Your story is typical of Dell users that finally bring thier system to me. I find it hard to believe you found that, " After all this bad press for Dell I did have a good experience and it was truly a blessing." then say it was a good experience. Well, good support isn't good support to make you call X-times, say 3 is tops and only because you proceeded to some point in the T/S'ing process. I'm not pickinmg on Dell, just trying to follow your happy solution where many would have been very pived.
just my 2-centivos
I received my Dell Dimension 2400 without the DVD-ROM player I requested and had a difficult time getting Dell to realize their error. I finally got the DVD player, installed it myself with Tech Support from Dell, and _then they wanted to charge me for the software!
i talked with dozens of Dell reps (sales and tech)over the course of this experience and _finally got the PowerDVD software and had my system set up the way I originally wanted it, except the Dell Media Experience package doesn't recognize there is now a DVD player in the system. Luckily, the PowerDVD plays in its own right, so I can view DVD's. I never have been able to get Dell to send me a software package that includes Dell Media Experience w/DVD capablilties.
After all this bad press for Dell I did have a good experience and it was truly a blessing. I was trying to find every way to make my PC as fast as possible (MSN9 dialup) and went to a Windows website which advised me to use 'Start', 'Run', then type 'msconfig', then choose an option ....that was a big mistake! My system crashed and even using the Dell F12-key system restore options I wasn't able to undo what I had done.
I went thru 10 or so Dell reps til I found someone who was able to help me get to a restore point. The previous reps wanted to sell me system software and wait a week to get my system back online.
I sent an email commendation recommending the tech who helped me be given an instructor/supervisor position in order to share his knowledge and cut down on customer complaints.
I'm sure if I hadn't been as persistent I wouldn't have gotten satisfactory results.
So, that's my advice to Dell owners, keep calling back til you find someone who's willing to help and knows what they are doing. Don't hesitate to ask to speak to a supervisor if the rep isn't telling you what you want to hear.
michael10sley

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