coldfusionJedi

Can this be my last Dell Hell post? On Tuesday morning I emailed Dell, since I still can't make long distance phone calls. I can receive them, just not make them. Anyway, I emailed Dell about replacing the battery. First I got an email saying I could return it. I said I wanted to exchange it. Dell said I could only exchange it for the same product. I said that's what I meant.

Then Dell said, oops, you are past your 21 days.

I then mentioned how Dell techs had asked me to wait to call back, and how Katrina had knocked out the long distance lines so I wouldn't have been able to call anyway.

Then Dell wrote back again and said, actually, I had a year long warranty on the purchase.

I just got an email saying my new battery is on the way, and I will ship back the screwy one.

So - since I complained (and complained, and complained) about Dell, it is only right to mention that they are finally helping me out, even though I had to fight for it.

So this weekend my wife decided it would be a good time to start attacking the front yard. We've been in our house for about 3 years now, and it's a wonderful house, but the previous occupants let the back and front yard go. When I say "let them go", think jungle. The back yard has been "repaired" for about a year now, but the front yard still has a big area that was at one time landscaped, and now looks like some kind of giant boil. We attacked about half of it this weekend. Of course, it fought back. I ran into some poison ivy, which has made both of my arms and legs look like I'm a plague victim. Plus some got above my eye, which is now nice and swollen, so I look like I got into a fight as well. (Which I did, and I lost.)

So hey, here is another question for you guys. When I spoke to tech support about my laptop battery, I was told to wait for a call back and then call customer service to return the battery if it still acted up. That was last week. As of today, 8 days after Katrina, I still can't make phone calls. This is both my cell and my land line. I'm past the 30 days I was told I'd have to ask for an exchange. Who here wants to take a bet on Dell being understanding that I've not been able to contact them? It gets better though. The tech support guy had said I had 30 days. The Dell web site I only had 21. Whoever wins, I know I'm going to lose.

So, who wants to take a guess? Based on my last Dell Hell experience, who here thinks Dell actually called me this week? Of course, the lines were about 90% off Monday through Wednesday, but the "promised" email from the manager I spoke to never came either. I guess I'll just exchange the laptop battery for a new one. Oh, and I guess I'll never buy Dell again.

Come on... did you really think my Dell Hell was over? As I mentioned before, the new battery is working a lot better, especially now that I've stopped using Remote Desktop Connection as much. However, I've noticed that every now and then, the machine will shut off when the battery is around 30%. No warning, nothing, just completely turn off. This has happaned a few times, and when it happaned again last night, I had had enough.

So I call Dell again. This time I got through in about 20 minutes. Funny story. I told the tech, jokingly, about how the sales guy had promised me 8 hours of battery life. The tech told me, believe it or not, that 8 hours is the "Official" party line, both from Dell and from the manufacturer. He them said something that was quite funny, and I'll paraphrase here:

"I'm certain you could get 8 hours of battery life.... if you booted into the BIOS and stayed there."

So anyway, I worked with the tech and nothing obvious came up. He said that I should give it another day, and if it still happens, to return the battery since it is still under warrenty. He told me Customer Service would demand I speak to a tech, but to mention my case # and I should be able to bypass it.

At the end of the call, he asked if I could speak to his manager to review the call. I told the manager that this call was fine, but my last experience was horrible, and that neither of my two "promised" calls ever came through. He promised me that I would get a call this time. So - let's see, shall we? I gotta say, I'd almost rather have less battery time than a laptop that just shuts off by itself.

So it occured to me that I never got around to wrapping up the thread I started with My Day in H(D)ell, Dell Update Number 2,432,9400, and Dell Update Infinity.

It appears as if, for now anway, Dell cares about bloggers. Since I'm sure Dell is carefully scanning my blog, I thought I'd give a resolution to my battery issue.

First off - I never did get a call from Dell. I had been promised not one, but two calls. This wouldn't bug me so much if I hadn't spent more then 5 hours on the phone with them.

The battery is working great now - but mainly because I stopped using Remote Desktop Connection. Apparently it was using the heck out of the WiFi and draining the battery. Now I can get 2+ hours of usage which makes me quite happy. In fact, I used to work on my laptop every night until the battery died out. Now I find myself needing to put the laptop away or I'll work too much. (I know, I know, I should be focused on BlogCFC 4.0 - what can I say - I have a lift.)

So all in all - I'm happy I got the new battery - I'm happy I found a way to make it last a long time - but I'm very, very disappointed with Dell and I'm not sure if I'll buy with them again.