I purchased my Inspiron laptop about 55 days ago and it developed a charging problem about a week ago. I finally had a chance today to spend the anticipated hour on the phone with tech support. I knew things would not go well when the technician gave me troubleshooting steps that did not apply to my computer, which he should have known since I gave him the Service Tag number. Turns out the motherboard and screen need to be replaced. I told him that I really need the computer for when I go into the hospital on Friday and asked what we could do to expedite the process. His immediate response was to offer to have me ship the computer to Dell, with an anticipated 10 day turn around, OR have a technician come out under my Next Business Day warranty. Really? I would have expected more from a robot and this was a human.
I asked if it was possible to cross ship a replacement but was told that was impossible since I have had the computer for more than 30 days. So, instead, Dell will ship a motherboard and screen, have a contracted technician come out to, hopefully, fix the problem, and then ship the bad board back. Seems like an awful lot of expense for a $500 computer. On top of that, "next business day" in this case means Wednesday at the best.
I have been a fan of Dell for years and, in my prior life as an IT director, have approved the purchase of at least $250,000 of Dell equipment, from laptops to servers. Many people still look to me for advice when purchasing computers and I have often recommended Dell. As of this moment I am not sure I can honestly do that anymore. A company whose technicians show no compassion for their customers, can apparently only read from a scripted flowchart, and spends more to repair a computer than it would to replace it, is not one I can support.