Bought a new PC

[MorningGlory]

Was up in my dad's yesterday watching the Scottish cup final, and for some reason decided to buy a new computer

Bad timing with only a couple of weeks til we go away, but my current PC really is on its last legs. I've had it for around 3 years so it's fairly obsolete now.

The thing is, I phoned up Dell thinking 'okay, im paying cash and I know exactly what system I want, this should be easy'. How wrong was I? I have never had such an infuriating call before, it was almost as if they didn't want the business. The first time I phoned up, I was on for about 10 mins with the guy asking all sorts of useless questions, like 'what do you want to use the PC for?' insisting on going through all the specs, despite me telling him repeatedly that I could see the specs on the website, I know its what I want and I am quite tech-savvy so I don't need to be preached to by someone who it was evident was gleaning any knowledge they had from a script in front of them (although of course I said it all in the nicest possible way ). Then, the phone got cut off Grr, phoned back and because we hadn't actually got through all of the details (cos of the guy insisting on talking crap that I didn't need to know) I had to start it all again! I was now getting quite infuriated with them (him: what will you be using the PC for? me: None of your business, just sell me the damn thing!). Yet again, another lengthy call with someone with a very poor command of English, and who decided he was going to go through his whole script whether I liked it or not. In the end up, the guy says to me that he has to email me the quote for the system (wth?!) and I have to email back confirming I accept the quote, then he will call me back to complete the deal?????? Okay I think, this is just getting too stupid. I agreed, waited around an hour for the email that never ever came, then just went on the website and bought it through that (I couldn't find the exact system I seen advertised when I looked at first).

Honestly, it was unbelievable. I am usually really patient with things like this, as I used to be in this line of work. And I could understand if they were dealing with someone who had no knowledge at all, and wanted to be led through the process. They were totally inflexible though when faced with someone who knows exactly what they want.

Have to say, if it wasn't for such a good deal, they wouldn't have got my business.

Anyway, rant over! Cant wait til I get my new puter (in about a week or so)

 

[scottishsue]

Poor Paul !!

I know how you feel - I hate it when people at the other end of the phone think I'm stupid !!

 

[Spook]

The hassle will be worth it when that lovely new pc is delivered

Jan

 

[MorningGlory]

Poor Paul !!

I know how you feel - I hate it when people at the other end of the phone think I'm stupid !!

That wasn't the end of it Sue

Afterwards, my dad asked me to phone BT as he had forgotten his email password and the 'forgot password' thing wouldn't work. It took around 5 attempts for the guy to grasp that we could get on the internet okay (it's the ADSL 'always on' type), we just couldn't access his email. He continually asked me how I could be looking at a webpage if we didn't know the password to get online!!

I almost lost the will to live at that point, and I think I may have ended up being a wee bit cheeky

Yesterday was not a good day for phone calls

 

[MorningGlory]

The hassle will be worth it when that lovely new pc is delivered

Jan

Too true Jan

Inside, the new PC is 2 or 3x the power of my current one. Plus, i'll be using the new microsoft OS, Vista, and upgrading from my old, tacky 15" monitor (made before there was ever such a thing as TFT monitors lol - think it's about 10yo now) to a lovely new 19" flat panel one.

Not to mention the fact that the case on my current one is literally falling apart.

Can't wait

 

[KayleeUK]

How frustrating Paul. At least you have a shiney new PC

 

[Minniespal]

I'm sure all of the trouble will be worth it when your new pc arrives

 

[jockey]

What a shame you had so much hassle. Bet you will be so pleased when your new PC arrives.

 

[arieljasmine]

Great news about the new PC, not so good about the Dell customer service! How frustrating. Pleased that you were able to sort it out in the end though.

Laur's

 

[carolfoy]

I ended up in pc world for the exact same reasons Paul, just too infuriating!

 

[MorningGlory]

I ended up in pc world for the exact same reasons Paul, just too infuriating!

Seriously Carol, whilst I was on the phone to them, I had a quick browse of the PCWorld website. In terms of what they offer, Dell are simply miles ahead of PCWorld. All things considered, the crazy Dell customer service was worth the hassle.

Another thing that annoyed me about the Dell customer service (but sorta related to my PCWorld search).....

After insisting to the 2nd guy that I was happy with the system I wanted, he decided to tell me that Windows Vista would run really slow on the system I was buying. After expressing my incredulity that Dell would advertise a system when an upgrade was already necessary (It wasn't really a surprise, I already knew any system would be slowed a bit with only the 1GB memory Dell offered as standard - but he didnt know that ), I reassured him that his estimate that I would pay £180 for an extra 1GB of memory was grossly over-inflated, as I was looking at Ebay which had a 1GB memory stick inc delivery for the princely sum of £40 HOWEVER....the reason I swerved away from PCWorld is because their systems only offer 512MB of memory as standard on their cheaper systems, which would really be a struggle for running Vista. Alsop, your warranty is void with them if you mess around with the system yourself (like installing extra hardware)

Dell is a struggle, but its worth it for the fact that you just have to be really firm with them and know what you want. I know for a fact though that most of their customers will give up - my dad was listening in to the conversation and said so himself.