I *HATE* dell.....

It's a shame too... being a Tech, i'm in a good position to recommend computers to people. And it's really a shame that so many people who don't know computers get sucked in to DELLHELL by the very attractive prices that they offer. But their service is horrible. YOu can't even get an american SALES person let alone for tehcnical support.

It started with sunday and ordering my monitor. I purchased a Lenovo/IBM computer rtecently, but I wanted an LCD monitor. Dell unfortunately has THE best price for a REALLY good monitor. (they are still made by sony I believe) So for a monitor, I figured i'd get it. Well 30 minutes later i *FINALLY* finished the damned phone call. The lady wouldn't place the damned order. IT was "did you want to use dell financing?" and I would say no. then "but you can get a discount on your next purchase." no "but it's low monthly payments." how many times do i have to say - I HAVE THE MONEY I DO NOT WANT TO FINANCE! Then she looks up the monitor and i get, "Well ma'am, this is a rather large monitor, did you want to upgrade your video card at this time?" At this point i'm pretty pissed, cuz if I wasn't a tech and didn't know any better, they could be selling and convincing and pushing someone who would fall for it. this isnt fair to the average home user. This is where they are making their money since they offer their systems so cheap.... So I finally convince her to finallky place the order and i get "well, did you want to buy a Dell Printer today? no? how about a dell digital camera?" etc . . . i was offered like 5 products, and then she finally started to finish the order and kept PUSHING and saying "did want anythign else today?" constantly. This order should have taken 5 minutes, maybe 10 if they were waiting on the full CC authorization etc. it was RIDICULOUS!

So yesterday, i had not yet received the order confirmation email. So i called in. The monitor the salesperson said would ship on wed 5/24, has supposedly already shipped sunday evening. (course UPS doesn't work on sunday but we'll let that go.) So i call in and ask for the conf email. i Go through 10 minutes on the phone with yet another person in Bangalore (after 5 mintues getting through menus) and he told me he's send me the UPS shipping info etc...and then all I get are two copies of the "this is your case # for this call. Please respond if you have any further questions." I wrote back twice and got no response from their "case manager."

So I called back today! Tracking number they gave me still does not show in UPS's system, but it's supposedly been in transit since sunday according to dell but really monday cuz nothing REALLY ships on sunday even though they'll list a ship date of sunday. Their email says that one should not that it could take up to 3 days (i.e. the shipping time) for the package to show up in UPS' system. I called UPS and they said, that's not normal but "dell has their own way of doing things." I doin't understand, how hard is it to ship a package? really? it's not even a computer that first has to be built and tested...just a monitor... prepackaged...

needless to say, (not that i planned to anyway) i'm never buying anything from Dell ever again... it's Pathetic the way that their customer service has been sacrificed to the gods of more $$ and offshoring. They used to be known for the best customer service out there. Take it from someone who works in Tech support, they SUCK now. Hell, they used to have the 3 year warranty standard - it was what made them so great, and now the way they give you the cheap price, is they offer a 90 day warranty by default on the really cheap systems. Oh yeah, that gives me a LOT of faith in your product.

My last 2 laptops were Toshiba and now IBM/Lenovo - and both times i'll say, their customer service has been great primarily. IBM even still brags that their support is all at one call center and it's in Georgia... (the US one not the russian one.) IT's a beautiful thing when you can get customer service in your own country, rather than from a script in a foreign country where the support personell are happy to get $300 a month....

*end of rant*