Ian
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Dell UK
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
Dell have gone down the tubes
They used to be good.....
Build quality on the laptop I got was positively tacky - and the keyboard wasn't fitted properly. And here's the rub: if there's something wrong with your system, it's probably easier to chuck it out than try and deal with Dell's tech support or customer service. Everything's in India and I found accents really hard to understand on lines that didn't seem the clearest. I was passed from pillar to post - they treat their operatives like fodder and they can't take the tiniest decision by themselves. It's always "please hold while I talk to my superior". I spent over £12 in one day on phone calls over this faulty laptop!
Oh, and they (almost) never phone you back.
I used to love Dell machines - and now I'll never use them again.
(Got my refund in the end - it took about 8 days to process though. That cost me a few more quid in interest charges. All this for a machine DOA!)
They used to be good.....
Build quality on the laptop I got was positively tacky - and the keyboard wasn't fitted properly. And here's the rub: if there's something wrong with your system, it's probably easier to chuck it out than try and deal with Dell's tech support or customer service. Everything's in India and I found accents really hard to understand on lines that didn't seem the clearest. I was passed from pillar to post - they treat their operatives like fodder and they can't take the tiniest decision by themselves. It's always "please hold while I talk to my superior". I spent over £12 in one day on phone calls over this faulty laptop!
Oh, and they (almost) never phone you back.
I used to love Dell machines - and now I'll never use them again.
(Got my refund in the end - it took about 8 days to process though. That cost me a few more quid in interest charges. All this for a machine DOA!)
I have to agree with the above post...
I bought a laptop (inspiron 5100) Over the cource of 1 year, i had to phone up Dell 6 times:
CDRW/DVD Drive dead - replaced within 2 weeks
Windows would not start - Was told to reinstall
Monitor Loosing Pixcels - Replaced within 2 1/2 weeks
Keyboard Dead - Replaced in 29 days
CDRW/DVD Drive dead (again) - Replaced next day
Hard Drive dead - Got really annoyed with this one (Shouting down the phone) eventually after 3 days of arguing, they arranged to replace my laptop
Old (Dead) Laptop:
P4 2.66 GHz
256MB RAM
CD-RW/DVD
30GB
1 Year Warrenty
15" VGA
(Cost £1,029)
New (Free) Laptop:
PM 2.0 GHz
256 MB RAM
DVD+RW
40GB
3 year on site service
15" SGA
Carry Case
And a ton more stuff!
(Worth £1,639)
The new one works fine.
All the above times, the minimum ammount of time i spent on the phone was 3 and a half hours!
All In all, I woud have prefered to have gone with a differant make origginally.
I hope this helps you,
KGB
I bought a laptop (inspiron 5100) Over the cource of 1 year, i had to phone up Dell 6 times:
CDRW/DVD Drive dead - replaced within 2 weeks
Windows would not start - Was told to reinstall
Monitor Loosing Pixcels - Replaced within 2 1/2 weeks
Keyboard Dead - Replaced in 29 days
CDRW/DVD Drive dead (again) - Replaced next day
Hard Drive dead - Got really annoyed with this one (Shouting down the phone) eventually after 3 days of arguing, they arranged to replace my laptop
Old (Dead) Laptop:
P4 2.66 GHz
256MB RAM
CD-RW/DVD
30GB
1 Year Warrenty
15" VGA
(Cost £1,029)
New (Free) Laptop:
PM 2.0 GHz
256 MB RAM
DVD+RW
40GB
3 year on site service
15" SGA
Carry Case
And a ton more stuff!
(Worth £1,639)
The new one works fine.
All the above times, the minimum ammount of time i spent on the phone was 3 and a half hours!
All In all, I woud have prefered to have gone with a differant make origginally.
I hope this helps you,
KGB
Did i mention... they refused to replace the keyboard, they said i should pay £250.00 (Two hundred and fifty pounds) for a keyboard, they kept it there for 3 weeks after telling me this, and i still refused to pay, so they eventually replaced it
VERDICT: Rubbish tech support, Sent me a dud, Gave me Over £600 wort of free stuff! it may be worth the rist of buying one.
VERDICT: Rubbish tech support, Sent me a dud, Gave me Over £600 wort of free stuff! it may be worth the rist of buying one.
Ian
Administrator
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- Feb 23, 2002
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I have ordered a few PCs from Dell over the past few months, simply as they were all under £200 and I could not build them myself that cheaply.
Although I haven't had a problem with a PC once it has arrived, I have had some trouble with getting the PC delivered a few times due to the ordering system not liking Switch Debit Cards.
Although I haven't had a problem with a PC once it has arrived, I have had some trouble with getting the PC delivered a few times due to the ordering system not liking Switch Debit Cards.
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The worst post-sales support I've experienced in 15 years
My experience of Dell's support over the years has never been good, but I just had to let people know about this most recent catastrophe, which involved a purchase of a TFT screen.
