Lincoln From United States, joined Nov 2004, 3231 posts, RR: 8 Posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 627 times:
---RANT---
Why is it that every time I call Dell on behalf of my company the conversation invariably includes the basic formula
Me: Yes, I had an appointment for a NBD visit for case/order #xxxxxxxxx and the tech/parts still haven't shown up [and I haven't heard from the tech to schedule a time, when applicable]
Them: yadda, yadda, yadda, You're an idiot for expecting Next Business Day to actually mean the next business day, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Me: May I have your supervisor, please?
.... moments pass ....
Me: Rehashes entier thing to supervisor
Supervisor: Yes, I am very sorry, lets see what we can do...
(Supervisor usually comes up with a solution that while not ideal is tolerable, usually sending a different tech from a different company "right now")
Me: Ok, that will work.
Supervisor: Thank you for calling Dell and have a wonderful day!
EVERY SINGLE FRIGGING CALL FOR EVERY SINGLE FRIGGING CASE.
Usually it's warranty service, but this time I ordered "accessories" for one of our new servers, on Wednesday. I'm going to be out of town all next week and want to bring the server up before I leave, so I paid for "Next Business Day Delivery"... Nothing comes Thursday, but OK, maybe expecting them to actually pack and ship the parts in the time between 2PM and whatever DHL's cutoff is is unreasonable.
I'll get them Friday morning, I think. Plenty of time to do what I need to do, rack the server and bring it online, right? Well, it's now almost 3:30 PM. I was hoping to go home at 2:00. I called DHL to try and get a timeframe and was told, essentially, "Dell only paid for ground, so you'll get it when you get it- hopefully before 5:00 today."
Called Dell, first agent was like "Well, it's on a truck with the courier, and as long as it's there before midnight it is the next business day." I repeated that I paid for a certain level of service, expecting that it would be tendered to DHL as a NBD shipment (which means I would have gotten it no later than noon, based on previous experience) -- she repeated the "by midnight line".
I asked for a supervisor, repeated the whole thing, and explained that while I was really unhappy all I wanted was a credit for the differnce between Ground -- what it was shiped as -- and NBD, what I paid for [when I placed the order, according to Dell, Ground was 25% of the NBD rate]. She said that was reasonable, possible, and that they'd get a "Resolution Specialist" on the to do it
I repeat everything to the resolution specialist... again... and he starts fighting with me... eventually I beat him down -- repeat that if Dell had shipped it with the service level I had specified I would have my parts right now-- and he tells me that he'll submit the "Request" but there's no gaurntee that it'll be "approved"
I love Dell's business products (PowerEdge, Precision, etc.) [I wouldn't touch their home crap with a 10 foot pole]-- they're fantistic to service, and the tech support guys in Texas and Oklahoma are fun to chat with... but when it comes to actually getting parts from them it makes me want to go on a rampage.
THe upside is I sent my office manager an email with the confirmation numbers and told her to dispute the charge if they don't post the credit. I'm done with this
Lincoln
[Sorry, I needed to rant, and this was the website I had open while I was on hold  ]
(Another advantage to ordering from Dell Medium & Large Business is that you never talk to anyone overseas)
[Edited 2008-09-05 12:40:19]
CO Is My Airline of Choice || Baggage Claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer || Next flts in profile
MadameConcorde From Monaco, joined Feb 2007, 2479 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 599 times:
Dell planning to sell factories: report
By Simon Kennedy
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Dell Inc. (DELL:
DELL 20.41, +0.05, +0.3%) is planning to sell factories around the world in a move to cut costs and overhaul its production model, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Friday.
Moo From Falkland Islands (Malvinas), joined May 2007, 2610 posts, RR: 7 Reply 2, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 584 times:
Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): Why is it that every time I call Dell on behalf of my company the conversation invariably includes the basic formula
Its got to be the US support, because the UK support is just peachy I've had to call them out half a dozen times now (we have a lot of their systems, so half a dozen times isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things) and we haven't had a single complaint about them.
Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter):
I love Dell's business products (PowerEdge, Precision, etc.)
