Good afternoon,

I am posting in this forum out of desperation, as I have been unable to get satisfaction through the standard technical support channels.

 

Almost 3 years ago, I purchased a top of the line XPS 730X machine and a 24" Monitor, a pricey system that at the time cost over $3000. I do graphics rendering using specialized software, and needed a dual-GPU system with CUDA compatibility and a high number of raster units, and the combination of this raw power and Dell's excellent reputation for support made the 730X seem like a logical choice. I also purchased the longest and most expensive warranty possible at the time, a 3Y Premium Next Business Day On Site program that was quite expensive.

A little over a week ago, my system finally decided to call it quits. Being a Computer/Software Engineer by trade, it was clear, through testing, that the video cards had both died. I tested both in an alternate system, and they failed to POST, returning a GPU_Failure POST code.

As I was in the middle of a serious project with a looming deadline, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a video card to get me through and allow me to complete the project in lieu of immediately calling technical support.

A day later, the entire system died - fans would spin up to maximum, but the LEDs would not come on and the system would not POST. I attempted to triage the issue, but no amount of CMOS clearing, removal and reinstallation of components or even testing an alternate power supply brought the system back to life, leading me to believe this was either a motherboard or MCB issue.

I called XPS tech support on Saturday February 23, and spoke with a very helpful technician who verified that the issue was likely motherboard related, and that they would go ahead and replace that and the video cards. On the same call I spoke with a supervisor, who was very professional, and whom offered to replace the system's power supply and fans as well, to ensure that they system would be fully functional after the service call. The call ended with the promise that a technician would be in touch to schedule a service call in the next few days.

 

Despite this excellent transaction, from here on out things have only progressively gotten worse.

 

During my XPS tech support call, the rep specifically verified my contact number, as it had changed since I had first purchased the system. Despite this I went 3 business days - until Wednesday February 27th - before receiving a call from a supervisor at XPS support to advise me that the technician had attempted to call me without success. I was provided with the contact number for the service company, and a case number, which I dutifully called and setup a call back from the technician to schedule an appointment. They verified at this point that the number they were provided was incorrect - it was the older number which I had specifically changed during my original call. That said, I am unsure how the XPS supervisor called me back on the correct number, given that the one they had provided to the service company was wrong...

Not 5 minutes after this, I received a call from the technician, who informed me that he was unable to setup a specific time due to the weather and scheduling, and would have to call me back the next day (Friday) at 8AM to schedule a specific appointment time for that day. This was done in due course, and we set up an appointment time for this morning (Friday, March 1) at 10AM. The technician arrived carrying a large box - which he had not yet opened - and proceeded immediately to tell me that he had never worked on or even seen an XPS 730X before. Not an auspicious start.

My confidence not being inspired, he opened the box to find a large number of replacement parts, which - true to the supervisors word - included not only a motherboard, but a new power supply and a replacement CPU heatsink and fan unit. What the box did not contain, however, was 2 replacement video cards, as they had only shipped one - an obvious oversight as I had specifically mentioned that both cards were defective.

Despite this, the technician duly opened my system in order to replace the parts that had shipped, but was immediately halted due to the fact that he did not come prepard with the correct tools. A long phillips screw driver is needed to remove both the CPU heatsink from the motherboard, and the drive cages from the chassis in order to remove the power supply. As he did not have this, he was unable to proceed. Instead he packed up his tools and attempted to call XPS support for direction and a reason about why he had not received a second video card.

He waited a full 30 minutes on hold before eventually being connected to a tech support rep - and was immediately disconnected. A call back put him in touch with someone eventually, who gave both him and I the runaround, saying that the tech would have to test the system after installing the new parts before they would ship an additional video card.

Because of this, and due to the fact that the tech had to reschedule the appointment now for Monday March 4 (due to not having the correct tools), it will have been a full week without a working system. I likely won't be fully up and running with dual video cards - which I require for the proprietary rendering software I use - until the end of next week at the earliest, a full two weeks since I placed the original service call.

I attempted today to contact XPS support via phone to voice my concerns and discontent about this, but gave up after waiting for over 10 minutes, only to be almost immediately disconnected from the rep who answered - 3 times in a row. As I was calling from a land line at my office, I am also 100% positive that this was not a technical issue, at least on my end.

Needless to say, I expect that when I purchase a $3000 system and a top tier service plan that when I request technical support, that it's provided in a timely manner. I also expect that the tehcnician who responds is actually trained to repair the system that I have, comes prepared with the correct tools, and has checked to ensure that all required parts are included before he schedules the appointemtn. This level of support is completely unnacceptable for any company - let alone one the size of Dell. It's indicative of a complete disregard for customer satisfaction or indeed their time, of which more than 5 hours of mine has been fruitlessly wasted in dealing with this issue.

 

A timely response to this issue would be appreciated.