Two very distinct classes of support only (Dell Malaysia)

Member Name: udippel

Product:	Dell Malaysia
Date:	01/11/06 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 24/7 support is great, though expensive

Disadvantages: It is either getting on your nerves or your purse

Exactly for 5 years by now I have been dealing with DELL Malaysia (Support). And it was a down-hill experience. While my first qualms were dealt with properly later on that handling of problems became worse and worse Oh, by the way, did I write a report on my Inspiron 8100 ? It had to have about the following replacements: CDRW 2x, hard disc 2x, keyboard 1x, motherboard 1x, floppy-drive 1x, power adapter 1x.
I was kind of known to them, after so many problems, and all real problems. Still, the more time went by, the more moronic became the pre-fab 'answers'. It became more and more difficult to get a proper replacement; which is identical to get a technician dispatched to your place. For which I had pre-paid by an extended warranty. So my qualms are less with the technicians, since usually they knew what they were doing (and which spare parts were needed); rather with a barrage of pre-fabbed e-mail answers probably selected by a badly written AI-robot. It simply took much too many days and much too many ridiculous so-called answers, suggestions, until finally someone would bother to dispatch that technician.

I can only discourage to rely on these guys and girls.

Stop. Wait a moment. I have another DELL notebook, with 24/7 support. This support is more costly than the whole machine; but suddenly the service turns first class. "Don't write in to our robots. This number: ..........is our direct line to a human support technician, 24/7." That's what they told me, and the experience until now is exactly great.

So, I have two different recommendations for you:
1. If you are a private customer, don't come closer to DELL Malaysia than 10 meter. In case you need their support. And for notebooks with non-standard parts, you do need them.

2. If you are employed by a rich company and you can get 24/7 support for the whole life-time (and beyond); and Mr. Rich Boss pays, DELL is a great place to order your equipment; at least support-wise.

Finally, to be absolutely clear on what I expect:
Sure, 24/7 is necessarily much more expensive. No complaints. I don't expect any quick solution from 'next business day'. But what got on my nerves - and what I hated - was the difference in the _quality_ level. I can wait for a business day or two when my own machine is concerned. But then, I still expect service of the same class, and not a pre-fab, unrelated e-mail. To be followed by just another crap e-mail 2 days later, and so forth.

Summary: If you're Joe Doe, do yourself a favour and source your stuff elsewhere