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Dell. Grr.

33 posts & 24 voices | Started 2 years ago by andyl46 | Latest reply from Tim

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andyl46 - Member

What a shower of incompetent ****nuts. Never in the history of mankind have a more frustrating, unhelpful, unable to understand simple issues (like sending your order to someone else) bunch of idiotic knob jockeys been gathered under one company banner.

Removing your own spleen with only a blunt rusty spoon would be preferable to dealing with Dell's so called customer services, and probably more productive.

So considering buying a Dell?

First remove all your vital bodily organs, place them on a table and smack them with a hammer. Quite hard indeed. If you still want to buy a Dell, remember that feeling, as it will be the one you get when into the 4th hour of being transferred between Tech Support and Customer services...

Posted 2 years ago #
GlennG - Member

Never again will I buy from Dell f***ing c%%%s.
Ordered a £1100 laptop for myself, was given a delivery date which came and went, this happened about three times, when the final date passed phoned them to enquire where my good where only to be told they were delivered last week. After loads of phone calls to Dell customer service (???) I found out that the laptop was made in Poland and had got nicked during despatch, told them I wanted a refund and got numerous e-mails and phone conversations saying that they would only refund my money once they recieved the laptop back?? Cut a long storey short, I waited another two and a half months before I recieved a replacement, wont buy from them again.

Posted 2 years ago #
meehaja - Member

Greatest IT support quote "ahh, i see the problem, its a dell."

yeah, mine is rubbish to the point of being barely usable. next time i'm spending bit more and going mac. My "Brand new" dell sits under the sofa while I prefer to use a five year old mac with a cracked screen.

Posted 2 years ago #
Wozza - Member

Probably not what you wanted to hear but Dell for Business is miles better.

To get past the Tech Support cretins, make sure you know what's up with your computer before you call, tell them you've run the diagnostic program and what it failed on, if you didn't just make something up out of that menu that means they'll replace your part.

That said I ordered an XPS laptop and they didn't deliver it for 6 weeks. After about the 3rd week the Macbook was looking very appealing!

Posted 2 years ago #
Practical Matt - Member

I had the DVD drive or should I say the "DVD" drive replaced three times in my Dell PC before I gave up and decided that watching DVDs on a computer obviously wasn't meant to be.

Posted 2 years ago #
rockthreegozy - Member

My Dell has been perfect. Its now 5 years old, and has had the CD drive replaced, and some more RAM popped in- thats it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Rod - Member

when buying a replacement for our stolen Dell laptop, I had the "pleasure" of using the online chat thing to see if there was anyway we could transfer the extended warranty on the stolen laptop to a new one. after a particularly unhelpful answer and being cut off the chat, i decided that was a sign...

so we bought an Acer instead! (experience of which is miles better than Dell so far!)

Posted 2 years ago #
dmiller - Member

shower of incompetent ****nuts

Tech Support Cretins

That's Me

Posted 2 years ago #
nickc - Member

Once I got mine it's been absolutely fine, no worries at all. The most frustrating thing for me was my credit card company cancelling the order despite me using their verification process, they rang me, and told me they'd cancelled it, and gave me a phone number and code to re-instate the order, duly did this to be told by the very weary Dell bod that Barclaycard did it on a routine basis, and that most Mondays were spent re-inputting customers orders...But apart from that, it came when they said, even tech support have been good. happily use them again, sorry

Posted 2 years ago #
nsaints - Member

Sometimes their incompetence works in your favour
they replaced a faulty laptop docking station, but instead of sending one they sent two. I've told them of their error on a number of occasions but they couldn't give a stuff
been sat here in a box for over a year now, I'm just wondering what I should do with it

Posted 2 years ago #
Wozza - Member

dmiller - Member

shower of incompetent ****nuts

Tech Support Cretins

That's Me

Dell for Business is miles better.

You'll be the workstation people in Glasgow then?

Posted 2 years ago #
dmiller - Member

Hey Wozza - yeah I used to be workstation support way back when, currently I'm 2nd level server support. And yeah - I'm in Glasgow

For the people with issues above try this link:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/dellcare/en/outstanding_issues?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

It really does work

Posted 2 years ago #
andyl46 - Member

At the risk of sounding like someone I'm not, the UK based business team I got through to on an 01344 number were very nice, but unable to do anything as I was outside their remit. Fair enough, if I knew what the abbreviation UK EBU meant, I wouldn't have troubled them. Nice chaps though. In stark contrast, the domestic customer help teams are the shower of eejits mentioned above. I assume they are based in India, as I have spoken to about 20 different people there, and none have the merest hint of a british accent.

They are, however, liars.

One of them this very afternoon stated I was incorrect, the part was due to be delivered to my invoice address, not the random person's delivery address that they got from somewhere that was on my invoice and order confirmation (and before the flaming starts, I pointed out the error on recieving the order confirmation email and got a reply from Dell saying we'll fix that). Strange that after some digging, I got the persons phone number at the delivery address on the invoice, and guess what? The part was in their posession. How bizarre...

I'd already written yet another email asking a few pointy questions to the link above, (thanks in any case dmiller!).

I'm asking why a part on Dell.com listed at $1.99 but unavailable online to order in the UK (forcing one into the telephone nightmare that is their domestic customer services) was quoted as costing £61.00. Yup, part number confirmed, description matches, taking delivery into account thats a 10x increase, give or take a bit. rip off? I think so...

Maybe it needs shipped from the States? No, it came from less than 100 miles away in Dublin.

My opinion? Dells are great when working, pray it never goes wrong.

