AVOID DELL LIKE THE PLAGUE IT IS

When my Gateway laptop computer needed warranty repair, I got it back in less
time than they'd promised. When my Dell home system crashed, all I got was long
waits, broken promises, and buck passing.

December 29th, the computer crashes to a blue screen and I can't get out. I hit the
power button to turn the computer off to reboot. It won't come back on. No power
light, nothing. I open it up to see if there was anything obviously wrong, a loose
wire, etc. I clean it out thoroughly with compressed air. I try again. Dead. I start
to experience some mild panic. My wife, who writes for the newspaper, has a nearly
completed article in there, plus the invoices for the work she'd done in December.
Plus, I have the last three days of work on my novel in there and hadn't yet backed
it up.

I call Dell Tech support. I listen to the music and the suggestions on the phone
for about 45 minutes. Then as the phone finally rings on Dell's end—I get
disconnected. I cuss a little and call back. Another twenty minutes of the same
suggestions. Finally I get hold of a tech who while very nice, doesn't seem to
understand at first that pushing CTRL-ALT-DEL isn't going to do me any good because
the computer is dead. He walks me through a number of steps, which do nothing.
Finally, he hits the wall and turns me over to another very nice tech who walks me
through another set of steps before finally giving up and saying they'll need to do
a service call. He says the parts will be ordered and shipped airborne but because
of the New Year's Holiday, it'll be Monday before a tech can visit. He says we'll
get a call before noon. We're going to be out of town for the holiday anyway, so
this isn't too awful.

Monday morning comes and goes. No call. No visit. I call Dell. More waiting, more
music, more recorded suggestions. When I finally get a human on the line, I inquire
where my service call is. He informs me the parts were ordered and shipped. I tell
him I know that, because I'd checked the status by phone like tech #2 had told me I
could do. Now, I ask, where's my service call? A lot of hemming and hawing and
waiting while he checks the info. Finally, I'm told that the service call has been
ordered. No joke. Eventually I get a number for the dispatcher. I call and get
someplace called Banktech, obviously a subcontractor. They say they'll "leave a
message for the tech." Hours go by. No call. I call again. This time they connect me
directly with the tech who's not even in the state right then. Nice of them to let
me know. He says he doesn't have the paperwork but he knows he has calls in the area
on Tuesday and he'll call between 12 and 2 for directions.

My son has an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday so I come home for lunch (a 12
mile drive) so someone will be here to cover the phone. 12 o'clock comes, then 1:00,
then 2:00. No visit, no call. I call Banktech, who—guess what?-- has to leave a
message for the tech. I let them know this is not acceptable. They promise to have a
supervisor call my house. He never does. I can't face another session waiting on the
phone, so I get on Dell's website and get online tech support chat. I suggest that,
if the tech was delayed, common courtesy would dictate that he at least call and let
us know. Tech support, it seems, can neither confirm nor deny anything regarding
common courtesy. As for the service call, they tell me they can't do anything, it's
not their department. They tell me the "maximum they can do" is tell me to call
Banktech again or have a tech support manager call me in a couple of hours. No one
there offers to try to light a fire under Banktech. Apparently that too is more than
they can do for a customer.

Finally at 4:00 today, the tech shows up. He puts the parts in in about two seconds,
hits the button, it comes on, and he's gone so fast that, as my wife puts it, "I can
feel the breeze." Doesn't bother to test anything to see if it actually works.
Apparently to him the power light=success and everything else can just go hang. . He
also mentions that the guy who was supposed to come yesterday refused to come "all
the way" to my little town. Funny that no one thinks to mention these little
geographical restrictions. Or, as I say, bothers to call and let us know they're not
coming.

Oh and the tech support manager still hasn't called.

So finally the computer is supposedly fixed, but I had to be the one to make the
effort to hound Dell and its subcontractors to do it. If I hadn't done that, we'd
likely still be waiting and wondering when the phone would ring and arranging our
lives around the technicians. I know one thing for sure. I am never, ever, EVER
going to buy from Dell again. And I am going to recommend against anyone else ever
doing so.

I, however, keep MY promises. And I promised Dell I'd tell this story.



--
"The Devils' Right Hand" by J.D. Rhoades, AVAILABLE NOW from St. Martin's/Minotaur

Amazon.com page: http://tinyurl.com/5cn5b

There are similar stories from all computer manufacturers.
What has made Dell so bad to you is this one problem and support experience.
However if you are going to be fair to yourself, you need to more fully
research beyond the one experience and one company.
A statistic of one representing a company can leave you wit misinformation.

