Absolutely horrible support and still no resolution (ongoing for 1 week and counting)

wmrichar · 01-30-06, 06:18 PM

I have been loyal to Dell for years, but this incident has left my loyalty questionable.

On Jan 20th, I ordered a Dell Axim X50v from the Dell "Outlet" because my Axim X30 broke and is no longer under warranty. I decided to buy a refurbished X50v because the X51v has too many issues. I paid extra to have the order expedited.

I few days later, I received my shipment from Dell! I was excited to get my new PDA in my hands. I opened the box and it contained nothing but a Dell Axim X30 and an AC power adapter. They sent me the incorrect item! It was very disappointing, but I know mistakes can happen. I triple checked my account on the Dell site and even my confirmation Email from Dell. I did in-fact order a Dell Axim X50v. The mistake was entirely Dell's fault.

I called Dell support and I got a guy on the phone I could hardly understand. I had to ask him to repeat himself several times. The support session lasted for 68 minutes and I was put on hold several times for long periods of time. The answers I got were obviously scripted. I was told by the support representative that it would take up to 10 days to receive the correct item. I told the support representative that I NEEDED this PDA for work and that is why I paid extra for expedited shipping. I insisted that they expedite this and ship it overnight. The support representative said that could not be done, so I asked to speak to a supervisor. The support representative kept giving me the same scripted answers and would not connect me to a supervisor. After arguing with him about it, he agreed and asked me to hold while he connected me to a supervisor. I was on hold for approximately 15 minutes. Finally, the line started ringing. I let it ring for 36 minutes! Nobody picked up the line, nor did it automatically transfer me back to a representative. To top it off, the support person never gave me a case number!

Frustrated, I called the support line again. I now had to go through this all over again, except it did not take quite as long. This time, the support representative confirmed my phone number and said that a supervisor would call me within 3 to 24 hours. I never got a call back from anyone.

Today, I called again. Because I now had a case number they could reference, the call was not very long. They again said a supervisor would call me within 3 to 24 hours. I told them that was fine, but in the mean time, process the order so I could receive the correct item that I paid for.

I put in a call to Dell corporate offices and I had to end up leaving a message. The recording said I should receive a call back within 48 hours.

This whole thing was just ridiculous. I have been dealing with Dell for many years both at work and home. Their support use to be based in Texas, but they now outsource it to a company in India. I know that is old news. I miss the good old days when their support center was in the USA.

If Dell does not make this right for me, I will never recommend Dell to anyone else, nor will I ever purchase any of their products again. I will just have to go back to building my own systems and purchase HP Pocket PC's.

I went to the "Better Business Bureau" website and looked up "Dell, INC". There are thousands of complaints lodged against Dell, most of which are regarding customer support.

EDIT: For clarification, I think Dell makes a quality product. THe only problem is customer support.

vincearay · 01-31-06, 02:10 PM

I agree with the customer support I have talked with them manytimes and about 98% of the time I get an east indian that I can barly understand.

kangaroo222 · 01-31-06, 02:18 PM

About 18 months ago I ordered a refurbished Axim X5 advanced. The unit came, with the just unit in the box. After my first telephone experience similar to yours, I began to record my conversations (this is legal in my state...be sure to check your state's laws before you do anything similar. I have 3-60 minute microcassettes which document the run around I was given, again and again and again, in order to get the cradle, WiFi card and power supply which were advertised as coming with the unit. I was going to sue Dell but decided it wasn't worth the trouble, I would just never buy from them again. I bought some accessories aftermarket and use the X5, which itself seems to be OK.

wmrichar · 02-02-06, 02:01 PM

UPDATE:

After 8 separate phone calls, they finally said they were shipping my hardware. Yesterday, I received the box, opened it, and the only thing in there was an Axim X50v without a battery. There was no USB cradle, no software, no manuals. Hell.....I could not even use the X50 they sent me because there was no battery!

I wish I had used my credit card, rathr than my debit card. I would have just reported this crap to my credit card company to get my money back.

When I called Dell support to tell them they failed to ship these items, I got transfered around 3 or four times and was placed on hold 7 times until they promised to ship the missing items to me.

The call I made to Dell corporate headquarters in Texas went unanswered. They never called back.

It is a shame. Dell makes good quality products. Because of this support experience, it will be hard for me to ever purchase another Dell product. The level of incompetence was unparalleled.

02-02-06, 02:03 PM

Welcome to the club. Sadly to say :(

wmrichar · 02-05-06, 02:34 PM

Well, they finally sent my USB cradle and software, but FAILED to include the battery and the AC power cord with the cradle. Im starting to think they hate AMericans in India (just kidding).

