[DellCA]

At Dell we have worked hard to build out the Dell Consumer Support Home Page to be a thorough support website providing all levels of self-support service, as well as providing easy access to all of the relevant information needed to obtain assisted support. The design of the page has grown organically over time, but we feel it's time to give the look/feel of the page a facelift.

We’d love to hear what you’d like to see on the site. Please join our Storm Session to let us know what you think.

[JohnWill]

Reviews is probably more appropriate for this...

[Macboatmaster]

DellCA
I am sorry to tell you that my experience of Dell Support is not that good.
A friend with a Dell Inspiron 1300 was experiencing poor wireless range in their new house(not new build) with some very thick stone walls inside and heavy insulation. The laptop had the original Broadcom (Dell)
b/g mini PCi card in. I emailed Dell with the necessary numbers to ask them if a wireless N card was available and if not from them could they point in the right direction. They could not even be bothered to tell me it was a Type 111B interface and yes one could be fitted , but they did not supply. Their reply was exactly "This is a discontinued model - we cannot help any further"
Well it may indeed be discontinued but it was NOT yet four years old.
Luckily with a bit of experience on my part and a helpful guy at a certain large computer components dealer I found a Broadcom wireless N, of the right interface and antennae connection.
DELL were I am sorry to say, dismissive in their reply.

[aka Brett]

My experience has actually been decent
Although wait times are high..i did get results..it has been about 3 years or more since I have dealt with them.

To add
I had purchased a unit from best buy once and dell refused support..and shifted it back to best buy

[WButchar]

Actually, my experience with DELL support has not been very good.

Our company purchased about 5 computers from DELL several years ago. One of the pc's wouldn't boot up. It became stuck on the opening screen: the destop icons didn't load up and the pc froze up. When I called DELL's support, I was "repeatedly" instructed that for them to help me in any way, I would have to purchase a support package. I informed him the pc was brand new and all I wanted to know if he could help me solve the issue so we wouldn't have to send it back. Also, that I'm no novice when it comes to computers, but it had me stumped.

Still, he wouldn't bend from trying to sell me a tech support package before he would begin to give me assistance.

After a few choice comments, I hung up and contacted a company friend who has a doctorate degree in the area of electronics. Within a few minutes he had it up and running. The solution was simple, but difficult to find and he showed me how to do it.

I contacted DELL support and the person who I previously spoke with. He informed me that my situation was indeed puzzling and if I wouldn't mind giving him the details on how the issue was resolved in case they encounter a similar problem in future..

"No problem!" I assured him. "Just send me $14.95 and I'll be happy to help."

Then I hung up. Since then, we have never purchased another pc from DELL and have advised our clients against it. This one bad experience with DELL cost them many thousands of dollars in the long run.

[LauraMJ]

My experience with Dell is that they will stand behind their warranties, but they suck at actually trying to diagnose the problem.

My sister had a Dell that was fairly new and began having all sorts of problems.....after listening to her describe the problems, the first thing that occurred to me was a bad RAM stick. I posted a thread on here about it, and that was the general consensus, too, that the best place to start was a memory test.

My sister did call Dell and was on the phone to them for TWO days for HOURS each day. Two different people, who, of course told her two different things. The first guy said it wasn't hardware related, it was software, and he sent her to someone else. This second guy told her (finally) that it was something on her computer that was incompatible with SP3. And he said that he would have to reinstall Windows to fix it (said this even though my sister's computer had had SP3 installed on it for months before this problem). Which means my sister would lose everything. All her settings, etc. She has Outlook on there and uses that and the calendar and all for her business, and so that means that ALL the calendar entries and Outlook stuff would be gone.

I told her to mention to them about bad memory, and she did.....she said the techs wouldn't even consider that it might be bad memory or anything hardware related, they insisted it was software related and the only thing to do was reinstall.

If it's a bad memory, reinstalling Windows won't do squat to fix the problem.

She's at her wit's end by that point (their business has ground to a halt) so I get a CD of MemTest86 and drive two hours to her house and run the memory test. Long story short, First pass ended with 35,785 errors. I called Dell and with the first tech I get I told them that I KNOW it's a bad memory stick and DEMANDED they send new. Finally after I actually had to argue with them, they had me run their diagnostic that EVERY DELL comes with that has a memory diagnostic as one of the tests. NO ONE THOUGHT TO DO THIS until I TOLD them it was memory problems because I had just run a memory diagnostic (MemTest86). Of course, their memory diagnostic (which was so simple to run that my sister could have done it and would have saved DAYS of frustration and time!) failed miserably and couldn't even finish the test.

Once the bad stick was determined and I removed it, the computer worked fine. Big surprise. They sent her another stick within a week, so that is good.

So, bottom line is, if you have a decent idea of what the problem is to begin with and can give them a place to start, lol, or run the Dell Diagnostic tests from the machine FIRST, and give them the results, they will immediately stand behind their warranties....but don't count on them to be able to diagnose problems. It's better to come here and get diagnosed and THEN go to Dell support.

[JohnWill]

IMO, this is a problem with most customer support sites. They suck at initial diagnostics. This is also not limited to computers, it's the same for cars, appliances, and pretty much any other product.

[WButchar]

That is why I enjoy this site so much. Before I call any kind of customer support, I first check this site. MOST of the time, someone on this site has the solution or can direct me where to find it. Marketing is a fickle thing. For every bad support, DELL stands to lose thousands of dollars. And they do this to save a few dollars? They've missed out on getting sales from a couple businesses I worked for as well as my own not to mention the many referrals. Purchasing local may cost a few more dollars, but at least you're almost certain you can get the support you need.

Thanks for the response.
)

[chippynut]

I would class dell support as very good, it is there when you need it most, i suppose there will always be someone that is not quite satisfied as i have found out the hard way with some hardware manufacturers.

[tvelisek]

I have used the Dell Support & Help Center online and it seems pretty helpful. As for the technical support over the phone, I can barely understand what they are saying most of the time. I just called there to ask a couple of questions about connecting my dell mini to my HD T.V., and was told that I would have to pay by credit card a "small fee" of $125.00 if I wanted to be assisted about the matter by their techs over the phone. It sounds to me like Dell is making a fourtune outsourcing their technical support to overseas countries (which techs probably recieve our equivelent of minimum wage) and then asking confused Dell owners to pay the long distance fee.

[WButchar]

I can understand that it's pretty frustrating to have to pay excessive amounts for non-location support. As I mentioned earlier, DELL would not give us any kind of support on a BRAND NEW computer unless we paid for it (which we refused). After all, the pc they sent had a glitch and WOULD NOT BOOT UP. And we were required to PAY for their "help"??? Having dealt with large multi-million dollar companies on a regular basis, it was IMPERATIVE to offer them the kind of service they required to keep them happy EVEN IF IT WAS ON OUR DIME! As a result, our company received many referals and continuous repeat business. After I left and the service part was changed, the company dwindled down to near death. They lost MOST of their clientele and a lot of money. DELL somehow thinks they are too big for this. So did the company I worked for. At least DELL should offer a free month's worth of supprort "just in case" something goes wrong during that period. If they did, I'm sure they wouldn't have lost many thousands of dollars in possible sales from my say so alone. BUT, like I said, they seem to think they are too big to really care about that.