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Do Manufacturers Adequately Support Their Products?
Chris Edwards asks: "I've been having quite a few problems with Dell support recently, and would like to ask the Slashdot community a question. To what extent should computer manufacturers support their product? I own a Dell Inspiron 7500
laptop, which has been plagued with problems since the day I purchased it.
The Inspiron 7k series were the first from Dell to take advantage of the new
15"/15.4" screens that had become available. They made one very tiny
mistake; they didn't change the hinges to support these gigantic LCDs. The
hinges on my laptop have broken four times since I purchased it two years ago. To put this into perspective: 8% of the time that I've owned my laptop, it's been in for repair. Should Dell just replace the laptop? Their support department doesn't think so; what do you think?" Dell isn't the only guilty party here. I'm sure you all have had your share of hardware support stories, the recent Ask Slashdot on IBM Deskstars is another example of this. Which manufacturers have a real bad track record of this kind of behavior?
then they need to support it, thats what warranties are for, if its a mistake because of improper use then the user should be stuck with the promblem... in your case it needs to be replaced
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
How do they owe you a new one? What they may owe you is to fix the design flaw by correcting it, instead of just putting back the new hinges that will break. You paid for a laptop, and you've had the better part of two years to use it, I don't think you can reasonably think you deserve a brand new laptop because you may treat the hinges a bit harder then the next person.
I doubt the tech people you talk to even have the ability to replace the laptop.
You ask to speak to a supervisor, if that person can't help, they must have a customer relations or complaint group you can place a formal complaint with. I'm sure the superivisor can point you in that direction.
My car has spent two of the eight months I've owned it in the shop. The valve in my shower keeps having its seals go bad. Microsoft.
The examples go on and on and on about people either selling defective products, or not admitting and properly fixing existing problems. Companies need to respect their customers, and in the case of things like my car, so do sellers and service people.
Worst example I can think of was an old Q-phone I had. The plastic case at the hinge broke six times in two years. I owned seven Q-phones in two years, every time I had to go to the hassle of exchanging it, and reprogramming all my phone numbers in it. Their solution was eventually to stop replacing the phone and to take my clip away (which was the primary feature that led to me buying the phone).
eMachines cuts the majority of their expenses on systems by trimming support to the bone. You get a whole year to call them, but once you call them, you only have fifteen days of technical support. The modems in their systems are particularly ESD sensitive and go out pretty often, and the PSUs they use aren't really capable of supporting any additional hardware you might put in the machine. Naturally, eMachines doesn't care - They just wanna sell rock-bottom priced computers, and leave the retailers holding the bag on support. Compaq's generally pretty bad too, at least in the personal/home office market. Even on the retail support lines, I've had to wait upwards of an hour for a single simple stupid question that three technicians in a row couldn't answer for me. Despite me apparent and informed knowledge of the matter at hand, they all proceeded to go down their binder-list of stupid end-user questions like "Is it turned on?" when I was just trying to find out how to bypass a BIOS lockout password someone had set on a particular display laptop model...Furthermore, their solutions to common OS and application problems seems to be to send out a technician to install a new mobo/CPU...like that's gonna fix anything... The problem is that standardizing technical proficiency in support lines is difficult to maintain and also more expensive than hiring monkeys with strict problem resolution guidelines. Thankfully, the support agency I work for is much more lenient - After spending a few months on first-line support and fixing the majority of user problems at my level with my own brain (Not the policy-procedure guidelines), they gave me a raise and moved me to second-level support. I have to do a bit more work, but it's less tedious, and I can still surf /. all day. :-)
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
My father-in-law bought a brand new gigahertz desktop from CompUSA about 3 months ago. When he had it for a month, it started acting up.
He had a virus. I removed it for him and every thing was fine.
A few days later it started acting up again. He called HP customer support who told him it was the virus and that he had to use the restored CD (lose all data, etc.).
That didn't work.
He took it back to CompUSA. They told him it NEEDED A CLEANING! So for $10 they cleaned it.
That didn't work. He took it back. They looked at it again and realized there were hardware problems. They wanted to charge him over $100 to look at it and about $200 to fix it even though he paid for a 3-year service warranty on it. He pitched a fit and they decided to only charge him $35.
It sat at the CompUSA store for about a month before they finally decided to ship it to HP. And that's where the situation sits now.
I don't know what HP will do, but it will be very hard for them top the service offered by CompUSA.
(By the way, I tried to convince him not to buy a computer there, but to no avail.)
-- yawn. --
I used to work for a computer manufacturer. I did tech support, repairs, upgrades, so if a problem was occuring, I'd see it and deal with it.
Our policy was that if a PC came in that had been in 3 times for the same problem, and our repairs had not yet solved the problem OR if a PC kept having continuous hardware related problems, we'd replace the computer from the bottom up.
Satisfied customer able to have their REVENUE GENERATING *note emphasis* computer back in hand was more important to the company than the cost of a replacement PC (which was not cheap!). Dell, Gateway, etc., probably won't do this because your computer is not directly generating revenue for your company. Yes, you use it to do your job which in turn helps the cause, but the system I outlined above was for Telco systems that brought in a constant stream of dollars.
In my opinion, yes, Dell ought to replace it OR offer a 100% guaranteed (field tested) FIX. You have documented a continuing problem that they have failed to solve. Will they do it, doubt it.
Seems the GripeLine on Infoworld made mention of this. What used to be sterling support has been turned into a nightmare. Of course I think part of the problem is a "It's not my problem" mentality between the hardware and software manufacturers. Microsoft won't support OEM licenses, and the manufacturers are getting inundated with problems Microsoft won't touch.
The intersting bit is the support contract. We seldom use it. Typically, our own Computing Services techs are modifying units when they come in the door (some of our labs need zip drives, but the administration doesn't purchace them... so we add them on site. As an example). But the other factor has been response time. Even though we have a support contract, it's simply easier to say "We can fix this. Fix it now and send the broken part back to Gateway."
So how good is the support when we really need it? I have no idea... Computing Services answer to my problems with the Dell on my desk has largely been "You shouldn't be trying to do that anyway so it's not really a problem..." Ah well... that's another can of worms...
If I can't see it in Lynx I'm not interested.
It would not even cost you anything, since we have something called a 'Small Claims court' which deals with consumer disputes such as this.
I don't know if you have such a thing over there. Another angle to try would be the credit card company. In the UK, the credit card company is jointly liable for anything you purchase with it. So there is another avenue to explore.
Finally, how the hell can they claim that a laptop display with three or less broken pixels is 'acceptable' ? You can bet that Michael Dell's laptop screen has all its pixels functioning.
As in all things, the squeaky gear gets the grease, so complain, complain loudly, complain often. Make it cost-ineffective for them to mess you around.
To what extent should a product be supported? I think the fact that someone can seriously ask that question makes a statement about the mindset of the computer industry when it comes to backing up their products. This has been said time and time again; in no other industry do people accept such high product failure rates! I think it's really that simple. That something is expensive doesn't mean it shouldn't be expected to work almost perfectly (perhaps just the opposite). Companies must take whatever steps are necessary to completely alleviate problems with their products within any time period they've specified. If a laptop has a 1-year warranty and the customer has a problem in that year which the company can't get figured out in a week, they shouldn't be able to say "replacing the motherboard is too expensive so we can't help you." And if they're having a lot of problems like that crop up and they're losing money because they have to replace so many motherboards, they shouldn't be allowed to screw customers; it's their suppliers' fault, sue them. Bottom line: there is no accountability for lousy products in the computer industry, and that needs to change.
I didn't realize there was a bug in the notebook until after the 60 day return policy. It was very hard to prove that something was actually wrong with the notebook -- I thought it was me not hitting the keys hard enough.
The thing is, Dell knew about the problem long before I purchased the notebook. I sent my notebook in three times specifically to fix this problem. The first two times they simply flashed the BIOS with a new version, which didn't fix the problem. On the third time, they did change the window where it ignored the characters from a half second down to a quarter of a second.
Ultimately, after a lot of frusteration, I was simply out the $2000 I spent on the notebook. I never could use it for anything.
I heard stories about a big company that had thousands of these lemons; Dell wasn't willing to refund their money or fix their problem, either. I never heard what the end result was. I think this is why they refused to refund my purchase -- they would have had to refund a lot of people's money, which would have had a huge effect on their bottom line.
This isn't the place to ask your question.
Like the last askslashdot, all your gonna get is IANAL.
Read your warrenty, see what you can do. If you have trouble, talk to an attorney.
Talking directly to customer support isn't gonna get you anywhere, unless you speak directly to the customer support manager. Their answer is as far as your gonna get without some legal backup.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Though I'm sure your specific experience was different, my experience with Dell support was nothing less than amazing. My CD-ROM broke one night at 2am. I called, spoke with a person that was able to appreciate that I wasn't a complete idiot, and received a replacement and a free return shipping label an box in just over 24 hours. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a major computer manufacturer that has as highly rated support as Dell.
I think I'll stop here.
Sun Microsystems has some of the best support around. When I have problems with Sun hardware, I call them and tell the what part I need replaced. Then they send the replacement, I send back the old stuff, and swap the parts myself. If I can't handle a problem, they send a tech out within 24 hours to troubleshoot and fix the problem. And this is all under standard warranty; with a nice service contract you can get two hour turnaround on five year old hardware.
True Story...
t ml
A little while back, my old flatbed scanner quit working. It had had heavy use, and was several months out of warranty, so I figured it was a write-off.
I did my research and tried to pick the best USB scanner out there in terms of price, features, and reliability. I ended up with an Acer 640U flatbed scanner. It's a nice scanner, and works preotty well. It's advertised to work with Windows 9x, 2000, MacOS, and Linux, if I remember correctly.
Well, I work under W2k for the great deal of my multimedia and graphics tasks. Just after a fresh install of the Operating System, the scanner works like a champ. However, after more than a little bit of use, the driver starts malfunctioning. Obviously a DLL conflict or something similar, right?
Well, a quick call to Acer to try to track down the conflict let me know that I was not privaleged to phone support any more because my product was out of warranty. Do they offer per-incident pricing for phone support?
http://www.acercm.com/support/technical_support.h
Apparently not. Even if they did, I could probably spend less on a brand new scanner than I could on 1 or 2 hours of support calls.
I resorted to newsgroup and messageboard searches for problems like mine, but couldn't really find any. I'm certain we've all had problems like this before, right? Where we are absolutely the onle ones to have them?
So, after a while, I tried emailing Acer's support like the page linked above suggests. I included detailed system specs including hardware specs, OS installed, a fairly comprehensive list of software installed, error codes and anything else I could think of. I specifically stated in the email that I thought that my problem was being caused no doubt by a software conflict, and asked for help tracking down the conflict.
