The numbers behind the Dell lawsuit

As the big fish among computer manufacturers, Dell probably loomed large in the sights of New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, as he prepared to file suit against the company for misrepresenting its technical-support services, among other things. 

One focus of the suit is the poor response consumers allegedly get from Dell, particularly when they contact the company by phone. We took a look at the AG’s complaint to see how the allegations line up with our own recent survey results. Here are a few examples:

From the complaint: “Dell repeatedly places consumers who call Dell’s automated call center on hold for unreasonable lengths of time, or in some cases, simply abandons them altogether.” 

From our survey: 32% of the 6,300+ respondents to our survey who’d called Dell for tech support said they were on hold for an unreasonable amount of time. 

From the complaint: “After consumers have endured long wait times for a representative to come to the phone, [Dell representatives] repeatedly tell them that they have reached the wrong department  ... [and] repeatedly transfer consumers from one representative to the next.” 

From our survey: 30% said they were transferred to several different support staff.

From the complaint: “Although Dell’s automated telephone system often allows consumers to leave a message, [representatives] repeatedly fail to return consumers’ calls.”

From our survey: 21% struggled as they wove through the automated phone system. 

From the complaint: “Many consumers who attempt to contact the technical support department by e-mail similarly find their pleas for assistance ignored.”

From our survey: Although only 9% of our survey respondents who e-mailed Dell said the company never got back to them, close to half (47%) said the reply they did receive was not helpful.

Of course, Dell is not the only company whose tech-support drives consumers crazy. While these statistics represent Dell tech support, our survey found Dell’s support was similar to that of most other PC companies. In fact, Compaq desktops, and Compaq and HP laptops, had significantly lower satisfaction scores than Dell in our ratings.

The AG’s complaint concludes that “exasperated consumers, fed up with the endless runaround and ineffective technical support, resort to paying a third party to fix their equipment . . . even though it is covered by a Dell warranty or service contract.”

We could have told them that. Only 64% of survey respondents said Dell fixed their computers, while 90% said third-party tech support successfully solved problems with their Dell computers. 

— Donna Tapellini

Comments

[jeff]

I agree with all hate comments...I will never buy another dell, and im in the process of my own lawsuit.
2 months into my new comp the video drivers wouldnt load. after about 23 hrs on the phone with tech support being swapped to different people, doing the exact same thing over and over again, the computer finnaly crashed. The tach came and replaced the video drivers, and it worked for 2 hrs and crashed again. Another 18 hrs on the phone with a threat of a lawsuit got me to a manager who then afer another hr decided i should sent it to depot repair. I sent it to repair and a week later it came back with a note "you hard drive needs to be replaced" WTF !!
3 days later i received the hard drive, called the # and installed it. It would not work.....2 days later of phone calls and another $150 phone bill we got it working. 3 hrs later the video driver went bad again. This started in feb 09, and it is now jul 09 my comp will not run video drivers, and i have been ignored by dell, and tech support managers for the last 3 weeks, no one will respond to e-mails or phone calls.
I contacted a lawyer today to see about my options, however i feel im screwed anyway....and the problems will never be resolved.
I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER DELL PRODUCT OF ANY KIND !

[jimmie l chapman]

i bought my wife a dell as a gift she spends aii her free time on phone trying to get it to work 7 times and counting its always the same they try to sell her diffrent software or get her to buy some kind of protection who can i get help from is their no lemon law to protect americans any more is this how nafta works

[Lorraine Bartels]

I purchased a Dell computer via phone on 5 July 09 and right after got on computer reading all the horror stories re Dell. This computer was being financed thru Dell and had free shipping and handling. Knowing I would be out of town on 6 July 09 I called and left salesman a msg to cancell my order at 0600. Upon my arrival home late at night, I had a msg on telephone that computer was in production and could not be cancelled. In January 09 the Court ordered Dell to place the following in terms: customer may cancel within 3 days after ordering computer and arranging Dell financing. They still refuse to cancel the computer and are shipping it anyway. Upon arrival I will refuse delivery. Are there any more customers who have had a problem with Dell from Hell. Seeking an attorney. Dell refuses to acknowledge any phone calls I make to them.

[FELECIA]

I bought a Dell Desktop and laptop. When I had issues with the laptop the representative didn't know what she was doing. Needless to say I spent $200.00 getting my laptop repaired.

