Dell Computer no longer honoring Warranty

[Nelson37]

Got a call from a customer who was very frustrated after several calls to Dell. Woman is 70+ but still pretty sharp. She related the screen showed a SMART message reporting "hard drive failure imminent", or something similar. I then called Dell.

Should add that Dell asked her to perform Numerous tasks, crawling on the floor to open the box, diags, asked her to reformat but she wanted to save some existing data. Multiple other things, however I was not present for this. Also that I have been authorized to do Warranty work for Dell, Compaq, Gateway, IBM, and a few others.

I gave Dell the Service Tag, Express Service Code, customer's Name, Address, and Phone Number, also a second number as she had originally ordered it using her second phone. Gave Dell the SMART error msg. Got confirmation PC was under warranty, agreement to send drive, and a confirmation number.

Within one hour the customer got a call from Dell stating order had been cancelled, no understandable explanation for this. Dell again requested her to perform numerous tasks which she refused, she then called me.

I again called Dell, again (after giving case number) repeated all customer information, including both phone numbers. After repeated requests from Dell to repeat various parts of this info, and the error message, and telling them multiple times the PC was not at my location, I requested a supervisor.

Once again repeated all customer information to the Supervisor, got agreement from him that the SMART message was absolute confirmation of hard drive failure, got confirmation PC was under warranty, got confirmation HD was to be shipped, and a confirmation number.

Customer was called by Dell and told order was cancelled because phone number did not match original order number. (The second one I gave was in fact the original number.) Customer called me, again I called Dell.

Repeated case number, customer info, immediately demanded Supervisor. Again confirmed SMART msg, Warranty, Drive to be shipped, told them not to bother giving me a "confirmation number" because it did not confirm anything. Told them customer did not want one of their low-rent geeks (they pay $35.00 per hour) as I would be doing the work and transferring the data. They told me a tech must remove the existing drive on-site and I could not ship it back after transferring data. This conflicts with numerous past experiences including this exact action less than two weeks ago, with another customer. Dell Supervisor did state the drive would ship. I asked repeatedly "Is there any more info you need? Is there ANY REASON this drive will not ship? Do you need ANY OTHER INFO to get this out and honor your warranty?" Dell Supervisor confirmed all was OK, nothing else needed.

Yesterday morning got a call from Dell, to me where the PC is not located as I told them at least three times, stating they want the hard drive serial number. This info has never been requested in dozens of Dell drive replacements including the one just two weeks ago.

I told them the customer is all done crawling around on the floor for them, this info is not available to me, if they wish to pay for my service call I would get them the number. I can only conclude they are no longer effectively warranting their PC's. I stopped wholeheartedly recommending Dell about a year ago, and began suggesting alternatives be considered. I will now treat them the same as a Compaq Presario or a Gateway, IOW a substandard PC built by an unreliable company, and one that should be avoided.

I saw this progression with Compaq, and with Gateway, and now with Dell. First more hassle with warranty parts, then a degree of hassle and obstruction as to constitute outright refusal to honor warranty, shortly after that a major reduction in market share as somebody else does a better job.

[kschang]

It's an attempt to get the customers to buy the on-site service plans.

[hrlslcbr]

It seems they're not interested in providing a good service, but only in getting more money...

[budz]

which is why dell sucks.....i worked on a few dells in the last few months....dell wanted $50 for a damn case fan....i replaced it with a compusa case fan.

[navher]

70% of companies out there have bad customer service including dell. But lol, when you compare dell customer service with sbc, dish network, aol..... dell is better. This is just my past experience..

[BJ_M]

yes - i know of many good dell stories also -- i know of them staying on the phone with one person 24 hours straight getting a server farm back up and running (and was not even directly a dell issue - but a ms issue) .. as well as going out of their way to help a few other people of know of quite well ..

compared to many other companies out there - they have good service reports - though i think compaq, right now, is ahead of them in customer satisfaction ..

[pchan]

In terms of market share, HP is very close behind Dell. My brother had a bad experience with Dell regard his laptop dead pixel.

Another brother of mine, spill water on his NEC laptop while on a flight back. NEC service wanted to charge him for a new mobo. He gave up. I open it and blow dry with a hair dryer. Replace the 40gig Seagate hard disk for $60. Everything is OK except some keys are not working which he intend to replace the keyboard module.

I think it's all depend on the guys who run the service centers. Most of these centers are outsourced. That's the problem.

[hech54]

My old, slow and outdated Dell Dimension 4500 is still going strong. The only time it would not function was after I aborted a Windows update in mid-stream so to speak....so technically that wasn't even a Dell problem.

