Could someone explain this to me. . . [Warning: Rant]

I recently put in another support call for my display issues and the graphics stuttering due to CPU throttling that the M17X-R1s are infamous for since the resolution of the DPC issue.

I was assured, repeatedly by the technical rep. over the phone that the LCD would be replaced, along with the motherboard an the GPUs. I didn't see how this would fix anything, but I let them have their go for the third time.

Now I am no rookie to the trials and tribulations of the Dell Support world. I could be considered a hard-line veteran of the Dell support paradigm, all the way from first-tier technical support to their corporate department and the infamous escalations team. I've dealt with 'em all, and I've got the traumatic memories and accounts as momentos of these frustrating and often acrimonious encounters. I was already well resigned to the idea that a good few people that I encounter will exude a retarded level of intelligence, which is all fine and dandy; I can be understanding. In fact, with the kind of crap tha thas happened this year, I made it my personal cause to be kind, understanding, and accepting of others regardless of circumstance. To honour this cause, I prepared myself to deal with their support and any potential hitches.

In comes a technician, late, but he shows up, apologetic and introverted for whatever reason. He has a hard time opening up the machine, and it became blatantly obvious that this was his first time on the M17x. I actually did not hold this against him and helped him each and every step of the way where he felt lost.

Unfortnately, unlike what was stated by Dell's on-phone rep., the motherboard was missing from this job. Very well. Hey, not only that, but the only GPU they replaced was the primary card. Like that'll fix the problem with CPU throttling due to bad power budget on the M17xR1, but whatever.

The technician gets his job done with due diligence and apologises for the fact that the prior jobs didn't resolve the issues. I appreciated his attitude, but we all know it isn't really his prerogative, so nice of the guy to oblige himself when it wasn't a job-requirement. Despite being a black-hearted heathen, I wish the guy a season's greeting and send him off. Naturally, I was eager to return to the system, and fire it up since I've been bored and wanted to finish up some games. However, I was having trouble getting SLi to work. I thought to myself that maybe I need to give it a nice hard reset. I initiate a proper reset, in full hopes that my kind attitude, patience, and understanding tone towards Dell might actually bear the fruits of positive reinforcement, the very positive reinforcement that I had been dishing out left right and centre like some charity.

Until my optimism is shattered by this. . .



I need to reconsider this whole 'liberal hippie attitude' seeing as it isn't paying off, and doesn't really confer with my naturally snide personality.

My question today isn't whether or not I've been cheated. That's pretty bloody obvious and I am not going to debate trivial matters with pinheads.

What I must ask though. . . Why? Oh, why are there so many morons handling technical support queries these days? Is this an idea of making the system more efficient, because that implies that the wizards at the top of this food-chain, coming up with these gemstones of ideas are just as mentally challenged as the slow-witted grunts who perpetuate these problems. Where is the professionalism? By this rhetorical question, I don't mean, "I am sorry sir, let me fix that for you." By this, I mean, "How in the hell did that happen? We must not only amend your problem straight away, but we must shake down our system because we're now becoming a shameless self-parody." No, instead we have laptops going to depots and getting downgraded, and now we have laptops getting downgraded through in-home service because these bastions of hope can't even get their part numbers right, rendering a system twice as useless as it was before because now it can't even run in SLi.

Bloody hell!

 

Sorry to hear of this Kade. Sadly, this is not the first horror story with UK support or US for that matter - it happens. The part mixup should never have happened. Call them back, give them an ear-full, demand this be fixed with the highest priority. Sucks man. Sorry to hear this.

When they return, be sure to verify the system is working before letting them leave.

 

Kade, dump the "liberal hippie attitude" approach to everything you do, as I agree, it won't help at all. Get tough and mad-dog-mean, like me! My father always told me, and he has been proven right, "nice guys finish last." I have noticed in this fast-paced and profit-optimized world that EVERYONE takes the most expedient path to the quickest, highest profit, and you will get pushed aside and given lackluster service FOR SURE if they can get away with it. You have to watch everyone like a hawk, because hardly anyone will do their job right, even when you payed for it! I'm very sorry to hear of your tribulations, but stay on top of them and they will have to fix you up eventually.

 

Well, I had intentionally taken a relaxed line this year for personal and sentimental reasons. My own old man used to have the same philosophy regarding 'nice guys finishing last', but he also stressed on the idea of being compassionate towards the grunts since they're just doing their prescribed job for the bidders at the top looking to make their obtuse profits/bonuses. Naturally, if they can take advantage of someone's 'understanding', they will exploit such traits to their benefit/profit.

Anyway, since I've exhausted my patience, I took a harsher line and one day later. . .


Uh, yeah. Thank you, Dell Almighty, for fixing a problem that you created in the first place. Great job. Now I can get back to square one and complain about how my system's GPUs continue to exhibit random drops in performance from CPU throttling due to the M17X-R1's poor power budget -- that everyone else knows about -- but Dell Almighty refuses to officially acknowledge.


Thanks for the hearin' me out, and for the advice, BatBoy and VoiceInTheWilderness. You're aces! Righteous holidays to ya' both!