Worst Customer Service Experience I have ever recieved

Received my new XPS 9350 yesterday and the touchpad wouldn't respond to small movements, especially diagnonal ones, and it would jerk around as it did and jump in unexpected directions. I tried the Synaptics fix that is posted on this board, but it made the motions unpredictable so I went back to the original config.

This morning I called Dell Support and after testing and trying different things that didn't help, the technician decided to reset Windows 10.

After the reset, the keyboard stopped responding so i couldn't log into windows.

The rep then asked me to ship the computer back and I would have it looked at in 7 business days, which is a week and a half without a computer. I reminded him I had the Complete Care service plan and his reply was that because they did not know what the issue was I would need to send it back.

Has this ever happened to anyone before? I've had a lot of bad experiences in my days, but this one tops LOL. I hope they didn't lie about being able to get a full refund, because then I'd actually be mad.

I hope we can all laugh a little about this... it really does take the cake.

 

If this really is your worst customer service experience with the tech industry, then you've done remarkably well so far I'd be very surprised if they turn it around in only 7 days. That's usually where the horror stories start. Request a full refund and order a new one to dodge that bullet.

To be fair to Dell, it's bizarre that a reset should have disabled the keyboard, I haven't heard of anything like that before so it points to an edge case hardware problem. It seems a reasonable enough option for a technician to have proposed a reset in these circumstances. Their onsite techs presumably aren't able to deal with these kinds of edge cases.

 

If you're talking to a customer support rep (from any company), and you don't like an answer you are given, then hang up and call back until you get an answer you DO like.

In your situation, I am guessing that the CSR with whom you spoke doesn't know how to request a next-day on-site service call; and only knows how to do a mail-in service request. And therefore, is guiding you towards the mail-in because that's all s/he knows how do.

I'm also guessing that you spoke to someone out of a call center in the Philippines. In the Philippines, it isn't in the work culture to ask for help if they don't know an answer. An employee would rather give a customer the wrong answer, than to say "Hold on, let me ask someone to make sure I give you the right answer.". It's just not in the culture there.

But what about customer satisfaction? Or making sure the employees are properly trained, to make sure they consistent customer satisfaction? Well, remember this is an overseas call center. Overseas call centers usually don't measure customer satisfaction. Most of them just measure case close metrics (close rate, average time-to-close, average close rate on 1st call, etc). The call center operating company doesn't care about customer satisfaction, if they aren't measured (and therefore paid) on that metric. Dell also doesn't care about customer satisfaction either... Which is why they use overseas call centers. (But note that Dell's business laptops and business service call centers are based in the US, because they DO care about customer satiafaction for their business customers; some of whom have very large annual service contracts).

You could also try complaining about poor CSR training. But that is also a waste of time, since the quality of training is a result of top-down policies. The training problem is systemic, and won't be solved by one complaint from a customer.

So. If you get an answer you don't like from a CSR in an overseas call center, call back until you get an answer you do like. It's far more likely that the CSR doesn't know what s/he is talking about, than it is likely that the CSR actually DOES know what's going on and giving you the bottom-line correct answer.





Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

They always want you to ship it back to be repaired. Don't take that answer, it's a new computer and you want a new working computer to replace it. Tell them to either send you a new one or cancel this order and you'll place a new one.

 

I promise you, this approach will not work. If you get on the phone demanding a new computer, you will get stonewalled so hard and so fast, it will make your head spin.

It only works for companies that have a culture of "keep the customer happy, above all else.". And Dell is not one of those companies.

In order for Dell to send you a replacement laptop, you would have needed to go through 4 cycles of attempted fixes through regular warranty service means. A CSR tech on the phone does not have that level of authority; nor does his/her direct manager. You need to go even higher than that. And that person will not even look at a request, until at least 4 warranty repairs have been attempted.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

To OP:

Wait, I never asked. Did you buy the on-site warranty repair service? The basic warranty is 1-year mail-in service.

On-site service is called Premium Support, and it is different that Complete Care (which only covers accidental damage. It does not automatically upgrade you from mail-in to on-site service).


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

Your promise doesn't hold up when I've been able to get new laptops instead of warranty repair, as have many other forum members.

It may take some doing, but it's totally possible. Not to mention the OP is within the 30 day return period. Worst case scenario is to return the laptop and reorder.

 

Considering this is Dell, I was expecting a much, much worse story.

 

Odd, I have now had 4 new replacement 9530's followed by 4 9550's when my last 9530 had 3 visits to repair it during months 12 to 18.

So yes you can demand they replace your new defective laptop with a new replacement rather than have your new laptop ripped apart by some 3rd party untrained tech.