[ybeard]

Or else Dell thinks that someone might be attempting to scam them... Just a thought. Seriously, with the SMART drive failure message, it shouldn't have been that big of a deal.

I'm also work for a company that is a Dell warranty provider and I have to say that Dell has generally proven to me to be one of the finer support groups that I've had to deal with in 27 years of working on computers and peripherals. I can only think of one time where I've had a Dell support rep give me a hard time and I wrote that off to being the wrong time of the month for her. They've usually bent over backwards for me.

[Marvingj]

Dell use to be good, But now they SUCK, because they got to big, they don't have crater to the loyal customer anymore.

[AngusMacGyver]

It sounds like my cell phone company's costumer service.
Everytime I have to call them, I have to repeat many time what I want and rarely my problems are solved.
It's a shame.

[handyguy]

Dell outsources to India. However, that means much cheaper PCs for us.

[ROF]

Dell has always provided decent support to my customers. I have never experienced(not even close) what the OP has. I have had numerous dealings with dead drives. Dell used a certain WDD Hard drive series in several of their computers a few years ago that had failures. I had to deal with tech support, customer services, and their returns department on numerous occasions and never had much of a problem. The only time I have ever had problems with Dell is when dealing with systems no longer under warranty and getting proper tech support from them. Of course, this is to be expected. Once these people drop a series of their computers from their lineup the support and knowledge base at Dell for those systems dwindles quickly.

The only thing I can think of in relation to the OP is that several people were dealing with Dell for the same system. From experience, that is one of the first clues that someone is trying to scam the company. My suggestion is that the next time the original poster begins handling a problem, that the original poster does as I do. I tell the customer that they no longer need to deal with the warranty and I will handle everything. Ask them to PLEASE not call the company anymore but deal directly with you for any questions.

I stopped wholeheartedly recommending Dell about a year ago, and began suggesting alternatives be considered. I will now treat them the same as a Compaq Presario or a Gateway, IOW a substandard PC built by an unreliable company, and one that should be avoided.

I've been doing the same thing for years now. The company is OK. They even can build some good systems. But generally the systems are sub-standard, sub-par, and way waaaaaaayyyyyyy over priced.

[xxiangg]

I heard story that Singlar customer service is
bad. I have been with them for 5 years and had
not used their customer service once. So I have
nothing to complain and will be still with them.
I believe Dell also has many customers who never
used their customer service. So Dell will not
worry if there are some unhappy customers. If
these unhappy customers will go to competiters,
it may be good for Dell. To make everyone happy
just simply costs too much for most company.

[BJ_M]

So Dell will not
worry if there are some unhappy customers. If
these unhappy customers will go to competiters,
it may be good for Dell.

i think dell - as most companies -- realize that unhappy customers is not good for business...

a lot of people i notice bashing dell (and other companies) personally never even dealt with said companies, but are just spouting off generalities and suppositions with no real facts ...




"Singlar" is Cingular - is the company that you have been with for 5 years i think you mean ..

[Nelson37]

I have been dealing with Dell since they opened for business. As far as fear of being scammed, they have my name in their database of authorized technicians. Dell has only spoken to TWO people on this latest issue, customer has not called again, Dell has called HER.
I have handled such cases many, many times in the past with no issues. While communication with their Indian techs is often not ideal, at least in this case there was no language problem.

For two years my company was the local Compaq Factory Authorized Warranty Service Center.

Gateway same as Dell, However as their support and quality control slipped the number of customers with Gateway machines has dropped dramatically, such as the local County Government and their 1000+ PC's, which no longer does business with Gateway due to quality control and support issues.

The company which did the Compaq Warranty Service ceased doing this due to repeated instances of Compaq sending defective parts for warranty replacement, causing multiple onsite visits to the customer, Compaq sending incorrect parts, and such idiocy as insisting that a PC with ALL drives disconnected, showing scrambled video on the BIOS screen, had to be scanned for virus. It was bad video memory on the mainboard, that board being the THIRD replacement board sent by Compaq, the first one did not fit in the case and the second was dead as a doorknob. They only pay ONCE for the board replacement, no matter how many times their defective parts force the replacement to be performed. Every one of the 8 technicians working there requested not to do any more Compaq Warranty work.

These examples are not isolated events, just the worst or most memorable incidents. When I downgrade a company it is not due to one or two incidents, but several, with a repeated pattern. Everybody makes mistakes, but a repeated pattern of not correcting them is a reason to stop doing business with that company. Dell has not yet fallen as far as Compaq and Gateway, but it is on that path. After dramatic losses of market share, Compaq and Gateway have made some improvements, but have not and probably never will recover their former levels.

