Having read Cian Ginty’s negative interaction with Dell tech support and having had my own trouble with their courier of choice, UPS, I braced myself for the worst when the power adaptor on my [10 month old] Vostro 1000 kicked the bucket last week.
So on Thursday I rang Dell up, expecting to be without any kind of power supply for a few days at least. The phone call took just thirteen minutes in total and the majority of that time was spent actually talking to someone – I was on hold for no more than 2-3 minutes. The guy I ended up talking to was extremely helpful and thorough – I never got the feeling he was trying to avoid actually replacing the part for me and he repeatedly ensured there were no other problems I wanted fixed at the same time.
He even apologised once or twice for taking up my “precious time” while he input the information I was giving him – I know this kind of courtesy likely came as a result of a prompt on his screen but it was a nice touch all the same.
Once he had all my details he told me the replacement would be with me between 9am and 5pm the next day (Friday). Again he asked if there was anything else he could help me with. I asked him if I’d need to give them the faulty adaptor as a trade for the new one and he just said that there was no need and I could dispose of it myself.
Friday came around and UPS were at my door around 1pm with the adaptor. Job done.
Just before 5pm (although I was out at the time) I get an automated email from Dell to say that they hope everything was satisfactory; if it wasn’t the email detailed the steps I could take to let them know. Bang on 5pm I got a call on my mobile from the same guy I had dealt with the day before – he asked me if everything was OK and if the adaptor had arrived, then he asked if there was anything else he could help me with. I thanked him and said no.
Comparing this to Cian’s experience you would think I was dealing with a totally different company (although his problems seem to be based more around UPS messing up than Dell, just like my previous experience was as a result of UPS being incompetent rather than Apple).
If there was one remotely negative thing I could say about the experience, it’s that the time-frame for delivery may have been a bit too vague for some – but that’s not the case from me as I work from home and I’m sure I could have gotten a more specific time had I asked; or failing that had it delivered to whatever place I was going to be at all day.
So did I just get lucky or was Cian unlucky? Or has Dell made an about-turn in terms of its tech support in the last few months? My guess is that it’s none of the above – I’d venture that Dell are far more eager to please small and medium businesses, which the Vostro is aimed at, than they are to please the regular consumer who would purchase something like an Inspiron.
Whatever the reason, all I can say is well done Dell. I really couldn’t have asked for better customer service.