[Reactor]

I purchased a dell mini-9 from then dell outlet (refurbished). I needed it for some **** going on at the office.

System arrives, boots but doesn't seem to charge the battery.

I call tech support, talk to many people, talk to many computer voice recognition programs.

Finally I get to a tech.

In india.

He wants to attach to my system.

O.K. Dell now has a nice citrix driven remote console program. He attaches, sees the battery has finally started to charge. He decides to update a couple of drivers on the system. The BIOS update fails. System starts to act weird. He reboots the system but it won't shut down, a common windows problem, and after a couple of minutes he has me power off the system.

The tech has me power on the system. The system won't start. There is no battery or power light. Won't start on battery. Won't start on AC. Won't start on both. He decides the mobo is fubar, I agree. He tells me to call customer care the next day to get a return number and they will send me a new system. It sucks, but fine, I'll do it.

I call customer care the next morning. The response "We only provide support before you receive your system, I'll transfer you to the correct person". Thus begins the 45 minute transfer-fest. I lost count at 13 transfers, all in India.

Finally I get to a "tech", she says they won't swap the system because it "must be the AC adapter".

I explain the system wouldn't start on battery so the AC adapter failing doesn't fit the symptoms.

She says "Well your battery must be bad too". I explain last nights tech thought it was a bad motherboard.

She replies "no it's the power supply and battery". I explain that two components failing at the same time is much more unlikely than one.

She replies "no, it's the power supply and battery". Thus begins a 15 minute exchange, she finally agrees to send a return box so I can return the system for repair "in the unlikely event the battery and power supply don't fix the problem"

Today the battery and power supply arrives. Guess what it doesn't fix? the problem. I call India again, and spend 15 minutes trying to get the rma number before getting it.


2+ hours of cell phone minutes burned, Dell shipped parts it didn't need to, and I still have to ship my system to dell for repair. I'm already 10 days into the 21 day return period.

 

[IH8Rice]

dell support bad? their support is in India? nah youre making this up right?

was the first guy's name Michael or Stephen...or some sort of American name?
did you call the Dell outlet to return that POS?

 

[Reactor]

It gets better. The tech I called for the RMA tells me to "put the sticker on the box". There are two stickers so I put them on the box, assuming his english is ah....less than perfect, which it was.

I go to FedEx and they recognize the two stickers have slightly diffrent numbers on them.

They cover one up.

I'm driving home when I realize one of the stickers was to return the bettery and power supply. I go back, talk to the clerk who tries to remove a sticker, ruining it.

I call India, again now looking at over three hours total on the phone with India. I get transfered numerous times and decide I am fed up with the situation and I want to retrun the mini-9.

More transfers.

I reach a "return specialist", this time I'm thinking it a brazillian, based on the accent. After much talking where I tell him exactly how bad dell's tech support is he agrees to send me a totally new system.

So when the new system gets here I'll reformat it, and install a slipstreamed version of Mac OSX 10.5 and have the elusive Mac Netbook.

 

[IH8Rice]

why did you call up the store you got it from and return that POS?

 

[ridiculous]

Well if it makes you feel better youre not alone. My brand new Inspiron came with a faulty OS load. First power up " NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND"....great. Call dell, "Thomas" from india picks up, tip of the iceberg. "Sir I need you to click on the windows button and go to control panel"

Me: It wont boot, I cannot do that.
Him: Sure you can its in the bottom left corner, simply left click and scroll to control panel.
Me: No no, No operating system found.
Him: It should be there
Me: I know
Him: OK i would like to remote login to your computer. I need your say so to do so.
Me: This outta be good. Sure you have my permission.
i go get a beer.

"Sir are you sure your network cable is plugged in?"
Me youve gotta be kidding me. Can I talk to someone else?

Long story short, there ended up being an automated rebuild process built into the computer. It just took 3 hrs and a few beers to get on the right track. Sadly Ive also had the same experience with one of their monitors.

Im done with Dell.

 

[syadasti]

If you buy (new or refurb) Dell Latitudes notebooks (or Optiplex for desktop) support is North American based plus you get a 3 year on-site NBD warranty for no extra charge either.

 

[stevew]

why did you call up the store you got it from and return that POS?

because bitching about it on the internet is much more fun.

 

[Reactor]

If you buy (new or refurb) Dell Latitudes notebooks (or Optiplex for desktop) support is North American based plus you get a 3 year on-site NBD warranty for no extra charge either.

Sure I can believe it, I know my XPS desktop and laptop is based in north america, and the support has been pretty good.

Here's a another funny part.

Every five minutes or so while on hold a massage comes around for "Dell premium support, based in North America" with "Average wait times of two minutes or less" for only $149 per year, or the special rate of $5 per month (for the next 36 months + interest) on your dell premier account.

The XPS people I've had to talk with have been native english speakers with reasonable tech knowledge. Unlike the people I dealt with on the mini-9 support group.

 

[Reactor]

because bitching about it on the internet is much more fun.

That and the fact the Dell is primarily an internet company, and I bought it on the internet site, on the internet.:biggrin:

 

[IH8Rice]

this is why i never buy anything used.

 

[syadasti]

this is why i never buy anything used.

