OT: I Don't Think This Company Should Go Bankrupt But - Good Lord!

> I use and love macs too, but the same features for price is not true
> much as I wish it was

And to that I say, so what?

I too am a Mac user, and you know sometimes the cheapest product is,
well, the cheapest in more ways than one. As with other types of
products (tools, machines, cars, electronics, appliances, labor - the
list goes on and on) It makes sense to pay a bit more for a better
product, and IMO the Mac is definitely a better product. It's certainly
not flawless as so many "Mac Bigots" like to claim, but despite being
more expensive compared to a Windows-based machine it's worth every
single penny in my book.

Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:

> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.

I'm an Apple laptop user and scan mac headlines a couple times a week.
It seems like every couple months or so, some mag or industry group
rates customer service of PC companies and Dell and Apple go back and
forth in the number one and two spots. At least if IIRC.

Maybe your experience is atypical or maybe customer service is a victim
of price competition. I only bring it up for conversation.

Anyway, good luck.

... went through a long and difficult session with a family member
getting a mac to work. It'll be easy I promised.

Hours of effort including reinstallation only to learn that data entry
was done using the l (the letter) rather than a 1 (the number).

Response was that it worked on the typewriter...

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:35:00 -0600, "Nate B" <[email protected]> wrote:


>I just clicked my way over to the site.
>
>Under "Tech Specs", the IO ports are CLEARLY listed.

>I don't see a parallel or serial port on the list, therefore I would assume
>they were not there.

And you won't find the 360 degree tour any longer, either. That is
because that section of the Dell website was updated on April 1. I
ordered my laptop on March 28. Fortunately I took a screen shot and
saved it.

If you go to the section where you can download the manuals for the
8600, you will see that it comes in two flavors - one with the ports
and one without.

>
>Especially for high tech products, the picture doesn't mean jack squat.
> How
>long have you been in this world? Did it ever occur to you to pick up the
>phone and call about a possible difference between the CLEARLY LISTED I/O
>SPECs and some picture? Did you zoom in and get some processor and
>throughput specs from that picture too?

Had you read my OP thoroughly, you would have found that I did call
Dell and was not able to get a definitive answer from any of the three
people that I was passed around to before giving up.

As to the usefullness of a product photo in determining what easily
visible components might come with the unit in question - are you
really that much of a doofus?
>
>Dell runs a pretty good show, IMO.

Given the acuity demonstrated in the above, the quality of your
opinion is highly suspect.


Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

Tom Watson wrote:
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.

Sorry for your problems. Dell CS has been fine with me. The last 4
computers I've bought are Dell.

I always go through the "Small Business" portal, not the "Consumer". Maybe
that makes a difference.

Best wishes getting this resolved. Maybe you could get a member of the
press to give 'em a call... <eg> Or a lawyer friend. My sister is a lawyer
so I have occasional cheap access to letterheads from "Dewey Cheatham &
Howe, Attorneys At Law" that get results.

-- Mark

you should return to grammar school, judging from that
little outburst.

dave

Tom Watson wrote:

> On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 19:45:51 -0600, "Nate B" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Didn't like what I typed?
>>
>>You're a moron. I get to tell you that. I'm certain Dell would LOVE to say
>>the same to you. You've earned it.
>
>
>
> how's your woodworking going, Nate.
>
> I'm guessing about as well as your personal skills allow.
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
SNIP?
Tom, I once hired an IT guy, friend of a friend. He said and produced all of
the right things. Within two weeks, I fired him - dumber than sack of
hammers. Found out later tat he moved to TX and went to work for DELL
Customer Service!

I have 10 laptops - all SONY. I have tried and used them all over the last
few years. I am very satisfied with all of the Sony's. We had one problem,
our fault, one call, sent it to SONY in San Diego, two weeks and $300.00
later, its back and works perfectly.

All USB ports plus a parallel port.

Dave




----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
...

Careful of IBM: The way the set up the machines isn't necessarily what you
expect ubnless you're used to the IBM methods.
I can recommend Gateway - their CS is considerably improved and the order
process a lot simpler and more detailed than Dell. They also give you
actual CDs with the software on them. Only, well,Gateway's talkng about
minimizing their PC business now, so for tomorrow-protection? Guess it's
all a crapshoot anymore. Only thing they have left they can sell to
distinguish themselves is service and most of them don't know what the word
means.

Dell: I would go to a Thomas Register, get the president's name, address,
etc. and send a couple of well placed registered mails to them, asking for a
win-win remedy because you "know they're so good, but ...". You might get a
quick response and an unexpected break on the costs.

In article <pmkierst-CEB303.23162806042004
@nntp.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, [email protected]
says...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> > failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> > situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> > hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> > understand.
>
> This comment baffles me. How is it relevant that they are "offshore"?

Well, first of all (and pretty importantly), I might actually be able
to understand what they are saying without having to say, "say again
..." about every time they ask a question or make a suggestion.
Secondly, they may (although, depending upon the company) actually have
actually seen and used one of the units being discussed.

... snip of stuff that is really true -- It really does no good to yell
at the droid on the other end of the phone, they have no authority to do
anything regardless of which shore they reside upon. They are simply
there to take the bullets for the bad examples of their company's
products. The one thing you can say about the off-shored folks,
especially the East Indians -- they are really good at apologizing, they
can't do anything about it, but boy are they sorry about it.

>
> Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
> Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
> undertones.
>

Oh, get over it, everybody is not xenophobic nor racist just because
they complain about the fact that they cannot understand a foreign
accent on the other end of a call that is supposed to be all about clear
communications.

"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...



>
> I'll be glad to take off this gorilla suit. It is scratchy and smells
> of the metabolic excretions of a pissed off consumer.

Squeaky wheels, dontch'a know.

>
> Thank you all for listening to my whining.

Nah - you've chalked one up for the lil' guys.

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 09:13:19 -0500, [email protected] (p_j) wrote:

>Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
>> dealt with.
>
>I'm an Apple laptop user and scan mac headlines a couple times a week.
>It seems like every couple months or so, some mag or industry group
>rates customer service of PC companies and Dell and Apple go back and
>forth in the number one and two spots. At least if IIRC.
>
>Maybe your experience is atypical or maybe customer service is a victim
>of price competition. I only bring it up for conversation.