Agreed - we have over 70 PowerEdge systems, I wouldn't touch another supplier. Their online speccing system is second to none as well (get the hint HP).
Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): [I wouldn't touch their home crap with a 10 foot pole]
Which is why I bought an XPS M1530 - fantastic machine.
ManuCH From Switzerland, joined Jun 2005, 1867 posts, RR: 23 Reply 3, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 570 times:
I have always had good experience with Dell support in Europe. The only thing is that you've got to be ready to answer their checklist questions the way they want, otherwise you're out of luck.
For example, I've had a critical server with a RAID system where a disk broke. I called them, and they asked me if I had already re-seated the disk - obviously I had, it didn't work. Then the guy asked me if I had already rebooted the server - of course not! - but I told him I did. That triggered a spare part shipment
Lincoln From United States, joined Nov 2004, 3231 posts, RR: 8 Reply 4, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 563 times:
Quoting ManuCH (Reply 3): Then the guy asked me if I had already rebooted the server - of course not!
I've been in similar situations and instead of lying told the tech, in no uncertain terms that the drive was dead, we had bought a system with RAID and paid for a a NBD onsite warranty for the purpose of ensuring uptime and there was not a chance in hell of me sacrificing the uptime* for a checklist item that we knew wouldn't change the situation.
That also triggered a parts shipment, but it was also late
* I also throw in the highly-fictional "and incurring the wrath of management" when I need to...
Lincoln
CO Is My Airline of Choice || Baggage Claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer || Next flts in profile
Moo From Falkland Islands (Malvinas), joined May 2007, 2610 posts, RR: 7 Reply 5, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 552 times:
Quoting ManuCH (Reply 3):
For example, I've had a critical server with a RAID system where a disk broke.
Quoting Lincoln (Reply 4): we had bought a system with RAID
On that note, a bit of advice - do not use anything less than RAID 6 for data you really rely on. Everything less than RAID 6 only uses single partiy to recover (even RAID 5), so it can only handle a single disk failure before becoming vulnerable.
Unfortuantely, the chances of a second disk failing during a RAID rebuild is around 33%, meaning you just lost your entire data set and will be going back to backups. RAID 6 can survive two disk losses with no effect.
I learnt that one the hard way - RAID 5 is the buzz word, but its not worth using.
Lincoln From United States, joined Nov 2004, 3231 posts, RR: 8 Reply 6, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 536 times:
Quoting Moo (Reply 5): I learnt that one the hard way - RAID 5 is the buzz word, but its not worth using.
Some of the more "advanced" RAIDs intrigue me -- RAID 5+1 (or is it 1+5) but I have to balance it with cost, of course. I have our big arrays configured with a hot spare drive which, of course, isn't as good as mirroring and striping everything but at least you aren't crippled while you wait to discover the bad drive + wait for the new drive to be delivered.
We also have real-time offsite backup to one of our remote offices [i.e. as soon as anything gets created or modified it gets pushed over] and nightly mirrors to tape and a different server in our office (configured so only domain admins and the backup process can write to it)
Of course, no data protection strategy is perfect and I'm sure that there's some caveat we've overlooked
CO Is My Airline of Choice || Baggage Claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer || Next flts in profile
KBFIspotter From United States, joined May 2005, 716 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 525 times:
Quoting Moo (Reply 2): Which is why I bought an XPS M1530 - fantastic machine.
I ordered one of those a few months ago when my old desktop finally bit the dust... After waiting for three weeks for them to start even building it, I get an email saying that there are production issues and that my order will be delayed for up to another month. I found that to be a load of BS and just went to the local Best Buy and bought a new HP instead. I have no regrets for cancelling my order. My wife bought a Dell laptop 18 months ago and has had nothing but crappy response from them when it comes to service issues.
Yeah, because thats obviously what it was, nothing but BS - it couldn't possibly be that they had a huge order influx a few months ago when they refreshed the range, now could it?
Quoting KBFIspotter (Reply 7): My wife bought a Dell laptop 18 months ago and has had nothing but crappy response from them when it comes to service issues.
