Why do people hate Dell ?

But the people at the other end of the phone dont know what theyre doing half the time, they dont co-ordinate or anything. Other companies like logitech (best customer support ive encountered, very good stuff) do co-ordinate, they can tell you spoke to their colleague earlier even if said colleague is halfway around the world in another callcentre and they know what was talked about generally. Dell dosent have any of that co-ordination or teamwork which is only hindered by the people at the other end of the phone not having a clue. A good chunk of them likely wouldnt know what the extended warrenty entails or what exactly is required to fix a certain case. In short, they suck.

 

Boy aren't you a bunch of drama queens.
YOUR own experience doesn't make anything true for a whole company, just like MY OWN superb experience so far doesn't mean problems never happen. People tend to downsize their own part in an issue and exaggerate the companies wrongdoing. Stories like the paper on the last page don't really mean anything.

 

I'm with ya on this one. I can't get it right now!! WTH!!!!????

Sigh. My old man would punch me in the back of the head of I typed out something as shameful as that post.

 

Amazing story. I edited it, formatted it, and converted it to .pdf to share with everybody. You could publish this as a short story!

FormerDellCustomer.pdf

 

That is an amazing diatribe.

Why is it complete morons write in the most detail with no worthwhile punctuation? Why is it complete morons invariably start with 'I am a xx year IT veteran' etc? Why is it actually making the effort to read it reveals the depths of the cravenly entitled yet completely ignorant basis of their so-called logic?

It's so amazingly predictable I could swear that it's coming from one bloke. Or maybe this Internet thing is a figment of my imagination and I'm still only conversing with four other guys - an idiot, a fanboy, a regular bloke and a bloke pretending to be a girl - over Fidonet.

 

It's a rather simple explanation, IMHO. You start a post meaning to write a few sentences, which doesn't quite complete your rant, so you progress to a few paragraphs. Upon re-reading it you realize that a stranger reading the post would have no idea what you were talking about, so you add in a few details here, and some clarification there. At this point you're several pages deep, fatigue is gnawing on your frontal lobes like a rabid hyena, and you don't have the energy to copy and paste the entire post to a proper word processor for editing. How many people are going to actually read the damn thing, right? You just wanted to vent. And thus, the 11,000 word post is born.

 

:laugh:

I love this thread.

 

OMG you tell them the ID of the computer, Customer service then knows the level of warranty service you have, if you have the top of the line on site, they know it for sure its not a questionable thing.

And since I have used customer service and have had 5 different service issues in 10 years I think I can give a litmus test of Dell and service, these 5 times each time it was fine and worked.

We currently own 7 dell laptops in our family, except for my 1555 video driver issue ( I fixed it myself so far) there has been few problems.

SO many peopl are Drama Queens and that is my point.........settle down and have a little common sense and patience.

And you know this how? I think this is just your belief, you posted a summation that the outsourced customer service is so disconnected from Dell that they cannot know the level of customer service one has......... In my experience this has never been true. If you have a belief why not try posting it as OPINION not fact, you should start "In my opinion" that way I would not debate your posting style.

And I do not LOVE Dell, I like the computers but I have posted this of late http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=439515

 

It is a simple case of market share. Dell is the world's 3rd largest retailer of PCs. Not surprisingly, they get a lot of complaints.

HP is the #1 retailer of PCs, and they get even more complaints.

I am not too familiar with Acer (they are #2) so I can't comment on their reputation...but the point is that there are many more people who are satisfied with their Dell than those who are dissatisfied. People just tend to be less vocal when they are satisfied with a product

For example, I've had an Inspiron 6000 for 4.5 years and it's been fantastic.

 

Dell came from humble beginnings. When they were small, they used higher quality parts, which resulted in better reliability. In addition, Dell used to be customer service oriented(arguably still is). It was easily managed by a small team, and could respond fast to the customer's sensitivity.

However, since Dell has grown into a massive bureaucracy, it has been plagued with many problems that most big corporations fall to. It's harder for them to hear their customers, they are always trying to push stock prices up(as they are legally obligated to), and this has resulted to manufacturing products as cheaply as possible.

