mosker

All in a day's work

One of the things I miss about not living near my family is missing out on family projects. It would, of course, be nice to have everyone around to chip in when I need help, but that's not what I mean. I miss the chance to work toward a common goal with my family members. There's something about the shared history that means no matter how long you've been away, you'll always be a part of the group that is so heart-warming. This week Suzanne needed some help tackling several projects in the yard, and although it was a day of hard work, I feel really good about having been able to help. Yesterday I helped Suzanne and Mom source and unload all of the supplies we needed, and today we (along with my brother and his wife) managed to knock off everything on the list. And one thing that hadn't even made the list yet: my brother and I built a small brick patio in the side yard. It's something I've never done before, and I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to spend time working with him on a cooperative venture.

And for the record, my sister makes an excellent minestrone--that alone would have made it worth the labor. (I even ate the carrots.)

Leftover parts

Are there supposed to be leftover parts after your laptop has been dismantled and reassembled?

The Dell technician finally showed up last week. I asked someone to meet him at the door so he didn't get lost in the building and have to go home again, and he reportedly spent the entire walk to the office complaining about the parking situation and how he doesn't have to pay to park when he visits one of the other campuses.

Charming.

After he left (and after he left a big greasy smear on the display) someone found this piece on the floor next to where he'd been working. We eventually decided it was indeed an extra piece rather than something he failed to reinstall, but I'm not sure I'd want him to work on my computer again.

On the plus side, the replacement motherboard appears to have corrected the problem. I should know for sure by the time I finish installing this month's updates from Microsoft.

There's no way this could possibly go smoothly

Last spring I began experiencing even more problems with my laptop, specifically that whenever wireless was turned on, the computer became convinced that a USB device had malfunctioned. Except no USB devices had malfunctioned, and I got the error even if no USB devices were attached. I could have ignored it if the error message hadn't kept popping up every few seconds, invariably blocking my view of whatever document on which I was working. I finally turned off the audio whenever possible so I didn't have to listen to the incessant error chime that accompanied the message, and even resorted to just turning off wireless when I didn't absolutely need it so I could get my papers finished. I didn't have a whole lot of time to deal with it then and when I finally called (it was still under warranty) the tech support guy to whom I spoke was unsurprisingly unhelpful.

I blogged about it here, and once again Brad from Dell's customer support posted a comment offering to assist me. He was able to get the broken case replaced and suggested some troubleshooting for the error message. It took a little while quite a while for me to follow-up, but Brad was still able to help me out and arranged for a tech to replace the motherboard. This is all good, except for the part about how someone other than Brad was going to be doing the work.

• Monday I got a call from Dell's local tech support contractor telling me they would receive the part the next day and I should expect a call from the technician.
• Tuesday the tech called. He asked where he should go (my office) and said he would be there on Tuesday afternoon. Then he called again and said he wouldn't be there after all because his car had died and he couldn't make it in from the suburbs.
• Wednesday the tech called from the parking lot and asked where he should park. Parking on a college campus is always competitive, and thanks to trenching in the parking lot, finding a spot is an iffy proposition at best, so I suggested he park wherever he could find an available space, and noted that the metered spaces were probably his best bet. He grew hostile immediately and retorted that "they don't pay for parking," and if he couldn't find a place to park he would just call Dell and tell them so. Then he called back and said he would have to come back the next day because he didn't have any money for parking. Seriously, who are we kidding? I paid what felt like a fortune for the computer and extended warranty and the guy is trying to make this my fault? Do they refuse to provide warranty service for customers downtown where parking can be extremely scarce and expensive?

I'm waiting to hear what today's obstacle will be. Perhaps he will be deterred by the very large pool of water in the parking lot that will prevent him from getting to the building. Or maybe he'll make it into the building only to face a freak dual elevator outage so he can insist that "they don't climb stairs."

I'd be really frustrated if it were my primary computer, but as I have abandoned both Dell and Windows for my personal computing, I can maintain a bit of perspective. Interestingly, the University has a large inventory of Dell computers, and never once have I had these kind of problems obtaining warranty service for the corporate machines. It sure makes it difficult to recommend Dell to associates who ask for my opinion when they're looking for a new computer.

The saga continues

I felt a bit chagrined when the tech assigned to replace my broken laptop case actually called on Friday. After all, by my calculation, Friday qualified as next business day following my after-hours Wednesday call. Hurray! and maybe I could begin to revise my opinion of Dell service. We chatted briefly in order to negotiate when he would be there (I asked him to come to the office), and he said he would be there between 1 and 2. Perfect timing, because I had to leave at 3:30.

Perfect, except for the part where he didn't show up. He finally called at 3:00 and said he could be there in 30 minutes. Uh, no. He was a bit put out about my refusal to wait, even getting a bit snarky as he attempted to correct my terminology when I again described what was broken. Listen buddy, I don't care what you and Dell call it as long as you fix it. Then he offered to reschedule for the next day, but then backed out when he realized that was Saturday. Yeah, it is painfully obvious he affiliated with Dell. For the record, I know I have offered users the correct terminology to help them describe a problem, but I don't act like they're stupid, and I don't do it when they won't have to use the term again. Is Dell assuming they'll have to replace the "palm rest" again?

