Wednesday, February 21, 2007

If I Had a Rocket Launcher...

Dell's tech support sucks: Let me count the ways.

1. Their hold music sounds like they stole it from a bad eighties, movie soundtrack. The kind with overwhelming saxophone played over a moody synthesizer. It's usually on during the romantic scene just before the lights go out.

2. I was on hold a lot.

3. The gentleman "helped" me for way too long, (where I was mostly on hold) just to figure out my warranty had run out and I needed to be transferred to the expired warranty tech support area.

4. The gentleman couldn't figure out how to transfer me and for the first five minutes we sat in silence, and after that he felt obligated to make small talk with me. "So, how's the weather there?" Was his first question and it went downhill from there.

5. The gentleman got his supervisor and after five more minutes, he told me that everyone at the other office were at a meeting, and gave me a number to call them back in an hour.

6. When I called back to the new number, it got me to the same office I called before, but thankfully, to a different representative. The woman who answered seemed much more competent. She figured out right away that I needed to go to the other office, and was also aware that other office was only open during the day, (what about the meeting?) right when I would be at work.

7. Since Dell can't help me, I had to call my friend Bob. And you know how hard it is to me to ask my friends for help.

My friend Bob was at work, but his wife thinks I might need to do something called a "hard start". Hopefully, Bob will be able to help me with this.

The saga continues...

14 comments:

Brando said...

It's funny how different the experience can be with two different companies. TLB had a problem with her Dell laptop on Sunday, and after two hours of my ham-fisted wrangling, I broke down and called Dell. It seemed like McAfee Virus scan screwed up a file related to our wireless access. The guy had me do a system restore to a few days prior, which undid whatever mojo we had done. They had me fixed up in 30 minutes.

Sorry you've had such a hard time with it. That sucks.

Churlita said...

Fringes,

I know. I was thinking the same thing.

Brando,

The big difference is that you guys probably didn't have an expired warranty. They kept trying to get me to buy a longer warranty even though my computer was broken. The other thing is, that it all depends on what person you get to help you. The first guy was straight-up stoopid, and the woman knew her shit, she just couldn't help me. Sigh.

dmarks said...

Does Bob sell computers? He might be more reliable than Dell.

Churlita said...

DMarks,

I wish. I'm looking at computers other than Dell right now, because a lot of other people in my office bought Dell computers and even our office computers are Dell and they are all breaking down within 2 years of purchase.

egan said...

A "hard start" vs. a soft one. Yes, I know these terms very well in my line of work. Sure they may sound a bit Traci Lords, but they are 100% legit. Good luck.

Killer said...

You know that those damn stuck up warranty guys knew exactly what the problem was, they just want your money. They were probably staring at the one non-warranty guy at the next desk as he took a nap.

Les Q said...

I think buying a pc from a local place that repairs onsight is the best idea.
And if they have a deal to get extra warrenty for an extra $100.
Who cares if you pay an extra few bucks for it.
Its better that hitting yourself with the phone.

Margaret said...

I feel your pain.

Anonymous said...

So when the computer shuts down, does it actually close your applications first and shutdown gracefully, or does it just power off?

Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel any better - everyone at Dell is losing their job. Well just the big guys - each day in Austin the front page of the paper is another vice president or head of global or something who has resigned- I think Michael Dell has "let go" about 10 big heads of everything - (and is re-organizing) Probably all because of your problem - I know that won't make your computer work but still ....

Brando said...

We also had a relatively easy problem to fix, I just didn't know how to fix it.

And I know all about straight-up stoopid -- I am a Qwest customer!

Churlita said...

Egan,

We tried the hard start and it wasn't nearly as fun as it sounded and it didn't work. Wah.

Killer,

You are so right. They are so not getting my money again...I think.

Les Quinn,

Unfortunately, sometimes it's the difference between being able to afford one. Yes, I'm that poor.

Gareth,

It only shut down once and it closed out of everything quickly and then shut off. Now I just get to the Dell screen.

AKelly,

I hope they fix something, because they're known for terrible tsch support and in the last couple of years, their product has been going bad after about 2 years.

Brando,

Unfortunately, none of my problems ever seem to be easy.

Anonymous said...

So you are aware that hard start was the only computer term I could come up with next to keyboard right? I was pretty sure that keyboard wasn't going to help you. I'm sorry that my vast computer expertise was of no help.

Churlita said...

I loved your vast computer knowledge. It was far vaster than mine. I also love the term hard start and use it whenever I can.