Dell's after-sales sucks.
Dell revamps their product line quite fast and has a good marketing strategy in terms of reach-outs and pricing. As a result, we ended up purchasing both gaming and commercial PCs.
Over time, however, we've come to realise from dealing with assorted issues and personnel, that Dell has a rather rigid set of after-sales policies, as compared to other brands.
These incidents are what caused us to stop buying from Dell:-
Dell: "No such thing as Lemons!"
For Dell Dimension, we had a unit that broke down from Day 1. Each repair did not resolve the issue (sounds familiar). When we wrote in to ask why Dell used refurbished parts in their endless repairs, as refurbished parts appear to contribute to the constant breakdowns, we were told that even Apple uses refurbished parts.
Someone from Dell's India call centre rang to scold us for using the term 'lemon' in reference to the CPU that seems to have perpetual power signal issue. Shortly after his claim that there is no such phenomenon in the world as a 'lemon' unit, Singapore came up with its 'Lemon Law' for consumers.
Dell Proprietary Parts
Dell CPU cannot be repaired by non-Dell technicians.
It was the reason we landed up in the clutch of the PCG**** boss, with yet another
lemon unit from Sim Lim Square.
Dell Commercial Laptop
For the commercial laptop that we purchased, within the first week of purchase, the motherboard was down. Contrary to their ad that customers will be given a new replacement, they insisted on sending a technician to repair instead.
The first Dell technician appears to get it right. However, in no time, it was down again. The second Dell technician screwed in 3 screws instead of 4, leaving the back ajar. The 4th screw simply couldn't go into the slot after the motherboard is changed. This caused another breakdown. His supervisor came down to rectify the issue.
Latest incident
For the XPS8300, we were made to trouble-shoot on our own by Dell's feedback personnel to the extent that goes beyond what a responsible company would expect of a customer.
We were repeatedly reminded that this was what is what is written into Dell's non-commerical desktop warranty.
Lengthy emails and calls were exchanged, ordering us, the customers, to follow very detailed steps including opening up the CPU in order to establish the root of the problem. This translates to an inordinate loss of time. The poor customers, not at all trained technicians, is forced to struggle through all the motions which should have been performed by a Dell technician. Despite our pleadings, this Dell feedback personnal refused to despatch any technician until we could pin down the specific part that he has to order. Is it the motherboard? Is it the RAM? Is it the power cable? The fan? Is it the connection? Over and over, he insisted that we do this, do that, try this, try that.
As layman, we could only describe the issues but that is insufficient to Dell. We followed the endless runs of instructions and steps. Since we have reached a stalemate despite months of troubleshooting over emails and phone, we were forced to hire own technician to help us locate what parts Dell should order. Mind you, this was all under warranty, yet we've had to pay for our own technician. He suggested that it is the motherboard, but baulked at opening up the Dell CPU proprietary parts as it is something that should be left to the Dell technicians. We were told many of his customers had also complained that Dell made them open up the CPU, something which can pose a safety risk to a layman.
Only after Dell realised that we were forced to pay for a technician to go through their lengthy list of instructions were they finally willing to send a technician down. By then, 6 months had elapsed. It took the Dell technician well over half an hour to locate the problem. And he was able to do that only by bringing an assortment of parts to replace one by one, to finally isolate the issue to the hard disk. Obviously, customers wouldn't be able to troubleshoot this on their own. Immediately, we emailed that idiot of a feedback guy, chiding him for putting us through unnecessary hassles, and applying the terms of Dell warranty so strictly. What a stingy warranty that is! If we had known, we wouldn't have paid for the extended warranty. Hell, we wouldn't even have purchased the Dell if we had been told beforehand. They can have the best model in the world, but we are not so hard up. There are so many alternatives on the market. He was unapologetic (no surprises), simply emailing that since the issue is now resolved (no thanks to him!), the case is closed!
No more Dell!
Lesson learnt!
Pay, or lose your Hard Drive
Dell requires customers to return their hard disk to Dell whenever a replacement is called for. Dell needs it back in order to get a new drive from the supplier. Likely, it discourages people from procuring another hard disk from the manufacturer by lying about drive condition.
We were told the dead drive is returned to the OEM for disposal but not much is known about the specifics of it. If you cannot afford to take chances exposing passwords, credit card numbers, private/proprietary information, or if you have to protect client's confidentiality, or if you simply unwilling to return the dead drive, the options are:-
* Use erasing softwares to delete data in the hard drive.
* Likewise, there are powerful recovery software that might recover
wiped files in part or full.
So some take it apart, clobbering it with a hammer.
* Pay for the replacement hard disk, even if it is still under warranty.
A 1TB hard disk costs $100+, so mark this provision in, if your
personal way of operation requires hard disk retention.
* Purchase Dell's "Keep Your Hard Drive" coverage, if available.
* Buy your computer only from brands/companies that allow you to
retain the replaced hard drive.
Not Green
From the Dell Dimension experience, it's not worth repairing after our 3-year extended warranty is over. The refurbished parts they used had not last long. In any case, except for the Alienware laptop series, Dell do not offer further warranty extensions beyond 3 years. This means that unless you know a technician who is familiar with Dell's proprietary designs inside the CPU, you'd have to be prepared to call it quits the next time the PC breaks down since most of the repair shops around town are not able to fix Dell CPUs.
We've managed to procure a technician who has the tools to access the parts, and we just might be able to get it done on our own with available new parts from the market. Nevertheless, we now prefer brands which allows us to source for new parts and replace / upgrade on our own when the warranty is up. PCs have a longer lifespan this way. We like conservation, especially since every time a a PC has to be changed, it costs us well over a week's time to set up everything anew on another PC.
Dell has good monitors which we will continue to support.
But for PCs, Acer has our vote for being the most serviceable.
Acer too, has the inevitable call for servicing and repairs that comes with usage, but is overall, a less fussy provider. Whereas Dell kept throwing the rule book at us. For Acer's extended warranty, so far, Harvey Norman has been providing good service.
Three customers who whipped out their wallets for the Acer Predator after learning of our plight with Dell remains happy troopers. So far, one Acer has to have its DVD Drive replaced. The initial troubleshooting from the customer's end was called for, but to a reasonable point, after which their technician came over. If we had gone for Dell, we'd probably have to wait weeks or months just to settle what Acer took 2 days to resolve.
Update
5 weeks after repair works, Dell XPS8300 could not power on again.
As before, the breakdown happened just as Dell closes off for the weekend. Despite the fact that we have standby computers, this nevertheless caused disruptions to the work flow.
The technician came to change the parts, and advised that the PC be repaired at their place in future. This doesn't guarantee anything, as experience with the Dell Dimension had already shown.
We decided to just purchase a hard disk reader so that the next time this Dell goes down, we can pull out the hard disk, and plug it into the reader to be used via another CPU.
Indeed strange that 3 out of 3 Dell that we have had to repair would fail shortly after. We were advised by IT to treat each PC as having a lifespan of 3 years. We factored that in. However, in all instances, faults started appearing while the Dell was new and the ineffective repair works using refurbished parts simply translates to one hell of an exhausting ride with Dell PCs.
