Re: Dealing effectively with the Dell phone system
- From: Brad <b2otto2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 20:25:49 -0500
Yep, Know your pain, I was on the phone for over 2 days getting service calls dropped or disconnected over a dozen times just trying to get to the right department, in this case the Media Center Dept(XP MCE 2005). I was given the Media Center Support number from Dell's online chat, only to find out I was given a 5 digit extension number and I needed a 7 digit to access the Media Center when calling from within the US.
I have a new Dell Inspiron 6000 less than 6 weeks old on its 2nd hard drive, and I noticed one thing that was really disturbing on the Dells service call(s), they seem to be real anxious about sending me to their Dell-On-Call pay for support. I took the basic one year plan on my laptop. When I had this latest problem within Media Center, The first lady at software support told me that it was Microsoft's problem and I should contact them. DUH! Dell is the one that is suppose to provide support for OEM software. Then she told me it would cost $99.00 to fix my computer or $239.00 for a three year service plan that would cover up to five Dell computers in the home. I told her hell no and hung up and redialed the number and dialed into hardware support.
Don't! what ever you do tell them, you have a software problem, let the Hardware dept. determine your problem first. They have specialist for dealing with Xp MCE 2005 problems, for none of the regular online or phone support techs are trained in MCE issues. Just getting to MCE support takes an internal call transfer. BTW this was a non fee based support call.
The MCE tech spent well over an hour with me on the phone, in the end we had to reformat and reinstall the OS system, Luckily Dell sent me all of the support CD's for my 8400 MCE machine, or we would have not been able to perform a new install as they only supplied the OS CD for the Inspiron, and as with the an MCE machine you need the Sonic MyDVD cd and the CyberLink PowerDVD cd for Media Center to work, you will also need modem/ wireless card/ Lan card drivers.
It would be a good idea for anyone that has a single computer in the home to go to the Dell site and download those drivers and burn them to a CD for future use. As without them you will not be able to connect to the internet to get the rest of the drivers, Sound, Video, etc. I just burned them all to a CD from my Desktop 8400 machine.
Anyhow the Dell service rep has called me back twice to check that all is working well. Dell has good service, the path to get to that service is hell at times....
Brad
-journey wrote:
As many have experienced, I have gone through "Dell Hell" with their.
phone and support system. I have been transferred from Small Busines
to Home to Small Business again. I have been transferred to out of
service lines. I have been disconnected after being put on hold for a
while. I could go on and on, sometimes it's unbelievable.
A few tips:
- When you have arrived at the right area and they are going to
handle your call, first give the person your phone number in case you
get disconnected. It seems like one out of 10 Dell support people ask
for that up front.
- If you are at the wrong area, say that you've been dealing with
their phone system for a while now, that you are a busy business
person and don't have time for that. When they transfer you, ask the
person transferring to stay on the line until the next person picks
up.
- Escalate, escalate, escalate -- be the sqeaky wheel. "If this
isn't resolved and I have to spend more time on the phone I won't buy
from Dell again, I am a good customer, I bouth $x,xxx.xx amount of
systems from Dell this year". Try for an academy award, it can even
be fun :-)
- Don't believe them when they say you can't talk to a supervisor.
Support in India seems guided to say that. I have been able to talk
to supervisors.
- Don't accept that you have to pay a 15% restocking fee if returning
something. Again the person I talked to said there was nothing I
could do but after being persistent she directed me to an area in
which they let me return my defective 6000 without any restocking
fees.
There are probably some more. I've dealt with it enough that it's
second nature.
Things are improving. When I made my return, I received several
followup calls telling me when I should expect the money put back on
my card, when they received it, and another call after all had been
processed.
If I get someone that doesn't seem competant, maybe because they are
new, I ask to be transferred to someone else.
On the flip side of the coin though, when a problem has been
determined, Dell goes out of its way to fix it. Need a replacement
hard drive for your laptop, you'll probably get it the next day or day
after next. The send it out before you have to return the defective
one.
If you have a problem with a laptop, it's back to you within several
days.
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