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My Experience with the Dell Service Center
This isn’t a sponsored post, and I wasn’t paid to write this review of the Dell service center. Rather, I bought a machine, endured it for 2 months, and demanded a refund.
There’s a day that comes in any young (cough cough, relatively speaking) nerd’s life that is easily one of the most exciting days around.
NEW COMPUTER DAY.
New computer day for me came a couple of months ago. I decided that I had enough saved up in my business account to upgrade from the laptop I had been using constantly, every day, morning noon and many a night, for the past 2.5 years.
Frankly, I was kind of starting to hurt in weird places. There’s a certain amount of hunching over being done when you work on a laptop, no matter how big the screen is.
Where I was going to buy the computer was obviously a no-brainer. I’ve been a pc all my life and a Dell customer for years. So off I went to the Dell website, where I picked out a nice beefy computer tower. And I giggled like a schoolgirl as I hit the submit order rear endon. And I waited impatiently for my gorgeous new XPS 8700
When the computer got here, I anxiously set about getting all of my programs and work files onto the spanky new machine. When you’re running your business, and you work with tons of different files every single day on a variety of programs… Setting up a computer takes some time. Like a couple of days. I’m not exaggerating.
The first day of work on the new machine got here. And was met with repeated blue screen of death crashes.
WTF! I hadn’t been using the computer for even 24 hours yet! A lengthy phone call to the Dell Service Center later, and it was decided that my operating system was corrupt and that I should re-install it.
Two problems with this. 1) Dell conveniently forgot to send me the disk to the operating system. 2) It takes DAYS to set up my computer for work.
So Dell sent me a Windows 8 disk, and I begrudgingly set about re-installing the operating system and setting up my brand new machine. AGAIN.
Everything was great until it immediately started crashing again. Oh yeah. It went there.
So I got on the phone with the Dell Service Center again. And again. And again. And it was decided the way to fix the issue was to send me a replacement tower.
Which I would get to spend DAYS setting up. AGAIN.
At this point, I want to tell you it was comedy. But when you’re trying to run your design business, and your brand new computer is crashing at least once a day (if not more)… No matter how many times you save in anticipation of the blue screen of death, you’re losing work because of a faulty machine. I’m sorry. Two faulty machines.
It got to the point where I had a specific tech support person from the Dell Service Center rearigned to my issue. Which you’d think meant they fixed the problem fast and easy and sent me on my worky way.
Not quite.
The tech support I received was almost as bad as the computer it was trying to fix. Most of the phone calls I got were to the effect of “we’re still investigating this issue, thanks for your patience.”
Twice I was instructed to move my client project calendar around to allow for a chunk of hours where tech support would be able to come in and take remote control of my machine so they could poke around and figure things out. And twice I was stood up like a jilted high school girl, receiving a call at the end of the time slot saying “we got busy can you set aside a time for us again tomorrow”.
What I kept telling them, that they didn’t seem to “get” – I’m not a casual end of the day internet surfer. This machine is how I do my work, how I pay my bills. Every time I’m setting aside time for the Dell Service Center, that’s time I’m not servicing my clients, and not getting bills paid.
Enough is enough.
This week, I started throwing around the phrase “I wanna return it” with my husband. I’m no quitter, and I’m always down to make the most out of a bad situation. But guys. This is a brand new machine I shelled out 1700 dollars for. And it’s broken. And they can’t fix it.
So I started shopping online for other options today. My plan was to try for a seamless switchover with my work: find a replacement tower, get it here, get my files backed up onto it, and then when I can start working on the new tower, return Dell’s faulty tower. (yuk yuk yuk to all you John Cleese fans)
But the Dell Service Center decided um, no. Why would we make anything easy, especially after making your work life heck for the past 2 months of crashy crashes?
They basically told me ok you’re not happy? You can return the machine right now.
I told them can I please get set up on a new machine before we make that switch? Can I return this tower in 3 weeks?
Nope. Return it now or forever hold your peace.
SERIOUSLY?!??!
My mind raced. I felt like that guy on UHF, where they’re all do you want the car, or what’s in the box?
The box, the box!
Oooooo! Red snapper, very nice!!
I made the snap decision to tell them to take this tower and shove it. And when the Dell Service Center was done processing the return UPS labels, they offered to connect me with a supervisor so I could tell them more about my experience. It was ON.
I took this as an opportunity to tell the customer service manager everything that had happened over the past 2 months, and why I wouldn’t be buying from Dell again. I kept to the high road, and I was professional about it, but I pulled no punches.
Because seriously. This was the worst computer buying experience I’ve ever had.
Click here for my full (and fully ridiculous) final contact with Dell Service Center.
So you told Dell Service Center to suck it. What about a new computer?
My friend Carol saw my request for techie input on Facebook, and recommended I get in touch with her computer guy. I did, and it sounds like he’ll be able to build a machine better suited for my work needs for about the same price. Game, set, match, win. And when I get this new machine, I will have a massive party.
The message here?
Shop local. Even with electronics.
Freelance illustrator Steph Calvert is an award-winning artist with 24 years of experience working as a creative professional. She is based in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.
Steph Calvert has expertise as a children’s book illustrator. She is an expert surface pattern designer for art licensing and creates line drawings for publishing and product design. Steph has years of additional expertise as a mural artist, creating original art, and logo design for small businesses. She is currently querying literary agents with her first author/illustrator book projects.