N234NW From United States, joined Jul 2005, 49 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 497 times:
Wow, That's usually the exact opposite of what happens when I have had to deal with Dell. I guess it's worth paying the extra for the "Gold" tech support. Our rep usually throws it in for free. On the servers, it's always been US based personnel.
Many of my servers have a 4 hour SLA, but one time I called for a replacement hard drive on a laptop with NBD service, I called dell at 9:00AM, and had it in my hand at 11:00AM... less than two hours after I got off the phone with them!
We do have a fairly large dell spares facility just south of Seattle. Location must play a big part in the speed of service I have been getting.
Lincoln From United States, joined Nov 2004, 3231 posts, RR: 8 Reply 10, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 492 times:
Quoting N234NW (Reply 9): I guess it's worth paying the extra for the "Gold" tech support.
I have Gold on my company-owned Precision notebook [which has survied a fall out of a moving vehicle more-or-less unscathed] and I think all of our newer servers are also under Gold [One of our PowerVaults certainly isn't, but...] I don't have a problem with the quality or competence of the tech support folks -- they're always fantastic, and I remember one guy in OKC (IIRC) even told me to feel free to just call or email him directly if I wanted to to open any future cases.
The problem I have is that they consistently miss deadlines for us.
Quoting KBFIspotter (Reply 7): My wife bought a Dell laptop 18 months ago and has had nothing but crappy response from them when it comes to service issues.
What line? As I ranted earlier, the Home stuff (Dimension, Inspiron, etc.) is unadulterated crap. The Latitude and Precision notebooks, and the Optiplex desktops and Precision workstations are great... Haven't seen or touched a Vostro yet, so I have no idea how those are.
CO Is My Airline of Choice || Baggage Claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer || Next flts in profile
KBFIspotter From United States, joined May 2005, 716 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 477 times:
Quoting Moo (Reply 8): Yeah, because thats obviously what it was, nothing but BS - it couldn't possibly be that they had a huge order influx a few months ago when they refreshed the range, now could it?
When I found out that there were people who had ordered after me that were getting theirs was the final straw.
N1120A From France, joined Dec 2003, 22904 posts, RR: 79 Reply 12, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 462 times:
I can't stand Dell customer support. My alleged "at home service" never failed to be "how about we send you the part and you put it in" or a really long wait time and times of the day that aren't supposed to be busy. Support is the reason I no longer buy Dell.
DELL 20.41, +0.05, +0.3%) is planning to sell factories around the world in a move to cut costs and overhaul its production model, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Friday.
Honestly, I think Dell is being stupid there. Vertical integration is a lost art.
Mangeons les French fries, mais surtout pratiquons avec fierte le French kiss
Ual747 From United States, joined Dec 1999, 5776 posts, RR: 16 Reply 13, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 436 times:
HAHAHA....I'm a former employee of Dell:
"Thank you for choosing Dell Home Sales and Financing, what can I build for you today?"
- "Bill for me?!?!?!"
"No, BUILD for you"
- "I don't want you to build me anything. I need a computer."
(Needs based questions...while trying to sell them anything you can so your commission increases. Give them a crappy system with no memory, but load them down with add ons. Great way to give them the cheap price, keep margin high, and keep up with your ever increasing sales commission quota so you rank high in employee stacks so you can get promoted before you get layed off)
(System built)
"How would you like to pay for that today? Will you be using our Dell Preferred Account?"
- "Is that the credit card?"
"Well, the Dell Preferred Account is a blah blah blah (basically a high interest financing)"
-"Oh you mean no interest for 6 months!?"
"Yes!"
-" Oh yes that is what I want!"
"Okay I just need to get a few bits of information..." (Name, Address, Phone, SSN)
- "Well, why do you need my SSN?!?!"
Because we have to run a "Credit Inquiry before we can approve you for the DPA"
- "Okay, well my SSN is XXX-XX-XXXX"
"One moment while this processes"
(You are thinking, hell yeah, I'm getting ready to sale a high margin system which the customer thinks is low cost, and it's on the Dell Preferred Account, which doubles my commission!)
