oh gold support(dell) how I love thee let me count the ways

[pik4chu]

I was told recently that some study of customer service showed dell to be last? Frankly that is crazy and I want to say why I disagree. Recently started having problems with one of my servers, a poweredge 1950 to be exact. Some bad fan noises and dell openmanage software reported an error. So I called dell to see about getting a new stick of ram (what the error was about) and a new chassi fan for one that was about to fail. Simple support call and the parts were on their way. I was being sent a chassi fan, a whole PSU in case it was the PSU fan instead and 1 stick of RAM.

Well stuff arrived in the morning the next day. I find that the parts they shipped me were for the wrong system (sent parts for 2950 instead of 1950, simple mistake) So I called them back up. gave them the case number. The person apologized saying he wasnt sure how that happened and immediately re-initiated an RMA/dispatch for parts. This time, 2 fans + assembly, a powersupply (server had redundat psu) and TWO sticks of ram, the reason being "lets jsut replace both sticks in that bank just in case". Did it take another day? or waiting on hold for a long time for BS questions? no, 1 hour, I kid you not less than 1 hour after hanging up the phone the courier was handing me my packages all neatly bound together. I checked them over, signed for it and the guy was on his way. Done! Now I ask, how in the world does Dell get such a bad rep with tech support?

I mean GOD over the course of this week I have had to call Xerox, HP, Dell and a slew of third party hardware/software vendors. You know how many didnt give me crap, stupid excuses, lame questions or flat out said they had no clue what I was asking? One, dell. So thank you dell and please keep up the good work, and folks. please please if you buy a dell dont get the weakest warranty there is. just 1 year gold or even 3 year silver is NOT that much money with what you get for it your life will be good if you do. You get what you pay for and yes the basic dell support is bad, but even some of my worst calls with dell have been better than my best calls to other vendors *coughhpcough*

Not too sure what really prompted this, might have been because I was flat on my back with a cold/stomach virus/flu etc the whole first half of the week and had to beat down a lot of issues when I returned and the thing with Dell made my day a lot better...but either way, I felt it had to be said.

PS - Powercomm is a horrible vendor, do not buy their product, ever, in fact don't use it even if you got it for free...

[Ebola]

It's their desktop support that blows. Wait a half hour and then get a 50/50 chance of getting your problem resolved. Their server support is pretty good though.

I'm a bit spoiled at work because our HP tech sits about 8 cubes away from me and we have a our own service line. I also know several HP techs and managers. :)

When I was working for a smaller company I would have to say Watchguard impressed me the most with their customer service. It was still India but they had some highly trained staffers.

[Linux_Box]

The server support, all kinds, is awesome. I've used Gold and regular. The biggest difference was the wait time. Otherwise, I always got top notch help.

Client support sucks if you have to deal with 1st level. I won't bore you with some stories but after 3 weeks, Dell allowed our company to go straight to level 2 for all support calls.

[adamwinn]

all of my experiences with their business support staff have been fantastic. from sales to tech and everything in between, they treat me and my company like we spend 5 times what we actually do.

i haven't had to call on a non-business account issue in a while though, so I can't really speak for that end of it.

[mbigna]

I've known for quite a while that Dell treats its BUSINESS customers great. Dell's customer service numbers tank because of the complaints generated by individual customers, whom they treat like crap.

[Lionsault_100]

Good to be back, I'm not sure how they would rank with all of the big guys, as for the most part I deal with dell (laptop) products, if you know how to talk to them, they are very helpful. when a product needs to be sent back, they always do it on their dime, and everything is overnighted. Their warranty service is easy to track as well, which is something not as easy to do with HP or toshiba.

Personally I would give dell's service the thumbs up myself

[myarrowsaim]

Gold support on my desktops, laptops and servers.

No problem here.

4 hour response time on my servers.

[RollingThunder]

Dell's customer service numbers tank because of the complaints generated by individual customers, whom they treat like crap.

That may be true to a point. Business support is usually professionals dealing with professionals. Desktop is much different because you don't know what kind of hacks you are dealing with or what they have done to their computers. There are always two sides to a desktop support issue and most people only hear the users side and half the story.

I have had to deal with Dell one time with a desktop over a bad monitor. Once I ran the tests they wanted, a replacement was sent that day. A reasonable request on Dell's part.

[hkgonra]

I have had to deal with Dell one time with a desktop over a bad monitor. Once I ran the tests they wanted, a replacement was sent that day. A reasonable request on Dell's part.

I wish they would do something to get rid of that though.
Maybe let the IT people for small business's test out of having to deal with level 1 support.
"Have you re-started your computer ?"
"Looks like you need to get out your re-install disks."
That type of thing really gets old.

[Cheator]

Their support in canada is fine. My friend had to replace his dell 20.1 inch LCD 3 times, and each time they were explemplary. I bought an LCD monitor from them and they were great with the sale. I don't like them, and would never recomend them, but they seem almost as good as Acer was to me (which was phenominal). Plus, there is a new call center in Ottawa, here, so I know that when I call them up if I ever have to, I'll be speaking with someone who speaks my language, or one of them.

[kayson]

I've had mixed experiences with Dell support. They've screwed up a whole lot of times, but they manage to get the simple stuff right. Some of the best tech support/customer service I've dealt with is Asus. The tech support guys knew what they were talking about, and when they don't know they tell me and transfer me to someone higher up. The customer service has always been outstanding with RMAs.

