I purchased my most recent laptop (I think this is the 5th) from Dell just under two years ago. Pretty good machine, fair price for the time, and I’ve had just about zero problem with it.
Until about a month ago, when I noticed that the AC adapter seemed to be flaky. It didn’t seem to power the laptop all the time. On inspection, it looked like the wire had become weakened where I roll it up to put it in my bag. I guess after two or three times a day for two years, it had finally been twisted one too many times.
I got on Dell’s website, entered the service number from a sticker on the back of the machine, clicked a button for customer support, and found myself doing an instant message chat with a Dell support person.
He asked me a couple of questions, then said “I’m sending you a new adapter”. I said ok, wrote down the number he gave me and signed off. That was at 2:00 pm Monday afternoon.
The next morning I get into the office at 9:00 am, and find that Airborne Express has already delivered the adapter to my office!
I’m impressed. They were quick, polite, simple to deal with, and fixed my problem in about 20 minutes of my time, and one very fast overnight shipment.
Wow. Contrast that with the ongoing problems I am having with Kensington.
The original adapter that came with my Toshiba died a little bit ago. The cords were weakened, mostly because I roll it up and put it in my laptop case, but also because my cute little Raiju is a horrible cord chewer. I knew they wouldn’t replace it because of my cat’s involvement, so I went out and bought a power cord from Comp USA.
Less that TWO MONTHS later, the plug separated from the cord. I email them and didn’t hear anything. I call them and finally get someone on the line. She doesn’t speak English hardly at all, but I finally communicated my problem and she said she would send the cord over.
This was Monday, February 13th. Have I got a replacement yet? No. I went out and bought my new adapter. It’s a Targus. It hasn’t malfunctioned yet, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it.
Now I always unplug the cords from both sides of the adapter before rolling it up and putting it in my bag. I don’t want to spend another hundred dollars getting another adapter. Grr.
I purchased my last three systems from Dell and was happy with their service until I had issues with the last computer. Now, I find I’m lucky if I wait an hour to speak to someone, on two occasions my call has been misdirected by an incompetent employee which resulted in another hour of waiting for the proper department, and I can never speak to someone who has a good command of English. I would get more answers and better service from a brick wall.
If you can get online, try the instant message interface.
I believe you have to set up an account, but that’s just some info you have to enter, there’s no charge. Then sign in, click on the “Contact Us” link, then click “Chat with us”. The first time you do it, it prompts you to download a small chat app (my WinXP fire wall blocked this as a pop-up until I clicked to allow it). It installed and ran on mine in just a few seconds.
After entering my initial description of the problem, I had to wait about 5 minutes before someone answered. Then it was a little back and forth as he asked questions, and we were done.
No heavy accents to deal with, cut & paste available for serial numbers, etc, I gotta say I liked it.
Of course if you can’t get online, it’s back to the analog speech transmission device.
Huh, they seem to run cheaper than I thought. Pleasant surprise from the last one I bought.
Nope, just a regular customer. I did pay for the thing with my corporate credit card, but I doubt they care about that.
And the majority of CS encounters from Dell I’ve heard of have been positive. Although the bad ones do seem to get more play. Understandable, I guess. Most folks are more likely to make noise about a problem that didn’t get solved, or one that took a lot of jumping through hoops to get taken care of, than a problem that gets cleaned up easily.
I’m glad you got good service, don’t get me wrong.
My record with Dell seems to be something on the order of 0-15-1 where one is something decent that actually managed to solve my problem and I know I didn’t talk to the same person more than once.
I honestly believe that if someone had a good experience with Dell, we’d all hear about it precisely because it’s so unusual. Like, “holy crap, you won’t believe this…”
Anyway, this isn’t a pit thread, so I’ll shut up now.
Dell service used to be good. It simple is not anymore. After I wait ridiculous amounts of time, I speak to incompetent reps that give me completely useless advice. Again, I suspect a lot of this has to do with the fact that I don’t think they understand the issues because they don’t really have a great command of English. Sure, I’ll try the online interface, but honesty, I don’t trust that they have a clue anymore. So after three Dell computers, I don’t think I’ll invest in another one.
Yes, I’ve heard a few incredibly stories of support having to do with replacing software, but even those happened years ago. Og help you if you actually need telephone technical support.
That should read “replacing hardware”. So very tired.
I had a fairly annoying experience with the actual package I purchased as well. They bundled an all-in-one printer / copier / scanner with my system. Dell systems and this particular printer have “compatibility issues” according to their own staff. It can only be plugged into the front USB ports and needs to be unplugged and plugged back in constantly. They were not willing to actually send me a printer that didn’t have these issues or refund my money “since it isn’t a big issue”. Further, they advised me when I ordered this system I was entitled to a $200 rebate, which I was denied 6 months later because I purchased through Dell Finance. Fargin Bastages!
I could have written that OP, down to the last detail. I’ve bought both a desktop and a laptop from Dell, and I’ve never been anything but 100% happy with their customer service.
My brother had a painful experience with Dell a few years ago, which eventually turned out rather nicely!
He had ordered a low-end laptop online, for which they assured delivery within 6 weeks (or something like it - I don’t remember the exact period). After waiting for over 2 months, with several calls to Dell CS, and no leptop, he finally told them he was cancelling his order, so could they please return his money…
Suddenly they were all apologetic again and promised to have it delivered to him by the end of the week, with a free upgrade. He agreed to give them a week. And whaddyaknow?! The laptop arrived, with a full upgrade to a high-end machine. DVD-R, 17" screen, 1GB RAM, wi-fi, bluetooth, the works!!