In addition, customer support has consequently gone down hill because of the above fact(corporations are legally obligated to strive and increase stock prices). As a result most American CEO's have made the decision to cut excess corners where-ever possible(which makes sense, and if Dell doesn't do it, and their competitors are, then they are losing out, and will have to sell their products for a higher price.) Of course, I speak of having tech support worldwide to match times in order to make it a 24hour-7day a week ordeal.


Now, this is why I do not like Dell as much as I do, but I don't hate them because I don't blame them... this is how business's evolve. ALthough I would argue that they could've made better decisions and micromanagement for their product lines so they have higher quality assurance before releasing them. I still think they have some decent product lines with some good ideas, and what's frustrating is that they could be amazing if only they took the time to hammer out the bugs before release(i.e. new latitude series).

//rant.

On a side note, the vast majority of people that I know who say they "hate Dell" are just people talking out of their butt with little to no substance or logical reasoning. I've heard things such as, "well everyone has it, so I hate them, I want to be unique"... or "their products are just crap" (well so are other companies' products!)... or they complain about their tech support, but in reality you can't blame it because every companies' tech support has a bad apple or two that's had a bad day(afterall people are angrily screaming in their ears all day).

 

Let's keep it civil in here, thanks; I had to delete a few posts.

 

I far from hate dell. But dealing with them once they have your money in pocket can be frustrating at times. Overall they are a pretty good company with a solid line up of laptops...Can't speak of their desktops, I've never owned one.

Prime example of a frustrating experience Here

 

Dell had my money in their pocket when I bought a 2007FPW display several years back. I found a dead pixel in the first 21 days, and also decided that 1680 x 1050 at 20" was a bit too small for me, and I wanted the 2407FPW display instead (I also decided to up the warranty to five years, as it was an expensive item and LCD technology was still somewhat new). So I called them, and they were eager to work with me.

Then I complicated things. I told them about the 20% coupon I'd used in my first purchase, and that I'd really like the same discount applied to the new display. The coupon had expired, but they had a 15% sale, which they applied, and then the customer service rep was also able to apply a one-time use $50 coupon; which basically gave me 20% off plus another ten bucks. They sent me a shipping label for the 20" monitor so I could return it, and shipped me my new 24" one. I have to say it was about as seamless as an experience can get. They also called me afterwards to make sure I was happy.

I think for every bad experience, there is a good one. However, people are more likely to complain about bad experiences. I also think it makes a big difference to purchase from Dell Small Business rather than Dell Home if you can, and to be as civil as possible with the Dell CSRs on the other end (they're not in charge after all, just doing the job they're told). If you are having a problem and don't get where you want with the first CSR, don't get angry; just politely ask to speak with their supervisor. People who scream will get exactly what the CSRs job description says they must do, and no more. Treat them with respect, and they just might go the extra mile.

 

I only dealt with Dell Small Business since thats where I bought my Dell laptop from (it was cheaper with the specs I wanted than the E1505 equivalent from Dell Home), and its been a really positive experience. But then again, I never had much issues with my Dell and its like reaching 3 years old soon.

 

Just close this ridiculous pointless thread. There are hate threads everywhere for every company. I used to have a HP and it broke down within 2 years. I hate HP. Nuff' said or should I start another topic "Why do people hate HP?".

 

I hate dell cuz I never had the chance to use the warranty! WHY!?

 

indeed!

 

im using DELL Studio 1435 and im very much impressed and satisfied with it and i dont know what people r thinking about it......One think i dont like about dell is they are not giving the multimedia buttons ...like play pause//volume up?down as softkeys as on Old studios ,inspirons and....my s1435 has it...they are only providing it on Studio XPS ...which is very hi end.....i think they should introduce it on the studio...tooo..thts one think i dont like about super star studio 1555...

 

I love DELL, 99% of the computers in my house are made by DELL. I even lived in Round Rock at one time was probably the only resident who didn't work for DELL. The problem is sometimes I don't understand some of the things they do.