Posted 2 years ago #
dmiller - Member

Erm - I don't think I am allowed to address or comment on that on a public forum. Sorry!

What part number was it - simply curious that's all...

Posted 2 years ago #
ScoobysM8 - Member

If you are going to buy a Dell, be sure to take out the next day on site warranty - you'll need it. I've had to use it on two out of three of my Dell laptops in two years.

Posted 2 years ago #
bruneep - Member

well I have 3 Dell Notebooks 4th on order. Had no problems with any of them at all.

Dropped 1 laptop and the was replaced under warranty FOC.

So I have no complaints at all about Dell.

Posted 2 years ago #
cp - Member

Ha two myself and the family loads. We build the basic desktop machines in to machines at work and we use them at work as the main IT supply. No real problems at all with them!!

Posted 2 years ago #
andyl46 - Member

dmiller, part number is U589F, 22 pin hard drive interposer and cable. link to Dell.com here

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cables/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=U589F&mfgpid=197353&chassisid=8526

Quite understandable the lack of public comment if you'd like to stay in your job!

Posted 2 years ago #
grumm - Member

I've been using my gf's brand new £1500 Dell a bit recently which is an insurance replacement for one that got nicked. Absolutely no way would I swap it for my 3 years old heavily used Macbook which cost £800.

It's not that bad, but the mouse sometimes randomly freezes up, keyboard shortcuts randomly work or not, it takes at least 30 seconds to wake from sleep instead of instantly etc etc

Posted 2 years ago #
robgarrioch - Member

Wish this thread had started a week ago; took delivery of a 'Studio 17' 2 days ago, & I'm now in turmoil; first dismayed, then relieved... Might just get the additional cover plan after all..

Posted 2 years ago #
tragically1969 - Member

My experiences are as above really, business wise they are fine, but as a consumer product, no.

We use the servers and workstations at work with no issues, the support is good if you get the boys in Scotland, which you do if you are a business customer.

Posted 2 years ago #
cp - Member

robgarrioch - they're fine, it sounds like most of the above is just issues with customer service. All the laptops me and the family have had have been very reliable!

Posted 2 years ago #
Glen More - Member

Another very happy Dell owner here. Customer support (only required at the beginning when I wanted to rebuild the PC with a different disk setup) was superb. I've already bought another Dell (for my daughter) and will be replacing my own one with another Dell in the next few weeks.

Posted 2 years ago #
nonk - Member

i have a 6400 that is painfully slow no one can tell me why.not that chuffed.
OP that is a shocker of a tale.

Posted 2 years ago #
tragically1969 - Member

i have a 6400 that is painfully slow no one can tell me why.not that chuffed.

I think you may find thats got more to do with Microsoft than Dell.

Posted 2 years ago #
nonk - Member

well yeah maybee i wouldnt know to be honest.
i have thought about giving linux ago on it.

Posted 2 years ago #
spacemonkey - Member

Used to be a supplier of Dell into the NHS and SME/corp. IMO, generally not very nice or competent people - from account managers to customer service to tech support. Very very profit driven. I remember getting them new customers only for them to market to them directly 3-6 months later, and undercut what I was then offering. Difficult to compete on that level, even when you're a proper VAR, because the customer is often tempted to use the Dell VA aspect and save a few quid too. Lost a few customers to them, but a few soon came back and switched manufacturers.

Only if I was desparate would I buy a Dell. Great kit when it works, but a generally horrible experience if you have to deal with them.

Thankfully those days are behind me.

SM

Posted 2 years ago #
robdob - Member

After getting advice on the most reliable machines and backup in my price range from a close friend who works for Laptops direct I went for an Acer too. Better spec than the same price Dell and been fantastic so far.

Posted 2 years ago #
FuzzyWuzzy - Member

Not had any issues as a home user with my Dell desktops and I work for a Dell Global 500 account so get pretty good service there. I wouldn't say their kit is particularly amazing but it's no worse than HP/IBM and usually better value.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tim - Member

Got an Inspiron 1545 from Currys in April

After i'd deleted all the useless bundled software it worked fine! Stripped it back to pretty much just vista, with no loss of functionaility at all as far as i could tell!

However about a month ago the screen started to go red, then went completely red (just usable), and on backing up my data, realised the DVD drive was borked as it just hung on finalising (using two seperate bits of software and vista itself)

So its gone back to Dell - 5/7 day turnaround apparently. Must say the lady on the help-line/email got back to us very quickly and even phoned to ask why we hadnt been back in touch (moving house at the time) regarding the issue.

Posted 2 years ago #
fergusd - Member

If you want to understand just how good Dell customer support is, try Lenovo, took me 3 months to get a high end laptop fixed (was only 2 months old) after it being returned multiple times with the same (very visible) screen fault, when I finally got it back I had to screw it back together properly myself as all the case screws were loose and the screen hinges wobbly . . . this was despite getting their EMEA Director of CS involved - another stunning incompetent fool . . . never, ever, will I touch another lenovo product. I guarantee you no matter how bad you think Dell are (and they are pretty pathetic - including their business people who I have also dealt with - how may weeks should it take to get a quote for some laptops . . . 4 you say ?), Lenovo are another order of magnitude worse . . .

Fd

Posted 2 years ago #
ianpv - Member

my Dell laptop's graphic card went pop on wednesday (boo!). Engineer came and replaced it today (yay!). No fancy warranty or anything, but I did buy it through work... seems pretty good to me.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tim - Member

I neber got asked at any point for warranty details - i think the Inspiron screen issue is common though as they have an option for it on the phone menu

Posted 2 years ago #