h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sometimes I wonder what we're paying for.

We have a tech support contract with Dell. Our IT manager phoned them up, and tried to get an engineer out to repair/replace/whatever the faulty drive on one of our web servers. The support bod on the other end tells him that they can't send out an engineer until they're sure it's a hardware fault. And they won't accept our word that after resetting the machine when its hung, the BIOS tells up the drive is 'detected but nor ready' (after a minute's wait at the SCSI startup) and it starts looking for DHCP and BOOTP servers.

I'm not the worlds greatest hardware expert, but that doesn't look like any kind of software fault to me...

Michael Dell was in this country a week or so ago, telling everyone how great his company was, and how its service was consistently rated highly by its customers. Well, I suppose if they never have to send out any engineers, of course their service looks great.

It's a pity, too, because the machines (until now) have been pretty reliable. Time to find another supplier...

You're lucky. At least you could get through to Dell! I got my last computer from Time. What a bunch of . . . you know, the ones who'll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes?

I went for the expensive extended support package with mine - only too well aware that I'm no expert. So when bits of the system clashed right from the very start, I thought "no problem, I've paid for help". However. I couldn't reach them by 'phone, fax or email. It drove me mad (which is permanent, by the way). The only line that ever got a ringing tone (as opposed to the engaged tone) or got answered, or didn't subject me to 40 minutes or more (40 minutes was the longest I waited before putting the phone down - and as you're probably aware those calls aren't to freephone numbers) of music and dopey messages, was the sales line. The sales folk didn't want to know and couldn't possibly help, of course. I guess I managed to get through to tech support about 3 or 4 times over a period of months, but I shouldn't have bothered. What a complete waste of time and money.

This situation continued for several months. I sent letters that were ignored or I received nonsense replies that had nothing whatever to do with the content of my letters. Nothing improved right up to the moment when I threatened them with Trading Standards. Then, eventually, I was reimbursed with the cost of the extended warranty. I still have bits of hardware that clash but at least I don't have to deal with those morons any more. It was hard to credit the level of stupidity I encountered from some of the staff there. They tried to blind me with science, they contradicted themselves. I was astounded that they manage to stay in business. Why do the customers of computer retailers put up with this disgraceful behaviour? I know Dell and Time aren't the only ones. A friend of mine recently bought a computer from PC World (with extended warranty) and had very similar problems.

Jim you tell them you have ripped an identical working drive from another machine, put it into the faulty one and it worked perfectly. The original drive must be faulty. You then shout, swear and tell them you are phoning Watchdog (I have never tried the last one, but I would like to know if it works Until later.....
BCNU - Crescent

An imutable law of computing -

If you ask hardware support about a problem, it's always a software fault.
If you ask software support, it's a hardware fault.
If, by some miracle, you get both a hardware & a software support guy together in the same room & ask, it's a wetware fault

;^)#

What is a "wetware fault"?

The watchdog thing can work in getting warranties refunded. I once ballistic about the crap service I got over a mastercare warranty in Curry's and threatened to write to Watchdog and I had the full cost refunded within minutes.

A wetware fault is a fault with the user
BCNU - Crescent

Crescent is indeed correct.

Harry O'Leary = wetware fault

;^)#

I like that and may have to use it at work!

That is nothing I work Tech support and we have a policy of 4 hour turn around on any enquiry! but we had a look at the register and found this articale http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/11886.html but don't tell time or dell as they'll probably start taking notes!

Scarlett (Musing from the light side but wearing dark glasses)

That link really hit the spot. I sent it on to my chum who bought the PC World computer. He'll appreciated it as much as I did.

The problem with technical support isn't the only thing wrong at dell.
A friend of mine recently bought a dell pc, which had a microphone clearly pictured in the user manual, and they tried to tell him that it was internal. It juust wasn't there.
Another freind of mine baught a dell laptop, and every time it boots, it insists on asking you if you want to register (but only by email) now or later. This wouldn't be too bad, but it doesn't even include a modem???
They do lots of other naughty things like that as well, but they re too numerous to document.