Eric, Ok, I have to chime in here a little and to give some ideas on what I do to get quick and timely support. Just about a week ago I had to call Dell support to get 3 bad parts swapped out from 3 different computers. I was on the phone for less than 20 minutes and I got all the parts the next day. So how do I manage this when I call a big company like Dell or Gateway? There are a few things you can do that will greatly speed up the process. First when you get to the first level support guys I always tell them what is
wrong and why I know what the problem is. Don't give them the chance to ask you if the power cord is in and the power is turned on, there is no reason that corporate IT people need to go through this and make sure they know
this. Now don't go about it rudely, but let them know that you are knowledgeable and you already know what the problem is. Don't be afraid to ask for the next level of support, face it the Level 1 support guys are working off a
cheat sheet for trouble-shooting problems, the higher level's of support are going to be more knowledgeable and they will be able to tell you are also. If you still aren't getting anywhere, you have a couple of I've had to call Dell and Gateway support a number of times, and I've never spent more than 30 minutes talking to anybody (I'm not counting queue times in here). The above are a few of the techniques I've used to get the support I need in a timely manner. Now as far as not getting the parts in a timely manner, that's a little more difficult as you are at the mercy of stock levels. I've never had a problem here either, but then I haven't had to deal with older legacy systems with the manufacture, almost entirely new systems...the older systems were usually out of warranty and I went elsewhere for replacement parts. Hope this gives you guys some ideas. Andrew Moffitt Andrew, Thanks for writing again. As always, you have provided some additional insight and recommendations on how to approach this problem. I do want to follow-up a little on the final resolution to my problem with Dell from earlier in the week. I called in my problem last Thursday (December 28, 2000). After finally getting Dell to agree to send out a new motherboard, it was finally replaced yesterday (January 3, 2000) at 3 PM and it fixed the problem. Now as far as their next business day support arrangement, I called on a Thursday and it didn’t arrive Friday (the next day). On Tuesday afternoon (January 2) around 4:30 PM I received a call from one of Dell’s contract minions indicating that they would come out the following day (January 3) between 1 and 2:30. They did succeed on showing up at about 2:35 and I was up and running in less than 30 minutes. As you can see, even being generous and saying that Friday, December 29 was not possible because I called too late in the day on the 28th (which I didn’t, I called at 1 PM Pacific Time....of course it took them until 9 PM Pacific Time to agree that I needed the new part) and presuming that January 1, 2001 was a holiday (which it was)....then the system should have been fixed by January 2, 2001. They still have their unbroken streak going of now 36 calls into Dell without next day service. What a surprise. Eric Svetcov Please send your questions and comments on this or any other letter or article to letters@IThell.com. |