Dell Class Action?

Dell Business Gold support is phenomenal! I've had one rep take personal responsibility for any and all support requests I have. She's an amazing individual and has gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to supporting our Dell machines.

I can't say that about any other company I've ever dealt with.

 

I know it's wrong, but here's what I do when XPS chatline isn't available.

Use my M90's Gold support, ask them to transfer me to XPS lol.

Takes about 3 minutes even when XPS chat is not available due to high demand..

Gold support owns.

 

Be persistent, tell the CSR that you would sue if they don't give you a refund. You can probably bluff your way into getting something.

 

You know why you see so many "complaints" about dell? That's because everyone that has a problem with their Dell computer comes here to get help. But what about all the people that are happy with their Dells? They don't come on here to praise about it, so all you see are the complaints.

If you actually had numbers of dissatisfied customers vs satisfied customers and those were close, then yes I'd say you have a case that Dell is building bad computers. But if all you see are a couple complaints, then you have no basis to say how big of a percentage those are out of all the people out there.

You just see the bad side, but how about looking at the good side and the people that are actually happy with their Dells? But you don't see those, because only people with complaints or problems post on these boards. That's why it seems that there are so many complaints vs praises.

 

If that's true about every brand of laptop and i guess it would be - go the front of this forum where it lists all the sub-forums for all the laptop makes ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1002 ) and which make has the most posts? Yep, Dell with 22,112 posts - next closest is Asus with 12,441 posts). So *if* it's people having problems that are the majority of the posters then it would indeed appear that Dell are the worst.

I've just had a scuffle with them myself. In a nutshell they told me that i couldn't get a refund on a faulty days old laptop because it had been bought over the web. One call to a legal friend and an assertive call back to Dell threatening legal action later and surprise surprise they admitted they were wrong and bent over backwards to rectify my issue.

I love my Dell machine but their Customer Service is horrendous, of all the companies i've dealt with theirs is by far the most sloppy. They are either very ill informed or told to lie in order to avoid giving money back to customers. My advice to anyone having problems with them is to do your research, make damn sure you have your facts straight and then give it to them with both barrels. If they feel they can take advantage they will do it in a hearbeat.

 

And you should judge how bad a company is by the number of posts on a public forum.

Not all posts are about problems either, so to use those numbers only draws a flawed conclusion.

How many laptops does Dell ship in a year compared to Asus? If Dell is shipping out more, obviously there are going to be more customers making more posts.

You can't seriously think that a company as large as Dell, purposely tells their employees to lie to customers? That's just ridiculous.

I've had exceptional customer service from Dell and ended up getting $400 back on my m1330 purchase because of a few aesthetic problems. That's going above and beyond in my books!

If you walk into any situation and you haven't done your research, you're bound to look like a fool. The same could be said about some of the Dell employees which seem to not know their head from their ass. They may not have all the information they need to handle a customer complaint properly and then are forced to make a bad judgment call.

If you really feel that companies are out to take advantage of you, then perhaps they can see a sucker coming. Yes there are some companies like that, but IMO Dell is not one of them.

 

It's ridiculous, unforunately it's true. Though, I'm not sure if Dell explicits tells their employees to lie, but obviously there's the incentive. If they lie to costumers to get more sales and later get promoted, then obviously they would. For example, during the laptop delays a lot of people phoned the CSRs and were told that they would get their laptops within a certain period (no estimates, more like exact time), and they didn't. After my first delay, I phoned Dell and the CSR told me that it's the yellow paint which caused the delay, and they would get the paint by Monday (I called on Sat.), and production and boxing would take two more days after Mon. Shipping would then take a week. So, I should've received the laptop on 8/27, but I had to cancel my order around 9/10.

 

i would jsut like to say that while working my last job for 4 years, we were a dell house. we bought roughly 8500 dell pc's and laptops over the years and i deployed them and serviced them the entire time. out of each bunch of say 300-500 computers only 1-2 would have something wrong with them, and dell would promptly send a new one. parts that need fixed, if you are halfway competent, you can get them next day. With the volume of laptops i saw and the insane low rate of problems, id say dell is a wonderful company and i will always buy my laptops and recommend to others the same.

good luck with suing dell buddy...

 

I would have to say that my business experience with Dell has been similar, and just as positive.

Exchanges on defective equipment were usually next day, and new equipment orders were received relatively quickly as well.

 

If you re-read my post you will see that i was commenting to adinu that if people only come to these forums to complain then judging by the fact that the dell forum has more posts (of people aparrently only here to complain) then that would suggest a lot of disgruntled people. I don't agree that people only come here to complain, perhaps i should have been more clear.

