Comments on: Dell tales

By: James Printer

James Printer — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:29:03 +0000

Touch wood, I have bought 8 Dells, and the only problem has been the boss’s, because he lifts it up by the screen.

I also scratched mine, which made me sad but I’ll get over it.

By: linda

linda — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 03:20:22 +0000

man, I spent almost 4 grand and got a lemon….and yet my walmart compaq is a dream lol
my story is here http://bewaredellcomputers.blogspot.com/

By: John Crinon

John Crinon — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 23:07:18 +0000

To George Pariseau-

I highly doubt a company 2 years old is billing at 6 figures. And marketing consultant? That’s one of those job titles that should be relabeled “money milker w/ nothing to show for it”. No small company needs extraneous job positions like that. Come on.

By: cris reighard

cris reighard — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:20:34 +0000

Has anyone experienced a “black out” with their Dell monitor?

I bought a Dell Dimension desktop in July 2005. Last month the monitor starting blacking out while I was on internet (active) or doing email. First there is a moment of brightness, and then the screen goes black. If you turn off the monitor and wait, you can go back to the same place you left when it went black, but it will continue to go black in a couple of minutes.
HELP desk just keeps emailing me with “try this”, try that”.

Anyone had this monitor problem?

cjr

By: Bimal Jayasundera

Bimal Jayasundera — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 12:57:37 +0000

Dear Mr. DELL

I’m a poor father of a very brillent daughter who loves very much for computers. now she is 08 years old and showing ver good signs in the IT industry. Currently I do not have a good financial situation to buy a computer for her. I have a fantastic experince with DELL’s at my work place. also your singapore office gave me a brillient after sale service for one of the note books which the even the local dealer(soft logic)does not agreed to support in 2002 when I was attached to the IT department of my company. Please help me to have a computer.

Bimal
Father
bimal@cicagri.com

By: Call me frustrated

Call me frustrated — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 20:34:36 +0000

Wich I had seen this site before buying from Dell. Machine came without the promised software loaded. No software CD in box. No big deal, 1 year warranty, call Dell, right? Hah!!!! After a frustrating evening of electronic “chat” with a rep who cannot or will not say anything useful before simply cancelling the session, and useless e-mails that are replied to by computer (your e-mail is never seen by humans), I have come to the conclusion that my software will never come.

I am scared silly to contemplate what will happen if my PC has any problems. Dell’s inaccessible service (fantasy service?) is going to be a problem. No more Dell machines for me.

By: Patricia Webber

Patricia Webber — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 04:21:25 +0000

My Dell computer is just 15 months old. When I purchased it from D(h)ell I also purchased the extended warranty. At three months…my computer’s keyboard malfunctioned, after spending hours on the phone with D(hell) techies, they finally sent me a new keyboard. Since then….I have had three modems replaced, a hard drive, a mother board and the mouse!! At the present….my speakers aren’t working, but damned if I’m going to call D(h)ell right away again….I need a vacation!! Everytime I called to talk to a techinician….I was on hold anywhere from 15 min. to up to an hour, that was just to talk to a techie, then, when I finally got on the phone with a technician, the english they spoke was so broken, I could hardly understand them. They had me on the floor with screw drivers, taking my machine apart, unplugging wires, plugging wires back in, removing circuit boards…When my hard drive went, my photo shop program that was factory installed by d(h)ell was also lost, I had to buy a new program because D(h)ell never sent me the software for the program. They also tried to rook me into buying a new Windows XP program when my mother board went, the techie told me I would loose it when they replaced the mother board. When the actual technician came to the house and I told him the story, he just stood there scratching his head and asked me to repeat that again, he couldn’t believe it. He told me the windows xp program is stored on my hard drive not the mother board and that the D(h)ell techinicians on the phone didn’t know what they were talking about. I will keep on them about the malfunctioned speakers, but I am emotionally and physically drained after all this trauma to my computer. I had lost over 500 photos that were stored on my computer along with a mother load of other information that I will never get back…..so if you want a computer from Hell…..buy a Dell.

