In and Out in 10 minutes
As you may know, for the first time I decided to buy a computer via the internet. That is hard for me since I’m more of a walk into a store and get it right now type of person.
But I do try to change my behavior once in a while and I decided to buy a DELL XPS laptop computer with GNU/Linux pre-installed, my fears of buying something expensive like a laptop via the internet or phone have always been “processing” delays and having to return the product if it is faulty.
And wouldn’t you know it, It took 30 days to ship!!! and when I got my laptop it came with a busted backlight YAY DELL!!!
Cry not, do or do not. There is no Cry
Of course I’m an adult :-P so I see no point in crying over spilled milk. It seemed like a great opportunity to try out their “Customer Support” to get some “real experts” to help me $-P. After 30 minutes in a chat session they told me to contact support via phone. :-S ( I died a little )
Call this my personal hell
I hate call centers, I can’t understand half of the people that “help me” and they seem to love to use that damn transfer button. 5 hours later and after talking to *all* the DELL employees ( or at least it felt like I did ), I got the chance to ask for a replacement LCD.
The moral of this story
Never buy a laptop from the internet… no… that’s not right.
Never buy from DELL ? naa that’s not fair but they do need to work on their quality control and production time.
Well just trust your gut and go buy locally if possible.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I’ve got DELL XPS. I bought it. Kill Vista. Install Ubuntu. No problems. No techsupport ))
September 16th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I had a problem with a dead pixel and I wanted to send the laptop to get it repaired. The first time I went into the live chat thing it was hell indeed. I had to give up for the night, the person helping me out had a tendency of making me wait for %s reason. The second time I went on the live chat I had a more serious problem (my battery charger was dead) so I really, really needed to take care of the problem ASAP. I asked them if they could call me on the phone and I set up a computer pick up and a charger delivery for the next day. That second time everything went smooth.
The good thing is that they told me the computer was going to be ready in 5 to 10 work days, but after 3 days I had my computer back and fully functional (but that may be because of all the free software stickers my laptop has xD I suspect the people fixing it were free software supporters as well, hehe).
September 16th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Wow… Where are you located? Coz I bought an XPS too from Dell BECAUSE of the support! I’m quite familiar with their professionnal support, I know the one for individuals is not as good, but XPS is a dedicated support at least here in France. I had two problems, and each time it was very easy and fast, the part was replaced the next day and nothing to worry about. Apparently they need to improve in some other places!
September 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
@leorockway yep, I hope the problem gets fixed quickly. This laptop I am using is running on life support. It’s stripped down to the motherboard since it’s meltdown.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
@François, I bought it in the USA :-(
September 16th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
In the US? Wow, I’m quite surprised. And one remark, I would NEVER go in a live chat for a support pb. Or for anything else… Honestly, the people there know less than most of us about the products. And to me “support” equals “make a phone call”. Usually 5 minutes later you have your support ticket number and the guy comes the next day. That’s what I call support and pay for, even as an individual on a Dell product. Support is often what makes the difference between brands, in one way or in the other… And apparently in both ways for the same brand according to where you are unfortunately for u.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I have bought a DELL inspiron 1525 with ubuntu, and all works well, i’am very happy. But i take 30 days to be shipped too.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Interesting, I’ve recently bought a Dell Latitude and it was shipped in less than a week. That was via their small business stuff though, so it might be faster than “personal private” laptops :)
September 17th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I have to defend Dell, too. Had a problem (LCD was too dark) with my XPS laptop, called their support and they immediately said that I’ll get a new one. (I even had no real issue like dead pixels or something, I just didnt like my hardware and i knew that other models had better ones). Dell++
September 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I bought a Dell Vostro 1310 with vista. I now have a dual boot with Opensuse. I got the computer in 2 weeks witch I found fast compared to the estimated delivery time. For the technical support, I didn’t try it, but the fact that I’ll be using the business technical support instead of the home technical support, it’s going to be faster. As I read in some reviews about Dell support, the business side is a lot more convenient. That’s why I would always buy on the business side. For now, all I can say is that I love the size and the way it’s built.