Outsourcing Tech Support to India

Yes.

And its even better dealing with it in person. If people wonder why I don't have much patience, its because I exhaust my daily supply at the office.

Sunny

P.S. please note absence of smilies

 

Yea, this is an Inspiron 5150. Not sure if you want me to look further into the status of the issue. I might have a friend or two that can look into it.

You have to understand, the guys in India have their own scripts and if you inquire about something outside of the questions they have and their responses they have pre-scripted, then you will get the pre-scripted responses anyways. In other words, start - run - SOL.exe. (that brings up solitaire actually)

The Indian guy is referring to BancTek, which does the onsight service for DESKTOPS in homes. Even the notebooks that are done in home/offices are done by Wang or another outsourced unit.

 

Buy an IBM/Lenovo...you will get a live person in Atlanta!

 

Too bad you got 'Delled' over a fan that you could have purchased at any computer retailer for ten dollars and replaced it yourself in five minutes. Dell is a classic example of which the CEO's (of these large companies) have NEVER bothered to call in to the support centers and go through waits from hell and a pathetic experience with poor languange.

Here's the drill for corporate America:

Get your business by the efforts of people with a good command of the English language (Except for Fry's) and lay you away for all customer and technoical support in a country where their employee's can't pronounce the words "Good Day".

When I call Dell and hear "Hello, my dame is gapathuravitavitavegamin, howd mayd I'd gib you excellent serbice today" I want to yell out and say LEARN THE ENGLISH LANUAGE, DAMN IT"!!!!!!!!!

 

I agree. I switched to IBM (Thanks Adam). Haven't needed service either.
Hey Adam, did you ever get Bluetooth to work in 430??
Dealer here had probs with another 430 too....

 

Right. They'd probably reimburse you for it too. Some things just aren't worth the headaches.

 

Cheap labor... it costs Dell say $6 to staff a tech support guy in the US when they can do the same thing for $1 in India.

Besides... buying a pc from a big name company was your first mistake.

 

The fan is beyond simple to replace. Power down and plug in a new one (Once you have taken the old one out and matched the size, voltage and current draw). Every computer I buy, I always buy a fan with more CFM than what's in it from the factory. The extra current required for a higher CFM fan has never hurt the system's performance.

Fans are a problem with most all manufacturer's (of the fan), as they are ALL hand made. About the only automated equipment a fan manufacturer has are auto-winders for the stators. In today's hi-tech manufacturing environment, fans are real 'stone age' as far as production is concerned.

 

Find me a Tech guy in the US for $6 and hour (I presummed you meant $6 per hour) and I'll hire him right now to do all of my IT for $10!

 

I had a similar issue with a Compaq laptop. The screen died at least 3 times and it was outside of the 1 year warranty, but inside the 90-day warranty they give on repaired parts. The stupid woman in India refused to honor the warranty. I had called on the 90th day (expecting other problems with the laptop). I asked that she make a note of the incident which she said she did. Of course, the next day, no record of this incident. In the end, Compaq refused to cover it under warranty. I was livid. Never again with Compaq.

What I don't get is that if these people are just giving scripted responses, what function do they serve? Can't this be automated on a website??? I think Dell just wants to have a live body on the other end of the phone in an (erroneous) belief that talking to someone will placate customers. On the contrary, dealing with these sorts of people will enrage customers.

Dell is even outsourcing their sales now! It used to be only for home but now it's for small business too. The last time I tried to buy something on my Dell credit account I got some guy in India who didn't seem to give a crap about my order, even though it was for 3 computers. I have also had 2 orders "lost" even though I got a confirmation email - they claimed they never got them.

Sadly, I don't think anyone could out-compete Dell because we're all so used to the low low prices.

 

It has become the Wal-Mart of computers.

The Dell notebooks will never be like an IBM. The guys who source the parts and configure them know it. It isn't supposed to be the best out there, only a good one for the dollar.

Tim, the offer still stands, or else, just ask for a manager and don't say anything else until you get on the phone with a manager.

 

Yes I meant you can hire one and pay then $6 an hour.

 

Yep, I've had the same problems too, only mine were with Earthlink. My DSL was up perhaps an hour a day, and all calls to 'tech support' were overseas burger flippers reading a script.

In hindsight, the script was pretty classic (cycle power & call back, etc), but what got me in the end was the guy telling me my satellite TV was interfering with the their signal, and I needed to call and have their technician come to my house. Huh? That part of the script should have asked about phone line filters, but there was zero knowledge on the other end of the line that call, so telling him everything else was unpluged and off made no difference. And no, you can't go backwards in the script!

Yep, I fired them. But I still get aggravated by the 100% American faces on the Earthlink TV ads - it's a total lie. They seem like nice folks, too bad they are about to lose their jobs.

It's a sad reality really, once good companies going the way of Wal-Mart.

 

Got the BlueTooth to work...not well, but it does work.

 

You've got one helluva memory!

 

I had the same problem with my Compaq laptop with the screen dying outside warranty. Luckily the service people are based around the corner from us. Unfortunately, the mother board went faulty at the same time, total quote $1100 NZ to repair.

Compaq wouldn't do anything about it even though I paid $5000 NZ (equivalent of about $3500 US) for it. I was told that because I used it for business I wouldn't be able to claim anything just outside warranty.

 

Did they furnish that in writing? Two words: Smear campaign.

Sunny

 

Tim, talk to a manager. Ask them to send call tags. That means they'll ship out the box to your current address.