I have a premium service contract with Dell. and am supposed to have next day repairs at my home.
My computer has not been charging since last Wednesday .Dell has made me run around in circles about this. Have other people had such lack of service with Dell?
1 Like
I used to have a business service contract with Dell. In general, they have been excellent on providing service.
Dell use regional contractors to handle the servicing, so the experience may vary a bit, but they all have to strictly adhere to procedures laid out & controlled by Dell.
When you say they had you running around in circles, what stage are you at? Have you had someone asking you to take steps to isolate what the problem is before they come out, or have they already been out to you?
2 Likes
In general most companies walk their customers through ‘self diagnosis’ prior to sending a tech. It is a win-win because it might be instant gratification if it works, and if it doesn’t it might inform what bits a tech needs to bring. In cases the field repair will be a new motherboard, or a replacement computer with the old storage, or the whole works.
Not charging can be the power brick, the power charging plug, the sensor that detects the charger and kicks in the charging process, the bits in the motherboard that manage charging, and the battery. It seems fairly straight forward but if parts are not locally on hand do they make 1 or more visits, or delay until all the possible parts are in the bag?
Depending on your answers to the questions, that could be part of what you are experiencing.
3 Likes
I have had various levels of service from Dell over the years from very good where they went the extra mile down to inferior where they began offering silly solutions that just couldn’t work but eventually got it done. About par for the course for the industry.
1 Like
Welcome @At-end-of-the-tether to the Community. I hope you find your time here very worthwhile and continue to be an active part of the community.
The following is only general advice, I am not a legal expert and so cannot give you formal advice.
As it is a contract for next day in home service, they seem to be breaking the ACL (Australian Consumer Law) requirements. It should only take them a few minutes on the phone to determine if you have it plugged in correctly. After that your contract should mean they send someone out to do the troubleshooting and if needed arrange repair or replacement.
The fact it isn’t charging is probably beyond most standard users to determine why. Remind Dell of their requirements under ACL, in writing (this can be email), phone calls are next to useless when arguing Consumer Law as they are almost without proof of what was discussed. Give them a reasonable time to respond (in this case probably 24 to 48 hours) and state what you want as a remedy eg come and repair it within 24 hours as per the contract. If they don’t respond you are probably within your rights to take it elsewhere to be repaired and charge Dell for the cost. If it is beyond economical repair you could seek replacement or refund of the computer. You can also seek refund of your contract cost and compensation for any loss you have suffered.
CHOICE offers free templates for emails/letters as does the ACCC. CHOICE members can get some advice on how to proceed by using the CHOICE Help service. You can also get free legal advice from many places that will help you decide what to do.
If after writing and you don’t receive a satisfactory resolution you can then go to your Office of Fair Trading and/or your Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Having the proof of that written contact with Dell is important to allow you to complain to these bodies.
1 Like
The Dell website(s) have variations on what next day service means. They may be playing the ‘lifetime warranty’ type of game where all is not necessarily as it seems, or expected.
The ‘premium’ support text I found indicates the customer must engage in remote troubleshooting and if Dell then decides a tech visit is required one will be dispatched ‘in 1-2 days’. This does not read like a next day onsite contract so I question if it is the support product @At-end-of-the-tether purchased.
There are other resource pages that appear to be addressing large customers with special contracts, possibly including resident techs and/or spares.
Then there is ProSupport for small to multinational businesses…
References to onsite service all state it is ‘depending on the service contract’ of which there seem multiple.
It would be helpful to know the service product and a link to the explicit Dell support contract to understand better.
3 Likes
The basic contract agreement is perhaps this linked one but nothing is certain as you noted until the full contract is known:
However @At-end-of-the-tether putting their complaint in a formal way and in writing is not going to harm the response they should get. If it has been a week already it would seem to me that the Dell service is lacking in it’s response and it’s obligations.
2 Likes
Good form suggests one has to complain about one’s contract, so prior to making suggestions I just want to understand what that is.
That certainly appears to be the overall timeline, although since it has not been charging since ‘last Wednesday’ we cannot ascertain when Dell was called, and then what transpired to
A letter of complaint has to state what was purchased citing chapter and verse as required, ‘my rights’, what went bad and how that relates to consumers rights, and the history.
I am inclined to expect that will be the case, yet without details of the contract and what has transpired, I cannot be sure either way.
2 Likes
