The Joys of Dell/Alienware Customer Service/Support

As some of you may know, last Wednesday my motherboard "somehow" got fried and my computer refuses to turn on at all. I called tech support Wednesday night and they said the in-home service rep would be calling me in 2-3 days..I waited 2-3 days and got no reply so I decided to call back.

They said that they didn't know why I didn't receive a call, but that I should be getting a call either yesterday or this morning. I waited all day yesterday but then called back last night to check the status of my issue, and they said I would be 100% getting a call this morning.

Did I get the call? No. So I called back again and asked why I didn't get the call and they couldn't tell me so they said they would call me back in 24 hours..seeing a trend here I refused and told them I was going away to school in the UK tomorrow, and that this was supposed to be fixed last week and if they couldn't fix it today I'd be returning my system. After being on the phone for..oh..about an hour and getting no where the lady said she would keep trying, and call me back later today with an answer (like that will happen) so now I'm on the phone with customer service..sorry, trying to get to the right customer service after being transferred to the American one, and back to the Canadian one multiple times.

I'm talking with the returns guy now..hopefully after about 6 hours of phone calls spread out over the span of about a week, hopefully it will finally be sorted out. Good laptop for the 4 days I had it working..ty customer service that don't know their right nut from a rock just ruined it for me.

 

Actually dell only sends the part then the company they contract to cal

l Dell can't make that happen as they don't run the company. Don't get mad @ Dell its not their fault

I have had to deal with them for my GPU fan and the company that comes to your house is not from dell

 

you think that is bad......try getting a pair of 4850's out of them!

Really though, sorry you have to put up with all this crap and a nice new system

 

But Dell themselves had said they would call me numerous times, and haven'.? I have every right to be mad at dell, they shouldn't "promise" next day in home service if they can't do it. Not trying to sound like an to you Moo, just upset right now.

Who is cal?

 

The Moo, I think you are missing the point. When you are buying a computer that is worth $3000 you should be able to expect that it works more than 4 days and yes sometimes things do break but if they do within a few days of purchase, you would expect a better service.

It is not the customer's problem that Dell contracts with a third party company for their after sale technical service. It is entirely Dell's problem and they should do whatever they can to resolve the problem in a timely manner. For a new PC a week is not within a reasonable amount of time. If they have to hire another company to fix that PC then so be it...

Anyways, my M17X came with a bad screen and instead of being on the phone with Dell for two weeks, the first day I got it, I spent 4 hours on the phone and ended having them send me a new PC. I returned the one I had just gotten. This is a bit tricky because you are without a PC for about three weeks but who wants a refurbished system anyways??? Which is what it would have been if it had been repaired...

 

Dell is definitely responsible for the repairs and customer service of the M17x. If they contract someone out that's fine. That contracting company is a representative of Dell. The Dell CS should be following through with the contracted company and it seems like they are not.

 

Dell rhymes with fail........not a coincidence?

 

Exactly! Thank you both.

 

What kind of accent do you have? lol!

It doesn't rhyme in the Midwest.

 

Disappointing to hear, but keep us posted.

It's ironic that the AW/Dell fan club was reassuring some of us somewhat disenchanted AW customers that since Dell was handling customer service for the M17x it would be better than before. Now when there is a bad experience with Dell customer service, it's no longer in the hands of Dell. Joebarchuck makes valid points IMO.

 

i understand legally Dell is at fault ... Dell reps are telling you what the 3 party is imposed to do....they can't hold a gun to their head....

I just don't get mad @ people who can't change it .....

 

I was unaware of this 3rd party...you are getting married right Moo? What if you had ordered a wedding ring to be made for the wedding, and it was supposed to be ready weeks before your wedding says the jewelry store. The day before your wedding you still don't have it, and you call the store and ask why and they say it's because their supplier/manufacturer wasn't responding. Tell me you wouldn't be upset at the jewelry store for promising something they can't deliver.

 

In his defense, I've heard plenty of southerners pronounce "fail" as "fell"... but that still doesn't excuse the butchering of the English language.

 

Man, Alienware/Dell sure is under the wire with your time frame don't you think?

You said, "I was going away to school in the UK tomorrow", so did your flight or your plans get changed or was that just to try to make them hurry up?

Your rig will be repaired but you might have to give them more time than a week.

Also, there are many "on site service" reps so how quickly they reply may depend on where you want the service.

If you are truly that dissatisfied with your service, maybe you should return your rig and get a brand that offers next day on site service. Are there any?

