So I bought into the whole Dell business model a while back after having it come recommended to me by someone that had recently bought one. I asked about it as I was in the market for one and since this person also happened to be really, really wealthy I figured I'd take his advice. I bought a mid-range Inspiron and was really happy with the choice. It was a nice machine and did what I wanted and it lasted me about 5 years or so. I seriously dumped that thing over a few times and I swear it must have been indestructible. It held up and the only thing wrong was it was slow compared to my desktop at work. I got mad when I'd see how slow the laptop was and it was made worse by the fact that I didn't want to be selling my art on some street corner.
The following is the exact email that I sent to basically anyone that would listen. It seemed like it did the trick and they appeased me long enough until the thing started breaking all over again. I feel like I'm not being heard by Dell and, more accurately almost, I feel like if I am being heard then I 'm obviously being ignored. And being ignored is something I never was able to stand and I find that to be one of the most disrespectful things that you could probably aim towards someone else. It's plain crappy and I'd only reserve that sort of behavior for my most perfect and secret nemesis. At least that's what I think.
It took some doing but eventually I found some actual Dell corporate email addresses. [They hide their viable contact information like some stingy kid that still has their Halloween candy left over in December. They will eventually become cops or weirdos. ] Like a whole page of them and I figured it was time to just speak up as loudly as I was able. And preferably with as broad of a reach as possible. So that, in addition to all the things we just now discussed, I also have a supervisor always on each shift and they will all be relayed this same information.
I finally feel like calling the customer service line is a waste of time. You quickly realize that they are there to help the people that forget to plug the thing in or whatever. If you have any sort of 'real' technical question then you are in for it. They speak to you as if you were the one that spoke English as a second language. I am a pretty patient person, all things considered, and I used to have a call center job. It can suck and you have to grow a tough exterior while all the time smiling like you mean it. But that's what your job is. This is what you do for a living. - Please, just do that much.
So I decide to bang out this explanatory letter to send out to anyone I could find at Dell. It's telling, in hindsight, that it is near impossible to find a local number for any person or office at Dell. They hide those away. They know what they are doing and they know what they are in store for.
The emailed letter is as follows:
In November of 2008 I ordered an Inspiron 1525 [Order #XXXXXXX Purchase ID: XXXXXXXX] and upon initial receipt I felt like the space bar was excessively squeaky. I debated on actually boxing the thing back up right then and sending it back for a new one. But excitement got the better of me and I was so happy to have the new machine. [Besides, I had been formatting the old Dell laptop I had and prepared it to give to a co-worker so her kids could have a computer to use to get online.] I figured the squeaking was something that would go away on its own somehow and after a while it got to be so annoying I began to consider my options. I looked online at various forums and realized that many people were having similar issues with this model. I didn't know of any real options and the space bar kept getting worse and was hard to even use. Eventually the right side of the space bar sort of popped up and almost off. I sought remedy by calling tech support and I was instantly asked for a shipping address and was told a new replacement keyboard was on the way. A couple of days later it arrived. I indicated to the tech support person that I didn't feel at all comfortable installing a new keyboard on my own and I was told that it was okay and that they would walk me through it.
I felt stupid complaining as it seemed to do no good anyway since when I did voice my concern about opening my new laptop I was told it was easy and not to worry. I didn't feel like it was something that felt confident in doing so I basically just kept using the broken keyboard for over a week until I read enough help files to feel remotely close to confident that I could install the thing. The real truth was that I was so upset that I was made to be in this situation and I just got pissed off enough to just do it. After an hour or so of installing the keyboard I finish up and everything seems okay but I am far from satisfied with this experience.
First off it took me about two hours of
sweating over it to build up enough courage to just fucking do it. It takes me
at least half an hour to even pry up the plastic face plate thing. I don't want
it to snap in pieces and I am trying to watch how I force it out. In the process
of being careful I scratched the plastic case of my laptop a bit around the
pry-up bar.
Look,
I could probably deliver a freakin' baby if I HAD to do it and
certainly if someone was walking me
through it. But the bottom line is that it's not my job and it's not my
issue and I shouldn't have been required to disassemble my brand new laptop on my own.
It's akin to a doctor calling a patient at home and giving him instructions over
the phone on how to perform some procedure. And now I'm feeling so entirely
unconfident about the condition of this machine that I'm counting my money to
try and see if I can afford a warranty extension just in case. And this is a
crummy feeling and one that I assumed Dell would be inclined to take seriously
and do their best to resolve it.
This is the least I feel I should be offered by Dell. I'd like to be afforded a
free warranty extension and I truly do feel like this is an appropriate way to
make things right. It will allow me to feel like I can trust this laptop and if
things were to go wrong again I'd have some help. I just don't like being
basically forced to go it alone on this and I have chosen Dell in the past
because I felt like they were on my side.
The next part is when a few months later a co-worker asks me if I have any
laptop recommendations for him and I instantly suggest Dell. [Just a few weeks
prior I had suggested the same thing to yet another co-worker who bought a Dell
too.] So we look online for a decent starter-model machine and on 04/08/2009 he
orders it on the spot.
