I’m a big fan of Dell; I’m typing this surrounded by four Dells, two Windoze machines and two older ones I’ve converted to Linux.

I’ve been purchasing Dells since before they were called Dells (PC Limited/PC Unlimited? I fergit). This is 286 systems through Pentiums to P4s.

For me and others.

Very few issues.

I don’t have the stomach (or time) to get into it now, but – a couple of days ago – I had a system crash that was bad enough for me to tap Dell for help (bad geek!).

Big mistake. I spent, last night, three hours on the phone with Dell to confirm that I would not be charged for the (unspeakably horrible) service I asked for (I fixed the problem myself, no thanks to Dell….) the previous night and took seven or so hours of on hold/no clue service. In other words, it was a lack of support.

Last night, when I was trying to confirm I would not be charged, I gave my e-mail address at least four times, and was told (once) that I would get a confirm e-mail with the “no charge ID,” and was told (twice) that they could not generate a “no charge ID” value, but they’d send this to me, and was told (once, to the only person who seemed to “get it”; my request) he’d send me his info so I could at least tell his supervisor that this dude did something.

Twenty-four hours later, I have no e-mails. Good, bad or ugly.

Simplify:

• I gave Dell money; nothing was resolved after hours of poor support (bulk of hours were five minutes of talk, the “Hmm…can I put you on hold for a minute?” And – twenty minutes later – I hung up due to no response.
• I tried to confirm if I was going to be charged for this lack of resolution; no paper trail.

Dell computers: GOOD.

Dell support: SUCKS.