<rant>

Yeah, Dell's Customer Service blows.

For those of you who play games you will understand what I am talking about with some of this.

I bought an Inspiron 8600 Laptop about 2 years ago and got it with a Radeon Pro Turbo 9600 128MB graphics card installed and a REALLY nice display (can display 1900x1200). These laptops have been known to overheat a bit, BUT, the overheating is normally due to bad ventilation, and thats normally the processor overheating.

When I got the laptop about 2 years ago I called in because I was playing a game of CS (CS at this point is 3+ years old, and the PC should have NO problems running it), and as I get about 10 min into the game the screen suddenly goes into these vertical black and green bars. My cursor cant be found anymore, and I cant alt-tab out to see if I could just change resolutions to see if I could get this go to away. I call Dell's customer service at this point and tell them my problem (this was within the first WEEK of getting the laptop), and they tell me, its probably just the drivers, update them and you should be ok. So I update my drivers. This happens every once and a while when im playing Ravenshield or Unreal Tournament, but it became a little less frequent so I didnt worry about it that much.

My warranty expires in July of 2004.

I decided to fiddle with Linux a bit and formatted my hard drive and installed Linux. About a month ago I finished with my Linux fun and reinstalled WinXP, updated to the newest Service packs, drivers, etc etc. I go and put on Half-Life 2 (which runs fine and is INCREDIBLY graphics intensive) and all is well. Then suddenly, my laptop decides to start this green bar **** again. I figure its probably the card overheating and not the motherboard, because the display still is on and the fans and so forth are still going (the cursor can also be seen as a big block). So I get sick of this and give Dell a little call because this is a hardware issue and not a software issue, and since they have already known about this within my warranty, and its just not some random new problem, they should cover it and get my laptop fixed with a new card (its not a chip in the motherboard, it is a card).

So here is how my conversation with Dell tech support goes (which, by they way, is people all from India).

The lady picks up the phone, I have my laptop booted beside me and I explain to her that I talked with a tech about 20 min ago (Stevoneo used to work for Dell and explained to me that these cards have a bad habit of overheating and then trying to suck memory from the shared memory stack, but this causes the card to overheat and crash completely) and explained to her what my PC was doing, and that I think that the card was overheating and trying to pull memory from the shared memory stack, and that this was causing my PC display to go into pixelated vertical bars and require a full hard shutdown and reboot. We go through the normal thing (are the drivers updated, any new programs, etc etc). I tell her that my hard drive was recently formatted and that I reinstalled with a fresh copy of WinXP and all the drivers are up to date from Dells site. I also explained to her, three times, that its due to the card overheating, and not due to any software glitches. If it was a software glitch, I should get an error code and box thrown at me.

Here's where it gets fun.

She asks me to run the boot up diagnostic. I agree, because I want to see what she is getting at. I boot the PC, hit F12, and run the whole diagnostic (took about 8 min). The diagnostic turns up nothing (go figure). She then starts going, well since its not turning up anything, its a software issue. And since you are out of your warranty, you need to contact fee based tech support for software. I chime back, no, its not a software issue, because the card isnt being stressed or being forced to render anything. Its a fresh boot and the card isnt being used for anything major, hence why its not finding anything. A blue screen with Windows 3.1 Graphics on it isnt going to make the card use a ton of memory or force it to start its fan or anything like that. I said that its an issue with the hardware (note im on the HARDWARE tech support line), and its not with the software (this is time number 4).

**** hits the fan right about here.

While shes giving me this spiel about how it has to be a software issue in her nice thick indian accent (BTW she couldnt even spell ChrisC@mustangtuning.com right. Somehow she thought my address was "chriee@mustangtuning.com" going through every freakin letter by its callsign [alpha, bravo, charlie, etc]) I go onto Google and search for Inspiron 8600 Overheating issues and Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo Overheating issues. Bingo! I find pages with the exact same problems I'm having. So I KNOW its not just me. I also read that Dell's low level tech support doesnt seem to catch on to the fact that its a hardware issue and not a software issue, and attempt to push everyone over to the fee based software support. Then she gets into the warranty thing. "Well since its out of warranty we cant do anything." I basically come back with, "No, you can do something, because this was reported to you prior to my warranty being up. Within the first week of owning the PC this happened." Software glitch girl starts up again. I get sick of her and request an L2 (basically the head of the floor, manager, that type of person).

Suddenly she gets dead quiet.

"Why do you want an L2?"

Because you arent helping me and you arent listening to me. This isnt something that a diagnostic is going to just bring up. Its a problem with the cooling on the hardware, not the software. The card has to be under stress in order to get this result. Once again, software glitch lady lays on that thick accent, at this point I have stopped listening to her, and keeps saying its a software problem, and tries ever so hard NOT to have me to go above her. I explain to her (again) that I talked with a Dell CS rep that left there not too long ago and that I have his badge number and I was informed by him that it was NOT a software issue. It takes me 5 minutes of bickering with her (no name calling or anything. I did raise my voice, but I didnt flip out at her) for her to go and pull a, "Ok let me put you on hold for a moment".