The tech did show up during the scheduled time window on Monday and set to work. And he replaced the broken part, which was great, but he also told me four or five times that the heat sink was "impacted". Okay, go ahead and clean that up while you have everything dismantled and quit nagging me about it. Oh, and he decided that it was my fault that the case had cracked. Apparently I should have been periodically dismantling the case in order to tighten the hinge screws that hold the display to the base. Whatever. That's not in the manual (wait, there's no manual) or the support website, so he can just stuff it. Besides, that finger-pointing rationalization does nothing to explain why there were also cracks forming at the front of the case. Perhaps they should consider the possibility that the impacted heat sink and the cracked cased are symptoms of design flaws instead of blaming their customers for something over which they have limited control.

In the interests of fairness, Brad has been working with me to try to resolve the software problem. It's unfortunate that Dell has only one unit capable and empowered to help their customers, but that's not his fault. Thanks Brad!

It's all about keeping your expectation low

I have the first of two final exams out of the way (I think it went pretty well), so I decided to bite the bullet and call Dell about the problems I've been having with my laptop. Given the experience I had getting the battery replaced last year during the recall, I figured I should keep my expectations low, and still, I'm disappointed by the experience. Yes, I got the comment from the Dell customer service folks offering to intervene, but that felt like cheating. Next time, I'm gonna cheat right away.

I explained that I was calling about two problems, one hardware and one software. His response to the software problem was to direct me to a website that allows them to take over my machine remotely. Uh, No. Let's just move on to the busted case instead. I explained where the cracks are, but he continued to ask for the location of the cracks. Okay, maybe a bit of a language barrier. The top piece of the case is broken in at least two places. Have the tech bring a new case. He goes off for a while and finally gets back to me with a case number, then says that a local technician will call me on Friday or Saturday. Friday or Saturday? What kind of service would I get if I didn't have the Next-Day Warranty? It's after close-of-business on Wednesday, so I wasn't expecting a tech tomorrow, but I was certainly assuming they'd call tomorrow to schedule Friday. What was I thinking? So far, I am not impressed.

It may turn out much better than how it sounds right now, but I'm not holding my breath.

When it rains, it pours

I am so frustrated. It is well beyond crunch time trying to get my last assignments finished and turned-in before finals and I have been beset by computer problems. I'm sorry to break this to you, but even people who work with technology for a living have computer problems. We don't like it any better than you do. I don't have time to deal with the broken computer case right now, and I found a temporary work-around for the annoying error message that persistently pops up when I try to use wireless. Now, however, the keyboard is freaking out and I cannot type the letter "u" without purposefully and carefully pressing the key. I don't type with the speed and efficiency of my sister, but this is frustrating enough to have me in tears soon. It only takes a few minutes of typing to realize how many words contain the letter "u".

I have postponed calling Dell for warranty service because I wanted to finish the semester. What is wrong with technology working when we need it anyway?

Dell durability

No, I haven't dropped it. Yes, I carry it in a padded bag. It is less than two years old. There is actually one more crack, but it hasn't spread as much as these two, so it doesn't seem worthy of its own photo yet.

To be fair, although I do have the accidental damage plan, I have not contacted Dell yet. After last years' battery replacement debacle I'm not quite prepared to face the frustration yet. And I'm having other bizarre  problems too. For example, both USB ports work just fine, but when wireless is on and there are no USB devices plugged in, the machine likes to complain--incessantly--that a USB device has malfunctioned. I have to leave audio muted so I don't hear the on/off chiming of the warning.

I don't have the time or the energy to deal with it now. When the semester is over I'll carve out a few hours to make the dreaded calls. One of my associates has been tormenting me by suggesting that since they don't make the 600m anymore there won't be any replacement cases available. I'm not even prepared to contemplate that possibility yet.

Dell batteries

When Dell announced their recall of Sony batteries in August, I followed their instructions and requested a new battery. As a rule I think early adopting is a bad practice (let someone else help them work out the bugs), but this time I ignored my own advice.

A month later it was clear that my order had gotten lost in the system and calling customer service was not going to get their attention. I threw up an expletive-laden post to vent my frustration before responding to Brad, who left a comment on a earlier post.

It is a reflection of my frustration with the situation that I was shocked when Brad not only contacted me, but also followed through on every promise and kept me up to date every every step of the way. He not only arranged for a replacement battery but also called me with a tracking number and followed up to make sure it arrived.

