Carol’s Corner Office Blog

Christopher again comments on my articles regarding the horrendous customer service offered by Dell Computers and all I have to say about this is:

Christopher, it is a crying shame that Dell couldn’t have had someone jump on the bandwagon to take care of the faulty computer that I purchased from them as quickly as you have sought to defend Dell’s honor.

I most likely would have been able to overlook all the used parts they put into a brand new computer to make it work when it should have worked from the moment I opened the box.

I might even have been able to overlook the fact that Dell or any other computer manufacturer doesn’t publish their corporate phone number. (I am not quite naive enough to believe they do not have one - they simply do not want to be bothered by irate customers).

But the customer service was horrible - absolutely horrible. The person I dealt with was rude, was not technologically savvy, failed to contact me when he was supposed to, did not resolve the problem, made me sit while he performed the same tasks more than once. It was obvious to me that a script was being followed and there was no real troubleshooting going on. The other person I spoke with at Dell asked me my name and I said Ms. Bratt to which she replied “Can I call you Bratt?” If you deviate from their script they are lost!

Christopher, I am not really all that fussy. I paid for a new computer, that is touted to be one of the best. I simply expected to get what I paid for. I know that there can always be an exception to the rule Christopher, but guess what - this isn’t the first time this has happened to me with Dell. This is the second Dell computer that I have purchased that did not work - right out of the box. And the last time this happened, the same thing occurred. They replaced every single piece of hardware in the computer and finally, after they had put me through hell and I had been without a computer for over a week, they replaced it and actually gave me an upgrade. I can’t help thinking…what are the odds that lightning would strike twice like that to the very same person. Perhaps it’s just a shoddy product.

You say that most of the time replacing a part will fix the issue and that system exchanges are done after other options have been explored, due to cost and to minimize the downtime for customer service. You state that customer service can be done next business day where a system exchange can take several days to two weeks. I find that interesting Christopher, because it took over a week to get my computer to actually run and be useful to me- yes, over a week Christopher. A week spent full of aggravation, lost time, lost money, frustration. Good customer service doesn’t generally seek to irritate customers. Dell doesn’t care about it’s customers evidently, because they sold me a computer that didn’t work from the time I opened the box and then they took their good old time trying to figure out what was wrong with it with lousy technicians who were rude in the bargain.

When I purchase a product I don’t expect to have to open it up and work on it like the Dell technicians in India told me I had to do. I was informed that unless I opened up the computer and removed the video card and replaced it they would not do anything else for me. This is absurd! What about old folks? What about handicapped folks? What about folks who don’t have a clue about computers? Dell expects all of them to open up their computers and work on them? Give me a break!

The representative I spoke to originally asked me “Would you like to have your own representative? One who lives in the United States? One who will be the only person you deal with every time you call? I was thrilled and of course my reply was a resounding “YES!” His immediate reply was “That will cost you $13.00 a month.” Well thank you so very much Mr. Dell! Instead of listening to your customer’s complaints about the horrendous service we get from the people in India, you found another way to make some money. You ought to be ashamed Mr. Dell!

You say you would be happy to forward my feedback regarding the horrible customer service to the representative’s manager. I would think you would have done that by now - OR perhaps one of the five OTHER people I have spoken to at Dell. But no, that has not been done or if it has indeed been done, then Dell has seen fit to do nothing about it because Dell doesn’t care about its customers.

That’s right, I have spoken to five different representatives at Dell and nothing has been done. Oh wait, yes, something has been done - I have gotten some comments from YOU Christopher. Not that I don’t appreciate your minimal effort - I do. But it’s just too little, too late.

You have done nothing to change my mind - nothing to keep me as a customer. I hope everyone reads about what a horrible second experience I have had with Dell and decides not to purchase one. The only recourse we customers have is to take our business elsewhere.

Actually, this is my third problem with Dell computers - what are the odds??? I purchased another Dell and was told that I couldn’t get Windows XP any longer. Then I was put on hold and told that if I purchased Vista Ultimate (the most expensive version) with my computer then I could downgrade to Windows XP. The representative reiterated this several times to me. Well surprise, surprise, after I paid for Vista Ultimate I did not receive anything that would allow me to downgrade to XP and when I called Dell, I was told oh…we never told you that….and I was not allowed to speak to the representative to did indeed tell me that.

So don’t try to tell me that Dell cares about it’s customers - they have demonstrated very clearly that they do not! Nothing you can say can change that. As the old adage goes Christopher - actions speak louder than words.

Tags: customer service, Dell Hell, refurbished, troubleshooting, used parts

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Dell Computers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.