Probably the greatest tech help applications within the business for years has been the ProSupport program from Dell, which routinely solutions inside 10 seconds and affords glorious techs who truly attempt to assist. They’ve married that effort with a next-day onsite restore providing (delivered by Unisys), which can be spectacular.
However no program is ideal. The issue with these mixed companies is that when issues get screwed up, it is next-to-impossible to establish the place the fault lies. That disclaimer now absolutely disclaimed and that caveat all caveated, let me share the story of my newest tech help nightmare surrounding a Dell laptop computer.
It began with the laptop computer’s incapacity to deal with Skype and Zoom calls, with each the microphone and the audio system failing. (That is particularly problematic on this pandemic-forced, remote-work world.) After toying round with it for a number of hours—together with a lot of restarts and switched cables and totally different headsets—I reached out to Dell Professional and shortly linked.
We each initially suspected an audio driver downside (and, ultimately, that turned out to be exactly the issue), however testing and updating drivers did not work. We ultimately discovered that Microsoft had overwritten a Dell driver (thanks, Redmond!), although preliminary exams steered all drivers have been right and up-to-date.
After a number of intensive exams later, the conclusion from Dell was that the motherboard wanted to get replaced. I am not wild about changing a motherboard, however I agreed and the tech was scheduled to do the deed the following day.
By the way in which, having a tech go to through the days of COVID-19 will not be straightforward. We arrange a desk for him to work proper by a basement backdoor, in order that he can be in as little of the home as potential. He did his work meticulously, changed the motherboard, reassembled every thing — and the audio downside was nonetheless there.
Just a few extra calls to tech help and extra drivers changed and the issue was resolved, proving the motherboard swap was an costly waste of time. It was all lined by Dell, so it was their expense, not mine.
For a few week, all appeared high quality. However I then by accident found that the machine had someway misplaced half its RAM, going from 128GB (wanted for lots of audio modifying) to 64GB. Again on the cellphone to Dell. The laptop computer particularly says that two RAM slots are empty and that it solely has 64GB. Dell shortly concludes that the visiting tech had apparently forgotten to place among the RAM chips again into the machine.
Formally, yeah, possibly. However I used to be watching the tech fairly rigorously — from a six-foot distance — and did not see something leftover when he put the machine again collectively. Until he palmed the costly chips and saved them — unlikely, however potential — this did not make a number of sense. Nonetheless, Dell despatched one other tech to put in the lacking RAM.
That is when issues bought bizarre. The Dell tech help locations the go to into the system and tells me I am going to get a affirmation e-mail inside about an hour. Sounds good. Solely nothing nothing arrived for a number of hours. I known as again and was advised that the request someway did not take (I used to be by no means advised something past {that a} glitch occurred). They may put one other request in, however they already missed the cutoff time. No downside. Ready one other day is ok.
Once more, nothing is obtained for hours. The subsequent day, an e-mail is available in, nevertheless it merely stories an appointment was cancelled. It isn’t till late that night that an e-mail confirms {that a} tech is coming.
Type of. The subsequent morning, an e-mail tells me that the tech for that day has been cancelled. Earlier than I’ve an opportunity to name, the tech exhibits up. I present him the e-mail that he was cancelled and he shrugs. His look means that this isn’t the primary time he is seen this occur.
Irrespective of. He checks the machine and appears on the identical display screen that Dell and I noticed — the one that claims 64GB — and concludes it’s actually 128GB however someway references 64GB twice. The tech calls his headquarters and so they appear to agree. He reassembles the machine and I present him the display screen once more and level to the empty slots. Additionally, I level that it (earlier than the final go to) had explicitly mentioned 128GB.
I requested him as well it into diagnostics mode (which he did earlier than) and I pointed to the world the place it mentioned two slots have been empty. He appeared confused. He known as his man again once more and so they determined to open the laptop computer once more and look extra deeply. He then discovered the 2 empty slots. When he added new RAM into these slots, the system did certainly present 128GB, because it had earlier than the prior go to.
The subsequent day, I obtain one other e-mail, telling me that one other tech is slated to return the following day. Baffled, I attempted to cancel the go to. The cancellation took and the matter appeared to wrap.
Though this seems to be a Unisys glitch — or, extra exactly, a collection of Unisys glitches — I am unable to let Dell fully off the hook. How carefully are they managing their subcontractor/associate? On condition that these individuals are going to be seen as representatives of Dell, they should watch extra carefully.
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