Dell Laptop crashed

D

Deisce

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I've heard alot about customer service issues with dell but never experienced them so heres my experience.
Bought a Dell XPS laptop in June. Refused the extra service contract as say it was under warranty for year. Had to get Vista as they wouldn't supply XP. Vista was frustrating to get used due due to User access control and fact it gave no choice when it updated. Just shut down computer there and then restarted and reconfigured. On thursday it went through this process and I left it alone and when I came back it was off. Upon restart it ran check disc then loaded up as normal but when I tried to do anything on main screen it crashed and screen went blue. Upon restart it ran same check disc with talk of repairing orphaned files then crashed at same point again. So tried this a few times with same results although sometimes it ran startup repair which finishes with no errors.
So I thought my contract was with Dell and rang their service number. The guy went through a hardware diagnostic test and was very polite and mentioned if this went ok he would put me onto software support and they would talk through fixing it. He asked me to run hardware diagnostic (pressed function QA with power button) then when no errors came up rang me back and I was on hold for 1hr 30 mins for customer representative. When he came on phone he said he would talk me through it for 89 euro. Some warranty! I thought my contract for the purchase was with Dell not Microsoft.
Off to Computer Doctor for me.
 
You can turn off user control and you can turn off updates in Vista. I do mine manually for example. If you couldn't buy what you wanted, a machine with XP, from Dell. why did you not just buy it somewhere else? I assume that the last customer rep was Microsoft one? You'd have to look at the terms of your support contract to see whats covered and what isn't. It doesn't sound like a big problem to me.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm
 
Ha Ha - thats why buying off your local reseller is the best thing to do. It aint that cheap for no reason.
 
Deisce said:
I've heard alot about customer service issues with dell but never experienced them so heres my experience.......when he came on phone he said he would talk me through it for 89 euro. Some warranty! I thought my contract for the purchase was with Dell not Microsoft.
Off to Computer Doctor for me.
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Dell are cheap because they cut out "good old customer service" Were you to purchase a Fujitsu Siemens, HP etc. you buy it from a reseller who should be concerned about the product service you get. Like all things you do need to find the right reseller who will stand by what he sells you.
 
I've had three Dell laptops and customer service has been excellent but you do need to take out the extra cover for the extra service.
 
I dunno what you are talkng about. Dell sell both expensive and cheap laptops. You choose which you want. Theres lots of reasons why they can sell cheaply. Its obviously not simply that they cut support. Where are you getting that from?
 
I have a dell XPS and had a few issues with it.
But customer service has been brilliant!
XPS premium service gets next day on-site service.
I cannot understand how they wanted to charge €89 to try fix your issue.
 
I have 20 years plus in IT. I've been responsible for managing the maintenance of c500000 PC's (BT, Post Office, Morgan Stanley etc. etc.) during these years and I can say that Dells customer service is generally less than average compared to most of the others. I was HP, IBM, Toshiba & Microsoft certified so I think I know what I'm talking about. Many people will have individual good and bad experiences across the board but comparing eggs with eggs Dell fall short.
 
I have purchased dozens of machines from Dell over the past few years and only once had to use their support service. The man who talked me through opening the case and pulling out RAM was brilliant and everything worked out well. I always buy the basic support package.
I recently purchased a desktop on behalf of a client. I had previously purchased a laptop for them with Vista which they didn't like, so this time I had the PC shipped with XP installed and Vista on cd for later if they want to upgrade.
Maybe I've just been lucky...maybe I should have kept my mouth shut ... in case of sods law! :)
 
I have similar experience. I'm sure lots of people do. Its pretty common these days, as so many work in IT and have done for decades at this point. In my office the vast majority of people have 20yrs+ experience and a good many have 30yrs+ experience. Suprised you don't make any distinction between business support/professional services and consumer support. They are very different. Different again is the support for the XPS line. Which is what the OP has. Maybe in the UK its different to Ireland. The advice of not buying a dell, and buying through a reseller, is not that useful considering the OP already has bought the Dell and has support through them. However thats not the problem. The problem seems to be the OP is not familar with Vista, and is unclear what his warranty actually covers. But its seems a Vista update has caused a problem. But it could be anything. I've never had much of a problem with Dell support, but then I'm an IT person so am not going deal with the the same way other people might. I really only contact them for hardware issues.

Deisce, if you are stuck and in Dublin, PM me and I'll have a look at it, if you can bring it to me.
 
aircobra19 said:
I have similar experience. I'm sure lots of people do. Its pretty common these days, as so many work in IT and have done for decades at this point. In my office the vast majority of people have 20yrs+ experience and a good many have 30yrs+ experience. Suprised you don't make any distinction between business support/professional services and consumer support. They are very different. Different again is the support for the XPS line. Which is what the OP has. Maybe in the UK its different to Ireland. The advice of not buying a dell, and buying through a reseller, is not that useful considering the OP already has bought the Dell and has support through them. However thats not the problem. The problem seems to be the OP is not familar with Vista, and is unclear what his warranty actually covers. But its seems a Vista update has caused a problem. But it could be anything. I've never had much of a problem with Dell support, but then I'm an IT person so am not going deal with the the same way other people might. I really only contact them for hardware issues.

Deisce, if you are stuck and in Dublin, PM me and I'll have a look at it, if you can bring it to me.
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Thank you aircobra for the kind offer. Well I brought the computer to my Dad's friend who ran a 24 hour harddrive diagnostic of some sort and said there are two small errors on the hard disc and I was unlucky to hit them. He will reload vista and thinks chances are I will not have problem again. My question is now what to do. Warranty is up to June 2009 but Dell got me to run a hardware diagnostic while I was on the phone which gave no errors (pressed function key and turned on power). So should I wait to see if it happens again or contact Dell now?
I will try and get more details about the diagnostic my Dad's friend ran.
 
Its not completely unexpected to get a couple of bad sectors on a Hard Disk. You can mark them as bad and you should have no further problems. But I would say if you get the report and send it to Dell they may send you out a new Hard Drive. I wouldn't think that the Dell tests are that comprehensive as a low hard disk scan. They are just looking for basic hardware failures. For example their tests didn't pick up a broken touch pad button on a laptop I was looking at. They fixed that even though it was a few weeks out of warranty.

Of course you have a back up of this HD?

Always (like you did) ask around. I think everyone knows someone who works in IT who can at least point you in the right direction.
 
aircobra19 said:
Its not completely unexpected to get a couple of bad sectors on a Hard Disk. You can mark them as bad and you should have no further problems. But I would say if you get the report and send it to Dell they may send you out a new Hard Drive. I wouldn't think that the Dell tests are that comprehensive as a low hard disk scan. They are just looking for basic hardware failures. For example their tests didn't pick up a broken touch pad button on a laptop I was looking at. They fixed that even though it was a few weeks out of warranty.

Of course you have a back up of this HD?

Always (like you did) ask around. I think everyone knows someone who works in IT who can at least point you in the right direction.
Click to expand...

Yeah just backuped up harddrive a few weeks ago. I will contact Dell and send them log file. Thanks for all your advice
 
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