The reply I received was along the lines of:
"Apparently there is a software conflict between the Acer driver and software applications installed on your system if your scanner will work with other computers. You should try to track down this conflict and uninstall the confilicting software."
This is adding insult to injury in my opinion. Either the support staffer who answered my mail was so untrained as to be useless, which is a real possibility in any support staff, or he or she didn't care, or had been instructed not to provide specific help to email support problems. So, despite the fact that the Acer scanner is actually a very good scanner, the software can't be trusted to keep working, and Acer's support of that software is in no way useful.
Sorry guys. Next time, I'll buy the Agfa Scanner.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Desktop computers that come already put together with software installed are only for sale to the masses. If you know more about computers than the average person there is no reason for you not to build your own computer. Not only do you get to personalize your computer's configuration, but you will get a faster computer for less money.
Now as for the issue of support. With a Dell if anything goes wrong you have to call dell and talk for hours and hours and not get anything done. If you built your own computer you have seperate manufacturer's warranties for the different parts. This would seem like trouble at first, but actually it's great. You recognize which part is not functioning properly and you get it replaced. It gets replaced because there simply is no other option. What's creative going to do if your sound blaster doesn't work? Give you a new one. it's great, especially with people like Plextor and such. This is besides the fact that the computer is infinitely less likely to have problems because it was put together by you, and not a robot at dell.
Of course you bought a laptop, so this doesn't apply. However for laptops I reccomend sony vaio. They cost a lot of money though.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Our company had over 7000 of the CPx units and they kept repeatedly breaking. The buttons for the trackpoint repeadedly fell off and the motherboard would fail in such a manner that would cause some keys not to work (not to mention the other problems). Then they recalled all of the batteries because of possibly issues with starting on fire. Last January, 900 of the 7000 units needed service - many of them more than once. Since it was costing Dell $150 - $200 for on site service (depending on the provider) on *top* of the parts in question, they finally broke down and decided to replace all 7000 units with Latitude C600s which are a much better PC. Bottom line was that they were lemons. Call Dell and demand satisfaction (have your glove handy). If none is achieved, visit the BBB Online and let them know what you are going through.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Ask yourself this: what influenced your purchase?
I'm betting that it was specification (as you said, it was a new model) and probably price.
I'll further bet that you didn't consider reliability (of that specific product, as it was new) or Dell's customer support or returns policy.
As long as we keep buying the cheapest, flashiest products, not the products made by the most reliable manufacturers, we're sending a clear message to them, and they will act on that message.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Yeah, that must have cost them a bundle, but look at the good PR they get from it.
Best Slashdot Co
You have to ask yourself, how many times have you tried to get a driver for device A where you know the name right off the box, only to find out that it's under a completely different name(oblivious to joe consumer) on the vendor website?
Yes, I know certain peripherals are just different company peripherals with a new badge on them, but trying to match part numbers(whether its a network card, etc) to part numbers' drivers/info/whatever seems to be an exercise in frustration.
The secret is to buy only "corporate" products. Of course you will overpay, but that's where the support costs come from. Person I worked for at previous job gave me this tip.
We used to buy Optiplex desktops. Only 2 or 3 prblems in a year. Good machines. If you called tech support the secret was to run the diagnostics CD if you think it's a bad part. Otherwise you have to explanin the problem in a way that would prevent you from running the diagnostics CD. Right before I left we started purchasing their workstations. Forgot the model name. One of the first I screwed up the CD burner with a firmware upgrade. They came out with no problems and even called me to make an appointment. These machines cost $500 more than a similar home configuration so you get what you pay for.
Same thing with laptops. For good support you have to get the latitude. I've had a user break his. Clear case of something not covered by warranty. Called tech support. I said I had no idea how it happened and that the user just gave it to me like this. Dell was out there the next day. Again latitudes cost more, but you get what you pay for.
How recent is this? I recall this was common knowledge(freely told to the customer) when I did Compaq support in '95.
First they don't (or at least didn't) design or manufacture notebooks. Therefore notebook support is not at the same level as the other products.
:-(
Second, Dell used to very much pride itself on customer service. Dell happily took significant losses on a given system (like replacing an entire system with a newer model a year or two after the initial purchase) regularly.
Then the "Customer Experience" initiative happend, and support when to shit. I don't know what the exact cause was, but they happened at the exact same time. Interestingly, the stock basically stopped growing a couple of months later. I hung around for another year/year and a half, but it got so bad I just quit. (I worked in the server department and it came to a point where the way I learned of the existance of a new, shipping product is when a customer called in with a broken one.)
Notice on the recent commerical with the "cool kid" trying to talk the nerdy kid's mom into buying a Dell he says something like "no one has won more awards for quality support in the last five years." because the rate of these awards has slowed considerably. Dell support isn't really number one any more, it's number two, like all the rest.
I guess I shouldn't be saying all this, I still have an ass load of stock that isn't doing squat
-Peter
I also experienced many problems with my CPx. Loud whirring from the hard drive, periodic freezes, keys not working and on and on. As well the hard drive almost never shuts down, even though RAM is plentiful.
German Telekom wins the "Worst Support" award.
We orderd DSL flat rate to upgrade our ISDN, waited 3 months for the kit. Finaly got it and installed it. Support told us on the phone that the line is activated BUT the flat rate will start monday. I pitched a fit but gave up.
Two months later our bill come out over $1200!!! They never acrivated the flat rate. The problem is that we don't have anyware in writing that flat rate will start on this day, only that the line will be activated on this day.
I called them once and asked in German, "Do you speek English?" three diffrent people hang up on me.
AT&T, SPRINT, MCI... MSN(!) SAVE US PLEASE! from Telekom!
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
Micron service and support for their PCs has always been absolutely incredible. I've purchased about a dozen PCs from them over the last 6 years, mostly becuase of the support that I received early on when a couple of machines had issues. They have never been difficult to work with, contact or resolve problems through. This may be why MicronPC is having problems and is being (has been?) sold.
Honestly, I have called so many other support lines and just wanted to crawl through the phone line to throttle the person at the other side...assuming there is a person there. MicronPC: "Your blue gun is out on your monitor? 17"? That'll ship out tomorrow with a return UPS label." Seriously.
For the sake of balance: HP printer and scanner support is horrible. Sony CD-ROM support is worse than a joke (1.5 month return time). If Comtrade still exists they are all that is evil in the world. ATT@Home customer service is actually a level of hell, thinly veiled. Diamond MM is slow, and I have mixed feelings on Dell. They seem to get the job done, but it is a little more painful that Micron.
-Rothfuss
I've had a complete nightmare having a Dell laptops that I ordered delivered to me. I ordered the laptop over the phone. At that time, I had a horrible address which was:
6 New Court,
New Court Road.
The laptop never came. For ages, nobody at Dell would return my calls. Eventually I got throught and they said that they had already delivered it. They had sent it to 6 New Court Road, which was a kind of pawnbrokers. It was a very rough street and there was no point in going to ask them for it back. Dell blamed the mistake on me at first, and then I talked to another sales rep. and they let slip that they had had the correct address all along and that there had been a screw-up.
After complaining a lot, they agreed to send another laptop. Guess what? They sent it to 6 New Court Road again. Luckily they weren't in to collect it. After telling Dell once again my correct address, they made a third attempt. They delivered it to 6 New Court Road, of course.
I only got it because I happened to be looking out of the window when the FedEx van came, so I could shout to the guy that he was delivering to the wrong address.
It was an expensive laptop paid for with my own money, and the whole thing was a complete nightmare. Especially grating was being accused (twice) of lying by Dell sales reps.
I've had several sounds card die within the 1 year warrnaty and then the refurb they send dies within a year as well but they don't support the replacement card.
I buy a lot of them too. I've tried switching to other brands such as diamond but other companies always seem to go under and then I get near 0 product support.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Thanks, Slashdot, for the best belly-laugh I've had all morning.
It was literally in the shop for two years out of best buy's 4 year warranty.
Neither cannon or best buy would replace it. I didn't buy anything from best buy for several years. I would have banned them for life but sometimes they have good deals. I'll never purchase their extended warranty again, that's for sure.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I've had a Thinkpad sent back to IBM 8 times. After that I got another model which caught on fire. Its replacement had 4 different MWave modem/DAA failures. Finally it was just stolen. They were nothing if not persistant. Of course it didn't do me very much good.
Over the years there are the boxes that had persistant quality control problems which could not be easily fixed and/or required changes that were pretty exotic:
AST - BIOS replacement
SBC - replace MoBo twice
Gateway - power supply (2x), Wren7 drive (2x)
Compaq notebook - system board
ALR - power supply, MoBo
HP (PC) - SIMMs - replaced 5x in 3 different machines, keyboards replaced in 3 different machines.
But for hands down crappy service you have to talk to a software company. Solaris support once told me and I quote: "Oh that patch is on the web somewhere. CLICK." Oracle VARs - Silver level support would decide which problems they were going to help with and which they couldn't be bothered with after they asked you questions about something for a half hour.
They all pretty much suck. Of course wouldn't the nbest thing to have happen is for it not to break?
They charge you for tech support. It's tough to find phone numbers.
I found a serious bug in their software and they tried to charge me so I could tell them about it.
I'll never buy one of their products again.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I have a Dell 7000 at home and I like it.
It also uses the 15" display but I never had the hinches break or anything like that, but who knows, maybe they decided to make them thinner on the 7500.
Yet, it wasn't without problems.
On the first Dell I got the Keyboard stopped working after two days. They wanted me to ship my unit back to get it repaired. After making clear that I am pissed, that this is a one week old computer I got a replacement within 24 hours (nice). I transplanted my HDD and thought I was off for good now, only to realize 3 days later that the HDD died on me. Luckily I hadn't returned the old one yet put the original HDD in and everything worked fine.
6 Months later the DVD ROM went. It couldn't read the DVDs anymore but CDs were fine. I had moved to Europe at that time and when I called Dell they told me I am out of luck because Dell Europe has nothing to do with Dell US, my warranty didn't cover it (great), so I lived with a defective DVD ROM.
6 months later I moved to Canada, and 2 months after that the Drive stopped working alltogether. Again I was calling Dell and I heard the same story: Dell Canada has nothing to do with Dell US. Again I raised hell, escalated it and they finally agreed to send me a replacement (I have to say the Dell Canada people were very nice and helpful).