[Judy Kessler]

I purchased a Dell computer and had problems from Day one. I kept calling the servie dept. and they kept "fixing" it. The same problem kept reoccurring. One time I called and the rep hung up on me and left me without Email or internet!!! Luckily I was able to fix this myself When I called back no one knew who hung up on me!!!
After 9 months of this I demanded and finally got a new hard drive.

The same problem is happening but less often. They tried to sell me a service contract I laughed and told them they had lousey customer service No one ever called back about the comment. I had called many timed about the bad customer service but no one ever called back. I will NEVER buy a Dell product again and neither will anyonwe else I know!!

I even spoke to supervisors on many occasions and no help at all.

[Eddie]

I orderd a laptop on the 27th of Nov. and was told it would be shipped on the 9th. On the 9th I got an e-mail on the 9th saying it wouldn't be shippend till Dec. 26th and would be "up-graded" to 2 day delivery. What an up grade. I have talked to 3 reps. One who hung up on me and was VERY rude! And I still can't talk to their manager. I would advise EVERYONE never to order from dell!!!!

[Nori]

I'm on hold with Dell right now. My timer on my phone says 1 hour 46 mins 17 secs and counting.

[Michael Gorman]

I have had Dell computers since 2000. I have owned about a half-dozen. They are work stations, laptops, and some desktops. I am a very experienced computer user and have been in IT since 1965. My wait times over these 8 years has always been quite reasonable. 10 to 20 minutes tops. When I was finally connected, the support staff was always helpful. How much of that depended on my already existing knowledge I cannot judge. All I know is that I am very satisfied with Dell. I am not connected with Dell in any way other than I am a very satisfied customer.

[April]

I've had 2 Dell laptops--the first I bought in 2003. I've always expereinced long wait times to talk to a tech, but in the end have always had the problem fixed. In one particular session, I was transfered to a foreign woman (I think she was Indian) who could not communicate with me. She had somewhat limited ability to understand English and a limited ability to communicate to me what to do. I consider myself an intermediate level user--not a beginner but not an expert either. I also used to work with international students in a computer lab and have been told I am very easy for them to understand. She and I had so much of a problem communicating that I had to ask for a manager who after a couple of hours on the phone was able to fix the problem. The next morning at about 7 AM, I got a call from the woman tech who had tried to help me before I spoke to her manager. She told me that Dell was going to send me a preformance evaluation in an e-mail and that she wanted me to giver her at least 7 in each category or she would lose her job. I felt so terrible. I felt that I should let Dell know that their employee was incompetent, but at the same time I felt terrible thinking that I would be responsible for her losing her job. Bad customer service.

[Michael J. Pollack]

It has been awful. Extremely long wait times combined with hang-ups and transfers nearly drove me to the breaking point. No resolutions, no repairs, and poor follow-up. Plus not everyone's accent is easy to comprehend (they are clearly in India).

I would agree on subtly deceptive financing practices as well. I beleived I was receiving 0% financing until I was at the VERY end of placing my order.

Their local servicers are no better. They called 8 times with no message. I called them based on their caller ID number, they never returned that call, and then sent the parts pack to Dell and closed the ticket. Maddening.

If I ran my business like them, I would have no business@

[Laura&Alexander]

Dell is going down in my books after all those years i used two,
no more chatting,or being on hold with India ore Pakistan who knows what other country.
i guess the little customer are fill in,when big companies and uncle SAM are holding the stakes in dell.any other outfit would be out of business

[FormerDellTech]

As I read a couple of your comments in this blog it sickened me to see that Dell has sunk even further than when I worked for them. When I quit in the past year or so, Dell had been making a lot of changes. I have also kept up with friends on the issues, but had no idea it was actually this bad. Now I remember why I quit. Long Hold Times was ALWAYS a big complaint. That goes back to what we always told them, call flow is demand and we need to get the man power to handle the call flow. However they never listened. Instead they dropped X calls per 1 hour and we had to handle them, or so expected to handle them anyway. But when Dell started sending calls to India, this proved to be yet another hell for Dell. No one liked it and they almost lost BIG contracts. Hence you probably remember the change to leave Consumer Calls in India and bring back the Business Calls here in the states.

