Dell Diagnosis Charges?!?

friendface · 26-01-2009 5:00pm #1

I just called Dell Tech Support today in relation to a problem I was having with an Inspiron Laptop purchased from Dell around 14 months ago. I was shocked when I was told by the rep on the phone that there is now a €30 charge for a diagnosis of problems over the phone. This charge does not include component price or any repair costs.

Up until now, I have been a loyal Dell customer, having only ever owned Dell laptops. I have bought Dell laptops on behalf of my family also and usually advise friends about Dell laptops if I'm asked. I have now lost all respect and loyalty I had for Dell. :mad:

I realize it's a competitive market and Dell are making efforts to cover their costs but as a company they are showing no loyalty towards their customers or their workers. For me, cutting the manufacturing jobs in Limerick and outsourcing them, was the first step in blackening their name.

I remember buying my first Dell laptop secondhand from the US (it was about 2/3 years old at the time). I called up tech support with a problem and was given good detailed advice over the phone even though it was out of warranty. Today, I called up and got a foreign rep who spent a good 5 mins trying to understand the service tag I was calling out. Then I was put through to a technician who immediately asked for my credit card number before he would impart any piece of advice.

With cheap parts and labour, it's no wonder Dell are one of the biggest competitors out there. However, it now seems necessary to purchase the 3 year extended warranty when buying one of these laptops as they don't seem to be as reliable now. I have had no problems with the laptop I purchased from them 3 years ago, but since then I have noticed that any of my friends who have purchased from Dell have found faults with their systems after a short period of time. One friend had a motherboard fail 3 times on his Inspiron, another friend had his power supply fail and has had problems with his graphics card overheating.

Anyway, that's my rant. I certainly won't be buying from Dell in the future and I would advise anyone who does decide to buy from them to get a 3-year Extended Warranty.

Sherifu · 26-01-2009 5:02pm

We can tell you what's wrong if you like. (Head over to comp/tech)

toiletduck · 26-01-2009 5:03pm

I'd never get the warranty.

If you're having trouble, see if the boys over on the Laptops forum can help

goodlad · 26-01-2009 5:03pm

And we will only charge you €20

towel401 · 26-01-2009 5:03pm

dell is kindof a sour subject in here..

friendface · 26-01-2009 5:06pm

It's okay. I had an idea of what the problem might be but I wanted to see if the laptop was still under warranty in case the hard drive needed replacing. When the guy mentioned taking my credit card details, I just said "No thanks. I'll just find the answer online" and hung up.

The cheek of them !!

Morlar · 26-01-2009 5:07pm

If it is out of warranty telephone support is not usually free. Dell aren't the only ones who look to charge for out of warranty telephone support.

Wagon · 26-01-2009 5:08pm

They have gotten more unreliable because they have Vista installed on them. Three years ago, you would have gotten XP, which actually works.

ejmaztec · 26-01-2009 5:24pm

If turning it off and on again doesn't work, tell em to stick it up their Krakow.

KTRIC · 26-01-2009 5:26pm

Can we add D€ll to the banned words list ??

Rob_l · 26-01-2009 5:27pm

See the problem here OP is that Computers are the work of the Satan and everyone involved in building maintaining or developing for computers is in fact the spawn of Satan and this is why you have this problem.

You should be thankful you got off the phone while still in possesion of your soul................ You do still have possesion of your soul?

Naos · 26-01-2009 5:28pm

Is XP really that much better than Vista? I had planned to change over but didn't know if it was worth my while or not.

Biggins · 26-01-2009 5:30pm

Naos wrote: »

Is XP really that much better than Vista? I had planned to change over but didn't know if it was worth my while or not.

Stay with XP. Just make sure its updated to service pack three.
The next operating system after Vista is not too far away.
As many will tell you here ior in the I.T. sections, Vista at this stage is not worth the hassle.

towel401 · 26-01-2009 5:30pm

Naos wrote: »

Is XP really that much better than Vista? I had planned to change over but didn't know if it was worth my while or not.

Ubuntu is where the **** is at

Naos · 26-01-2009 5:33pm

No no Biggins, I'm on Vista at the moment. My laptop is around four months old.

Biggins · 26-01-2009 5:40pm

Naos wrote: »

No no Biggins, I'm on Vista at the moment. My laptop is around four months old.

...and you want to go BACK to XP?

As mush as Vista is despised, I'd stick with it in that case.
When the next version comes out, there might be less to install and also there is method and good meaning in the saying "If its not broke, don't fix it".

Unless there is a very specific reason why you want to downgrade, I wouldn't bother.

Wagon · 26-01-2009 5:44pm

towel401 wrote: »

Ubuntu is where the **** is at

Unless you play games and also, the drivers can be a pain to install.

Naos wrote: »

No no Biggins, I'm on Vista at the moment. My laptop is around four months old.

Back up any files, music etc... then wipe Vista off and install XP. And yea, like biggins said, use SP3. you'll be asked up update to that anyway when you connect to the internet. Believe me, it'll save you a world of pain when Vista decides to start breaking properly.

Jerimiah · 26-01-2009 8:12pm

XP is an-Upgrade over Vista............

Vista needs at least 2gig of ram to work
I found Vista very indecisive, "are you sure you want to move/delete file" etc dose my wick in.......

Blowfish · 26-01-2009 8:14pm

Wagon wrote: »

Unless you play games and also, the drivers can be a pain to install.

Ubuntu has changed a lot. Last install I did, all of my hardware worked out of the box bar the graphics card, which I was prompted to install the drivers for. Bar any obscure hardware, Windows is actually far more effort for drivers than Ubuntu is now.