(Computer Message: Credit Declined: Refer to Script)
"Mrs. X, I'm sorry, but we are unable to approve you for the Dell Preferred Account"
- "WHy? My credit is F'ing great! It's (tells credit score) which you know is a lie"
"Would you like to use another method of payment?" (Thinking, okay, commission won't be double, but I can still make my sale, earn my commission, be high in employ stack rankings)
-"Yes, here's my Visa, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX"
(Computer message: Card Declined. Have customer call bank)
Explain situation to customer
-"Well, can I just mail you a check?"
No! (Your pissed, because you didn't get the sale)
"Thank you for choosing Dell Home Sales and Financing! Have a good Day!"
(Throw your headset at your computer while your phone is ringing for another incoming call. However, your manager puts your phone on hold so she can yell at you for not making a sale to a person who has no credit, no credit cards, no form of payment, because it makes her look bad as well.)
Dougloid From France, joined Jul 2005, 7709 posts, RR: 47 Reply 14, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 420 times:
I've a Dell Dimension 4600 desktop, P-IV 2.8ghz. It runs a minimum of sixteen hours a day and sometimes more. It is 4-1/2 years old and has never let me down once. I upgraded the hard drive and memory a bit, and changed a power supply that did not really need changing-now I have another paperweight. I cloned the hard drive and all its contents and put it on the shelf for emergency use only.
The biggest problem has been XP, and I have reloaded the operating system three times since new. Right now it is running stripped down according to some recommendations from the black viper website and it's a much faster machine than it was.
That''s about 26,000 hours so far. So when the nice lady from Dell called and asked if I wanted a service plan now that the warranty was up I told her, the way this is going I probably won't need it but thanks for asking.
I had one service call to Dell tech support about something, can't remember what it was, they fixed it on line in like five minutes.
I was thinking seriously about upgrading it but running Chrome instead of IE6 has made such a remarkable difference in speed that I'm going to keep it a few more years. Processor usage has gone way down too.
Sorry guys. My Dell's a peach and I wouldn't trade. The service experience has been very good.
Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 1): Dell planning to sell factories: report
By Simon Kennedy
Madame, did you bother reading why they're thinking about doing this?
BHMBAGLOCK From United States, joined Jul 2005, 2672 posts, RR: 22 Reply 15, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 408 times:
Quoting Moo (Reply 5): On that note, a bit of advice - do not use anything less than RAID 6 for data you really rely on. Everything less than RAID 6 only uses single partiy to recover (even RAID 5), so it can only handle a single disk failure before becoming vulnerable.
Depends on the implementation. There are RAID 5 implementations with the tolerance for multiple drive failures in most cases.
Quoting Moo (Reply 5): Unfortuantely, the chances of a second disk failing during a RAID rebuild is around 33%, meaning you just lost your entire data set and will be going back to backups. RAID 6 can survive two disk losses with no effect.
That's a very high number - my experience is that it would be well under 5%.
Quoting Ual747 (Reply 13): (Throw your headset at your computer while your phone is ringing for another incoming call. However, your manager puts your phone on hold so she can yell at you for not making a sale to a person who has no credit, no credit cards, no form of payment, because it makes her look bad as well.)
I know some ex-Dell people who have told me that one really bad day of sales could be enough to get you fired.
Ual747 From United States, joined Dec 1999, 5776 posts, RR: 16 Reply 16, posted (2 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 356 times:
Quoting BHMBAGLOCK (Reply 15): I know some ex-Dell people who have told me that one really bad day of sales could be enough to get you fired.
It will get you pulled aside for a really bad ass chewing. A week of bad sales will get you fired, I assume. For some reason I was always in the Top quarter of stack rankings, (the "blue" we called it), but the pressure to sell, especially a crappy product with high margin for the company bothered me. And the pressure is huge on employees. It's not like a car dealership where you have any downtime either. You are on the phone one right after the other....bam bam bam. No time to think.
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