The GREATEST Customer Support EVER
Many of us know that good customer service is hard to find and the ever increasing number of overseas support teams makes the experience all the more aggravating. With all the complaints companies must hear about overseas tech support I am suprised cost is more important than customer satisfaction. It would make sense that a customer would become more aggravated when they are having a problem, having to hear a solution they dont understand, and even worse when they can’t understand what that person is saying. I am in no way speaking about the abilities and intelligence of people from other nations, just that accents can be a big barrier for communication. I have developed hearing problems from equipment I have used and from what I have heard may be passed down from my grandfather. This hearing problem I have makes it very difficult for me to hear certain pitches. I can be standing close to you and have a hard time hearing you because of the pitch of your voice. Background noise also effects that. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female if the pitch of your voice drops or increases to just the right level you will get a “Repeat that please” or “What?”.
Anyway back to the main topic. In December 2003 I purchased a Dell 1800FP UltraSharp monitor for $400 shipped off of eBay. At the time the going price for the monitor was $460. The monitor was great, no ghosting or any other problems; at least until August of 2004. In August of 2004 the monitor completely died on me. I searched and searched and came up with nothing. I called Dell and asked them to fix it, but because the warranty was not transferred to me they said nothing could be done. I tried to contact the seller but that did nothing but get me in touch with someone that said he had been using their cell phone.
I finally found out that it was the internal power supply which you cannot buy from Dell seperately. A group of people found that you can replace the psu with an LG one, which was matched using FCC documents. After moving to California and back and not having it fixed in that time I found a company that you can purchase refurbished power supplies from and just never got around to ordering it. About a week ago I mentioned something in a post about how I wanted to get it fixed and that is where it all started.
I recieved a comment from a fellow named John Blain, a Dell employee who is a customer advocate. He threw out the idea that it might be a power cable, but that was the first thing I checked. I sent him an email outlining what happened; how I was told I could not get it fixed because the warranty was not transferred and so on. He returned asking me for my service tag, which was never on the monitor. I was able to forward a copy of the email I recieved from eBay when I won the auction. In his reply he said the following, “The attachment was instrumental in finding the identity of the person who sold it to you.” and continued to tell me how there was a problem with his account that kept him from doing anything, but he felt something could be done. Keep in mind that his reply to my email was sent on Monday, November 20, 2006; 1 week and a few emails later I recieved an email stating it was shipped. Today, November 28, 2006 I recieved a 1907FP. The box was labeled refurbished, but how can I complain. The 1800FP was no longer produced and since my monitor had a 3yr warranty I was given a replacement. The 1907 is a huge improvement, 1 inch larger, rotates in just the right places and you can change the height with 2 fingers.
None of this would be possible without the help of John. So to anyone having Dell problems take a look at the following link and send them an email. If they try to contact you I think you should work with them, whether it is Dells way of trying to get more customers or just keep the ones they have the end result is most likely going to benefit you.
http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/11/19/3648.aspx
To John, Thanks for all of your help, it is suprising how much such a small gesture can mean to one person.
