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To all those who asked, here's an ascii version of the fax I'm trying to send to Michael Dell. So far the fax number given to me by his customer service manager gets no answer. I don't know if it's the right number. I am blown away by what I've received. I had no idea these kinds of problems were so commonplace with Dell.
--Barry
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Barry Robbins
1380 Garnet Ave, Suite E-279,
San Diego, CA 92109
Phone: 619-270-5662
Fax: 619-270-9567
Email: brobbins@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Fax
To: Michael Dell From: Barry Robbins
Fax: 512-728-9971 Pages: 7 including cover
Phone: Date: 01/27/98
Re: Ref # 503-7446 CC:
Dear Michael Dell,
I'm sending this fax to you on recommendation from your employee, Jose Vega, on January 26th, 1998.
The first page contains a synopsis of my experience with your company, Dell Computer. The following pages contain some responses, both positive and negative, regarding other's experiences. These responses came from some email lists that I'm on, as well as a Usenet newsgroup.
As my initial comments suggest, I am unsatisfied with the level of service I've received from your company. My hope is that this letter will be meaningful to you, so that you may take steps to improve your company and your customers' experience with it.
I'm available to further discuss this matter. I still expect some type of compensation or other form of remedy for Dell Computer's mistakes and the loss of productivity they have caused me, since my Dell computer is inaccessible for 6 weeks. My contact information is provided at the top of this cover sheet.
Sincerely,
Barry Robbins
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:09:15 -0800
From: Barry Robbins <brobbins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Just thought you might like to hear about my experience with Dell. I bought a top-of-the-line 266 MHz Pentium 2 desktop system for $2600 from Dell in June 1997. In December 1997 the system lit itself on fire and melted several parts inside, including the motherboard and ISA/PCI slots.
On January 2nd, 1998, I reported the incident to Dell and they said they'd ship me a replacement CPU. Bear in mind that with Dell, we are paying for a next-day on-site repair policy. But they preferred to ship the replacement rather than send someone out, since the damage was so bad.
Two weeks later I received a computer from them. It was the wrong one. Dell said that there had been a screwup, and my replacement computer was also sent to the wrong customer. Another week later I received an airbill with instructions to ship the computer I had received to its rightful customer.
Another week later, and I still don't have my computer. I called and they said they would initiate the process anew, and I could expect my replacement computer in another 5-7 business days. IF I receive the machine by then, I will have gone 5-6 weeks without a computer.
I asked for some kind of remedy or compensation considering that my next-day on-site repair policy had turned into a 6-week no-computer policy. They offered no remedy, so I asked to speak to a supervisor. The manager I spoke to (Jose Vega) said he reported directly to Michael Dell himself, and offered no remedy other than a weak "I'll see if I can get the replacement upgraded for you". Then I told him I had all the hard disk and RAM I needed, and I wanted something concrete. He said there was nothing he could do, and that they receive calls on less than 10% of their machines, and therefore they have good customer service.
If I wanted to wait 6 weeks for a warranty repair, I certainly wouldn't have paid the premium to buy a machine from Dell. Any local PC VAR or retailer could do better, at two-thirds the price. The funny thing is, prior to this incident, I've recommended to anyone who asked me where to get a PC, that they get one from Dell.
--Barry
ps. Oh yeah, when I first bought the machine, they overcharged me $45 on shipping and handling, and I had to call to get them to take it off my credit card.
Another thing, having spent several hours on the phone with them, I can tell you that my average wait time after dialing their customer support hotline is 10-15 minutes.
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:49:34 -1000
From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
> Barry Robbins wrote: Just thought you might like to hear about my
> experience with Dell. I bought a top-of-the-line 266 MHz Pentium 2
> desktop system for $2600 from Dell in June 1997. In December 1997 the
> system lit itself on fire and melted several parts inside, including
> the motherboard and ISA/PCI slots.
>
snip...
You've got every right to be mad. What is Mr. Dell's email address, I
will be glad to send him a note telling him I'll be sure to buy
elsewhere on my next purchase. What ever happened to customer serivce?
--
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 18:38:05 -0400
To: Barry Robbins <brobbins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
At 03:09 PM 1/26/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Just thought you might like to hear about my experience with Dell.
>
Thanks for the post. I was considering them.
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From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 17:30:18 -0700
We bought a Pentium II fully loaded from Dell. They were a little late
sending the computer so they upgraded the shipping to overnight for free.
We have had no problem with the computer and Dell has been very
accommodating whenever we call. Including their 30day price protection.
Architecturally Dells are much better machines then pretty much any computer
you could buy off the shelf at major resellers.
Just my experience. Nothing personal, no hard feelings.
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:58:54 -0800
From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
I have had quite the opposite experience with Dell. In fact, I ordered a
333Mhz PII today. I also have the 266 and the 100 Mhz pentium. Through
my own carelessness I was responsible for blowing 2 mother boards. They
came to my house (1 year after purchase) and replaced the motherboards.
