**I updated this post in April 2008 to remove the names of the people involved**

I have now created a category called Dell Technical Support Review

Every time I use Dell Technical support I write up my experience both good and bad. Hopefully this will help potential customers of Dell’s equipment get a feeling for the aftercare that is on offer.

Yesterday I was dealing with a Dell Optiplex GX280 Desktop that would not POST.

POST = Power On Self Test

There is not a lot you can do with a computer that wont POST.

So I travelled 23 miles to my customers site to investigate for myself this problem PC.

On arrival as the user described the PC would not POST. Optiplexes have an inbuilt mechanism that spins the fan super fast because if It cant POST it cant tell the temperature.

The noise of the Fan spinning so fast, loud and hard is to be almost frightening and not behaviour suitable for the call centre environment where I  carried out the inspection.

My inspection consisted of looking at the motherboard for signs of loose cables, faulty capacitors and to pinpoint which fan was causing the noise.

After this it was time to call Dell Technical Support.

My first tech was called **** (extension *****) I explained the symptoms and explained I had carried out an inspection. I asked **** to send me an engineer to site (under the terms of our next day on-site warranty).

Bare in mind we have a PC that will not boot up and when powered up causes an audible disruption as well as sounding like an appliance that is going to explode.

**** said unless I was prepared to start removing cables he wasn’t going to escalate this to an engineer.

Well based on the fact I clearly had a faulty machine I wasn’t prepared to start unplugging components on the motherboard and switching on the device.

My primary concern was the safety of those working near this device, as well as maintaining a sensible db level, after all this was a call centre.

**** and I could not come to an agreement, so I asked for this to be escalated to his manager.

About 10 mins later ****** *******, *****’ manager called me on-site. We have another 25 mins of debate about me carrying out more problem solving on what I consider an un-safe machine on their behalf.

****** made two crucial mistakes he said “If you were an end user, I wouldn’t ask you to do this”. Next, I asked ****** the crucial question “Is this computer safe” his response was “well I wouldn’t leave it switched on”.

Now I am glad this web site gets lots of attention from Dell, so I know your listening (see above).

First of all that is clearly discrimination by class of user.

To explain that in context, I visited site on behalf on my Client, not Dell.

Dell don’t pay my fees to stick my hands into faulty electrical appliances.

What I did to help?

I travelled 23miles to the clients site.

I  observed the fault for myself.

I carried out an an initial examination to ensure we would not be wasting Dell’s time.

The computer was dead, It’s now Dell’s Problem.

I ultimately decide what I am prepared to do with my skills not Dell.

After four phone calls over the space of an hour, ****** eventually conceded and agreed to send an engineer to site, as per my original request.

He wasn’t happy about it and neither am I.

The kicker is Dell offer two levels of support, normal next business day on-site, and Gold Technical support.

This problem PC was covered by Gold Technical Support, the enhanced support offering from Dell.

I am in a one word….disappointed.

If anyone from Dell wants to comment please do so in the comments.