Patricia Webber

By: Hammer of Truth » Forbes Goes After Bloggers in Cover Article

Hammer of Truth » Forbes Goes After Bloggers in Cover Article — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:03:04 +0000

[...] Now, unfortunately, the article fails to give even a cursory look at the good things the blogosphere promotes when it comes to businesses. Like when Savvis CEO Rob McCormick frivolously blew $241,000 at a strip club (he’s been sent on unpaid leave), or when Dell’s customer service causes one blogger to coin the term Dell Hell (and Dell’s subsequent failure to adequately respond drew the criticism of Business Week), or the various political bloggers who demanded spending cuts after Rep. DeLay declared ‘victory’ in the war on budget fat (a project called Porkbusters was born). [...]

By: eric

eric — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 01:52:03 +0000

http://spaces.msn.com/members/piratematrix/

By: Alan Scher

Alan Scher — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:57:15 +0000

I have a small computer repair business and because of DELL’s poor support, I am doing pretty good. Thanks, Dell

By: Beverly

Beverly — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 22:48:15 +0000

I went through Dell Hell also. I will never own another Dell. Last Weds I spent three hours on the phone, most on hold, and the rest yelling at the non service rep in Central America. They never would give me an American to speak to. They kept insisting on running a diagostic on a broken computer. After getting the run around my son finally got the computer turned on for their diagnostic. Guess what? They said I have a hardware problem– I knew that as I had taken my computer the Geek Squad and they had already diagnosed the problem. By the way my computer is only 6 months old. Best Buy’s Geek Squad said it was a bad motherboard. Stupid dell.

I’m writing this on my other computer– a Mac. I need the PC for work. Do I stand any chance of getting my dell to work? Did I waste $2000? Do I have to sue them?

Then I got an email from Dell saying that if I need to contact them about my broken computer that insead of calling I should — get this– e mail them! On a non-working computer!!

i will never, ever buy another Dell and I now tell everyone about my Dell Hell.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:47:46 +0000

This is the message I published in the Dell Forum:

I just bought a Dell Dimension 5100,and Dell sent me an Analog Monitor,instead of the Digital Monitor I paid for.
This is not unusual in a company this size,I do not have a problem with that,”things” (and I have to watch my language,I was told by the Moderator) happen,as we say….

Problem is,the Award Winning ( as Dell calls it ) customer service is non existent,it takes a half hour or more to contact the Customer care line (Try it out: 1800 847 4096 from Canada).
I contacted Dell customer service yesterday and they referred me to Technical Care,but ,as they explained it was not their problem,they sent me back to Customer Service,and finally I ended up with still another person that supposedly was going to fix the problem.
This person told me I had to pay ($ 25 + shipping) to return the monitor,when asked why I would pay for Dell’s mistakes,he said that that was the only way he could solve this problem!

Now,my brother in law is the one who convinced me to buy Dell.He has bought 3 Dell computers in the past 5 years and they are just fine,and the few times he used Dell Tech service it was a very efficient and prompt service.
The Sales Person we bought the computer from,over the phone, is Mr. …….,and ,in his voice mail he states he is very hard to reach and would not likely to be able to answer his mail box (!!!),so we are [DELETED] with him also,and he is probably to blame for this error,but that we can not be sure.

After being on the phone for hours ,and totally frustrated,we are going to have to call again tomorrow,we still are at square one,with no solutions to a simple problem like this.

As a new Dell customer,I am wondering why Dell calls their Customer Service an Award Winning service,have they really won an award of some kind?,and if this is correct,are they sure it is for Outstanding Customer Service? (or is it all a practical joke?)

To add insult to injury,when you call Customer Service phone number,this lady is singing the virtues of the “award winning customer service” ,while you are waiting for hours on end to get somebody to just talk to you.

Absurd?,yup,I would call it differently,but “somebody” from Dell is watching me……

PS. I just got in contact with another CS person and they will take the monitor they sent to me,and will give us a refund,we refused to buy the right one from them as we do not trust them anymore.
Regards

Alberto

By: Darrell Atkin

Darrell Atkin — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 22:26:49 +0000

Wow,

I was beginning to think I was the only person who had insanely bad customer service from Dell. As a long-time and repeat customer, I had recently ordered via phone (from a knowledgeable and delightful sales rep) a high-powered home system and I was planning to attach a $200 credit from a rebate that I had never received from Dell from a previous purchase–but which was flagged on my account. First the rebateâ€”I was sent to â€œescalationâ€ in Dell finance and after 3 calls of about 90 minutes duration, I was finally sent to Customer Care. After 3 calls of about 3 hours duration (frequent hold placements, bad connections, failed conferencing, poor language skills, repetitive questions, etc.) and then after a promise to call me back because their â€œservers went down,â€ no contact. Finally, after about 1 hour on â€œDell Chatâ€ I was politely informed that I was no longer entitled to the $200 credit.