And maybe the best in the industry is not too good.

Tim Douglass

http://www.DouglassClan.com

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 17:54:12 GMT, Paul Kierstead
<[email protected]> wrote:


>But from your description I certainly do not see a failure to
>communicate clearly due to an accent as being the problem. The problem
>was that
>a) Dell presented out-dated information

Agreed.


>b) Dell refused to address your subsequent problem with that. It wasn't
>a failure to get the message, they just did SFA about it.

Since my only portal to Dell was through the offshore customer service
network, how am I to know that any information went upstream from
there - even though I specifically requested to be bumped to an
onshore representative of the company, and was refused?
>
>Neither of these had anything to do with offshore customer service.

Let's consider the issue of the missing order for the
should-have-not-been-needed- port replicator - wherein the order was
apparently lost - but realyl turned out to be a problem with my
ability to understand the order number that was attempted to be
communicated to me by the "I am thanking you very much for calling
Dell customer service" guy.


>Personally, any company which uses offshore customer service I knock
>down a notch because I am sick of companies shipping more and more jobs
>and money (and dodging taxes) out of the country, but I still don't
>blame the offshore people.

Agreed.
>
>
>Just my opinion; not really trying to start a war over it.

There will be a war over this sort of thing, but you didn't start it -
and economics will finish it.




Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 19:45:51 -0600, "Nate B" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Didn't like what I typed?
>
>You're a moron. I get to tell you that. I'm certain Dell would LOVE to say
>the same to you. You've earned it.


how's your woodworking going, Nate.

I'm guessing about as well as your personal skills allow.



Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 23:28:01 -0500, "Swingman" <[email protected]> wrote:

>The two To$shiba laptops I've owned have been pretty good machines, but If I
>could reasonably build my own laptop, I would. I've built most of the 30+
>machines my businesses use, and have another dozen or so Compaq's we bought
>off a mortgage company going out of business a few years ago at less than
>$100/ea ... the hell of it is that HCAD continues to try to _appreciate_ the
>damn things for their property tax valuations.

I build all my own desktop machines and I would never buy a laptop
online, sight unseen, regardless of price. I want to be able to see
the machine in person, make sure it's exactly what I want before I
make a purchase.

If I can see it and then buy the identical machine online, fine.
Otherwise, forget it.

> This seems to be a favorite fix of Tier One Tech Dudes. I was taught
> that this was a Nuclear Level Option. I almost never call Tier One
> guys - they don't seem to know any more than me. The difficulty is in
> getting to the people who actually do know something.
>

There is a guaranteed way to get to Tier 2 support, cite a HSE
(Health, Safety, or Environmental) concern. This is an "Automatic
escalation" on the Tier 1 flow chart.

For example, when the battery on my laptop was shorting out (3 month
old battery, with 6 second battery life), I said that I was getting
"sporadic" shocks from the exterior of the laptop.

Tier 2 was back to me in a few hours arranging service.

For your case, you could have told them that "Every time I try to plug
in my printer, I get zapped" Once they forward you on, you can't talk
like an intelligent person to the tier 2 people.

But, thats just my 2 bits (pun intended)

Jay

I see that little SDS problem is going along well.



Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

Tom, I'm sorry you had such a difficult time ordering a system. However, I
would have expected with your name you wouldn't do business with anyone but
IBM. Are you related to THE Watsons?

(In case someone forgot or didn't know: Thomas J. Watson was the founder of
the Computer Tabulating Recording Company. CTR was the forerunner of IBM.
Tom senior was the President/CEO of IBM for many years. His son, Tom, Jr.,
followed him in the business.)

After pulling your chain, I must admit, as a retired IBMer, I am a committed
Dell user. When OS/2 bit the dust, I gave away my PS/2 and moved to Dell.
I've had four Dell desktop systems and my wife has a Dell laptop. I have
not had any problems with hardware ordering from Dell. I had one minor
hardware support problem. I allowed an overseas tech support person, for
whom English was a third or fourth language, to convince me that the answer
to my problem was to reformat my hard drive. It did not fix my problem, but
it was an almost simple task to rebuild my hard drive. Simple, because at
that point, I was already trained/conditioned to keep everything backed up!!
So I'm happy with Dell and wouldn't buy anything else at this point. One
close friend buys IBM, another buys Gateway and a third builds his own.

Everyone has had a problem with Dell/Gateway/IBM/Woodcraft/Rockler/Lee
Valley/Delta/Jet/Harbor Freight/Oak/Walnut/Maple. Problems are just another
opportunity.

Variety and choice. Politics and Pizza. Cars and Clothes. Women and
Whiskey.
Variety and choice: The spices of life!

Jack Flatley
Jacksonville, Florida


"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
>
>
>
> >Stuff deleted<<
>
>


> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

You've got this customer service thing all wrong. It's not there to help
you, it's there so they can say that they have it. Makes for better
advertising.

"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
> A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
>
> Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
>
> After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
>
> Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
>
> It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
>
> Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> order out in a timely manner.
>
> But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
>
> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> understand.
>
> I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> beneath contempt.
>
> I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>
> I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
>
>
> (Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> [email protected])
>
> (coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> sheesh.)
>
> (but they seem to keep making money.)
>
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

I use and love macs too, but the same features for price is not true
much as I wish it was, 200gig hd, 3.something ghz processor(not a celery
either), 512 megs ddr ram 128 meg video card, full works on the drive
(dvd/cd/r/rw/disk)
monitor, speakers and some free software+other goodies for 1400$ CAN,
this is 100$ more then an emac, which is very not upgradable, relatively
big. 1.25 gig chip(and the PC had hyper threading, so the argument
about macs being more efficient just doesnt work here)1.25, even at 200%
more efficent doesnt equal the speed of 3 ghz. 256 megs of ddr ram for
the emac, an 80 gig hd instead of 200, a super drive(not a great drive,
and if one thing dies, the whole thing is shot) 32 meg video card.
there is no way that is the same features.
> >
>
> Personally I use Macs. I don't have to put up with M$ garbage and most
> every app I need is there except for niche stuff, and that's usually not
> a problem. Better hardware too. I've had Macs since 1987, at last count
> I think 14 of them and only ONE thing broke, the SONY floppy in my
> original Mac Plus, otherwise it's been a mouse. That's pretty good
> reliability. IF you need compatibiliy, there is MS Office and quicken,
> quickbooks and such. No real barriers. And while many think Macs cost
> more, when you price them to a braded PC with the SAME features, the
> cost difference is small and the Macs last longer.
> So, they get my bucks, just on the virus, security issues.
>
> > dave
> >
> > dave
> >



