[jpatokal]

There's one missing piece in the story here:

I told him if [returning the laptop again is] the best solution that he can provide (customer care is not an iterative process), I would have no option but to pursue this through my university's legal department.

So what was the best solution that the complainer wanted? It seems like a replacement would have been a pretty reasonable thing to ask for at this point.

This, on the other hand, from one of the complainant's Facebook replies: In that case, please give me all the details of Prawin K from Dells Bangalore office so that I can sue him in India and the US.

Pro tip from someone running a support team: threatening legal action is usually a surefire way to cause your support case to screech to a grinding halt, since this requires that lawyers get called in and support engineers have to stop work until they've done their due diligence. What's more, the result of that due diligence may be "we'd prefer not to have you as a customer anymore, kthxbai".

Then again, this buffoon on Dell's side clearly hasn't received that particular memo: He simply told me that Dell was a very big company and had ample resources to outlast me and my university in a legal battle. Facepalm.

[jaredklewis]

For sure, I think the "complainer" here didn't handle things perfectly, but I am prepared to give him a lot of leeway considering what he has endured so far.

The fact that the issue persisted after the out-of-pocket repair, makes it obvious that the original product was defective. I know if I paid the price of laptop, was told it was my fault (when it wasn't), paid the price of a repair that didn't fix the issue, and was without the laptop for 60 days, I would be seeing red and probably prone to making belligerent statements.

After bungling so badly, Dell should be tripping over themselves to offer him a refund.

[at612]

That's funny. I had a problem with my ADSL connection that lasted for over a month. I spent two hours and forty minutes on the phone, spread over, IIRC, 15-20 calls, with the cycle going 1. "What's the problem", 2. "Blah (upstream network problem on their side)", 3. "Have you reset your modem?", 4. "Yes, and I've also done blah, blah, blah, and blah", 5. OK, can we call you back? 6. "Yes". 7. Go back to 1.

After three weeks of this my patience was running thin and, before reporting the company to the telecommunications regulator, I thought I would give them one last chance and (very politely) emailed the CEO. When I checked my phone half an hour latter I had three calls and two emails from the guy in charge of quality (this is, btw, one of the five biggest telecoms in the world). From this point, it took them three days to fix the problem (a network systems upgrade gone wrong, not trivial), and finally got an email from this quality guy on a Saturday at 19:30. The current CEO did say he was going to make customer support a priority, and it seems he took that to heart. Can't fault him (the quality guy appears to have taken a massive chewing, by the way).

I have to say, I did stay polite and sympathetic throughout. It is not the agents' fault that they have a shit CMS, and it's just not cool to be rude anyway.

Besides, I've got that customer support T-shirt, albeit on a very specialised industry, and I've learned that the customer is most definitely not King. We had a "difficult" user once, who kept wasting our time and being rude to the other guys (not me for some reason), and this ended with my boss calling the customer's boss and telling him he would cancel their licence if this guy calls again. The recalcitrant user got let go that same day.

[Terrorblade123]

I know that I that I did not handle this properly.

But I desperately needed this laptop working since I had two computational projects that were up for review.

What Dell does not understand is that for each trip my laptop takes to the depot, I am left without a laptop (these 2 months, for example). They said that this was not their problem, and compensating me for these hassles is not their headache.

[toomuchtodo]

I ask this only because I'm generously curious, and not out of any malice: has this incident caused you to reconsider Dell products and perhaps look at other manufacturers who might have handled this better, like Lenovo or Apple?

[Terrorblade123]

I will never buy anything branded with Dell, be it a laptop, monitor or even a mouse.

[Terrorblade123]

This is the thread:

This is in reference to the Better Business Bureau correspondence that reached our corporate office. We appreciate you taking the time to bring this issue to our attention. Thank you for taking time and discussing the issue with me today, I apologize for the delay in getting the system issue resolved, we will make sure this time the depot engineers work on the system technical issue, test the system functionality before shipping the system to you. We regret to inform you that we are unable to accommodate your request towards providing a new system replacement, a complete refund for the original system or only the out of warranty charge or extend hardware warranty for six months. Kindly understand that the option provide to you by us is the best option we can provide you. Request you to reply to my email if you are find with the option we have offered.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the issue discussed today, please do reply to this email or call me and I would be glad to assist you further.

[phil21]

When I owned a company anyone that threatened legal action like this was immediately fired as a customer.

A big company may be different though, as it's very easy for legitimate problems to be masked/enabled by the bureaucracy. When you're a small company you generally know all the details and we certainly erred on the side of the customer to an absurd degree.

Basically threatening legal action or abusing front-line support staff were the only ways to ensure you definitely did not get the outcome you wanted, and half the time the exact opposite.

The only appropriate time to discuss lawsuits is directly with opposing counsel (or executive management) prior to filing, or after you file.

[t27]

Hmm, yeah, that's possible. My friend's not a regular to HN, I'll definitely ask him to come up here and participate