The three or four times a Dell tech has simply replaced the drive without formatting or running the system restore was the first indicator. Dell policy is that they are supposed to do this. It has gradually become more and more difficult to obtain replacement parts from Dell. Replacement proprietary power supplies at twice the price of a standard one, which has more wattage to boot. Their small form factor cases with severe overheating problems causing multiple drive failures and other component issues. The unusual number of onboard LAN interface failures, and onboard video failures. I have companies with more than a dozen Dells less than two years old with half of them requiring a replacement video or LAN card. Cheaper and easier to simply install the part without contacting Dell at all.

And then there is the company that ordered a fairly expensive server from Dell that was advertised as having "hot-swappable" drives, after receiving the PC we discovered that in order to have the "hot-swappable" drives a $300.00 controller had to be added in order to make it function as advertised. This was NOT a shipping mistake, the PC was constructed as Dell intended. The Advertised capability was quite simply a lie.

When you combine Quality Control problems with excessive and ridiculous obstructions to obtain replacement parts, you have changed from providing an "inexpensive" Pc to making a CHEAP pc, there is a large difference.

[mike1061]

a lot of people i notice bashing dell (and other companies) personally never even dealt with said companies, but are just spouting off generalities and suppositions with no real facts ...

This may well be true, but I am telling you Dell was not able to help me at all, and it
is strictly due to may lack of knowage. That's why I called them. I bought a $1000
computer (8200) with $1500 worth of audio/video extras. I have had everyboby and
there mother over to work on the damn thing. I have not transfered a single VHS tape
to DVD, and I never will. I replaced almost all of the parts, and I can copy and burn DVDr's,
but that's it. I was going to get a standalone but I've kinda lost intrest. I've spent 1000's
of hours trolling, and lots of money on parts and computer tech's. The Bottem line is Dell
sold me a computer that could not transfer my VHS tapes, nor could it transfer my vinyl
records. One of the computer tech's I paid to look at computer said, no matter what they
say about the software and hardware being made buy other people, it has there name
(Dell) written all over it.
Sorry about a long winded complaint, and it's still an incomplete story. That would take
forever to type.
The bright side is, I spent so much time on trying to figure all this stuff out, I was able to
build 3 computers from scratch, and have fixed probably 50 computers with assorted
problems for other people.
Thanks Mike

[lordsmurf]

Computer warranties are worthless. They always want you to re-format and lose all your data (restore discs). The sons-of-bitches do not even tell you that you'll lose everything in most cases. Or they will lie to you and say your data will be fine.

Only parts warranties are worthwhile. Even then, you may have to skip it on the hard drive, worthless warranty, and just eat the cost of getting the data recovered and replacing it with your own drive. Many of them use Maxtor (Maxtrash) drives, and you should replace it with a WD or Seagate.

[hech54]

I have 3 Maxtors.
The original that came with the Dell.
An additional identical one installed a few years later.
And a USB External one.

NEVER a problem.

[Faustus]

(they pay $35.00 per hour)

Wait... I want to make $35 an hour! holy crap!

[deadrats]

Only parts warranties are worthwhile. Even then, you may have to skip it on the hard drive, worthless warranty, and just eat the cost of getting the data recovered and replacing it with your own drive. Many of them use Maxtor (Maxtrash) drives, and you should replace it with a WD or Seagate.

that would be great advice if it wasn't for the fact that seagate now owns maxtor:

http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,,3183,00.html

[lordsmurf]

Only parts warranties are worthwhile. Even then, you may have to skip it on the hard drive, worthless warranty, and just eat the cost of getting the data recovered and replacing it with your own drive. Many of them use Maxtor (Maxtrash) drives, and you should replace it with a WD or Seagate.

that would be great advice if it wasn't for the fact that seagate now owns maxtor:
http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,,3183,00.html

Read this:

The integration of former Maxtor operations into Seagate is expected to be substantially completed by early calendar 2007

and

Adding to Seagate's own line of branded products, Seagate will retain a full range of Maxtor branded retail solutions.

Ownership does not affect current products or even near-future products. From the looks of it, Maxtor and Seagate may continue unchanged well into the far future also.

My advice remains unchanged.

[budz]

Then why has some of Maxtor's Hard drives now carry a 5 year warranty. Ownership does affect perhaps some of Maxtor's line of hard drives. I purchased a SATA Maxtor 250gb hard drive that comes with a 5 year warranty. :P

[CrayonEater]

How about asking your client to have her lawyer write a letter to Dell? That often clears things up without getting too messy or expensive, but it does show Dell that your client is not going to let it lie.

