How would you rate dells customer service?

How would you rate dells customer service? I personally am not too impressed. They offer good chating service. Once you get to talking to the right person that can help you out, and don't get cut off on the phone then its okay. They have done a very good job of replacing parts HD's and CD Drives, and send them back UPS nextday air!

 

I have no experience with other computer manufacturers' customer service. I base my rating of "not so good" on what I believe are fair and reasonable expectations: I do not expect them to be able to fix every problem, but:
1) I expect a friendly tone. I've had crappy jobs, so I don't want to hear any objections based on it being one of them. If I can work at a toy store, video-rental store, or telephone fundraising company and be friendly all day, so can the Dell reps.
2) I do not want to be patronized.
3) I do expect them to be able to solve some of the problems.
4) This problem seems to apply to many companies: Often, representatives simply will not tell callers what needs to be done to fix the problem. Sometimes, this is a matter of policy, and sometimes it's less official.
5) I think it is reasonable to expect to be able to understand the representative's words without making a concerted effort to do so.

A note: I really couldn't care less about where someone is from. Politically, I also have no problems with exporting jobs, though my liberal appropriation of the stance has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the company. I like the idea of sending jobs to poorer countries, but only because I like the idea of sending money to poorer countries. If you send the jobs, you should have to send the money - and not only a small fraction of it.

Howie

 

Not good on the phone, alot of hang-ups. (From my experience)...good on the net via chat.

 

My ac adapter went bad on Monday. Dell shipped a new one the same day. I got it today. And no charge to me. That is what I call great.

 

my i9300 shipped with a defective dvd burner, I called, explained my probelm, and Dell shipped a new drive to my house in three days (over the holidays).

Great Service.

 

Returned my i9300 (within 21 days), took about 2 weeks for dell to receive, inspect and credit my account. Ordered a different model (XPS 140) on a Saturday (Friday- late) and got the new unit (with upgrades) on Tues. evening.

My primary complaints are :

1. I'd like to have people I can understand easily on the phone. I feel like an a-hole saying " excuse me, would you mind repeating that? I think I have static in my phone" because I didn't understand what should be simple to understand.

Bottom line on that is... if you want to speak with an American (or other fluid English speaking person), then plan on paying more for your Dell products and services. Outsourced support saves Dell snotloads of money and they sorta pass that onto us. Other companies do the same thing. It's about staying competitive.

2. Chatted with 3 dell support reps, one was rude. Spoke with multiple Dell phone support reps, one was rude and unwilling to 'go out of his way' to provide me any sort of answers.


This one isn't a Cust. Serv. issue, but more or less a lame-ness I've noticed while attempting an online purchase.

I have a need for another notebook other than the XPS I just purchased. My dell account has close to enough available to purchase another unit but it's a few bucks short. (around 90 bones). I wanted to purchase the unit using the balance of my Dell acct. and use one of my credit cards for the rest. A phone call to Dell Financial Services made me realize that it's not possible to do that.

They'd probably sell more merchandise if they offered that option. For me, it just saved me from spending money I don't have this week anyway. I'll wait until next week when I can just purchase it outright (from another retailer).

 

I'm not sure whether my complaints have to do with the quality of the Inspirons or just their Tech support.

Mainly my thing about it, they don't have the same answers within the company. You can call 3 different techs and get 3 different answers. Now on complex stuff, I could understand this. But on simple things like ordering CDs, it just doesn't make sense.

The phone support is pretty bad. In addition to long waits, there is the language barrier issue. Sometimes the chat isn't helpful either. I've called before requesting a part. I was to the point of just wanting to send the laptop in and have it worked on, but they kept insisting that tech come to my house which is not the ideal situation for me since nobody is ever home. They literally refused to let me send it in.

I'm sure my complaints are similar to complaints for other manufacturers, but the support that dell offers could be alot better considering they are suppose to be the #1 laptop seller.

 

I don't think dell should have people who don't know how to speak English on the phone. When I talked to them, I somtimes get people with horrible accents, that I can hardly even understand. I think they should train there techs and phone reps better, and make sure they can talk well, and you can understand them. And then there system isn't very good. Your on old for 1/2 of the time, then when you get someone on the phone they transfer you to another department and you wait another 5-10 mins.

Has anyone tried dells new "Tech Direct" that they announced at the CES in Las Vegas? They are suppose to fix some of the software or driver problems via internet, and take controll of your computer.

 

I can't really rate it yet. I've only had my 6000D out of the box since Christmas morning. =) I'm keeping my fingers crossed. <<;

 

I heard about it, but haven't tried it. Maybe it is just me, but I have a hard time trusting that some of the techs know what they are doing.

 

Tech Direct sounds like the 'fix it for me' option on AOL. I don't trust it either. I can't tell you how many friends I have who've had to flat out reformat after runing AOL's fix it bot.

 

You can watch everything that there doing, while they do it, or they can guide you through the steps. If they do somthing you don't want them to, simply disconect the internet immediatly, and no harm has been done. Its not like a dell tech is going to plant a virus or anything. I would feel pritty safe about it. Why is it that you you guys don't like about it?

