Dell customer support losing quality?
Posted by multippt
Once upon a time (5 years ago), Dell was known for its relatively good customer support. The company’s name is often associated with high quality computers. Now… its a different story.
I guess you have probably known about the bad publicity Dell recently encountered, especially the part of exploding Dell laptops (now phased as “notebooks”), that sparked worldwide battery replacements? Well, here’s more bad news. It seems that Dell is losing their touch of quality on customer support.
Here’s one story (from software.dev):
The blogger’s coworker recently had problems with his Dell notebook and sent it for repairs. (Of course, notebooks tend to sustain more damage due to mobility compared to desktops.) After sending his notebook in for repairs and waiting it for several weeks, he wondered whether he would ever get his notebook back. The customer support kept telling him that there will be more information on his notebook available. One month have passed since sending in his notebook for repairs, and he wasn’t able to get any information on what is being done to his notebook. He finally got back his notebook, with it coming with a form describing what repairs were done:
“Dear customer, enclosed is your repaired Dell portable. The system was diagnosed and extensively tested by certified technicians to ensure the problem was corrected. We take pride in the quality of service provided and are confident the repair performed has fully restored your portable to working order. …”. Ironically, under comments, it said “Ship(ed) back unrepaired. Thanks!”.
Gee…, thats some customer service.
Now here’s my story:
My father was wishing for an upgrade on his computer, especially full wifi capabilty. Of course, there weren’t any Dell repair centres in Singapore, so Dell sent in repairmen straight to the homes of the consumer (very nice idea). During the first visit, the repairman did the “normal” procedures of installing the modem, upgrading the motherboard, etc. After that, he left. When my father came back from work, he realized that the modem was not installed properly (some driver problem). In addition he realized that the “little button” normally used to automatically put the computer to standby whe the lid is closed was missing. Furious, he called up to Dell support and request that they fix the new problems. During the second visit (same repair personal), he plied out the covering over where the “little button” I’ve mentioned earlier was. He realized that the little button was jammed, and damaged whatever was beneath it. (Yes same repair person who “fixed” the computer and ended up making it worse.) He ordered a replacement for it (something he should have paid for it). Now back to the modem problem. The repairman was frantically looking for whatever might have gone wrong. He received the “no driver” problem on the modem (Something that I also received but fixed it on my own. Of course, my notebook came from Dell too. On a side note, the repairperson never listened to me, maybe because I’m a little too young to be teaching a “qualified” professional like him.) He looked as if he was puzzled (are repairmen supposed to do that?). 1 hour passed and he still couldn’t figure out the problem. He then requested a reinstall of the operating system. Now then, my father is extremely fed up with this repairman that he thought of requesting Michael Dell (of course, that is too extreme) to fix his notebook. Third visit *sign*, another repairperson came and managed to solve every single problem on my father’s notebook. The scenario lasted for 1.5 weeks, so my father is notebookless (except in office) for 1.5 weeks. And, the best part is… my father ended up paying the repairperson who nearly broke down his working notebook. My father have given up Dell entirely, and we are seeking notebooks and computers from other companies.
Nowadays, its just difficult to find a Dell notebook (maye due to low sales?) in Singapore, especially in Funan IT mall.
Part of this story from software.dev