At the call center there are about two dozen 1999 optiplex refurbished still in production. Most were retired because they were obsolete and budget money finally came, they still work after ten years in a 24x7 call center. Nobody is legally allowed to sell returned computers as new. Most refurbished are returned systems, not repairs and all are run through the diagnostics test course that might be a little lax for consumer netbooks especially ones you can buy for $250 brand new right now.

 

[IH8Rice]

all are run through the diagnostics test course that might be a little lax for consumer netbooks especially ones you can buy for $250 brand new right now.

so i guess he got one that fell through the cracks?

 

[syadasti]

so i guess he got one that fell through the cracks?

Netbooks aren't built for quality if they are selling for $250 brand new and consumer notebooks period (any brand) aren't very reliable. Some of the industry people have warned about a rush to the bottom. I am sure you can still build something somewhat decent but you are probably right about refurbished netbooks as the margin is so small and its probably outsourced to the lowest bidder. I bet the other netbook makers support are probably worse - most are Taiwan component OEMs rather than resellers with well established support systems like Dell/HP/etc.

 

[IH8Rice]

i see the rush to rock bottom prices in my industry worse than any other industry....and with 200+ manufacturers of LCD's, theres bound to be 195 crap brands out there

 

[syadasti]

And to think the LCD industry was price fixing too (so were memory makers too) - bastards...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/technology/13panel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

[Reactor]

Netbooks aren't built for quality if they are selling for $250 brand new and consumer notebooks period (any brand) aren't very reliable. Some of the industry people have warned about a rush to the bottom. I am sure you can still build something somewhat decent but you are probably right about refurbished netbooks as the margin is so small and its probably outsourced to the lowest bidder. I bet the other netbook makers support are probably worse - most are Taiwan component OEMs rather than resellers with well established support systems like Dell/HP/etc.

I wasn't expecting stellar performance, but I was expecting it to work.:biggrin: I needed it for something time sensitive, and in some cases refurbished systems are actually less likely to have a problem than new. My other dells are XPS systems at home, and have no problems. At work we have some problems with the optiplex desktops, but given the number we have it's not pretty normal.

My rant is more against Dell's poor support than anything else, given an effectively DOA computer, and ads touting their award wining tech support.

 

[IH8Rice]

And to think the LCD industry was price fixing too (so were memory makers too) - bastards...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/technology/13panel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

thats was a limited problem b/w only 3 manufacturers selling to 3 companies. it didnt effect any other company's day to day business.
LG should be fined a lot more than $400m IMO because of what they did to the LCD market a few years back. Korean mfg's are the WORST

 

[syadasti]

LG and Sharp sell panels to other companies though. A lot of brands are just rebadges.

 

[IH8Rice]

LG and Sharp sell panels to other companies though. A lot of brands are just rebadges.

yes and no...there are companies who just rebadge them, but most companies, like mine, use their own processors and guts within the tv and just use other's raw panels.


the 3 companies in question here were brought up on charges on price fixing their products to 3 resellers...Dell, Apple and Motorola.

companies like us who buy from them, know what the cost of the panels are because we manufacturer everything else inside of the tv, besides the panel itself. resellers like the 3 above mentioned ones, just buy stamp their names on the panels (except for motorola, who dont have a panel line if im not mistake)

 

[syadasti]

Point is you were just complaining about the overload of brands above and most of those companies don't do what you do - they do what Dell/Apple/Motorola/etc do. I assume Motorola just makes products for other brands unless they are talking about cell phone displays?

Also they do control the specs when they design and order. Its kinda like the laptop OEMs (or Giant Bicycles) - 25-30 brands all come out of the same OEM with but they aren't all the same laptop.

 

[IH8Rice]

i complain about a overload of brands because of what they do to the market.
Tier 1 companies like the one i work for, cant and wont compete with Tier 3 companies, of which there are 190+ companies that hurt quality brands like mine. these crappy tv's are trying to get to $0 for a tv it seems. the prices of consumer panels has dropped dramatically over even the past 6 months.
price fixing and driving the price to zero are different.

LG and Sharp's prices still arent going to be competitive to companies with more vowels in their name than wheel of fortune....but when most of American buys their tv's from Best Buy or Walmart, then can succeed. American doesnt want quality tv's anymore...they want cheap, disposable, no serviceable tv's. to them the picture quality is great because all they have been watching is a console tv w/ rabbit ears. spend a couple more pesos and the picture quality difference is dramatic


and motorola probably uses Sharp for their small screen lcd's, so you are correct. they dont make tv's and sharp till makes small screen lcd's for calculators, phones, etc.

 

[jonKranked]

Korean mfg's are the WORST

yet Samsung is still rated at the top in terms of quality for both LCD and Plasma TV's...

 

[IH8Rice]

yet Samsung is still rated at the top in terms of quality for both LCD and Plasma TV's...

i didnt say they were the worst in quality. LG and Samsung make great sets...5 years ago, both were utter crap. But LG destroyed the market a few years back by trying to buy everyone's business and giving them large sums of money just to sell the Korean propaganda....they are now thankfully paying for that.

 

[stevew]

but most companies, like mine, use their own processors and guts within the tv

what company do you work for?

 

[Reactor]

I just know I love my Sony Bravia.