Customer Number: XXXXXXX
Dell Purchase ID: XXXXXXX
Order Number: XXXXXXX
Order Date: 4/8/2009
Again, as time goes on there is still no shipping date and eventually it looks
like it ships on 4/19/2009. We wait and track the package and the days we were
pretty sure it would arrive it still hadn't. The Fed-Ex tracking number is
089557682384203 and the package shows it departing Phoenix, AZ on 4/21/2009 and
that's the last we see of it. Finally I call Fed-Ex and am told the package was
"not on the truck" and was given some statistical lecture about how many
packages they deliver versus how many go missing and that was basically it. We
waited some more just in case it did arrive and we finally called Dell and was
told they would get a new order out immediately.
I was sort of satisfied with this, as I do understand things happen and it
wasn't Dell that lost it. But you would imagine that Dell would have a
policy in place where orders were monitored and tracked until delivered. And I'd
be sure that the customer was contacted immediately upon noticing something was
up.
The replacement order is as follows:
Customer Number: XXXXXXX
Order Number: XXXXXXX
Order Date: 4/27/2009
When I spoke with the representative initially I asked that I be called and
updated as I was really growing impatient after calling several times to find
out answers about where the first machine was and when I could expect the
replacement and I was promised I would be called. This was a big deal for me as
I was sick of being made to have to follow-up with Dell and I feel like if I
screwed up so badly with one of my clients I'd invariably bend over backwards to
make sure the rest of our dealings would go smoothly. She did call back a couple
of days later to happily inform me that the replacement would ship out on May 1
and I was thankful for that. And I checked the status of the shipping on May 4
and it was still listed as in production.
I call to find out what the issue is and why I was given wrong information and
was told this time that there were parts that still needed to be built. [What?]
I was given no options and was just told again that I'd basically have to just
wait. I'd get it when I got it. The most recent contact was a couple of days ago
and I was told they were waiting for a monitor to be shipped in from another
country. [I am so furious by this and it blows my mind that Dell seems to allow
themselves to be in this position a lot. Especially if you read some message
boards with stories from other customers that go through the same thing as I
have. Why sell computers and take the money if there is some very real chance of
the parts not even being there later on? Or even ever.]
So this brings me to my point in this. I have never been more displeased with
any customer service anywhere as I have with Dell these last THREE times. I am
trying to not be angry as I know this does no good but I am hoping that someone
would simply be professional and courteous and contact me with some sort of
solution for all of these mistakes that were made.
I honestly have been a loyal Dell owner for close to a decade and have sung
praises about the company and the computers and I've sent plenty of business
your way. Mistakes are things that just happen and I get that part. But I also
know that it's the measure of one's integrity as to how they rectify and recover
from those mistakes. I am a marketing manager for the largest ground
transportation company in Arizona and I am often responsible for handling all of
the ground transportation for large
groups and conventions of hundreds and hundreds of guests all at once. If I handled my clients the way that Dell has
allowed their customers to be treated
I'd be certain that there would be no business in a short amount of time. I'd be
truly ashamed if anyone on my staff ever treated our clients the way that Dell
allows. But, truly, I'd be mortified if I had a report of someone on my staff
behaving the way that the Dell staff has consistently behaved thus
far.
The bottom line is that I feel like all shipping charges should absolutely be
completely waived and refunded for the second order[s]. At least. Additionally I
feel like at least a short extension for the warranty on the initial order would
make a great difference. I think I did everything as I should have with
installing the keyboard but this product was defective from the beginning and I
have little faith in Dell now. I've subsequently learned of a good handful of
other Inspiron 1525 owners that are having the exact same issues. [I'm not sure
of the cause but I know of a few exact machines that have the same warped face
plate piece that sits over the player buttons at the top right of the keyboard.
We all wish that we had just instantly sent it back.] That said, I just don't trust the thing
anymore and I don't like how
after I last spoke to tech support about helping me install the keyboard they
made sure to remind me how the warranty was expiring and how I should consider
buying an extended warranty. [This is a common sales tactic I'm learning.] I
think this is incredible and is so insensitive that it's almost offensive. I'm
not trying to get something I don't deserve and it's not like I'm sending you
some bill for the hours of my own time I wasted reading up and then installing
the keyboard. [Is this a way to somehow force customers into providing sub-contracted technical support for absolutely no
cost? This is a crappy business model for sure if it is.]
I feel like in light of everything that has come to surface since I purchased
this computer these things are truly the least that might be done in order to
work towards rectifying this situation and at least restore a little bit of
trust.
Please feel free to contact me at any time. My direct number is 520-437-6 zero
four zero
Thanks,
Jason McHenry
Direct: 520-437-6 zero four zero
Office: 520-624-6611 Extension 428
On April 17, 2009 I get emailed this customer service survey and I decide I'll take it and I actually remove my emotional garbage from the recent situation and I opt to truly be sincere and constructive as possible. I leave pretty thoughtful answers and all the way at the end they ask you some open-ended question about the things they could do better. I write this pretty nice response that I think would truly be of use if they were to ever read it. I get finished and submit and it won't let me. Too many characters. By a couple thousand. Holee-sheeyit. They didn't tell me I had a limit. Ever. So I just wasted my time and they could have easily tossed in a few words to mention the space limitation. Or restrict the box from accepting any more characters. Easy.
And crap like that, in perpetuity, is exactly the issue that you always face when dealing with Dell.