Monday afternoon a package arrived. Everyone was excited. I was happy to receive my new Dell laptop and my son of course greets every new packakge like it's Christmas. Out of the box it came, onto the desk. I anxiously plugged everything in, powered it up. Ohhhhh ahhhh. Then I tried to connect to the internet and that's when the real fun began.
For our household, in the internet is not just for fun and games. When I am off, I remotely access my work email, commnicate with coworkers and send and receive "homework". We trade stocks online. My girlfriend ses it to commnicate with her family in the Philippines (much cheaper than phone), my son enjoys online learning games and of course I blog. So, at our home, the inernet is pretty much essential.
I could not get a connection to save my life. First thing I did was call Comcast to see if it was not properly configured. We went through everything and it seemed fine, especially since my old laptop had no trouble. I spent way too much time over the past few evenings on the phone with outsurced techs (not easy when you are alone with a three-year old) who were not helpful and frequently rude. Ultimately they could not figure it out and someone literally ditched me by telling me to hook up the old one and call him back. I did, left a message, I never heard from him again.
Deciding that it was more hassle than it was worth, I did not like the speakers anyway and I told them this morning that I just wanted to send it back. The person on the other end PASSIONATELY told me that the problem was that I was talking to some outsourced service and that Dell just recently hired a team of AMERICANS who can help me out (the irony being that he had the same accent as the techs I had been talking to). No, I said, it's not worth me getting stressed out. "Very well" he sniffed and connected me to the only useful person I talked to since that thing arrived. The bottom line, Dell, is this: If you want to brag about your American technicians, let them be the FIRST line of support, not the last.
Goodye, Dell.