Friday November 18th, 2005:
In my on going battle with Dell to get them to live up to their obligations, and actually do something about my sick computer; -I had gotten them to at least promise to have a Dell Canada service technician call me. This was supposed to be in 5 to 7 business days, which would mean I could not expect a call from them before this coming Monday.
Well last night someone actually called me. While I was out, of course.
Naturally she did not leave me her full name, or a contact number, which leaves me no option but to wait for a call back.
When I tried to get through to her this afternoon in a forlorn attempt to speed things up, I was balked by the person at the other end of the line at Dell Canada's (?) office. She forwarded me with the promise that I would be able to find my way to the extension of the person who had called me last night. But of course instead I ended up talking to one of those useless lumps in India. He "put me back in the queue", to try again to get through to the Canadian tech/rep. I got another useless lump in India instead, who soon started mouthing off about the warranty having expired in the mean time. I ended the conversation right there.
This leaves me waiting with growing frustration for a telephone call that probably won't come until next week, if it ever comes at all.
Let this be a warning to you all out there in cyberspace:
DO NOT BUY AN EXTENDED WARRANTY FROM DELL!!!!
The last time I checked, Dell USA and Dell Canada administer the first year of the computer's warranty, but after that it is overseen by a third party. It has taken me a lot of trouble to get as far as I have with Dell Canada up to this point, and I'm still not sure that I'm going to get any satisfaction after I finally do speak to someone from this country.
You might think that I would not recommend buying a Dell computer at all, after all this. But I don't know what to tell you at this point, other than that you should accept only a one year warranty from Dell. When you look at the ratings done by Consumers Union of all the computer manufacturers out there, you find that Dell comes in second only to Apple, for overall customer satisfaction. Considering my recent experiences with Dell, I do not find that very encouraging at all.
Who can you trust if you cannot or do not wish to build a computer yourself? As the ancient Romans once said: "Let the buyer beware"
) -We have to wait and see if there has been any damage, first.-