 

It just depends. I like the idea if the tech actually has experience (like the at-home techs they send out), but if they are just going to use the techs that are reading from a troubleshoot book and have no experience with actually troubleshooting, then I might be a little hesistant.

 

Amen sister! Thats probably exactly what Tech Direct would be, just like their telephone tech support. Somebody in India who introduces himself as Abraham Lincoln(True story. It happened!); because Dell told him to use a name American's are familiar with, reading from a NIIT textbook (Not trying to subjest anything offensive, but you know how bad their english is.) to try and fix my machine. I think I'm a bit hesistant as well.

 

I'm guessing that the tech's would be a little bit more educated in fixing your computer then the random dell rep thats there with "bad English" trying to help you out. It is suppose to have a 99% satisfaction rate! 99%!!! How could you go wrong?

 

So are you saying that Hardware and Software Engineers should be tech support. If so, I maybe have a future in tech support because I'm a Computer Engineering Undergrad. Let the money just pour in!!! (I just had to say that lol)

 

LOL, I wasn't saying that. I was saying that if you are going to be a computer tech, at least have some experience repairing laptops...not just reading it from a book.

 

True, I need to be developing something (hopefully processors) instead of talking on the phone.

 

No complaints with their customer service here... Yea the phone tag game can be annoying, but their hardware service and replacement has always been extremely speedy.

cheers,

yass

 

So far from all of the votes, if you take an average, the answer would be: Average, just okay.. not bad not good. yassarian, I totally agree with you. There hardware service is great! What they need to work on is there phone service. Make it more speedy and efficient, and have people that know how to speak the language properly.

 

Yes, that is why Dell Chat is perfect.

 

I've watched the quality of Dell's products and their tech support
decline rapidly over that last few years. I used to swear by Dell's products, now I swear AT THEM!! Their CS has to be close to the worst in the industry. I don't blame the techs, I blame Dell for hiring incompetent people to save $$ with no regard for the customer's interest. I will agree that their part replacement is very fast IF they ever diagnose the problem correctly. The chat support is a great idea and very convenient, unfortunately the techs on the other end are generally clueless. Every time you connect you get a different tech, even if you have a case number you have to retell your story every time. They have the case no. can't they look up the info? Noone would ever answer this question for me. I spent months trying to get an issue resolved (and never did) when I found the solution in Dell's own online knowledge Base in about 15 minutes. I told this to every tech I talked too, but they apparently do not have access to their own db of issues and resolutions, some did not even know what it was. I spent the better part of an evening with a tech who was trying to convince me to downgrade my bios to an older version when the previous tech told me I had to upgrade. "I cannot help you until you do this". What a crock. Needless to say I will not spend any more of my money on Dell products and replaced my
crappy dead Inspiron 8200 with an HP.
Interestingly enough, I have been hearing a lot of Dell horror stories lately, and Dell is in complete denial. Is this is a company that is loosing (or lost) touch with their market? Well you know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I have been lurking on this site for a few weeks looking for a replacment for my COD (crappy old Dell) and just had to chime in when I saw this thread.

 

I agree that Dell's phone support is utterly inconsistent, that of course can work to your advantage in the ordering stage and than backfire miserably on you if you need any product support.

Webchat was fine, nothing really bad to say about it.

E-Mail support I find is usually very good, answering questions and providing resolution usually within 3 E-mails.

Its not the worst overall.... Sony comes to mind here. Generally get what you pay for. I generally don't order Dell expecting stellar service, just very low pricing, first to market products, and fast delivery.

 

I'd like to know what people have to say about differences in customer service between the different divisions, i.e. between Dell Home, Dell Business and Dell EPP. I've been reading a bit through this forum..sounds like Dell business support and service is a little better, but I have no experience w/ this. I'm considering buying a laptop from Dell and I'm finding the same configurations are more expensive thru Dell Business, but if it means better service and support, I'd be willing to pay a little more. Dell EPP seems to have a decent price, but again, I'm not sure if all their support is us-based or not. Any facts or opinions on this?

 

My experience with dell has been good for the most part. My hard drive failed at one point and they sent me the new one pretty quick though it did take about an hour on the phone talking to them before they would send it.

Then another inspiron I owned has had more issues. Someone spilt a drink on it and fried it. I sent it in and they fixed everything and had it back in a couple days. The same pc had its monitor die recently and they replaced it in five days (to slow I would have liked it done sooner) but the tech's they've sent have always been great. I watch them work and learn how to work on things and more about my machines, ask questions and chat etc.

The most annoying thing is talking on the phone with them either getting disconnected or having to deal with their accents etc.

Also not sure if it matters but I use a dell preferred acount and buy the extended warranties on all my machines (including accidental damage)

 

Well, although it's not a laptop related repair, we have Dell servers (yeah, this forum runs on a Dell) and we've had both problems with the NIC and hard drives over the past 3-years and they've always been highly responsive, usually more so than we want them to be. They wanted to send a tech out on a Sunday for a minor problem, but man, that's not a working day. Lol.

Laptop customer service and business/server oriented service are of course different beasts and can't really compare those though. The service support for servers is critical and a highly competitive and important aspect of what you buy when you get a server. We've found Dell to be very good on this.

