Want Better Dell Customer Service? Open that Wallet Wider!

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

One would think that Dell, being the massive company they are, could deliver great customer service. But no. Instead, they've become notorious for out-sourcing their support to India. That in itself isn't the problem, but being unable to properly understand the other person on the line is frustrating. I know, I've been there. I think it is even worse when you yourself know what the problem is, because trying to convince the person on the line to forgo the rules in the book is even more frustrating.

But Dell is looking to change that hassle. For a price, of course. Yes, to have better customer service, you will need to pay a premium, although it seems unclear at this point how large that premium will be. But if you have it, you will be able to talk to customer service based in the US that know what they are talking about, rather than those who just read from a book.

I have to wonder what kind of premium this is going to be, because as it stands, even Dell's $400 3-year warranty doesn't "warrant" you to ideal customer service. This latest attempt at good customer service is laughable at best. Good customer service shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars.

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This new fee-based offering is designed specifically for those customers who want to engage with the same dedicated team each time they have an issue with any of their in-warranty Dell-branded products. The premium service offer provides household support by an advanced support team in North America for one year. The technicians are empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues across the breadth of Dell's product line.

Source: Consumerist
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[Merlin]

And........ ( 2010 Future Headline )

Gas prices have dropped..now if you want it to burn in the vehicle, you can pay extra for burnable fuel


:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[Rob Williams]

Heh. What bugs me is that even the expensive warranty doesn't give you great customer service. When I bought my Dell notebook in 2004, it carried a $400 warranty (three years). Even with that, there were times when I spent well over an hour on the phone even though I knew what the problem was.

One thing can be said about their customer service though. Once you finally get what you need done (such as a new part), they act fast. Twice during the lifespan of that notebook, I needed new parts, and had them the next day.

 

[Krazy K]

I had to send my Thinkpad in and it made it to where ever it goes to and back in four day, oh, and it got fixed in that time frame too.

 

[Kougar]

Eh... You said it prettywell Rob, but still I just dunno about Dell Support.

I got to talk with their at home service techs and they are nice (Contracted out, of course), however the last one installed a new mainboard, so I powered the lappy up and he then left. I restarted the laptop, and instant BSOD, long story short he may of killed the 6800 Ultra that was inside the thing. I honestly have no clue how that works, because I had to mail in the laptop, and when it came back they noted they had replaced the mainboard (again!) along with the GPU. I got an upgrade to a mobile 7800 GTX out of it, since they quit making 6800's so long ago... doesn't help much when the Pentium M is the bottleneck these days though!

So in total I've gone through 3 motherboards, a GPU, a HDD hatch cover, and new fans (original mainboard was the problem, not the fans oddly). The beast is still under warranty until 2009 though (Four year warranty), with any luck it'll die one more time and I'll get a new lappy out of it now.

Something the article didn't mention, XPS owners already get a dedicated tech line... should still be for in house US-side if you call during normal hours.