I called again to get the parts that are still missing. The support rep told me that I never ordered a battery and power cord and that I would have to purchase them. After telling her to look at my original order, she still insisted I had to pay for the parts. I argued, gave her order numbers, support case numbers, etc. She still did not get it. Finally, I had enough and I unloaded the longest string insults (non-profane) and I could muster up and hung up on her. I called back 5 minutes later and talked to a different support person and they gave me no hassle and said they were shipping the parts to me.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of, "Holy jeepers Dell!" on the same bat channel, same bat time!

reese · 02-21-06, 10:17 AM

wow, sorry about your luck... how did this ever turn out?

ZGD193 · 02-21-06, 10:40 AM

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I have an X50v I bought when they first came out, and have had no problems whatsoever with it. My experience has been with the Dell PC's and laptops, of which I've bought many for my employees. You are correct in that when someone calls, they never get to talk to someone who is fluent in English. Heck, I'd be happy just to be able to understand them. In the future, I will be utilizing HP for pda's.

Which does bring up another question: has anyone had any experience with HP units running WM5? Do they have the same issues as the Axims? Just curious.

EngrPaul · 02-21-06, 10:48 PM

I had a wonderful experience buying a refurbished hp iPAQ last year, not original packaging, but everything was included.

Given Dell's current state of customer service, another iPAQ may be in my future.

chillz · 03-02-06, 02:11 PM

This stinks...

Any resolution?

DeaHamlet · 03-20-06, 01:40 PM

I find it funny that people complain about Dell's customer service and then talk about switching to HP.

I've dealt with HP, and let me say that after 3 months and far too many hours on the phone, and sending the object in question back THREE times, it's still not fixed. And you can't believe how hard I worked to get them to even DO something about it.

It's crap all around.

03-20-06, 01:47 PM

It is crap all round the problem with Dell is they set the standard for crap which in that industry is quite something - I had part of a Dell PC fail and rather than deal with the absolute nightmare they laughingly pass off as customer service I scrapped the PC and started again even though there was still about month's warranty left.

It was just easier and less stress and I have better things to do with my life than waste it on hold. Dell's CEO admitted in the FT that customer was not good last week, this begs the question "what colour is the sky in his world?" that it's taken this long for him to notice.

I feel for you and I hope they get this sorted quickly.

edge777 · 03-20-06, 02:09 PM

Sorry to hear of your troubles. No company out there is perfect in terms of customer support, and most companies about CSR's which just shouldn't be there.

That being said, Dell, by far, has the worst customer service record out there. They are the benchmark for poor customer service. My question is, why do we keep buying stuff from them?????? Can anyone help me answer that?

ThundaAx · 03-20-06, 04:52 PM

I've had several notebooks, desktop PC's, and servers that have broken and been fixed by Dell over the years. Next business day service. No complaints here. I'd say there probably is a difference between a business account and a home customer in terms of customer service.

DeaHamlet · 03-20-06, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by edge777

Sorry to hear of your troubles. No company out there is perfect in terms of customer support, and most companies about CSR's which just shouldn't be there.

That being said, Dell, by far, has the worst customer service record out there. They are the benchmark for poor customer service. My question is, why do we keep buying stuff from them?????? Can anyone help me answer that?

I never understood why people buy laptops and computers from them. They're not that great, not that cheap and definitely shit-for-luck if anything happens. I've always prefered to put together my own computers, I'm still the one that has to fix it anyway considering Dell's level of "support". Mind you, I don't care too much about support in general because other than manufacturing defects, there's nothing I call support for; I fix almost everything myself. Which is probably why I bought a Compaq laptop (after they were bought out by HP), at least there's less likelihood of manufacturing defects.

I never thought I'd buy a Dell product, but let's be honest... for a media obsessed gadget addict like myself there isn't anything as good as the Axim. Unless one looks at HTC Universal which costs quite a bit more and has a keyboard I don't think I'd ever want to use (it's fugly, let's be honest). We could discuss the Palm products, but the screens are 640x480 VGA and I can't get the Palm browsers to connect me to my university's network (it's a shame, truly).

Since some thief saw fit to save me from myself by stealing my Palm TX, I decided to get a machine that can actually DO what I need it to do... and after much research I am stuck with only one true option... Dell Axim x51v.

If any other company comes up with something equivalent in the next 3 months, they might get my business simply because Dell sounds like such a piece of shit company. Excuse the language.

So... why do other people buy Dell products? I'm curious to know.