You know it couldn't be that easy, however. The battery they sent me was refurbished. I wasn't sure how nit-picky I was prepared to be--a battery is a battery after all, right? Still, I knew that Sony was paying for the recall, so it wasn't coming out of Dell's pocket, and they had sent my boss a new battery. Besides, given the streak I was having with batteries, I couldn't help but wonder if the refurbished battery was going to die any moment. I left a message for Brad, who actually called me back the same day. He apologized profusely, said I should have gotten a new battery, and he would take care of it. Except they were out of stock and the new one would be delayed. No problem...Brad scored bonus points for simply calling me back, so it's not like I was going to complain about the delay when there's nothing he could do about it anyway.

I guess they've replenished their stock, because not only did I get the promised replacement, I got three. I know I've got to return the extras (I've already gotten a nagging email), but I doubt anyone will be surprised to hear that I'm not in any particular hurry to do it. Gosh, I guess they all fell behind a counter for a while, eh? After all, it's not as though they care about my continued business anyway.

The only thing they've done right in this whole ridiculous mess was empower a handful of customer service representatives to assist those customers who were fortunate enough to get connected with the right people. Brad was a stand-up guy who followed through on his promises and followed up to make sure I found a (belated) solution. Too bad Dell couldn't figure out a way to help all the folks who did the work of reaching out to them, before they started complaining publicly on blogs all over the Internet. You know...fix the problem while it's still small and engender some good will.

Brad: thank you. Michael Dell: You have some explaining to do. And apologizing too.

Pouring salt into the wound

I always feel guilty when I rant. I should have been more reasonable, I tell myself. I shouldn't have taken it personally, I think. Even as I typed my last post, I was second-guessing myself. The next day I was tempted to go back and edit the language. I left it though, because although coarsely articulated, it reflected how I felt about the situation.

After my unpleasant and unproductive call to Evelyn, my boss dug out the PPID for another battery that needed to be replaced, for the same model PC as mine. I was not amused when he announced that it was already out for delivery this morning. My coworkers are getting a giggle in twisting the knife as they torment me about the ridiculous situation. Maybe, they suggest, Dell has flagged my IP address so they ignore anything coming from me. I called customer service again. She told me she would escalate the call and they would get back to me. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

I did get a call from Brad around noon with a promise to investigate the problem and call back before the end of the day. It's too soon to check the tracking number he gave me, but he's the best lead I've had so far, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I give him credit for calling me back as promised at least.

Bastards!

I'm not good at ranting. Well, actually, I'm not good at ranting in writing. I can spend fifteen minutes telling you all about how Dell bastards! can't send me a replacement battery for the potentially explosive part currently powering my laptop. I can also spend another hour detailing the unresponsive and rude staff who take calls about the battery replacement program at Dell bastards!. When it comes to putting it in print, however, I feel obliged to attempt to be fair to the hardworking and probably stressed staff who are attempting to implement a large scale parts replacement that has damaged the reputation of Dell bastards!.

When I ordered the battery they told me it would take up to 20 days to receive a replacement. They did not say it would take at least 20 days. Up to means I should get it before the twenty days are up. The first three calls I made, the service reps all promised they would escalate the call and I should expect an email with additional information. I got nothing. No emails, no follow-up. NOTHING!

Today I called again, and Evelyn couldn't even be bothered to take my information and check the status of my order. Evelyn's response was they "are replacing four and half millions batteries and it's going to take a while". As to the tracking number that was assigned a month ago? That's the shipper's fault--they have lots of packages from Dell bastards! and it's going to take a while to scan them all.

That's a load of bull, and not even creative bull at that. What part of customer service don't they understand at Dell bastards!? How about Customer and Service?

I'm irritated about getting the runaround, and I'm supposed to be mollified with hyperbole? I don't care if it's 100 batteries or 100 million batteries. I care about my battery not exploding in my computer. And News Flash Evelyn: It's not 4.5 million batteries being replaced, it's 4.1 million batteries subject to recall. What kind of response rate do they actually have, do you suppose? 50%? 75%? There are experts who can figure these things out ahead of time. If you cannot replace all of the 4.1 million batteries affected by this recall within 20 days, then you must give a better estimate of how long it will take. Customers don't get angry about getting something sooner than expected, but they do when something takes 50% longer than promised (and counting). And do they really expect me to believe that a national shipping company like DHL is going to ignore packages for a month? Why would Dell use them if that's true? That entire argument from Evelyn was ridiculous and insulting.

Dell bastards! may not care if they lose my future computer business, but let's look at this in practical terms: I work in Information Technology at a public university. Students, faculty, and staff frequently ask for my recommendation for computers and computer companies, as do friends and family. Does Dell bastards! really want me to tell all of these potential customers what I think of their customer service? Do they really want me to mumble bastards! under my breathe every time I hear someone say Dell?

After I posted yesterday I got a comment from Brad, who says he works at Dell and is willing to look into my problem. How did he find me? Do they have people trolling the web for bloggers who are dissatisfied with Dell? I don't know if he is who he says he is, but it's the best lead I've had to this point, so I'm willing to give it a shot. I would love to find someone who works for Dell that doesn't think customers are an afterthought.