Re: Seeking more hardware advice

[Ben Goren <ben_(_at_)_trumpetpower_(_dot_)_com>]

On Fri, Jul 25, 2003 at 04:17:01PM -0700, Chris Paul wrote:

> Dell was an  entirely different story. I'm going to  try to make
> it short because to detail all  the ridiculous steps they had me
> perform over the phone is too painful.

I'll second this. I recently had a second-hand nightmare with Dell
tech support. I,  too, will  make this  relatively short  and omit
lots of details.

A regional manager of a  mid-sized company was having trouble with
his home computer: it would freeze  solid after a half-hour or so.
Not even the reset switch on the case would work. He had purchased
the computer with the Dell financing, and it had not yet been paid
off.

After a bit of trouble-shooting at  his home I decided to take the
computer to the office where we  could image the hard drive before
continuing. Upon attempting to re-install some version of Windows,
I discovered that  the PS/2 mouse didn't work (he  had a USB mouse
at home). I  stopped work at  that point--who knows what  else was
screwed up with the motherboard?

After a looooong time on the phone,  Dell agreed to ship him a new
motherboard, which he  had installed at a  local computer shop. He
then tried  to re-install Windows  himself, ran into  trouble, and
called Dell. More  long hold times  and multiple calls  later, the
tech  had him  doing  things  at the  DOS  prompt  to get  Windows
installed. He then  took it back to  the office to have  his files
restored. I didn't know anything other  than he had gotten Windows
installed  on  the  computer  and  was ready  to  have  his  files
restored.

I  discovered  that  there  were no  drivers  installed--not  even
video--so  I tried  to  use the  Dell  restore CD  to  do a  fresh
install. After  installing Windows...it  went straight  to a  blue
screen. And the reset switch still wouldn't work.

The next time  he called Dell, he  did it from the  office with me
there to help. The tech admitted  the restore CD wouldn't work--it
was  a  known  problem--and  wanted  us  to  start  yanking  (Dell
factory-installed)  PCI cards  in  order to  install  the OS.   He
refused to do anything useful. So did his superior. At this point,
the  poor manager  finally told  them that  he was  a pretty  high
muckety-muck  for a  company that's  pretty much  entirely a  Dell
shop, and all but threatened to  use his influence to see that the
company  never bought  anything with  a Dell  logo ever  again. No
luck.

Finally, the  company's corporate account  rep put the  manager in
touch with somebody who could help, and he's got a new computer as
a replacement.

Their corporate  support seems to  be pretty good, but,  if you're
just an average Joe, run like the wind.

Cheers,

b&

--
Ben Goren
 mailto:ben_(_at_)_trumpetpower_(_dot_)_com
 http://www.trumpetpower.com/
 icbm:33o25'37"N_111o57'32"W

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