[Midnight Dream]

Brother purchased a laptop and PDA. All fine and good, till he sees he is being charged twice for them, overdrawing his bank account by quite a bit. Calls up Dell Support, they basically tell him tough, they can't fix it because they "See that 2 of each unit was shipped out" despite him only ordering one, and receiving one of each. After going through a huge argument, and several months of him having to pay off the charges that dell refuses to fix, he gets a call "oh, we found the others were lost in shipment", even though he still never ordered them.

I'm sure server support is fine. Standard Customer Support is horrible.

[cozmo_d]

Thats nice of them and all but buying a dell is insanity imo, My old Mom works for a company in TX. from her home in MO. The Company she works for Tech Energy wanted to supply her with a PC, she had told me this & asked me if I would build her one and she would send them the bill, before the next day came & passed there secretary has ordered my Mom a Dell Workstation with core2duo and a gig of ram, some kind of cheesy video card ect... Well It arrives to her home and she asks me to come set it up for her and to put her old drives with all her work into the new dell, I cringed In horror but showed up a few hours later, the only thing good about this computer that cost almost 1800$ after the GOLD service was added and parts replacement for eternity which you shouldn't have to need anyway unless its a dell, or lightning strikes :eek:

I crack this thing open & it has a nice HD (cuz dell didnt build it) but thats about it, so they have an 1800$ HD. Anyway back up all her work & then put her old drives into the new dell workstation woopie...

Fire it up everything goes preaty well, Im kinda suprised & say wow maybe this thing is ok after all.

Not 2 dayes later Im getting phone calls from Mom,Son my Monitor is doing something wierd, they gave her a 19" flat panel and it was freekin out everytime she would click on a streaming video, So I go back, Install Java, Install Microsoft.net framework 2.0 and that fixes the problem, Im thinking how in the world does dell stay in business if they dont even install stuff like this before they ship it?

So everything seems fine right? WRONG... about 2 weeks after that Its now Blue screening at boot up and giving memory dumps and codes that my dear beloved mom practically refuses to wright down for me so I call dell GOLD support & they tell me the same thing, they want the error codes ect, I tell beloved mother to please wright them down, she's like why cant I take a screen shot I dont have time to deal with this bla bla bla........

So now I have a mom who wont cooperate & a dell that suxs *** like I knew it did & I tryed to warn them to just let me build it for her and it would have cost about 1000$ not 1800 and the dam thing would be working & I wouldnt be spending my weekends stareing at my mom while Im on the phone with dell
GOLD again..........

I HATE DELL!!!! IS MY NEW MOTO!!! IM PRINTING SHIRTS RIGHT NOW!!!

[mbigna]

Thats nice of them and all but buying a dell is insanity imo, My old Mom works for a company in TX. from her home in MO. The Company she works for Tech Energy wanted to supply her with a PC, she had told me this & asked me if I would build her one and she would send them the bill, before the next day came & passed there secretary has ordered my Mom a Dell Workstation with core2duo and a gig of ram, some kind of cheesy video card ect... Well It arrives to her home and she asks me to come set it up for her and to put her old drives with all her work into the new dell, I cringed In horror but showed up a few hours later, the only thing good about this computer that cost almost 1800$ after the GOLD service was added and parts replacement for eternity which you shouldn't have to need anyway unless its a dell, or lightning strikes :eek:

I crack this thing open & it has a nice HD (cuz dell didnt build it) but thats about it, so they have an 1800$ HD. Anyway back up all her work & then put her old drives into the new dell workstation woopie...

Fire it up everything goes preaty well, Im kinda suprised & say wow maybe this thing is ok after all.

Not 2 dayes later Im getting phone calls from Mom,Son my Monitor is doing something wierd, they gave her a 19" flat panel and it was freekin out everytime she would click on a streaming video, So I go back, Install Java, Install Microsoft.net framework 2.0 and that fixes the problem, Im thinking how in the world does dell stay in business if they dont even install stuff like this before they ship it?

So everything seems fine right? WRONG... about 2 weeks after that Its now Blue screening at boot up and giving memory dumps and codes that my dear beloved mom practically refuses to wright down for me so I call dell GOLD support & they tell me the same thing, they want the error codes ect, I tell beloved mother to please wright them down, she's like why cant I take a screen shot I dont have time to deal with this bla bla bla........

So now I have a mom who wont cooperate & a dell that suxs *** like I knew it did & I tryed to warn them to just let me build it for her and it would have cost about 1000$ not 1800 and the dam thing would be working & I wouldnt be spending my weekends stareing at my mom while Im on the phone with dell
GOLD again..........

I HATE DELL!!!! IS MY NEW MOTO!!! IM PRINTING SHIRTS RIGHT NOW!!!
If she has gold support, why doesn't she just call Dell up and have a tech support person (instead of you) come to her onsite and take care of it?

[hkgonra]

If she has gold support, why doesn't she just call Dell up and have a tech support person (instead of you) come to her onsite and take care of it?

Because they won't come out until they have walked you through the basic stuff on the cue cards in front of them.

[Avatar28]

I wish they would do something to get rid of that though.
Maybe let the IT people for small business's test out of having to deal with level 1 support.
"Have you re-started your computer ?"
"Looks like you need to get out your re-install disks."
That type of thing really gets old.

Since I work for the company (in tech support no less), I can tell you that there IS an option for that. I'm not sure what the exact requirements are, but I believe the techs would have to be DCSE (Dell Certified Systems Engineer) before they can call and order parts. It is called Warranty Parts Direct. Here is the link to the page I found on it by searching the main Dell website.

http://warrantypartsdirect.dell.com/us/Program/index.asp