Now you will notice it doesnt really matter what you are, Home User or a Business, you are going to overseas, (mainly India), outsourcers. The problem I always ran into is EXACTLY you complaints I read here today. India techs always avoiding support, transfering calls. I have seen many many times a 'tech' so they call themselves over there, Blindly 'Debug' and erase all data on a hard drive without telling the customer. then tell them to leave the computer at the DOS Prompt for a hour while it finishes and call back. When they do, we got to be the ones to inform them that the previous tech just mis informed them and wiped out all their data. Including but not limited to, School Papers, Resumes, Proposals for Law Offices, Family Photos (even those that have passed on) This was sickening to me and fustraited a lot of people I worked with.

Then Dell went and done what no one ever thought they would ever do. They went and followed the competitors and changed their contracts to 90 Phone Support instead of Life Time Phone Support. But you could always purchase the extended phone support contract, but this did not include Software Problems. Just the standard hardware support. Understand that Dell Hardware Techs we not allowed and are not allow to troubleshoot the OS other than repair and reinstall. If they are caught they are in risk of losing their job. Because if they are troubleshooting OS issues, which most are pretty easy to fix, they are taking money calls from Dell in the Software or Advanced OS Support Queue. Dell has fallen into the Money Scheme, which they have always been in, but atleast at one point in time, we could all agree they did somewhat care about the customers. Atleast most support techs did.

I can name 100s of times in my 7 years working for them that I got introuble for editing the registry, or editing the ini files via DOS. But my ultimate goal was to get the customer up and running and if there was data they needed, I would try anything to get them back into the OS to recover that data before a format. But like I said, I was one of a few that stepped outside of that support and helped customers like yourselves beyond my duty per Dells policy.

In ending, always remember that the Dell Tech in some cases now days, is doing what he is told to do and YES if they are in India, they are reading a script.. because they do not know english well enough to speak from their mind and tell you what to do or what is going on. If Consumer Reports wants more from me, you got my email in the post of this blog.

Good Luck and God Bless you all.
FormerDellTech

[Rena Riley]

I have placed several calls to dell and have been placed on hold for long periods of time have been told that my laptop battery is not under warranty which a warranty purchased when the order was placed.

[Kenneth Duke Masters]

Hello: A quick not too expensive cure for help line problems: buy the cheapest "workstation" computer. Even the low model on the workstation totem pole will perform well. The big advantage is that the workstation call center is a standalone service with well qualified staff. They are very knowledgeable and readily available in minuets most of the time. I have no technical need for the high power of a workstation but spend the extra few bucks to get the good help line.

Kenneth Duke Masters
The Bill of Rights
December 15 1791

[E.Burns]

I spent a great deal of time w/ Dell tech. No power , no light on Dell Perfection 2400. Still under warranty. First I went on line. The tech kept on telling me to plug in a connection that didn't exist on the back of the computer, I told her the site to go to that had a diagram of my model after telling me the same thing, like she was reading a script, and me telling her I did not have the right connection. She said "are we through now?" (Dell sent me a transcript of this conversation.) Still no help so I asked for a supervisor, they said a supervisor would call back in 24/48hrs..no one has. They told me if I had a couple of hrs. they would help me take the computer apart. Said if I wouldn't do this, I was refusing service. So when I called back they told me my case was closed because I had refused service. On the Dell site they said I had two choices one of which was to have a tech come to my house. I set up appointment for morning 3/17/08, no one came. I called to find out what had happened . They said they had no record of this appointment. I said I did and it was verifiable through my phone that had a record of the call, the source of the call and the exact time and the name of the person. Then they said , oh yes and they knew who it was but still would not agree to send me help. This all took about 5 to 10 hrs on the phone! I went to every Dell site and submitted "still not satisfied", no response.

[Neil S]

HORRENDOUS DELL CUSTOMER SERVICE

I ordered a Dell XPS on 3-19. I got a call from Dell on 3-20 to confirm my order. I called the number, but it was a fax number, and no other information was requested. I called Dell Customer Service on 3-20 confirming my order and they said everything was okay and that I should receive the order by 3-28.

I received a letter today, March 26, indicating that my Dell Finance agreement had not been verified and that my order was on hold. I expressed my outrage to Mike ID 500588 indicating that I had never been informed that I needed to verify the Finance agreement, that the number previously left for me was a fax number, that no effort was made by Dell to communicate with me by email indicating that my order had been cancelled, even though I had placed my order online and had provided my email address.