Within a couple of days, a screen arrived but it was the wrong one. Got through to the first person (in India) after about 10 minutes on hold. He said the screen they'd sent was the right one, but when asked how he knew this, he read out the details of my order!? We honestly went round in circles for 5 minutes during which time he read out my order details at least a dozen times in... erm... English. The supervisor's English was marginally better, but eventually I'd to explain the problem using bits of fruit. i.e. "Although I'd ordered an orange & the order showed I'd ordered an orange I'd received an apple". I was given a call reference & was to be transferred to someone else who might help - 20 minutes wasted.
I'm sure I was speaking to someone in the UK now as the line was much clearer & the English was a bit better (I think it was someone in London), but he couldn't find the reference number I'd been given. They insisted they couldn't help as they needed a reference first, so I explained what had happened earlier & they took mercy & said they'd transfer me internally to the exact people I'd to speak to. I thanked them so much for their help, waited for 10 minutes on hold, then realised I was speaking to someone at the Indian call centre again. Not funny!
I quoted back the reference number they'd given me & it was OK. Rather than being transferred back to the UK, I asked "could I get the direct number for the people I'd been dealing with in the UK?" "Yes!" I phoned it - the line was dead
Phoned the Indian call centre again, (another 10 minutes) & I was transferred back to the UK again. They now had the call reference number (hoorah) & I was put on hold whilst the case history was read. When he spoke again, he asked what the problem was because he couldn't understand the history notes. Gutted, I explained from scratch. I'm sure he then said the screen couldn't be returned to Dell because "it had been ordered for a business"!
[I'd heard from a collegue that Dell might try this. Apparently, it's no problem for home users to return stuff, but if you're a business they make up all sorts of shi+e to stop the business returning it].
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so thinking "Watchdog", I quoted the distance selling regulations & more or less got put straight through to a supervisor who put me on hold whilst he got clearance from his boss. Apparently, this was a "highly unusual situation, but on this occassion it was OK for me to return the screen".
I saw red, started off the next sentence with "LOOK" & explained they'd delivered the wrong thing. The guy typed away... then apparently their entire network crashed. [Yeh right - he just wanted off the phone]. I'd no option but to agree for him to phone me back in 5 minutes once their systems were up & running again.
15 minutes passed & still no phonecall so I started writing down stuff for Watchdog
. Was just about to phone India when the supervisor called - with a reference number! This really caught me off guard as I was sure he was calling back to fob me of or argue some more, so there was a silence which he filled with an apology, a joke about their network crash & Dell server reliability (not a sales person obviously) I didn't laugh but instead agreed... then wracked my brains trying to think of someone who did own a Dell server (nope - noone - phew). Realising it had gone all silent again, I confirmed the new reference number & said my goodbye's. Back to the Indian call centre again...
I was actually quite glad to be calling India again - there might be a bit of a language barrier sometimes, but at least they don't come out with b.s. or argue with you. After 10 more minutes on hold, I gave the guy at the other end the reference.. there was a pause, some more typing & I was told the courier firm could pickup the box this Monday! Amazing! Then I unconsciously said out loud "but there are 3 boxes"... which was met with a different kind of pause & no typing... "but you only ordered 1 screen".
Panicking slightly (& thinking oranges & apples), I said the other 2 boxes probably just contained the screen's power supply & monitor cables & that these would probably fit in the bigger box... I just wanted it to all be over. Another long pause & I was told that'd be fine. Incase I'd misheard him, I asked the guy to e-mail confirmation of the pickup. The e-mail from "Mary T" arrived quickly... I wondered if he knew he'd been assigned a girl's name.
The 2 small boxes didn't fit in the big box, so e-mailing "Mary T", I explained this & was told in the reply to bin the 2 smaller boxes - only the big box was important.
From this point on, Dell turned things around & the box was picked-up on the day they promised (though I was rather miffed to have wasted a day sitting waiting for the courier). As promised, my account was credited & the correct screen was delivered. The new screen does have a very sharp picture.
However, based on this last experience I shall never, ever be ordering anything from Dell ever again. I'm almost certain Dell call centre staff are given training on how to be awkward & definitely get the feeling they try to drag things out in the hope that you'll just give up.
Other Dell disasters I've experienced include :
1. Receiving a batch of tower PCs which all had the DVD drives fitted upside down
2. Spending almost an hour on the phone to Dell support whilst they tried to remotely troubleshoot a faulty floppy disk drive (which had stopped reading or writing disks)
.
The part probably cost less than £10, but as the system was under warranty, I'd to bear with them whilst they followed procedure. One hour later they diagnosed the part as faulty & posted out a replacement floppy drive. Go Dell!!
3. One Dell PC which has had 3 HDD failures in a span of 16 months. Other PCs of the same model that were ordered at the same time & are in the same room have had zero HDD failures to date. The unfortunate PC isn't sited next to heaters or equipment that might cause electrical interference or dust clouds or anything
. It's not working any harder than the other PCs in the room. Sure, maybe it's just unlucky, but it is extremely inconvenient. Dell will not send out a different PSU or humour me in any other way... I've just to phone back when the next problem occurs... not very proactive.
Sorry for the long post, but I think it's only fair to warn people. Dell equipment is cheap & placing an order is very easy, but you're in for a world of pain when something goes wrong further down the line.
