Dell support: A mixed bag

Ok, so let’s begin at the end – I have no problem with Dell products, and as a business, we recommend and supply them on a regular basis. I’m typing this article out on my very own Dell laptop. This is not a “steer clear” article about Dell, it’s simply a review of the mixed bag of support we’ve had with them lately.

Around twelve months ago we went through a phase of supplying a decent number of Dell 3515 laptops. These are standard, budget business laptops. Overall, they’re good for most business users, particularly when on a budget. Fast forward six months onwards from them being purchased and we started to see hinge failures on them, in that the screen hinge would break and come away from the laptop, meaning the screen would not close/open properly. This has happened to pretty much every 3515 we supplied – clearly a design fault or hinge parts issue.

Under Dell warranty, we can of course get this problem resolved. Most of the time, it’s simply logging a case with Dell, we send the laptop off and a few days later it’s returned as good as new. This is what happened around 80% of the time.

Randomly though, you’d get a completely different experience. We’ve had an engineer sent out to do one of the repairs in our office for example. I have no issue with this, in fact, it’s a quicker repair, but it’s the lack of consistency which is the issue. We’d also get sometimes, where the line would be “This isn’t covered or isn’t under warranty” and we’d have to battle back and forth with Dell for a few days until they reach the conclusion that it is indeed a warranty repair. Again a clear lack of consistency, and a completely different experience to what happens the vast majority of the time.

We also had a recent battery failure in a Dell laptop which was less than six months old. This one was a real disco. Dell really didn’t want to know and was insisting it wasn’t a warranty repair (they claim batteries aren’t covered under warranty). Again we had to go back and forth, speak to Dell managers, provide proof of purchase, and a week later they finally acknowledge it is indeed a warranty repair. Two issues here, again it’s the lack of consistency but just as important, it’s the waste of time in getting there.

Dell, please take note, you must do better.

So, to the conclusion and what we can take from this: Lack of consistency is highly frustrating. 

We can take from this, that as an IT Support provider, we need to strive to provide a consistently exceptional experience to our customers each and every time they contact us. Does this mean there won’t be mistakes along the way? No, of course not. But we can still aim high and keep working towards being highly consistent each and every time.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions, an IT Support business covering Bromsgrove, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Don’t worry Dell, he still likes your hardware.