I suggested that they are either lying or are ill informed. I spoke to both a CS worker and his manager, they both told me that i could not get a refund on my new faulty laptop because i bought it online - absolutely no way, they were adamant. They were both either ill informed or lying because i can and indeed have got a refund.

Speaking of lying have you ever heard the one about large companies telling their indian call center operators to give themselves an English sounding name for when people call up? Indrani Ghosh suddenly becomes Mary Smith. I will say that for Dell, the person i spoke to was authentic, could barely understand a word of what he was saying and sure as hell couldn't pronounce his name. Just what you need when you're trying to get across the finer details.

I've now racked up just over 3 hours of calls with Dell for what should have been a straightforward swap. The other laptop had a bulging keyboard that i fixed myself because i have so little faith in them giving me a better repacement. Not what you expect to be doing after handing over almost £2,000. I hardly call that exceptional.

I realise that a laptop is complex and things do go wrong. I've bought many machines over the years and sometimes things have gone wrong. So far, Dell is bottom of the pile for sorting things out.

 

I understood your point, but you fail to realize that there are more posts because Dell ships so many laptops.

For arguments sake, say that 10% of a manufacturers customers come here to complain. If Asus has 100,000 customers then 10,000 customers will come here. If Dell has 1,000,000 customers, then 100,000 customers will come here. Although the physical numbers are larger for Dell, it's the same percentage of total sales.

I work with several people whose nationality gives them names which are hard for English speaking people to pronounce (given enough practice however it's possible). Dell is trying to make the customer experience as easy as possible by having the CSRs use English names. I don't see anything wrong with that. If I call Dell and have to remember the CSRs name, it's much easier to remember Mary Smith, than Indrani Ghosh.....especially if I have to call back with any questions.

I've also personally been at a job where I was told to use another name in order to protect myself. It's more common a practice than you realize.

And you're correct. Dell does need to tighten up their QC and realize that it's only their reputation being damaged since customers will go elsewhere to get what they want.

I'm sorry to hear that, as I've had exactly the opposite experience. The problems I've had, have always been resolved satisfactorily and within an appropriate amount of time. Perhaps another example of how Dell needs to align their practices across the board.

 

That's the short version right there. You see, I told you in my previous post that if Dell wasn't helping you it was because A) You bought the notebook longer than 30 days ago and B) It's out of warranty. It's too bad you didn't pay the small amount for the extended warranty, but you live and learn! Dell gives this option anytime within the original 1 year warranty period.

Unless you could buy a brand new M1210 for less than $500, that would've been your best bet.

I understand your frustration, but it doesn't seem like there's enough of an engineering problem with this model to warrant a class action suit. The Inspiron 5150 was a different story. Everybody and their great cousin knew those things had serious issues.

 

So this seems to be the general consensus:

If you buy/work with Dell laptops as part of your business, then you have a whole array of standard testing procedures when the machine comes through the door, AND if something goes wrong, then Dell promptly fixes it.

However, if you are an individual consumer that purchases the machine for personal use and therefore does not have a business relationship with Dell (i.e., a contract for hundreds or thousands of machines), then the CS is crap.

And I have noticed that all the people talking down to me about how it's just tough luck on my part, or that I'm dumb for either not subjecting my machien to rigorous test upon arrival or for trying to fix it myself, are those who work in IT in some manner for a company that has a business contract with Dell. However, those who have been understanding and supportive of my problem are the ones who are individual machine-buying, personal users.

Doesn't this suggest that the problem is that Dell doesn't care one whit for its individual customers and has shifted all its resources to its large clients? From an economic standpoint this makes sense, but it certainly doesn't encourage those of us who just want to buy a single machine for our own use.

So I've pretty much learned from this experience a number of things:

1. Never buy a home machine from Dell.

2. Never ask IT professionals for opinions, because they'll just talk down to you like you're an idiot (and in the case of Khris, will find anything to shoot at you, regardless of whether it has to do with what is being discussed).

3. Always spend exhorbitant amounts of money on extended warranty plans--like the ones that every consumer group in the world tells you is a waste of money.

4. Don't trust that what you're buying is a quality product. It won't last very long and you'll have to go through a huge ordeal to get it fixed.

5. Don't ask for help, or you will be ridiculed. Especially don't try to explain yourself, or it will turn into a giant flame session, even though you're just trying to figure things out.

I think that about covers it. Did I miss anything?

 

While some of us may work or have worked for a company that is a dell house, and we repair them etc, when it comes to our home computers, we have to call the same numbers, email the same people, or chat with he same people as you. there is no difference.

its not a huge ordeal to have items fixed. you call them up, explain the situation, they try and walk you through some software fixes, and if that doesn't help, they issue a part replacement. how is that hard?

what would you specifically wish dell to do differently?