Writing CLIENTS INCLUDE
Moonfrye.com
OC Weekly
Educational Highlights
National SCBWI Conference, 2023
Illustration Summer Camp – The Highlights Foundation, 2021
Make Art That Sells, 2017
BFA in Computer Art – SCAD, 1999
19 responses to “My Experience with the Dell Service Center”
Yes!! Shop with locals… I say this because my husband owns his very own IT company and he spends his day building & repairing computers (among other geek things).
Hopefully, the new computer is awesome!
I think I’ve just never had a connection with someone who could for sure build a pc before. Now that I talked to a real person about my work and what I need, I wouldn’t do it any other way!!!
OMG!!! How did you not pull every single hair out of your head?!! Glad you got it worked out. 🙂
It was NOT EASY, I rearure you! There were so many times in the past 2 months where I wanted to reach through the phone and throttle someone. But… Sharing the office with the 2 yr old means someone’s always watching.
I think it’s sad that he already knows what a blue screen of death is.
I’m so happy this panned out for you because OH MY GOD HAVE I BEEN THERE IN THE TRENCHES OF PC/DELL WOES! I wouldn’t trade my “in the pocket” IT helpers for the world. I regard them all as genius geek gods. But will never fan them with palm fronds…just y’know, cuz THAT could make things weird.
The best thing ever was I got an email survey this morning asking about my Dell experience. In the comments area, I totally pointed them to this blog post.
Twice.
It’s nice that I had time to type up the whole travesty while I was waiting for files to back up before I sent the machine back!
Also… I’m drooling over the prospect of receiving my new computer that actually does it’s job this week!!! GET HERE ALREADY!!!!!
Sorry to hear about your poor experience. If you ever need
support on a Dell product, please feel free to reach out to our
social media team for rearistance at one of the following (Facebook,
Twitter, Dell community forum). We are experienced at rearisting
customers with issues like these and can shorten the amount of time
it takes to get a resolution. I’ve also sent a message to you on
Twitter. Kindly let us know if you need any help.
Harish, this whole Dell experience has been one big lesson in why I don’t need to shop with Dell anymore. Looking at the XPS 8700 reviews now, there’s more than one mention of the repeated blue screen of death I experienced, and when I just tried to leave a review saying the same thing it told me the review system was not available. Bad computer, bad customer service, bad tech support. Not coming back.
But thanks for the refund, I guess. And the two months of completely upending my workflow, which I’m still recovering from. My business now cannot run quickbooks because I was forced to send your tower back before I had my new machine in place, which won’t get here until next week. My older laptop has an older version of Quickbooks installed, and it can’t open the last backup I made of my business’ file when I was backing up the new tower. So NOW I can’t invoice clients or pay subcontractors, because Dell has essentially hijacked my accounting system by forcing me to return the tower immediately instead of allowing me to wait a few weeks until my replacement was here and ready for a seamless switchover.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Again, very sorry that this experience was not the best and
that you were forced into a situation where you had to return your
system in order to get a refund, prior to obtaining a new one. Let
me re-emphasize, the social media team could have found you a
solution in this scenario. I encourage you (or anyone reading this
thread) to try reaching out to us first on Twitter.com/Dellcares,
Facebook.com/Dell or community.dell.com. Thank you for the
feedback, Harish R
I think the problem here is there should NOT be a disconnect in how problems are handled. No matter how I reach out to a company that sold me a faulty product and replaced it with another unit with the same exact problem, every arm of that company that deals with the customer should be trained in giving great customer service.
I went through the Dell customer service team via live chat because I wanted anything refund related to be in writing. Shouldn’t the customer service team be up to speed on how to properly manage a bad situation so as not to lose a long time customer?
It’s too late for “you should have gone through the social media team”. I’m not buying Dell ever again, and I hope this experience prompts Dell to give a little more thought to it’s customer service practices (or lack thereof).
Wow. Your experience is a study in all the ways things have
gone sideways in large companies. This was never about giving you
the best quality of product and service in order to have a business
relationship for life. This was about selling a product the MUST
know by now has issues, then not giving you any backup. And THEN
having some random rule about returns that any reasonable person
can see was no longer reasonable. Agreed: buh-bye Dell. I’m glad
you get a new toy to play with soon, though. That part
works.
For sure! I get that there’s rules and regulations in place at the corporate level in dealing with customers, but when it’s obvious more needs to be done to fix an issue, the customer service reps should be empowered to do what it takes to come up with a solve that works for everyone.
Ugh, what a mess! I’ve been dealing with similar issues
with a faulty Mac recently. My backup computer is a Dell and so
far, no issues there. Knock on wood…
It’s refreshing to hear someone say they’ve had a problem with a Mac! Literally everyone throughout this process has been quietly tellin me “shoulda bought a Mac”. Problem is they’ve got a bigger price tag than I wanna pay 🙂
Thank you for your valuable feedback and sorry that I
couldn’t be of any help. We’ll look into the case logs and provide
necessary feedback to the people with whom you had interacted with
earlier. Once again, thank you for taking time to respond to my
messages. Harish R
Thanks Harish, much appreciated.
Dells are very good computers for hardware. Most Blue screen errors are caused by the software which is Microsoft’s fault. Mac’s suffer from a whole slew of problems and on top of that they are not quite as invulnerable to viruses as Apple wants you to think. Come to me for your next computer purchase or problem and I’ll make sure you have a smile on your face. -Anthony
http://www.Infinitipc.com is where you can find us! We’re the best Computer Repair in Long Beach, CA!!
Thanks for this, Anthony! I was one of those people that had always heard Macs don’t have problems with viruses, and the rationale that it’s because not as many people have them so it’s not as worth it to write viruses for them kind of made sense at the time… But knowing they’re just as susceptible really gives me one more reason to stick with my PC for designing!