June 7, 2005
Dell Tech Support
My laptop stopped working so I figured I’d try out Dell’s “Award Winning” Tech Support. I called them while I was home over the weekend and only waited on hold for about 15 minutes before a very helpful representative walked me through some simple steps to make sure my laptop was, in fact, dead.
Now, knowing a lot about computers, I figured he’d be telling me things that I had already done but this was not the case. I wasn’t on the phone very long at all. It seems Dell is quite concerned with results as opposed to “oh, hmm, I don’t think we can do anything about that, but I’ll get back to you if I change my mind.” I was happy to hear that he would have a technician call me sometime on Monday or Tuesday to schedule an appointment to figure out what’s wrong with my laptop. Sure enough, at 930am, I got a call from a tech over at Unisys who was going to bring a replacement power adapter and a new motherboard if the adapter doesn’t fix it. He was also going to bring a replacement palm rest because mine had big cracks on either side of it.
I told him to come over between noon and 3 (compare that to a cable guy telling *you* that he would come over sometime within the next 3 days, of course, this guy makes just a *little* bit more than a cable repairman) and he called at about 12:10 and said he was outside. I let him in and he got right to work. He tested the adapter, didn’t work, so he started taking the laptop apart to replace the motherboard. While he was unscrewing everything, he noticed that a few of my other parts had cracks in them or were otherwise not up to Dell’s high standards of excellence.
Long story short, (or, “in summary” if you prefer) in addition to the new motherboard and palm rest, I’m getting a new lcd screen, new bottom case, new top case, and new “button bar” (that plastic part above the keyboard). That’s mostly a new computer, especially because of the pricey lcd screen (which has a faint red tinge to it that apparantly warrants replacing). Even better than that, he’s supposed to get the parts *tomorrow* and will install them right away. (that’s awesome).
There’s only one thing I’m not sure about. These awards, which I’m sure Dell is perfectly qualified to receive; where do they come from? How come I never get to watch the “Tech Support Music Video of the Year Awards” on MTV? If it’s on a different channel, do they at least have a cool front-man to receive the award and ‘represent’ for Dell? He would probably say “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!” before being hauled off by the police for possession of marijuana. I’d bet other companies come to the show, too. Microsoft would get an award for “Best Effort,” Blizzard would take “Most Hated” and Apple would win “Best Non-PC Support”. At the end of the show, Deltron 3030 would perform, singing about how computers will some day be out of control and that it’s really great of people to be so supportive of their products. Then Linus would streak across the stage with PWNT written on his chest.
