Relationship Advice from Dell Customer Service

What relationship advice can Dell Customer Service teach us about marriages?  Well, we can learn what NOT to do.

I have to tell you Sunday was a horrible day.  For 8 hours we struggled with Dell Support after our computer locked up.  It was unnecessary.  It was frustrating.  It became apparent that Dell spends all their time and energy courting you to buy but absolutely no time, energy or resources supporting you once you have bought.

This got me to wondering if this is how we treat marriages in our society today.   Do we spend all our time, energy and resources searching for the perfect mate but once we “buy”, customer service and satisfaction is a joke? It is believed that the average married couple spends less than 28 minutes per week (not per day) on average communicating.

We wouldn’t buy a car without thinking of maintaining it… hopefully.  We expect to take care of our physical wellbeing if we want to stay healthy but once we walk down the aisle, it is too easy to assume our marital wellbeing is a done deal and neglect the very thing that needs to be nurtured to remain vital. 

Just like with Dell’s Technical Support, when you are not supported or if the advertising is false, you look else where.  Frustration forces us to look for other options. 

Keep reading the rest of my Dell Technical Support Saga and let me know if you see additional relationship tips you might glean from Dell’s horrible customer support.

After finally getting through the maze of Dell’s voice activation system, we were finally told after passing a brief diagnostic test that it was a software problem and we would have to call the pay-for-service software division for $99 if we wanted help.

Our four year home service warranty with 24x7 technical support was worthless as Dell’s Warranty only covers hardware problems. 

I have never understood purchased warranties anyway.  It is like saying, “we can’t stand behind our product so when it breaks you will have to pay extra to get it fixed”.  Not if it breaks but when it stops working. They are predicting it will be defective. And obviously the unspoken rule is when it stops working, we will make it so difficult for you to get help that you will find some one else to fix it or buy a new one.  Like we would run out and buy another Dell like a light bulb that needs changing.

Relationship Advice learned from Dell’s Technical Support

• The bottom line is: don’t expect a warranty or commitment to fix an inferior product.  Make an informed decision about the relationship before you make the decision to become engaged.
• Once you make a commitment, stand behind your marriage. With marriage, it is to be understood upfront that you will have tough times or times it doesn’t work well.  Don’t buy a divorce warranty. Commitment, not divorce, should be your warranty without loopholes. Commitment is to honor marriage when it gets difficult not if it gets difficult.  It will get complicated. Allowing the divorce loophole is saying when the marriage needs service; your promise doesn’t have to be honored.
• When your marriage is struggling, it will be natural for your partner to look elsewhere for support or to find a new partner if you are not willing to work on it.

Back to the Dell Technical Support saga… 

We then had to navigate to get through to the software support system. It is a mystery to me why Dell employs technicians you can’t understand and have little command of the English language.  Shouting to automated systems and spelling your name and private information over and over to someone who can’t communicate is a journey in patience that Mother Teresa would fail.

Finally, after a couple hours we were told we would need to back everything up on our computer so they could help us delete our system in order to restore it back to where it was when we purchased it. The good news is the technician was able to speak English.

We were told that it was a virus and a common problem in that he helps at least half the people calling in delete everything and start over.  And it was no big deal in that it wouldn’t take that much time or energy for me to download all my software again. Yet in the next breath he said this was a solution of last resort. 

Something obviously wasn’t making sense. Of course my response was, “I don’t think so.  Not without trying something else first.” 

Relationship Advice learned from Dell’s Technical Support

• Learn how to communicate effectively.  The purpose of communication is to speak in a way that your partner will want to listen. At the very least, don’t yell, scream, call names or use intimidation and wonder why your partner won’t listen. 
• Don’t threaten to dump the relationship every time you don’t know what else to try.  Be willing to consider other options. 
• Don’t make assumptions and don’t jump to false conclusions.  It is difficult to work on problem solving when one partner is not willing to check things out first.

We hung up and attempted to back everything up but when numerous attempts failed I called back navigating the voice systems again as the direct phone number we were given was another joke. After 15 minutes of giving someone all my information to be transferred to a technician to give him the exact same information all over again, we were ready to start again. 

This technician was willing to run a few more diagnostics before deleting everything and starting over.  He determined it is not a software problem but a hardware problem. He documented the errors and transferred us back to the hardware department.

It is now getting to be 6 hours of dealing with Dell Technical Support.  I was again transferred to someone who is extremely difficult to understand and wasted over half an hour just spelling my name and email address.  Even though he had already been given my case number and was informed that all the information was logged, he wanted to know what the problem was. 

So I explained the past several hours spending many a lot of energy and time just trying to relay the error code numbers. He then asked me again to tell him what the problem was.  It appeared he was reading from a script and forgot where he was at.

Asking for his supervisor wasn’t successful.  He insisted he needed to run the same diagnostic test that was initially ran which of course it passed again. I was told I would need to call the software department as this was a software problem or I could log on to wwwdellsupport.com.

At this point, I was not polite to say the least. “Excuse me, Mr. Dell Technical Support; I was just transferred from the software department. Excuse me, Mr. Dell Technical Support; I can’t get into my computer.”

It was then my husband decided it was his turn again and we were transferred to a Dell technician who ran diagnostics that proved the same errors that were logged by the software department earlier.  He finally helped us isolate a bad memory chip.  A new chip was to be shipped on warranty and the computer was able to function on half the memory. 

We received a new refurbished chip 3 days later. Apparently warranty does not mean new replacements.  But the story is not over yet as after an hour of trying to reinstall it and another hour on the phone with someone who we couldn’t understand, it was decided, there must be something wrong with the chip they sent.  Tune in later for the rest of the story….

Relationship Advice learned from Dell’s Technical Support

• Listen.  Don’t ask a question if you are not going to bother to listen.  Many relationship problems are the result of one partner having communicated the problem to a deaf ear. Then when they finally give up, their partner claims they don’t have a clue and can’t understand what the problem is. 
• Deleting your marriage and starting over is a last resort.  Even though it is true that half the marriages today get dumped, if you don’t address the right problem, you still won’t be fixed. You’ll just carry your “stuff” to a new house.
• Do the opposite of Dell Technical Support.