I have noticed that their Tech support isn't as good as it used to be,
especially when compared to Micron but it is good enough. Look at PC
magazine surveys. They all show Dell at the top in both service and
customer satisfaction. I think they build a hell of a computer at a
GREAT price.
I have no connection whatsoever with Dell.
Regards,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [withheld]
To: Barry Robbins <brobbins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 11:38:07 +1100
Hello Barry,
I was also unlucky to purchase a Dell computer. I found them totally
incompetant
and I regret the purchase... I do not want to begin to tell the saga but
it took me
over 1 year to get a machine that worked.... I found their service and
technical support to be pathetic.. don't get me started.
BEWARE of DELL....
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From: [withheld]
To: Barry Robbins <brobbins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 04:26:37 GMT
On Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:09:15 -0800, you wrote:
> Just thought you might like to hear about my experience with Dell.
> I bought a top-of-the-line 266 MHz Pentium 2
> desktop system for $2600 from Dell in June 1997.
> In December 1997 the system lit itself on fire and melted several
> parts inside, including the motherboard and ISA/PCI slots.
Dell is so cheap, they don't even place a fan to cool their CPU.
Instead they use the power supply fan, and an oversized heat sink.
Furthermore, their case is proprietary like Compaq. It's a dead end
machine.
Standard motherboard will not fit in the case, and their motherboards
have proprietary sockets.
Get Micron or Gateway... be careful though, as some machine are not
real clones.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:11:26 -0700
I won't bore with all the gory details but I ordered a Dell PC which arrived
with defective floppy ... couldn't get it fixed in spite of numerous written
communications ... finally refused charge on my personal Visa ... Dell never
responded to Visa so charge was permanently removed... still no response
from Dell so I packed it up and notified Dell I wanted RMA ... Dell offered
phone authorization but refused to put it in writing ... took nearly six
months to get a _written_ return authorization indicating full credit for
machine ... returned machine as soon as I recieved written authorization ...
Dell received machine ... Dell hired lawyer to demand around $1000
"depreciation" ... lawyer went away when I provided detailed written
documentation ... Dell hired another lawyer ... he also went away when
provided detailed documentation.
Not only did this whole process consume many hours of my time but the stress
of dealing with several very unpleasant "customer service" supervisors and
two very unpleasant lawyers greatly distracted me from my work. Thank God I
did everything by the book, used a personal credit card (which gave me
protection of consumer credit laws), and had everything in writing. This is
not a company with which you want to have a problem!!!
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From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:24:01 -0700
I have a slightly different story. I have been buying Dells exclusively for
the last four years. Currently, I own four of them. I have never had a
single problem with any one of them. As a matter of fact, I have compared
them side by side to Compaq, Micron, the old Zeos, Digital and a couple of
others. IMHO, Dells are the fastest most reliable computers out there. I do
not have any experience with tech support, since I never had to use them.
May be I got lucky...
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:23:44 -0600
From: [withheld]
Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
> I was also unlucky to purchase a Dell computer. I found them totally
> incompetant
> and I regret the purchase... I do not want to begin to tell the saga but
> it took me
> over 1 year to get a machine that worked.... I found their service and
> technical support to be pathetic.. don't get me started.
There are newsgroups alt.sys.pc-clone.* for your favorite or
least favorite PC manufacturer. Every one of them is loaded
with such admonitions, many of which are countered by happy
customers.
Currently I am a happy Dell customer. I will probably be in the
market for an additional computer sometime during the spring.
Before I buy, I will scan the newsgroups for a few weeks to help
decide what brand and feature combination within that brand to buy.
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Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
From: [withheld]
Date: 1998/01/26
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 18:54:11 EST
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops,alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
I completely feel for you on this one. I recently tried purchasing a
Dell Lattitude laptop by wiring money directly to Dell. The
salesperson I spoke with said this is the fastest way to obtain the
laptop. After wiring the money 1 week passed and they claim to have
lost the order number. After calling them and giving them a hard time
they told me they would next day air it. One more week passed... no
laptop. So guess what I did... I called my bank and recalled the wire
for the amount of the laptop! <grin> I then called dell and cancelled
my order.
I called Sony and order a GREAT Vaio notebook which I absolutely LOVE.
They shipped it in 2 days and the support has been fantastic.
And after all that guess what the idiots at Dell did... they sent me a
refund check in the mail for $2900.00!!!!!!!! I called Dell and they
said, "Oh, we didn't mean to send you that.. can you please mail it
back to us?" YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!
Bottom line.... Mess with Dell and 1) you might not get a computer or
2) you might get a comptuter and a check! ;-)
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Subject: Re: Before you purchase a Dell PC
From: [withheld]
Date: 1998/01/27
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
At home, I've had good service with Dell...inspite of one screwup that
eventually worked in my favor. At work, we didn't receive all of our
shipments of orders from Dell. It turned out that they had shipped monitors
to the wrong customer. All of this plus what I read from this group SOUNDS
LIKE POOR MANAGEMENT! Dell may have some disgruntled employees causing these
simple errors (in shipment, accounts, etc.).
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