He then authorized the financing but ABSOLUTELY REFUSED TO CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE TO AUTHORIZE EXPEDITED SERVICE SO THAT I COULD GET MY COMPUTER BY MARCH 28.

AS A RESULT OF MIKE 500588'S REFUSAL TO RESOLVE THE ORDER STATUS WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE, HE IS IN FACT REFUSING TO OFFER THIS CUSTOMER ANY SERVICE RELATED TO MY DELAYED ORDER.

AS A RESULT I AM NOW CANCELLING MY ORDER DUE TO ABSOLUTELY THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED FROM ANY COMPANY, BAR NONE.

I will never buy another Dell Product and will tell all my associates and any publication I can email/write to that your company cancels orders at whim with no reliable effort on your part to contact the ordering customer, and then refuses to resolve the issue in a timely manner.

I am deeply disappointed, but I hope Mike 500588 realizes that by his refusal to call customer service to resolve the issue that his Finance Department caused he has provided horrible service and caused the company to lose thousands of dollars in business.

[Maria Upland]

I purchased two Dell systems in August 2007, one was a desktop system for our home, the other a laptop for my daughter to take to college. Both of the systems had numerous problems from the get go.

In the first 2 months of ownership my daughter had only been able to use her computer for about a a week without problems. After we ran out of patience and time to spend with Dells poor service, I replaced it with a Lenovo notebook so that she can actually have a usable computer for her studies. She's hasn't had any problems with the Lenovo.

Our home desktop system was also problematic from the get go and after about 12 hours of time on the phone and 2 very poorly scheduled on-site visits, I gave up on them resolving the system issues in a reasonable manner. Two weeks ago I purchased n system from a computer shop around the corner from us, it hasn't had any problems and the techs at the shop even set it up in our home.

We're now looking at what are options to return the Dell systems are. These weren't even their bargain-basement systems, we spent over $2500 on them.

Right now the Dell systems are sitting in a corner and we're looking at our options to return both systems and/or take Dell to court over the matter. The funny thing is, I've talked to about 20 people about this experience and almost every one of them have had similar issues/nightmares. I only wish we had asked our friends and associates about them before we purchased from them in the first place.

We will never buy anything from Dell and we recommend that anyone considering a Dell - stay away from them!!! They are crooks and they don't have any concept of what a customer relationship is. They abandoned us the day they took our money. People should band together and do whatever it takes to have them shut down. My poor husband was so frustrated with the experience that he's put up posters all through his office notifying his co-workers his experience. He's had 100's of e-mails from the posters that have been seen by about 1500 people in his company. The company IT guy told him that unless you spend a lot of money with Dell as a corporate client, expect nothing but trouble and frustration.

Maria

[Daniel Joslin]

I have had it with these outrages prices for ink, only to have to take my work somewhere else to get my photos done, because I'm out of ink, or there cartridges will not work! If you open packaging you can not return them! I will not be getting another DELL anything!!!!!

[B Melrose]

I purchased a high end DELL XPS system in May 2006, which failed while under warranty. After several hours and two at home technician visits to replace parts. DELL sent me a replacement system in March 2007. The replacement system was completely faulty upon receipt. So, I had to go through the entire phone support and in-home tech visit all over again. This time I spent over 16 hours with phone tech support and the system still constantly fails.

After five months DELL agreed to send yet another replacement system. I received the replacement on June 2, 2007 and it too was faulty. I immediately called DELL phone support and was told they would not send me another machine even though the replacement was not in proper working condition.

At one point DELL phone support dragged out the phone repair attmpts past their 21 day return policy and told me I was past the time to get a replacement machine... even though I begain the support process the SAME DAY I received the machine.

I have tried to get support via the DELL web tech forums and was told by a DELL rep that an escallation technician would contact me. That was June 5, 2007. I am still under full warranty until April 2008 and it is November 21, 2007. I have left two messages with the DELL forum rep who promised the escallation technician and have been completely ignored. I have not heard one word from DELL since this promise was made in June.

My system is still faulty and almost a year later I do not have a working system. DELL refuses to honor the warranty I purchased and they refuse to repair my computer. I would also like to join this lawsuit and would like to know how I may obtain information to do so if possible.

