This list of events comes from a coworker that is trying to get a nice present for Christmas.
Good luck dude.
Dec 8, 2007 – Purchased a Vostro 1500 from the Dell Outlet Store online. Good deal – $609.00
Dec 11, 2007 – Laptop arrives quickly. Looks like a nice machine. But, the battery wouldn’t stay locked into the machine. It looks like there are two clips that hold it locked into the case, but they’re broken off..
Dec 11, 2007 – Called support talked to Patrick, who sent me a replacement battery. He was apologetic, Patrick tells me he’ll call to follow up to confirm that everything is ok. I packed up the laptop and waited for the battery.
Dec 11, 2007 - While packing up the laptop I took a look through all the accessories. The power cable they sent me doesn’t fit into the power adapter. The cable is a standard monitor/pc power cable. Uh what? Did anyone check this thing out? Broken battery and incorrect power cable?
Dec 11, 2007 – Called support AGAIN, talked to Arvin. Arvin walks me through the same stuff again and looks up the cable and sends me the cable. This is getting annoying – especially the explanations about getting put on hold. Yes, I know it will take a little while. Yes, I’ll hold on. Yes, YES YES!!! Just GO DO YOUR WORK! I understand the concept of being put on hold. This is not new to me! I’m interested in getting off the phone sometime today so please go do whatever it is you need to do!
Dec 12, 2007 – Battery arrives. It has the clips intact and works. Though it only has two bars of charge left – the clip-less battery was full. So I can’t do much since I can’t charge the battery – remember… no power cable. Doh!
Dec 13, 2007 – New cable arrives. Guess what? It’s not the right cable. This one has three rounded prongs. I need two rounded prongs without a ground, that’s angled and plugs into the adapter. They sent me Dell Item Number 5N020. This shouldn’t be this hard. Hell, the guy even checked my original order to find the cable that goes with the adapter’s correct part number. That’s pretty logical right?
Dec 13, 2007 – Called support again, talked to Tammy. Tammy apologized again and says she’ll find the right part number and send me the correct cable. She says the cable will ship overnight today and I’ll have it tomorrow. She also tells me that she’ll call to follow-up as well. I wait. Again.
Dec 14, 2007 – Tammy calls to tell me that the package shipped overnight and would be arriving today. Great, that was nice.
Dec 14, 2007 – Power cable arrives. It’s the SAME incorrect cable. Again. Wow! Could this be worse? This time I received Dell Item Number K2490.Dec 14, 2007 – I called again and talked to Suresh. He offered to have a 3rd replacement cable sent. Yeah about that third cable…. No thanks. At this point I want a whole new power adapter and cable set sent. This thing is a gift and I want it to work before Christmas. What’s the change that I get a 4th incorrect cable? Pretty high in my estimation.
Dec 14, 2007 – He put me on hold to check with his supervisor and came back to tell me that a power adapter and cable "set" was going to take 1-2 weeks to ship. What What WHAT? I questioned whether all new Vostro laptop orders were now delayed a 1-2 weeks because they were out of power adapters. Of course not. But my adapter wasn’t part of a new machine, so those are delayed. Are these not the same power adapters? Is this the difference between ordered a refurbished vs a new system? Did anyone even CHECK this laptop and its accessories?? So I end up with 1-2 weeks. Yeah that’s not gonna work. I explain that 1-2 weeks isn’t an option.
Dec 14, 2007 – So he says he’ll sent the replacement cable. Fine. Whatever. I make a point to ask for the dell item number. I was told the item was number DF771. I ask him if he’s got an image of this thing, so he can describe what it looks like. No such luck. So, I tell him to hold as I do his work and search the internet for a picture. At this point I want to see the damn thing, before he ships it. It looks right.
Dec 14, 2007 – Suresh tells me I’ll get the cable in about a week. WHAT? A week.? Prior to this everything was shipping overnight. I questioned why it would take a week and he told me he could not be certain that it would come in 1-2 days. Ok so "I can’t be certain" about 1-2 days means I guess he can safely say "in about a week". I have no choice at that moment, but to accept to have a 3rd replacement cable sent, Fine. Send away. I’m not holding my breath.
