Open Letter to Dell Customer Service
Hi Dell folks:
I have a monitor I purchased from you awhile ago. The power button is busted. All my other Dell products perform admirably, so while this is irritating, I wasn’t too upset. However, after dealing with your customer service organization for the last hour I am on the verge of killing myself. A few thoughts. Do with them what you will:
- I don’t have the record of my purchase handy so I tried to find out whether my monitor was still under warranty on your web site. No luck as there is no service number on the monitor. And your website doesn’t even list LCD monitors as a category that have service tags. Everyone I spoke to on the phone was obsessed with what computer I was using thinking that I purchased the monitor with a Dell computer and they could look up the service tag on that. Guess what, I’m, not using a Dell computer. I just bought the monitor.
- I would document the endless repetition of your automated customer service prompts that continue to ask me the same question over and over at each level of the tree even though I’ve been clear every time that “NO, I AM NOT CALLING ABOUT A PRODUCT THAT I HAVE YET TO PURCHASE AND DO NOT WANT TO BE TRANSFERRED TO YOUR SALES PEOPLE” but I simply don’t have the energy.
- Between all the transfers I endured from your customer service folks I ended up talking to five different Dell employees. None of which were able to help me. Each was obsessed with finding my order number for the monitor. I was able to log into my account on dell.com and after some convoluted clicking i found a screen which claimed to have my order history for the last two years. It didn’t. I told the people on the phone I could give them my account name. They said that wouldn’t work. They asked for a customer number. I have 10. Seriously, there are TEN different customer numbers associated with my Dell.com account. Dell, please go buy some stuff on amazon.com. Go to your order history. It’s very simple. They can tell you exactly what you ordered, when, for how much, etc. Why in 2008 you are unable to do this I do not know.
- When I decided my monitor was probably not under warranty I went to the place on the Dell website to find out how to get my monitor serviced out of warranty. They wanted $49 for me to talk to someone to tell me how to get it serviced. Am I insane for not wanting to pay $49 to find out how to get my monitor fixed?
- With each person I spoke to I gave them my phone number in case I got disconnected. Despite getting disconnected three times, nobody every called me back.
- Apple fanboys, wipe those smirks off your faces. I was calling on my 3g iPhone and it was at fault for the continuous dropped calls — even after I switched off 3g. Horrible.
I’m going to stop worrying about this right now as I may lose my mind if I waste another minute dealing with this. But if anyone at Dell is listening:
- I own one of your monitors.
- The power button is busted
- I want to get it fixed.
- I am willing to pay you to fix it.
- If you can help me without forcing me to spend more time interacting with your website or customer service people (neither of which appear to have any idea what to do about this seemingly simple problem) then please send me mail and tell me what to do.
Thank you.
Join the discussion 16 Comments
Steve
November 25, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Brilliant. Figuring how much technology and “stuff” you use, and how bad the customer service industry is in general, I fully expect this to become a weekly feature on jacksonfish.com.
Jim
November 25, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Interesting. I ordered a Dell Mini-9 a couple of days after it was introduced. For whatever reason, the order was placed but it was never fulfilled. I called about a week later asking about it, and the switched me over to someone who treated me like a freaking king. She walked through the order herself ensured it was placed and processed and then even claimed to put a priority flag on it (I could not really discern if it got built any faster).
I suppose if they’re trying to sell you something, the good customer service is a priority. But fixing a 2+ yr old monitor? Is it really that great a monitor that you would spend your time with this? Hard to believe it’s worth either of your time. Get a new one! ;)
Hillel
November 25, 2008 at 9:40 pm
@Steve: if this ends up as a weekly feature I will have to be institutionalized.
@Jim: gee… sorry that i spent hundreds of dollars on a nice flat screen monitor 18 months ago and don’t feel like throwing it out because a 3 cent part broke.
I know you’re half-kidding but, you’re also half not. And to the half that’s not I say: must be nice to be made of money. ;)
Jim
November 25, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Ok, 18 mos is too short a time to trash a monitor, I will concede. What are you doing to that power button?
Dell CA
November 26, 2008 at 5:41 am
Hillel,
Hi! I’m Robert with Dell’s outreach team.
Sorry you are having difficulties with your monitor. If you could drop me a line at customer_advocate@dell.com, I’ll be happy to see what we can do to assist you.
Thanks,
Dell-Robert P
Cam
November 26, 2008 at 11:51 am
Did anything even come of this…? Was the Robert guy above for real?
B
November 28, 2008 at 8:53 am
That right there, the post above mine?
