Another Day, Another Dell Support Call!
by danlor on May.18, 2004, under Technology, Work
So, just incase you thought that those other problems were isolated issues, and the server support is better, this one is for you!
In March, the little amber light on the front of our 2600 started blinking. I took a look at the open manage software and all the indicators were green. No failures. I Then browsed through all the diagnostic lists looking for an error, but none could be found. Stumped, I called support and got a hold of a woman who pointed me to the Open Manage log. There I found the problem. The DIMM in slot one was getting ECC errors. SLAM DUNK! thank god…. Right? WRONG. She instructed me to go ahead and down the server and swap the modules between slots to see if the error followed. I asked her to just send out the modules, but she refused. She wanted to be sure it wasn’t the memory slot… Yea. Ok. whatever. I asked her to just send out a motherboard with the memory, but she didn’t want to do that either.
The problem is that this server is always in use. It is a primary system. Downing it is a major problem. After three days, I was able to get a window to work on the server. Unfortunately, the server is designed in such a way that it cannot be worked on in the rack. The covers can’t be removed while it is mounted. So I have to pull it out of the rack, then dismantle the cooling system to get down to the motherboard. I swap the modules and power it back up.
My luck was poor that day, and the error did not reoccur. I was destined to deal with this issue again at a later date… Today!
Dell likes playing chicken with their warentees. They try to push out repairs to future dates, after the warentee expires. Little did the last tech know that we extended our warentee.
So I call Dell up again… Guess what. They want me to swap modules! I just sent them the error log including the errors from the previous call. I’m currently waiting for the next hoop.
May 19th, 2004 on 1:58 pm
sweet ben, i need to start playing with mine more. you want to cut work on Friday for a hockey game?
December 1st, 2005 on 9:39 am
Oh yeah.. Dell and Service are mutually Exclusive. Dell service is absolutely pathetic. I purchased through a Fortune 100 corporate account for employees and opted for the 24×7 at home service. Eight months later my PC died. Called support. Three days later tech showed up five hours late with a likewise dead new motherboard. Three days later tech showed up again with another dead replacement part. Four days later tech scheduled, but never showed. Consider that I opted for the “premium” 24×7 on-site support option. Guess what though, nothing occurred during the weekend! As a matter of fact I raised this issue with 3 separate techs and all said.. “well you have a point, we just don’t do much on the weekends. We will not even ship replacement parts except during mon-fri. Anyway… Two days later tech showed up two hours late with another dead part and then left. Next day I called Dell and was told replacement system was ordered but would take 10-15 days to “build.” Ten days later “new” system shows up at my house for me to install only it is DOA! Unbelievable! Looked inside, realized it was a “refurbished” system–a derelict with dust bunnies and bent CPU cooling vanes and a fan that sounded like a worn out diesel! Unbelieveable! Dell: “Sorry about that.” We’ll ship you another after we “build it” in 10-15 days! 3 weeks later while I was out of town for thanksgiving another refurb was dropped at my front door.. alone. It apparently spent turkey day plus 3 days all alone exposed on the front porch. Who’s brain child was that? The box was “weathered” from the experience. I unpacked and inspected the “refurb”. I laughed hysterically from the sad shape this one was in. Once again the insides was absolutely coated in dust and BIG dust bunnies abounded. The CPU cooling fan had nasty brown dust ENCRUSTING every single fan blade in their entirety! Who in the world inpsected that piece of crapola before sending it to me? I took pictures for evidence. To top it all off this one it didn’t work as well. DOA! So let’s recap I’ve been waiting 2 months and 2 weeks for this!?? My only option was to attempt a transplant of parts to try to piece together a working unit. I was able to succeed but I discovred that the refurb was significantly different from the one I ordered: different video card, slower CPU, different s/w and older versions of s/w loaded on replacement HD. Where .. where is that 24×7 on-site support with premium responsiveness? What an absolute joke! It really is quite insulting. By the way, I did get an email from Dell the other day telling me they considered the matter closed! Michael Dell should be ashamed of himself and his sad excuse for customer support.
June 5th, 2006 on 11:24 pm
I here you. It’s a sad sad thing. They used to be the MODEL of what customer support should be like. Now they are just another compaq waiting to die.
We need more companys making decisions about support the way Apple has. Have you heard? They tried to move their support lines to India, but canceled the support move after the first trainies came on board. Scrapped the whole thing.
Hp has been really good for me lately as well, although even they are becoming hit and miss. They are moving their support down to costa rica. Server support is still local, and worth while, but how long can that last.
How long til the on-site techs are flying in from over seas?