A week later I had a new DVD ROM, only problem: Instead of sending me a "swap" unit together with the Floppy drive attached to it, they only sent me the DVD ROM drive. Fine, no problem, unscrew everything, reassemble it, done. When I called them back and asked them why they did this they told me that this was the wrong part, usually they send out complete units for customer maintenance, but apparantly a technician was supposed to do the swap for me. Oh well, no harm done.
A month after that the Display went, or better the lower third of it. Same thing again, calling Dell explaining why an AMERICAN Notebook needs service in Canada, no problem this time. They have a technican call me.
A week later (some scheduling conflicts on my end) the guy drove up to work and replaced the display in the office.
So: Even though I had some bad experience with Dell and it's international Support, in the end I could get what I needed.
Would I buy another one? Yes, because Dell isn't worse or better than anyone else.
Michael
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
That was Monday. Tuesday Airborne Express shows up with a box. I signed for it. Opened it up and inside was foam packaging for my TiPB and a Return Airborne Express slip. So I put the PB in it and called Airborne Express. They were back an hour later and picked up the box and shipped it to apple. (This is all at apples Expense) So. I send it out Tuesday. On Thursday my Powerbook is back in my hands and in Primo condition.... How cool is that?
I said it once, I'll say it again. Apple Rocks. If you think otherwise... You most likely haven't used one.
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
What's turboing you may ask? Turbing is, the actions of a customer who goes around the normal technical support process by contacting a senior person in the chain of command.
I'd recommend you check out The Art of Turboing.
Matt
When someone asks me, "What is the best computer?" I always give them the same response:
The one you build yourself. If you build it yourself you open up whole new worlds of possilibites that most OEMs never even consider. Want to use high quality Power Supplies, Motherboards, Cases, etc...? No problem. Want an all IEEE 1394 PC? No problem? Want a super nice sound card and a low end/no video card? Hey, you can do that.
Even better is how these days most connections are keyed (especially on the high quality stuff) and most components ship with sane defaults (cable select on IDE devices for instance) so you can just plug it all in and go. Generally I find I tend to pay a bit more for a machine I build myself, but that's because I tend to buy the more expensive parts and avoid cutting corners. I figure it's much cheaper than replacing that ultra-cheap noname HD 6 months down the road.
I read the internet for the articles.
I looked at the pictures, and I think it looks better that way. If you can extend the cable, you could put a little mounting bracket on the back of the screen, and hang it on the wall. I've always hated using laptops since they aren't ergonomically correct. A keyboard should be almost in your lap, while the monitor should be at eye level. You could also use one of the stands that holds collector Elvis plates.
Back to an ontopic post, I'll give you the standard IANAL, but I would think that they would be liable for known manufacturing defects, but, the warranty probably stipulates that it can be repaired or replaced, but Dell gets to decide which. If they don't replace it, and they've fixed it 4 times, maybe they don't have a solution, aside from having an engineer figure something out. And then actually having the parts manufactured would be fairly cost prohibitive. So it's cheaper to screw you over than to give you a new computer.
BTW, I'm curious as to where and when exactly the hinges just broke. There's no closeup pictures. You're not just being too rough with it are ya?
I have to answer emails and write all day
This is almost exactly what I would have said.
It's funny you say this, because this is exactly the kind of attitude that the parent article is about and the kind of attitude I was complaining about in my post.
I did ISP support for a while, so I know what it's like to have to support idiots who want free service. I also know that if someone genuinely had a problem, I did my best to help them, especially if they made an attempt to work with me to solve their problem. This was over the phone or via e-mail. I know that it *is* possible for support people to give quality support if they are supporting a quality product, which the scanner I mentioned is. The support people that I talked just didn't want to.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
To me, this speaks volumes about Compaq's (lack of) intelligence. What does a programming course have to do with moving into a junior network admin role??? Maybe it's different where I come from, but the network admin guys work on routers, switches and the like. No programming there at all...
The unsig!
P.S. that experience you had with repair...it's known as "normal". It's not exceptional when a company lives up to its promises (okay, maybe it is).
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Yes, if they think they can recoup r&d costs
... in this case MIDI and pro audio, OpCode
no if they can't
yeah, okay, so that's sweeping generality, but lets look at a company that manufacters goods for a niche market
A quick look at the icons next to their products and what's missing ? Linux. Why ? Two reasons. Currently there aren't alot of studios gone tux. Second, there isn't alot of software out there to make use of it.
PC's had the same problem for the longest time in the same market. It wasn't until MusicQuest, who is ironically now owned by OpCode, decided to provide a professional class MIDI card back in the late 80's. It not only put their company on the map, but caused compeitors, such as Voyetra to open up their drivers and code libraries.
What's different now ? MusicQuest was a young, hungry two man operation back then.
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
The bargain basement mentality that stores like K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target impose upon us is to blame for people looking for a bargain. The problem is that the crap you end up getting makes the experience of using it unenjoyable. I never liked cooking until I started getting quality equipment. The difference the quality has made in how enjoyable the experience is has really opened my eyes. I almost never buy anything at the bargain basement stores now.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I just got a Dell Inspiron 4000 a month and a half ago and haven't really been at all satisfied with their support. When the laptop first arrived, the lid latch was broken. After paying to have it shipped overnight, I was overnighting it back on the first day. I had to talk to Customer Service and not Support, but they refunded me the difference between ground and next day shipping. Sent it out on a Thursday, came back on Monday. Latch now worked, but now then area of the display below the latch (on the LCD) was warped so it was always pure white. I held on to it a few days so I could actually get some use out of it, and noticed that there was this high-pitched squealing / crackling noise coming from under the F9 key when you moved the mouse, or anything of the screen was changing (like an animated banner ad). I went back and forth with email support for a couple of weeks, he'd say "the hard drive makes noise". I'd say it does it on the BIOS screen with no hard drive, remember?". He'd say "There is a fan on the processor. That is what you're hearing. Run the diagnostics and listen to the fan". I'd say "It's not the fan, which whirrrrs, this is a sound like feedback wheeeeee-crrrrr, rememeber?". He'd say "it's probably a ground loop, bad wiring at your office". I'd say "it does it on both battery and AC, remember?". He'd say "It is probably the hard drive, they can be noisy". And the whole process would go round and round again. Each time he emailed me, he made it seem like it was his first message to me, completely disregarding the quoted replies in the email message.
So I went to DellTalk, the online support forums. I explained my problem and what I've tried. Got replies back from several technicians who told me all the same things the email guy did. One DellTech even said "What you're hearing is crosstalk from the IDE bus coming out of the speakers, which is normal for a notebook". After I explained that was impossible since the speakers are located elsewhere, I asked when it became normal for a notebook to have audible crosstalk coming from its speakers. Not normal for any of my previous 5 laptops.
Finally I went back to phone support. I got to run through the standard rigor-morah about what operating system I used (Linux and Win2k) and how Linux wasn't supported. I got to run the diagnostics disk, which to my knowledge does not test to see if the machine is making any unusual noise. Of course, the diagnostics passed, there was nothing wrong with my machine. It took some convincing, but the machine got another overnight flight to "the depot" to replace the motherboard. Got it back, same noise.
The problem with many companies today is that they do not make the equipment they sell. An undisclosed company makes Dell's laptops for them and Dell just sells them and supports them. I couldn't possibly expect that the yokel that sold me my television could actually repair it, why do these companies like Dell think they can? Short of swapping out every part one at a time, like my mechanic does, they don't have any understanding of what they're selling. I'm curious how many times they'll replace the motherboard on this machine before they start to think, "Maybe we should start holding our manufacturers to a bit higher standards".
From my experience, if you have a problem with a product initially, the best policy is to not try to work with the company to get your product in working order. Your best policy is to be a jackass, and immediately tell them that it's completely unacceptable and you won't wait for your unit to be repaired, and demand a refund ASAP.
A couple years back I ordered a Compaq that you could customize online. I think I've repressed everything that went wrong with it... the video card immediately crapped out and the machine had to be sent in to the shop for a couple weeks, then it became apparent that they never did have all the correct drivers installed, some other problems ensued, they sent out a repairperson a couple different times. In total I spent many many hours on the phone with tech support, and it never did work right. Finally after a couple months time I told them I was going to return it. They didn't want to take it back. After I made it clear that the machine had never worked in the first place and that I'd been running through all these hoops with their tech support trying to make it work they relented and took it back. And now, of course, even if they made the best machines in the world, I'd find it very hard to ever buy a Compaq again.
Anyway, my point is, don't let them try to make it right. The clock is ticking once you get the product. Take your product back just as soon as you suspect something is wrong. I would be shocked if you could get a refund after two years.
-- dR.fuZZo
I totally agree about Dell Inspirons being total crap. After my workplace had 6 of them with the hinge problem and then 3 more bugger up on the power switch, ALL of the Dells were returned. Dell lost quite a bit O'business there.
OTOH, The -best- technical support I *ever* had came from the folks of 3Ware. It was nice talking to a tech-support person who knew what they were saying and getting questions answered, instead of someone just reading you a book, then e-mailing you answers to your questions via email 5 days later. I even got passed to a Real Live Engineer when the tech support person was stumped on a question. Kudos to them!
/*drunk.. fix later*/
From my experiences Gateway has so much trouble it's not even funny. A client of mine has 4 Gateway PCs, over the last 2yrs I've had to get at least 6 replacement parts. I have had them send me defective replacement parts TWICE! Once a bad motherboard, yesterday a bad harddrive! Very frusterating to say the least.
Ian
At my old job I had a Dell Inspirion 7000. It was a decent laptop. Then one day the ethernet card refused to work after rebooting. It did that both under winblows and linux. Typically in those cases I have found that the hardware is hosed. So began my month of dealing with Dell's "award winning" tech support. Personally whoever gave them that award totally overlooked the unix vendors. I've had far less headache dealing with either HP or Sun for support. HP was a hassle since they refused to believe their hardware was at fault, so you always had to open the call as software, then get the software guy to agree with you, get transferred to the hardware guy, who wanted the part's serial number before sending the field guy out for support. Sun on the other hand, sent the guy with the part without the hassle. Soooo needless to say I was expecting this sort of support out of Dell.
Wow was I mistaken. Each time I called them it was at least a 4 hour session, with vast stretches of time being placed on hold, or sitting in some call queue. Nevermind I have already determined it was the ethernet card that was having trouble. The tech I spoke with insisted on following his script in front of him. "Have you re-installed windows?" He about went nuts when I mentioned the system was a dual boot system. Pretty much his answer was reinstall with windows only and call back. *click* Nice.
Called back, waited in phone queues some more, got another guy who went through same script. This time I didn't mention Linux. He arranged to have the laptop shipped to them to be fixed. But I was to keep all peripherals, HD, ethernet card and so on. Humm, why is the laptop going back and not the broken ethernet? *shrug* Back it went. Two weeks later I got it back. This time the LCD wouldn't work. Swell. Back in the phone queues, and another 4 hours blown. Shipped laptop back again.