 

If you were leaving a week after your comp crapped out, shouldn't you have mentioned that initially so they could put a rush on it. People don't move as fast if they think they have unlimited time on their hands.

 

The Dell reps need to follow the case through and they are not doing it.

Then they should really say they need more time.

 

I called last Wednesday about it being fixed, they said 2-3 days max. I called yesterday and they said I should have been called on Thursday and that it was a next-day, in home replacement. I gave them a full week to fix my system that I've had for 4 days, and not one person has called me back about anything (hard drive caddy, GPU upgrade, Windows 7 upgrade).

 

Yes they should, but lets face it, T.S. reps of any company aren't high paid employees and are only doing what they can. The rep get's a complaint of a problem, and begins a work order with the third party contractor who does repairs on site. Some repair people are able to respond immediately while others cannot, due to location or workload. I hardly think the A.W. rep is responsable for every single reps workload, location and schedule. Remember, these reps are doing repairs on many, many brands of computers. There are no exclusive A.W. field repairmen.

 

I understand what your saying but it's still an excuse for the particular rep he is working with. I'm sure there are much better working in that pool of customer service but he got stuck with a bad one.

 

This is ridiculous..I found out they accepted my part request or w/e last week, and then they expedited the process for me but then they needed another approval, which didn't happen until yesterday. So I straight up told the supervisor "you tried to expedite the repair, but in doing so actually made it take longer?" and he's like "yes, sorry about that". What a bunch of useless pricks, at least they overnight shipped the part to the in-home repair guy, and I got the dudes number I was talking to today so if the in-home doesn't call me tomorrow, someone will be getting an interesting phone call. That thing about the UK is BS but I am going on vacation for three weeks and I was planning on taking the laptop.

 

only took me 3 days because i called @ 11pm part was shipped the next day

 

I suspected as much.




I hope you get your rig repaired soon.

 

You actually don't have to lie to them, it won't change anything. The fact is if you were staying home they should still repair your PC as fast a possible and if it cannot be done in a reasonable amount of time, they should simply replace it.

It is not normal. With my problem I was actually really mad because it shows they did not test the PC. The screen came chipped for christ sake... That means they just send defective products to consumer. It reminds me of Microsoft at the time of Windows 95...

 

I can't attest to AW repair, but for 4 years I had onsite support for my XPS Gen2, which ran out couple of months ago.
Third party repair man-surely, but I bet if you complained to DELL, there are retroactions for the repair contractor.
I can attest that on site tech is GOOD.
Just a list of what have been replaced in my laptop in course of 4 years-EVERYTHING. (4 LCD screens, original busted, 1 defective, 1 low quality, the forth was the charm), the case (vent grill broke), the tech accidently ripped out the wire on the motherboard for subwoofer (so needed new MB), new optical drive, 2 batteries, keyboard.
So I have extensive experience with on-site. USUALLY they are good. The only hiccup that I had when I formatted the HD to get bloatwears, my remote for laptop would not work, nothing listed, and Dell was useless. Upon reading on MS, I got the patch. Confronted Dell tech, and he was completely clueless...

I am sorry that you are under a gun and frustrated and w/o a laptop. Light up a fire under CSR. Dell in my experience has a decent service and there is NO EXCUSES 3 party or not. Did you pay to DELL? Is your contract for service with Dell? I don't care how, by whom and when the repair gets done- I was promised/sold service-please deliver on you promise! Don't lose the cool, understand that getting pissed at Dell CSR would not get anything done better, but you are a customer that paid for service...Dell screwed up? Half of my PCs I bought at retail pricing- not a penny discount...but I am known to haggle with CSR for repair/upgrade part
Good luck.
ilber

 

Haha yeah, Thanks.

Lying doesn't change anything? So then regardless of the situation they still suck :/. They won't replace it, although I have 30 days to return it to them..then I can order a new one.

Sucks about your screen man, did you get that fixed?

 

Wow, you sure have a lot of experiences in this area. I didn't get upset/yell at them, I passively through in a couple swear words, but I talk like that anyway, I'm going to call of an upgrade or something if I don't get a call tomorrow as promised..again. I didn't get a discount on this either, full retail since I didn't know about the discount programs when I ordered.

 

I was promised to get a call today from the in-home service rep...but guess what? No call!! I got my desktop back and running but I'm still working on the laptop..they say I'm getting a call tomorrow but I doubt it. Just thought I'd give you guys an update.