That’s pretty cool. Screw HP, I’m getting a Dell.
Hillel
November 28, 2008 at 8:58 am
UPDATE: I did send mail on wednesday morning to “Robert” at the address specified. The mail didn’t bounce, but I also have not gotten any response. I have no idea if it was real. I’ll keep you posted.
Jeff Davis
November 30, 2008 at 9:26 am
I will have two comments…
First: it serves you right for buying a dell. They use CHEAP hardware and customer service (obviously) sucks because of lack of knowledge ant the time it requires to get anything done.
FYI – Build your own next time and buy a quality monitor. You will have better hardware for less than you would spend at Dell. I build my own computers with more memory, disk space and a faster processors than Dell even offers and still save hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the configuration.
Second: have you thought of enabling the sleep feature so that your monitor powers down when it is not in use? I realize that this is a half-ass solution, but maybe it will keep your blog readers happy.
Ivo
November 30, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I had a similar issue, the power button on a Dell 24″ flat panel got stuck. I had purchased it also 18months ago as well. it came with a 3yr warranty.
Luckily I kept the original receipt but it still took 2 days of calls to get the right person. when I did they sent me an identical refurbished monitor with a return packing slip.
Hillel
November 30, 2008 at 9:08 pm
@Ivo… you give me hope. :)
Tony Mariani
December 2, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I don’t own a dell although back in 1988 when Michael Dell came through my town pitching his wares, he told me to invest a couple of thousand backs. Who knew! Oops not the point of this.
Hillie, Dell isn’t the only company that takes customer service to a whole new level. There are lots of stupid companies out there that inflict this customer service pain.
Lets start a computer fund for you. I will throw in 10 bucks with one caveat. If you collect enough to buy a Mac, (there I said it) you have to promise to go to one of Seattle’s tall buildings, call my friend Laura who lives there and she will videotape you tossing that computer off the building. The we’ll post it on you tube. Any left over money you collect buy Laura a bottle of wine for video taping the event!
Hillel
December 9, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Tony… I’d gladly take your money, but I hate to disappoint you… I’m using a Mac. The Dell product in question is a monitor. In the interest of full disclosure though… I do run Vista and Mac OS on my mac though I spend most of my time in Vista. And my mac has been into the shop several times. That said, Apple’s genius bar and my AppleCare coverage have been superlative every time. :)
Hillel
December 9, 2008 at 12:34 pm
UPDATE: I was out for a couple of days so I finally checked our mailbox and waiting for me was a refurbished and working monitor from Dell along with an RMA for my busted monitor.
Christopher, the guy from Dell who has been helping me has been super nice and helpful. And guess what, he was able to take the serial number from my monitor and look up whether my monitor was under warranty. And it was!
Why four different people who’s job it is at Dell to answer the phone were unable to do this I have ZERO idea. Christopher speculated that they were confused but he had no idea either.
Bottom line, I suggest that Dell take a page from DirecTV. When you call them, the person that answers the phone can basically do anything you need. I bet that paying one better trained and more qualified person more money is still cheaper than paying four unqualified and poorly trained people, none of which were actually able to help me.
I’m grateful that Dell fixed my situation but I can’t help but feel bad for people who don’t know that complaining on a blog is a more efficient way to get your monitor fixed.
Lisa Hamilton
February 26, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’m in complete dell hell myself right now so it was comforting in a way to ready your story. They gave me a “great deal” on a laptop 2 weeks ago that I now see is advertised $200 less than I paid, they said it came with Word 2007 but it didn’t, and they sold me a file transfer utility that THEY SAID specifically would xfer all my apps, but it doesn’t, and they won’t take it back because I opened it, but I didn’t know it didn’t do what they said UNTIL I tried to run it! Doh.
I’m not giving up until they right their wrong but let me tell ya they are not making it easy. Their answer to everything is to send it back for a refund. So I can just reorder the same exact thing only WITH Office 2007 for the same price I already paid??? And of course wait another 3 weeks for it to get here when I depend on it for my livelihood. The resolution could be so simple yet all I get is someone reading a script to me on the other end of the phone, not hearing a word I say. So frustrating!
Hillel
February 26, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Lisa:
I’d recommend sending mail to the customer_advocate@dell.com address above and see if you get a response. If you don’t, set up a twitter account, and start twittering about your problem. use the keyword #dell in there to make extra sure they see it.
They appear to be monitoring blogs and social media and i bet they’ll try and fix your problem. Hope it works out.