Buying a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. Review on Dell Inspiron 1520

I append below a mail I sent to Mr Michael Dell, founder of Dell, after buying an Inspiron 1520 laptop for my daughter.  The letter has been edited slightly, primarily to protect the identities of the staff I dealt with.  Please also read the aftermath of my mail at the end.

QUOTE

Dear Mr Dell,

I do hop this mail reaches you and I do hope you will pardon me for writing to you directly, but I can think of no other way to goad your office in Bangalore, India to respond.  But first, the details.

In November last year, I ordered an Inspiron 1520 laptop for my daughter.  I chose Dell because I myself use a Dell laptop supplied to me by my office and have been quite happy with it.

The laptop was delivered to us in December.  A few days before that we received a text message on our cell phone advising us to contact a given number after delivery for installation.  After the laptop was delivered, my wife and daughter called that number repeatedly, but there was no answer.  We then called the lady through whom we booked the laptop (incidentally, she is the only person from Dell who has responded in a responsible manner).  Thereafter, somebody from the agency to whom you have outsourced installation called up my daughter and informed her that they would only unpack the laptop and asked if he should still come over.  My daughter told him, quite naturally I should say, that if all he was going to do was unpack the laptop, his visit would serve no purpose.

I returned to Bangalore from my travels in mid December and noticed that the laptop did not close snugly when shut.  There was too much play [and the lid rattled even after it was closed].  I managed to get through to your installation agency with much difficulty and they finally sent across an engineer, who seemed to know very little about the machine or the Vista operating system.  He told us that we would have to approach your help desk to deal with any problems in the laptop, which seemed strange to me. Isn't it the responsibility of Dell to make sure they supply machines free of defects?  In the installation report, which I was asked to sign, I mentioned the defect I had found in the machine and stated that the installation was not satisfactory.  This evoked only a deafening silence from your Bangalore office since no one appears to scrutinize installation reports to see if they are to the client's satisfaction.

In any case, I tried calling your technical help desk several times, but after a trying time pressing various buttons to navigate through options, I heard a voice telling me how much Dell valued my call but had to keep me on hold because all operators were busy.  After listening to the story of Dell's concern for me and my call for about 15 to 20 minutes, I gave up.

I then visited your web site and lodged my complaint in the link provided there.  I received a very swift automated response from your server but thereafter only silence.  I waited for over two weeks for your busy staff to deign to respond to my query.  In desperation I turned again to the lady through whom we booked the machine.  She told me she would take it up with the people concerned.  Again there was no response.  I had to get in touch with this lady yet again.

At last, after almost three weeks, a lady from your customer service centre called me.  She had no answer to my questions as to why it took Dell over three weeks and much prompting to respond.  I asked to speak to her manager but was told he had already left the office and did not possess a cell phone (I honestly think you should improve the remuneration of your employees in India so they can afford cell phones!).  I asked that he should call me when he was back in the office, but to this day your busy customer relationship manager has not contacted me.

As we were all travelling when the lady from your customer service centre finally got around to calling me, she asked me to call her when we returned to Bangalore.  It remains to be seen if and when your Bangalore office will get around to fixing my problem.

Incidentally, Mr Dell, the desk top at which I am typing this mail to you is an assembled machine, supplied to me by a local, small-time dealer.  He doesn't have a toll free help line which takes you through a maze of options before putting you on hold.  But I have never had to wait for more 24 hours for a response to a complaint.  So much for Dell!

I would like you to know, Mr Dell, that if this issue is not resolved to my satisfaction, I shall take Dell to a consumer court.   I shall write to the press in India and overseas, so people will know what to expect from your company.

Regards,

D S Mahanty

UNQUOTE

Aftermath:

Mr Michael Dell, of course, did not condescend to reply to my mail, but it had a most remarkable effect on his customer relationship staff, to whom I had marked copies of the mail.  Within 15 minutes of my sending the mail, the busy customer relationship manager phoned, apologised profusely and offered me his cell phone number.  He also assured me that he would henceforth be the single point of contact for resolution of my complaint.  But if I expected a speedy resolution after this, I was being naive.

The very same day a representative from the agency to whom Dell have outsourced maintenance called at my home.  One of the strong, silent types, he spent the better part of twenty minutes only closing and opening the laptop cover.  After making a few phone calls from my landline (Dell apparently discourages their agency staff from making calls from their cell phones, presumably as part of their cost-cutting measures).  He then announced what I had known all along: that the laptop cover or lid had to be replaced.  The customer relations staff of Dell, who by now had become my good friends, assured me that they would fly the part from any part of the country - or, indeed, the world - and replace it within 48 hours.

I was very impressed when two packages were directly delivered to our house by Dell within a couple of days.  The next day another engineer from Dells outsourced agency called at my house and I waited eagerly for him to unpack and replace the part, which he proceeded to do.  When he took the laptop cover from the box, I observed that it was smudged and very obviously not new.  I then called up Dell's customer service manager and asked him what they were up to.  A little flustered, he told me that the part may not be new and that a refurbished part was "acceptable".  I told him that while this may be acceptable to Dell, it certainly wasn't acceptable to me and that since I had paid for a brand new machine, any defective parts replaced had better be new, too.  Sounding ashamed, the manager told me he would replace the whole machine with a new one.

I am now waiting and hoping and praying that Dell doesn't spring anymore nasty surprises on me.