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I (finally) stopped being lazy and contacted Dell about problems with both of our laptops. My keyboard wouldn't light up (never has), and my gf's had a bad GPU (or so I thought). In the past, I'd heard Dell's support was lacking, but I had three great techs handle me.
Tech One: I used the online chat support, and got a guy in India. Unlike some people, I have no problem with this. Mostly because there's a good chance you're talking to someone with a master's degree, and won't start the conversation with "Let's reinstall WIndows". He remotes in, and starts messing around. After about two hours of trying just about everything imaginable, he also decides it's probably a bad GPU. He sets up a home service call to have a tech come out to my house and fix it. Then he spends about an hour on my laptop (he had to call for mine, since he had me going into the BIOS) before deciding the KB is bad. He asks if I would want to replace it myself if they send me a new one, and I'm all "hellz yeah!". So he has one sent to me. (This story may not sound impressive to the reader, but the tech was really awesome. Especially when you figure in that it was a three hour service call.)
Tech Two: The guy who came out to my house. The 2-3 business days I would be contacted in turned out to be one. Impressive. He does some quick troubleshooting, then replaces the card. While he's doing that my new keyboard arrives. He said he'd replace it while the other laptop was rebooting. (Funny twist - the KB wasn't bad. Whoever assembled the laptop missed connecting one of the cables. He still installed the new KB.) He also took the other KB with him, so I wouldn't have to call FedEx to come pick up the old one. The other laptop still wasn't working right, so it wasn't the GPU. He ended up having to tell me to call support with a case number, so they could figure out what was wrong. (I got the impression he's allowed to go fix things, but not make decisions on what to do if the fix doesn't work. Not his fault.) I chatted with him the time he was here, and it was obvious he was a Computer Guy, and not just some guy who goes out to replace parts because it's a job. He also gets bonus points for not being anooyed by my cat who just *had* to see what he was doing.
Interlude: I called Dell with the case number, and the person I spoke to gave me a new number to call in the future. Seems XPS customers get their own (dare I say special) tech support. I was then transferred to...
Tech Three: He starts piddling around in the laptop (from remote). After hearing my detailed story/explanations of what all I had done, and my diagnosis of what was needed, he asked "I take it you're pretty familiar with this stuff?" When I responded "Oh yeah", I could almost hear the voice in his head yelling "Schweet!" The guy not only knew his software, but his hardware. He spent two hours on the phone with me, most of it dead time waiting for the computer to reboot. He eventually had me re-install Windows (which we both knew wasn't going to help, but you *know* they weren't going to authorise sending it back without doing it). He sarts setting things up to send it back. And apologising. Expalins how it will be a few days before I get the box, and then be a week for it to get fixed. And apologises. Gives me some more number for the case and stuff. More app]ologies. I finally told him that he didn't need to keep apologising. That I expected to have to send it back since I first contacted Dell. And that shit happens. It's not his fault. And that I thought their tech support had been really awesome the past few days.
All three of these guys were great. I'll probably spring for the extended warranty/support now, just because I know I'll get people who know their stuff.
Tech One: I used the online chat support, and got a guy in India. Unlike some people, I have no problem with this. Mostly because there's a good chance you're talking to someone with a master's degree, and won't start the conversation with "Let's reinstall WIndows". He remotes in, and starts messing around. After about two hours of trying just about everything imaginable, he also decides it's probably a bad GPU. He sets up a home service call to have a tech come out to my house and fix it. Then he spends about an hour on my laptop (he had to call for mine, since he had me going into the BIOS) before deciding the KB is bad. He asks if I would want to replace it myself if they send me a new one, and I'm all "hellz yeah!". So he has one sent to me. (This story may not sound impressive to the reader, but the tech was really awesome. Especially when you figure in that it was a three hour service call.)
Tech Two: The guy who came out to my house. The 2-3 business days I would be contacted in turned out to be one. Impressive. He does some quick troubleshooting, then replaces the card. While he's doing that my new keyboard arrives. He said he'd replace it while the other laptop was rebooting. (Funny twist - the KB wasn't bad. Whoever assembled the laptop missed connecting one of the cables. He still installed the new KB.) He also took the other KB with him, so I wouldn't have to call FedEx to come pick up the old one. The other laptop still wasn't working right, so it wasn't the GPU. He ended up having to tell me to call support with a case number, so they could figure out what was wrong. (I got the impression he's allowed to go fix things, but not make decisions on what to do if the fix doesn't work. Not his fault.) I chatted with him the time he was here, and it was obvious he was a Computer Guy, and not just some guy who goes out to replace parts because it's a job. He also gets bonus points for not being anooyed by my cat who just *had* to see what he was doing.
Interlude: I called Dell with the case number, and the person I spoke to gave me a new number to call in the future. Seems XPS customers get their own (dare I say special) tech support. I was then transferred to...
Tech Three: He starts piddling around in the laptop (from remote). After hearing my detailed story/explanations of what all I had done, and my diagnosis of what was needed, he asked "I take it you're pretty familiar with this stuff?" When I responded "Oh yeah", I could almost hear the voice in his head yelling "Schweet!" The guy not only knew his software, but his hardware. He spent two hours on the phone with me, most of it dead time waiting for the computer to reboot. He eventually had me re-install Windows (which we both knew wasn't going to help, but you *know* they weren't going to authorise sending it back without doing it). He sarts setting things up to send it back. And apologising. Expalins how it will be a few days before I get the box, and then be a week for it to get fixed. And apologises. Gives me some more number for the case and stuff. More app]ologies. I finally told him that he didn't need to keep apologising. That I expected to have to send it back since I first contacted Dell. And that shit happens. It's not his fault. And that I thought their tech support had been really awesome the past few days.
All three of these guys were great. I'll probably spring for the extended warranty/support now, just because I know I'll get people who know their stuff.