovery utility and lists one of the possible causes for this as a change in hardware. Once this is done Windows starts up, however straight away I notice the machine is running slower than usual. I try connecting to my wireless network; this fails, with no reason given as to why. I also notice the machine is running very hot, so shut down before something bad happens. I get in touch with Dell support again and they finally agree to send me a new machine of equal of greater spec within 10-15 days (so much for next business day service). I have no idea what I will do in the meantime - I work as a freelance software developer, so I only get paid when I am working. I have already lost 2 days pay waiting in for a Dell engineer who didn't turn up and a Dell engineer who turned up with the wrong parts for the job. To confound this because the motherboard was changed when all that was required was an AC adaptor, I now no longer have a working laptop either. In these difficult times this is completely unacceptable to my business, and also makes me wonder why dell are so freely wasting time and money on unnecessary parts and manpower such as the motherboard change.

I am now a very dissatisfied customer who is out of pocket, and unless service somehow improves drastically I will not be a Dell customer in future and I will be letting my business contacts know how they treat customers.