Lucian writes about the problem he’s experienced with Dell.
We’re having similar problems with our new Dell laptops. First, we discovered that the Bluetooth cards we had opted for, were not installed in our laptops. We notified them about this.
Then, after 2 days of usage, my hard drive started making loud noises and I was faced with the blue screen of death. This noise persisted over the weekend. The hard drive had to be replaced.
Dell sent a replacement hard drive to our office. Actually, they somehow managed to send us two hard drives. (Incidentally, the packages were addressed to two colleagues but both their names were misspelt.) So they needed to collect one hard drive back.
The Dell guy came over to replace my hard drive. However, he was not the same guy who was supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. Huh? They send different people for different parts?
It has been a couple more weeks since my hard drive’s been replaced, and we have yet to see the guy who’s supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. We’re going to send them another reminder.
We would not have chosen Dell if their quotation hadn’t been the cheapest by a mile. We had a premonition about it, but what can we say? “Even though Dell’s price is cheaper, we still don’t want it. No, we want to spend a couple thousand more bucks just for the quality assurance and higher standards of service that another brand has a reputation for.” We can’t. It’s not our own money we’re spending and we shouldn’t be doing anything wasteful.
I would have loved using a Dell in the late 90’s, and maybe even the early 2000’s, but not now. Their reputation has gone downhill and I get the impression that they don’t really care about their customers. Now at least I can speak from first-hand experience.
Technorati tags: Dell, customer service
Comments
Oh dear! I was just about to buy a Dell laptop for my mum…looks like I should rethink my choice then!
There is a reason why Dell is cheap… Just like why McDonald’s can sell burgers at 99cents.
“Even though Dell’s price is cheaper, we still don’t want it. No, we want to spend a couple thousand more bucks just for the quality assurance and higher standards of service that another brand has a reputation for.” We can’t. It’s not our own money we’re spending and we shouldn’t be doing anything wasteful.
I’m not sure who makes the financial decision in your organization, but it seems like that person didn’t factor “productivity” into consideration. BUY SOMETHING THAT WORKS!
Working with sub-standard equipment (YES I SAID IT… DELL IS SUBSTANDARD)kills the efficiency of any organization. I could go on with analogies but I will stop here.
I have a theory as to where Dell source their computer parts. And if you open up a Dell computer, you wouldn’t want to buy one yourself.
IT’s been commoditised with consumers going for cheapest stuff. But am seeing some public entities going for not the lowest. Other important criteria would be completeness of offering, service and assurance. But what you said, if it represents the overall public sentiment, “we want to spend a couple thousand more bucks just for the quality assurance and higher standards of service that another brand has a reputation for.” bodes well for this industry. Dell used to be famous for its after-sales service. They still send on-site engineer (outsourced) to service the machine.But lowest price comes with a higher price instead. I hope more would take note and not over-focus on the bottom-line spending.
I guess buying a PC is like a case of picking among the lesser evils (or badder apples). 😛
Heh. Thanks guys for the comments 😉
Kevin – yesss I get the hint!