[slacker]

Just my two cents here. I don't think any company knowingly promotes bad customer service. I do think however that, over the longer term, we have been in the midst of a round of cost cutting by tech companies that has, among other things, affected customer service quality. I think we are nearing the end of this cycle. As you all say, customer service has fallen way below unacceptable. The recent AOL and BOFA customer service fiascos clearly have documented these facts for the masses. The tech companies will now go the other way, dramatically. The tide will turn quite abruptly. The reason being some jughead somewhere is going to figure out that it is one of the last remaining ways for a company to differentiate themselves from another. Just a prediction!

[ROF]

i think dell - as most companies -- realize that unhappy customers is not good for business...

a lot of people i notice bashing dell (and other companies) personally never even dealt with said companies, but are just spouting off generalities and suppositions with no real facts ...

Whoever thinks that any company believes that unhappy customers is good for business is somehow mentally challenged whether via drugs, alcohol, or heredity.

While there may be some people who jump on the bandwagon to bash a company I highly doubt it could be consider alot of people. Dell has earned a reputation of offering high priced, substandard equipment. Granted there are some people who think they are the greatest company to offer computers.

Why do they think this?

Two Reasons:

- Because they had alot of money to spend and bought a decent machine.

- They wouldn't know a decent machine if it booted up in front of them.

I know there will be those who will come out saying I am an engineer with 16 degrees in computer science and I always buy Dells. To that I must answer that nobody said your degrees means you are a smart person. They just mean you can read and understand what you read to the point that if someone asks a question you can answer it correctly based on what you read. Computer science degrees do not make you an authority in the field. They just line your walls with bio-degradable papers and quite a few cases put a chip on your shoulder that makes you believe you are smart.

[tekkieman]

I know there will be those who will come out saying I am an engineer with 16 degrees in computer science and I always buy Dells. To that I must answer that nobody said your degrees means you are a smart person. They just mean you can read and understand what you read to the point that if someone asks a question you can answer it correctly based on what you read. Computer science degrees do not make you an authority in the field. They just line your walls with bio-degradable papers and quite a few cases put a chip on your shoulder that makes you believe you are smart.

...and those who come out with "I've custom built a zillion computers, so I know what I'm talking about" are even worse. Five decades of doing the same thing every day does not make one an expert. Doing the same thing every time does not give one any increased intellect on the subject matter. Chimps can be trained to do the same thing over, and over, and over again as well. Part of earning those degrees is learning how to research, interpret, and make conclusions based on available data.

I won't tell you I always buy Dells, but I will tell you that the one that sits on this desk has paid for itself more than 100 times since I've owned it, and the 5 minutes it took to order from the website compared to the few hours it would take to build it just added to its value.


Funny how those without the degrees are so quick to try to say they're smarter than the ones with....I wonder why that is?

[Nelson37]

This client will not need a lawyer. On an earlier dispute with Dell, she had written a letter to their Chief Financial Officer, and gotten a written reply.

As far as satisfying customers, it is a simple financial calculation having nothing whatsoever to do with making any individual happy. How much does it cost to solve most problems versus how much is saved by not sending out parts, balanced by loss of sales due to bad advertising.

What the bean-counters are not taking into account, oddly enough, is that the electronic age makes it possible for information to be shared with large numbers of people.

I do not believe that Dell will improve service, once a company reaches a certain size the bean-counters take over and accounting formulas determine every action. This will open the door for another PC maker to receive the droves of dissatisfied customers leaving Dell, very much as Dell did with Gateway.

[ROF]

I know there will be those who will come out saying I am an engineer with 16 degrees in computer science and I always buy Dells. To that I must answer that nobody said your degrees means you are a smart person. They just mean you can read and understand what you read to the point that if someone asks a question you can answer it correctly based on what you read. Computer science degrees do not make you an authority in the field. They just line your walls with bio-degradable papers and quite a few cases put a chip on your shoulder that makes you believe you are smart.

I won't tell you I always buy Dells, but I will tell you that the one that sits on this desk has paid for itself more than 100 times since I've owned it, and the 5 minutes it took to order from the website compared to the few hours it would take to build it just added to its value.


Funny how those without the degrees are so quick to try to say they're smarter than the ones with....I wonder why that is?

I've got two degrees myself and besides helping me land me land a better job they have done little for me in my field. I have found very little from my schooling that transfers into real life situations. They are just pieces of paper that hang on my wall. That Dell you own would have paid for itself more than 100 times over since you've owned it if you did not overpay in the first place.

[gadgetguy]

Degrees or no Degrees, there are smart people and stupid people in both categories. Reminds me of the old saying.

Q. What do you call a medical student that graduates at the bottom of his or her class?
A. Doctor.