--
Jupiter Jones
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/


"WareWolf" wrote in message
...
When my Gateway laptop computer needed warranty repair, I got it back in
less
time than they'd promised. When my Dell home system crashed, all I got was
long
waits, broken promises, and buck passing.

December 29th, the computer crashes to a blue screen and I can't get out.
I hit the
power button to turn the computer off to reboot. It won't come back on. No
power
light, nothing. I open it up to see if there was anything obviously wrong,
a loose
wire, etc. I clean it out thoroughly with compressed air. I try again.
Dead. I start
to experience some mild panic. My wife, who writes for the newspaper, has
a nearly
completed article in there, plus the invoices for the work she'd done in
December.
Plus, I have the last three days of work on my novel in there and hadn't
yet backed
it up.

I call Dell Tech support. I listen to the music and the suggestions on
the phone
for about 45 minutes. Then as the phone finally rings on Dell's end-I get
disconnected. I cuss a little and call back. Another twenty minutes of the
same
suggestions. Finally I get hold of a tech who while very nice, doesn't
seem to
understand at first that pushing CTRL-ALT-DEL isn't going to do me any
good because
the computer is dead. He walks me through a number of steps, which do
nothing.
Finally, he hits the wall and turns me over to another very nice tech who
walks me
through another set of steps before finally giving up and saying they'll
need to do
a service call. He says the parts will be ordered and shipped airborne but
because
of the New Year's Holiday, it'll be Monday before a tech can visit. He
says we'll
get a call before noon. We're going to be out of town for the holiday
anyway, so
this isn't too awful.

Monday morning comes and goes. No call. No visit. I call Dell. More
waiting, more
music, more recorded suggestions. When I finally get a human on the line,
I inquire
where my service call is. He informs me the parts were ordered and
shipped. I tell
him I know that, because I'd checked the status by phone like tech #2 had
told me I
could do. Now, I ask, where's my service call? A lot of hemming and
hawing and
waiting while he checks the info. Finally, I'm told that the service call
has been
ordered. No joke. Eventually I get a number for the dispatcher. I call and
get
someplace called Banktech, obviously a subcontractor. They say they'll
"leave a
message for the tech." Hours go by. No call. I call again. This time they
connect me
directly with the tech who's not even in the state right then. Nice of
them to let
me know. He says he doesn't have the paperwork but he knows he has calls
in the area
on Tuesday and he'll call between 12 and 2 for directions.

My son has an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday so I come home for lunch
(a 12
mile drive) so someone will be here to cover the phone. 12 o'clock comes,
then 1:00,
then 2:00. No visit, no call. I call Banktech, who-guess what?-- has to
leave a
message for the tech. I let them know this is not acceptable. They promise
to have a
supervisor call my house. He never does. I can't face another session
waiting on the
phone, so I get on Dell's website and get online tech support chat. I
suggest that,
if the tech was delayed, common courtesy would dictate that he at least
call and let
us know. Tech support, it seems, can neither confirm nor deny anything
regarding
common courtesy. As for the service call, they tell me they can't do
anything, it's
not their department. They tell me the "maximum they can do" is tell me to
call
Banktech again or have a tech support manager call me in a couple of
hours. No one
there offers to try to light a fire under Banktech. Apparently that too is
more than
they can do for a customer.

Finally at 4:00 today, the tech shows up. He puts the parts in in about
two seconds,
hits the button, it comes on, and he's gone so fast that, as my wife puts
it, "I can
feel the breeze." Doesn't bother to test anything to see if it actually
works.
Apparently to him the power light=success and everything else can just go
hang. . He
also mentions that the guy who was supposed to come yesterday refused to
come "all
the way" to my little town. Funny that no one thinks to mention these
little
geographical restrictions. Or, as I say, bothers to call and let us know
they're not
coming.

Oh and the tech support manager still hasn't called.

So finally the computer is supposedly fixed, but I had to be the one to
make the
effort to hound Dell and its subcontractors to do it. If I hadn't done
that, we'd
likely still be waiting and wondering when the phone would ring and
arranging our
lives around the technicians. I know one thing for sure. I am never, ever,
EVER
going to buy from Dell again. And I am going to recommend against anyone
else ever
doing so.

