Not happy with Dell "dudes"

[jjskribs]

We purchased a new flat panel Dell Dimension for my son to take to college. After trying for 2 hours we could not get him connected to his ResNet service at school. After another hour of being on hold with the Dell support line we are told that there has to be a problem with the ethernet card in the computer and they will send a technician to the dorm on Monday morning to fix it. We now leave my son who is totally bummed out because he can't get on-line to chat with his girlfriend and friends on AOL. We assure him that a rep will call him on Monday morning and be there to fix it. At noon there is still no call from the rep . At 12:30 a car pulls into my driveway and tells me that he is here to fix the computer........I inform him that the computer is 350 miles away in my son's dorm room. Oops he says....let me check with my office! After spending 10 minutes on the phone he apologizes and tells me that yes, indeed they have made a mistake and they should have gone to the college. They now have to put the service request in again and it will be at least Wednesday before they get to campus. My son starts classes on Wednesday and will not be able to leave his cell phone on in class to wait for their call. Now it is going to be a logistics nightmare trying to work out a time when my son can be available in his dorm room. I am not a happy camper with the Dell Dudes right now. This is a brand new computer that I shouldn't be having these kind of problems with.

 

[danacara]

I agree - however, you may well find that the problem is with the college network's interfacing with the ethernet card - some wacky setting problem, etc. - that Dell really can't control or fix in advance. This used to happen all the time with new computers at my alma mater. The repair miscommunication is really too bad, though - what a waste of time for the repairman. Hope it works itself out on Wednesday.
D

 

[caitycaity]

"connected to his ResNet service at school"

just on a whim here but does your son go to GW? (they call it ResNet). if so I may be able to help you; my DH works in IT there. feel free to pm.

 

[Boots]

I have had my Dell for three years now. The Dell is great but I had fits with their service department when I first purchased it. Where I live we only have dial up modems. They would be everything in the world why I couldn't get on the internet. Come to find out I had a bad modem! But their service department at the time didn't win any awards with me. I would not buy a Dell again for this reason.

 

[POLLY ANN]

I love my dell and haven't had any problems with it, only with their financial department. We did 90 days same as cash. I sent the money 3 weeks earlier than the due date. A month later I get a statement saying that I owe the first monthly installment!! I had to check my account (came out of a money market account that we don't use often) and they hadn't cashed the check. Needless to say, when I called the financial department (not part of Dell, believe it or not), they didn't care if I wanted to pay it off, I still had to pay the finance charge! By this time, it had already accrued to over $100!

To make a long story short, I called Dell Customer Service and told them I wanted to return the computer. When they asked why, I told them because of their financial department demanding I owed finance charges and my whole point of 90 days same as cash was to pay it off with no finance charge! (deep breath now!!) So, they could have their $100 but they weren't getting the $2K for the computer!!!

Needless to say, Customer Service took care of the finance charge and I sent another check. This time, I checked every other day to make sure they got it!

Good luck, jj. I hope it works out soon for your son!

 

[nativetxn]

WOW, caitycaity! How neat that would be if your dh could help out jjskribs, ds.

jjs, I know this is frustrating for you

 

[helenabear]

Sorry to hear all this. One thing though, not to sound silly, but did your son call the college ResNet support desk? Sometimes there are silly settings for the college itself that you have to do that Dell wouldn't know about. I worked for my college's ResNet for a few years and at least with our help desk, we were able to go out to the student's computers and look at everything ourselves and even bring a spare NIC to switch out if that was thought to be the problem. I spent many hours swapping out and installing cards like that. There were a few brand new computers that I found had bad cards, cables or other hardware like that and I'd call the support desk for whichever brand of computer they had and spoke to the techs there and got it all figured out quicker. Just a thought. I hope you get it fixed soon!

 

[Amzey]

Interesting, my roommate has a brand new Dell laptop and we spent an hour last night trying to get her connected to ResNet here. Still didn't get it.
It's funny because the Dell kid goes to our school.

 

[A kid at heart]

So does he really have a dell?

 

[Tina]

I thought maybe this post was about that annoying guy on the Dell commercial. I really hate those commercials. DH and I both leap for the remote everytime it comes on so we can quickly change the channel.

Sorry to hear about the Dell problems. I hope they are quickly resolved.