 

Since I own a Dell Dimension 8300, I'll post.

I have had this machine for three years, and it has worked flawlessly, as I would expect of a $2,800 machine.

I had to call tech support two signifigant times - once, there was a problem with my Radeon 9800XT video card getting power. I kept getting an error message, and the machine wouldn't even boot up. So I called Dell, and they walked me through opening the case and unplugging and reinserting a few cables, which fixed the problem. Very easy, and they spoke english pretty well.

I'm glad I have a 4 year warranty with accidental damage on this thing - once, my $540 [at the time] video card got fried in a power surge. I called Dell, they had me do one or two tests to isolate the problem [it wasn't immediately apparant that the video card was shot], which was indeed the video card.

They confirmed it was the video card, then it took them about five minutes to arrange for a new card to be sent to me, and to log the problem. Very simple, I was impressed. Got the new card a few days later, sent the old one back - great.

That was about a year ago, haven't had any problems since!

I voted Dell as "quite good".

Cheers

 

Have not even recieved the computer still waiting for the courrier to deliver the product...they said dell did not provide the correct addrsss. and of course dell said they did, have been on the phone with them ( dell and courrier)all day ...threatend to cancel 2 times...said it wont be here for another 2 days, but thet apparently drove by my office today with it in my truck? If your going to order a dell think twice about the customer service and the delivery of your product they really seemed not to care at all once the order is shipped...and the courrier really should be in another business...I just hate companies that can not provide first call resolution ..

 

dell outsources their work to call centers, customer service, tech support , provided by the lowest bidder . there representatives can lose heir jobs for talking too long on the phone so this is why they rush you off the phone. (this is called average handle time), and get this they also get in trouble if you call in again, even woth a different issue.They track all calls all reasons for calls, and eeverone who you have talked to dell.They have call centeris NB canada, India also in india they pay people about 15$ a day, nice eh! They can also be fired for not saying certain things on the phone this is because they are building a voice recognition system (voice mapping )so in 5 years there will not be any live people, to talk to so dell can maximize thier profits becuase thats all corporations really care about. people are in business to make money that fact taht you bought their product is of no consequence...it was a means to justify a end ...MONEY.
If you want to do something complain to the regualtory body(ies) of industries in your communites/countries. Or dont complain at all because it wont help.

 

From what I've read Dell is very good when it comes to hardware issues. Problem is hardware issues are not always easy to diagnose as such, especially remotely.

If they decide that the problem is software related, what then? A foreign tech worked with my daughter for 2 hours. He finally gave up and declared it was malware, based on boot up diagnostics. It's not, that much we are sure of. If they can't tell you what the problem is, how can they declare what it is not?

 

that's exactly how you do fault isolation / troubleshooting. you start at the bottom of the OSI stack, determine what ISN'T the problem and then go on to the next possibility.

EDIT: i'm not saying that you or the rep is right or wrong; i'm just addressing the last line of your post asking about the rep declaring what the problem isn't

 

The procedure is valid. But at some point you need to determine what the problem is more specifically than "it must be malware, because I have no idea what is wrong." Otherwise we are just at the mercy of their remote elimination diagnosis being correct, with no recourse.

Fact is she has scanned multiple times with multiple programs and found nothing. Not even inocuous spyware cookies! And she's had realtime protection running all along. He may as well have said it must be gremlins!

If you are interested in the specifics of the problem: see http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=38487

 

I can't really comment in depth other than asking for the OS and software CD's. I clicked the correct chat option, entered my service tag and some other info and asked my question. Without delay I was connected and asked to verify some info, provide a shipping address and it was all over. The rep said you should receive your CD's in 3-5 days, I said thanks and a total of 5 minutes had gone by.... not bad at all.

My home phone, long distance and cell phone provider is Sprint. Because of the dismal customer service I avoid the phone at all cost so it was nice to see Dell offering other options.

 

Maranello,

Are they sending the cds free of charge? If so, did you buy any additional software from them originally?

I remember there was an extensive thread about how to cajole the software disks out of Dell without paying extra for them.

 

Well I'm having trouble with them again! I ordered some software via download a few days ago-should have been an instant deal but its taking days (4) if I don't get it tomorrow I'm canceling!

 

I selected "Quite good I have been very pleased!"
One incident so far...Notebook is less than 2 wks. old.
I discovered that F11 & Diagnostic Utility does not work though the hidden partitions are intact. I phoned them thru their toll free and then I explained the issue. They try to troubleshoot but it failed so I asked for replacement (“ Please send me new notebook and take this one back as I'm not happy to know that the said functions does not work. Knowing it is new and under satisfaction policy” . They'll give me what I want so I'm pleased. I don’t have to talk to different staff. Just one person and all are done in few minutes.

After the conversation, I received the documents in which I need to sign and return.
Documents: the quotation for the new system and a fax letter head that says.. they'll ship the new notebook free of charge and I should be receiving it in 7-10 days. Then within 2 - 3 days, after receiving the new notebook, they'll collect the 2 wks. old notebook.

Because of their good service, I plan to extend the CompleteCover program.