Can't really recommend them
My experience of Dell's support over the years has never been good, but I just had to let people know about this most recent catastrophe, which involved a purchase of a TFT screen.
Within a couple of days, a screen arrived but it was the wrong one. Got through to the first person (in India) after about 10 minutes on hold. He said the screen they'd sent was the right one, but when asked how he knew this, he read out the details of my order!? We honestly went round in circles for 5 minutes during which time he read out my order details at least a dozen times in... erm... English. The supervisor's English was marginally better, but eventually I'd to explain the problem using bits of fruit. i.e. "Although I'd ordered an orange & the order showed I'd ordered an orange I'd received an apple". I was given a call reference & was to be transferred to someone else who might help - 20 minutes wasted.
I'm sure I was speaking to someone in the UK now as the line was much clearer & the English was a bit better (I think it was someone in London), but he couldn't find the reference number I'd been given. They insisted they couldn't help as they needed a reference first, so I explained what had happened earlier & they took mercy & said they'd transfer me internally to the exact people I'd to speak to. I thanked them so much for their help, waited for 10 minutes on hold, then realised I was speaking to someone at the Indian call centre again. Not funny!
I quoted back the reference number they'd given me & it was OK. Rather than being transferred back to the UK, I asked "could I get the direct number for the people I'd been dealing with in the UK?" "Yes!" I phoned it - the line was dead
Phoned the Indian call centre again, (another 10 minutes) & I was transferred back to the UK again. They now had the call reference number (hoorah) & I was put on hold whilst the case history was read. When he spoke again, he asked what the problem was because he couldn't understand the history notes. Gutted, I explained from scratch. I'm sure he then said the screen couldn't be returned to Dell because "it had been ordered for a business"!
[I'd heard from a collegue that Dell might try this. Apparently, it's no problem for home users to return stuff, but if you're a business they make up all sorts of shi+e to stop the business returning it].
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so thinking "Watchdog", I quoted the distance selling regulations & more or less got put straight through to a supervisor who put me on hold whilst he got clearance from his boss. Apparently, this was a "highly unusual situation, but on this occassion it was OK for me to return the screen".
15 minutes passed & still no phonecall so I started writing down stuff for Watchdog
. Was just about to phone India when the supervisor called - with a reference number! This really caught me off guard as I was sure he was calling back to fob me of or argue some more, so there was a silence which he filled with an apology, a joke about their network crash & Dell server reliability (not a sales person obviously) I didn't laugh but instead agreed... then wracked my brains trying to think of someone who did own a Dell server (nope - noone - phew). Realising it had gone all silent again, I confirmed the new reference number & said my goodbye's. Back to the Indian call centre again...I was actually quite glad to be calling India again - there might be a bit of a language barrier sometimes, but at least they don't come out with b.s. or argue with you. After 10 more minutes on hold, I gave the guy at the other end the reference.. there was a pause, some more typing & I was told the courier firm could pickup the box this Monday! Amazing! Then I unconsciously said out loud "but there are 3 boxes"... which was met with a different kind of pause & no typing... "but you only ordered 1 screen".
Panicking slightly (& thinking oranges & apples), I said the other 2 boxes probably just contained the screen's power supply & monitor cables & that these would probably fit in the bigger box... I just wanted it to all be over. Another long pause & I was told that'd be fine. Incase I'd misheard him, I asked the guy to e-mail confirmation of the pickup. The e-mail from "Mary T" arrived quickly... I wondered if he knew he'd been assigned a girl's name.
The 2 small boxes didn't fit in the big box, so e-mailing "Mary T", I explained this & was told in the reply to bin the 2 smaller boxes - only the big box was important.
From this point on, Dell turned things around & the box was picked-up on the day they promised (though I was rather miffed to have wasted a day sitting waiting for the courier). As promised, my account was credited & the correct screen was delivered. The new screen does have a very sharp picture.
However, based on this last experience I shall never, ever be ordering anything from Dell ever again. I'm almost certain Dell call centre staff are given training on how to be awkward & definitely get the feeling they try to drag things out in the hope that you'll just give up.
Other Dell disasters I've experienced include :
1. Receiving a batch of tower PCs which all had the DVD drives fitted upside down
2. Spending almost an hour on the phone to Dell support whilst they tried to remotely troubleshoot a faulty floppy disk drive (which had stopped reading or writing disks)
.The part probably cost less than £10, but as the system was under warranty, I'd to bear with them whilst they followed procedure. One hour later they diagnosed the part as faulty & posted out a replacement floppy drive. Go Dell!!
3. One Dell PC which has had 3 HDD failures in a span of 16 months. Other PCs of the same model that were ordered at the same time & are in the same room have had zero HDD failures to date. The unfortunate PC isn't sited next to heaters or equipment that might cause electrical interference or dust clouds or anything
. It's not working any harder than the other PCs in the room. Sure, maybe it's just unlucky, but it is extremely inconvenient. Dell will not send out a different PSU or humour me in any other way... I've just to phone back when the next problem occurs... not very proactive.Sorry for the long post, but I think it's only fair to warn people. Dell equipment is cheap & placing an order is very easy, but you're in for a world of pain when something goes wrong further down the line.
Can't really recommend them