Dell Support Services [Archive] - SV650.org

Law

06-10-06, 10:06 AM

My sister's thinking of getting a laptop from Dell. I've picked out a spec for her but was wondering about the support service

Has anyone have experience of the support services and which option would you recommend?

The options are:-

1 yr Collect & Return Cheapo option
2,3,4 year at home basic package + £117.50, £176.25, £211.50
3 year at home standard package + £211.50

Thanks.

Kate

06-10-06, 10:25 AM

Tbh, I've not heard good things about At Home Support Services but then, people never really talk about good things do they?

I've recently got a laptop from Dell and gone for the 1 year cheap option, but I'm in IT so apart from a hardware failure in which case I would send it back to Dell, I'm confident I can fix anything else that comes up.

Baph

06-10-06, 10:25 AM

Business users yes fine, great. We have effectively a partnership with Dell. Our software ships their parts by their chosen courier, so it's sort of in their best interest to provide us with gold plated server cabinets pretty cheaply, if you get my point lol.

Home users, it's not worth the paper it's written on. I know a few people that used to work for Dell CS, and well, it's not pretty.

Even in business use, we've had an issue with a server where teir techs couldn't tell us what RAM we needed to put in, matched pairs, non-matched, same product code, different product code, tried everything, nothing worked. Then we swapped some RAM from one of the other servers into the problematic one, worked fine, so we ordered RAM for the second server, and that worked fine. Though that's the only problem we've had with the office.

Since it's a laptop, get her to ask her boss if they'll order it (they might have an account with Dell) and she'll pay. It might not be possible, but if it happens that way, she'll get a discount over public price, and she'll get business user backup, even if she changes employer.

SiSv

06-10-06, 02:16 PM

i got the 1 yr collect and return cheapo option on my laptop, i cant say what the customer service is like though as its never gone wrong

Bud

06-10-06, 02:33 PM

I've got a desktop at home and the 3 year support which it's fine. They do what they claim in the timeframes mentioned in the contract (they had to replace the cd/dvd drive).

The downside is that the call centre is in India and I found myself speaking to some very polite people, who were keen to help...but didn't quite understand what I was saying! So, it's a bit of a slog to explain the problem.

I took the 3 year option as I figure that it's about the average lifespan of a pc if you don't want to be left behind and it's therefore covered for it's life expectancy.

northwind

06-10-06, 03:16 PM

I downgraded mine as far as I could, I'd sooner have got none. Dell's customer services have never been any more than atrocious where I've been involved. Way I see it, that's one of the reasons they're so cheap, so I don't really mind.

For a home user, if you plan to upgrade it these warranties tend to be a poor choice... I'd invalidated much of mine after 2 days anyway by replacing bits. And you're unlikely to want to leave most Dells standard for 3 years, I'll tell you that...

Baph

06-10-06, 03:23 PM

Law

06-10-06, 03:34 PM

I was a home user with a support contract

A thought suddenly dawned on me. Home Dell users, don't pay for the extended warranty. Yes, if you need parts it can be cheaper, but 99.9999999% of the time, you wont in 3 years. If you do in the first year, you're covered anyway.

Save yourself the money, add me to MSN/Skype, and drop me a message/email. Support calls will be answered at the current exchange rate of 1 pint per support request ;)

(Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about pints of milk! :lol:)

:lol: how will that work if the PC's f**ked?

I used to be interested in PC's so I'll have to take the annoying my PC's broken calls from my relatives. My stock answer is format and reinstall as it saves me looking for the problem plus they're less likely to ask me again unless the PC is really screwed! :twisted:

I guess cheapo option then and tell my sister. Thanks everyone.

Baph

06-10-06, 03:38 PM

:lol: how will that work if the PC's f**ked?
I said answered, not resolved :lol:

Law

06-10-06, 03:40 PM

:lol: how will that work if the PC's f**ked?
I said answered, not resolved :lol:

I was thinking more of the "My PC won't boot up to send the e-mail!" problem. :lol:

Baph

06-10-06, 03:52 PM

I was thinking more of the "My PC won't boot up to send the e-mail!" problem. :lol:

Ah I see... I have a Skype-in landline that pretends I'm based in Manchester. Don't mind giving it out to folks, just don't want to post it on a public forum :lol:

It's hardwired to my office desk & home phone, and diverts to my personal mobile & my office mobile if I don't pick up. Office PC, home PC & laptop all have Skype installed, hence my reluctance to get sales/useless phone calls at 3am.

northwind

06-10-06, 04:13 PM

I just get my brother to do it :)

Nekkid

06-10-06, 05:53 PM

In my experience, if the computer lasts for one month without anything going wrong, it will last for ages.
I think those long warranties are a rib. I just got a new laptop from Dell and didn't get the long warranties.

GregK2

06-10-06, 05:54 PM

I'm on my second Dell laptop, had my first one for 4 years never had a single thing go wrong (apart from the virus it caught which I can't really blame Dell for, but I will blame Norton for).