Two weeks later, got the laptop back...this time the keyboard didn't fully work, and other wacky problems. 4 more hours on the phone and shipped it back again.
Another two weeks, laptop arrives, finally works again. But original problem still exists. Called Dell again. Waited in phone queue for a few more hours, got a guy, who pretty much was telling me to ship the laptop back to them again. *sigh* I told him that wasn't the problem, it was the bloody ethernet card--ship me a new one. Put me on hold. Came back and said he couldn't do that. Told him I'm sure he can swap the ethernet card. Back on hold. Came back and wanted *my* credit card number to charge me for the card, and then refund *my* credit card when they recieved the old one. Told him that was unacceptiable, as this was *work's* laptop. Back on hold. Came back and said that's all he could do. Asked for his boss. Back on hold. Came back and said sure, we'll send you the card, as long as you ship back the old one. Like I wanted to keep a broken ethernet card....right.
Needless to say, because of their lousy tech support, I will not buy a Dell system for myself, let alone recommend it to anyone. That and I also saw the two other Inspirion 7000's that work bought at the same time as mine have many many more problems than mine ever did. I was lucky in that I got the good one of the batch.
"If you insist on using Windoze you're on your own."
I've worked at one or two jobs where they told me I could move on into Programming or other interesting areas after I've worked at Tech Support for a while and maybe gotten some certifications. I hope this uy has something in writing or he may be stuck in tech support for longer than he thinks.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
That said, in every state (and Dell has a business presence in every state which is why they always have to charge sales tax) there is an implied warranty of merchantability that comes into effect as soon as the sale is completed. This warranty is in addition to any written warranty from Dell. Under the federal Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, for consumer sales, sellers are not allowed to disclaim this warranty.
The warranty essentially requires that the product you buy be of average fair quality. Four broken sets of hinges is not "average fair quality" IMHO. Additionally, in many, if not most, states there are consumer protection statutes that provide for up to 3X your damages (cost of the computer) plus attorneys fees.
Finally, in some states (Massachusetts is one) for sales to consumers the CONSUMER has the option of demanding a repair, replacement or a refund. Most written warranties state that it is the manufacturer's option to repair or replace.
Hope this gives you some information you can use and I wish you luck.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
All MWAVE modems (99%) are out of warranty at this point, and people had a chance to file for the price of a new modem at IBM expense after the class action lawsuit. Whats the point in supporting it when they agreed to buy everyone a new modem essentially?
It's not like the mwave settlement wasn't made public.
This singular example is unfair to Dell. True, this model seems to have a design flaw. However, many other support organizations would probably blame this problem on user error, and make you eat the cost of replacement.
Dell has already spent lots o' money on you. Replacing this 2-year-old machine with a new one is out of the question. Just be glad they did what they did, and be more careful with those hinges.
"Sometimes I don't know my own strength"
I have had a inspiron 7000 REFURB w/ the 15" display going for going on 3 years now, and I haven't broken ONE hinge...
What the HELL are you doing to them?
As for supporting the product, it sounds to me like that's exactly what they are doing: Fixing your broken hinges...
You'll never get a recall, because it's not a safety issue.
Personally, I think you're just angling for a new laptop...
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
If they want to hang on to their customers, they'll support their product. If they could care less they don't. Dell sucks, as my girlfriend has had lots of problems with her Dell laptop's display dying constantly. And I bet Gateway wouldn't like all the holes I've cut in there computer case. I think it's safe to say, that the bigger the company, the crappier the support. Cisco is probably a shining example of an oxymoron in this industry, but it holds true for most big companies. It's a trade off that in America is commonplace. Smaller size = greater quality = more pricey, Bigger size = less quality = cheaper prices. It all boils down to the kind of quality you expect, and what you're willing to pay to achieve that level of quality.
Everyone loves to rag on Apple, especially over the PowerBook 5300 with defective batteries and other problems. Nobody seems to remember that less than five of these units were in customer hands when the battery problems surfaced, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of affected units in customer hands when Dell and Compaq have done recent battery recalls.
And everyone is so quick to condemn Apple for the 5300, but nobody praises them when they do make things right. Like the 5300/190 Repair Extension Program, which fixed specific defects in the 5300 and 190 series PowerBooks, for free, for a period 7 years after they were discontinued-- I do believe it is still in effect.
And let's not forget the numerous times in the last 18 months or so that Apple offered people who still owned those machines trade-in deals to get much, much better PowerBook G3 units at reduced cost.
~Philly
I've had mixed experience with Dell support. We got a Powervault 130T; four DLT IV drives, 28 DLT tape slots, and a roboarm. We got the four hour support option. Well, it arrived broke. It took them three weeks, IIRC, to replace it. They said the four hour didn't apply, as it wasn't in production. That sucked. Then, a month or two ago, the motherboard in the thing fried. So we called support. They had a replacement motherboard there in two hours, and a guy to install it an hour after that. Wasn't a Dell guy, but they contract out lots.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
My last job we were an all dell shop. Around May timeframe we bought all new servers. After I left a few months ago a HD went bad. A new one was there the next day.
Same thing with a mobo. Integrated NIC broke and Dell sent a new mobo UPS Sonic Air . Tech was there a few hours later to install it.
Manufactuerers should not be expected to support their products after the warranty has run out, however, if the problem is something that was widespread and a design or production defect, then they should cover the cost of repairs no matter what, since they essentially gave the customer a failure waiting to happen.
The iMac would be a good example of this. Random and widespread analog video board failures plagued the first generation of iMacs. This caused DOA machines and computers that would completely fail within 2 years - as mine did. Even though "The Green Light Of Death" hit machine after machine after machine, the only thing Apple did was have the part in question replaced with a part that apparently was of the same design - resulting in some people claiming they had to go back time and time again.
Did Apple care? Ummm.....welll....there was a technote on the subject. But it said that if it was out of the (short) warranty period a user would have to have the work done themselves. At a cost of $300, or so. And with people saying they had to do this numerous times in a row, I was not particularly inclined to spend the money.
Sure, my machine was out of warranty, if there was some random fluke and some random bit of hardware failed, I would grumble, but not expect anything from Apple. However, I believe my machine suffered from a defect, one that Apple was aware of and chose not to remedy. The hardware was destined to fail, and I believe they had sufficent evidence to realize this.
I can appreciate your side of the problem: it probably sucks to bring in your laptop for repairs and having to wait for [days|weeks|months] to get it back. But as far as I can see, Dell is fulfilling it's obligations by replacing the hinges during the warranty period free of charge: carry-in warranty is simple: you send the faulty device, they fix and send back. It's the easiest and cheapest for them (even if they do pay for transport & packaging) - but that's reflected in the pricing of the setup you bought.
The optional support packs (e.g.: Next Businessday On-site) are well worth the extra money: if you have a problem, within a few days at most there's a Dell repair engineer at your place with spare parts. Time needed: 30 minutes.
Asking for a replacement is really out of the question because:
The unit is two years old - nearly antique.
The hinges are a very minor part of the machine.
If the demand's there (Dell always looses on repairs) it could well be that newer hinges are retrofitted to your model of laptop. We have had laptops where the CPU-shield/cooler was replaced with a newer model, because the CPU got loose a lot in a specific Lattitude model; same goes for the lip (?) to keep the laptop closed which kept breaking - a newer more sturdy replacement was retrofitted without a problem.
I can imagine that it's far from optimal in your case, but Dell support is imho not too shabby - even in your case: other manufacturers could've called it "misusing the unit", and do zilch.
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
I agree that Dell support sucks. I used to work for a large company that had one of Dell's 'preferred' support dealies... you know, where you have a shorter wait time and presumably better techs? Yeah, in theory. The reality was, I'd usually have a shorter wait time, but the people I got on the phone were so dumb, one would think they had just evolved out of living in the trees as recently as that morning. They were just as bad as the first-line Script Monkeys who do ISP support-- no capability for independent thought, just follow the script.
Needless to say, this used to drive me nuts as a very busy, seasoned support tech who couldn't just say, "Such-and-such a part is bad. As per my company's agreement with Dell, send a tech out to replace it." Oh, no, I had to sit there, wasting my valuable time, support calls piling up, going through the sacred script until this person finally agreed with my original assessment and booked a tech. After the first call went like that, subsequent calls went like this.
~Philly
Just to pick a nit (and clear up a common misunderstanding): you do not need a license to own or drive a car. You need a license to drive a car on a public highway. You don't need a license (or tags/registration, for that matter) to operate a motor vehicle on private land -- farms and racetracks, for example. This is why you never see license plates on racecars.
Of course, a vehicle that you can't take out of the driveway is basically useless for most people.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
I'm not down with Dell customer support either. I have a machine that was clearly having hardware issues (the CD-ROM drive kept ejecting and closing, to the point where you couldn't use the machine at all.) Unplug the drive, and it works fine.
Dell refused to support it because I had installed Windows 2000 over the Windows ME that shipped with it. The only way to get support was to uninstall Windows 2000 and re-install Windows ME, even though Dell supports Windows 2000 on that model. They simply don't support it unless you bought it from them, EVEN IF IT'S HARDWARE!!!
Granted, this is in their agreement, but who reads that stuff. I should be able to install whatever software I want, including OS, without losing my hardware support. That's a load of cr@p.
Most unbeleivably annoying, condescending salesman I've ever met. And then, the manager was just as bad. I was trying to buy a Viao without their incredibly expensive warranty, and boy, they just wouldn't have it!
Yep, because the salesman did know what crap the Sony VAIO's are.
With a VAIO you need extra warranty because they'll break down the first year.
Without this warranty you're screwed and you'll have to buy a new one after the standard warranty expires.
I've had various issues with my ThinkPad 570, the most notable being a white screen when the LCD powered up. The issue has plagued a fair number of users, but for me IBM has been extremely helpful (and fast) in repairing the issue. IBM is not like Dell.
Dell wouldn't support Windows 2000 on my sister's laptop because I didn't buy Windows 2000 from them. Yes, it is supported by Dell but only if you buy from Dell. IBM doesn't really care what you run on the laptop, they just can't provide support if you run Linux/BSD/etc. If it's a hardware problem they will fix it no matter what sofware you run.
I may still have the problem with my ThinkPad in the future, but I am extremely pleased with the support IBM has given me. A happy customer is a good thing. Maybe Dell doesn't understand that (or maybe their bottom line can't afford it). Personally, I think it's laughable that Dell has "won awards" for it's support.
