What's Wrong with Dell.

I'm sending my Studio 1735 laptop back to the depot tomorrow so they can fix a buggy keyboard and DVD drive.

I phoned dell support (It's a call center somewhere in India I'm guessing?)
and I asked if it were possible (since it's being replaced anyway) for them to upgrade my faulty standard keyboard for a backlit keyboard. I was told it was impossible.

The reason?

At first they told me they could not replace any part with a different model part. period. no matter what.

I had of course offered to pay the difference in price. At the time of purchase, I could have had the backlit for a $20 extra. So I figured they might tack on an upgrade price of $30-$40 max.

The tech rep told me they still couldn't do it as they would have to replace the entire motherboard and keyboard. That they would have to rewire things, and it would be hugely expensive to do.

This was complete bull. So I asked to speak to his supervisor.

The supervisor finally agreed that it was possible to have the replacement keyboard upgraded. But was told it would cost $99.00 plus taxes.
That's quite a price hike for a simple LED backlit keyboard upgrade.

He then asked me to rate the level of service I recieved. I laughed.

technical: fail
customer service: fail

I won't be buying another Dell product.

 

There's a reason they do that. It's so people don't abuse warranty services in order to get an upgrade.

 

I've had marginally better luck with the chat support, i think them being able to read what i say a few times helps with the understanding english thing.
That said, i have yet to be impressed in a positive way with the support i've gotten from dell.

 

em,yeah,right...

 

You definitely shouldn't pay $99 for a backlit keyboard upgrade. You can find the backlit keyboard on ebay for around $50, and replace it yourself. Despite what the support people told you, there's no motherboard replacement to do. The keyboard is held on by two screws, and one data cable. The backlit keyboard is exactly the same, except with an extra power cable for the backlight as well as the data cable.

I replaced my 1535's keyboard with the backlit model I ordered from ebay myself...the whole process took about 15 minutes, and there were only 4 screws involved.

 

I want a backlit keyboard for my mini9, sadly i'm not aware of one existing.

 

exactly. I've already upgraded the CPU (from t5750 to a t9300) and wifi card. Keyboard upgrade is nothing.

I just found it incredible that tech support gave such a blatenly false reason, and then tried to overcharge for it (I can get it chaper myself directly fom the dell spare parts website).

I can understand that. But a company with that approach won't last long since company culture would be to assume the customer is the enemy.
I would think with all the financial troubles Dell are having, they would want to keep the customers they currently have. Not alienate them.

you have 6000 posts here in just over a year. Are they all as enlightening as that one?

 

You must've missed his user title.


But I think that's hardly alienation. Warranties need to be fair and convenient, but not TOO generous. Otherwise, you'll have warranty abuse. I do not agree with false reasons being given, but the truth is most of those techs you talk to do not actually know very much about computers. They're given a policy, they get a reason for the policy, they pass the information to you. They're unknowingly lying.

 

indians speak english, they speak it very well. Better than most americans actually. The problem is not and has never been their english skills, the problem is they're sticklers for rules and regulations. American techs and reps by and large will fudge forms, and do little things to help you out because they don't care, or they're trying to help out the little guys..

 

Definitely true. On my Inspiron 1520, I got crap support when I asked for help doing "little things."
I wanted a black Vostro keyboard, they were sending me a new keyboard anyway (about a week after getting the laptop, the "A" key would stop functioning regularly). They told me it was not compatible and they could not/would not ship me one.
I got an M1330 and got into the American XPS support, and asked for a replacement keyboard for my M1330 (had accidental damage, told them I had spilled a little coffee on it and now when I pressed one key, lots of keys were pressed at the same time.) Asked the guy if he could by chance send me a Vostro keyboard instead. He told me the same thing, won't work, different connectors. I knew for a fact that the Vostro had the same keyboard as the Inspiron, and I also knew for a fact that the XPS had the same keyboard as the M1330 - by proxy, it should work.
So I told him this, and he said he'd send me the Vostro keyboard but if it didn't work I'd be SOL. Put it on my Inspiron, done. It was awesome.

 

Wow, that trades one bad assumption for another. Americans are 'rule breakers' and Indians are 'rule followers'?

Offensive.

 

Yep, that's totally what he said. 100% that black and white.

 

I'm glad you agree. : )

 

That's not offensive at all, stop being so sensitive.

 

Welcome to the politically correct 21st century.

 

I disagree. The problem is 1) Indian CSRs have less leeway 2) They dont have the confidence of saying "I dont know, I'm just not supposed to allow this; and its not my fault".
They thus end being very rigid and giving retarded reasons.

 

Not my experience with dell tech support at all.

There was one (1) person who spoke english "very well", and that was the american in the returns department.
The techs all spoke it, somewhat better then the mexican that worked on my alienware (that was a nightmare, it wasn't alienware support though, they only let me talk to an email bot...), but every time i had to explain that they put the wrong video card in i had to rephrase the statement two or three times for them to understand it.

It's just like the indian telemarketers, if you stay on their script their english is just fine, leave the script and they're helpless.
Next time a telemarketer calls you, ask them how the weather is in the city they're in, generally they don't even understand the question.
I found that the tech support with dell was the same way, if it was a broken laptop they had a script, they did not however have a script for "dell outlet config page lied it's off".