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 Poor customer service from people I can't even understand!
Posted Sun July 19, 2009 9:45 pm, by Nancy M. written to Dell Computer Corporation
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I got an error message couldn't load hard drive when my computer was 5 mos old. I rebooted and it was fine for two months. Got another error message so I thought I should call and see what that meant. When I finally got in touch with someone (who I could barely understand) he had me do a diagnostic test. An error message came up and he told me I needed a new hard drive and someone would call me to come out and put it in. I asked him if the tech could transfer my data over at that time since my computer was still working fine. He told me no. I called back and asked for another person and asked him the same thing. Again I was told that all they did was replace the hard drive. I was upset that an almost new computer had failed (or so they told me) and I was going to have to spend hours putting data back on it when I knew a tech could connect hard drive to hard drive and do it in no time.
When the tech came I said something to him about doing it - I would have paid him myself but he said he didn't have any equipment with him to do that. He also told me he didn't no why Dell didn't authorize it since they do it all of the time. When he finished he said he was supposed to take my old hard drive. I refused to give it to him. It still had all my personal data on it and I had no idea who he was. He gave me a box and a return label and said I had 15 days to return it to Dell.
I called Dell and asked to speak to someone. I asked them if they were going to pay for me to have the HD reformatted in my presence so I knew my data wasn't going to be stolen or if I should just smash it and send it back. They told me I had to send it to them in good working condition, at which point I asked if it was in good working condition why did I have to have it replaced. They insisted they would not pay for me to take it somewhere and if I smashed it I would be charged. I am just supposed to trust that who ever opens the box is honest and that it actually gets wiped clean.
I asked to speak to a supervisor, who told me the same thing. At least I think he did since I really could not understand either person very well. They finally told me they would have someone in upper management call me back.
He called me on Friday and it was, again, all I could do to understand his very heavy foreign accent. He proceeded to tell me that the technician couldn't transfer my data for me like I had asked (and then wipe my HD clean) because my HD didn't work. I informed him that it most certainly did work and he would have known that if he had read the transcripts of the past 3 conversations. He then told me that he could tell me how to put the HD back in my computer and how I could do it myself. I told him that I had no intention of working on my computer myself nor did I intend to spend any more of my time (which Dell obviously thinks is worthless) because they shipped an inferior computer. I told him that I couldn't believe that management would actually lose a customer over something as insignificant as a HD (which according to them didn't work). I told him, since he kept reading from an obvious script, that I wanted to talk with someone who could actually make a decision on his own without reading protocol to me.
I told him to tell this person that I would either take the HD to a local company and they would pay any fee charged to reformat the drive, they could send a tech back out to reformat it in my presence, I would smash it and send it, or I would keep it. I made sure that he had my cell phone number (which is the number he had called me on) and told him I looked forward to speaking to someone a little higher up in management.
Someone called my house on Sat (not my cell phone) spoke to my husband and told him that Dell policy says I have to send it back and they will not pay to have it reformatted. The same person (again someone with a heavy foreign accent my husband said he could barely understand) called back today - again on my home phone.
They told him they would call me back on Tuesday. If they don't call on my cell phone I will not get it and I am not really sure why they keep calling to tell me the same thing.
They keep insisting that I just put the HD in a box and send it to them and they will reformat it and wipe it clean.
I do not understand why I should risk identity theft in order to have a computer fixed under a warranty. Nor, do I understand why I should have to pay anything in order to satisfy 'their' warranty. None of this would have been an issue if one of the 3 people I spoke to before the technician came had understood that the drive still worked and the tech could have transferred the data then and wiped it clean in my presence.
But, considering that I have yet to be able to understand any of the people I have spoken to and they obviously can't understand me or they would have called me on my cell phone, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I can assure you I will only buy a computer from a local place that builds computers in the future. It is bad enough that the computer had a problem in less than 6 months but the indifference to the time and aggravation a hard drive going bad caused me is inexcusable. At least if I buy local I can deal with them face to face and am confident I would be able to find at least one person who can speak English well enough for me to understand
I would like to have this settled without any time, effort or expense on my part. And, without any risk of identity theft. I have already spent way too much of my time having to load everything back on to my computer because of a bad part that Dell put in the computer.
I do not want a phone call from anyone else who I can't understand. I am tired of getting a splitting headache just from trying to understand a phone conversation.
I do not want anyone else to tell me how to take my computer apart and do it myself. If I wanted to be a computer tech I would have gone to school to learn and would be getting paid for it.
I bought a Dell because I thought it would be the most reliable and would be the least hassle for me. At 62 years old I do not intend to start learning how to reformat hard drives or anything else like that.
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by PepperElf Posted Mon July 20, 2009 @ 9:52 AM
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to be honest i am sure any computer repair store would.
heck... find a nice person with the right tools and they could have
even made an exact clone of your hard drive in a couple of hours.
I should know, I've done this before. When Mom switched to a new
computer I saved the files she wanted off of her old hard drive, and
then wiped it clean and reformatted it as an external drive. Then I
even gave her one of my cases to keep the drive in, so all she has to
do is plug it into the usb port to access it.
As for the Dell not lasting longer than 6 months... That part doesn't
surprise me much. There's a lot of upkeep that PCs require...
Antivirus, Spyware, defragging.
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You should always back up your hard drive, this your responsibility. I
use carbonite.com
Others use external backups, but they too can crash.
Also, you should never keep personal identification on your home
computer, and you should have identity theft protection, if you dont
have it.
Also, formatting and erasing hard drives, takes just a couple of
minutes, its very easy.
Good Day
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by billt Posted Mon July 20, 2009 @ 1:33 AM
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In the future read the warranty I am surprised that Dell sent a
technician to replace the part, as this is classified as a user
replaceable part at thier website
http://tinyurl.com/djx3mm
If you do not return the hard drive dell will bill you for the full
retail price of the part.
And Donno hates Dell with a passion.
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by Donno Posted Sun July 19, 2009 @ 10:35 PM
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Then pay someone to do it for you. Data recovery is specifically
mentioned as NOT being covered by your warranty.
YOU could recover your data, and YOU could also wipe your hard drive
yourself, if you were willing to learn how. However, if at 62 you
feel either incapable or unable to follow a few directions, then
you'll have to either smash the hard drive and pay for it, or pay
someone to do what you need. Figure out which one is cheaper.
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