 

The problem when you get as big as Dell though is this: Let's say they manufacture a million computers a year, probably a very modest estimate when you consider all the deals they get with school, businesses and of course home use. Well, even if you have a 99% satisfaction rate, that is still 10,000 faulty computers and those ten thousand people will all be a hundred times more vocal about their opinion of dell then the ones who receive a perfectly functional product.

My only real complaint about then, and I am pretty sure everyone agrees, is it is a real pain in the that they outsource their customer service. No one wants to deal with someone they can hardly understand when they are already frustrated. It only compounds the problem.

But alas, I'd much rather have a Dell then apple, acer, toshiba, sony etc.

 

I don't hate Dell (even though I work on over 700 of their machines).

I just wish they'd allow consumer laptops to get Prosupport for IT like I have on my work computers. I can fix things myself if they just send me the parts.

 

I think most people like Dell computers. They just hate the customer service, because they have not met estimated shipping dates (extended them months in some situations), their customer service is a joke, and they don't compensate people who do have problems with them. I purchased a laptop 2 months before I needed it (on 11/12/09). The salesperson assured me it would meet the shipping date, and would probably exceed it. They extended the estimated shipping date by three weeks ON THE DAY it was suppose to ship. They had to know the computer wouldn't meet the shipping date before that day. The boxing stage alone is three days, and today, 6 days after the initial shipping date, it is still in the "build" stage. No one can tell me what is holding it up. The next estimated shipping date is 12/23/09, and I'm not very confident they are going to meet that one based on what I've read around the internet. I absolutely have to have a computer by 1/4/09, and now it is too late to build one I would like with HP and get it in time. If they were honest from the start about the shipping date, I could have made other plans and still had no problem with Dell. Instead, they string you along with false promises, and even outright lie to you. It also doesn't help that the people you call to have the issue dealt with have absolutely nothing to do with Dell except holding a contract with them. I could tell from talking to my rep that she was looking at the exact same status update I was on the Dell website.

I love Dell computers, but computers are too important to buy from someone who won't stand behind their product or their service. Dell should never sell a product it can't produce in a timely fashion... or should at least be honest about the delay.

 

Well if you were an owner of a $2100 M1330 with three motherboard failures and two DVD drive failures and two USB port failures, you wouldn't exactly be sending Dell a Christmas card anytime soon. In my case, I was a long term Dell customer, but after the attitude I received from customer service due to this fiasco of a notebook, my hate for Dell is now some other manufacturer's future business.

 

Thank you for your effort

 

Well, whoever started this thread, I think you have enough posts in here about why people "hate" them: lower quality builds and bad customer service.

Pretty simple really.

 

I'd debate whether it's that simple.

Home customers continue to demand lower and lower prices. In an attempt to appease them, vendors have gone to a model of Home lines and Business lines.

Home systems aren't based on having ultimate stability, there is often a lot of added bloatware which subsidizes the system, lowering the cost, and HP/Dell/etc. cut the one area the customer can't immediately see when they buy the system --technical support. To some extent, I feel that customers' demands for lower prices has driven some of this. After all, if Dell boosted the price of every system and said "But look, you get Pro-Support with xx warranty standard!" how many people would do it, and how many would gripe about having to pay the extra $50?

Or what about if Dell charged an extra $50-80 per laptop and said "But look, you're getting a full magnesium chassis and anti-vibration mounts to secure your hard drive from data loss!" How many home users would go "Oh Boy!" and how many would say "Meh."?

Business people demand stability, durability, and support. Most business people realize that their demands have a cost, and while they don't want to be raked over the coals for it, they are willing to pay a percentage extra to get these. Since business is the true bread-and-butter of HP, Dell, etc. due to the potential of volume purchases, there is a separate business line targeted to meet these demands.

Some home users are willing pay extra for the same things--but many are not. And in the absence of knowledge, a consumer will choose on price, or they'll pay an extra $25 to get one in Screaming Purple.

