Well, it looks like Dell is being sued again, but this time it’s for something legitimate and something we can ALL identify with. I think Dell makes a decent computer, especially their laptops. We own a desktop and a laptop. We didn’t buy for customer service, we bought mostly for price and reliability. I’m sure many of you can chime in on the unreliability of Dells, but I’ve never had any horrible problems in the five years that I’ve been using them. I had an Inspiron laptop all throughout college, and it served me well. Although, I did change the battery out three times for it being defective, but that was pretty minor compared to some problems people deal with.
Now, New York State attorney general Andrew Cuomo is filing a lawsuit against Dell for shoddy customer service. He is claiming that Dell is advertising great customer service but not delivering what they boast. Also, he is claiming that Dell strongly advertises “no-interest” financing, yet a very small margin of Dell’s customers ever qualify for their “no-interest” plan. Instead, they are slapped with a 20% interest rate.
Let’s deal with the customer service issue first. It’s no surprise that Dell’s customer service sucks. They farm out most of it to India, and when you do get an American, they want to try to solve your problem over the phone rather than coming out to your home. If you pay for the $300 in home service, they better DAMN well come out to your home. But instead, they try to cut costs by trouble-shooting your PC. You better believe that Grandma Jones has no clue how to even open her computer, much less how to disconnect the hard drive from the motherboard. I agree that a company should strive for excellent customer service if they are going to advertise it or use it as a leveraging tool to gain market share.
Now, let’s deal with the “no interest” allegations. If Cuomo is going to sue Dell for this, then he needs to take on every credit card company on in America including other big corporations like Home Depot, Sears, and Best Buy. It’s tough to get these deals. They generally only allow people with spotless credit to get the “no-interest” financing deals. I think this is an absurd thing to sue a company over, though. Everyone knows that you aren’t going to be automatically granted this special financing, and Dell never claims that everyone who applies will receive it. If you have to finance a $600 computer, then you can’t afford and don’t need to be buying a new computer. Case closed.
So, tell us about your good or bad customer service stories dealing with Dell. Do you have any horror stories? Do you think this lawsuit is warranted, or is it just another frivolous lawsuit that won’t accomplish anything? Tell me your thoughts.
Written by Erik, the resident guest blogger for Jon.
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I am not a huge fan of Dell, but I have to say that the few times I have had to deal with customers service it has been very good.
I have a Dell Laptop (Inspiron 6400) and it’s absolutely great. I wouldn’t buy a desktop from them though, just makes more sense to build it myself. I’ve never actually had to call support for my laptop, and I’m hoping that I never have to.
I don’t think this case will even see court, it’s just like when web hosting companies state that they have 99.9% uptime, which is about 43 hours a year in total. You can’t take them to court if they go over that 43 hours.
I think it is another example of an increasingly litigious society, a tort system run amuck.
For the money, it is hard to beat Dell for their products, especially in the mainstream retail world. The few times I have had issues with my Last Desktop from them, it all went smoothly.
I think we are seeing a turnaround from price based shopping on the net to customer service oriented shopping. I know the only reason I use Godaddy for my web hosting is the customer service.
I’m a fan of Dell also. The only time I had to call their CS was when I got my new computer with Vista on it and they walked me though setting it up to work with some of my old programs. But it was kinda of interesting the guy was working on my computer for about 30 mins and couldn’t fix the issue. It took me about 5 mins after i got off the phone with him to figure out what the problem was and fix it myself.
I’m a little surprised. I thought I’d have some people saying “screw dell!!”. I’ve personally never had any big issues with them either. Every time they replaced my laptop battery, it was a pretty smooth process. I think the problem is the wait time. Many people were experiencing unbelievable wait times and most people aren’t very tech savvy so they were turned off when the CSR tried solving their problem over the phone. Personally, I would rather solve it over the phone than have to send it in, but I know a little more than the average consumer about computers. My guess is that this lawsuit won’t accomplish anything.
I liked Cuomo for going after the student loan lending organizations. I think there was some corrupt stuff going on there that was not benefiting the student, but I think this Dell thing is a little overboard.
The problem is that people get in these little fads where they don’t like things. People who hate Dell either have a good reason for it and know what they’re talking about OR don’t know much and just say it because they heard someone else say it…it’s kind of like Nickelback :D.
But for those of us who know what we’re talking about, we see that Dell can actually provide good products at a good price.
I have two dell computers one laptop & one desktop. I have had to call customer service a couple of times and have never had any real problems. just my experience.
I bought a Dell desktop and before it was 6 months old they had to replace the hard drive and keyboard but that isn’t my main they came to my home for the hard drive my complaint is customers service, how can you fix a problem if you can’t understand what the Tech is saying, I find this is most Dell owners concern with Dell….I would not buy another Dell because of there Customer service and I have heard so many people say the same thing.