> > >

"Mark Jerde" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Tom Watson wrote:
>> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
>> dealt with.
>
> Sorry for your problems. Dell CS has been fine with me. The last 4
> computers I've bought are Dell.
>
> I always go through the "Small Business" portal, not the "Consumer".
> Maybe that makes a difference.
>
> Best wishes getting this resolved. Maybe you could get a member of
> the press to give 'em a call... <eg> Or a lawyer friend. My sister
> is a lawyer so I have occasional cheap access to letterheads from
> "Dewey Cheatham & Howe, Attorneys At Law" that get results.
>
> -- Mark
>
>
>

One drawback is that when ordering from Small Business you pay sales tax
in almost every state as Dell has service centers for business
everywhere. When ordering through home, they only collect the tax in a
couple of states

Paul Kierstead <[email protected]> wrote in news:pmkierst-
[email protected]:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
>> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
>> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
>> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
>> understand.
>
> This comment baffles me. How is it relevant that they are "offshore"?
> What, do you think if they were Americans they would have bent over
> backwards to help you?

Dell apparently thinks it's both relevant and a failure. Business
accounts now go to a US based customer service facility (it only
took the loss of a couple of big accounts for Dell to see the
problem). Individuals, like Tom, are still stuck with the offshore
support.

John

"Leon" wrote in message
> And to think that Dell has one of the better reputations...
>
> I would hate to go with a brand that is not as good as Dell.

The two To$shiba laptops I've owned have been pretty good machines, but If I
could reasonably build my own laptop, I would. I've built most of the 30+
machines my businesses use, and have another dozen or so Compaq's we bought
off a mortgage company going out of business a few years ago at less than
$100/ea ... the hell of it is that HCAD continues to try to _appreciate_ the
damn things for their property tax valuations.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 4/02/04

spoken like the thoughtful rabble rouser that you are! Kick
butt! take names! no prisoners! sigh...

dave

Jules wrote:

> Good going Tom! They needed the wakup call. If not for themselves, for
> the next customers.
>

And to think that Dell has one of the better reputations...

I would hate to go with a brand that is not as good as Dell.

Someone from the Natatorium spewed some gibberish:

Goodbye, Nate.

I won't miss you.



Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 03:16:35 GMT, Paul Kierstead
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
>Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
>undertones.


I don't have anything against blind people - but I don't want them to
be able to drive taxis.

I don't have anything aginst deaf people - but I don't want them
tuning my piano.

I don't have anything against really tall people - but I don't think
they make good jockeys.

And I don't have anything against people with Indian accents - but
they should not have jobs whose very essence is clarity of
communication - in English.

So, smack that.

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>
Tom, I haven't dealt with them for a year or two, but I've
always gotten excellent service from JDR (www.jdr.com). Usually
I've bought a motherboard and the pieces to build my own, but
they also sell complete systems. Unfortunately I don't think
they sell laptops, although they do have some very small
desktops. As well as some industrial stuff that will live
forever bathed in sawdust :-).

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

"Tom Watson"


> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.

Are you leaving out the part of the story where the specs clearly had no
mention of the ports, but you ordered it anyway hoping they would be there
because of some picture?


- Nate

"Tom Watson"

> No, I'm leaving out the part where the ports were not described at
> all in the system specs when I ordered and the only clue was the
> pictorial representation of the back of the unit.

I just clicked my way over to the site.

Under "Tech Specs", the IO ports are CLEARLY listed.

I don't see a parallel or serial port on the list, therefore I would assume
they were not there.

> Would you like to characterize my assumption that those ports would be
> included, based on a Dell provided product tour, that I screen
> shotted, to be without merit?

Especially for high tech products, the picture doesn't mean jack squat. How
long have you been in this world? Did it ever occur to you to pick up the
phone and call about a possible difference between the CLEARLY LISTED I/O
SPECs and some picture? Did you zoom in and get some processor and
throughput specs from that picture too?

Dell runs a pretty good show, IMO. Send that puppy back if you don't like
it and see what your money buys you in ordering ease, support and customized
hardware configuration over at the competition.


- Nate

"Tom Watson"

> If you go to the section where you can download the manuals for the
> 8600, you will see that it comes in two flavors - one with the ports
> and one without.

Laptops come with and without - floppy drives, CD drives, PCMCI ports,
speakers, mice, monitor outputs, yada, yada, yada. Furthermore, Dell is a
custom shop. Do you really expect them to provide cute little 3D marketing
photos of , literally, the millions of possible options they offer?

Did you blindly expect the last car you bought to come fully loaded like the
one on the showroom floor? Do you also get as self righteous with the cook
at a place like Denny's when the food doesn't come out looking like the
picutre on the menu, or on a plate of the same design? I see Dewalt
planers might come with a nice slab of hardwood, some sawdust and perhaps a
woodshop to boot. Where's the line for you?

Given some time, I'm sure one could find thousands of products for sale with
pictures that depict accessories and variations that are or are not
included. Hence - I had to ask if you were born yesterday and perhaps have
missed out on your fair share of some of these advertizing images and what
they mean.

As to your comment about me reading the OP - of course I read it. You made
no phonecall and seemingly didn't bother to read the clearly listed Tech
Specs BEFORE you ordered. You earned what you got, IMO.


- Nate

In article <pmkierst-
[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
> Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
> undertones.
>
You mean being pissed off that a US company has customer support
people that can barely speak the language? And that if you
don't speak "the Queens English" with a lilt, they can't
understand you either?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> >
> Tom, I haven't dealt with them for a year or two, but I've
> always gotten excellent service from JDR (www.jdr.com). Usually
> I've bought a motherboard and the pieces to build my own, but
> they also sell complete systems. Unfortunately I don't think
> they sell laptops, ...