Donald-Duck · 26-01-2009 8:15pm

Jerimiah wrote: »

XP is an-Upgrade over Vista............

Vista needs at least 2gig of ram to work
I found Vista very indecisive, "are you sure you want to move/delete file" etc dose my wick in.......

Yeah, **** that feature thats always been in windows. ITS ALL VISTAS FAULT!

Terry · 26-01-2009 8:19pm

Sherifu wrote: »

We can tell you what's wrong if you like. (Head over to comp/tech)

Indeed.
I've found the tech forums invaluable over the years.
I've been helped out plenty of times and it didn't cost me a cent. We can say cent now, right? It's not really an americanism if our currency includes cents.

Jerimiah wrote: »

XP is an-Upgrade over Vista............

Vista needs at least 2gig of ram to work
I found Vista very indecisive, "are you sure you want to move/delete file" etc dose my wick in.......

**** vista. It's a horrible OS. I've read reviews of windows 7 and they say that it's pretty much the same as vista.

XP is the best thing microsoft ever did.

Jerimiah · 26-01-2009 8:28pm

Donald-Duck wrote: »

Yeah, **** that feature thats always been in windows. ITS ALL VISTAS FAULT!

Yeah but Vista. asks you "are you sure, you really sure" a couple of times and still doesn't do what you want........

XP is a hell of a lot more reliable and actualy does what you ask it to......

towel401 · 26-01-2009 8:30pm

julep wrote: »

Indeed.
I've found the tech forums invaluable over the years.
I've been helped out plenty of times and it didn't cost me a cent. We can say cent now, right? It's not really an americanism if our currency includes cents.

**** vista. It's a horrible OS. I've read reviews of windows 7 and they say that it's pretty much the same as vista.

XP is the best thing microsoft ever did.

i prefer 2000, a nice clean no-nonsense gui without any of the crap you don`t need. the way way an OS should be built. even some linux distros go overboard with 'features' these days but since its linux they are easily removed. still i'd rather not have to remove them

Donald-Duck · 26-01-2009 8:31pm

Jerimiah wrote: »

Yeah but Vista. asks you "are you sure, you really sure" a couple of times and still doesn't do what you want........

XP is a hell of a lot more reliable and actualy does what you ask it to......

No it doesn't.

It asks you once.

Plus Vista is actually far more reliable and secure than XP, its the reason why Windows 7 is more like it and nothing like XP.

thermo66 · 26-01-2009 8:51pm

Bought an inspiron laptop in September and it was screwed by November. Rang some fool in India who kept me on for half hour trying to diagnose the problem, all of which i'd already tried due to me googling the problem.

Eventually agreed to send someone out the following day, this guy is as obnoxious and obviously hates his job. Starts badmouthing Dell and told me i was a fool for buying a laptop that students only want them for the sake of it etc?? All the while he's trying to fix the problem can't find whats wrong after changing the motherboard. Making a long story short its a problem with the memory. As he's leaving he tells me to get used to seeing him as it will **** up again!! He also took the head off me for supposedly giving him the wrong directions (i hadn't , i know where i live!!!). So definitely not a good experience with the Dell crowd i'm only hoping i won't have to see that lovely gentleman again anytime soon!!!

IvySlayer · 26-01-2009 8:56pm

Dual Boot ftw!

Biggins · 26-01-2009 9:17pm

thermo66 wrote: »

Bought an inspiron laptop in September and it was screwed by November. Rang some fool in India who kept me on for half hour trying to diagnose the problem, all of which i'd already tried due to me googling the problem.

Eventually agreed to send someone out the following day, this guy is as obnoxious and obviously hates his job. Starts badmouthing Dell and told me i was a fool for buying a laptop that students only want them for the sake of it etc?? All the while he's trying to fix the problem can't find whats wrong after changing the motherboard. Making a long story short its a problem with the memory. As he's leaving he tells me to get used to seeing him as it will **** up again!! He also took the head off me for supposedly giving him the wrong directions (i hadn't , i know where i live!!!). So definitely not a good experience with the Dell crowd i'm only hoping i won't have to see that lovely gentleman again anytime soon!!!

Welcome to the Hell called Dell!
Your not on your own - their backup service is notorious.

Beau · 26-01-2009 9:31pm

Maybe I'm one of a very lucky few but I have found Dell very good with their technical support. I was never waiting to long on the phone to speak to someone. They have fixed any problems for me.

My laptops not working at the moment though and I was'nt charged for over the phone even though its out of warranty. They've sending a guy out to try sort it out.

ejmaztec · 26-01-2009 9:41pm

Beau wrote: »

Maybe I'm one of a very lucky few but I have found Dell very good with their technical support. I was never waiting to long on the phone to speak to someone. They have fixed any problems for me.

My laptops not working at the moment though and I was'nt charged for over the phone even though its out of warranty. They've sending a guy out to try sort it out.

He's probably got a baseball bat.

thefinalstage · 26-01-2009 11:39pm

Jerimiah wrote: »

Yeah but Vista. asks you "are you sure, you really sure" a couple of times and still doesn't do what you want........

XP is a hell of a lot more reliable and actualy does what you ask it to......

You can turn that prompt off in the user account managment section in control panel.

Riddle101 · 26-01-2009 11:42pm

I have to say i'm not really fond of Dell right now, we got a new Dell XPS there around August and since then it Froze up on me about 8 times, some programs i had running would just automatically shut down for no reason and acts up sometimes, this i cannot believe would happen with a practically brand new computer

Dell Diagnosis Charges?!?

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