Pissed by Nov. delivery. What should I do? - Page 2

aximsite@savio · 09-30-03, 10:45 AM

Hey Ehien, for what it's worth I'm in the same boat. I ordered the free upgrade about 3 months back and after about 12-14 calls to Sales and Customer (dis)Service I'm one pissed of Axim owner still waiting for the CD to ship.
I've talked to CSRs from India, U.S., I've talked to Supervisors and Managers all to no avail.
On one call I was offered a $50 credit to my account, I declined that asking them (as politely as possible) to just ship me the d@mned upgrade.
What makes things worse is the posts from some people who seem to be able to order the CD and get it delivered in a couple of days, GRRRR. I'm guessing the freebie upgrades are not happening, the ones that are paying are getting the CDs first. I also think that there are at least 2 different SKUs one for the free upgrade and one for the paid upgrade, if you somehow get the sales person to place an order for the "right" SKU you may get the order shipped soon. This is all theory of course until someone who has received the CD posts the SKU from their order to confirm this.

Ehien · 09-30-03, 12:36 PM

Well, yesterday the sales did tell me that the other SKU was 310-4214. But it's not free ($30). The one I had on order- 310-4212 was free but he couldn't do anything with it.

Someone at Dell should be yelled at.

Oh, and thanks for the advises ajabbari. I am not going to call and waste more of my time until I have too much time on my hands. I'll see what they do from this point.

macjbraun · 09-30-03, 01:30 PM

Some of you guys are taking this too seriously. It's just an operating system upgrade, not a new car. It's not even like going from Windows 98 to Windows ME. Yes the Axim runs faster and more reliable than before, but it's not going to save you 3 hours of work each day. All the time you waste calling Dell and asking "Are we there yet?","Are we there yet?" is not going to be recovered when you get the upgrade. One thing wrong with our society is the attitude that "I want it now." Instant gratification. Dell only has a few million Axim customers to satisfy. Why should they put you at the head of the line? They had some problems, they fixed the problems, now they have to answer phone calls from morrons.

Ehien · 09-30-03, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by macjbraun
Some of you guys are taking this too seriously. It's just an operating system upgrade, not a new car. It's not even like going from Windows 98 to Windows ME. Yes the Axim runs faster and more reliable than before, but it's not going to save you 3 hours of work each day. All the time you waste calling Dell and asking "Are we there yet?","Are we there yet?" is not going to be recovered when you get the upgrade. One thing wrong with our society is the attitude that "I want it now." Instant gratification. Dell only has a few million Axim customers to satisfy. Why should they put you at the head of the line? They had some problems, they fixed the problems, now they have to answer phone calls from morrons.

Sorry I can't agree less, especially the last part.

aximluvah · 09-30-03, 01:54 PM

He is waiting for the free upgrade, I'm guessing that is b/c his ax shipped with the '03 that needs the patch, correct? If that's the case he should be put at the top (of their very large list) since he has an ax that isn't bringing the joy it is intended to bring

In a complete off topic question Eihan, why are you waiting 4 mos for a mini-van, is it being outfitted with kevlar, a hot tub being installed, wet bar, kitchen, etc. Just EXTREMELY curious.

M82A1A · 09-30-03, 03:30 PM

Alth ough my free upgrade was shipped to my mom's house, and it is not in my hands yet (I have to go pick it up!!), I can tell you that the free upgrade can be shipped soon. After ordering, mine was shipped in two days and at my moms the next day. I guess it is a crap shoot. If you get a good rep, everything will work out, but if you get a bad one, ... Well, you know.

macjbraun · 09-30-03, 04:06 PM

I gathered from Ehien that he does not have the A04 variety. There are a lot of people crying because Dell is late in supplying WM2003. I don't understand why someone would pull their hair out because they are late getting a Microsoft operating system. It is not the end of the world. If it is costing them money because they need it for their business then the smart thing to do would be to buy a new unit. What is the big deal? I don't understand.

Timdjohn · 09-30-03, 04:20 PM

You know what should really happen here is try to get other that have had this nightmarish customer service treatment together and file a class action law suit against Dell for misleading and false advertisement. In their magazine ads and television adds they boast at how great and perfect their customer service/tech support is. This as many of us know is truly false.

Perhaps is Joe consumer started to hit these places where it counts they would either A. clean up their act and give what they preach. B. not blindly lie C. Be replaced by companies that do provide great service and product. ( Hmm Dell use to be one of these)

I feel Dells products are top notch for the most part, but the service is also an essential part of the product.

Timdjohn · 09-30-03, 04:24 PM

Also can anyone no blame those that have waited so long (thankfully I have received mine) obtain copies via shady dealings? I think I would look on Usenet or even maybe some kind AximSite user would provide a temp copy of WM2003 until the Dell copy arrived. Yeah I am sure I may get flamed on that but hey you can’t really blame others after so long a wait.

Ehien · 09-30-03, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by macjbraun
I gathered from Ehien that he does not have the A04 variety. There are a lot of people crying because Dell is late in supplying WM2003. I don't understand why someone would pull their hair out because they are late getting a Microsoft operating system. It is not the end of the world. If it is costing them money because they need it for their business then the smart thing to do would be to buy a new unit. What is the big deal? I don't understand.

