July 9th, 2007
Day 8 of the old coffee-in-the-keyboard trick
Here’s a quick status report for those following my adventures in Dell-land. It’s now been 8 days since I sloshed coffee in the keyboard of my new Dell laptop. Although I had a next-business-day, on-site service contract, the machine was not repaired on site on the next business day. It was sent to the Dell service depot.
I’ve not heard a thing from Dell since it arrived at the depot on Day 5 of this adventure.
I’ve reconstructed one of the two missing files and will start on the next one today.
Thanks, once again, for all your encouraging messages. It appears that this is a much more common experience than I would have expected.
8:30 AM update
I just communicated with one of Dell’s on-line agents. The machine has been shipped back and is currently at DHL’s facility in town. So, I should have the machine back sometime today.
11:30 AM update
The friendly DHL man just stopped by to return my system. When I opened the box, I noticed that Dell kept my battery. I reinstalled the hard disk and dropped the machine into its docking station. I’m very thankful that the dock will power the machine. I connected with Dell’s online support chat line and the service rep ordered a new battery for me.
While I was online with the service rep, I received an automated call from Dell telling me that the machine had been repaired and shipped to me. I think that notice was a bit late, don’t you?
12:00 Noon update
Guess what? The repair depot put the wrong processor (a 1.66 Ghz) in the machine rather than the correct processor (2.16 Ghz)! I’ve called 3 different 800 numbers and can’t get through to someone who can address this. So, the adventure continues.
12:20 PM Update
I’ve finally gotten through to someone. They’re going to send out another technician to put in the correct processor
With no offense intended to real Keystone Cops, I wonder if the technician is going to show up dressed as a Keystone Cop.
I hope that YOU don’t experience a similar ordeal.
Daniel Kusnetzky is a member of the senior management team of The 451 Group. He is responsible for research and publications on a broad array of technology topics. He examines emerging technology trends, vendor strategies, research and development issues, and end-user integration requirements. You can follow Dan on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Virtually Speaking via Email alerts or RSS.
| 07/09/07
