Six weeks after describing my nightmare laptop which has been bad news from almost day one, Dell has picked up the link and contacted me.
It is now out of warranty, is still overheating and cutting out and we have added an exterior keyboard as that packed up too. Yet it has hardly been used and still looks brand new, a totally different experience to my workhorse Dell desktop which I bought around the same time and has never let me down.
This is the message I received yesterday:
“My name is John, and I am a customer advocate at Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Texas.
“I apologize that it took us so long to find this, but I would be happy to look into the details of your case for you. If there is anything I can do to help I will be happy to do it.
“Please send the service tag from your system and anything else you think may be helpful to the email address I provided while leaving this reply. To ensure it is properly routed, please include my name in the subject field on the email.
“I look forward to hearing from you!”
I look forward to hearing from you too John. Geoff has reminded me about a few problems Apple is having at the moment and seems to be handling badly, in fact their Macbook problem sounds very similar to the one I experienced.
These leading companies should never get too big for their boots, their reputation relies on providing solid, reliable products and good value, along with customer satisfaction – without that, they are doomed.
Watch this space!
Just had a Dell sales leaflet through my door this morning – this makes me sit back and think. Dell’s prices seem low – but so is their reputation at the moment.
Man in a Shed, I always thought Dell was topnotch, but my laptop was a very disappointing experience, a total waste of money. Let’s wait and see what suggestion they come up with to put the matters right. I’m very impressed that they found my post about this. I can, however, highly rate my Dell desktop.
Have been an apple fanatic now for 6 or so years. My one word of advice to anyone is hold fire on those purcahses. In my experience, 1st generation designs always have problems. The original powerbook g4’s, ipod’s and imac’s all had problems (i.e design flaws).
I will wait until the next version of the macbook hits the shops – most of the design flaws are gone by then.
AJD, that’s excellent advice, only I am usually too impatient.
Ellee
they should refund your money in full and allow you to choose any new brand to replace.
the power of a blog hey?!
tom
ps i also own a dell which has been troublesome in the past! my email is amotom@gmail.com if they wish to get in touch!
Tom, You should have added that you are a lawyer! I’m hoping they will follow your excellent advice, it is only fair in the circumstances.
I have been considering getting a Dell PC, but the bad publicity they have had lately has made me think again.
Dell isn’t bad, except their batteries don’t last on the laptops. Lenovo, Apple, HP batteries seem to last for 2-3 years but all the dell batteries die in about a year, just mine and my neighbour’s experiences. I have a 1st gen inspiron 9100 and it works really well, except for the aforementioned battery problem.
Sitting beside my Min two days ago, his new Ferrari laptop wouldn’t work. OK, Sony Vaio is brought over. Ditto. My best mate telephones and says he can’t get to my blog – slow loading and keeps dropping out. Seems to me that laptops are more trouble than they’re worth. Stephen Pollard uses a Black Berry.
Probably something worthy of note is that all of the above companies buy their components from the same sources, so they’ve all got the same faults (other than design inherent ones).
For example the capacitor issue affected several large manufacturers, as did the laptop battery issue (in this case made by Sony, and also affecting their Vaio – didn’t hear much about that…) Perhaps a way to look at it is to ask who came clean about the issue and who is remaining silent.
The number of 17% (or similar) of the Sony batteries manufactured being bought by Dell has been bandied about, so who’s got the rest?
Scrubber, Thank you, that’s useful info, it certainly makes you wonder. I had a follow-up email from Arizona this morning saying:
Ellee,
Since you’re in the UK, I have to coordinate my efforts with EMEA support to get anything done. I have contacted a reliable source in the UK to coordinate my efforts with.
Either he or myself will be contacting you with regards to a permanent solution within the next few days. It is my sincere hope that this matter will be resolved quickly and easily, and I will do whatever I can to make this happen.
John
Dell Customer Advocate
That’s a good start, I’m just concerned Dell will be dismissive about it and say as I am out of warranty, there is nothing they can do, even though I had this recurring problem from the beginning.
Tom if you want Dell to investigate write about the problems on your blog. They are monitoring the blogosphere for the word Dell, as you can see from Ellee its taking them awhile to get through the back log. But its really great news it won’t be long before your computer/TV etc will be keeping its own blog that anyone can monitor.
Geoff
A representative from Dell based in Glasgow phoned at 9am today and has arranged to collect my laptop on Monday to see if it can be repaired. As I said before, my main concern is that if they do the same repair and the same problem recurs, I will still be stuck with a useless laptop. He refused to give an extra year’s warrantly, I do not understand why if they have confidence in their product and this costs them nothing. I was very pleased – and again surprised – to hear from him anyway and he seemed genuinely helpful.
Ellee-
Unfortunately, it is an incorrect assumption that extended warrantees cost Dell nothing. Extended warrantees actually are provided by a third party service contractor, and as a result, must be purchased from them by Dell, and Dell makes practically no profit on the sale of these contracts.
I sincerely hope that all goes well. If you have any problems with the outcome here, please do not hesitate to contact me.
John
Dell Customer Advocate
John, Thank you for that info, I did not realise it came at an extra cost to you via a third party. My laptop was collected this morning by DHL. I have been impressed by your swift response once the problem was picked up via my blog. Many thanks.
If anyone’s interested – HP are estimated to have passed Dell in PC sales this quarter. Dell’s figures have slid something like 7% over the past 12 months.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/10/19/hp_wins_dell/
[…] My thanks to Dell By Ellee For those of you who have been following my Dell nightmare saga, there was an incredibly swift response from them once they picked up my complaint via my blog. […]