Oh Hell, Dell Computers

I usually don't rant on my blog but I will make an exception today. First of all, my Dell laptop has been a great machine. It is the laptop that brought you the Finals blogs, with over 10,000 hits for the five days. It's robust and I love it. Now I get over 500 hits a day on my blog.

My mouse has been working funky off and on for the last few months. If I juggle the receiver, sometimes that will fix it. It's something wrong in the USB receiver. It's not the driver or the software the the physical unit. Sounds simple enough, huh?

So I have been a loyal Dell customer for years. My family, in fact, are loyal Dell customers. We have bought numerous Dell systems over the years and have recommended them as  well. My Apple friends have been urging me to buy a MAC but I have resisted......but, last night, my experience with Dell made me rethink this. SERIOUSLY.

I bought an extended warranty from Dell for my system. It came with a warranty but Dell called me up and offered a extended warranty for a few more years. Dell said it was for the entire system that I had bought and it covered hardware, tech support. It also covered the hardware in case, I spilled pop on the keyboard, dropped it and so forth. In other words, any damage or non-functioning of the system. With my luck, I would drop my laptop and be screwed so I decided to go for it.  The system that I purchases was a laptop and a mouse. The warranty was not cheap and it was the first time I ever bought an extended warranty  so it was a gamble.

I have had my keyboard die on me twice and Dell was super quick to send me a replacement. So at this point, I was very happy with their warranty. It was hard to understand the Dell agent as they had THICK ACCENTS, spoke fast and were from India. Every time I would have to have them repeat what they said and I would repeat it back to them, what I thought they said to make sure I had heard it right. I realize that Dell is trying to save a few bucks by outsourcing to India but for crying out-loud, think of your customers. A couple of times, I was lucky enough to get Dell customer service in the USA and they rocked. One guy was a FIVE STAR service, probably the best customer service that I have encountered.

Back to my story, last night my mouse died and my laptop was again hard  to work on. I called Dell and got a customer service rep, we shall call him, "Andy" since I could remember his name. He was very fast in his speech and  his voice was very low so I had to ask him to repeat himself a lot.

Then he didn't believe me that I told him the mouse was bad. I felt like he treated me like a idiot but I let it slide, hoping he might be able to fix it or whatever. Andy had to get control of my laptop to troubleshoot the issue. He couldn't get the mouse to work. He went into my msconfig area and turned off a bunch of app- Google and Apple. I asked him why and he said I didn't need them. Seriously, this is my laptop and not yours and who are you to determine what start-up apps I need? He didn't turn off any Del apps. OK, I figure maybe those apps might be interfering with the mouse issue so I let he go on. He also chastised me for not having all of my documents and jpegs all backed up. He deleted the mouse drivers as well as other drivers.

He claimed that I had hundreds of bad files and viruses on my laptop so he ran a scan program. At the end of the program, it stated no issues found. So much for all of those 'hundreds of bad files and viruses". Then after he did that, he hung up, without telling me what else to do. He did reluctantly agree it *MIGHT* be a bad mouse. Wow, so much for customer service and a waste of about an hour of my life. I paid for this tech service?

So I called back and asked to talk to a hardware person. I told him my mouse was bad and he wanted to do the same song and dance as the previous guy. I humored him and did the mouse part again. He wanted me to run the mouse to another computer to make sure it wasn't the mouse. I did that after the call later and it still failed. So he did finally agree that it was the mouse, this was hours later after the first call.

So I asked for a replacement per my warranty. He said I never got the mouse from Dell. I told him to look at my order. I told him I bought a extended warranty package that covered my system. He did finally find the mouse on my original order. He was quick to doubt me that I had bought the mouse from Dell.

Well, it turns out that Dell LIED. Apparently the extended warranty covers only the Dell products. So if you buy any other item and get a warranty, you are screwed. I told him that I had gotten the warranty and the agent told me it covered ALL of my order and did NOT say it only covered part of the order. So, I asked him what he could do, since Dell lied to me and I was not happy.

He offered to sell me a mouse at full price, tax and shipping and would not charge me a "FEE" of $7.00. I kept asking him what this fee was and I never have heard a more  evasive answer. Was it a handling fee, was it a stock fee, was it a mouse fee, what type of $7 fee was it.? He kept saying it was a $7 fee. I could NOT get a straight answer out of him. So basically, Dell was going to charge me full rate and "be kind" and not charge me this mysterious $7 fee. I went to the website and it did not have the mysterious $7 fee so I ordered a new mouse. I finally got something out of him that this $7 was a fee that Dell charges if you order on the phone. SERIOUSLY, DELL, you charge an extra $7 if people want to order a product from you on the phone? 

Plus, you sell an extended warranty and neglect to tell your customer that is doesn't cover everything when your customer service agents says it does? Then your agents are quite condescending as well as rude. Not to mention, I can't understand what they are saying most of the time. Plus you charge a mysterious fee of $7 for your customers to order on the phone.

What ever happened to the Dell of old, the Dell who cared about their customers and reputation? Did it fall by the wayside when you sent your customer service overseas? My laptop is working but limping along like a three legged, blind horse in a race.

Oh, I mentioned to the to rep that I think my fan is going out on the laptop as it sounds like a jet engine.  Will that be covered?

I need to get a new laptop soon, and maybe my Apple friends might be correct, after all.


Oh, I sent an email to Michael Dell and will keep you posted.