Escape From Dell Computer Hell
Today is Wednesday and the Dell Inspiron 530 is two weeks old. (Happy Birthday to you....) A second non-working video card arrives. Is this Card #1 supposedly "cancelled"....Card #2 still in limbo...or Card #3 sent by Alex? Who cares... and I still haven't received the UPS return labels. I e-mail Adela and miracle of miracles, she responds. The "team" will be in touch within minutes. Two hours later...a long-distance phone call from Carlos in El Salvador. Dell is now willing to offer me $50 for all the trouble. Surely, I've misunderstood him. Fifty dollars for 13 telephone hours, 14 days of aggravation and a case of the Shingles? Dell can take the $50.00 and insert it where the sun doesn't shine. But, I'm nice to Carlos...he's just doing his job.
"Carlos...send me those labels or this computer will sit on my front lawn until the cows come home and/or Dell picks it up. Whichever comes first." In the meantime, I'm busy writing a letter of protest to Dell Financial because the bill has already arrived. They certainly are quick to do that! This letter will protect my legal rights and I have no intention of keeping or paying for this poor excuse of a computer.
Thirty minutes later, the UPS return labels are e-mailed to me. Time to take apart the computer and repack to ship back.
Thursday - end of story. Two video cards, one monitor and one CPU box have been happily dropped of at UPS and I am going to buy an i-Mac. More money...an entirely different operating system that I'm used to...a fresh start in computer land.
Almost everyone I know uses Dell computers. Perhaps you do too. Or you may be one of the unfortunate who have suffered through Dell Hell. If you have, I feel your pain to the nth degree. If you are planning on buying a Dell, be forewarned. Their new "ownership" policy, e-mail and case numbers do not work. I can almost 100% assure you that no one will ever call you back or respond to your e-mails. None of the big "honchos" at Dell will ever respond. Perchance you get the mother of all lemons, return it instantly! Don't dork around like I did and persist...persist....persist... Buy an H-P...buy a Toshiba...buy anything but a Dell...
Thanks for reading and good luck! You'll need it. And, feel free to add your horror stories under "comments" below.
Comments
Sheila, I'd love to know what you think of the Mac - I'm toying with going that way for my next computer, also...
I love it, very user friendly and considering I've only had it for one week, it's great! Spent hours at the I-Mac store going over absolutely everything. Very knowledgeable personnel.
Posted by: Trish | December 12, 2007 08:43 AM