[Janet S]

I have owned a Dell pc in the past-WHAT A NIGHTMARE! I kept a spiral bound notebook of the times I called, how long I was on hold, who I spoke with and if I thought the tech was American or Indian. I purchased the computer back in 97 or 98. I was basically not a computer geek, having had a Gateway previously and mostly played free cell or solitare. I didn't have the computer 1 month and had problems with the font blowing up so large that the page wouldn't fit on the screen. When I called tech support, they were a little more responsive in a timely fashion, however, didn't know sh*t. They had me pulling out the machine, opening it up (even though my plan that I paid for said in house tech support), pulling out cards and reinserting them, disconnecting batteries and a lot more. When I explained that I felt this was a bit above my expertise, they totally ignored what I told them with their pat answer "yes, I can see why you are upset, but I can help you". Well after many, many, many of these calls and getting Indians about 95% of the time (many I couldn't even understand) I knew more than they did. I was forced to do research on my own to solve problems and often told them that I didn't need to do what they told me. The computer had a new feature to set it back to a recovery point. Well, this was like a favorite fix for the "techs". I too was told about financing options only to find out that I didn't qualify for the best they were offering-I don't know why, my credit was excellent.
After reading CR's report about Dells I was almost tempted to look into ordering another. After reading all the blogs, I guess things haven't changed and my previous horrors are still going on. I always swore I would not buy another Dell, and I still won't! I don't know who CR surveyed, I don't know anyone who has been satisfied with their Dell purchase and or tech support (what a joke that was). How about if CR does a survey of all of it's members regarding their computer company satisfaction. I have owned a Averatec from Staples (my husband's choice) and have never called for tech support. I have owned a Toshiba and again never needed to call. I am really tempted to buy an Apple if I can adjust to not being able to use most of my softwear purchases I have made in the past 2 years. My sister has an Apple and she loves it. She is way more computer knowledgeable than me.
As one reader said "Dell could own the computer business if they only paid more attention to consumer satisfaction". The very first thing they need to do is to get American tech support people, period! I can't tell you the number of times I was jerked around by one tech after another only to be disconnected after waiting on the phone for hours.

[Chris K.]

I tried the phone service route and their email but I believe the best way to deal with Dell is through their direct chat sessions. I have used this several times and have had instant service and help with my problems.

[EB]

I too have had no luck with support. The dell dimension will not connect to the hp printer. A new motherboard I do not think so. How can I join the lawsuit?

[Adelle]

I've had only Dell computers for about 15 years but my last Dell purchase about 2 years ago convinced me never again to buy Dell. I spent at least 4 days on the phone trying to get a bad fan replaced. I'm sure that India customer support disconnected me at least three times after many hours on hold. So from here on out, I'll build my own!

[Kathryn Musial]

I would like to see the new Dell Computer my husband bought last week get BLOWN UP! He knows computers as well as most people who have been using them for 20 years and one thing I know is that this is absolutely the WORST computer ever. By the way, we have had five computers and never had these kinds of problems with a new computer (or an old one for that matter) or the problems with tech support-which we paid extra to get really good support for 30 days. The computer was sent with software and accessories that were not compatible with the machine he ordered. He also apparently purchased things that he didn't need because he had already purchased something else that did the same thing. He purchased Office 2007 and in order to install it you need a product key. The product key was not included in the software-ANYWHERE. He called Dell tech support and they told him to call Windows tech support because it was their problem. He called Windows tech support and was told that Dell was required to support the software but agreed to give him a product code. Didn't work. Everything that you have already read on this blog is true and more. He has spent approximately 30 or more hours on the phone trying to make the machine work to no avail....apparently he doesn't know when to give up. For four days I have been trying to convince him to send it back before it's too late as they have already informed him that his 21 days started on the day he ordered it and we didn't get it for a week. He is finally convinced to send it back and we've decided to look at an Apple for the first time ever. DO NOT BUY A DELL!!! YOU WILL BE SORRY. Oh and I forgot one of the funniest (yet worst) things....the sales rep convinced him to spend extra on a CD that tutored him on Windows Vista and when he tried to use that he was informed that it wasn't able to be used on Vista. Also, Dell tech support-during one of the times that they took over his computer from India-managed to totally annihilate his printer. No apologies. Oh well.

[Jake]

I have used Dell for 4 years, lots of laptops and computers and never have problems. Love their computers and service and will never use HP or any other service for new computers!