Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Dell customer care & tech support

May 13, 2009 8:33AM PDT

Greetings,
I'm here to share my experience with Dell customer support (or more appropriately lack thereof). I ordered a Studio XPS 16 laptop from the Dell Outlet website. I am completely frustrated at this point. The machine arrived in non-working order. A service tech spent 4 hours in my home and left the machine worse than when he started ( and this after I'd spent several hours on the phone with tech support). I also spent a number of hours with customer care reps over policy issues and over an hour in a chat session with tech support. I ordered my machine on 4/14, my credit card was billed on 4/15, and the replacement was ordered on 4/23. They told me the replacement would take 7 business days to arrive, but I still don't have a working laptop on 5/13. In a chat session last week, I was promised by tech support that they would "own it"; they said they would expedite the order and call me with an update on 4/9 (didn't happen). A customer care rep who gave me his email address has not responded to three emails that have been sent over the past couple of weeks. Not returning emails or making phone calls as promised is completely unacceptable customer service. My wife called Dell support as well and tried to talk with a supervisor to discuss her displeasure with our experience...and she was eventually hung up on. When we're not being hung up on, we're getting scripted messages and eventually being told what-we-want-to-hear just to get us off the phone. Then there's no way to get in contact with anyone you've worked with previously and anyone's supervisor. The rep ids you are given in chat sessions, etc., don't seem to mean anything to anyone. We read online that what we are experiencing is all too common--apparently there are a great many customers who have very similar poor experiences related to Dell online orders. Very frustrating.

Again, just wanted to share for those who are considering ordering from Dell online/outlet. Also, if there are any Dell reps monitoring this site, I'd greatly appreciate any help or suggestions you can offer.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Pitiful customer NONservice is what you get.
May 14, 2009 1:19PM PDT

And they want to ballyhoo about how supposedly, dell factory techies are on/in these dell forums......hah!

Dell admit fault?????

Surely you jest!!!

Good Luck.......you'll need boatloads of it.

Suggestion: spend a half-hour or so hanging around the laptops at best buy a coupla' times a week and tell potential dell purchasers about your experience......I've been at it for a coupla' weeks and while it hasn't fixed my frustratiron 1545 it has been a bit satisfying converting them to toshiba or HP.

- Collapse -
Just keeps getting worse.
May 19, 2009 5:51AM PDT

So last week I tried again. After calling customer support and being transferred to no fewer than 5 people (and providing an order number or the like each time (these guys sell computers, but apparently do not know how to use them to communicate to each other), I ended up talking to a tech support person in the office that was handling the replacement. There I learned that the approval for my replacement machine had not been granted until two full days after a previous contact during which I was told the order would arrive at my house 7 days maximum. This is crazy. So now they say it will be here this week. After speaking to the tech support person, I was transferred to his manager. He gave the the chance to (again!) explain my problem. He assured me the order would be sent out early this week, and promised that he'd call with an update the following Monday (yesterday). No call, no email message, nothing. It's weird, because for the most part they are very patient and courteous on the phone (with one or two exceptions in my experience), but there seems to be zero follow through. This does present an argument for purchasing from Best Buy, Costco, etc. They certainly seem to stand behind the products they sell, as well as their services and policies. None of which I can say about Dell at this point.

- Collapse -
your order number
May 19, 2009 7:29AM PDT

mefrugal,

Sorry to hear about the poor experience. If you could email me your current service tag or order number, I will get an accurate status of the exchange and address any problems. william[underscore]bivin[at]dell[dot]com.

- Collapse -
Horrible customer support
Aug 31, 2009 12:10PM PDT

Hi All,

I am not sure if this is the right place to discuss this but my issue ishardware related only.

Everything as working fine until yesterday when my laptop hard disk crashed.I called dell customer care and asked for help they asked me to insert the OSinstallation CD. I told them that I have not received it, and they said go and buy a new Windows Vista Home Premium before getting this support because it is your fault that you didn't received it. When I asked them to replace my HDD they bluntly said that this is not going to happen no matter what I try. And when I told them that I have international warranty support they told me go back to the country where I bought this Laptop from to get a support, you are not getting anything in India

I remember those days when I was trying to buy a Laptop I used to get more than 5 calls a day. Now when I bought it no one is ready to listen.

I even have few cases where no support was provided and every time I was always re-directed to Dell UK (place where I got my computer from)

Is there any way where I can get my hard disk replaced ? Or consumer court is the only way.

Case Id 2378388