Okay, we’ll start off with fair warning: today’s post will consist largely of self-indulgent whining and complaining, with very little in the way of new insight or anything meaningful or of value to anyone. Mostly it’s just catharsis for me, and possibly a little for you if you’ve had to deal with a tech support person lately.
So, with that disclaimer out of the way, lets begin with some background. I use a Dell laptop, an XPS M1330 to be specific. Overall, I love it. It’s light, it’s extremely thin, and it’s powerful enough for all of my film editing and gaming needs.
I do have one problem with it, however: the reliability of the hardware itself. Last December (2007), six months after I’d purchased it, the system board unexpectedly died. I contacted the special XPS tech support line, where I was surprised to have my call answered by a real person on the second ring. He arranged for my system to be sent back to Dell, repaired, and returned to me, all free, under warranty. The whole process took about seven days. I decided I’d just had some bad luck and was pleased with the fast response time I’d received. Jump ahead one year, almost to the day. On Saturday, December 27th I entered my room to discover that the system board in my laptop had once again died. Clearly there is a problem with this part, as I am extremely careful of my electronics, the unit had never been dropped or abused, hadn’t even been placed on soft surfaces like couches or beds (which can cause excess dust buildup inside the unit). Yet the part had failed again. I immediately picked up the phone, expecting the same quick resolution I had received previously. But that’s not what I got. Instead, I was placed on hold. I should mention here that, just six days prior to this event, I had spent a combined total of nearly two hours on hold with United Airlines, trying to track down a piece of luggage they had lost, so my patience for the whole customer “service” / tech support thing was already wearing thin. Thirty minutes later, I finally got to talk to a representative. I explained my problem and, to his credit, he did a good job of trying to diagnose the issue and then decided that the unit would have to be sent in. The issue here was that in seven days I would be leaving Canada to work in the US for three months. The computer would be unlikely to be returned to me before I had to leave, and they were unable to ship it over the border. I had to keeping the non-working unit and carry it with me into the US and then call tech support back again, dial the extension I was given, and then repair in the US could be arranged.
I arrived in the US on Sunday, January 4th (days without PC – 8). The first thing I did upon arriving at my hotel was call the tech support number and extension. And I was greeted by a voicemail box. So I left all the pertinent information, as instructed, and waited to be contacted. On Tuesday I repeated this process. On Wednesday I tried the e-mail link for unresolved tech support issues. On Thursday I got an e-mail saying they were “sorry, but this is a technical support question. Please call our tech support hotline”. Of course it’s a tech question! This was the tech e-mail! You even asked for my tech support case number! At this point I gave up on doing what I had been told and just called the tech support line again and sat on hold, again. 35 minutes later I spoke with another agent and, after about 20 minutes of jumping between talking and being put on hold again, arranged for the box which I needed to return my computer to be sent to my hotel.
The box arrived at my hotel shortly before 9 the next morning (days without PC – 13), while I was at work, so it was waiting for me when I got home. I had just enough time to pack up my computer and drive to the FedEx drop off box before the daily pickup was scheduled to take place. Since I arrived at the drop off box literally two minutes before it was supposed to be collected, I decided to wait see if the truck would come (don’t ask me why). About five minutes later it did. I sat in my car three stalls away and watched as the driver got out, opened the box, rearranged several packages inside (mine included) and began talking to himself quite loudly. My car windows were closed so, unfortunately I couldn’t make out the words, but he was clearly upset about something. He removed one envelope-type package, closed the box and went into the back of his truck, doing whatever it is he does. I assumed he would return for the bigger packages. I was wrong. After finishing with the small one, he just got behind the wheel and drove off, before I could even get out to stop or question him.
I returned to the hotel room and called the FedEx customer “service” number. Here my call was at least answered quickly, without first being put on hold. I told my story first to the call center agent, who then transferred me to the regional dispatcher, who then transferred me to someone else who didn’t reveal his position. This person all but told me straight out that I was wrong, that there was no way that my package had been left behind, and refused to contact the driver to see if there was any possible reason why a package would be left behind. Dissatisfied with this answer, I called back later and was told by a different call center agent that the driver would be had been told to return to pick up the packages, but that they were unsure when this would occur. I’m not sure if there was any truth to this, or if it was just being said to placate me. Regardless, I’m more than tempted to return to the site tonight and wait and see if my package still resides within the pickup box, or if it was, indeed, picked up on Friday.
UPDATE: I did, in fact, go back to ensure that my package had been taken. Sure enough, when the box was opened, my package was gone. I guess they weren’t lying and actually did send the driver back.
So now we’re caught up to today, Monday, January 12 (days without PC – 16). And that is why I am currently fed up with tech support. Over the past several weeks I have spent entirely too much time sitting on the phone, waiting on hold, being treated like I don’t know what I’m talking about, and just generally trying to correct problems that weren’t my fault to begin with and that I shouldn’t have to deal with. There’s really got to be a better way, but at this point, I’ll settle for just getting my stuff back in working order and going back to avoiding tech support at all costs.
UPDATE 2: I got the package with my laptop in it back yesterday, Friday January 16th. I turned it on, only to discover that it had not been fixed. I called tech support again and after nearly an hour on the phone (though, thankfully, only about 10-15 minutes on hold) they arranged to have a technician come out to my place to fix it, rather than me having to send it in again. He should be here sometime in the first half of next week. (days without PC - 21)
UPDATE 3: I received a phone call from the repair guy yesterday, Wednesday Jan. 21, saying that he would give me a call after 4:00 and be over to fix my computer. The second call never came. This morning, Jan. 22, I called him back, and was told the same thing. When he didn't call back by 4:30, I called him again, an he said he would be over aroud 7:00. 7:00 came and, shortly thereafter, he arrived. I'm now typing this on my own computer, which appears to be as good as new. The saga is over. All told, I was without a computer for a total of 26 days.
Sleep well,
DTE
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Songs of the Moment:
Metric – Help, I’m Alive; Ten Second Epic – Life Times; Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Music while I wrote:
Michael Giacchino – Lost Season 1
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