confusedThis is a copy of the BBB claim my family and I were considering sending against Dell. I think we were genuinely given incredibly bad service (some of it may have ruined our hard drive and the important data on it), but my mom's not sure if this is worth it or not. Either way, I wanted to post it and see what you all think, keep in mind that the computer was not a low end system by any means, it cost over $1,900, and had what was top of the line for a personal computer at the time and was less than 2 years old:
It's long, so it's behind the cut:
Back in October of 2006, my then 22 month old Dell Dimension 8400 computer's hard drive crashed (error 7). I called Dell support (service tag: xxxxxxx) and was told that it had crashed and Dell offered no data recovery (but that it could be done), go to a third party. I couldn't pay the $500+ for third party data recovery, so I purchased a new hard drive, plugged it in, and continued using the computer. The old hard drive was still plugged into the motherboard, but had no power cable attached.
Now on January 26/27, 2007, I was going to get the hard drive's data recovered using a third party and they would use our computer for the data recovery. The old hard drive could not be detected, so the third party said that they needed the (old) hard drive's drivers. I called Dell Tech Support, after explaining the situation and downloading the drivers, he told me that OnCall Support could help with the data recovery, and that I shouldn't need drivers. I called OnCall, was told that they could not help and was sent back to Tech Support. There I was helped by a man, who in the end, offered no real help, but said he would call me back with a solution. I couldn't wait for a phone call because of school, so I called back on the 28th. I called Tech Support (18006249893) where I got a recording saying my call couldn't be completed (it was supposedly a "direct number"), so I called OnCall again, and was again transferred to TechSupport.
I spoke with another man, and explained that "a second hard drive will not show up" (this was right after it had been plugged into a power cable for the first time since October) , giving more details as I went along to avoid confusion (I did not omit anyting vital). Eventually, I was told that my 22 month old hard drive (it never had a power cable plugged in from late October until the 26th or 27th of January and therefore had not been powered or accessed) was dead and no data could be recovered. I was devastated, information that allows me to get my diploma and the college credit that comes with it was on the drive. I got very upset that I was not told this at the beginning and asked why, I got no helpful answer, other than, "we would have had to re-install windows", that would have caused the exact data loss I was trying to avoid!
I was then transferred to a supervisor. He blamed the problem on me (I should've never bought a second hard drive, just reinstalled windows, even though it would have caused data loss, I should have had the data recovered immediately, regardless that it was so expensive at such short notice, the troubleshooting reboots ruined my drive, even though I had no power cable attached when I had been using my computer, and then they were the ones who told me to reboot once I had the power cable attached, I caused a lot of confusion, even though only 2 of the people I spoke to in my many calls spoke fluent English so I had trouble understanding what they were telling me, etc.).
He also told me that hard drives only last 11 months! My father's hard drive has lasted for well over 7 years with no replacement and no problems! I have never heard of that in my life, and even so I received no warning from Dell that it could die so soon (apparently it's not their responsiblity to tell people that they could lose years of important data so soon after purchase). I told him that I could physically not understand some of the people I had talked to (I was not rude, this man was not a fluent English speaker either), and he told me I could keep calling back until I got someone who spoke "YOUR language". He finally asked me what I wanted him to do, I asked him why has no technician told me the same thing?, (it had been a different story from each, I could get my data, I couldn't, I could, I couldn't)
He never answered me, and let the line go silent for more than 17 minutes (I was in tears, my information is so vital to me, my diploma, everything). When I had finally recovered, I said "Hello?" 3 times, and got no response. I assume he had put me on hold, and was going to leave me there until I hung up, so I did. He was so incredibly insensitive and rude to me, and in the end, I still don't know if my data is gone for good. My case numbers were xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, and xxxxxxxxxx. This is the second major problem with it, and now the mouse is "power surging"! It has an extented warranty, but it's proving to be little if any help. Other than purchasing and using the second hard drive, I did nothing to the original drive or the inside of the computer, I only did what they told me to.
Now on January 26/27, 2007, I was going to get the hard drive's data recovered using a third party and they would use our computer for the data recovery. The old hard drive could not be detected, so the third party said that they needed the (old) hard drive's drivers. I called Dell Tech Support, after explaining the situation and downloading the drivers, he told me that OnCall Support could help with the data recovery, and that I shouldn't need drivers. I called OnCall, was told that they could not help and was sent back to Tech Support. There I was helped by a man, who in the end, offered no real help, but said he would call me back with a solution. I couldn't wait for a phone call because of school, so I called back on the 28th. I called Tech Support (18006249893) where I got a recording saying my call couldn't be completed (it was supposedly a "direct number"), so I called OnCall again, and was again transferred to TechSupport.
I spoke with another man, and explained that "a second hard drive will not show up" (this was right after it had been plugged into a power cable for the first time since October) , giving more details as I went along to avoid confusion (I did not omit anyting vital). Eventually, I was told that my 22 month old hard drive (it never had a power cable plugged in from late October until the 26th or 27th of January and therefore had not been powered or accessed) was dead and no data could be recovered. I was devastated, information that allows me to get my diploma and the college credit that comes with it was on the drive. I got very upset that I was not told this at the beginning and asked why, I got no helpful answer, other than, "we would have had to re-install windows", that would have caused the exact data loss I was trying to avoid!
I was then transferred to a supervisor. He blamed the problem on me (I should've never bought a second hard drive, just reinstalled windows, even though it would have caused data loss, I should have had the data recovered immediately, regardless that it was so expensive at such short notice, the troubleshooting reboots ruined my drive, even though I had no power cable attached when I had been using my computer, and then they were the ones who told me to reboot once I had the power cable attached, I caused a lot of confusion, even though only 2 of the people I spoke to in my many calls spoke fluent English so I had trouble understanding what they were telling me, etc.).
He also told me that hard drives only last 11 months! My father's hard drive has lasted for well over 7 years with no replacement and no problems! I have never heard of that in my life, and even so I received no warning from Dell that it could die so soon (apparently it's not their responsiblity to tell people that they could lose years of important data so soon after purchase). I told him that I could physically not understand some of the people I had talked to (I was not rude, this man was not a fluent English speaker either), and he told me I could keep calling back until I got someone who spoke "YOUR language". He finally asked me what I wanted him to do, I asked him why has no technician told me the same thing?, (it had been a different story from each, I could get my data, I couldn't, I could, I couldn't)
He never answered me, and let the line go silent for more than 17 minutes (I was in tears, my information is so vital to me, my diploma, everything). When I had finally recovered, I said "Hello?" 3 times, and got no response. I assume he had put me on hold, and was going to leave me there until I hung up, so I did. He was so incredibly insensitive and rude to me, and in the end, I still don't know if my data is gone for good. My case numbers were xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, and xxxxxxxxxx. This is the second major problem with it, and now the mouse is "power surging"! It has an extented warranty, but it's proving to be little if any help. Other than purchasing and using the second hard drive, I did nothing to the original drive or the inside of the computer, I only did what they told me to.
I don't know if it's something the BBB handles (I'm pretty sure it is, my system may have been damaged by what they told me, they never helped), but I was in no way rude (I went out of my way to be polite, because my dad warned me about it in case I had to file a claim). I kind of want to go ahead and file it anyway, but should it not go through, is there any penalty for me and my family?