I'm not in any urgent situation to get the WM2003 upgrade. That's why I patiently waited for more than 3 months.

But if you can tell me in a straight face that this is acceptable customer service from a company that advertises on TV how great their CS is (Anyone saw that cheezy TV comm.?), then I'm at lost.

As I've said before, and again here... It's cool for a company to delay shippment when they have to work out the bugs. But what I encountered after they started shipping was just plain bad CS and very uncool.

Enough said...

Ehien

Ehien · 09-30-03, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aximluvah

In a complete off topic question Eihan, why are you waiting 4 mos for a mini-van, is it being outfitted with kevlar, a hot tub being installed, wet bar, kitchen, etc. Just EXTREMELY curious.

Well it's for a limited edition minivan with cool gadgets like laser cruise control, rear view camera, parking sonar, GPS, etc.

Scylla · 09-30-03, 08:52 PM

Ehien,

I feel your pain, dude.

I've been a Dell customer for five years - 2 Dimension desktops and one Inspiron notebook. Oh, and my Axim. The products have all been super. Well, actually the Inspiron was real buggy, but the service was fast and good. Desktops never gave me a bit of trouble. Both still running well. Monitor on one started going and they replaced it faster than I ever imagined. And my Axim is really great too. I did have a screen failure and got a refurb replacement, but it runs great too.

But the service has definitely slipped down toward the bottom of the heap. All the more distressing because it used to be so darn good. I don't mind overseas tech support. TrendMicro is in the Philipines and are as good as any I've used. Namo Interactive is in So. Korea and also topnotch. Dell must have really gone cheap on their overseas help because they are not very conversant in other languages (well, at least not in English), but worse is their product knowledge. Terrible!

In the past year I've done the unthinkable: bought a Compaq notebook and an HP Media Center destop. Used to laugh at people who bought those and then tried to get support. Now I buy from CompUSA and buy their extended service - it's been pretty good so far, and I can take a short drive and talk to them in person if I need to. Dell still has the better products, but without the support I feel stranded.

As for the WM 2003 upgrade, the technical problems were to be expected - all new operating systems from MS get off to rough starts. I can't put all the blame for the initial problems on Dell. But Dell did fail in communicating the issues and resolutions. They understandably couldn't immediately state what was wrong, what would fix it, and how soon. But their extended silence on whether there even was any issue was ill-advised. It seems to have alienated most Axim owners.

I was using PPC 2002 and it was working just fine, so I didn't have any big problem waiting out the fix. My order in June was postponed four times, with the last saying it would ship on Oct. 16. Then I suddenly received it two or three days later. I didn't install it right away, but once it seemed that the upgrade was good, I installed it and it's doing OK. Some small annoyances, but it is a little faster. Supposedly more stable, but 2002 wasn't really hurting me. Wanting to start using connections was what made me want to upgrade; 2003 is much better in that respect.

Now I didn't mind the wait since 2002 was working for me. I may not have been as patient if I was sitting on a non- or limited functioning Axim with the buggy WM 2003.

But, hey - the PPC isn't a must-have. My car? Need it desperately! My PCs? Same thing - they're my livelihood. The Axim is handy and useful, but not having it doesn't bring any part of my life to a stop! I know you WANT it NOW, but don't sweat it so much; it'll be OK when you get your upgrade and you'll have a product that works every bit as good, if not better, than an iPaq or Toshiba. Sony has a great product also, but at twice the price. And if you visit the Microsoft PocketPC newsgroup on Usenet you'll see that iPaq owners seem to be having more than their fair share of problems with their units and with WM 2003!

So hang in there! Sound easy, but I can tell your patience is running out. If you had been around in the early days of VIC 20s and Radio Shack TRS's, you'd realize that this is easy! (Really dating myself here!!!)

Good luck! Stick with it! You'll really like it when it's all together!

By the way, your minivan sounds pretty awesome! When you get it, if you're still here with us, you'll have to post some pics of it. We'll all be appropriately envious!!

Ehien · 09-30-03, 09:08 PM

Scylla,

I agree with you. Thanks.

Actually, I'm more irked by the terrible customer support than the long delay. I chose to do something with it instead of simply wait because I felt the original order was "stuck" without action as its expected delivery date has been July something since late June and Dell never sent me any updates or notices of delay.

I'm really sick to my stomach with this kind of clueless reps.

OTOH, I also surprised myself by buying Compaq X1000 notebook. I hated the brand of HP (still do) and thought of Compaq as low quality. But call it an exception or whatever, so far I have been very impressed. I ordered Inspiron 5150 but after a week of waiting cancelled it due to the weight (>8lbs) and went for X1000 (1.4G PM, WSXGA+, 802.11b, BT, DVD+RW, SD slot, 60G 5400rpm HDD, 64MB ATI 9200, etc.)

Whoops... hope I don't offend any Dell lovers here by mentioning another brand. But I still love my Axim and consider it a breakthrough PPC product. It's just that Dell need to put their acts together for customer support.

BTW, both Axim and X1000 are great because they both have their own forums (this one and x1000forums.com).

Cheers.

Ehien