Why I won't recommend Dell (even thought I like their product)
Over the past year or so, Dell has offshored most of their tech support to Bangalore, India. Now I understand that a company has a bottom line, and must make a profit to survive. But. Dell may teach their support folks (some) English, but they are woefully tech-ignorant, and are obviously going from a scriptbook.
Example: a work-related call two weeks ago. Video is bad. It's built into the motherboard, so I need a new motherboard. After going through the name, address, number rigmarole, I told him the problem, and what I needed. The following conversation ensued:
Tech: (long pause)That model has integrated video.
Me: Yes.
Tech: (another long pause, visions of flipping pages)Have you tried re-seating the video card?
Me: *sigh* The video is integrated.
It went downhill from there. An hour and a half later, I finally got him to send the motherboard I needed. "Lather, rinse, repeat" for the second PC for which I needed a motherboard.
Unfortunately this has become typical for Dell. I think that this kind of short-term thinking is going to come back and bite Dell, and other companies who implement the same policy, in the butt.
I love Dell computers, but, for just this reason, I won't recommend them to non-techies anymore.
Dell may save money in the short run, but will that make up for the long-term loss of customer loyalty/return business?
UPDATE: Dell has moved their support department back stateside. ALL HAIL THE POWER OF THE BLOGOSPHERE! heh.