I, however, keep MY promises. And I promised Dell I'd tell this story.



--
"The Devils' Right Hand" by J.D. Rhoades, AVAILABLE NOW from St.
Martin's/Minotaur

Amazon.com page: http://tinyurl.com/5cn5b

WareWolf wrote:
When my Gateway laptop computer needed warranty repair, I got it back in less
time than they'd promised. When my Dell home system crashed, all I got was long
waits, broken promises, and buck passing.

December 29th, the computer crashes to a blue screen and I can't get out. I hit the
power button to turn the computer off to reboot. It won't come back on. No power
light, nothing. I open it up to see if there was anything obviously wrong, a loose
wire, etc. I clean it out thoroughly with compressed air. I try again. Dead. I start
to experience some mild panic. My wife, who writes for the newspaper, has a nearly
completed article in there, plus the invoices for the work she'd done in December.
Plus, I have the last three days of work on my novel in there and hadn't yet backed
it up.

I call Dell Tech support. I listen to the music and the suggestions on the phone
for about 45 minutes. Then as the phone finally rings on Dell's end—I get
disconnected. I cuss a little and call back. Another twenty minutes of the same
suggestions. Finally I get hold of a tech who while very nice, doesn't seem to
understand at first that pushing CTRL-ALT-DEL isn't going to do me any good because
the computer is dead. He walks me through a number of steps, which do nothing.
Finally, he hits the wall and turns me over to another very nice tech who walks me
through another set of steps before finally giving up and saying they'll need to do
a service call. He says the parts will be ordered and shipped airborne but because
of the New Year's Holiday, it'll be Monday before a tech can visit. He says we'll
get a call before noon. We're going to be out of town for the holiday anyway, so
this isn't too awful.

Monday morning comes and goes. No call. No visit. I call Dell. More waiting, more
music, more recorded suggestions. When I finally get a human on the line, I inquire
where my service call is. He informs me the parts were ordered and shipped. I tell
him I know that, because I'd checked the status by phone like tech #2 had told me I
could do. Now, I ask, where's my service call? A lot of hemming and hawing and
waiting while he checks the info. Finally, I'm told that the service call has been
ordered. No joke. Eventually I get a number for the dispatcher. I call and get
someplace called Banktech, obviously a subcontractor. They say they'll "leave a
message for the tech." Hours go by. No call. I call again. This time they connect me
directly with the tech who's not even in the state right then. Nice of them to let
me know. He says he doesn't have the paperwork but he knows he has calls in the area
on Tuesday and he'll call between 12 and 2 for directions.

My son has an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday so I come home for lunch (a 12
mile drive) so someone will be here to cover the phone. 12 o'clock comes, then 1:00,
then 2:00. No visit, no call. I call Banktech, who—guess what?-- has to leave a
message for the tech. I let them know this is not acceptable. They promise to have a
supervisor call my house. He never does. I can't face another session waiting on the
phone, so I get on Dell's website and get online tech support chat. I suggest that,
if the tech was delayed, common courtesy would dictate that he at least call and let
us know. Tech support, it seems, can neither confirm nor deny anything regarding
common courtesy. As for the service call, they tell me they can't do anything, it's
not their department. They tell me the "maximum they can do" is tell me to call
Banktech again or have a tech support manager call me in a couple of hours. No one
there offers to try to light a fire under Banktech. Apparently that too is more than
they can do for a customer.

Finally at 4:00 today, the tech shows up. He puts the parts in in about two seconds,
hits the button, it comes on, and he's gone so fast that, as my wife puts it, "I can
feel the breeze." Doesn't bother to test anything to see if it actually works.
Apparently to him the power light=success and everything else can just go hang. . He
also mentions that the guy who was supposed to come yesterday refused to come "all
the way" to my little town. Funny that no one thinks to mention these little
geographical restrictions. Or, as I say, bothers to call and let us know they're not
coming.

Oh and the tech support manager still hasn't called.

So finally the computer is supposedly fixed, but I had to be the one to make the
effort to hound Dell and its subcontractors to do it. If I hadn't done that, we'd
likely still be waiting and wondering when the phone would ring and arranging our
lives around the technicians. I know one thing for sure. I am never, ever, EVER
going to buy from Dell again. And I am going to recommend against anyone else ever
doing so.

