Dell technician trys to mislead me then hangs up

I've been working with a Dell technician named "Mandeep Choudhary -Senior Support Resolver" regarding replacement of my E1705. We were discussing the Studio 17 replacement that was set up and its' significant inferiorness, starting with the processor which insultingly had half the L2 cache, and no Intel virtualization support. The RAM was greater in capacity however dual-channel mode would be disabled due to the use of different sized memory modules. The screen 1920x1080 was less than 1920x1200 and he was explaining to me that this was an upgrade to "HD," clearly a lie - my complaint is that I'm losing screen space and resolution, and due to the aspect ratio, the laptop ends up being significantly larger, actually a whole 3 inches wider than the E1705. After I explaining that the Studio 17 wouldn't fit in my "workstation" and that the resolution was inferior - ie my desk, as well, he hung up on me. I suggested that as a compromise for these differences I receive an XPS 16 and he informed me he has no way to suggest that and seemed fairly against that, even though it matched the requirements better.

Now this guy was working with me after I entered a complaint into the "Unresolved Issues" section on Dell's website. Is there someone higher than this department that I can go to about this technician and replacement computer problems?

 

Try the chat and ask them for a customer resolutions escalation manager. File a BBB complaint; Users at notebookforums.com report that Dell support execs get involved to handle BBB complaints.

 

I found the email addresses of the entire board of directors - someone had success complaining directly to them. Now that I think about it this technician also claimed I voided my warranty by installing my own hard drive and memory, which he later retracted after I provided evidence otherwise. There's something up with the way he's been handling my case, lying and attempting to mislead me about the possibilities and expectations I have of Dell.

 

As a comparison, here's the specifications of the new system:

Pentium Dual Core T4300 2.1GHz 1MB L2 Cache, no virtualization
Radeon Mobility 5570 512MB 800MHz 64-bit DDR2
3GB DDR3 - single channel
1080p display 16:9

My Inspiron:

Core Duo T2500 2GHz 2MB L2 cache, w/ virtualization
GeForce Go 7900 GS 256MB 500MHz 256-bit GDDR3
4GB DDR2 667MHz dual-channel
1200p display 16:10

The Studio 17 is also an inch wider from the base, and I thought my E1705 was already a behemoth.

The only thing they hooked me up with was Windows Vista Ultimate, but technically I had XP Pro so that's the only edition that qualifies anyway.

 

That is not a good replacement in my opinion. Nowadays, the T4300 is not a very a good processor, they should have give you at least a refurbished studio with a Core2Duo.

I would ask for a escalation case manager and ditch the rep you currently have. It is not ethical to treat a customer this way.

Only the SXPS 1640 matches your specs with the 7900.

 

well they are now offering XPS 1640 with a Intel Core Duo 2 P7450 which shouldn't be lower in performance and changed to 4GB DDR3 dual channel memory, the video card isn't listed in the specs though. I didn't need to contact an escalation manager to get this done but it seems the technician this time was willing to correct the mistakes he had made. There's still some issues to be worked out.

 

I misread, P7450 doesn't have virtualization. otherwise it's at least as fast as what I Have - I don't know if this is the final configuration because they haven't told me yet, this is just what appears on the website. I'll just wait and see.

 

The XPS 16 shipped today, overnight. That was fast. Here's the specs.

 

Congrats. You got lucky. Many of us have been waiting for over a month. Its a great system. You could have asked for a better CPU, but great deal nonetheless.

Did you do a BBB complaint?

Is your SXPS 1640 Brand new or a refurbished one?

 

I think it's brand new, cost in the order says $1370. I might sell it or try to return it if it has so called color dithering issues, because it's not the RGBLED, I do occasional photo editing and need 100% color gamut/8-bit color like my E1705 had. It's gotta be gameable as well. The way he was talking was like it would be done to absolute satisfaction, maybe he plans to send replacements for the rest or something.

 

I see. You can have them swap it out for a RGBLED for sure. Video card and CPU would take more convincing, but they should do the RGBLED def. Ask for accessories too if you got any with your E1705.
Good luck.

 

Well he said definitely that I would get a CPU with virtualization and I really need that, I mess around with running Linux in virtualization, as well as Windows Server and now XP Mode in Windows 7. I just figured that the video card might not be mentioend but doesn't all XPS 16's come stock with a pretty decent video card? so guess we'll find out tomoorrow, i hope it can run Quake Live well, I haven't been able to play in almost a month since the video card was downgraded to a X1400 from the GeForce.

 

Due to lack of virtualization - Dell has now instructed me to build a new configuration of my choosing and that will be built brand new. The two cheapest processors with virtualization support are the P8700 and i7 720QM. Using a link from techbargains, the 720QM system is cheaper and thus it looks like I'm getting a decked out quad-core notebook with Radeon 4670, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, X-Fi sound card, Windows 7 Ultimate, 9-cell battery, Intel WiFi, etc, etc. I don't expect it to be all that better than my E1705, except for the CPU which will give a nice performance boost both for dual-core apps and quad core apps.

 

I'm having Quake Live withdrawals.

 

I'm using the XPS 16 I got, planning to send it back later, I don't even like this machine. All the ports are on the side of the unit and there's only 3 USB ports. The screen's 16:9 ratio is horrible, it just makes the screen look a lot more squished than 16:10. And btw, Dell agreed to build the new system I requested with the Core i7 and whatnot, it will happen next week. I'm going to talk to them and make sure they might not be willing to send an XPS 1730M or Alienware M17x though. I think those are both 17" systems with 16:10 aspect ratios and would be a lot better.

 

I would stay away form 1730s, they are prone to overheat and will blow the graphics cards. Check notebookforums.com for the issues wiht 1730s.