Bang!
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Bang!Wow! I hope I never lose data like the image to the right. Apparently Dell has some exploding laptops, not a great comfort since I own a 9300 that I rely on regularly and that sits next to the bed most nights.
This comes after I was reading this weekend about Dell's Customer Service woes in the UK, which also made me a little nervous. Not that Dell or any other company makes everyone happy 100% of the time, but when it makes the news like these have, it makes me wonder a bit.
I've read a lot about Dell over the year. When Michael Dell was selling parts out of his dorm room, I was in college and wondered if I should have gone that route. Maybe Jone's CPUs would have done well enough for Mr. Dell to buy it 🙂
But everything I've read shows that Dell has built a great system to turn inventory, not provide wonderful customer service. The two things could exist together, but in Dell's case they've built a system to offer cheap computers that are built quickly and shipped out ASAP to maximize inventory turns. They're like the Wal-Mart of computer retailers.
But if you dig deeper, a number of things they've done wouldn't work with smaller companies. How many of you could have suppliers build warehouses nearby so parts could be delivered as you need them? It's a trick similar to the airlines closing the doors on a plane and pushing back from the gate even when they can't take off for 15 more minutes. The old "shade the statistics" method of marketing.
Now I like Dell. We use Dell servers, I have a couple Dells in the house, and I've never had an issue with their service. And I hope I never do.
I just hope they are truly checking their batteries for issues and not just doing damage control. There are a lot of us out there with Dell batteries nestled a little to closely to our laps and our children.
Steve Jones
- I had a Toshiba power adapter that caught fire. Not as big a fire as that Dell mind you I unplugged it right away. I'd moved the laptop from a table to a counter and when I plugged it back into the wall the cable sparked and melted where it left the adapter heading to the laptop. It was still under warranty so Toshiba's repair centre replaced the power adapater, but only reluctantly since they decided I'd been unreasonably bending the cable. That was completely false, the current simply proved too much for the cheap cable.I complained to Toshiba as well as to Staples from where I bought the laptop, this was regular use and a very real fire hazard. I bought Toshiba trusting their reputation for quality. But they never even bothered to reply to my letter so I'll never buy another Toshiba. I recommend against them, but I guess for any laptop I'd say don't trust the power adapters either. I'm just relieved the cable caught fire while I was using it and not one of my kids.At least you have to respect Dell for taking action on this incident. Toshiba did absolutely nothing for me.
Ryan
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www.quadrus.com -
I have a Dell laptop that I bought in 2004. While I haven't needed technical assistance, I was very unhappy with their customer service on the financial side. They were offering 90 days without interest and sending bills for regular payments. I wasn't paying close attention to when the bills arrived. The final bill arrived exactly 92 days after the purchase date, and I wound up paying full interest all the way back to the day of purchase. When I tried to complain, all I could get through to on the 800 line was a call center in India, and no one there had any authority to solve the problem. They merely reiterated the company line "You went over the 90 day limit." I even tried calling the head office in Texas, but always got routed to voice mail and never got a call back. I doubt I will ever buy another Dell because of this.
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I had a great experience in 1997, when I was shipped my first Dell with a bad image. No problem! I was walked through a quick fix and was up and running before I knew it. My recent experience was terrible in comparison. If you have people running off a script and not fluent in the language, who give you the runaround and cannot escalate to corporate, then you can count on customer service quality suffering. It's a great way to chase off loyal customers. The bottom line is after three purchases my next machine will not be a Dell. I'm not against outsourcing, but you still have to get quality support. Time to short this stock people.
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