Dell Horror Stories

"Next Day Service" on Back Order?

mcrawford — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:12:15 -0500

I was told that a tech would be dispatched the next day with the necessary parts to repair my notebook. At 3:00pm on that next day, I had seen or heard nothing.

I then found the parts are now claimed to be on back order. I received no email or phone call to inform me of the delay despite being told I should have. I ended up paying for Next Day service, and not received what I have paid for. I'll be lucky to be up and running a week after the failure based upon their current estimates.

I Wish I Had of Known About Dell Before I Sent the $500.00 for My Laptop!

mcrawford — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:14:44 -0400

I live in New Mexico, I wish I had of known about Dell before I sent the $500.00 dollars for my laptop! Their website stated the Inspioron 1545 Home basic, came with a free upgrade to Window7. I ordered the computer, upon receipt I called the tech line to make certain I connected all correctly and verify my upgrade. I was assured I would get it if I registered before 10/06/09. I called back because when I tried register it would not take. I was told to give them 24 hours and do it again. Nothing, another call...needless to say I I called and emailed 10-12 times without satisfaction.

I did write to the Better Business Bureau, haven't hard from them as yet.

I hope that Crew is successful in assisting others that have been taken in by Dell.

I was Coerced into Buying an Extended Warranty

mcrawford — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:22:47 -0400

I was coerced into buying an extended warranty for my Dell (now commonly referred to as Hell in my house) when my 4 month old laptop's LCD conked out. I live in Hawaii so the alternative was sending it to the mainland for a month. It took Five days for a service tech to come fix it. It broke again a month later. Again, five days. Two and a half months after the first breakdown, the LCD has died for a 3rd time!!!!

Far From "Next Day Service"

mcrawford — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:40:44 -0400

I bought a new Dell laptop XPS1640 on 7/2/09, my old Dell was stolen from work. I also was taled into the next day service. INHOME/OFFICE warranty. The very day i recieved my XPS1640, i had problems with it. I called the tech team in INDIA, and advised them that me computer was overheating and freezing. The tech worked on it on the interent made some bios updates and it seemed better. It was the end of the day, the next day i returned to work 20mins into using my computer same thing, overheated, freezing.

The Laptop I Purchased was Defective

mcrawford — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:21:46 -0400

I placed an order for a Dell Inspiron Laptop that I received from Dell on 9/11/09. I immediately realized upon receipt of my order that the Laptop that I'd purchased was defective. I tried to contact Dell on 9/11/09 to let them know that the product was defective and to arrange for an exchange. I was on the phone for over an hour at that day and was transferred to about 5 - 6 people that all said that they could not help me with the return even though it was well within their 21 day return period. They all said they were not authorized to do returns. At some point during the call, I was disconnected from the call by one of their associates so I gave up calling that day.

It Seems Dell Enjoys Making Things Complicated

mcrawford — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:18:00 -0400

Well, this one is still quite recent.

Today, 09/8, I received the items I ordered with Dell on the 3rd of September. That's a bit late but would be OK ... if I hadn't canceled the order already on the 4th !

I had to spend more than 30 minutes with (I think) 5 different people, each one having troubles to speak English, and each one transferring me to the next guy in the line. Of course, each one of them, successively, asked me my name, the order number... that I had given to the first one...

Dell is Trying to Rip Me Off

mcrawford — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:17:45 -0400

I visited Dell's website and selected to finance a computer for $821.77. The authorization e-mail I received by them mentioned that the computer was to be financed and included a total price. Nowhere in that confirmation letter was there any mention of a lease or rental agreement. When I recieved my first bill, however, I was shocked to see that the computer was listed as a leased computer. I contacted them immediately to resolve the matter, but they said that I would have to pay end of lease fines.

I Lost $2,000 in Revenue Because of Dell

mcrawford — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:31:43 -0400

I purchased the Next Day Service on my Inspiron laptop - when it died, it was over 8 days before it was fixed and Dell did not refund my Next Day Service payment of $168.00. I estimate I lost over $2000 in revenue during the down time; it would have been more but I had a backup PC that I was able to use for some work, but all my expensive software was installed on my laptop and I couldn't afford to purchase it again.

Dell did offer a $100 coupon to be applied to anything over $100.00 on their website but, as you can imagine, nothing good from them happens to be around that price.

"Next Day Service" Took a Month

mcrawford — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:36:55 -0400

I work for a company that purchase dell systems, servers, workstations and laptops and had 1 dell laptop I purchased for myself. On a few occasions with the desktops with next day support it turned into 2 or 3 day support. With my laptop it took over a month to get a working system with the next day support. Dell tech support people have stated over and over again, Next day on site service only means next day service from the time the tech person gets the part and not when you call dell for help. It used to be next day meant next day.

It was Far from Next Day

mcrawford — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:22:58 -0400

I bought an extended warranty through Dell that covered accidental damage for a non-computer product. It took hours of calls over several days to finally get a claim set-up after Dell customer service people repeatedly either denied damage was covered or endlessly bouncing me between departments. It seems the fact that it was a non-computer issue and was handled by an outside company just was more than their customer service could figure out.

Start of Another Nightmare

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:37:32 -0400

My 320GB hard disk on my 2-year old Dell Inspiron 1420 failed on the 12th August 2009. I filled a support request the next day. After days of waiting and calling Dell's Customer Support hotline, a technician finally came down and replaced my hard disk. Little did I realise it was to be the start of another nightmare. Shortly after the technician left, I found that I couldn't bootup or log into my system anymore. I filled more support requests on the 19th (the next day). Moreover, my corrupted 320GB hard disk was replaced with a 160GB hard disk too!

