My Experience with Dell Support

Hi Guys

I received my new XPS M1530 just yesterday and have been in contact with Dell Support already about (yes you guessed it) the grainy screen of death.

It is my hope that I will provide you all with a running commentary on my experiences with Dell, as an example for those thinking of about purchasing from Dell and also for myself as a record of what has happened thus far.

Today I spoke to two people within Dell, Darius from technical support regarding the problem itself and Yeoh from customer care whom I spoke to about my options with a return or refund.

Both agents were extremely helpful, seemed ready to listen to what I had to say and were easy to communicate with, dispite clearly being based somewhere within Asia. Both agents also indicated that I would be dealing with them personally and have been supplied with direct email addresses.

Darius requested photos of the symptoms that I described (graininess, light bleed at the bottom and dark edges) so he could determine a fault with the monitor. Yeoh stated that he would see about getting approval for a return and requested the photos too in order to justify reducing or waiving the return freight costs.

Currently I feel pretty good about Dell. I was disappointed before but feel a bit better now having spoken to Dell.

 

Okay I've taken the pictures. I was actually quite hard to capture the grain because the camera would pick up on the pixel grid and the picture would get a sort of flyscreen effect the destroyed the detail necessary to show the grain.

A tip to all those in this position: Take pictures of the initial login screen. The colours show the grain well and the camera seemed to focus more easily on it.

To show the light bleed and dark edges I just created two pictures in Paint of solid black and solid grey. I've emailed these off to both Yeoh and Darius tonight. I expect a reply back from Dell Support tomorrow (which good since tomorrow is a Saturday).

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

Do you need to? Hasn't this been done to death now

 

Sorry I don't visit this site religiously. I've seen plenty of threads about specific problems and plenty of people b_tching about Dell. But noone actually writing about their experiences in detail. Maybe there are some people out there right now considering buying from dell and this is interesting to them... maybe there aren't.

If you don't want to read it, then don't.

 

If you read the Grainy screen thread, there's probably a thorough post about experience with support on this issue and others on every second page.

 

You're fine Gimli, keep posting, some experiences are negative where yours so far is positive so it's always good to hear about the positives.The other 2 posters are just upset cause when you posted this you bumped all their informative and interesting topic that they spend all day posting....oh wait they don't post any topics.

If they can find something better to read then they need to go read it.

 

I'm considering buying a Dell and I thank you for this thread! I'll be reading.

 

Cheers guys. Here are the photos I took. Sometime I get a bit paranoid that I'm being too picky. It's definitely something that I could grow to live with... but I want it to be perfect damnit!

Anywho check out the photos and let me know if you experienced the same. Again, it's tough capturing the grain....

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/Gimli000/Lightbleedonsolidblackpicture.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/Gimli000/GrainyPicture3.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/Gimli000/GrainyPicture2.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/Gimli000/GrainyPicture1.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/Gimli000/Darkedgesonsolidgreypicture.jpg

 

the Hand of Cod?

 

Lol errr.... yeah. I got bored of Gimli so I used my Xbox gamertag as a login... lame I know.

 

Actually, I found it to be pretty funny!

Good luck on getting a decent LCD panel. I hope that it is easier for you than it was for me.

 

Update: Saturday came and went without contact from Technical Support. Since I didn't expect this service to extent to weekends in the first place I can't say I'm too upset but if you say you are going to do a thing for a customer you should do it.

Let's hope this isn't the first on many failures.

 

I don't know how it works on that side of the world, but here, they will not call you back after promising to call you.

Out of 12 calls to tech support and customer service, I only received one call back and that was from a supervisor's supervisor after we were "disconnected" on our tech chat.

I would call them back if you have not heard from them in 24 hours. Reference the same service number from your previous call. In other words, don't generate a new call, but tell them that you called previously and did not receive a response and give them the number.

 

What screen code do you have? In other words is it a samsung, toshiba, etc?

 

I love Dell support (Japan). When reformatting they recommended I DONT install Dell media Direct and delete the partition then told me not to use Dell drivers but get other drivers for graphics cards(laptopvideo2go). A bit honest no?

 

I have the SEC3157. Has anyone checked out the pics of my monitor? Someone please tell me I'm not just seeing things and am about to go through this process for nothing!

 

Update: Darius of Technical Support has "escalated the matter to the Customer Care department".

He has also acknowledged that I have a legitimate issue and can see what I have referred to.

Apparently I should expect to be contact by Customer Care soon.