Ok I think we're getting somewhere here. I sit on hold for 3-5 minutes.

Line picks up. Its her again. She wants to try something different. I oblige, thinking that MAYBE she actually found something (prior to this point she is just saying software, but not citing what the software glitch might be. If she is in the hardware portion of Dell, she should know what the drivers do and common problems with these cards), once again, I was wrong.

She asks me to go into Windows and change my resolution. I ask the resolution in the game or the resolution in Windows. She says Windows. I start going into Windows and then ask. Ok, now, what do I do after I change this resolution?

"Start up the program that keeps crashing your PC."

Now, if you ever play a full screen game you know that the resolution of the game is dictated by the in-game settings, not by Windows. To make DAMN sure I'm not missing something here, I ask if im needing to change my refresh rate or something like that, for possibly maybe thats set too high.

"No, just start up the program and that should fix it."

At this point, I lose it, because obviously she has no idea what the hell she is even talking about. I explain to her that once again, its not crashing in Windows, its crashing after it renders for 10 minutes or so, and that the software (read as game) that im running resizes the screen, so Windows would have no effect on anything if I resized the desktop and the screen to a different size. I even explain to her that I could run the low impact game (read as Counter Strike, now 5 Years Old) at 640x480 and it would still crash, with all of the detail set to low.

Once again I demand an L2, she starts up with this, "Well he is just going to say the same thing. You are out of warranty and its a software issue, and it sounds like your entire PC is overheating."

I ask "If the whole PC was overheating doesn't it shut down completely, following the Windows shutdown procedures?"

"Yes"

"Well havnt I told you about five times now that the PC still runs, but the screen goes to jargon and pixels that cant be read?"

(silence while she thinks how I just put her head into a blender and hit Frappe)

"Give me your L2, now. I'm through talking with you because you are not listening to anything that I am saying, or even attempting to diagnose the problem, or seemingly admitting that there even IS a problem!"

"One moment sir."

Another 3-4 minutes pass, im on hold. She comes back. Says shes going to issue me a situation number thingy. I say ok, go ahead. She puts me on hold again. Why this is I dont know, but she comes back on.

"What is your phone number so that my L2 can call you back (I've gone over this with her at the beginning of the conversation so that she could find out who I am)?"

I give her my number and ask when he will be calling me back.

"Tomorrow."

Ok, I can wait until tomorrow. I get my claim number.

"Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

I resisted the urge to tell her to go take a swan dive off of a cliff and said "No thats all! Thanks!" and hung up.

Is it me, or is Dell's customer service not even knowledgable about what the **** they are even talking about?!? I mean if you're going to be hired, at least think about all of the possible problems and attempt to solve the issue before throwing it to the "Its a software problem" scenerio. If a customer asks to speak with someone above you, dont go stalling for time trying to backpedal and attempt to work your *** out of it. Its not what you are there to do. You are there to listen to the customer and if they request a higher up, oblige and not give me the 20 questions treatment on why im asking for someone else.

Anyone else ever had this problem with Dell's customer service?? At least now I know how NOT to act with a customer. Jesus christ.

"Durr, resize Windows, that will work!" How about I resize your face woman.

</rant>

tl;dr: Dell has bad customer service techs. All of their workers are from India who cant speak English if they tried. They have a problem in admitting that there is an error in their hardware, and im going to send Mr. T to give them a pain sandwich.

 

holy novel batman!

 

Thats why I put a tl;dr at the bottom.

 

wtf does that mean?

 

too long; didnt read

 

oh, cool



BTW Bruce Lee > *

 

Yea I am on my 2nd Dell PC and have had trouble with thier non english speaking CS.They always have you run some basic test that if you know anything about computers you have already done or you would'nt be calling them in the first place.

 

i have a dell desktop.....its a great computer....but the thing i hate about it is that about every 6-7 months...the harddrive dies...i get the freaking blue screen of death..i call them up...they said it was a software problem..wtf....i said its the HD that died....they said o....well send it in....

i sent my computer in...."fixed it" then sent it bak...i hooked up the monitor adn key board/mouse to make sure that they fixed it....they didnt....it started then went to the blue screen....

it was a mess...my mom got fed up and jsut went on a violent verbal rant......it was funny from my point of view..hahah...

in the end i put in a new harddrive controler and 2 new harddrives...1 main...1 back up for when the first one fails

p.s. the saying that they dont build them the way they used to is for a reason...so we can spend more and more money on their products

 

**** dell, i build my own computers. my grandmother bought a dell and after about 3 weeks was having trouble with it. she called dell and they had her REFORMAT HER COMPUTER!!! i was like WTF?!?!?!? the problem ended up being a cable that went bad..