I bought a used HP camera and had the same experience. They'll gladly ship me a CD, for a fee, but I don't have a credit card anyway. I bought the camera in cash and now I can't get drivers for it.
My HP CD-writer was even worse. Not only were there no drives, but they couldn't agree on whether it was capable of burning CD-Text information. Ahead, makers of Nero, insisted that the 7200 drive could do it, with the most recent drivers. HP denied the capability and the existence of any such drivers.
My GF's HP desktop came with a crappy Winmodem. No big deal that it was a Winmodem, she runs Windows and has CPU cycles to spare. But the line side of the modem's electronics wouldn't make a connection over her phone line, where my laptop's modem did just fine. HP blamed the telco, the telco blamed the computer. HP refused to exchange the modem for one that functioned as advertised.
Needless to say, whenever anyone near me talks about purchasing a [camera, scanner, computer, printer, toothbrush], I warn them severely against going with HP.
My experience with Panasonic has been better. I bought a used Toughbook and had some questions about drivers, system behavior, BIOS updates, and so on. I received a prompt and polite email back within 6 hours, containing concise answers to every one of my questions, and they didn't even care when or where I'd purchased the machine. I'll be a repeat Panasonic customer, for sure.
Video drivers are even worse. The last video card I owned with truly stable drivers was my Trident VESA Local Bus card that ran in my 486. Virtual screen, rock solid drivers, and simple installation. Every PCI or, heaven forbid, AGP card I've tried since then has had serious stability issues, and it's been nearly impossible to remove the drivers when switching to a different card. No more Matroxes or Diamonds for me.
The city of East Detroit finally changed its name to Eastpointe, when the residents got sick of having their TAX FORMS delivered to Detroit instead. The school district is still called ED of course, giving rise (ha!) to all sorts of Viagra jokes.
My folks bought an IBM-built K6 desktop a few years back. They knew I could build one for them for a couple hundred less, but not being tech-savvy they thought that going with a big name like IBM would offer them a good product and good support.
Wrong. The basic design of the motherboard ended up causing endless problems, but none severe and verifiable enough to warrant a complete replacement.
For one thing, the IDE signalling appeared to be very sensitive to errors/interferance: if the CDROM was thrashing on a CD it would often lock up the entire system. This was a known problem with a similar model, but IBM never officially recognized it as a defect on my parents' machine.
More irritating and subtle were all those random reboots, corruption, etc, that resulted from the general flakiness of the system. Think "old packard bell" and you know what I am talking about.
Had the CDROM, memory replaced, still intermittently broken. They still have this computer because it is now out of warranty and they don't have the $600 to get a new machine, not to mention that they are bitter about the whole mess with IBM.
IMHO, IBM should have just given them a new machine, because the quality level on the one they sold was what I would expect from a bargain basement Chinese reseller, not IBM. It's certainly soured my feelings about the company.
The original article indicated that the hinges have broke several times within 2 years. If the warranty is for only 1 year, as I suppose, then I don't think Dell has any obligation to the poster. If, however, the defects occurred before the warranty expired, and if they were repaired, then some companies will extend the warranty period.
For instance, I had an old Thinkpad 560 laptop. Loved it, but the case cracked a little bit while under warranty. No problem, just called IBM. They sent a prepaid mailer to my office, I stuck the thing in and had a fixed machine a few weeks later, all done under warranty. I was further informed that whenever IBM services a machine they extend whatever warranty period remains by another 3 months. Anyways, I had a couple of other problems in it while still under warranty and IBM never gave me a problem - always fixing it with little hassle to me, and always extending the warranty period a little bit more.
Of course, once my computer broke outside of the warranty period, they wouldn't fix it under warranty, but as far as I was concerned their obligation to me was 100% discharged.
My reasoning for this was that while they may say "business addresses only," it's easy to bring a laptop to the office. A field person may not be able to do anything to fix a laptop, but the other comfort is that in theory at least it gives you more leverage if there is a problem and you have to push for a resolution - if it's a continuing problem, there's the implied threat that you'll keep calling and they'll have to keep sending someone out. Eventually the third-party company that they contract with for field service may start giving them flack because of all the calls, and if you get the same field service person regularly they may have more clout with the manufacturer's tech support. Besides, the cost increase isn't that much, maybe a couple hundred dollars that spread over the life of the machine is insignificant compared to the cost of sending it away for weeks.
One thing I have learned though: when buying a laptop, find out what it takes to remove the HD so you can yank it (at least to make a backup) before sending the machine in. I've heard enough horror stories from people whose systems died, they couldn't extract data & didn't have a good backup, they sent it in for service and got it back with the drive restored to the original shipping configuration.
fencepost
just a little off
I considered getting a Gateway a couple of years ago. I was on the edge of purchasing it before it was revealed that installing Linux would void the warranty. The sales rep either didn't know, or didn't want to tell me. When I told him I had been told that, he first denied it, and then said he'd check it out. Finally he admitted it was true.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
This is kinda long, but I thought you might enjoy this little exchange
8 176_eng_man.html
8 176_eng_man.html
8 176_eng_man.html
between me and Hewlett-Packard customer support. It gets funner as you
get further down. The last line is almost too funny to be true.
I bought an HP Deskjet printer. It came with a hardcopy "Quick Reference"
guide, which made reference to a more complete "User's Guide", which was
nowhere to be found. It also came with an on-line "Quick Help" when the
software was installed. I went to HP's customer support web site to ask
about the "User's Guide". The following is from my entry in their web
submission form. The subsequent email conversation was edited for formatting
and to remove superfluous boilerplate.
CV> problem_description : Page 3 of Quick Ref Guide refers to page 6 for
CV> opening up the on-line User's Guide, but page 6 says to run the CD-ROM
CV> setup program and select "View User's Guide". But there is no "View
CV> User's Guide" on the main HP Deskjet install screen. So, the problem is
CV> that I can't find the full User's Guide. The only available on-line
CV> documentation is the "Quick Help". Where is the full User's Guide?
And HP's reply:
HP> Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.
HP>
HP> I understand that you need user manual for your HP Deskjet 960Cse
HP> printer.
HP>
HP> The user manuals are provided on the HP web site. Please click on the
HP> link given below to download the user manual.
HP>
HP> http://www.hp.com/cposupport/manindex/hpdeskjet92
HP>
HP>
HP> Best regards,
HP> Alex
HP> HP Customer Solutions Team
CV> Hello-
CV> Thank you for providing me with the link to the documentation page at
CV> HP's web site. Unfortunately, I checked that page and the only documents
CV> available are:
CV> 1) Windows XP Update Guide
CV> 2) Quick Reference Guide (hardcopy of which came with the printer and
CV> referred me to the User's Guide)
CV> 3) Quick Help (which is installed locally from the CD-ROM included with
CV> the printer).
CV>
CV> The Quick Reference guide distinguishes the "User's Guide" from the
CV> "Quick Help" and the "Quick Reference Guide". So apparently there is a
CV> document called the "User's Guide" which I have yet to be able to
locate.
CV> It is not included in hardcopy format, it is not installed from the
CV> CD-ROM, and it is not on the Website. Have I missed anything?
CV>
CV> thanks,
CV> Chris Volpe
HP> Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.
HP>
HP> I understand that you have an issue with the users guide for the
HP> printer.
HP>
HP> To download the manual, please go to the link below.
HP>
HP> http://www.hp.com/cposupport/manindex/hpdeskjet92
HP>
HP> On the web page, right click on "HP Deskjet 990C, 980C, and 960C
HP> Printers - (Multiple Languages) Quick Reference Guide" and select " save
HP> target as" option from the list to proceed with the downloading of the
HP> manual.
HP>
HP> Best regards,
HP> Alex
HP> HP Customer Solutions Team
CV> Alex-
CV>
CV> Thank you again for your reply. For the third time, I feel the need to
CV> point out that the information at that site is NOT WHAT I'M LOOKING
CV> FOR. As I already stated, I have the Quick Reference Guide. It came
CV> with the printer. It came in hardcopy form, and is identical to the
CV> Quick Reference Guide that you advised me to download from the web
CV> site. But the Quick Reference Guide is DIFFERENT FROM the User's
CV> Guide. The Quick Reference Guide, on page 3, draws a distinction
CV> between itself and the User's Guide. There's a table on page 3 that
CV> tells what documentation to consult in order to obtain certain
CV> kinds of information. The second row in that table refers to the
CV> "User's Guide". The third row in that table refers to the "Quick
CV> Reference Guide". And the fourth row in the table points to the
CV> "Windows Network Guide". I already have both the Quick Reference
CV> Guide and the Windows Network Guide. But the elusive User's Guide
CV> is nowhere to be found. It was not included with the printer, and
CV> it is not available for download from the web page you pointed me
CV> to. I would be most grateful if you would help me find the USER'S
CV> GUIDE. Not the Quick Reference Guide, which I already have, but the
CV> USER'S GUIDE. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope that
CV> this time I have adequately and clearly explained the problem.
CV> Thank you very much in advance for your help.
CV>
CV> Sincerely,
CV>
CV> Christopher Volpe
HP> Hello Christopher,
HP>
HP> Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.
HP>
HP> I understand that you have an issue with the users guide for the
HP> printer.
HP>
HP> To download the manual, please go to the link below.
HP>
HP> http://www.hp.com/cposupport/manindex/hpdeskjet92
HP>
HP> On the web page, right click on "HP Deskjet 990C, 980C, and 960C
HP> Printers - (Multiple Languages) Quick Reference Guide" and select " save
HP> target as" option from the list to proceed with the downloading of the
HP> manual
HP>
HP> In the U.S.
HP> -----------
HP> To order User's Guides, contact HP Parts Direct Ordering at
HP> 800-227-8164.
HP>
HP> Best regards,
HP> Alex
HP> HP Customer Solutions Team
CV> Alex-
CV> Could you please pass my support request on to someone else who is
CV> willing to read my message and understand, as I have stated three
CV> times already, that I do not need the Quick Reference Guide, which you
CV> persistently advise me to download? I'm sure there must be someone
CV> there who is willing to take the time to understand the issue and not
CV> keep sending me the same response. Thanks very much.
CV>
CV> -Chris
HP> Hello Christopher,
HP>
HP> Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.
HP>
HP> I understand that you require the full User's Guide for your DJ 960Cse
HP> printer.
HP>
HP> I would like to inform you that the full version of the User's Guide for
HP> your printer is not available. The only manuals available for your
HP> printer are the Quick Help and the Quick Reference Guide. For further
HP> assistance or more information, I suggest you contact HP Phone Support.