I'll admit, there are people in the business trenches who have had a bad experience too, or people who have bought from the higher-end XPS line (somewhat of a crossover) who had issues. I'd be willing to bet though that if you separated Home users from Business users and did a survey, you'd find a lot more satisfied Business customers, because they got support they were willing to pay extra for. Home users don't realize that trying to go for the lowest prices means something has to give --or sometimes, they're unwilling to realize it.

 

I disagree. When Dell started it was a respectable company. They built good machines, and stood behind them. They became a multi-billion dollar company this way, and then we lost customer service. I'm even alright with the BS customer service for tier 1 complaints like so many companies do today... but when you complain to Dell they do not escalate your claim if it is not resolved. You are told simply "no, you can't talk to my manager". At this point, you should be referred to someone on the same continent as your computer, who actually has more of a relationship with the company than just looking at the same status page you have access too. Take that with the hangups and downright lies, and their lack of compensation for huge mistakes on their part, and you have a 3rd rate company. They are loosing their loyal customers from which they built their company. Dell is changing its business plan to be comparable to all the other large computer companies (Hp, Gateway) but Dell attracted so many of its long term customers because it wasn't like those companies. Now it has worse customer service AND higher prices than HP and Gateway... and the only thing keeping it in the game is quality of product... which I fear will be the next to go.

 

I generally find the people that hate Dell Customer Support are the people that skimped on their coverage.

Dell *DOES* have good US-based tech support...it's called "Your Tech Team," and it costs extra. If you don't want to pay for it that's fine, but don't complain that the tech support sucks when you didn't even purchase it.

 

People like to hate big companies. Also I've seen Dell's service decline over the last 5 years.

 

I have always been able to talk with a supervisor at Dell. I've never, ever had this problem, be it with customer service, or technical support.

 

Dell, here in Europe.. is way too expensive.
For example:

C2D T6600
320 GB
17" full HD

820 Euro's.. thats insane.
The profit theyre wielding is unimaginable

 

As a proud owner of three dell laptops, i have to say that if dell is going to make more money and become a company once more that prided itself with making amazing machines and great customer service even for their high end consumer line then its time once to bring back XPS, this studio xps crap is so damn stupid. I bought my 1340 and my m1530 from best buy. I have a dell precision m6400 from the dell outlet, that is the only way around the bad shipping issues. The person who wrote all that, you think you would have the courtesy to at least minimize what you are explaining. This is not to say we tech savvy people don't read, i read all the time, just if its going to be useless English then its not worth to read. Anyways, I hate those damn Indians, they are really bad, I can't believe that the XPS line went Indian, they lie, they sound all the same, if you curse at them they hang up on you, even though they are the ones who are annoying you and started the problem. That is why if i have to get a dell from the consumer line best buy it is, and best buy warranty. I like the business line a lot, the new vostro v13 is pretty nice and has great built quality. Just because your fiscal end year is only 6 percent from consumer lines doesn't mean you have crappy costumer service. Even with Asus, their service is pretty good and no you don't have to pay extra for warranty. I think dell should adopt this some of their machines 2 years warranty standard instead of paying extra for warranty. If dell doesn't stop their lies and negligence then they will end up like Motorola. I still like dell, but because of their problems with heat with the xps 1640 i decided to get a toshiba x505, also another thing bothers me is why does dell push slot load drives when their moto is "you can customize it your way."!

 

More ppl started hating DELL is Im guessing because DELL's systems started to have more problems then ever before.

I used to think Dell's Indian service is horrible and deep inside always wished to be transfered to a US customer service, that is untill that happened one day.

Technician: Hi my name is John how can I help you.
Me: I explain my problem ( a fairly simple one about drivers on their website)
Technician(John): Uhhhhhh Uhhhhh.. confused in silence.

after 10 minutes of explaining a simple problem and asking for his assistance, he still didnt realize how he can help me. So I told him, Why is an Indian Technician who lacks fluently knowledge of English can understand me better than you John? Can you transfer me to your superior please Im running out of patients.