 

dell sucks. i bought one from them and it was nothing but a problem trying to get my dvd rw replaced.

 

I have no problems with my Inspiron 6000, but then again I don't do nothing hardcore or anything, no games either.

And I cant believe I read that whole thing.

 

Here it is, 3:00pm, and no call from Dell tech support...

*whistles*

 

im having issues with my hp. their reps are stationed in india so you know how hard it is to troubleshoot with someone with a thick accent. well to let you ladies know im on my 3rd screen and if this one goes bad then there is something wrong with my computer or the HPVS17 screen is a POS.

 

I have an 8600 w/ 9600 Pro Turbo...

Never had a single thing go wrong with it... probably because I bought the 3 yr warranty w/ the accidental damage addendum...


.... I'll get back with you in May 2007 (after the warranty expires) and let you know what happens! LOL!

 

BWAHAHAHAHA a Mr T Pain Sandwich...bwahahahahahaha I love it shambles. Oh yea, nothing drives me crazier than to have a customer service person who cant speak clear english, I mean, this is AMEIDICA right? Thats my little non-tolerate soap box comment for the day.

 

dell SUCKS!!!!
I FIGURED THAT IF MY COMP WAS A DELL IT WOULD OF COSTED AT LEAST $1500, MY COMP ONLY COST $800(AND ITS BETTER PARTS)!!!!!

 

Hell all we have up here at work are dells and i can't say, i'm too impressed with them. My sony vaio works 100 times better...

 

What kind of monitor though? Whats the max resolution, and when was it made? My WUXGA Monitor is the high end monitor.

It also depends on the processor speed and so forth and how much heat is being pushed through the system.

 

if I made commission.. dell would be paying my paychecks

 

go with tryin to get a new fan/ find a better way to cool it off, sometimes if you leave space underneath it and let air flow it'll cool the car off a bit...make sure your video cards fan is workin, I built my computer about 3 years ago, and had alota problems running BF1942 for awhile until I installed 3 more fans and took of the side panel... the computer generates so much heat that in the winter i just leave it on all day and it keeps the room warm, LoL...

why are u tryin to game on a lab top neways? I know there are some nice systems out there, but i mean damn U almost have to have a 19" screen and 256mb video card to compete, I stopped gaming because Tallahassee's internet SUX *****, and i was loosing so much packet loss it turned my games into Power Point Slides... Fugg Comcast Cable!... Lag kills...ne who...now I throw my money into booze and car stuff....

 

my comcast kicks ***.. most times

 

Um, well, my Laptop is more than capable of handling the programs that I want to run, and I happen to like having a Centrino processor.

 

I like my dell btw, but have never had to call them for anything. I just use christie for that stuff.

 

That wasn't my point, yeah there are some sick lab tops out there for gaming, ie Alien ware is Amazing! I was just wondering why you choose a labtop for gaming and didn't just built a cheap desk top, my comp has 1gb of ram, 2.4 ghz and Radeon 9700 All In Wonder (love watchin Tv) 3 years ago that was a pretty nice computer, now it's just average, But I doubt I'll upgrade it any hopefully It'll last through college, I also had a 19" Flat Screen monitor at home, but had to trade down for a 17" flatpanel here in college...I'd probably be still addicted to gaming if it weren't for College/terrible internet.

 

Its for that reason alone. College, Wireless Internet. I have both setup in my house and where i was at in college. I like having the flexibility of not being confined to one spot to work.

Centrino processors are damn good. I dont need a P4HT or Dual Core or Extreme Edition. My 1.8ghz gets the job done just fine. The ONLY thing it might need would be an extra 512 stick of ram, but even without that, the thing runs quite well.

 

Dude, i don't see how you can get smooth gaming consistantly from anything less then a 2.0 ghz machine...? When I go to build my next computer it's probably somewhere in the 4-6ghz range...and no less then 3 gigs of ram...

 

You're kidding me right??

I can run HL2 and CS:S and still churn out 60fps on petty high detail levels.

 

Dude you got a Dell :stupid: . J/k try getting a laptop cooler that the laptop rests on to make sure its not over heating. PC gaming is expensive and problematic stick to console and your problems will be solved. Dont even call circuit city for info as they are located in India.

 

told ya man, if i was still working at dell i would get you settled but im not with them anymore.

and you will not have an L2 call you back, it will be outbound that calls you, they may help you better and get your laptop sent in to fix, but I told you not to get off the phone until you got and L2 on the phone. They are prix and I hate when i had to talk to the indonisian terrorist (j/k).

hey pm, I may be able to help better