We've owned a few Dell laptops over the years. My first laptop was a Dell, and I've always held a high regard for Dell customer service from that first experience with them over a decade ago.
So what happened?
I suspect Dell just got too big and outsourced their customer service.
It was time for me to upgrade and get a new laptop, and I was pleased with the Consumer Reports ratings and with the specs and prices on the Dell website. My wife placed an order for a new laptop for my birthday two weeks before my birthday. It wasn't anything fancy or customized. It was a standard configuration laptop listed for sale on the Dell website. The delivery date was estimated to be September 25th.
Two weeks later, we're a little surprised we haven't seen any email or notification from Dell. No shipping notification. No order status update.
Late on the evening of September 25th, my wife called Dell and asked for a status update. The representative on the phone was a little incredulous and said, "The estimated delivery date is September 25th, that's today." Yes. That's the point. It's way past sunset and there aren't any delivery trucks on the street. Did it even ship yet? The customer service rep on the phone was totally useless. She couldn't even tell us if the laptop had shipped or how soon it was estimated to ship. She just kept insisting that the estimated delivery date was September 25th so we should just be patient and wait and see if it shows up.
Two WEEKS later, the Dell website STILL said the estimated delivery date was September 25th. My wife called Dell customer service again, and my jaw hit the floor when the rep did the same as the previous rep and just read the status off the screen, "the estimated delivery date is September 25th." NO SH&T SHERLOCK! WE CAN READ THAT ON THE WEBSITE! THAT WAS TWO WEEKS AGO!
Am I being unreasonable to think that if the estimated delivery date has come and gone by more than a week that the company should update the orders status and revise the estimated delivery date???
ANOTHER TWO WEEKS go by. On October 25th, the Dell website STILL said the estimated delivery date was September 25th. My wife called Dell customer service again, and the rep proceeded to tell her that one of the components on the computer that I ordered (the Solid State drive) was backordered with no estimated delivery date, and she told us that Dell would have to cancel our order and order something different for us. My wife handed the phone to me. The rep tried to sell me on a couple of other laptop models that were not as capable as the one that I ordered. So I just cancelled the order all together.
After consulting the Consumer Reports ratings again and looking at the customer reviews and prices on a few websites, I placed an order on the Best Buy website for a Toshiba laptop that was very similar to the laptop I had ordered from Dell. It shipped the next day. I had it 3 days later. It works great.
Well done Best Buy. Sadly, Dell has lost my business.
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2015
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Pause
Bear with me folks. It'll take a bit to catch up on blogging from last week on vacation in New Hampshire. I'm now at a school down in Newport, RI, and my computer was temporarly taken out of commission by a trojan horse.
It was a Rogue Security Suite infection.
Basically, this thing that looked remarkably similar to an official Microsoft Windows Security Alert popped up on my screen every 5 seconds claiming to have found some sort of infection on my computer and asking if I wanted to clean it now.
Now, I immediately recognized that it was probably just some fake pop-ups designed to get you to click on it. However, since there was no "X" in the corner to close the window, I made the mistake of clicking "no" (as in I don't want to clean the infection) and it immediately started opening up multiple Microsoft Explorer windows trying to access several nefarious websites with words like "v i a gr a" and "p 0 r n" in the title. I immediately disconnected my computer from the internet until I could figure out how to eradicate this fake security alert thing. I tried clicking "yes" and it said I only had the "trial" version of their software and I would need to upgrade to the full version of the software to activate the cleaning function. I didn't buy that either.
I can't get the video from the Microsoft website to embed here for some reason, but if you go to the Microsoft website and click on the video, it explains the basics of it and what to do about it. Note they tell you DON'T CLICK ON ANYTHING in the pop-up window - JUST use ALT-F4 to close the window.
It took my McAfee security suite 9 hours to do a full scan on my computer and it found NOTHING. Even so, this fake security alert kept popping up every 5 seconds and it would not let me do anything to eradicate it. Each time I tried to go to the Control Panel or take any action that would undo the installation of the fake security alert system, it popped up a window telling me it couldn't execute the program because the file was infected.