Dell's Service has Been More Like Next 'Couple' Days Service

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:22:09 -0400

I work for a manufacturing company in Michigan and was pleased with Dell's warranty coverage and speedy services in the past.

Lately, however, I have noticed that Dell's NBD (Next Business Day) service has only occasionally been 'Next Business Day'. The service has been more like Next 'couple' days service. I am glad that this issue is being tackled as it is starting to become a problem for us. Down time for manufacturing companies is VERY COSTLY.

Dell Passed the Repair Buck

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:58:52 -0400

After an area lightning strike damaged our cable modem, I had to replace the damaged modem. Once the modem was replaced, it was apparent that the Dell computer had issues with its port. After calling Dell, and I have an extended warranty on my computer, I was sold a modem conversion piece of hardware(third party). I did not think it would work, but bought it anyway. It did not work, and when I informed Dell of this, they told me to contact the manufacturer, even though they had sold me the hardware.

Broken Promise

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:57:52 -0400

I bought a Dell under what was supposed to be 0% interest financing, but they were charging 21%, so when I called to talk to somebody they said I wasn't qualified for 0% financing even though they had promised that initially. I had to get a loan to pay the computer off.

I Have Plenty of Nightmares with Dell

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:54:13 -0400

i have plenty of nightmares with dell and dealing with them not with warrenty but tech support and repairing my computer when i called the 800 number . I also filed a complaint with BBB. so let me know if you need it or not.. if you wish you can call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx i do better explaining on phone than typing it. thank you dolores

I Have Been Hung Up on, Disconnected, Ignored, and Not Called Back

mcrawford — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:48:27 -0400

I bought a laptop w/ a 3yr on-site warranty. and for 18 months, I have been trying repeatedly to get it serviced. I even had to buy a new warranty. I spent 18.5 months trying to get dell to fix my laptop to no avail. I spent untold HOURS on the phone trying to get them to fix it. And I am due compensation for my time and aggravation and that I should not have had to buy a new warranty to get dell to fix it - if they had fixed when I called them 20 months ago I would have had 18 months left in the original warranty - they basically EXTORTED nore money from me to do what they were already paid to do. I have six requests that are required to make me satisfied. I will mention that after two service visits and the laptop's screen still goes blank, Dell has told me they are sending another laptop - this should satisfy my request point 1 (provided I am satisfied with the new laptop) that leaves points 2 -6. A service agreement is a contract - one they refused to honor until I paid the more money - an act both unethical and criminal.

I Will Never Purchase a Dell Product Again

mcrawford — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:24:03 -0400

Dell maintains a proprietary "imprint" on their product such that one must source ALL spare parts through them -- Parts that are commercially available will not work in Dell product due to "latency" - requiring only the Dell option - which normally is TWICE the PRICE than commercial options.

Dell will then change the configuration and do not maintain sufficient spare parts - do when the consumer has such a problem, their PC normally is as useful as an anchor.

This was the problem that I had encountered -- There is NO ONE to telephone here in the U.S. - and direct numbers internal to Dell must be a highly guarded secret. You need to check out a site: "Dell Hell" - which has an exceptional range of Dell problem stories...

Dell Won't Send a Tech to Fix My Laptop

mcrawford — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:18:42 -0400

Leased a Dell e5500 laptop and an optiplex desktop for my business. While the desktop is working perfectly, the laptop has constant freezes when working in Citrix windows, which is the only way my business runs.
Before calling Dell ( I have next day service) I had my internet provider check out their end, and my parent company run diagnostics and tweak things to make sure they were not to blame.
Since June I have been through 4 Dell Gold representatives who have avoided having someone come look at the computer. They have had me trouble shooting every little software possibility, reloading the operating system etc. I have been hung up on by one tech for insisting that they get someone out to my office.

Dell I Don't Think So

mcrawford — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:09:48 -0400

We have Next Business Day, Includes Nights/Weekends that expires 8/21/2010. We also have Complete Care - expires the same time.

After much struggle, Dell is mailing us a replacement keyboard and wireless card. We have to install it ourselves. They refuse to answer our online chat questions about what exactly the warranty covers.

I believe that that warranty means that Dell can send me small parts, but they install large parts. I can install a wireless card, but a keyboard on a laptop? i don't think so.

On the "Dell-a Go-Round"

mcrawford — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:05:46 -0400

Ordered a $3,300 system. Was told "12 months SAC". System arrived with cooling fans flopping around inside. I fixed it. Received first statement to find a high interest rate being charged. Called them. Hours on the broken English "dell-a-go-round"...Transferred...cut-off...round and round. Finally was told they would not honor the free financing. Told the only thing I could do was pay or send it back. Sent it back (shipping over $100). Still being billed over $600. Got back on the "dell-a-go-round"...hours...cut-off,,,transferred. Round and round. Told that I didn't return it all. Supplied them tracking numbers.(he don't sound like a guy named "Bob") Their story changed. Now they made a mistake and claimed to have fixed it. Received another bill...not fixed. Back on "dell-a-go-round" round and round and round...said they fixed it again. Apologized. Got another bill and now getting collection letters. Getting collection calls at work.