HP>
HP> It is HP's goal to assist customers as quickly and as efficiently as
HP> possible. It sometimes is much easier to resolve the issue when
HP> talking live with a technician. The phone number in the US is
HP> 208-323-2551. Business hours are Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to
HP> 10:00 p.m. MT and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.MT.
HP>
HP> Other HP Customer Care phone numbers can be found in your User's Guide
When I read that last sentence, I nearly fell out of my chair.
-Chris
An 8x4x32 CD-RW that was bundled with burning software (adaptec) that didn't support the drive. Why on earth would you bundle software that doesn't support your product? I'll never know. After 2 hours of trying to find any info about the drive I gave up and downloaded Nero, which worked flawlessly as usual.
A Mini-DV Camcorder. I can't get it to communicate through firewire because I have no drivers for it. The only thing on the CD is some crappy editing software and USB drivers. The USB works, but it won't allow me to transfer clips longer than 30 seconds, which is probably good since a 30 second clip takes just under an hour to transfer. There are no firewire drivers to be found anywhere for the camcorder I have. I tried talking to customer support about it, but I couldn't seem to get through to an actual person.
Finally, the old dotmatrix printer that payroll is printed on at my company. This is my one success story with Panasonic, actually. I had no problem finding info about the printer online, and the info page had a link to their ftp site. not actually a link to the driver, mind you, just to the top-level directory. It took me about an hour to find the actual driver I was looking for. Too bad it wasn't actually for my printer (at least, that's what win2k told me). Another half hour on hold finally put me in tough with a tech support rep who informed me that Panasonic only supports Canadians. (He didn't actually say that, but that's the only place I could find useful information and drivers that worked.)
So, Panasonic gets my vote for the worst product support of any company in the world.
IBM has always been great though, in fact the IBM hard drive story refered to above is not about bad customer support. If you actually read it (Cliff) IBM's support was pretty good, and there is no mention that they were difficult to deal with or reluctant to send a replacement. I was going to link to my theory on what was really going on, but my comment seems to have been removed. But here's another one that I think is plausible. My comment was basically that if you keep replacing the part and it keeps failing, then the failure is being caused by something else, and I presented some personal experiences to back up my assesment.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Even if they replaced your Inspiron with a new one, it would probably have the same hinge design, therefore the same problem, right?
The Dell Inspirons always looked a little flimsy to me. Great hi-res displays, but flimsy. I had a Lattitude CP for quite a while; it worked long enough to be not worth fixing when it finally died.
Some of my colleagues had Sony Vaios that could not be upgraded to Win2K because of something in BIOS or hardware drivers. That's the worst support nightmare I have seen in a while.
I like the IBM Thinkpad "T" series.
I had a Sony Viao, and it had a problem similar to that described on the dell here, but worse. It had the 15" display, and very tight hinges, to the point that I could see the screen ripple every time I opened or closed it. 3 weeks after I got it, I opened it one day to find the screen had fractured. On contacting Sony I was informed that they do not cover displays in their warrenty, despite not saying that in their warrenty. Eventually I took them to small claims court and the case was ruled in my favor, but one shouldn't have to do that to get what should have been taken care of as soon as I called. After fairly thurough seaching, I found that this was fairly normal for Sony. I currently own a Dell Inspiron 5000e, which has worked fine, but I'm glad to hear that they will at least fix problems even if they don't want to replace the whole machine.
The service plan is something that's essentially pure profit for the retail chains. As you've read, the support they actually provide isn't at all worth it. Contrast this with the miniscule profit margins for the computer itself. The management of these stores would rather have the inventory on hand in case the next guy is a sucker than sell it to you without the service plan.
I spent three months working at Best Buy and this was essentially drilled into my brain. I can't tell you how many times a manager took me into a back room because I didn't push their silly service plan when I had to watch people get screwed over said plan at the customer support desk 5 minutes beforehand. I've also seen a laptop (one of the items they don't stock very much of) suddenly become "out of stock" when it became clear that the customer wasn't buying the service plan.
You're pretty much doing them a favor by walking out without buying the plan.
Game... blouses.
Well, it look like I am an exception but I had very good experience with Dell support. Two years back, I was a tech monkey for a school board. We had a lot of abused hardware under warranty. When I needed a replacement, I gaved them a call, gaved them my support code (a sticker on the back of the machine with a 5 character code) and request a replacement. They shipped me a replacement overnight and I shipped them back the defective part in the same packaging. That's all. Ho, I don't remember to have been on hold for more than 10 minutes, too.
I had similar experience with Compaq in a subsequent job, and with IBM in my current one.
Maybe it is because we where a big customer (a few dozens machine a year), or because we are in Canada. I don't know. But considering my experience I always recommend brand name (Dell/IBM/Compaq/HP) to business. I must not be the only one !
:wq
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I also bought an Inspiron 7500 because of the huge screen. My hinges have broken 3 times since March of 2000. On one of these occasions, Dell's parts department sent the wrong hinge three times. I had an unportable portable computer for around 3 weeks.
The worst thing of all is that Dell is content to keep replacing the hinges with the same cheap pot metal, instead of using steel like they should have in the first place.
"Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists."
cmon 15 hours? If you have documented proof of this, then you were obviously emotionally involved with this call otherwise you would have realized that Dell would not stop answering the phone for 15 hours. This could only be due to a glitch in their phone system, or a call center being evacuated because of fire or something...
And certified letters to the CEO? man, i hate it when customers try to do this with huge companies...all the CEOs mail gets read and directed to the best place...if the aide who deos this is pissed off or is just a bad aide...these letters get thrown away immediately. If the aide is a good one, the letters get passed down to the customer service department where they again get the chance to be thrown out by someone else...etc...etc...
Youre upset about being your families support line? Thats too bad. If you were a mechanic, guess whos car you'd fixing (theirs), if you were a painter, guess who your family would call when they needed a room painted. Theyre your family. If they need help so often it reallys disrupts your life, either you need to prioritize and let them know, or you need to tell them no sometimes.
my 2 cents.
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
At least in Massachusetts I know that you are allowed to bring a lawyer. However the system is designed so that having a lawyer isn't a great advantage. They try to cut down on the legal mumbo-jumbo and technicalities that are common in real litigation. You are allowed to present your case in plain English, without knowing tons of legalese.
Massachusetts has a consumer protection law (MGL c. 93A) that outlines how you may take a merchant to small claims. The process is specifically designed to allow consumers to resolve problems with businesses.
I just ordered an audigy yesterday.
Hopefully Creative labs will support this product better. Actually, I don't even need support, I just need the card not to go bad for 2-3 years.
Has anyone else had a high failure rate with CL cards?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
You may have had a bad Apple experience but there are good stories too.
My mom had a Pismo, and after 6 months it turned into a lemon. After shipping it to Apple 3 times for repair... Apple exchanged the Pismo for a new Powerbook G4. A lemon computer sucks, but they took care of the problem with style.
What is SUPER aggravating about Apple is their desktop computer repair policy. Apple does not have ANY ABILITY to repair desktop computers. If you buy one, and it is DOA, you get to take it to CompUSA or your other preferred Apple service center... and we all know how fun THAT can be.
My wife's cousin got an iMac, and it was DOA. I spent hours on the phone with Apple before I had to give up and take the damn thing to ChumpUSA. I thought that their good laptop service would extend to desktops, but I was terribly mistaken.
It's pretty clear that providing decent support is a good way to bankrupt your company.
Assume about 5% of machines have a problem. Average support is perhaps $300. (Tech support on an hourly basis is *incredibly* expensive when you factor everything in. The tech guy is pretty much the cheapest thing. Add in the cost of part, shipping, paperwork, etc.)
Well, the profit margin on a computer might be (after all costs) $30. It comes down to the fact that as soon as you provide decent tech support, every call probably costs you the profit you earned on 10 machines!
If you never have the unhappy customers buy a machine again, you lose 5% of your customers. On the other hand, you're gaining from the 5% of people who bought from other companies and didn't get decent tech support.
You *might* gain an extra few percent from people who've heard that you have good support, but in all likelihood, many of them will require tech support, (which is why they want to use you) in which case you lose your shirt again.
If you raise your margins so that you can provide decent support, then you lose sales massively. The market is almost entirely price bound. There is no equivalent of BMW or other names that "mean quality" that people are willing to pay for (despite what Apple would desperately hope for).
Somebody claimed that Dell's support has gone through the floor. But killing decent support is what has enabled them to lower the price of their machines and kill the competition.
Of course, with razor margins they can't afford to replace a defective machine. Their only choices are to
(1) Raise their prices so they can afford to replace mechines with design defects (= backruptcy),
(2) Innovate only incredibly slowly so they can catch any possible design defects (= backruptcy), or
(3) stiff you.
The only way a company can afford to provide support is to make it a seperate chargeable item. That way the profits on the support contracts can pay for actually providing decent support.
Same with dealers. Any dealer that actually had a large enough margin to provide service or support went bankrupt 10 years ago.
Of course, the only thing that can reverse this is laws to avoid it. Unfortunately, local (i.e. state) laws don't work. Local shops go under as customers buy from states without the laws in order to get a better price.
In other words, don't expect decent support any time soon.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I purchased Quantex systems (They're out of business now; otherwise I would strongly recommend you buy from them) until I became skilled enough to build my own. A 100MHz Pentium, and a 350MHz Pentium II system. Both systems have had things fail in them...I believe it was a CPU fan, hard drive, power supply, and a monitor that was in the process of dying. Every time, it took less than an hour on tech support to have a new part or tech sent out in two days to be replaced. Support actually knew what a computer was, and were always friendly. They had a strict policy of "we do not give supervisors" but the one time it was necessary, the line tech had enough authority to resolve it himself.
Unfortunately, they went out of business. Their order-tracking system was relatively poorly designed, and in the end, $1.2M of cross-shipped equipment was outstanding. The dying monitor I had replaced had a "one-month" extension on returning it placed due to my busy schedule. Five months later (Yes I know.....) they still hadn't charged me. Next thing I know, they're out of business. The monitor did die eventually, but it took a while.
Too bad really; they were probably the best supported OEM I've ever dealt with.
JKoebel
Well, the guy was using a laptop, so that's not really an option, is it?
I've gone the build-it-yourself route. I selected the sound card, video, DVD, etc. Because it's a game system, I install Win98. Well, Diablo II runs like crap on it, other games are fine. I check the driver version, I check the message boards, I check Blizzard's site. No help.
As a lark, I install Windows NT 4.0. Diablo II now runs like a champ under that. Exact same hardware, same release of the drivers. But a big difference between 98 and NT 4.0. Why? who knows.
Bah. My next game machine will be a pre-built box . I don't want to deal with that crap any longer.
