Consumer Customer Service needs serious improvement/ xps 13 ultrabook

Question

Not being a techie, I have to rely on Dell customer service to give me straight answers to issues on my Dell xps13 ultrabook.  Over the past couple of days, I have been treated to the extremely poor consumer customer service call in number.  The charging port on my xps broke, and I called to find out what part needed to be replaced and to order the part.  After a couple of HOURS on the phone, I was told by two different people at the call in center that the charging port was welded to the motherboard, and that I would have to replace both to fix the charging port.  TWO different Dell representatives told me that.  Then they told me they didn't have the parts.  They suggested that I called the Geek Squad.  I called two different Geek Squads, and they basically said the same thing--that I had a very expensive door stop because replacement of the motherboard with the welded on charging port was almost as expensive as replacing the xps.  I decided to test this theory, and opened up the back of the laptop, and found the charging port was, in fact, not welded on.  I had a snap in connector to the motherboard.  I then did a search of parts and found an on line company that just sold the charging port--a $12.95 part.  I had the part overnighted and even adding in FedEx, the total price of the part and shipping was less than $75.00.  When I got the new part today, I unsnapped the old charging port from the motherboard and snapped in the new charging port.  Voila'!  Worked.  How is it even possible that DELL customer service doesn't know this about their own product?  By the way, I now have a list of all possible parts and a supplier of the parts for my xps.  DELL needs to seriously consider if it is cost efficient outsourcing consumer customer service if the representatives are completely ignorant of the product that is being supported, especially since I was at the point that I was going to drop DELL products altogether.  A completely unsatisfying experience with customer service.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Were you speaking with Customer Service or Technical Support? A Customer Service representative would not know this. A Technical Support representative should have consulted the RSL to find:

Dell part GRM3D or K0MTJ.

jowenlaw1 · Answer

I used the chat feature and explained the problem.  She gave me the number to call.  I specifically told her I was looking for support for a broken part.  I have no idea whether I was in customer service or technical support.  However, two representatives did not say they didn't know the answer, or that I was in the wrong place.  They simply told me point blank that I would need to replace the motherboard because it was welded, and they didn't have the parts.  The point being if they didn't know, they should have said so or redirected me to someone else.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Agreed. Although most of our laptops do have it soldered on the motherboard, they should have checked.

Customer Care

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