I, however, keep MY promises. And I promised Dell I'd tell this story.


I BET YOU STILL HAVEN'T BACKED UP YOUR DATA!!!
HAVE YOU

Just like people, Dell does not get a second chance to make a first
impression. My first experience after I ordered was with Dell Financial
Services - cant seem to credit early payments to my account and can't
understand why I'm ****ed. Next experience was wth Dell Technical Support
who waited 4 days to reply to my issue and when they did, it was
pathetically weak. I can't wait for the next issue.
Andy

"Jupiter Jones" wrote in message
news:XtFCd.32108$nN6.20833@edtnps84...
There are similar stories from all computer manufacturers.
What has made Dell so bad to you is this one problem and support
experience.
However if you are going to be fair to yourself, you need to more fully
research beyond the one experience and one company.
A statistic of one representing a company can leave you wit
misinformation.

--
Jupiter Jones
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/


"WareWolf" wrote in message
...
When my Gateway laptop computer needed warranty repair, I got it back
in less
time than they'd promised. When my Dell home system crashed, all I got
was long
waits, broken promises, and buck passing.

December 29th, the computer crashes to a blue screen and I can't get out.
I hit the
power button to turn the computer off to reboot. It won't come back on.
No power
light, nothing. I open it up to see if there was anything obviously
wrong, a loose
wire, etc. I clean it out thoroughly with compressed air. I try again.
Dead. I start
to experience some mild panic. My wife, who writes for the newspaper,
has a nearly
completed article in there, plus the invoices for the work she'd done in
December.
Plus, I have the last three days of work on my novel in there and hadn't
yet backed
it up.

I call Dell Tech support. I listen to the music and the suggestions on
the phone
for about 45 minutes. Then as the phone finally rings on Dell's end-I get
disconnected. I cuss a little and call back. Another twenty minutes of
the same
suggestions. Finally I get hold of a tech who while very nice, doesn't
seem to
understand at first that pushing CTRL-ALT-DEL isn't going to do me any
good because
the computer is dead. He walks me through a number of steps, which do
nothing.
Finally, he hits the wall and turns me over to another very nice tech who
walks me
through another set of steps before finally giving up and saying they'll
need to do
a service call. He says the parts will be ordered and shipped airborne
but because
of the New Year's Holiday, it'll be Monday before a tech can visit. He
says we'll
get a call before noon. We're going to be out of town for the holiday
anyway, so
this isn't too awful.

Monday morning comes and goes. No call. No visit. I call Dell. More
waiting, more
music, more recorded suggestions. When I finally get a human on the line,
I inquire
where my service call is. He informs me the parts were ordered and
shipped. I tell
him I know that, because I'd checked the status by phone like tech #2 had
told me I
could do. Now, I ask, where's my service call? A lot of hemming and
hawing and
waiting while he checks the info. Finally, I'm told that the service call
has been
ordered. No joke. Eventually I get a number for the dispatcher. I call
and get
someplace called Banktech, obviously a subcontractor. They say they'll
"leave a
message for the tech." Hours go by. No call. I call again. This time they
connect me
directly with the tech who's not even in the state right then. Nice of
them to let
me know. He says he doesn't have the paperwork but he knows he has calls
in the area
on Tuesday and he'll call between 12 and 2 for directions.

My son has an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday so I come home for
lunch (a 12
mile drive) so someone will be here to cover the phone. 12 o'clock comes,
then 1:00,
then 2:00. No visit, no call. I call Banktech, who-guess what?-- has to
leave a
message for the tech. I let them know this is not acceptable. They
promise to have a
supervisor call my house. He never does. I can't face another session
waiting on the
phone, so I get on Dell's website and get online tech support chat. I
suggest that,
if the tech was delayed, common courtesy would dictate that he at least
call and let
us know. Tech support, it seems, can neither confirm nor deny anything
regarding
common courtesy. As for the service call, they tell me they can't do
anything, it's
not their department. They tell me the "maximum they can do" is tell me
to call
Banktech again or have a tech support manager call me in a couple of
hours. No one
there offers to try to light a fire under Banktech. Apparently that too
is more than
they can do for a customer.

