PCWorld.com Article On Computer Support(DELL)

I don't need to read the links, I aready know from personal experiance.

I do not believe that ANY Ziff-Davis magazine gets it right more than 1/3 of the time.  PC Mag, PC World, it is all the same melange of silliness; they take polls, interpret polls, issue polls, it is all the same ___ (what WAS that word?  Oh, I guess it is not allowed, but it is appropriate).  I have used phone tech support numerous times over the years.  On occasion, the support person went directly to the heart of the problem (I have had motherboard, memory, AND processor replaced; in each case the person who answered understood immediately the problem; of course, I was prepared, LED config, error messages, etc.).  I have also had techs who clearly did not know what they were talking about; fortunately, for me, I can usually see that immediately.  Then, I hang up and call again.  I even had one tech (NOT from India!) who advised me to re-install my original operating system (ME), because XP did not have proper support for a firewire device which I was using!  The problem had nothing to do with that, as the next tech saw; she told me that I had to update my video driver (I had not checked downloads for several weeks).  That solved the problem.  May Ziff-Davis achieve the ultimate: an Enron implosion, and I hope they take Wired with it (which is only marginally worse).

This is kinda old news. Dell service is hit or miss, sometimes you get the best tech, and sometimes the person is reading from a computer and has no idea what a geforce 4 ti 4600 is. PCWORLD and PCMAGAZINE dont need to tell Dell owners this in a fancy article.

I was going to say, they finally figured out what the rest of us have already known for quite a while. Don't get me wrong, I still love Dell, but ever since I bought my first system in October of 1999 (when customer service really was quite good), the quality of service and support has dropped a lot. If Dell drops any further in service and support, buying from Dell will no longer be a priority, because they'll be just like everybody else selling their "wares". I've been lucky in that the two Dell systems I have, I've yet to have any trouble at all with them. So, I hope I'll never have to experience the horrible service first hand.

OK Greatone, I'll bite. What the heck is a geforce ti 4600. 

Really though, you can expect hit and miss from Dell these days, unfortunately. However, the good news is you arn't faced with trying to get support from Carly and the gang at HP. Tried for a month to get resolution on friends HP box. Finally gave up and fixed his problems with some spare stuff from my pile. 

In this day and age, Dell at its worst is still on a par with anyone else in the business.  They all need to improve, so switching sides to another brand will accomplish absolutely nothing.  You will still have Customer Service complaints.  Kip

The article in PC World was not meant to inform current Dell owners that tech support has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of years. The benefits of this type of article go mainly to those who are contemplating the purchase of a new PC and use tech support as one of their criteria when deciding which brand to buy.

I have owned two Dell systems and they have both operated virtually problem free. What problems I have had have been very minor. However, my first couple of experiences with Dell tech support, back in 1999 were wonderful. My problems were solved easily and quickly with tremendous support by the techs that I spoke with on the phone. I didn't have any further need for tech support until earlier this year and there was a night and day difference as to, not only the technical competance of the tech, but also the courtesy and phone technique of the tech. I made a second call and got that outfit in India that Dell has outsourced some of their services to. We had a horrible connection and the tech, who had a very hard to understand accent, could hardly hear me. He kept telling me, in a very agitated manner, to talk louder. I finally SHOUTED a two word statement at him before hanging-up in disgust. Fortunately, what few minor problems I have seem to get resolved simply by using this forum and I will never call Dell tech support again. The outsourcing of tech calls to India is a real disservice to Dell customers. If that makes me appear to be insensitive to other cultures, then so be it. I don't know how Dell's tech support stacks-up against that of other companies but I do know that Dell has gone from the top of the pack to just another run of the mill company in this regard. 

...well, according to the "Fall from Grace" article, Dell
recognizes its service has struggled and says it is fixing
the problems. Dell's VP of Tech support says "our sales
grew well beyond our plans."

...better this than denial....

I'm tired of hearing how bad Dell is. Dell has done me right many times, including replacing a $1400 monitor that flickered once every half hour and replacing a Turtle Beach/Santa Cruz Sound Card in 17 hours from my call. I'm sure there are many others with simular stories. 

Dimension 8200 w/Pentium 4) 2.53Ghz 533Mhz

1024MB Samsung PC800 40NS RDRAM
2) 120GB ( Total: 240GB ) Western Digital Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drives w/8MB Cache
Promise FastTrack 100TX2 Raid 0 Array Card
128MB ATI Radeon 9700 PRO Graphic Card
Plextor 48X/24X/48X CD-RW Drive - 65 ms Access Time, 4 MB Buffer, Burn-Proof Technology
Liteon 16X DVD-Rom Drive
SmartDisk USB 2.0/Firewire PCI Card
Silencer 400 Watt ATX Power Supply
Turtle Beach/Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card
Altec Lansing THX Certified ADA995 5.1 Dolby Digital 6 Speaker System
Dell Ultra Sharp 2000FP 20.1 inch Flat Panel LCD Monitor
Win XP Home
Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
Microsoft Works and Office
Norton Symantec SystemWork

 

Dell support isn't what it use to be because of todays economics but I ask you is their only viable competitor any better?  I've had a nice relationship with Dell for 2 3/4yrs and really never had a bad experience with tech support 'cause I never had to deal with them.  All my issues where with speakers, mouses and keyboards and Dell always dealt with them in a way that was satisfactory to me. I ain't no babe in the woods here and I still feel very comfortable recommending Dells to friends knowing that the service use to be better but still as good as anyone elses.

If you really want service ...post to a forum relative to your problem and you might be amazed at the responses from Dell monitors and Dell members. Of course any replacement deal must be handeled by Dells reps.

Oh yeah..don't work for Dell blah....blah.

 

SpongeBob: I agree with you from my personal experience. However, there is little doubt that Tech Support has gone down.

About a year ago some author of note said so. At that time Dell’s response was denial followed by an attack on the author. At least this time it would appear that they are taking it seriously.

I have always contended that Dell would have to see a drop in sales or expect to see one before any action is taken.