Technician(John): (laughs in a kind of upset bitter way) then says yea sure, and puts me on hold where Im waiting for 10 minutes before hanging up.

In reality the Indian customer service gets under our skin because they have a polite way of talking and in that same polite way they can tell you to screw urself. My lesson learned here, I rather speak to an Indian techical support then to an American who thinks he's doing me a huge favor by even picking up the phone on me.

 

I have never had bad experience with American service, another thing is they sound like the same. I agree they seem to have a lot of problems now, these days. I agree about everything you said, the only thing i hate is the fact that they have different names and they sound the same and they put the round about. You know in a way i want dell to fail, falter so they can learn their lesson. But then i don't but i think dell himself needs to retire cause he is leading the company down a hole into HELL!!!

 

I'm surprised how few people use the web chat. It has a far shorter wait time. And guess what? Typed English is the same no matter if the guy is from Russia or Germany.

Even my Dell contacts prefer email correspondences. It takes way less time. But they happily pick up the phone.

 

Lol you cant explain everything in online chat with a technician. No matter how you might stress a problem with text or anger in your vocabulary or etc... Sometimes when they hear that anger in your voice they actually start to do their work.

I didnt really understand the smart a** comment about Russia or Germany. Save your smart remarks for your family.

 

agree 100%, and its funny how dell used to be a leader in computer industry always holding the number 1 spot.. Now they fell back givng the lead to HP. I hope they fail some more so they can do some major fixes, and reinvent their computer lineup

 

Sad that it comes to that but you're probably right. My small business used nothing but Dells - both desktops and laptops. Dells designs simply are not cutting edge anymore. I would like to replace our Vostro 15" notebooks with 13" ultrathin's. However, we need graphics capabilities beyind that offered by Intel's 4500 chip. The best card we can get in a 13" Vostro 1320 is the GeForce 9300M GS (256). Two years ago, LG put the 9600M GT (512) in a thinner notebook - the P310. The Vostro also comes with DDR2, not DDR3 ram. The P310 was equipped with DDR3. Dell, simply, is not producing notebooks that lead the market. They follow begrudgingly behind and charge a significant premium for business users like myself. Even the vaunted studio 13 XPS can be configured with the inadequate 9500M G (256) or the only marginally better 210M (512). Neither of these cards even comes close to the performance of the 9600M GT that LG used in its P310.

Bronsky

Vostro 1500
Duo Core T5470 @1.6 ghz
2 GB DDR2 Ram
GeForce 8600M GT

Waiting to replace it with a 13" ultra-slim, Core2duo, 2.2(+)ghz, 4-6 GB DDR3 Ram & GeForce 240M GT card or better.

 

You want cutting edge but your looking at the cheapest business model? You're not paying premium, you're a budget buyer. Agreed, there are better 13" models out there but the vostro you mention is pretty old already. DDR3 doesn't give any real benefits besides a slightly lower power usage, RAM isn't the bottleneck in any system. Maybe wait for the refreshment or dish out a bit more money if you want cutting edge.

 

Ha! Ha! Ha!

I am surprised at how you people even manage to get through when for over a year, I've always gotten 'all agents are currently busy' message.

Seriously, there's either some conspiracy on their end, or, you're all in on it and the very few of us are singled out to wonder whether this system even works.

It's so bloody useless and a waste of time here in UK. Over here, you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning before getting through to someone on Dell's chat.

 

Don't know how it works over there, but here in the USA I have had nothing but good experiences with Dell.

 

Dont get your hopes up but when you do get through on chat they have 4 windows or more open at a time and are veerrryy slow. most answers are scripted and they will ask you the same questions several times...

 

lol dell computers are ok...
people hate dell's customer service

 

Alright, I am about as stressed as I can be. Dell has started calling me every day, but they have no new information. All they keep saying is they will call back the next day if something changes. Today, he confirmed my street number, which is 101... and he tells me he had 1001 in his system. How?! I entered 101 on the web site and can see it right here on my order receipt. I also think they have invested in mind control, because I had just clicked on the "Contact Us" button on the HP web site when Dell called to update me on my order. They must know our relationship is on very thin ice.