Finally at 4:00 today, the tech shows up. He puts the parts in in about
two seconds,
hits the button, it comes on, and he's gone so fast that, as my wife puts
it, "I can
feel the breeze." Doesn't bother to test anything to see if it actually
works.
Apparently to him the power light=success and everything else can just go
hang. . He
also mentions that the guy who was supposed to come yesterday refused to
come "all
the way" to my little town. Funny that no one thinks to mention these
little
geographical restrictions. Or, as I say, bothers to call and let us know
they're not
coming.

Oh and the tech support manager still hasn't called.

So finally the computer is supposedly fixed, but I had to be the one to
make the
effort to hound Dell and its subcontractors to do it. If I hadn't done
that, we'd
likely still be waiting and wondering when the phone would ring and
arranging our
lives around the technicians. I know one thing for sure. I am never,
ever, EVER
going to buy from Dell again. And I am going to recommend against anyone
else ever
doing so.

I, however, keep MY promises. And I promised Dell I'd tell this story.



--
"The Devils' Right Hand" by J.D. Rhoades, AVAILABLE NOW from St.
Martin's/Minotaur

Amazon.com page: http://tinyurl.com/5cn5b

Hi!

I'd have to say that apart from the near-maddening experience with the tech
support reps in India (and where is this not a problem? Dell's staff was
pretty decent compared to the folks I spoke with at Best Buy warranty
service...) that the on-site technical service did a great job when my
8300's internal 250MB Zip drive went out.

I had a good experience buying my 8300 and hope that it will be a decent
computer with a long life.

Now if you asked me about my attempt to purchase and finance a Latitude
notebook, I'd almost tell you that Dell's small business sales department
isn't worth dealing with. I found the financing inflexible and the choices
completely inappropriate for a person buying the machine for personal use.

Point being that everyone has a bad experience with a company at some point.

William

In article E0KCd.74623$k25.74111@attbi_s53, newsgroups1
@saveyourspam.walshcomptech.com says...
I'd have to say that apart from the near-maddening experience with the tech
support reps in India (and where is this not a problem? Dell's staff was
pretty decent compared to the folks I spoke with at Best Buy warranty
service...)

Dell's getting a pretty bad rap for their reps in India. So much so
that they've moved all "business division" support back to the U.S.
Only consumers will still get reps in India.

Even then, there is a "massive" effort to replace workers in India with
those who has little or no accent. And they're putting a premium on
better training.

That said, here in the U.S. they are paying "tech minimum wage" for
support people and they don't understand why they have such a high
turnover rate. People with real life experience and training aren't
going to work for $12/hour. And those who do take the job can take
advantage of internal Dell training and certifications, then leave the
job after a year to get a real paying job.

I worked in the ACS division in Nashville for almost two years and left
a few months ago to work IT for another company after getting all of my
Dell certifications. I actually enjoyed doing tech support and was one
of the top techs, but they weren't willing to pay a decent wage.

If Dell showed as much loyalty to me as I showed to them, I'd still be
there.

That said, this problem isn't limited to Dell. My wife worked tech
support for Comcast for almost 3 years before she got a better IT job.
And it was mostly the same story. Comcast pay is worse than Dell's
(although they have better benefits) and there is little upward mobility
for tech reps. I've got friends at Bell South and Gateway to tell me
the same sort of stories.

As for the level of Tech Support given to customers... Dell had an
outside company do a survey last year and found they had dropped from #1
in customer satisfaction to #3. As a result, the whole support system
is being overhauled and techs are spending a LOT more time in training
so they can get back to #1.

For consumers, I'd say you're not gonna see any decent results any time
soon (the consumer division cares more about saving money than truly
helping people; consumer sales make up less than 20% of overall sales),
but if you've got a business account with Dell, I'd expect that you'll
see massive improvement in the coming few months.

I should also mention that if you are an end user that purchased your
computer through your company, you're in the business support category.

In article , Bad
Bubba wrote:

That said, here in the U.S. they are paying "tech minimum wage" for
support people and they don't understand why they have such a high
turnover rate. People with real life experience and training aren't
going to work for $12/hour. And those who do take the job can take
advantage of internal Dell training and certifications, then leave the
job after a year to get a real paying job.

I agree. Dell as well as other companies are able to hire staffs with
higher education level for less money. Apart from their local accent,
the overall technical standard is higher. Well, guess everyone take
that differently...

