I'm starting to get annoyed with Dell Tech Support

[P5-133XL]

I have, amoung several computers, a Dell Dimension 8400. In the course of human events, the power supply fan is getting noisey and I called Dell Tech Support for a, parts only, PS replacement. I have no problem with dealing with the individuals: They were universally courtous and the calls have all been quick and efficient.


The problem is that they have kindly sent me three PS's of which none of them will actually power the the machine. Now the first failure, I was oblivious and simply reported a DOA. With the next two I examined the PS and reported that they did not have the same part number as the original. They then order the part number of the original PS and they still send the wrong part: Someone in the supply chain has decided that the new part is a direct replacement?

They refuse to allow me to swap out the fan, so they are gonna keep sending me the wrong part: over, and over, and over again. At what point will they perk-up and notice the pattern? How many PS's should I get before I just outright take action and swap-out the fan? Or should I see how many PS's we can go through before an epiphany on their side?

 

[LiamC]

Mark, you have the patience of a saint. But what makes you think that the little light bulb will actually light up on their end?

 

[Mercutio]

Oh man, I know the feeling.

One of the customers at my training company rolled out some low-end Optiplexes a couple years ago and asked me to stage and deploy them. One of PCs arrived without a hard disk (as in, it wasn't inside the case. At all.). I tried for about a week to get them to ship me a hard drive. Finally I gave up and just bought them a new one.

 

[Buck]

The woes of OEM systems. Mark, if you can (and find the experiment amusing) I would wait. It isn't your only system. However, if it was critical, I would replace the fan (or PSU if a standard item fit).

 

[sechs]

I'm sure that I've related this story here before, but when I initially received my 2001FP, it had a bad power adapter. The issue was obvious, as the LED didn't light up. Spent hours on the phone with support, sales, and spare parts; they sent the power adapter for the 2000FP several times (one time lost by DHL) before figuring out that they didn't have any spare 2001FP parts to send. Some assclown had just been ordering or substituting the wrong one.

Ended up ordering an entire new monitor and then sending it back with the bad adapter for a refund.

 

[P5-133XL]

The machine isn't critical and even beyond that, it runs fine with the old PS because it is only a noisey fan and they commonly operate for months like that before failure. Replacing the PS with a standard is not possible -- Dell likes to run custom wiring to the MB to ensure that both the PS and MB have to be purchased from Dell and further, I'm really not interested in rewiring and drillling out new mounting holes, so I could use a standard PS. The easy solution is simply spend 15 minutes to actually take apart the two PS's and swap fans.

Surely, their little light bulb will shine again because it is costing them far more than me with each PS replacement. Even if they have a reimbursement contract for failed parts, they still have to pay for one-day two-way shipping. If I was really interested in burning them, I could be insisting on on-site repair but it is much more convienant and quicker to actually replace the part myself.

But really, Dell is a giant company, I can't be the only one that is having this problem and surely they have managers that monitor for this type of problem but even if they don't, the bottom tech guys should have standing orders to bump-up problems so that they can be solved before both destroying Dells reputation and profitability.

I have 270+ days of warrentee left and thats a lot of replacement PS's ( at one per day, excluding weekends), if their light never shines. I think, if the 4th one does not work, I'll simply respond to their standard quality-assurance E-Mail and see if that actually does anything while I continue to replace PS's. This of course is assuming they don't actually solve the problem. Eventually, I suppose, I'll just have to break their rules and swap-out the fans: But I'm not there yet.

 

[P5-133XL]

The machine isn't critical and even beyond that, it runs fine with the old PS because it is only a noisey fan and they commonly operate for months like that before failure. Replacing the PS with a standard is not possible -- Dell likes to run custom wiring to the MB to ensure that both the PS and MB have to be purchased from Dell and further, I'm really not interested in rewiring and drillling out new mounting holes, so I could use a standard PS. The easy solution is simply spend 15 minutes to actually take apart the two PS's and swap fans.

Surely, their little light bulb will shine again because it is costing them far more than me with each PS replacement. Even if they have a reimbursement contract for failed parts, they still have to pay for one-day two-way shipping. If I was really interested in burning them, I could be insisting on on-site repair but it is much more convienant and quicker to actually replace the part myself.

But really, Dell is a giant company, I can't be the only one that is having this problem and surely they have managers that monitor for this type of problem but even if they don't, the bottom tech guys should have standing orders to bump-up problems so that they can be solved before both destroying Dells reputation and profitability.