But wait thereâ€™s more. After 3 weeks, my computer never arrived amidst Dell’s reversal of a financial promise–to apply a $200 credit to my next purchase. I was told (by the same person who denied the $200 credit) that I would have to go pick up the PC at a distant UPS center because thatâ€™s how I ordered it. I elected at that point to cancel my order. My agent, named Sukriti, then asked, â€œWhat best I can do for you is that I can offer you a 50$ coupon. Will that be fine with you?â€

No it wasnâ€™t fine.

By: A.J. Almaney

A.J. Almaney — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 02:41:28 +0000

I bought a lap top for my wife last Christmas. I paid it in full. Then I received a bill for $130. Since I did not know what the bill was for, I called Dell’s customer service. They referred me to the finance department. After explaining the situation to them, they told me that their system showed that I did not own Dell anything. But I kept receiving the same bill. I called again with the same result. The last time I called, I was on the phone with them for three hours but they could not find the bill on their system. In the meantime, Dell sent me a bill with an overdue finance charges of $26. I decided to pay the entire bill plus the finance charges thinking that they would keep adding finance charges if I did’not pay the bill. I was concerned that if I did not pay the bill, they would report me to a credit agency, thereby damaging our excellent credit rating. We have said good buy to Dell as we have decided not to buy anything from Dell again. I wonder what Emperor Michael Dell is doing while his Empire is losing customtomers by the thousands.

By: Duke

Duke — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 18:25:08 +0000

I bought a Dell 2 years ago, and choose the 3-5 days. all the sudden, my boss programmed a business trip for the delivery date, so i needed to change my delivery option to 1-3 business day. I wouldn’t call it a hell, but i was not a smooth step either. I first use the “Chat” support and they tell they couldn’t do it, and gave me a phone number. I spent at least 2 hours pressing numbers and listening automatic responses, at least 1 hour explaining my situation, or calling to other numbers (at least 3 other numbers), got disconnected more than once.

Finally, a fine tech woman told me not to worry and i was going to get my pc on time, i received it 2 days before i expected it. I really recomend Dell machines to everyone i know, but i guess they should spend a little more in tech support.

By: John K. Evans

John K. Evans — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 14:12:44 +0000

I read about this site in Businessweek and all the frustration with Dell earlier this year came flooding back. I had purchased a Dell printer and had problems sharing it on a home network, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t. I had all the same bad experience others must have had: endless waits on calls, being connected to the wrong on-line help desk, learning that the printer help desk couldnt assist because I was connecting to a laptop, and the proverbial “is there anything else I can help you with” when they hadn’t helped at all in the first instance. Then the coup de grace, their solution to every problem they lack the technical competance to deal with, return and exchange which is a real hassle to arrange with UPS in my area. In the end there was nothing wrong with the printer and a quick call to my employer’s help desk provided a simple explanation about what to do. I had a similarly exasperating experience with a Dell desktop which froze everytime you shut it down. Again, Dell tech help was not competent to find a solution. Dell is fine if you dont have a problem.

By: E.S. Blofeld

E.S. Blofeld — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:56:33 +0000

I bought a Dell desktop while deployed to Bosnia with the Army in 2002. It took too long for them to ship it, but when it arrived it served well and then I took it home. After 2 years it began overheating and the HD began dying slow. A postmortem revealed the meltdown was my own fault due to not blowing out dust. There were also software/registry issues from poor antivirus protection. It was time to get a new computer anyway. I got all my files off OK. I never used Dell customer service, so I can’t judge them. IMHO, all “pay extra” warranties for anything are ripoffs.

