Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Giving Faint Praise to Dell's Service
I've complained about Dell's service before, so I should also mention when they get it (mostly) right.
On Monday, my laptop's LCD went a funny shade of red. I called Dell, we ran some diagnostics for about 20 minutes and then spent another 20 minutes getting the details of a dispatch together. By Tuesday afternoon, I had a new LCD installed by a technician from Unisys.
The tech from unisys also noted the hinges on my screen were busted and said he would put in an order for new hinges for me. I should also point out that even when Dell's service has been lousy, the Unisys techs who do the last leg of the service have been excellent.
On the other hand, I had also told Dell that the buttons on my laptop for controlling sound were busted. Or more specifically, what was busted was the card that sits beneath the piece of plastic that houses the buttons and does the piezo-electric portion of translating a button depression into an electrical signal. The tech and I spent about 5 minutes troubleshooting this (most of which was spent fetching a screwdriver to pry off the piece of plastic), so I thought we were on the same page on this.
However, they sent out the piece of plastic (it's shiny and new - not scratched up like the old one) and not the card. So the buttons still don't work. Which is just as well as the Unisys tech thought the problem was actually with the motherboard and not the little card.
So I'm still of the opinion that Dell makes a lousy laptop (I've now had every part on the laptop fail and be replaced except for the case), but they're doing a little better in the service special olympics as I got the critical part replaced in a day (as opposed to the month last time). Though it does appear that I'll be getting my fifth motherboard in two years.
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On Monday, my laptop's LCD went a funny shade of red. I called Dell, we ran some diagnostics for about 20 minutes and then spent another 20 minutes getting the details of a dispatch together. By Tuesday afternoon, I had a new LCD installed by a technician from Unisys.
The tech from unisys also noted the hinges on my screen were busted and said he would put in an order for new hinges for me. I should also point out that even when Dell's service has been lousy, the Unisys techs who do the last leg of the service have been excellent.
On the other hand, I had also told Dell that the buttons on my laptop for controlling sound were busted. Or more specifically, what was busted was the card that sits beneath the piece of plastic that houses the buttons and does the piezo-electric portion of translating a button depression into an electrical signal. The tech and I spent about 5 minutes troubleshooting this (most of which was spent fetching a screwdriver to pry off the piece of plastic), so I thought we were on the same page on this.
However, they sent out the piece of plastic (it's shiny and new - not scratched up like the old one) and not the card. So the buttons still don't work. Which is just as well as the Unisys tech thought the problem was actually with the motherboard and not the little card.
So I'm still of the opinion that Dell makes a lousy laptop (I've now had every part on the laptop fail and be replaced except for the case), but they're doing a little better in the service special olympics as I got the critical part replaced in a day (as opposed to the month last time). Though it does appear that I'll be getting my fifth motherboard in two years.
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