I have 270+ days of warrentee left and thats a lot of replacement PS's ( at one per day, excluding weekends), if their light never shines. I think, if the 4th one does not work, I'll simply respond to their standard quality-assurance E-Mail and see if that actually does anything while I continue to replace PS's. This of course is assuming they don't actually solve the problem. Eventually, I suppose, I'll just have to break their rules and swap-out the fans: But I'm not there yet.

 

[P5-133XL]

Feel free to delete the duplicate post and this one too...

 

[P5-133XL]

It appears that Dell was sending me the correct PS's, but they were switched to 240V operation. They refused to allow me to switch it myself (It had a seal over the switch), but I did anyway and by golly, it worked.

What a pain, for such a simple solution.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't know. I think it's pretty damned funny. At least you got them to send you something. I had no idea that you need to be a Dell Certified so-and-so to flip a rocker on the back of a PSU.

 

[Sol]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn you have to be a certified electrician in Australia... You do to wire a CAT5 cable and that has almost nothing to do with electricity... Next they'll require a qualified plumber to install case fans...

...Yeah, O.K I think I went a bit off topic there...

 

[Buck]

Interestingly, the few in warranty Dell systems that I've worked on where the customer was worried about keeping their warranty intact, called Dell and asked them if my monkeying around in the system would void the warranty. Apparently, since I'm a reseller with a busines license, the warranty was not void.

 

[emitlive]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn you have to be a certified electrician in Australia... You do to wire a CAT5 cable and that has almost nothing to do with electricity...

Complete bullshit. AFAICS, people-with-a-vested-interest have interpreted "connected to a telecommunications network" as applying to home/office data cabling. Your certified equipment (DSL/Cable modem) connects to the telecommunications network, your private 'Ethernet' network doesn't.

 

[emitlive]

Interestingly, the few in warranty Dell systems that I've worked on where the customer was worried about keeping their warranty intact, called Dell and asked them if my monkeying around in the system would void the warranty. Apparently, since I'm a reseller with a busines license, the warranty was not void.

Of course not, that would be Restraint Of Trade - look it up.

 

[Mercutio]

I just spent an hour and a half replacing the system fan in an Inspiron 8200. Every single other component in the system had to come out to replace a part that probably cost $2.00.

The sad thing is, I had the old fan completely off and out of the system in about 10 minutes. I spent the rest of the time trying to figure out where the hell the power plugs for the new one went. Winner is: under the motherboard. You know, the side that doesn't have any other components on it.

Grrr.

 

[emitlive]

If you weren't familiar with an 8200, why did you yank something out without first noting the connections?

 

[Mercutio]

I'm not the person who started the work. I'm the person who finished it.

 

[emitlive]

http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins8200/en/

See: Dell Inspiron 8200 Support - Service Manual - Removing and Replacing Parts - Fan

http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins8200/en/sm_en/fan.htm#1084976

 

[Mercutio]

Doesn't do much good when the only PC available is in pieces in front of you.

 

[Tannin]

Every single other component in the system had to come out to replace a part that probably cost $2.00.

Classsic Dell. They must spend a lot of money training people specially so that they can design stuff with that distinctive Dell touch. Or possibly they just hire them away from HP/Compaq and/or Packard Bell.

 

[timwhit]

If you weren't familiar with an 8200, why did you yank something out without first noting the connections?

The Jerk Store called, and they said that they ran out of you

You're having a great first day. It seems you have already pissed off half the forum.

 

[Bozo]

More than half...


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Will Rickards]

anybody read his nick backwards.... evil time?
Is it just a sock puppet?

 

[Bozo]

Maybe he's related to fuckbag


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Will Rickards]

I was thinking more of related to member time, an evil sock puppet perhaps. Time hasn't posted since feb 18th if my search results are correct.

 

[Tannin]

Time has always been an on-and-off sort of poster. He drifts in, gets involved, posts quite a bit for a while, wanders off when other things distract him (or, more likely, when pressure of work and family deny him time to visit), then pops back in again a while later. As ever, I'll look forward to his next return.

 

[Sol]

Complete bullshit. AFAICS, people-with-a-vested-interest have interpreted "connected to a telecommunications network" as applying to home/office data cabling. Your certified equipment (DSL/Cable modem) connects to the telecommunications network, your private 'Ethernet' network doesn't.

I was pretty sure it has more to do with requiring some sort of certification before going poking arround in wall cavities which may have exposed or partially exposed 240V wireing... But you could be right... Regardless of the correctness of that interpretation it still does tend to be a pain at times...