The 7th level of Dell Hell
Now I remember why I hate calling into tech support, and why I built my own computers back in the day. Today I spent a total of three hours going back and forth with Dell support. Why? I wanted to get the 64-bit Vista Home Premium disk sent to me. Microsoft has a program in place where you can request the 64-bit edition of Home Premium and only have to pay for the shipping, so I figured I would go ahead and take advantage of that so I could get the most out of the machine I have. I did some research in the Dell forums prior to calling in, so I knew that they were in fact doing this for customers. So, I placed a call. I had a case number since I had called in on Friday and the customer care center was closed, so I figured there wasn’t much to do other than to give them some information and get the disks out to me. Boy, was I wrong.
The first person I get in the customer care center totally misunderstood my request. They thought I was trying to locate the product key for my machine. I had to tell her three times that I knew where the key was, I had it written down, and that all I’m looking to do is to get the 64-bit edition sent to me. She tells me to contact Microsoft. The product key doesn’t work in their little web app because the Vista I have was an OEM edition, which I told her. She again tried to tell me where the key was, and I was getting upset at this point. I told her fine, I’d try Microsoft but guaranteed that in an hour I’d be calling back. I hang up, and an hour later, I call back in.
The second person I get, once again in the customer care center, was still misunderstanding my request and didn’t have a clue as to what I was asking. He told me that I could call back in an hour, or he could transfer me to technical support. I took the tech support option, because I knew I’d have to go through all of these hoops yet again. I hit tech support, and finally… finally… someone understands what I’m doing. The tech checked with his ‘manager’ and said that since I was a first time caller (I never had to call tech support, ever), that he would send the CD out, but that they typically aren’t doing this for customers (bzzt, wrong, I have documented proof that you are), and I got a dispatch number and a few confirmation emails.
The end result is that the 64-bit media is on the way to the house, but I had to fight tooth-and-nail to get it. According to the site, they’re overnighting it, which is a nice touch. I had mentioned to the tech that I had gone through hell, so I guess that’s how they’re making it up to me. At any rate, I really hope nothing else happens to this box before it goes out of warranty, I dread having to call Dell Hell again.
