Dell Hell

My laptop is out of order again. It's something stupid, too. It's the cable that runs between the AC adapter and the computer. I'm quite sure of this, and I'm not even that upset about it. Wires break... especially wires that re plugged and unplugged frequently, and which are bent every which way dozens of times a day.

But I am upset about something. I tried to get Dell's tech support to agree to send me a new AC adapter. The offshore support woman insisted on doing everything from a script. I told her right off the bat that the power indicators on the laptop were flickering off and on when I shook the cable, but stayed steady if I shook the plastic connector that plugs into the jack on the back of machine. That told me with 99.5% certainty that it was a broken cable, not a loose jack on the motherboard. I told her that I wanted a new adapter under warranty, and that I did not want to send my laptop in for depot service unless the new adapter proved that I was wrong about the problem. But it was as if she didn't hear a word I said. She insisted on going through the whole script: asking if the light on the AC adapter was on, which it was, Then she asked whether I had tried a known-good AC outlet, etc. I told her that since I had told her that the light on the adapter was on, and that the power indictors on the laptop went off and on intermittently when I shook the cable between the adpater and the laptop, it was perfectly obvious that the outlet the adapter was plugged into was definitely good. We then discussed the fact that I had had this exact same symptom a year ago, and a new AC adapter had fixed it. After she put me on hold for five minutes she came back and told me that because she hadn't ruled out the possibility of a faulty motherboard, and because I had already replaced the adapter once (a year ago), she needed me to send in the laptop to be examined and repaired. I asked for her supervisor... and she refused because "He's not here right now."

What choice did I have at that point? I stayed on the phone and wore her down. It took 45 minutes.

Now, I don't want to blame this entirely on the fact that my call went off-shore. Domestic tech support can be just as bad, sometimes. But part of the lure of off-shore is supposed to be that there is such a huge pool of highly qualified people, with Masters' degrees even, available to handle calls. It actually would be excellent if tech support were being handled by people with strong analytic and problem-solving skills... but it's clear to me that this supposed advantage of off-shoring isn't really the case.