Unless everything else goes exactly as planned I will never deal with this company again. I don't care about the delays as much as I care about them lying regarding them.

 

ooops, posted to the wrong thread, in the wrong tab...sorry.

 

I used to like Dell I have told several friends and family members to purchase from them in the past. But after my first and last order with them for a TV, I truly realized what a mistake it was.

This is not something they build that would be affected by parts or manufacturing delays. I ordered a 60" DLP on 12/04 with a delivery date of 12/16. Then they change the date to 2/2/2010..??? I called and canceled the order on 9/14 and was told it was fine and would be refunded. On 9/15 I get an email that the TV was shipped. Now I had already ordered another TV on 9/14, after canceling the Dell order, from else where that shipped the same day it was ordered. So now I have 2 60" tvs on their way. Called Dell and was told "when they got the cancellation notice they probably scrambled to find a TV and shipped it".......You couldn't find one before and now one magically appears after I cancel and you just ship it without contacting me first?

I see that this once great company has declined into a company that just wants sales and will lie their way to keep them. They make you think your order is in production and there is no way to cancel. That is a lie. They give you a made up delivery date and change it repeatedly.

We have rights as consumers to order a product and receive it when it was promised or close to it. I know delays can happen, but Dell needs to man-up and allow people to cancel orders if they are not happy with the new delivery date.

They say its because of parts shortages, laptops made in Manila and take time to ship to US before they ship to customer...blah blah...blah.

Are these issues the customers fault?...NO
Did customers ask DELL to kill American jobs and offshore their facilities?..NO
Do they post on their website when you order that there could be long delays due to parts shortages etc.?.....NO

They just keep pulling in the orders, delaying them and refusing cancellations and refunds.

Since my episode with Dell I have been checking their forums and cannot believe the number of people getting delayed and being told tough doo-doo you can't cancel and just have to wait.

I have been put on-hold and sent from person to person for hours just to be hung up on when I ask to speak to a manager. The only resolution came when I was told a manager would call me back and I asked for notes to be put on my account: Delivery refused - will allow 1 week for Dell to get back unit and process refund - if not refunded in that time I will begin legal action and complaints to US FTC for violation of mail order act.

Guess what happened?... A manager that was too busy to take my call picked up the phone and resolved my issue in 5 minutes!

I have had my posts deleted of their forums by their admin for posting this to others that have long delays:
Enforced by the FTC, the Mail or Telephone Order Rule applies to orders placed by phone, fax or the Internet.

If,after taking the customer’s order, you learn that you cannot ship within the time you stated or within 30 days, you must seek the customer’s consent to the delayed shipment. If you cannot obtain the customer’s consent to the delay--either because it is not a situation in which you are permitted totreatthe customer’s silence as consent and the customer has notexpresslyconsented to the delay, or because the customer has expresslyrefused toconsent -- you must, without being asked, promptly refund all the money the customer paid you for the unshipped merchandise.

Obviously they do not want other customers to know they have rights in these matters.

GOODBYE DELL.....RIP

 

I don't even know what to emphasize most about my hatred towards them, had I known beforehand of how terrible they would be I wouldn't have bothered.

The worst part is the customer service. (What you could do is complain about them on Twitter, and they might give you a sweet deal, worked for some people online).

I've dealt with countless service reps, trying to get my XPS sent in to avoid the nVidia problem. Of course, the reps didn't actually know what the nVidia problem was on the technical level, they just knew what the symptoms were and if the customer had those symptoms they would be eligible for the warranty. I've argued with them over this issue, but they never allowed the change.

Good luck though. Just make sure your customer service provider is good and not outsourced like so many of the big ones, lol.

 

is HP much better to the point that one should pay MORE for a comparable HP system to avoid Dell's service (or lack of)?

 

No. HP's customer service is basically comparable to Dell's. Anecdotally this might not be the case, but overall they both are poor.

 

If their products wouldn't overheat I'd definitly consider them.