This rant could have started with my new Dell computer’s hard drive failing after 9 only 9 months. I should have known something was up when the HD revved up as loud as a Boeing 747 jet engine-- so loud you couldn’t watch TV in the same room as it. Or, I could have started this rant with the 4 different departments I got transfered to and the 45 minute wait at each new department as I tried to find out why my computer was nothing more than a $4000 decoration for my computer table. Or, I could go on and on and on about how it was impossible for me to understand the soothing, musical cadence of the Dell support staff ("Your express tracking number is pie bubble bubble pie six boo!). No, this rant starts with the stupid fucking Dell technician who has me doing the Monkey Customer Mambo.
Monday
8:30 am
Dell Guy: Hello, this is your Dell Technician calling to make an appointment. Is 11:30 good for you?
12:30pm
Me: Hey, Jus it’s your mom. Did the Dell guy come?
Justin: Nope, I’ll wait a little more and tell Grandad I’ll be over later to take him out.
2pm
Dell Guy: I’m sorry, but your part didn’t come in. I’ll call tomorrow to set up a new appointment.
Tuesday
8:30 am
Dell Guy: Hello, this is your Dell Technician calling to make an appointment. Is 11:30 good for you?
12:30
Me: Hey Jus. . .
Justin: No, he didn’t come. Maybe Gramma Jackie’ll take Grandad out today.
2pm
Dell Guy: I’m sorry, but your part didn’t come in. I’ll call you tomorrow to set up a new appointment.
Wednesday
8:30am
Dell Guy: Hello, this is your Dell. . .
Me: Do you have my part.
Dell Guy: What part?
Me: My hard drive. Do you have it in your possession?
Dell Guy: Um, nnoooo. . .
Me: Don’t you think you should wait until you have the part and then make an appointment instead of wasting my time in this manner?
Dell Guy: Well, if the piece comes, I’ll just go over at 11:30
Me: No one will be home.
Dell Guy: Not at 11:30?
Me: Don’t make me kill you.
Now we’ll see how long it takes Dell to produce a fucking production model hard drive. One that works. The fuckers.
Good luck with your drive. You’d think that kind of thing would be easy to come by. I’ve got a few spares just lying around the house, come to think of it. A tech making house-calls really should be able to get his hands on one…
Just out of curiosity, is Dell(hi) replacing your 9 month old HDD with a brand-spanking new one - or a refurbished one, like they do to disk drives that fail after 10 1/2 months?
As far as I know, the onsite technicians aren’t actually employed by Dell, since not enough customers shell out the good money to have it. Instead they have contracts with other companies (which varies depending on your region). You could always call Dell back up (they should have given you the proper extension they transferred you to so that you don’t have to go through all the tranfers again.), and check on the status of your part. It’s possible the person setting it up for dispatch goofed and it’s lost somewhere on the way.
Generally they replace hard drives with refurbished ones, but try not to tell anybody that unless they ask.
I think many companies are set up to deal exclusively with other companies - places that are open from 9-5 all day, every day, and that the people have to be there anyway. Situations that don’t fall into that confuse and frighten them.
No clue on that. When people complained that they are getting a refurbished one, we were trained to tell them that it was just as good as a brand new one. That doesn’t neccesarly mean it is as good though.
Please don’t hurt me, but from the way you’re describing it, it doesn’t sound like a failing hard drive.
When a hard drive starts to die, it usually sounds like either a slow-moving bicycle with a baseball card in the spokes, or (in the case of a head crash) dragging a boat anchor across concrete.
Four thousand bucks? For a Dell? Do you have some kind of 3.6+ Ghz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition or something?
If that’s the case, I’d seriously look in to a cooling problem.
That’s the same response I got from Dell when I beefed. I asked them the same life/failure question and they couldn’t provide a decent answer either. I’m still suspicious. To me refurbished means ‘half used’; like a rebuilt carbeurator.
Now there’s a sound you’re bound to hear at least a few times a week!
I’ve never heard of refurbishing hard drives before. What kind of problems can they fix? How much does it really save them, considering how cheap hard drives are these days?
A substanatial portion of the the time hard drives sent in for service have nothing wrong with them. Most of the time a “refurbished” hard drive is a near new drive that was simply wiped and re-imaged for a new PC. Life expectancy between refurbished and new is generally minor at best in the case of Dell products.
They’re not hard drives, but when my company returns a product to service, they call it “repackaged.” It still carries the same warranty that a new, or “A-stock” product has (that is, the balance of the warranty held by whoever is getting the replacement).
A “refurbished” device is one that has once been found to be actually defective and non-operational. It will have been sent to the factory in Taiwan for a complete rebuild, re-christened with a new, distinctive serial number, and provided for sale as a refurbished unit to a retailer specializing in that class of product. The warranty period is thirty days, no exceptions.
Loading Windows was muuuuuch easier than I thought it would be. But I can’t get all my drivers and applications loaded because. . . I don’t know. I’m tired. I wanna cry.
Stupid expensive piece of shit.
The customer service sucks. (Taking it on faith, never owned a Dell) We have to keep this seperated a little though. Dell didn’t make the HDD, they bought it from the lowest bidder. Not a great addition to the rant, just an observation.