Overall, I feel I got good value from Dell as the PC operated trouble-free for 2 years. Dell also had a great discount and free shipping for deployed soldiers — a patriotic company that.

I just bought a new PC and chose Alienware over Dell on price/performance. I haven’t used Alienware customer service, but otherwise it seems to me a great company. The PC is far superior to Dell’s in design & engineering.

By: Tigger

Tigger — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:20:20 +0000

*YAWN*

You’re all losers and whiners.

By: J. Miller

J. Miller — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 13:57:16 +0000

I bought a Dell notebook in 2001. During setup (right out of the box) a failure occurred. I asked for and rcvd a return authorization.
I shipped the unit back.
Fedex provided me a delivery slip.
Dell lost the unit.
Dell threatened me.
I spent hours dealing with this on the phone and also providing cpies of paperwork to Dell.
In an email (which I still keep) I asked for an apology.

NEVER received an apology from ANYONE!

Once a month they still send me bills for a returned unit which they finally found.

By: Alan Grahame

Alan Grahame — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 09:40:20 +0000

I have never been and never will be a customer of Dell. But that doesn’t stop them sending me up to five catalogues at my office and two or more at home. I’ve asked them to stop, but they have ignored my requests. I will now report them to the mail preference service. Also, I’m going to send each catalogue back to them in separate and unstamped envelopes.

Any other suggestions to stop their junk mail would be welcome.

By: J Fields

J Fields — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:39:32 +0000

…sorry, that was May 2004–last year.

Back at work in a place where thousands of computers are procured and supported each year, it will be hard to suppress my inclination to repeat to others what I learn of Dell shortcomings. Although I will admit that my own support experiences were mostly favorable.

By: J Fields

J Fields — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:30:04 +0000

Living and working out of a RV, when my rig was totalled in May 2003, so was my company. I had no home, a motorcycle for wheels, and needed to find work. Insurance covered pay-offs, but not the investments. A year later the pieces of my life are coming back together. Dell is the only creditor that presented a problem. Rightfully, they turned the account over to collections. However, I no sooner came to agreement on a plan with a Mrs. Zink to bring accounts current within a few weeks and made first payments than another collector called saying they were foreclosing and wanted payment in full, immediately.

A server that now sells for less than $800 on Ebay, that brand-new sold for $1,600, is now the basis for a collections demand of over $4,000. You cannot believe the difficulties trying to talk to their acocunting offices trying to sort things out or dealing with address changes four times in six months.

By: Diana Menconi

Diana Menconi — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:09:48 +0000

DELL makes lemons and now has the worst technical support. Sadly, I purchased a DELL laptop 2 years ago, an Inspiron, and from day one I have had the same problem: within about 20 mnutes it gets hot and shuts down…I have made repeated calls to DELL, in Manila, and maybe to India too. With a new mother board it still dies. The Customer Support is nonexistent and I have resigned myself to typing extremely fast and I will never. ever buy a DELL computer again. Oh, no, I can feel the heat, it is about 25 minutes that I have been on here and I can tell that I will lose my work again. Such a lemon!

By: Smarter Than You

Smarter Than You — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:47:34 +0000

“After three weeks of this nonsense I realized â€” just by chance â€” that all my troubles began around the time that my anti-virus contract had expired.”

And it’s Dell’s fault? Blech!

It’s funny listening to people talk about computers when it’s clear they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Then when something doesn’t work, they’re quick to blame everyone else but themselves.

By: OwnedSevenDells

OwnedSevenDells — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:45:04 +0000

And half the time I’m buying through-the-garden development machines for $3,000 - $6,000. So this last machine for $3,200, after a couple months I decided to turn on the MS Office software that came with it. Can’t find the CD. And can’t find the XP CD. I don’t really know if I got them. Maybe I put them someplace “special” or maybe they weren’t shipped. Well the nice thing about buying workstations is you get to talk to native English-speakers. So I figure a few minutes chat and I’ll have two replacement CDs. NOPE. It’s over 30 days and they have to charge me for two new licenses. I tried CSR lotto a couple times, but got the same answer. I patiently explained I’d bought $20,000 worth of Dells over the years (you can look it up:)). No joy. I don’t know what’s going on with that company but I don’t think it would have happened five years ago.