Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?

Hi all,
i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
settings or OS.

Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.

So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
a thick indian accent, would be great.

Given that laptop batteries only have 1 year of warranty regardless of the
system warranty you are likely to need a new battery from Dell spare parts.
I believe they have a direct phone number but I don't know it and havent
looked for it. To actually get support from Dell however I have found their
email support option found on the webpage to give quick solutions to my
problems and I recommend you give it a try.

HTH
Robert

<verukins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:10a94f84-f2d6-4c88-ac50-743dfbb736b4@w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
> i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
> inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
> settings or OS.
>
> Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
> kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
> provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
> managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.
>
> So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
> is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
> to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
> get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
> a thick indian accent, would be great.

I have found that the on-line chat is the best way to get things done.
Hardest part is the 3-5 minute wait after everything is done for the Dell
person to do what ever they have to do on their end. I had a warranty power
supply problem on XPS 410 and a mouse problem. New PS and a new mouse were
here the next day.


"Robert McMillan" <robmc87@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:487c6a3d$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
> Given that laptop batteries only have 1 year of warranty regardless of the
> system warranty you are likely to need a new battery from Dell spare
> parts. I believe they have a direct phone number but I don't know it and
> havent looked for it. To actually get support from Dell however I have
> found their email support option found on the webpage to give quick
> solutions to my problems and I recommend you give it a try.
>
> HTH
> Robert
>
> <verukins@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:10a94f84-f2d6-4c88-ac50-743dfbb736b4@w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
>> Hi all,
>> i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
>> inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
>> settings or OS.
>>
>> Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
>> kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
>> provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
>> managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.
>>
>> So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
>> is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
>> to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
>> get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
>> a thick indian accent, would be great.
>

On Jul 15, 7:48*am, "Rich" <rmilb...@ptd.net> wrote:
> I have found that the on-line chat is the best way to get things done.
> Hardest part is the 3-5 minute wait after everything is done for the Dell
> person to do what ever they have to do on their end. I had a warranty power
> supply problem on XPS 410 and a mouse problem. New PS and a new mouse were
> here the next day.
>

Second that online chat suggestion for warranty issues. Have used it
several times for my daughter's laptop. Once, the DVD drive died.
Spent 15 minutes online chatting with "Susan" (she typed with an
Indian accent ;-). Less than 24 hours later, the replacement drive was
on my doorstep, along with a prepaid DHL shipper to send the bad drive
back. Another time, had a problem with cracks appearing on the top
cover near the hinges, 15 minutes online chat, they sent me a prepaid
shipper to send the laptop to their repair depot, had it back with a
new cover a week later.

If the battery is still in warranty, online chat is the way to go.

If the battery is out of warranty, go here : http://www.pacificbattery.com/
Very happy with the Dell laptop battery I bought from them - works
well, much less expensive than buying from Dell.

Jerry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: verukins@gmail.com [mailto:verukins@gmail.com]
> Posted At: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 3:30 AM
> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Conversation: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
> Subject: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
>
> Hi all,
> i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
> inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
> settings or OS.
>
> Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
> kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
> provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
> managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.
>
> So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
> is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
> to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
> get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
> a thick indian accent, would be great.

How old is your machine? If it is older than 18 months, no need to call
Dell. It's time to buy a new one.

Actually, if it is older than a year, as that is the longest battery
warranty. Batteries are consider a disposable.

right, regardless of weather the warranty on your laptop is still current or
not dell will only provide warranty replacement of a battery if it is within
the first year of ownership. you can try to look up the model/serial number
of your battery to see if it happens to be one of the many that were
recalled some years ago in which case you *might* still be able to get it
replaced as part of the recall. otherwise all i can suggest is that you
purchase a replacement.

"Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:20B4E57CC6B84C0BB224AE99636E11DA@M2010...
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: verukins@gmail.com [mailto:verukins@gmail.com]
>> Posted At: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 3:30 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
>> Subject: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
>>
>> Hi all,
>> i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
>> inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
>> settings or OS.
>>
>> Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
>> kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
>> provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
>> managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.
>>
>> So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
>> is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
>> to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
>> get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
>> a thick indian accent, would be great.
>
> How old is your machine? If it is older than 18 months, no need to call
> Dell. It's time to buy a new one.
>
> Actually, if it is older than a year, as that is the longest battery
> warranty. Batteries are consider a disposable.
>

"Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:20B4E57CC6B84C0BB224AE99636E11DA@M2010...
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: verukins@gmail.com [mailto:verukins@gmail.com]
>> Posted At: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 3:30 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
>> Subject: Getting through to dell support - anyone help ?
>>
>> Hi all,
>> i have a relatively simple issue.... the battery on my
>> inspiron 640m now lasts approx 10-15 minutes, no matter the power
>> settings or OS.
>>
>> Ive sent dell 2 emails about this and spent hours on the phone getting
>> kicked around to different departments, each of which ask me to
>> provide to the service tag and then put me on hold - last time i
>> managed to get up to 9 people and just over an hour.
>>
>> So, my question is, is there anyway to actually get support from dell?
>> is there anyone in the company that replies? and if so, how do i get
>> to them? I am located in Australia, and if anyone has any idea how to
>> get anyone who doesnt just pass me on and say their name is "john" in
>> a thick indian accent, would be great.
>
> How old is your machine? If it is older than 18 months, no need to call
> Dell. It's time to buy a new one.
>
> Actually, if it is older than a year, as that is the longest battery
> warranty. Batteries are consider a disposable.
>
I think the issue here is Dell's poor support, not the warranty status of a
battery. How long have you worked for Dell

Good call palmer - your right - im concerned as to how a PC maker can
exist without offering any avenue to support, at all! No response to
emails and phone support just constantly re-routing, makes it kind of
difficult to ever buy one again.

I have not however seen to online chat option on the support page -
either ive missed it or they dont offer it for Australian customers.
I'll go back and have a look.

As far as the battery comments, my machine is 18 months old... so a
"batteries will only last 18 months" response would have been fine -
but no response isnt.

I'll have a look at one of the 3rd party battery suppliers who may
actually bother responding.

> I have not however seen to online chat option on the support page -
> either ive missed it or they dont offer it for Australian customers.
> I'll go back and have a look.

Just had a look on the Australian page
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/t...=au&l=en&s=gen
(I am also from Australia) and we only have the phone or email options
available, but as I said in my first post I have never had any problems when
using the email option so I would go that path.

you are right, you actually have two problems. the battery being one, and
the poor communication being the other. since we are not dell, but just
other people like you that happen to own some of their gear we try to help
where we can. so we can't help you get the phone picked up any faster and
just told you what you can do about it... namely, not to waste your time
with them if it is over a year old since they wouldn't replace it anyway and
to try to use the online chat since email and hone support has obviously
failed you. i see that they don't offer chat support in austrailia.
perhaps the next time you post you might want to provide some basic
information like where you are, the model machine you are looking for help
with, and include a modicum of gratitude for the potential help from total
strangers in solving your problem.

<verukins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:28209f5d-848e-4e5e-a01a-489989fd9caa@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Good call palmer - your right - im concerned as to how a PC maker can
> exist without offering any avenue to support, at all! No response to
> emails and phone support just constantly re-routing, makes it kind of
> difficult to ever buy one again.
>
> I have not however seen to online chat option on the support page -
> either ive missed it or they dont offer it for Australian customers.
> I'll go back and have a look.
>
> As far as the battery comments, my machine is 18 months old... so a
> "batteries will only last 18 months" response would have been fine -
> but no response isnt.
>
> I'll have a look at one of the 3rd party battery suppliers who may
> actually bother responding.