After posting that, I checked their website. They now carry 4
Toshiba laptops along with all their other stuff.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

"Tom Watson"

>
> Goodbye, Nate.
>
> I won't miss you.

Didn't like what I typed?

You're a moron. I get to tell you that. I'm certain Dell would LOVE to say
the same to you. You've earned it.


- Nate

"Tom Watson"

> I'm guessing about as well as your personal skills allow.

My personal skills?

Your personal skills couldn't solve a trite problem ordering your computer
from a company that caters to the common public.

You clearly, perhaps accidentally, ordered something that didn't suit you.
IMO, it was your fault for not reading the specs carefully. When you found
out what you really wanted was going to cost more money, you had a childish
tantrum about it. Maybe it's because you don't have much money. I don't
know. I imagine you likely confused someone at Dell with your tantrum - but
hey, sometimes these guys get confused on their own. Big deal. Some people
actually know how to deal with that and move on with their lives -
especially considering that it will likely be soon enough when you piss off
and/or confuse one of your own customers.

Your self righteousness about the situation and desperate need for
vindication and personal validation from as many faceless people as possible
for such a small issue is truly pitiful.


- Nate

Go Nate!!

dave

Nate B wrote:

> "Tom Watson"
>
>
>>I'm guessing about as well as your personal skills allow.
>
>
> My personal skills?
>
> Your personal skills couldn't solve a trite problem ordering your computer
> from a company that caters to the common public.
>
> You clearly, perhaps accidentally, ordered something that didn't suit you.
> IMO, it was your fault for not reading the specs carefully. When you found
> out what you really wanted was going to cost more money, you had a childish
> tantrum about it. Maybe it's because you don't have much money. I don't
> know. I imagine you likely confused someone at Dell with your tantrum - but
> hey, sometimes these guys get confused on their own. Big deal. Some people
> actually know how to deal with that and move on with their lives -
> especially considering that it will likely be soon enough when you piss off
> and/or confuse one of your own customers.
>
> Your self righteousness about the situation and desperate need for
> vindication and personal validation from as many faceless people as possible
> for such a small issue is truly pitiful.
>
>
> - Nate
>
>
>

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 17:38:58 -0400, Tom Watson <[email protected]>
wrote:
Welcome to Dell. I had the same run around when I ordered my Inspiron
5150 just before Christmas. 7 weeks it took to get here, and in the
end I made a special trip to the courier depot before I left for
another city 2000km away. Having got the computer, I like it - it does
what I want, but their service is shocking. As you say, the roundabout
on the phone, never returning calls, never a straight answer, hard to
understand accents. On the phone everyday in the end without results.
I like the computer, but I hope it never breaks down. if they are like
this when you are giving them money... Put me off getting another Dell
without some seriously good reasons.
Geoff
--
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head

I don't seem to have access to the original message so I'm responding
to yours...

I have purchased 4 computers from Dell. Two laptops and two desktops.
One of the laptops is now over 4 years old. It is the machine that I
practically live on. I am a professional software developer. My
Inspiron 7500 may not be very fast any more but it is a work horse. I
am using it 8 to 14 hours a day. I have had a few problems here and
there that were covered under warranty without any problem at all. I
called up, said something wasn't working and the next day the
technician came to see me wherever I was. (I do consulting so they
have visited me in different cities) There are features about my
laptop that made it a no-brainer purchase and I have no regrets about
it. As long as these same features are available I'll be purchasing
another Dell.

I will agree with you that Dell's outsourced customer service is
really bad. The language wasn't much of a barrier but some things
were not clearly understood and this caused me to lose at least a
couple days of billable work. This was after my laptop was out of
warranty.

When the COM port on my laptop went out I just bought a port
replicator for not more than about $80 and it works fine.
--
Jim

In article <[email protected]>, Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:
>On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 03:16:35 GMT, Paul Kierstead
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
>>Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
>>undertones.
>
>
>I don't have anything against blind people - but I don't want them to
>be able to drive taxis.
>
>I don't have anything aginst deaf people - but I don't want them
>tuning my piano.
>
>I don't have anything against really tall people - but I don't think
>they make good jockeys.
>
>And I don't have anything against people with Indian accents - but
>they should not have jobs whose very essence is clarity of
>communication - in English.
>
>So, smack that.
>

Ayup. While I applaud Wal-Mart's efforts at hiring the handicapped, excuse me,
the differently abled, one store on the north side of Indianapolis has IMO
taken that just a bit too far. One of their employees has a *severe* speech
impediment. Guess who makes the loudspeaker announcements?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter,
send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com

>> In article <[email protected]>,
>> Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
>>>the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
>>>deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
>>>dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
>>>They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
>>>ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
>>>much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
>>>folks who sold you your pc...
>>>
>>>cheers!
>>>
>>>dave
>>>


That last sentence is reminiscent of Larry Niven's First and Second Universal Laws:

First Law of the Universe (according to Larry Niven):

Don't throw sh*t at an armed man.

Second Law of the Universe:

Don't stand next to anyone who is throwing sh*t at an armed man.


Sounds like good common sense to me.

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA

LOL!

dave

Nate B wrote:

> "Tom Watson"
>
>
>>Goodbye, Nate.
>>
>>I won't miss you.
>
>
> Didn't like what I typed?
>
> You're a moron. I get to tell you that. I'm certain Dell would LOVE to say
> the same to you. You've earned it.
>
>
> - Nate
>
>
>

any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
folks who sold you your pc...

cheers!

dave

Tom Watson wrote:
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
> A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
>
> Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
>
> After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
>
> Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
>
> It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
>
> Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> order out in a timely manner.
>
> But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
>
> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> understand.
>
> I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> beneath contempt.
>
> I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>
> I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
>
>
> (Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> [email protected])
>
> (coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> sheesh.)
>
> (but they seem to keep making money.)
>
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

In article <[email protected]>,
Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:

> any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
> the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
> deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
> dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
> They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
> ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
> much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
> folks who sold you your pc...
>
> cheers!
>
> dave

Hate to tell you Dave but Dell has been doing this and the reports in
the Media are numerous. No one has to tick off anyone there, but it's
hard not to do so given the abysmal service they have been doing of
late, so don't take unresearched umberage at this fell who is nothing
more than a *victim* of the Wintel price wars.

