Dell Customer Service

[theski232]

I am doing a project for one of classes and we have to pick a company and identify a problem with that company and propose a solution for said problem. I chose Dell's customer service and I was just hoping that some of you could share your experiences with Dell's customer service, good or bad. Thanks.

 

[zigzag3143]

I am doing a project for one of classes and we have to pick a company and identify a problem with that company and propose a solution for said problem. I chose Dell's customer service and I was just hoping that some of you could share your experiences with Dell's customer service, good or bad. Thanks.

Fairly good in the past horrible now. Am in litigation with them over a Dell laptop for almost a year.

 

[pparks1]

As a business user with Dell for many years, my experience has been quite good. At work, I also have quite a bit of experience with HP support on servers. If given a choice, i would rather work with Dell than HP.

As a home user, owning 2 Dell desktops in the past, I have been completely pleased with my service experience on these machines.

 

[seavixen32]

I had a recent case open with Dell, which was resolved satisfactorily by e-mail and a self repair by me.

I suspected some RAM had gone bad, which we eventually agreed was the case and I asked if the RAM modules could be sent direct to me rather than go to the trouble and expense sending the computer back to Dell for a warranty repair.

Dell agreed, the RAM arrived within two working days and since I replaced the two faulty modules I've had no more problems.

So yes, overall I've been satisfied with Dell's service experience. Put it this way, it is superior to anything HP can offer.

When I bought the computer it was provided with a free pick-up-and-return 2-year warranty on parts and labour, which was a major factor in deciding to buy the machine.

 

[Windows i7 920]

I once had an issue with an old Dell laptop, and I found a web chat for support on the site. IMO, web chat is way better than phone for support. I always take that option if available.

 

[Krios]

Dell Support?

At least they aren't Toshiba.

 

[Trucidation]

Dell Malaysia is decent. At least in my experience back in 2007 when I got an Inspiron from them, and later in 2008 when I ordered a spare power adapter. Their follow-up emails were fairly prompt and shipping pretty much arrived as predicted.

I picked them at the time since my sponsor only covered machines bought from Dell. Otherwise I don't really have a brand preference; would've simply walked around the major retailers and bought what matched my price/performance needs.

 

[mjf]

Slight deviation for personal reasons

Dell Support?

At least they aren't Toshiba.

I'm thinking of buying a Toshiba laptop - what's wrong with their service.
Dell was an option because I have a perception door to door service was their strength but their product was generally inferior to Toshiba at the $1000 price mark.

 

[Dinesh]

I have worked for Dell Technical Support for 2 yrs. I'd say the service was much better in the past than today. If you call up their call center now, they're interested more in selling upgrade things like RAM, external HDD, etc. rather than solving your problems. Still, the experience in working with them was quite good. Their customers are generally happy.

 

[cluberti]

Dell Support?

At least they aren't Toshiba.

I'm thinking of buying a Toshiba laptop - what's wrong with their service.
Dell was an option because I have a perception door to door service was their strength but their product was generally inferior to Toshiba at the $1000 price mark.

Dell's products are generally inferior at most price points, but you're paying for better support and service, and better driver management (especially if you're using enterprise systems to deploy and manage, like SCCM). Toshiba has never been anything but terrible after the sale, and the company I work for stopped providing them as a hardware choice after a few years mostly because of it (90,000+ seats... not a small org).

In my experience, other than the e6500 debacle, Dell's hardware really is "good enough" at most price points, and those price point differences are significant enough that it isn't worth the somewhat better hardware of say an HP or Lenovo when the Dell "will do" at the same price with the knowledge that you're also going to get service and support as a trade-off that doesn't suck. This is a generalization, of course, and YMMV, but that's my experience in the corporate space. In the personal space they fall down just like every other hardware vendor in support and service, but I suppose that's the price you pay when buying the cheapest thing you can find.

 

[mjf]

Thanks cluberti
When a large organization gets poor after sales service what hope has an individual.
Wouldn't it be interesting if reviewing groups attached some industry accepted after sales service measure. The reviewer could play with it for a week and comment saying technically 9/10 with an industry after sales rating of 2/10. I bet that would influence buying habits and as a result .......

 

[seavixen32]

Dell Support?

At least they aren't Toshiba.

I'm thinking of buying a Toshiba laptop - what's wrong with their service.
Dell was an option because I have a perception door to door service was their strength but their product was generally inferior to Toshiba at the $1000 price mark.

mjf, if it is any help to you, my wife has just bought a Toshiba L750 laptop to replace her old machine that has gone to the laptop graveyard.

It has an Intel Pentium processor, a 600 GB hard drive with 6 GB of RAM and is pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium.

I've just spent the afternoon setting it up for her, creating a set of recovery discs and uninstalling the bloatware she won't need.

For a laptop that cost just £399 I'm very impressed with it, as is my wife.

Oh, I nearly forgot, it comes with a Toshiba pick up and return warranty for 1 year and the retailer gave her an extra year's warranty as part of the deal.

 

[mjf]

Seavixen32
thanks - A$616 relatively low cost isn't it. I'll have a look at the price here.

 

[seavixen32]

Yes, it is, but it is a new model that has just been released.

The build quality is good and for the price I think the specs are reasonable.

 

[richnrockville]

FWIW: I have had Toshiba laptops ever since my first 286 portable and never had a problem with any of them that required me to talk to toshiba service. I presently have two toshiba laptops with ssd's and am satisfied with their performance.
For Dell, I do a lot of volunteer work for a non-profit and they bought dell Servers and a SAN which have performed very well. Running Vmware and Virtual drives running windows 2008 r2 enterprise. The dells have been working great and dell was real helpful when one of the server batteries died and they talked the tech thru replacement.

All in all, I have been satisfied with Both Toshiba and Dell support and service, I prefer Toshiba laptops as I like the ones with two hard disks..

Rich

 

[seavixen32]

To get good support it seems to me that it depends a lot on how you approach the problem.

I have two desktop computers: one is a Dell and the other was bought from HP.

I've had problems with both computers, which have been resolved to my satisfaction, but what stood out was how each company dealt with the problem.

In both cases, it was hardware that caused the problem. Dell were quite happy to send replacement parts so that I could fit them, but HP were adamant the computer had to go back to base for repair; not once but three times, so God knows how much it cost them.

Based on my experience Dell support was far superior to HP's.