Heck, I may abandon Windoze altogether, and try to survive on Linux for gaming. Even then, I'll go with a pre-built box that has a proven configuration.
You got this guy fired because he knew what a POS a DELL computer actually was, and had a sense of humor about it? Shame on you.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
IANAL, so I'll not weigh in with more opinions on the particulars of this case.
What I will say is that, as a computer parts, peripherals, and software consumer, product support is incredibly poor. I recall downloading drivers for my Creative Labs soundcard and having said download render my system non-bootable. E-mails to tech support went unanswered for two weeks. How did I get a response? Started a script that e-mailed them once per minute. "I must assume that your e-mail is not working..."
Calls to my cable modem provider, Cox Communications of Fairfax, VA, are answered by incompetents, disconnected, or just result in a fast busy. When an HP CD writer failed, HP wanted me to dial a 900 number for "tech support" when all I wanted to know was where to send it for repairs (they cost more at the time than now). I tried calling Microsoft to report a bug in IE6. They wanted to charge me to take the call! What a racket: Put in thousands of annoying bugs and then charge people who try to report them!
The software industry has become incredibly arrogant. They sell you a "license" and disavow all responsibility for making the package work. Tech support often costs money -- even when the problem is the publisher's fault. They seem to feel that taking your call at all is doing you a tremendous favor and think nothing of leaving you on hold for half-an-hour while playing you pre-recorded lies about "unusually heavy call volumes" (for the last year and it's still "unusual") or how "important your call is" (if it was so damned important, why don't you hire enough people to answer the phones?).
I can only hope that the downturn in computer-related purchases will make them hungrier for sales and more responsive to customer needs.
Every time one of our fleet of laptops break, we call Dell and the following day a technician comes with spare parts and performs repairs on site. Sometimes it's not perfect, but most of the time I consider this a very adequate service.
Laptops have a very hard life if they are really used as they were meant to. Things *will* break from time to time. Do not ever consider buying a laptop without all the support contract you can buy. And having spare laptops to use while broken ones are under repair is also a good idea. Having an extra 5% of your fleet as spares is what I recommand based on my past three years of experience.
When the HP 7100 2x CDR/RW drive came out, I ponied up $400 for one. 11 months later, it started giving buffer underrun errors within the first few seconds of burning any CD. I put it in other computers, reformatted, tried everything - no dice. So I called HP.
They made me spend 2 hours on the phone (long distance on my tab) troubleshooting it. They didn't care that I had already tried everything they proposed, they wanted me to try it while I was on the phone with them. So I did. They then asked me to do something and, if it didn't work, call them back the next day. I did, and when I called them back, they made me go through the whole 2 hour phone conversation again, retrying everything I'd done the previous day! When I voiced my objection, I was told that the drive would absolutely not be replaced unless I did this.
So, 4 hours and $40 worth of phone calls later, they gave me an RAM number and replaced the drive. The new drive arrived and lasted a mere 4 months before dying the same death. I spoke with coworkers who had the SAME problem with the SAME drive. This time, HP flat out refused to replace the drive. They said my warranty had expired. (Apparently, you don't get another warranty with a new drive) I believe this particular model of drive, or a certain batch of them, had this as a problem and I believe HP knew it. I made dozens of phone calls, wrote letters, and talked to dozens of people online who also had the problem with their 7100.
When I muttered something about a class action lawsuit, HP changed their mind and decided to replace my drive. I told them that I absolutely would not accept another 7100 and demanded they send the 8100, their (at the time) flagship 4x burner. They did so. I've had that 8100 for the past 3 years and it's still working flawlessly to this day.
HP products are usually great, but I'm really put off by their customer service methods. It seems they would rather fight with every customer and treat them like bargain hunting thieves than show a little respect. I'm glad they finally came through for me, but I shouldn't have had to fight with and threaten them over it.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
A shirt is one thing. You buy a PC, decide you don't like it and return it. PC maker is out a lot of money trying to resell a used and depreciated PC. Why should they lose money just because you changed your mind? Why should everyone else's prices go up because you can't make up your mind?
Washers and toasters don't depreciate like computer components.
MOD this up. Funny.
Their support is absolutely terrible. I think these two messages illustrate my point very well:
Essentially, the problem here was that I wanted to get 5.1 Dolby Digital output. The problem, as I discovered in spite of Geoffrey's confused ramblings, was that the card is just not capable of this in most situations. It has an AC-3 decoder but not an encoder...so you can use the Dolby Digital output only from DVDs. And then not under Windows 2000, because of driver problems. Their newest driver claims to fix the problem but doesn't.
I've still got the card...using the analog outputs, I can get it to output real applications (WinDVD, Counterstrike) 5.1 almost. The center channel only works in Creative's speaker test application. It pretty much has to be a driver problem, but try getting them to admit that, I dare you...
Creative sucks.
Perhaps this was the correct answer after all. The fact is, he said that he had problems with it from the day he got it. Since Dell has a 30-day money back guarantee, I'm left to wonder why he didn't return it and just order a new one, either from Dell or another vendor. If I had difficulties with a brand new laptop within a week of taking it out of the box, it'd get sent home for a refund in a heartbeat, rather than my keeping it and perhaps running afoul of bad technical support.
Virg
I would have to agree that lying helps. Of course, I have an anecdotal story, that has lies, truths, and other such things in it - but turned out great all the same...
I purchased a Fujix P-401 video projector at a swap meet a while back. I picked it up for $250.00 (this projector is the cheesiest vid projector one can buy - NTSC, size of video tape, 320x200 res - ack - but I wanted something to play with), and the dealer (who dealt in used vid equipment) told me it worked. I got it home, and let it sit for a few weeks - then tried it out. It mostly worked, but half the screen was snowy, right down the middle. I figured it was a bad LCD or driver chip, or a loose connector. What happened next is where the fun began.
I decided first to check it myself, to see if anything obvious was happenning - I tried reseating connectors, etc - no dice. So I figured I would send it in to Fuji...
Now, Fuji hasn't made this projector in about 10 years. So, I didn't think they would do anything for free. But, I had an ace up my sleeve, so to speak: in the packaging that came with the projector, I had the instruction manual, as well as the 1 year warantee card - but not just the warantee card - but the one for me, _and_ the one for the retailer!!! Both were new and _blank_!!! A little searching, and I found that the address had since changed for it to be mailed to. So, I called Fuji up, asked about sending it to the new address - they said fine. So I did.
A few weeks later, I checked back and asked if they had gotten my warantee card - they said yes. I told them about my problem - and they said to send it in, but include a copy of the receipt, and to hell with the warantee info - I thought "Oh crap, they will know that the dealer who sold it to me is not an authorised Fuji dealer!" - but I had put that down on the warantee card, so I figured, "What the hell?" and sent the projector and the copy of the warantee and receipt to them.
I called about a week later after I had confirmed it had arrived at their location, and asked what was happenning. They had gotten it, and would work on it shortly. I called again a few days later - and the person on the phone actually said something about "Fuji not making that projector for a long time" - but didn't go any further with the thought - here she had my warantee, receipt, etc - all in "new" condition - she wondered how I bought it - I played dumb, and, well, it worked...
A couple of weeks later I got the projector back - in perfect condition. They cleaned it, put a new light in, put in a new LCD and driver chip - and it works fine! No charge, nada!!!
Talk about great support!
So, you see - I lied, a bit - but at the same time I was telling the truth. Since the warantee reg was NEVER sent in, or marked in any way - who is to really say I didn't buy it "new" on the day I did - maybe it was hidden in the back of a warehouse somewhere. Fuji could have easily denied me my support, just on the ludicrousness of the whole situation, if someone had thought about it good and hard - but they came through anyway!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Iomega used to have the worst support. I have not called them is several years so I don't know if they still suck. Does anyone remember 'the click of death'? There was a class action lawsuit because of it.
Caller: My drive makes this funny clicking noise when I put a disk in. None of my disks are readable anymore.
Support: Your disks must have gone bad. Buy new ones to replace them.
Repeat ad infinitum.
I called support for a bad Jaz drive once. After the tech asked the first question. I gave him the old, "I've tried this, that, the other variation, and everything in between. Send me a replcement." He put me on hold for a minute to talk to his manager and then gave me the RMA.
I once asked an Iomega rep at a trade show if they understood how bad a name the 'Clik drive' was for an Iomega product. They changed the name to HipZip several months later.
Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
I just want to know, so I don't make the mistake of buying anything from that manufacturer ever. Two out of eight months? Completely insane.
"Biped! Good cranial development. Evidently considerable human ancestry."
The computer industry does have high return rates, but is it because of shoddy hardware quality? I'm not so sure. I suspect it's that computers are still complex and finicky devices, and that a lot of people get them home and get quickly frustrated with the annoyances and complexity. I don't doubt that hardware plays a part there, but I suspect that software is a far bigger contributor to that problem.
As for poor customer service: I'll admit PC service can be pretty lame, but the absolute worst of any industry? Not in my experience. Compared to, say, the phone and cable companies in most cities I've lived in, to say nothing of auto-repair shops, computer hardware companies are shining paragons of virtue when it comes to customer service. (OK, I'm exagerrating a little bit, but seriously -- when I've needed hardware support it's usually been at least minimally adequate. Again, software support is another story.)
I'll also concede that the PC retail business is outrageously bad. Then again, the last time I bought a PC that wasn't mail-order was probably in 1984, so maybe that's why I've managed to avoid some of these hassles.
"Biped! Good cranial development. Evidently considerable human ancestry."
However, if giving it a good *WHACK!* solves the problem temporarily, then it's probably an intermittently bad solder connection in the blue gun driver circuitry or an intermittent partial grid to cathode short of the blue gun inside the neck of the CRT. Again, consult a professional who knows what they're doing.
One other possiblility is an intermittent open in the cable between video card and monitor.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Implied warranties usually last the "reasonable" life of the the product. Not much guidance, but it varies from state to state. Although M-M does not allow mfgs. to completely disclaim implied warranties, mfgs. can LIMIT the duration to the duration of any written warranty given. Therefore, a properly worded written warranty can potentially limit the duration of the implied warranty to 90 days in some cases.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
You state thaT 8% of the time its been broken yet you think dell should replace it - if it was 80% id agree with you but i dont think any company would replace it on those grounds.
I would also like to make a point on the Dell notbooks and the inspron 7000 in partuicular - we are a Dell house (Dell desktops, notebooks and servers) and i have some 25 Inspiron 7000's we bought for pur field staff - they were a departure from our normal purchases of Latitude laptops and were for a specific need. I have to take task to the bad hinges comment - in 2 years we have had exaclty 2 failures in hinges and both of them were related to usage - the users were being way too rough on the screens.