You get what you pay for and when mr. consumer demands cheaper and
cheaper, sooner or later something have to give--either the quality of
the product, or the service the company gives and or warrantee.



>
> Tom Watson wrote:
> > Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> > dealt with.
> >
> > My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> > ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> > the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> > having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> > The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> > ports.
> >
> > A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> > chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> > serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> > degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> > screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
> >
> > Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> > the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> > of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
> >
> > After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> > longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> > did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> > given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> > their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> > never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> > would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
> >
> > Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> > the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> > replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> > for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> > the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> > not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> > with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> > generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> > cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> > had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
> >
> > It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> > the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> > figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
> >
> > Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> > email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> > When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> > completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> > two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> > and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> > causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> > have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> > order out in a timely manner.
> >
> > But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> > people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
> >
> > This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> > failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> > situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> > hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> > understand.
> >
> > I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> > that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> > feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> > beneath contempt.
> >
> > I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> > emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> > reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
> >
> > I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> > out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> > will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
> >
> >
> > (Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> > [email protected])
> >
> > (coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> > up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> > to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> > sheesh.)
> >
> > (but they seem to keep making money.)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> > Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> > Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
--
Best,
Kirby

In article <[email protected]>,
Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:

> good to know, Kirby. I'll probably end up in the market for
> a pc within the year. I was just giving TW a tiny payback;
> I haven't any personal knowledge of how well or poorly Dell
> treats their customers. He more than likely didn't see the
> post anyway...
>

Personally I use Macs. I don't have to put up with M$ garbage and most
every app I need is there except for niche stuff, and that's usually not
a problem. Better hardware too. I've had Macs since 1987, at last count
I think 14 of them and only ONE thing broke, the SONY floppy in my
original Mac Plus, otherwise it's been a mouse. That's pretty good
reliability. IF you need compatibiliy, there is MS Office and quicken,
quickbooks and such. No real barriers. And while many think Macs cost
more, when you price them to a braded PC with the SAME features, the
cost difference is small and the Macs last longer.
So, they get my bucks, just on the virus, security issues.

> dave
>
> dave
>
> Kirby wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
> >>the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
> >>deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
> >>dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
> >>They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
> >>ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
> >>much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
> >>folks who sold you your pc...
> >>
> >>cheers!
> >>
> >>dave
> >
> >
> > Hate to tell you Dave but Dell has been doing this and the reports in
> > the Media are numerous. No one has to tick off anyone there, but it's
> > hard not to do so given the abysmal service they have been doing of
> > late, so don't take unresearched umberage at this fell who is nothing
> > more than a *victim* of the Wintel price wars.
> >
> > You get what you pay for and when mr. consumer demands cheaper and
> > cheaper, sooner or later something have to give--either the quality of
> > the product, or the service the company gives and or warrantee.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>Tom Watson wrote:
> >>
> >>>Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> >>>dealt with.
> >>>
> >>>My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> >>>ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> >>>the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> >>>having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> >>>The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> >>>ports.
> >>>
> >>>A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> >>>chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> >>>serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> >>>degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> >>>screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
> >>>
> >>>Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> >>>the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> >>>of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
> >>>
> >>>After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> >>>longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> >>>did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> >>>given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> >>>their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> >>>never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> >>>would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
> >>>
> >>>Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> >>>the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> >>>replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> >>>for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> >>>the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> >>>not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> >>>with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> >>>generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> >>>cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> >>>had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
> >>>
> >>>It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> >>>the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> >>>figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
> >>>
> >>>Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> >>>email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> >>>When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> >>>completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> >>>two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> >>>and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> >>>causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> >>>have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> >>>order out in a timely manner.
> >>>
> >>>But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> >>>people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
> >>>
> >>>This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> >>>failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> >>>situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> >>>hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> >>>understand.
> >>>
> >>>I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> >>>that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> >>>feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> >>>beneath contempt.
> >>>
> >>>I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> >>>emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> >>>reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
> >>>
> >>>I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> >>>out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> >>>will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>(Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> >>>[email protected])
> >>>
> >>>(coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> >>>up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> >>>to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> >>>sheesh.)
> >>>
> >>>(but they seem to keep making money.)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> >>>Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> >>>Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
--
Best,
Kirby

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 21:52:12 -0700, Luigi Zanasi <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 17:39:17 -0400, Roy Smith <[email protected]>
>scribbled:
>
>>As soon as the call was answered, the guy said something like, "Hello,
>>Apple tech support, are you Roy Smith?". I was a bit surprised at this,
>>but admitted that I was. He continued, "OK, I see you talked to John
>>yesterday about your XXX and he told you to try doing YYY. How did you
>>make out with that?"
>
>I still get that from my ISP/Phone company: Northwestel, the northern
>subsidiary of Bell Canada. Public kudos to them.
>
>Luigi
>Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
>www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
>www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html



had my 'pooter go south on me last week. in the process of
troubleshooting some drives, I booted a utility disk and ran a
diagnostic proggy on a couple of them. it whirred and clicked for a
while and returned an error number and a message to call an 800 number
for further assistance. I did, and the guy answered the phone... I
told him the error number and he asked for the serial number of the
drive. I gave him that and he asked for my name and address. I did,
and he said "OK, we'll send you a new one." nothing about a reciept,
or whether the computer had been driven off of a cliff or whatever.
the first drive arrived today. I expect the second one tomorrow.

thing is, best I can tell an IDE controller went postal on my
motherboard. the drive wasn't at fault at all, but they didn't even
blink, just sent me a new drive.

that's customer service.

good to know, Kirby. I'll probably end up in the market for
a pc within the year. I was just giving TW a tiny payback;
I haven't any personal knowledge of how well or poorly Dell
treats their customers. He more than likely didn't see the
post anyway...

