Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Dell
New Orleans, Louisiana
United States

I bought a laptop in the summer of 2006 to use for school. I had to have the unit serviced the following year because the screen refused to turn on. After arguing with tech support in India for an hour and telling them I just wanted to send the unit in for repair, they agreed and I was out $600. Inconvenient, but not the reason I will never buy a dell again.

I got a virus on my computer in the middle of August 2008. I took it to best buy to get it serviced and they said I needed a system restore disk because they couldn't repair.

I called Dell. I told them I needed a system restore disk because my computer had a virus and I wanted to start from scratch. They told me they did not have system restore disks (wtf?) but I could purchase an operating system upgrade that would do essentially the same thing for the low low price of $100. I agreed to the extortion because I needed it fixed. Dell sent me an XP home upgrade. My computer already had XP home.

I called back. The next person I spoke to told me they did not know why I was told Dell did not have system restore disks, of course they had them and they would ship me one for the low price of $35. I agreed. That time I was sent a backup utility to save my files, which I had specifically told the rep I did not need.

Three weeks later, I was no closer to finding the right disk. I called Dell for a return, and the customer service rep treated me like an idiot. Why did I want to return the products? Why was I sent these items? Maybe because an operating system upgrade and a backup utility ARE NOT SYSTEM RESTORE DISKS.

I dread calling Dell customer service. The waits are always so long and the reps obviously do not understand what I need. Thanks to their incompetence, I missed out on three weeks of law school notes. I shelled out the money and got a Toshiba.

Dell sucks. Their products suck but their real downfall is their customer service. I realize it is cheaper to use call centers in Bangalore, but I paid a lot of money to have someone competent answer my complaints. At least I got my $135 back