 

ROTFLMFAO. I only read the first two pages of this thread and I can already tell gzilla37 isn't an attorney.

My experience with Dell has been great. Only downside to that is I paid big bucks for my computers. So I built this one I'm using now and it's awesome.

Only people who talk bad things about Dell are people who use low-end Dell systems at school or people who bought low-end Dell systems for home use. What do you expect for $500??

Just out of curiosity, is there a MOD for these forums?

 

there are lots of mods floating the forums, and i do think its obvious hes not an attorney. my guess is hes still in highschool

i definitely agree though, you DO get what you pay for.

 

I've had similar support success for all of my home purchases as well. Neither home or business inquiries have given me any preferential treatment.

There's a reason people are considered IT Professionals......they know what their doing and their opinion is based upon experience. An "Attorney" should be the first person to realize this.

As for your little dig, it's hard not to shoot at you when there are so many targets waiting to be hit.

Dell Complete Care has it's pros and cons. IMO, it's well worth the money for the security of knowing my laptop will be replaced in the event of an accident.

And it's spelled "Exorbitant". Oh wait......that's just me shooting at you again. Oops, sorry!

Rubbish, plain and simple.

It's all how you come across pumpkin. Unfortunately for you, you came across as a prick and I'm not the only one to notice.

In the words of Artie Lange.... "WAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

 

+ rep for making me laugh and speaking the truth

 

Duh...not logic at all. Should I tell you MY story of getting my dead M1210 replaced by a M1330 by Dell FOR FREE with TONS of FREE UPGRADES JUST BECAUSE I AM STILL IN WARRANTY?

Though consumer groups said it's a waste of money, didn't you think about whether their claims were correct or not? That's something called critical thinking in the world that you should justify others' statements by YOURSELF.

Finally, how old are you? 13? Com'on, be civilized and stop acting like a kid. What you all need to do is to cry inside your bedroom that why you didn't expend your warranty. Electronics are easier than other goods to have defects. You better got your lesson.

 

Agreed with alexzeon you do not sound like a lawyer if you where you would have dealt with the problem and have got no where in the court of law, then you would have not posted on these forums. You cannot force a company to take back something that is not under warranty I still have a Ford model T that needs a new engine but do I complain to Ford and say hey fix this now it was not built right. Please just tell use the truth on these forums we are not dumb we do not get fooled you are not a lawyer!

 

If you have a Ford Model T... I'll buy it for double of what paid for it back in... the 1900s. LOL

 

Only in America...

 

this is true...BUT the industry standard for defective electronic (regardless of what electronic device) is 2-3%...I know this because I will be working in this industry in the next year (I'm studying Electronic Engineering & Computer Science with Honors, and in my final year).

From reading these forums alone, the defect rate of the M1330 and DELL laptops in general seems to be quite a bit more than 2-3%!

Now I dont know if any of you guys know of the whole Micro$oft XBOX 360 fiasco. But if you don't let me brief you on it.

The XBOX 360 is prone to what's called "the ring of death", this is when the console overheats, and the BGA solder points at the edges soften, then the cheapo 'X' clamps used to hold down the heatsinks flex the mobo and break the BGA contacts of the GPU chip at the edge. This causes 3 lights on the "ring of lights" to flash red (3 red light syndrome).

Now M$ continued to insist that the failure rate of the 360 was within industry standard of 2-3%, despite a lot of retailers claiming otherwise (more like a failure rate of 33%).

Then EVENTUALLY, after almost 2 whole years, M$ came clean and admitted that the failure rate was nearer the 33% range, and no-where near the 2-3% mark! As a result of this, they ended up forking out $1 billion to extend the warranty of ALL 360s to 3-years free of charge (but only for 3 red light syndrome).

You might be wondering WTF does this have to do with DELL laptops? Well my theory is that (esp with the M1330), if they still have all these manufacturing problems after a few years, they will do exactly what M$ did, and for out A LOT of money to extend people warranties because of their shoddy workmanship!

 

I think the people at this web site may be more sympathetic to are cause!!!
I to have become a victom to Dell's support they kept promising to resolve my issue I just needed to be tranfered to a diffrent department. This went on for 3 months and some times waited by the phone for 8 hours as they promised some one would call. I finaly lost it today since I know own a $3000 dollar paper weight. My issue is the same as all these people on this web site.

http://popey.com/My_Sick_Dell_Inspiron_XPS_Gen_2_Laptop

 

If I can get Dell to replace my my screen which Dell says nothing is wrong with in the first place, with a screen that Dell says "is out of stock", "is not compatible with my computer", and "is explicitly prohibited by management", then I think you can probably get Dell to fix your video card.

 

Thread closed.

Guys,

Please dont revive old thread.

Thx
Kdawgca