I downgraded the support on my new one to 1 yr collect & return.

instigator

06-10-06, 06:38 PM

I've bought 2 dell pc's. Both have had the lowest form of warranties because well there's only so much taht can go wrong with a pc. Software wise, I can sort it (jsut reinstall everything as I back stuff up anyway) or if something internal 'goes' it's cheaper to actually buy the part and fit it yourself than pay for the 3 year warranty. :lol:

Dells online ordering system is ace though. If you fancy going out for a system, FIND A PROMOTIONAL CODE. I used the 10% off promotional code which I found on the web and THEN found the mcdonalds employee's webpage which gives a further 7% off.

And at the time it was Free delivery, free upgrade to 19" tft monitor. I got a GOOD computer at a really low price. :D :D

northwind

06-10-06, 07:37 PM

When buying from Dell, haggle. No, really, it works- choose your system from the website, the phone staff are useless for technical stuff, then phone them up and order the same thing. They'll give you a price, say thanks, I've got to speak to Evesham and Mesh but that's not a bad price.

They'll then drop the price to try and get you to buy there and then. Refuse, and they'll very likely give you a reference number to take the system at that price, and their own phone number to complete the sale so they get the commission.

THEN, phone back, do it again, and at the end say "Ah, well, X offered me it at X price, I'll phone them back." "I can do you that price too" "X did the hard work though, only fair that she gets the sale" "OK, I'll take £25 off.

This just shouldn't work... But it saved me over £100 and got me a free sound card upgrade to boot- on top of a price that was already better by far than the competition and had a free upgrade to a 19" monitor and better processor.

Alpinestarhero

07-10-06, 09:21 AM

Dont buy dell.

Get a toshiba! I have one, some of my freinds have them too. Those that have had Dell laptops have never been greatly impressed.

Matt

northwind

07-10-06, 02:26 PM

Yeah, but price for price you can't compare Dell with Tosh- they make far better kit, but you pay for it.

falc

07-10-06, 05:00 PM

I'd invalidated much of mine after 2 days anyway by replacing bits. And you're unlikely to want to leave most Dells standard for 3 years, I'll tell you that...

Can you leave anything alone? :lol: that paint job wasnt restricted just to the bike was it :D

Ive not had a problem with Dell either at home which was a loooong time ago or business really.

For prices they are hard to beat since they are soo big, 1 year should be enough as long as you treat the laptop ok, if something like a hard drive goes you can easily get another from a pc website.

northwind

07-10-06, 05:49 PM

Can you leave anything alone?

Short answer, no :) But especially with Dell's daftly undersized hard drives and the poor video cards they put in the more budget systems, chopping bits around can give you real benefits- and they charge far over the odds for upgrades. It would have cost more to go from 60 to 120gb on my harddrive than it did to get a whole seperate 250gb sata 2 drive, that's just obviously milking the prices.

timwilky

08-10-06, 07:56 AM

Well my brother bought two dell laptops yesterday, an Inspiron 6400 for himself, and an inspiron 1300 for his missus. Big moan from his kids as he would not upgrade their laptops at the same time.

In both cases he opted for the 90 days as I advised it is extreamely unusual for laptops to die in the first 3 years (My experience of working for a compnay that buys in the region of 3000 laptops a year from Dell)

I curse the rate of change in the Dell laptops. I am sat here typing this on my Dell Precision M70 that is only about 3 months old and now obsolete.

northwind

08-10-06, 01:43 PM

Hardly obsolete... That's just the rules of the PC game. If they'd not updated the range, it'd be exactly the same PC, just that whoever was buying today would be getting one that was needlessly outdated- and, most likely, yours would also have been needlessly outdated, since there would probably have been some change that could have been incorporated into yours that wouldn't have.

You can't get hung up on what's about to happen PC-wise, because they'll always be faster and cheaper in a month. If you do that, you'll never buy one. I thought about waiting for Core 2 to come out, but then I'd have waited for the price to drop, then I'd have waited for the good motherboards to support it, then I'd have waited for the 4-cores to come along...

Baph

09-10-06, 08:55 AM

Northy, a little bit of advice regarding you invalidating your Dell warranty by changing bits...

I know a few folks that used to work in the Dell CS centres (well, mainly the Irish one). Apparently, you send stuff in, and they 'Blind Reciept' it back into their system. I also know a few that have abused this.

For example, a dead hard disk, which the machine serial number says is an 80Gb Western Digital or whatever they ship with. The drive in the box, has often been something like a 20Gb Seagate. They apparently don't even bother opening the box to check that it's what you've told them it is.

I know a few companies that do 'Blind Reciepts' now, and they're all susceptable to this kind of abuse. Funnily enough, I work in a support department that deals with warehousing, and one of our clients, is the main courier for Dell US.

But then, I didn't write this post, the gremlin hiding under the desk did. He's got an eletromagnetic inducer device attached to the keyboard wire. Honestly!