Anyway, to make a long story short, thank goodness for the collective intelligence of friends on Facebook. I posted about the problem I was experiencing, and the next day a friend recommended downloading a free program called malwarebytes.
It worked!
Not only did it work, it worked quickly and easily.
Whereas McAfee spent 9 hours searching and found nothing, Malwarebytes spent 9 minutes doing a "quick search" and found 4 files infected with the "Rogue Security Suite" malware. Then it took about 9 seconds to delete the offending files, and now I'm back in business.
Now I have competing time demands between reading for school and catching up on my blogging, but I will get to it.
Suffice to say we had an AWESOME time on vacation in NH last week.
It was a Rogue Security Suite infection.
Basically, this thing that looked remarkably similar to an official Microsoft Windows Security Alert popped up on my screen every 5 seconds claiming to have found some sort of infection on my computer and asking if I wanted to clean it now.
Now, I immediately recognized that it was probably just some fake pop-ups designed to get you to click on it. However, since there was no "X" in the corner to close the window, I made the mistake of clicking "no" (as in I don't want to clean the infection) and it immediately started opening up multiple Microsoft Explorer windows trying to access several nefarious websites with words like "v i a gr a" and "p 0 r n" in the title. I immediately disconnected my computer from the internet until I could figure out how to eradicate this fake security alert thing. I tried clicking "yes" and it said I only had the "trial" version of their software and I would need to upgrade to the full version of the software to activate the cleaning function. I didn't buy that either.
I can't get the video from the Microsoft website to embed here for some reason, but if you go to the Microsoft website and click on the video, it explains the basics of it and what to do about it. Note they tell you DON'T CLICK ON ANYTHING in the pop-up window - JUST use ALT-F4 to close the window.
It took my McAfee security suite 9 hours to do a full scan on my computer and it found NOTHING. Even so, this fake security alert kept popping up every 5 seconds and it would not let me do anything to eradicate it. Each time I tried to go to the Control Panel or take any action that would undo the installation of the fake security alert system, it popped up a window telling me it couldn't execute the program because the file was infected.
Anyway, to make a long story short, thank goodness for the collective intelligence of friends on Facebook. I posted about the problem I was experiencing, and the next day a friend recommended downloading a free program called malwarebytes.
It worked!
Not only did it work, it worked quickly and easily.
Whereas McAfee spent 9 hours searching and found nothing, Malwarebytes spent 9 minutes doing a "quick search" and found 4 files infected with the "Rogue Security Suite" malware. Then it took about 9 seconds to delete the offending files, and now I'm back in business.
Now I have competing time demands between reading for school and catching up on my blogging, but I will get to it.
Suffice to say we had an AWESOME time on vacation in NH last week.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Transition
One day recently, for no apparent reason, my Microsoft Outlook wouldn't display my calendar. It just kept showing this weird table-format instead of the traditional calendar format.
I spent an agonizingly long time clicking around different buttons and pull-down menus on my computer screen trying to change the display back to my normal calendar. I searched every pull-down menu and option and could NOT figure out WHY it wouldn't display my calendar. A couple of times I considered asking for help from one of the lieutenants, but I kept telling myself, "Self, it CAN'T be this hard."
After about 15 minutes of fruitlessly clicking around on Outlook interspersed with banging my head on the desk miscellaneous phone calls, conversations with other people in the office, and other routine office work, I finally gave in and walked over to the playpen bullpen where all the lieutenants sit. I asked if any of them could help me figure out how to get my Outlook calendar to come up on the screen.
They all sorta looked at me with this disbelieving-smirk facial expression that said, "Is he serious?"
One of the lieutenants took pity on me, came over to my computer, and in about 3 seconds and just as many mouse clicks had my calendar up on the screen. Without saying a word, he quietly went back to his desk.
I felt pretty stupid.
Even so, I was glad the LT was able to fix it quickly, and I was especially glad he didn't say out loud what I'm sure he was thinking in his head.
Another one of the lieutenants wasn't willing to let me off the hook that easy. He came over and congratulated me on making "the transition" to becoming a "senior officer." He explained that as you go up in rank, you lose technical competence and have to ask the LTs to figure out the simple things like Microsoft Outlook.