--

i've used dell's india based tech support three times over the past
year and there third party(banctec, not banktech. read your service
agreement)on site service once and have never had a problem. of course
my failed combo drive and static filled speakers weren't exactly major
problems, either. still, i was well taken care of with no on-hold phone
time and 36 hour on-site service. and the indian techies are fine.
accent or not. whether or not better paid americans can do a better job
is another story. it's like bubba said above, folks with real life
training and skills in the IT field are not going to work for $12.00 an
hour. and the fact of the matter is they may not even do the job for
twenty-dollars an hour if it means they basically have to answer phones
all day from folks who call tech support every time windows freezes or
a program goes a little nutty. as it is 15 out of every 100 home user
calls dell gets is a person with a problem caused by a virus. so after
spending 4 or 6 or 8 years in college or at a high cost tech school,
the most qualified people for these jobs may simply not want to spend
10 hours a day in a cubicle answering questions from folks who can
barely open a can of soup, much less run and maintain a busy computer
on a daily basis. and now that the jobs have gone overseas and it's
been proven it can work, these phone support jobs have been diminished
and devalued. so the pay and the job may never be as attractive to
american workers again. the bottom line is those indian folks have at
least a bachelors degree in there chosen field and the average pay is
$2,000 annually. the IT industry as a whole is globally minded and
student enrollment in our nations collages for IT training is at an all
time low. far more folks from other countrys are entering the field
then americans. the why and the how could this happen part of this is
beyond the point now. that's the way it is for better and for worse.

OK I'll, tell you like it is here in the UK, there are 3 Dell service
Partners worldwide they are in no particular order Getronics (used to be
WANG & befor ethat Olivetti) Unisys, and Banctec (Banctec being the new kids
on the block) Dells whole company ethos is about driving prices down They
dont make/manufacture anything "They assemble".

Recently Banctec arrived in Europe wanting a slice of the Service Repair
contract and offered Dell a High 1st time fix rate at a lower price than
either Unysis or Getronics were working to, to which Dell rubbed its hands
saying thank you very much and gave themn a large slice of the home user
market while Getronics and Unysis concentrated on the business side of
things unfortunatly for Dell it appears Banctec are finding it very hard to
meet their service level agreements, and it becomes a vicious circle,
Engineers overworked, too tight time schedules, lowmoral, bad service etcetc
and it goes on and on and everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

Now most of you will say "but thats Dells fault" and yes your correct, but
one thing I have noticed over the years the Business side of things are far
more forgiving and more flexable when things go wrong or an engineer cant
make the appointed time.
The home user also seems utterly dismayed if Dell request them to do some
troubleshooting so as to enable them to get a more adequate 1st time fix
rate and god help the engineer should the hard drive fail and the user
hasn't backed up their data - "To all home users read your service contract
Dell ARE NOT responsible if you lose your Data"

In saying that though there is no excuse for bad manners and slovenly
attitude that the original poster suffered at the hands of Banctec and their
employees.

"phew thats got that off my chest "
"Whytoi" wrote in message
...
In article , Bad
Bubba wrote:

That said, here in the U.S. they are paying "tech minimum wage" for
support people and they don't understand why they have such a high
turnover rate. People with real life experience and training aren't
going to work for $12/hour. And those who do take the job can take
advantage of internal Dell training and certifications, then leave the
job after a year to get a real paying job.

I agree. Dell as well as other companies are able to hire staffs with
higher education level for less money. Apart from their local accent,
the overall technical standard is higher. Well, guess everyone take
that differently...

--

I agree! Avoid Dell at all costs.

I regularly work with support from Dell, IBM, and Compaq/HP. I have
experienced "Business" level support as well as "Home User" support.

Each company does a decent job of supporting their business customers.
When calling in for business support issues, I would rank IBM first,
HP/Compaq second and Dell last.

Home User support is where Dell really looses. Like some of you, I have
had support reps in the Philippines tell me to "Double Click" My
Computer after I tell them I have the hard drive out of the computer
and in my hands. I have had orders lost, then cancelled only to show up
weeks later. I have spent hours on hold getting transferred from
department to department, each denying responsibility for my issue. I
have been "Accidentally" disconnected an average of once per incident.

Dell used to offer the best in home support. Not because they were
rated #1 by "Joe Blow' Magazine, but because you could tell just by
calling. I used to recommend any home user buy a Dell simply for the
excellent support. Needless to say, Dell is no longer my PC of choice
for anyone.

I refuse to buy anything else from Dell and will recommend anyone else
do the same, until they get their act together.