> > > So, in other words, your laptop basically sucked as far as quality goes?
> >
> > No, not really. They shipped the wrong modem (the Actiontec worked, but
> > I wanted the 3Com), and they swapped for the right one.
> >
> > The screen flicker could have been due to the fact that this is a
> > laptop, and does get shook around sometime. They didn't balk at
> > swapping the replacement LCD with another one just because I didn't
> > like the new one (I think most people wouldn't have complained). All
> > three LCDs had no bad pixles, BTW. The mouse problem was due to me
> > being in the habit of holding the laptop (with the screen open, which
> > adds extra strain) in one hand on the right-front corner when I move
> > around while I'm working and putting extra strain on the case, which
> > caused flexing and damaged the touchpad.
>
> So in other words, you were wasting valuable tech support resources for
> your non-issues while people like me suffered? Thanks!
They were issues to me. In fact, I went ahead and got CompleteCare so I
don't have to worry about accidents.
> > I know other people that have good experience. As usual, most people
> > only hear about the bad experiences.
>
> Oh yeah? Name them.
There were a couple posted here, there have been some on alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,
and there are some on DellTalk.
> If it was one crackpot on a Usenet newsgroup ranting about it, I'd ignore
> it. If it's more than several crackpots, it's a real issue.
>
> At best, their product quality and customer service could be considered
> inconsistent. That's definitely not good.
This is the squeaky wheel syndrome. People don't talk about
their good experiences, but about their bad experiences. For
example, I didn't mention my good experiences until people
mentioned their bad experiences.
I've had good and bad experiences from other vendors, but I
usually only mention the bad ones, and I accept that other
people have good experiences with the ones I don't.
A good example of this is when I had a problem with a system
we bought in a package from a vendor. I can't remember the
original problem (this has been over ten years, and we had
a couple of teething problems so I can't remember which one
was not taken care of properly), but we ended up having the
problem escalated to the point the presidents of the company
that made the system and the vendor had to meet along with
an executive VP of our company to resolve the problem.
You can bet that I was the squeaky wheel on this issue, and
it left me with heartburn for a while, but after we got the
issues resolved the support got much better.
The problem turned out to be due to the vendor and the system
manufacturer not having agreed on policies before they made
the deal. Fortunately the agreement between our company and
the vendor were reviewed before signing the purchase agreement
so we had something to hold over the head of the vendor (this
was only a $3M system, but we did several million dollars of
business with both companies each year).
I had another problem with a vendor that they resolved only
after I signed an NDA. If I hadn't signed the NDA I'd still
be complaining out loud.
--
Eric Dittman
dittman_at_dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/
Received on Thu Jan 10 2002 - 12:46:37 GMT