I came home tonight to find several packages on my steps, one being the 24 inch monitor I ordered on Thursday. I was pleasantly surprised to see it delivered so soon. I took it into the house started doing my “just got home” routine. I had to get ready for my GMAT class, so I left the monitor for when I got home. By the time I got around to opening it, it was 9 PM.
I was a little concerned that the monitor wasn’t in another larger, protected box. I have been having a hell of time with our local UPS delivery team breaking stuff, so I was concerned – and I had a right to be: the monitor didn’t turn on. I don’t mean dark screen, I mean no power. I tried a different power cord. No luck….
I called Dell’s main line to start the exchange process. 30 minutes on hold with a ridiculous frustrating phone system that won’t allow you to use the numbers on the phone, it only took verbal command which it could not understand – I may have been raised in South Philadelphia, but I am quite sure I can say “Yes” just as clearly as the next Pakistani support technician (I am not stereotyping, I asked). Eventually I got in touch with a live person who took my information and transferred me. Having played this game before, while on hold, I went on their website to see if there was online support. There was. I was 9 back in a queue for support. As that number dwindled, the next technician got me on the phone: he took my information and transferred me. This happened one more time in rapid succession.
The next person I spoke with I quickly informed that this was my 4th transfer. He said he was in printer support but gave me a reference number and attempted to get me to the right person. He asked me if I wanted to speak to his manager, but since he was the most helpful, I said no, it wasn’t his fault he got the transfer. He moved me to another person. At this point I was #1 in the online support queue. Both online support and the next phone support person came up at the same time. I quickly pasted my order info to the online tech and talked to the girl who asked me if there was a “K” in “Joey”” (sigh). As she gathered my information, she kept insisting I was giving her the wrong serial number since she was expecting 20 and my Samsung serial was only 15. I read it from the back and the box. This seemed to fluster her.
The online support didn’t fare any better. Here is the transcript:
12/01/2009 08:48:07PM System: “Thanks for choosing chat for your technical support needs. A chat agent will be with you shortly. Just so you know, you can also visit our website at support.dell.com to get technical help.”
12/01/2009 08:50:07PM System: “Thanks so much for your patience. Chat agents are eager to help you with your troubleshooting needs, so stay on line and the next available representative will assist you.”
12/01/2009 09:02:25PM Session Started with Agent (Mohammed _194159)
12/01/2009 09:02:36PM Joey Lombardi: “Hello Mohammed”
12/01/2009 09:02:49PM Joey Lombardi: “Order Date: 11/26/2009
Dell Purchase ID: XXXX
Customer Number: XXXXXX
12/01/2009 09:03:02PM Joey Lombardi: “Order #: XXXXXXX
12/01/2009 09:03:09PM Joey Lombardi: “I just got my Samsung 24 inch monitor today and it does not turn on”
12/01/2009 09:04:22PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Sorry about that.”
12/01/2009 09:04:30PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “May i have the service tag of the monitor.”
12/01/2009 09:04:39PM Joey Lombardi: “It doesn’t have a service tag”
12/01/2009 09:05:32PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “You will find it at the back of the monitor.”
12/01/2009 09:05:46PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “It would be a 7 digit alphanumeric one.”
12/01/2009 09:06:36PM Joey Lombardi: “There is no sticker – I have the serial number, but no sticker with a service tag. Would it be on the box”
12/01/2009 09:07:55PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Yes you can check it.”
12/01/2009 09:08:40PM Joey Lombardi: “There isn’t anything 7 digit on the box”
12/01/2009 09:08:52PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Okay.”
12/01/2009 09:09:27PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Please give me few minutes.”
12/01/2009 09:09:36PM Joey Lombardi: “okay”
12/01/2009 09:11:23PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Joey i do see that the monitor belongs to a different support group.”
12/01/2009 09:11:33PM Joey Lombardi: “?”
12/01/2009 09:11:33PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Please stay connected while i transfer you to the Correct support group.”
12/01/2009 09:11:44PM Joey Lombardi: “Okay….”
12/01/2009 09:12:51PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “May i know the desktop that you are using .”
12/01/2009 09:13:26PM Joey Lombardi: “The desktop? It is custom made running windows xp”
12/01/2009 09:13:33PM Agent (Mohammed _194159): “Okay.”
12/01/2009 09:14:24PM Session Ended
With that my session ended – no transfer, no help. I still had my friend on the phone but she was equally flustered. She eventually transferred me and I finally hit the wall because the support line closed at 10 PM and it was now 10:30 PM. I took the service number she provided and attempted to use that to get better support with the online team. FAIL. For some reason they have me listed as small business support and they don’t work at night (which makes no sense on so many levels).
I guess I will wait tomorrow and start this miserable experience all over again. HOW HARD IS IT TO GET A SIMPLE REPLACEMENT (2 hours of my life wasted for this and still not resolved).