Im not Defending Dell - i have had my share of problems with the gear but i would point out that in an evironment of approx 1500 machines or varying ages our failure rate is less than 5% for entire life of warranty and the MOST common fauilure is keyboards (replaced next day under warrant no questions asked) and HDD's in the final year of their 3 year lifecycle (Quautum particularly) The gear in general is well built and designed.
Ive supported sites with Compaq, HP, IBM and Gateway equipment - here are some of my opinions on their service from this experience.
Compaq - Great servers - lousy desktops - forget the notebooks - they give lousy service unless you buy everything from them and the Armada series laptops failed by just looking at them - their tech support sucks as well BTW
HP - Great servers, OK Desktops - never used laptops - good service but a little slow - the gear is generally well built but they dont guarantee product lines for more than 6 months (VERY important when building a standard evironment)
IBM - Ok servers, OK desktops, Generally Good Laptops - the service is fairly good and rapid to respons, the gear is nothing special (generic 3 com, IBM hdd etc) but its ok
Gateway - YUCK dont even touch them - our failure rate on delivery was huge, their warranty sucked, 2 machines of the same model bought on the same day could have 2 different network cards or vidoe cards - all in all im not surprised they are going broke.
I like Dell despite the frustrations - i'm writing this on a Dell Latitude C800 and i have a CSR400 at home which i own, they arent perfect but compared to others they are not bad
DISCLAIMER : this is CORPORATE service i'm talking about - i build my own home stuff so i have no idea that they are like for home users
I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
The next best card to a creative labs was probably the Diamond MX300 but Diamond is gone and the support for the card is terrible.
I read a recent review on Tom's Hardware and they had some suggestions but none of them compared in price to the low end audigy it seemed.
I'm not sure Turtle Beach will be in business much longer and it was phillips first try at a sound card so that seemed risky.
Hercules has quality products but their price just isn't as cheap as CL.
Any others that are worth considering?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Is there anything in the support contract that says that they can bail on it just by giving you a (no interest added, even though they've had your money for awhile) refund? If not, sue'em for breach of contract. Would you have purchased quite a number of machines from them without the service contract option available? Demand that they take back the hardware and give back the moeny you paid for it. Have your trained attack lawyer deliver the message.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
The customers were pretty tickled when I had them open the "About" box so they could see the name of the guy they were talking to.
I didn't write most of WSI's products, but I wrote some of them from scratch, and upgraded all of them
When I was a system software engineer at Apple, I missed my experience with tech support, and advocated that each system software engineer spend a week a year on the tech support hotline. This wasn't too enthusiastically received.
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
I could understand a simple problem like this being ignored, but at least twice now Dell has had to recall it's products because they SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST. First it was their monitors. I had bought 50, 5 of which did turn themselves into a chared pile within 6 months. Then another 6 months afterwords they recalled te monitors. Like I'd keep around monitor carcasses to return. Up until that point, they continued to deny the problem. What's funnier, a few months later they recalled some laptops for the same problem.
I don't know about any of you, but my home is people-less for several hours every day. If I had a monitor or Laptop burst into flames, my house would be a pile of ash, and nobody would suspect a computer defect-just chock it up to electrical wiring...
I'm laying off Dells, permanently... And that's even if they build devices that will cure all disease. Their track record is very shady.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Recently, I asked for a little support -- asking them if they could tell me if the VA Linux 1000 server could come up after a power-cycle (remote power reboot units used if a server locks up). I would fudge around with it myself, but it's already at the data center, and the next time I go out there, I'd reconfig it.
;-)
In any case, the warranty expired last month, so they told me that for $250, they'd answer my question. I asked the lady by e-mail, "Okay -- how about this -- just tell me *IS* this possible? Some motherboards don't have the ability to bypass the soft power switch." She responded saying that it is 100% possible, but it will still cost me $250 if I wanted to find out how.
So what in the fudge is VA doing now anyway, now that they're not selling servers?
OH SH%T! You got me. Good hack around the URL filter. Now please die.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
the answer is NO and the reason is - because they don't have to.
Look at nearly every other industry in the US - they are held to either federal quality/safety standards, or are reviewed by independent consumer advocacy groups (like Consumer's Union).
So far, in my estimation, Consumer's Union has done a piss-poor job of reviewing computer hardware and software, and has been way too soft on an industry charging exhorbitant fees for what is essentially useless garbage.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
really, I think that 99% of the support problems out there could be solved if companies were more open and not so paranoid about protecting their IP or "image".
At some point about 10 years ago - companies started to be afraid to list "known issues" of their products, or give users a database of problems to search.
Novell used to have a Support Encyclopedia. I don't know if they still do - but it used to be a great tool for finding problems. If you had a problem, it was usually documented in there, and a patch was usually available. The encyclopedia was updated quarterly, available on CD in a format that was searchable. Not just searchable, it had a totally great search engine that could find just about anything.
In comparison, online search engines in general today, from Microsoft to Apple - SUCK for finding information on problems.
Over the years - Novell started clamping down on the information more and more, and NSE became more of a big glob of marketing goo. And Microsoft's counterpart TechNet came out - and it was 99% marketing crap from the getgo, and remains as such today. Companies began to be afraid to even use the word "bug" because of it's negative connotations. So they used words like "problem" or "issue" - and guess what happened to those words? Now THEY have negative connotations. I've got news for you - it's a negative thing!
But being truthful and forthcoming to your customers is a POSITIVE thing. And the people who support these products, who are not PAID by the vendor to support them - appreciated this information.
I support products that run on Windows. A good 50-75% of my support issues are actually Windows problems. Either problems with the OS - or problems caused by something endemic to Windows - usually, a poorly-documented function where a programmer expected a certain behavior - and something unexpected happened in certain circumstances that wasn't documented, or was documented but not clearly explained.
Lately, I have noticed an iron curtain being erected with regard to product's internal information. So now, when you support a product that runs on a given platform, and something strange happens, it's anybody's guess what the fucking problem is. We're troubleshooting black boxes now. So all vendors support pretty much flies blind.
The latest example of this - where I'm deriving most of my current wrath from - is a DELL RAID driver. A customer has an older version - and Dell strongly recommends that customers upgrade. But do they have a list of specific changes from one version of this RAID driver to another? Hell no. So how do I know if this customer's problem might be related to behavior that they fixed in the later RAID driver? How do I justify to my customer that they should upgrade the driver, and do their own internal testing on a third-party product?
Our QA tests with the latest driver. The older driver isn't even immediately available. So in order to try to duplicate this customer's problem, I've got to get ahold of the hardware, back-rev the driver, set up the customer's environment, install our software and hope I can reproduce the problem so all this effort was worth my time.
All because the customer won't update their driver.
All because FUCKING DELL won't give out information on the problems they fixed, or why a customer should upgrade. They simply expect everyone to always run the latest driver.
Other examples of sucky support information - my DSL provider, PacBell - they'll waste HOURS of their own technician's time before they'll admit to a problem that they knew was happening up front.
Another Example - Apple's Support message boards. Used to be a great place to look for information from other peopl who were having problems. Now they've handed it over to the marketing people, and it's absolutely useless. Any problems people run into get censored off the board, so it's not really searchable - plus you have to jump through registration hoops, and their board's response time is 10 times slower than it used to be.
Personally - I find vendors who are open and forthcoming with information to be FAR more attractive than a vendor that claims to have a perfect product. Software and Hardware break in the real world, and the extent to which customers have to rely on their support people is determined by how much the vendor empowers it's customers to resolve issues on their own.
If a vendor clamps down on information - customers have to rely on the support services, which are typically for-pay, and in the fact that vendors will often have to waive support fees when it's apparent that it's their product that is broken, or in the event that the customer is a huge and valuable account - support is still not a money-making venture. And the end result is a frustrated customer who paid lots of money for a product that didn't work, and can't be made to work without paying more money, and there's no guarantee that paying more money will make the product work.
So why do you think people are afraid to spend money on software and computers? Why has the industry slowed down? Why don't people trust technology?
Because of the opacity of the products. Because of the influence of timid marketing and legal people in the major computer industry corporations.
If they'd just hand the reigns back to the people that CREATED this industry in the first place (the engineers) - this problem would be fixed.
But no - nobody wants to show their dirty laundry.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I apologize for misunderstanding your comment about the 15 hours of hold time. I feel that the way I interpreted your comment justified a bit of bitching. I was wrong, my bad.
;) (that was good humored sarcasm)
I have worked in various support positions at various levels for several years now, and I am constantly amazed both by the sloth of corporations, and just as much by the demands of customers. Customers are obviously the base of just about any business, so it makes sense to treat them right. Most companies will not go out of their way to aggravate or make life difficult for the customer. What you have to realize is that companies like Dell make money like McDonalds. They sell a shitload of stuff, it's about volume for them. To support this volume they have to have techs answering phones. These techs are either well paid or not. If they are well paid, I can guarantee there arent enough of them to answer all calls with a minimun of hold time. If they are the el cheapo techs, they arent good enough yet to solve the calls quickly and keep the hold time down. An hour and forty minutes is a long time to hold, and you are correct in that speakerphone is the best way to deal with this. A wait this long surely doesnt please customers, but imagine the techs getting brutalized by customers who already had a problem BEFORE they waited on hold for 100 minutes turning a ten minute call into a 10 minute call with an additional 30 minute customer rant! This situation exists becuase of a limited resource - money. NO call center will have 100% satisfaction and zero minute hold times ALWAYS. I have found that the support I get from any vendor varies an incredible amount depending on the day, and the kind of gum I chew while on hold. You may find that the next time you call dell support that you get through in 5-10 minutes and speak to a great tech, or you might have to wait forever and speak to an asshole. It's like driving to work; sometimes theres lots of slow, aggravating, and unresponsive traffic - and sometimes theres no traffic and you hit every green light.
As for some advice (that i didnt give because of my misinterpretation of your comment) instead of my usual bitching; I dont really have much that you might find useful, but here it is: When I knew little about computers, I suffered through tech support and hated it. So I looked for a way to avoid it, which meant that I had to fix it myself, or rely on a friend who knew a bit more. A couple books and broken parts later I had a semi-decent grasp and called support far less. As time progressed and I became actively interested in computers (as a hobby), I only had to call support to replace a defective component. So, the moral to this drivel? Simple, unless you want to take on the responsibility of learning and fixing computers yourself, you HAVE TO RELY on others, which means youre at their mercy. Yeah, it definately sometimes sucks, but for me, this isnt enough to denounce a company that for me at least has delivered far more good products than bad.
Of course this all may be a delsuion of my inferior intellect
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.