Dec 14, 2007 – At this point this is just stupid. Was this laptop even checked? How could it have been certified refurbished with a broken battery and the incorrect power cable? If this had been taken care of swiftly, I wouldn’t be so annoyed or question the purchase as much. But this was just stupid. I went online and requested an RMA. I’m now waiting for confirmation.
Dec 14, 2007 – To make this crazier, I still need a laptop. So I check out a few deal sites and low and behold the same laptop is currently selling for $50 bucks LESS than the refurbished piece of garbage I got. And its NEW!!! Vostro 1500 $549! Save $410 instantly, it’s a better deal all around. It’s the same laptop and this machine had a larger hard drive to boot – 160gb instead of 120gb. I added another gig of ram and pulled the trigger. And now… I wait. Again.
What could Dell do to convince you to remain a customer?
10 Comments
Start selling Macs :-)
@Dave Seriously huh? I hope in my case, I’ve bought my las pc laptop. I’ll keep building cheap desktops on occasion, after all, I have a sweet server running in the office on the cheap that way. But the next laptop $ willing will be a Macbook Pro all he way.
One thing I should have added initially. This is just a stop-gap. We want another Macbook Pro, but at 4 times the price we just can’t do it now. So this was the best case scenario.
UPDATE
Dell is upgrading my order to Overnight Shipping for free. So I should get it on the 24th or earlier. *Fingers Crossed*
Oh, I’m in the same boat…and honestly I don’t see a Macbook Pro for a long time. Mainly because I want a machine that runs quiet and cool, and if its a laptop it has to have a docking station. 90% of my computing is done at a desk and a large screen is so much better. I have a Dell notebook at work with a docking station and its wicked convenient.
If I was going to buy a personal laptop I’d probably go with Lenovo. I get a decent discount through work and they are well built machines.
And you’re right on the desktops…just built a system for Julie, Intel Core 2 duo 2.0 Ghz, 4 gigs of RAM, and 2 320gig SATA drives…all under $600 with rebates (she already has an LCD monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse.) Still running Windows XP because all I’ve heard is horror stories with Vista.
P.S. Also why I like my iMac so much, cheap, fast, quiet, and a beautiful display. Leopard is still pretty buggy though.
@Anonymous: Good, it’s the least they could do.
@Dave: I’d be careful, all the iMacs here at work have been in 1 or more times for repair. Not sure if it’s power issues here, but its only iMacs giving problems. Marquis’ has been in as well for repair.
They are inexpensive compared to other options, and still pretty powerful, just get applecare and keep backups and you should be good.
Applecare for the one at work (G5) and nada for the one at home. I bought it at closeout, 20 inch first generation iMac for $800. Gotta love that academic discount. Works like a dream. No Applecare because it was such a deal and as long as it lasts a few years its worth it. Critical docs have backups, still need to buy another external drive to get Time Machine working on it so I have everything. Part of me wants to bite the bullet and by a full featured NAS with a RAID. But that costs bucks. Part of why Julie got 2 320 gig hard drives, one primary, one nightly backup.
Correction 1st generation INTEL iMac is what I meant. So its for the Core 2 Duo and not the Duo 2.
Build yourself a cheap pc, or repurpouse an old desktop, and put some raid in it. I’ve got an AMD 3000 (single core, athlon, old skool) with a gig of ram, and two mirrored pairs of 250gig drives. Always on, stores photos, mp3s, and important docs.
It used to be my desktop used all the time.
Whats great is it also works a my PVR with Sage TV and a cheap Hauppauge PVR card. Use XBMC, as I know you have (thanks for the hook up!) to stream the stuff.
UPDATE: The 4th cable came today via DHL. They actually sent the correct cable!!! BUT it was too late for the little guy…
The laptop is now in the hands of UPS heading back to Dell HQ(with all three useless cables) and I’m waiting for the new laptop to ship via overnight.
Fingers are still crossed.
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