dave

dave

Kirby wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
>>the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
>>deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
>>dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
>>They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
>>ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
>>much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
>>folks who sold you your pc...
>>
>>cheers!
>>
>>dave
>
>
> Hate to tell you Dave but Dell has been doing this and the reports in
> the Media are numerous. No one has to tick off anyone there, but it's
> hard not to do so given the abysmal service they have been doing of
> late, so don't take unresearched umberage at this fell who is nothing
> more than a *victim* of the Wintel price wars.
>
> You get what you pay for and when mr. consumer demands cheaper and
> cheaper, sooner or later something have to give--either the quality of
> the product, or the service the company gives and or warrantee.
>
>
>
>
>>Tom Watson wrote:
>>
>>>Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
>>>dealt with.
>>>
>>>My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
>>>ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
>>>the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
>>>having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
>>>The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
>>>ports.
>>>
>>>A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
>>>chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
>>>serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
>>>degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
>>>screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
>>>
>>>Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
>>>the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
>>>of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
>>>
>>>After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
>>>longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
>>>did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
>>>given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
>>>their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
>>>never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
>>>would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
>>>
>>>Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
>>>the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
>>>replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
>>>for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
>>>the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
>>>not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
>>>with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
>>>generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
>>>cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
>>>had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
>>>
>>>It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
>>>the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
>>>figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
>>>
>>>Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
>>>email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
>>>When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
>>>completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
>>>two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
>>>and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
>>>causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
>>>have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
>>>order out in a timely manner.
>>>
>>>But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
>>>people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
>>>
>>>This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
>>>failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
>>>situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
>>>hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
>>>understand.
>>>
>>>I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
>>>that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
>>>feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
>>>beneath contempt.
>>>
>>>I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
>>>emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
>>>reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>>>
>>>I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
>>>out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
>>>will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
>>>
>>>
>>>(Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
>>>[email protected])
>>>
>>>(coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
>>>up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
>>>to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
>>>sheesh.)
>>>
>>>(but they seem to keep making money.)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
>>>Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
>>>Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

the State Attorneys General Office?? How on earth would you
respond if you had a SERIOUS problem, TW? Talk about
overkill... your overreaction just confirms my opinion of
your ego mania.

dave

Tom Watson wrote:

> After sending my nasty email to as many Dell addresses as I could find
> - and cc to the State Attorneys General Office in Austin, Texas - the
> home State of Dell (and having received a swift reply from the SAGO,
> which was also cc'd to Dell), the impacted bowels of the Dell customer
> service leviathan have begun to move.
>
> Checking the online Order Status function on the Dell website shows
> that my order has gone from a back ordered status, through "kitting",
> "assembly", "testing" and "boxing" - in the space of one business day.
>
> It would appear that the unit will be shipped by EOB this day.
>
> Remarkable.
>
> I'll be glad to take off this gorilla suit. It is scratchy and smells
> of the metabolic excretions of a pissed off consumer.
>
> Thank you all for listening to my whining.
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

Tom Watson wrote:

> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
> A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
>
> Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
>
> After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
>
> Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
>
> It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
>
> Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> order out in a timely manner.
>
> But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
>
> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> understand.
>
> I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> beneath contempt.
>
> I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>
> I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
>
>
> (Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> [email protected])
>
> (coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> sheesh.)
>
> (but they seem to keep making money.)
>
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
Think twice before you go with IBM. We tried to get one to operate and
after talking to an offshore fella for 3 hours, we gave up and returned
it and got an HP. Much better machine and have had no problems. The
offshore phone call was long distance and we were not told it was. It
took a long time to get IBM to reimburse the phone bill.

Tom,

Did they sell you this replicator for that price?

<http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA090U>


Maybe this tale of woe will be enjoyable:

<http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=87052&cid=7559844>



On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 17:38:58 -0400, Tom Watson wrote:
<snip the tale of woe, woe, woe>

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 17:39:17 -0400, Roy Smith <[email protected]>
scribbled:

>As soon as the call was answered, the guy said something like, "Hello,
>Apple tech support, are you Roy Smith?". I was a bit surprised at this,
>but admitted that I was. He continued, "OK, I see you talked to John
>yesterday about your XXX and he told you to try doing YYY. How did you
>make out with that?"

I still get that from my ISP/Phone company: Northwestel, the northern
subsidiary of Bell Canada. Public kudos to them.

Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html

In article <[email protected]>,
Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 03:16:35 GMT, Paul Kierstead
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> >Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
> >Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
> >undertones.
>

<snip>

> And I don't have anything against people with Indian accents - but
> they should not have jobs whose very essence is clarity of
> communication - in English.
>
> So, smack that.

OK, I probably over-reacted a little. And to be fair, I am a very good
very urban Canadian boy, which in many canadian cities means you had
better learn accents or you are not going to survive. In Toronto, over
50% of kids in school do not have english as a first language.

But from your description I certainly do not see a failure to
communicate clearly due to an accent as being the problem. The problem
was that
a) Dell presented out-dated information
b) Dell refused to address your subsequent problem with that. It wasn't
a failure to get the message, they just did SFA about it.

Neither of these had anything to do with offshore customer service.
Personally, any company which uses offshore customer service I knock
down a notch because I am sick of companies shipping more and more jobs
and money (and dodging taxes) out of the country, but I still don't
blame the offshore people.


Just my opinion; not really trying to start a war over it.

In article <[email protected]>,
Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote:

> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> understand.

This comment baffles me. How is it relevant that they are "offshore"?
What, do you think if they were Americans they would have bent over
backwards to help you? Customer Service is strongly tied to a companies
priorities and culture, not the location of its representatives. Dell
probably (almost certainly) does not empower its representatives to
actually do anything for a customer. If it is like most companies of
this sort, a note from god is required to remedy a situation by giving
the customer something. Most likely they have a "sequence" where the $75
coupon is the most they can offer. The rep is almost certainly unable to
override the automated pricing that says the lower price can only be had
in conjunction with a purchase. Having worked for a company which didn't
have one iota of trust in its employees competence, I can take some
pretty good guesses that Dell is firmly in that camp. Funny thing is,
the place I worked would gladly pay its "better" people over 100,000 a
year, but won't trust them to order something worth $100 without
approval from the CFO (and it was a very large company).