Niiice.
I spent an agonizingly long time clicking around different buttons and pull-down menus on my computer screen trying to change the display back to my normal calendar. I searched every pull-down menu and option and could NOT figure out WHY it wouldn't display my calendar. A couple of times I considered asking for help from one of the lieutenants, but I kept telling myself, "Self, it CAN'T be this hard."
After about 15 minutes of fruitlessly clicking around on Outlook interspersed with banging my head on the desk miscellaneous phone calls, conversations with other people in the office, and other routine office work, I finally gave in and walked over to the playpen bullpen where all the lieutenants sit. I asked if any of them could help me figure out how to get my Outlook calendar to come up on the screen.
They all sorta looked at me with this disbelieving-smirk facial expression that said, "Is he serious?"
One of the lieutenants took pity on me, came over to my computer, and in about 3 seconds and just as many mouse clicks had my calendar up on the screen. Without saying a word, he quietly went back to his desk.
I felt pretty stupid.
Even so, I was glad the LT was able to fix it quickly, and I was especially glad he didn't say out loud what I'm sure he was thinking in his head.
Another one of the lieutenants wasn't willing to let me off the hook that easy. He came over and congratulated me on making "the transition" to becoming a "senior officer." He explained that as you go up in rank, you lose technical competence and have to ask the LTs to figure out the simple things like Microsoft Outlook.
Niiice.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
NMCI Rant
Okay, this probably comes as no surprise to any of you who use the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), but I feel the need to vent.
First, for those of you who aren't familiar with NMCI, the Navy hired Electronic Data Services (EDS) several years ago to provide and manage ALL of the Navy and Marine Corps' unclassified and SIPRNET (secret internet protocol routing network) computers and networking. It's quite a racket if you ask me. EDS gets ungodly amounts of money from the Navy.
Case in point: If I walk into my local Verizon store and buy a Blackberry, I'd wager money I'll walk out the door in 30 minutes with a fully functional Blackberry - email set up, phone numbers and address book transferred over, full-blown access to the internet. AAAAAAND, I bet you it would cost me significantly LESS than $200.
In order to get an NMCI Blackberry, it takes MONTHS of wading through a dump-truck full of bureaucratic red tape and waiting. Then, when you finally get the Blackberry, it's just like those ridiculous appointments with the cable company where they tell you they'll be there "between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m." and you have to wait with baited breath for them to show up, and while they're in your office for an hour and a half installing the Blackberry software and syncing it up with your computer, you aren't allowed to go anywhere or do anything besides stand guard over the visitor in your office who has unfettered access to your computer.
Then, after standing there waiting for an hour and a half, the technician tells you that he has to go back to the shop to redo your Blackberry setup because they erroneously set it up for Kevin.Lastname. Unfortunately, because there is more than one Kevin Lastname in the Navy, I'm actually Kevin.MIDDLE INITIAL.Lastname in the NMCI global address book, so they set the Blackberry up for the wrong user.
When you finally DO get your NMCI Blackberry, it's severely limited in functionality. It's nice that I can check my work email and calendar, but that's about all it's good for because just about every other feature is locked-down (no bluetooth, most websites blocked, etc).
Oh, and in return for all of this great functionality, EDS gives the Navy a bill for over TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS (for ONE Blackberry).
Jeez, I didn't even sit down to rant about NMCI Blackberries. I just got on a roll when I was trying to give some background information for non-Navy folks to understand what NMCI is.
No, I actually sat down with the intent to write two other relatively quick rants.
Rant #1. NMCI fairly recently installed some new features that cause these text-boxes to pop-up and chastise you if you leave your CAC card unattended. While the programmers who wrote these new updates surely meant well, the practicality of their application fell short of the mark.
For example. If I tell my computer to LOG OFF, then it pops up an annoying little window telling me that my CAC card is still in my computer keyboard and asks me what I would like to do.
The first time this happened, I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh FINE!" and pulled my CAC card out of the keyboard. Then the computer promptly locked itself because I had removed my CAC card. Yes, you read that right, the computer did NOT log off as directed because I had just removed my CAC card.