 

Just a quick chime in here - I have never had any issues with Dell Customer Service. This includes help with some issues with my current laptop (i8600 from 2004) and replacing a Dell Jukebox (yeah I know I eventually sold it and got an iPod) that shipped with a dead pixel in the middle of its screen.

No arguments, prompt service and in the end, a satisfied customer. I always try and get a U.S. based CSR, although I have dealt with their India-based CSRs before and not had any problems.

Just my 2 cents...

RSN

 

This is why I'm still on the fence about (re)ordering a Dell. I don't want to wait 2 weeks for a laptop only to deal with having to send it back because the screen is crap.

Rob

 

Update: I spoke to Peter this afternoon from Customer Care. He said that in regards to the screen graininess they were unable to do anything as this was standard for this model.

In other words, they believe the picture quality, grain and all, is standard for the M1530.

They did however acknowledge that the light bleed at the bottom is unacceptible. He has organised to have this monitor replaced either tomorrow or the day after.

I asked about getting an LG monitor and he said that he wasn't able to guarantee one but would put the request through on the service order. He did however say that ALL M1530 are shipping with Samsung screens at the moment due to a worldwide shortage of the LG model.

Apparently I get to choose between the old monitor and the new one if there is no improvement.

So in short:

1. The M1530 comes with a grainy screen and this is standard
2. The lightbleed will be fixed
3. When they fix it they can't guarantee if the monitor will be better than my current one as it will likely be another samsung
4. The chance of getting an LG is shrinking by the day due to everyone else experiencing a poor quality screen.

Joy!

 

Wow....ok thanks for the update, me also aiming to get a Dell laptop..either XPS1530 or Vostro1500.

Well, I would DELL CSOs are polite but not very good in returning call.

I had problem extending my Dell 8300 diminsional warranty last mth. I managed to get their CSOs only at the 9th try (first 6 tries say call back never did, next 2 try put on hold for 30mins juz to get my line cut off).

But in the end did get my warranty extended, I still like Dell but very mixesd service culture :O

 

I have decided to hedge my bets with the Customer Care guys so this afternoon I emailed Yeoh whom I spoke to originally last week. I've asked for an update on approval for a return or refund.

At the moment the only thing that will prevent me from pushing for a full refund will be an LG screen tomorrow or whenever they come out to replace the monitor.

Pity because this notebook is great. It's got great power and versatility, the keyboard is a dream compared to my old laptop (the touchpad sucks big time though) and I can play Oblivion on high settings.

But I'm not going to pay over $2000 for something that annoys me every time I turn it on unless it runs on petrol....

 

That sucks man, I must have gotten lucky cause I got the LG DW306 screen with mine.

 

Update: The dell technitian arrived today as Dell said they would. He also arrived within the two hours he said he would arrive too.

He did a very good job of replacing the monitor. No nicks or scratches that I could see.

Only one problem: the new monitor exhibits near identical backlight bleed and graininess because no LG materialised. Since it was identical to the original I didn't ask for it to be swapped back.

This has confirmed my suspicions that this isn't a faulty monitor issue. ALL M1530's HAVE POOR QUALITY MONITORS (or at least they do now that the LG's are nearly impossible to get).

I'll think about it tonight but it looks like my next step is to wrangle for a full refund. I'm not returning it and waiting for another premium brand dell with a subpar monitor.

Sigh.

 

Update: I called Yeoh today as I had no reply from the email I sent a couple of days ago. He said he would confirm approval for a refund and get back to me.

I have just received an email confirming a pick up will be arranged in the next 24-48 hours. I should have my money back in around a week.

Overall I've been very happy with the service from Customer Care. I don't really blame dell for not being able to replace the monitor with an LG. A shame that the M1530 comes with a substandard monitor because apart from the display and the touchpad this laptop has great features, grunt and the design is second to none.

If I hear these problems are fixed in the future I may consider getting another M1530.

 

Last update for this thread:

Pick has been scheduled for Monday next week.

Well it has been a journey. My first experience with Dell has left me with mixed feelings. I loved this laptop. It's really hard finding something with the same specs that doesn't look garish and plastic. But I won't buy another M1530 unless Dell can guarantee the display issues have been ironed out and the touchpad is more responsive (I never bothered with detailing this issue because it's fairly superfluous). Now I'm back to square one and I have to find a decent gaming capable laptop for around the $2K mark... no easy task.

Peace y'all.

 

Try looking at an Asus or a Sager/Clevo. They are pretty nice and priced pretty decent, but I don't know about availability on the bottom of the world!