Don't blame the poor "offshore", underpaid, overworked sucker. Blame
Dell management. Your specific inclusion of offshore smacks of
undertones.

Tom,
I recieved my Inspiron 8600 in late November of last year.
It has both serial and parallel ports.

Their pre-sales support was pretty helpful.

Their post-sale 'offshore' tech support has not been much help, big suprise
huh?

It been pretty decent. Use it with my eCabinets design software a good bit.

BTW,
If you plan on dual booting w/Linux check out the hardware compability
guide
with the 'flavor' you choose. Some are picky about notebooks, but, they
are
much better than the used to be.

Also, this goes back about 10 years though. I used to work for a company
which
bought a lot of Gateway tower PC (I think they liked the cow boxes). We
would
install Unix on them along with our own system software. Gateway was
absolutely
NO HELP with *nix. We were definetly on our own. Dell, up until recently
at least
shipped some systems pre-installed w/Linux, not sure about laptops. IBM
being
big on Linux may do the same, or offer support at least.

Good Luck,
Ron



"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
<snip>

[email protected] (p_j) wrote:
> I'm an Apple laptop user and scan mac headlines a couple times a week.
> It seems like every couple months or so, some mag or industry group
> rates customer service of PC companies and Dell and Apple go back and
> forth in the number one and two spots. At least if IIRC.

It's got to be 10-15 years ago, but I still remember one tech support
call I had with Apple. I don't remember what the problem was, but it
took a couple of calls to get things sorted out. What was so impressive
was that they were correlating caller-id info into their trouble ticket
system (this is back when caller id was a new technology).

As soon as the call was answered, the guy said something like, "Hello,
Apple tech support, are you Roy Smith?". I was a bit surprised at this,
but admitted that I was. He continued, "OK, I see you talked to John
yesterday about your XXX and he told you to try doing YYY. How did you
make out with that?"

With some companies, you could be 20 minutes into the call before you
even get to that point.

Typing this on my 12" PowerBook G4. Awesome little machine.

After sending my nasty email to as many Dell addresses as I could find
- and cc to the State Attorneys General Office in Austin, Texas - the
home State of Dell (and having received a swift reply from the SAGO,
which was also cc'd to Dell), the impacted bowels of the Dell customer
service leviathan have begun to move.

Checking the online Order Status function on the Dell website shows
that my order has gone from a back ordered status, through "kitting",
"assembly", "testing" and "boxing" - in the space of one business day.

It would appear that the unit will be shipped by EOB this day.

Remarkable.

I'll be glad to take off this gorilla suit. It is scratchy and smells
of the metabolic excretions of a pissed off consumer.

Thank you all for listening to my whining.



Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 19:12:22 -0400, "John Flatley" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Tom, I'm sorry you had such a difficult time ordering a system. However, I
>would have expected with your name you wouldn't do business with anyone but
>IBM.

Actually, my drivers license has the name on it of: Thomas J. Watson,
Jr.

> Are you related to THE Watsons?

Don't I just wish.
>
>(In case someone forgot or didn't know: Thomas J. Watson was the founder of
>the Computer Tabulating Recording Company. CTR was the forerunner of IBM.
>Tom senior was the President/CEO of IBM for many years. His son, Tom, Jr.,
>followed him in the business.)
>
>After pulling your chain, I must admit, as a retired IBMer, I am a committed
>Dell user. When OS/2 bit the dust, I gave away my PS/2 and moved to Dell.
>I've had four Dell desktop systems and my wife has a Dell laptop. I have
>not had any problems with hardware ordering from Dell.

I am gratified that your experience has not been the same as mine.

> I had one minor
>hardware support problem. I allowed an overseas tech support person, for
>whom English was a third or fourth language, to convince me that the answer
>to my problem was to reformat my hard drive. It did not fix my problem,

This seems to be a favorite fix of Tier One Tech Dudes. I was taught
that this was a Nuclear Level Option. I almost never call Tier One
guys - they don't seem to know any more than me. The difficulty is in
getting to the people who actually do know something.

> but
>it was an almost simple task to rebuild my hard drive.

Is it really all that simple to rebuild a hard drive, when al the
patches are lost and all the tweaks are lost?

> Simple, because at
>that point, I was already trained/conditioned to keep everything backed up!!

Yeah, me too - having been using this crap since the CPm days, but
backups are tricky and prone to errors - that may not show up for a
good long time.


>So I'm happy with Dell and wouldn't buy anything else at this point. One
>close friend buys IBM, another buys Gateway and a third builds his own.

There's a guy who builds his own laptops - He must be a God. I've
"built" two desktops - about the same as assembling your own stereo
components - but never saved any money and don't want any further
education in this direction.
>
>Everyone has had a problem with Dell/Gateway/IBM/Woodcraft/Rockler/Lee
>Valley/Delta/Jet/Harbor Freight/Oak/Walnut/Maple. Problems are just another
>opportunity.
>
>Variety and choice. Politics and Pizza. Cars and Clothes. Women and
>Whiskey.
>Variety and choice: The spices of life!

OK, but promise vs. performance has gotten out of hand with some of
these people. If I order a unit online, with the expectation of it
being delivered at a specified date - I don't expect to get an email
telling me that I "might" get it at a date that represents a 200
percent error.
>
>Jack Flatley
>Jacksonville, Florida

Thank you for the reply, Jack. I'm just a little pissed at the whole
situation right now.


>
>
>"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
>> dealt with.
>>
>> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
>>
>>
>>
>> >Stuff deleted<<
>>
>>
>
>
>> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
>> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
>> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
>

Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

Good going Tom! They needed the wakup call. If not for themselves, for
the next customers.


