Testing Dell's Support - Part 1

Well, I got to test Dell's support over the weekend.  On Saturday afternoon, December 17th, my Dell Dimension 9100 (bought in July, nice and zippy, and extremely quiet) decided to get temperamental.  I was editing a Word document when all of a sudden a notice popped up, announcing that the system had lost contact with my printer.  At the same time, my mouse stopped working.  After a little testing here and there, I discovered that all of my USB ports had failed -- kind of a toughie when you have a USB-connected mouse and keyboard -- even though they were all giving off power.

So, I called Dell Support.  After about five minutes on hold and listening to pre-recorded suggestions such as, "Most computer problems can be solved by rebooting the machine.  Go to the Start menu, select Turn Off Computer...,"  Veronica came on the line -- with a heavy Indian accent.  She asked me what my support number was (even though I'd been forced to give that earlier to just access the line) and then we started through the list, asking me things such as, "Are you sure both your mouse and keyboard haven't failed?" [Nope, tried them on my laptop and the work], and "Why don't you reboot and try to go into Windows Safe Mode" [OK, but considering that the screen shows "Keyboard failure" after the POST test, I don't think the system is going to register that I'm hitting a function key.]

Eventually she decided that my motherboard had failed, and so Dell would send out a technician to replace it.  Having been a Customer Support Rep (or CSR as we say in the biz) for three years, it wasn't too bad an experience.  Some of her requests were nonsensical (such as asking me to go into Safe Mode when the keyboard wasn't being recognized), but at least she was thorough.  I have certainly kicked myself more than once for debugging a customer's problem for hours only to find out I didn't ask the most obvious question that could have resolved the problem in two minutes.  She was polite and her accent wasn't too thick, although I did have to ask her to repeat her questions about half the time.  [Now that would be an interesting study -- how much longer call times are when support is done offshore because the customer and CSR have to repeat themselves.]

So, we'll see how things go.  First, when the technician turns up -- Veronica was predicting a four-day wait -- and whether the motherboard swap actually fixes the problem.  I'll keep you posted.  (And in case you're wondering how I'm able to post to my blog with a non-working PC, I've pressed my laptop into service.)

Continued: Testing Dell's Support - Part 2

Comments

[Madan Sheina]

I thought the point of customer service was to engage the customer, rather than cut down the length of a call - which was a very crude and misguided call center metric followed in the 90s.

While Dell and Co rely heavily on the Indian subcontinent for cheap, yet educated CCRs, I'd deal with their scripted official-ness anyday over the oft curt, rude and downright incompetent staff that I sometimes get routed to in Kansas & the Mid-West -- who also come with equally "thick" accents I might add.

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I can understand if you've been turned off by bad Customer Service, but it's all about system reliability.

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There are so many problems that i faced in my PC but thanks by this post i get to know that the solution is to reboot the system.. but after rebooting my system i didn't faced any problem in that.

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Yes..I have very less knowledge about PC and generally I faced lot of problem with my PC like sometimes my window had been corrupted. And some problem will be solved just by rebooting my system.

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Yes..I faced lot of problems with my PC sometimes my window has been corrupted due to some reasons. And some problem solved automatically just by rebooting the system.

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Testing Dell's Support is nice dell hp support provide nice Technical services.

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I really liked your blog quite informative and interesting facts and figures you have discussed on your blog even the comments are very fruitful and helpful in enhancing the knowledge regarding the topic.

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Sometimes it's just a matter of system's reliability. Not at all times we can have the very thing we expect from the system's service provider but of course we have to at least hand some trust that since we have chosen such provider we know they can provide us what we exactly need.

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I am sending Dell a certified letter that I want a full refund because they breached the warranty. They will probably tell me I have to use their binding arbitration system. I wonder if I really have to. It seems to me that if they breach the warranty, they can't then insist I stick to their other terms...
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I just have to agree with you that 'if you get the proper support contract, you get what you pay for.' Though we know for a fact that not at all times the service provider we are choosing fails to deliver what we are actually expecting to be handed of, at least at some point they would provide us with an effective support that the service is worth the choose.