What it boils down to is this. When I want to log off my computer, I have to leave my CAC card in the keyboard. I have to tell the computer to log off. Then I have to wait for the annoying little pop-up window to appear. Then I have to click on "I want to continue what I was doing" in the annoying little pop-up window. Then the computer will continue with the log-off sequence and I can remove my CAC card and go home.
Rant #2. They tell us to log off our computers at the end of the day and leave the computers on so the administrators can remotely provide software updates and whatnot on the back shift. If that's the case, then WHY on EARTH does my computer perpetually tell me as soon as I log on in the morning that it has an update to apply and needs to reboot??? I thought that was the whole point of leaving the computer logged-off and powered-on all night!
Okay, I'm done ranting now. I'll get off my soap box.
First, for those of you who aren't familiar with NMCI, the Navy hired Electronic Data Services (EDS) several years ago to provide and manage ALL of the Navy and Marine Corps' unclassified and SIPRNET (secret internet protocol routing network) computers and networking. It's quite a racket if you ask me. EDS gets ungodly amounts of money from the Navy.
Case in point: If I walk into my local Verizon store and buy a Blackberry, I'd wager money I'll walk out the door in 30 minutes with a fully functional Blackberry - email set up, phone numbers and address book transferred over, full-blown access to the internet. AAAAAAND, I bet you it would cost me significantly LESS than $200.
In order to get an NMCI Blackberry, it takes MONTHS of wading through a dump-truck full of bureaucratic red tape and waiting. Then, when you finally get the Blackberry, it's just like those ridiculous appointments with the cable company where they tell you they'll be there "between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m." and you have to wait with baited breath for them to show up, and while they're in your office for an hour and a half installing the Blackberry software and syncing it up with your computer, you aren't allowed to go anywhere or do anything besides stand guard over the visitor in your office who has unfettered access to your computer.
Then, after standing there waiting for an hour and a half, the technician tells you that he has to go back to the shop to redo your Blackberry setup because they erroneously set it up for Kevin.Lastname. Unfortunately, because there is more than one Kevin Lastname in the Navy, I'm actually Kevin.MIDDLE INITIAL.Lastname in the NMCI global address book, so they set the Blackberry up for the wrong user.
When you finally DO get your NMCI Blackberry, it's severely limited in functionality. It's nice that I can check my work email and calendar, but that's about all it's good for because just about every other feature is locked-down (no bluetooth, most websites blocked, etc).
Oh, and in return for all of this great functionality, EDS gives the Navy a bill for over TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS (for ONE Blackberry).
Jeez, I didn't even sit down to rant about NMCI Blackberries. I just got on a roll when I was trying to give some background information for non-Navy folks to understand what NMCI is.
No, I actually sat down with the intent to write two other relatively quick rants.
Rant #1. NMCI fairly recently installed some new features that cause these text-boxes to pop-up and chastise you if you leave your CAC card unattended. While the programmers who wrote these new updates surely meant well, the practicality of their application fell short of the mark.
For example. If I tell my computer to LOG OFF, then it pops up an annoying little window telling me that my CAC card is still in my computer keyboard and asks me what I would like to do.
The first time this happened, I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh FINE!" and pulled my CAC card out of the keyboard. Then the computer promptly locked itself because I had removed my CAC card. Yes, you read that right, the computer did NOT log off as directed because I had just removed my CAC card.
What it boils down to is this. When I want to log off my computer, I have to leave my CAC card in the keyboard. I have to tell the computer to log off. Then I have to wait for the annoying little pop-up window to appear. Then I have to click on "I want to continue what I was doing" in the annoying little pop-up window. Then the computer will continue with the log-off sequence and I can remove my CAC card and go home.
Rant #2. They tell us to log off our computers at the end of the day and leave the computers on so the administrators can remotely provide software updates and whatnot on the back shift. If that's the case, then WHY on EARTH does my computer perpetually tell me as soon as I log on in the morning that it has an update to apply and needs to reboot??? I thought that was the whole point of leaving the computer logged-off and powered-on all night!
Okay, I'm done ranting now. I'll get off my soap box.
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