Tom Watson wrote:
> After sending my nasty email to as many Dell addresses as I could find
> - and cc to the State Attorneys General Office in Austin, Texas - the
> home State of Dell (and having received a swift reply from the SAGO,
> which was also cc'd to Dell), the impacted bowels of the Dell customer
> service leviathan have begun to move.
>
> Checking the online Order Status function on the Dell website shows
> that my order has gone from a back ordered status, through "kitting",
> "assembly", "testing" and "boxing" - in the space of one business day.
>
> It would appear that the unit will be shipped by EOB this day.
>
> Remarkable.
>
> I'll be glad to take off this gorilla suit. It is scratchy and smells
> of the metabolic excretions of a pissed off consumer.
>
> Thank you all for listening to my whining.
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

thanks for those words of wisdom, Tom...now do you think
it's about time that someone, somewhere, will post a WW
related question? or heaven forbid, provide an on-topic
answer? :)

dave

Tom Veatch wrote:

>>>In article <[email protected]>,
>>> Bay Area Dave <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>any chance on God's green earth you were so OBNOXIOUS to all
>>>>the folks at Dell that they made sure you got what you
>>>>deserved?? I can't believe that EVERYONE at the company
>>>>dropped the ball, unless you gave them all provocation.
>>>>They probably made copious notes in your customer profile to
>>>>ensure your continued aggravation. Never complain about how
>>>>much the pilot of your plane makes, and don't piss off the
>>>>folks who sold you your pc...
>>>>
>>>>cheers!
>>>>
>>>>dave
>>>>
>
>
>
> That last sentence is reminiscent of Larry Niven's First and Second Universal Laws:
>
> First Law of the Universe (according to Larry Niven):
>
> Don't throw sh*t at an armed man.
>
> Second Law of the Universe:
>
> Don't stand next to anyone who is throwing sh*t at an armed man.
>
>
> Sounds like good common sense to me.
>
> Tom Veatch
> Wichita, KS USA

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:10:10 -0600, "Nate B" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>"Tom Watson"
>
>
>> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
>> ports.
>
>Are you leaving out the part of the story where the specs clearly had no
>mention of the ports, but you ordered it anyway hoping they would be there
>because of some picture?
>
>
>- Nate
>
>
No, I'm leaving out the part where the ports were not described at
all in the system specs when I ordered and the only clue was the
pictorial representation of the back of the unit.

Would you like to characterize my assumption that those ports would be
included, based on a Dell provided product tour, that I screen
shotted, to be without merit?


Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1

Hey Nate, what's your take on the myth of coplanar?

UA100

Tom,

I feel sorry or your trip to Dell Hell - but I have to say I've purchased
two machines from Dell since the new year. Both shipped on or before the
day they should have (3 days after order i think), both arrived quickly and
both functioned properly out of the box.

I think you just got unlucky on the delivery, but the CSR's not knowing if
the machine had ports is unexcusable.

Ian

"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dell has the worst customer service of any company that I have ever
> dealt with.
>
> My journey into Dell Hell began a little over a week ago, when I
> ordered an Inspiron 8600 from the Dell website. I wanted a unit with
> the newest in processor technology and wireless capabilities, while
> having parallel and serial ports to run some of my older peripherals.
> The 360 degree product tour showed that the 8600 had the required
> ports.
>
> A couple of days later a Dell catalog came in the mail. There was a
> chart in the catalog that showed the 8600 as not having parallel or
> serial ports. I went back to the Dell website to look at the 360
> degree product tour and, sure enough, the ports were there. I took a
> screen shot of the rear view shown in the product tour.
>
> Then I called Dell customer service to see what they had to say about
> the ports. I was passed around to a number of different people, none
> of them could give me a definitive answer concerning the ports.
>
> After many emails and phone calls it was established that the 8600 no
> longer ships with parallel and serial ports, although it apparently
> did so not too long ago. I asked what they were going to do for me,
> given the fact that I had ordered the unit based on information from
> their website. The woman who was handling my call put me on hold and
> never came back on the line. This was the first of three times that I
> would be treated this way by Dell customer service people.
>
> Finally an email was sent to me apologizing for the confusion about
> the ports and offering a discount of $75.00 on the purchase of a port
> replicator, which would give me back the ports that I had already paid
> for. When I called to purchase the port replicator, I was told that
> the $75.00 would be taken off the full price of the unit ($199.00) and
> not the price of the unit that I would have paid if I had ordered it
> with the 8600 in the first place ($119.00). Through Dell's
> generosity, I was now going to pay $124.00 for a unit that would have
> cost me $119.00, if ordered with the machine that I already thought
> had the ports on it that the replicator was replicating.
>
> It turned out not to matter, anyway - because the guy that I placed
> the order with lost the order and nobody can find any record of it. I
> figured I'd just wait on that until the 8600 came.
>
> Today, April 5, the day that my 8600 was supposed to ship - I got an
> email telling me that it would not be shipping for up to two weeks.
> When I called to find out the specific problem that was holding up
> completion of the order, no one could give me any information. During
> two separate phone sessions the customer service people put me on hold
> and then never came back on. I was never able to determine what was
> causing the delay. If I had gotten that information perhaps I could
> have substituted another component that was in stock and thus get the
> order out in a timely manner.
>
> But I was not given the opportunity to do this. The customer service
> people were unfailingly polite while failing entirely at their duties.
>
> This experiment with using offshore customer service people is a
> failure. The people do not extend themselves to help remedy the
> situation. They are not confrontational but allow the customer to
> hang on the line until they go away. They are very difficult to
> understand.
>
> I feel that I was lied to by Dell about the shipping date. I feel
> that I was deceived by Dell about the ports contained in the unit. I
> feel that Dell's commitment to customer service and satisfaction is
> beneath contempt.
>
> I am not going to make any further phone calls or send any more
> emails. I am going to wait twenty four hours to get a satisfactory
> reply from Dell, and then I am going to go out and buy an IBM.
>
> I am also going to post this message on the laptop forums and send it
> out to a number of the computer magazines. And every chance I get I
> will badmouth Dell. You deserve it.
>
>
> (Sent yesterday to Dell "Customer Service" and again this morning to
> [email protected])
>
> (coda: the port replicator that no one could find an order for showed
> up today - now I have a port replicator for a laptop that was supposed
> to have the needed ports - but don't got no laptop to go with it -
> sheesh.)
>
> (but they seem to keep making money.)
>
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret)
> Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
> Website: http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1