Over the past 6 yrs. I have purchased 3 desktops for family and friend and 2 desktop and 1 laptop from Dell. There has only been technical problems with 2 of these purchases, of which Dell corrected in a timely manner without any hassle. However, I got ’stiffed’ by the last sales rep. who said my purchase qualified me for the NO-Interest payment program, then I find that I am being billed Interest. When I called and complained about it they claimed that the price of the computer was not enough to qualify me. I THEREFORE WOULD LIKE TO WARN EVERYONE TO BE CAREFUL WITH THESE LIARS WHO WILL SAY ANYTHING TO MAKE THE SALE.
I hope a similiar lawsuit to Cuomo’s will be filed here in Florida. I would be one of the first to sign in.
Dell deserves it, they have been raping their customers for years and years. I switched to MAC just because of Dell.
Online College with Degree education Degree Online College
Here is a copy of the details of my Dell Hell Story.
1- Thursday, May 24, 2007 – One computer (2RDNX61), Case # 165 385 412 stopped working. Call was made to Dell Tech Support. In the process of this call the Tech had us swapping parts out of our only good PC which caused it to stop working as well.
2- Thursday, May 24, 2007 – Second computer (1RDNX61), Case #162 464 761 was opened for second computer. This now was all of our computers in our Spa.
3- Friday, May 25, 2007. I called Dell Tech Support and tried to arrange a Saturday appointment for fixing our two computers. Was told there was a parts issue and that our contract was for two business day service and the service would be done on Monday. This was confirmed via a phone message from whoever you contract out to in our area (Golden, B.C.). They confirmed they would be up on Monday May 28, 2007
4- Monday, May 28, 2007 – No one showed up or called us.
5- Tuesday, May 29, 2007- I called Dell Tech support (Allan) and asked when they would be coming up. I was told that someone would be calling us to let us know. No one did and no-one showed up.
6- Wednesday, May 30, 2007 – Tech person, from Golden, B.C. (who was not a tech person, he stated that he was “helping out” due to an illness with the Tech person) shows up. He did not know there were two computers to fix, he thought there was only one thus he did not have the necessary parts (he didn’t even have the parts for one PC). He left after fixing only one PC (left it with partial memory). When asked when they would be back to fix the rest he stated that he didn’t know because he usually didn’t do this. When pressed for an answer he stated on Friday, June 1st.
7- Thursday, May 31, 2007 – I called Dell Tech Support (Berg) and asked what was going on. I was told that someone would be up today to fix both PC’s. No-one showed up or called
8- Friday, June 1, 2007 (Now one week later)- Tech from Golden, B.C. shows up and puts memory in both computers and leaves. Does not stay more than five minutes. Service call 162 464 761 now working properly. Service call 165 385 412 computer worked for about 5 minutes then crashes again. I called Dell Tech support (Laura) and we run through diagnostics. She informs me she will have someone come out with motherboard and memory on Wednesday!!!! (which will be one day shy of two weeks).
9- Saturday, June 2, 2007 – Nothing happened
10- Sunday, June 3-2007- Nothing happened
11- Monday, June 4-2007- Nothing happened
12- Tuesday, June 5, 2007 – Nothing happened
13- Wednesday, June 6, 2007 – No-one showed up or called
14- Thursday, June 7-21007 – Tech from Golden shows up, however we were in the middle of power outage. We had power in one outlet (generator) and she installed new motherboard and memory. We received the blue screen of death and she re-installed windows xp. Due to our internet being down from the power being out the PC was not completely restored. I am in the process now of re-installing software to be able the PC to work properly.
15- Friday, June 8-2007 – Still working on it – no follow up from Golden but did receive a follow up call from Rachel at Dell Support
16- Saturday, June 9-2007 – Computer finally back in operation after wiping Hard drive and starting from scratch.
FOLLOW UP TO THIS LETTER:
June 9-07 – Mailed letter to Dell
June 29-07- Had not heard back from Dell so went to Dell.ca and sent an e-mail
June 30-07- Sent fax stating that I had not heard from them (included copy of letter)
July 3-07 – Called Customer Service and asked if someone was going to help me with
This issue. Was told it was in the hands of a special investigations?? Dept.
And someone would be getting back to me today (hopefully in an hour)
July 3-07 Received an e-mail response to my e-mail stating that they saw that I was in
Touch over the phone and that someone would call me back.
July 6-07 Received a call from Gerard at Dell who stated that they were looking into it
And would call me back
July 9, 07 Gerard called and basically said they were not going to change anything and
Hopefully it would not happen again. ( so basically nothing)
I loved my Dell 1700 series laptop for all of its first year. Even had good luck with customer service over minor things like fuzzy screen and poor battery performance.
Then 10 days ago the touch pad stopped responding.
I have spoken with 18 different techs averaging 3.5 hours a day and still have no one coming to repair my system.
I have in house, small business coverage and so far, all they have done is wipe my hard drive clean and leave me nothing.
BTW, I’m now typing this on my new non-Dell laptop.
Drop dead Dell.