My Dell Experience.

I've heard most of the horror stories out there of people having to deal with Dell for a warranty issue.

As of late, my Dell 5150 Inspiron has been getting a little glitchy. First I thought it was something minor and I could live with, lately though it's gotten to the point that it's pretty much toast, as in dead. Being as I generally use this laptop almost daily during the week it's a pretty big issue being without it.

Finances being what they are here at the Monkey Ranch, replacing it was not on our list or even being contemplated as being put on the list.

As the laptop is three years old and was bought as a refurbished unit, a covered warranty repair was also out of the question.

I was starting to try and figure out how the cost of the repair was going to fit into the budget when I got another lesson in just how God provides for his faithful.

Out of the blue, tucked in with all the mountain of vacation mail was a notice that almost ended up in the junk mail trash bag. Something said open it and see what it was. It was notice of a settlement of a class action lawsuit addressing the specific problem my Dell laptop was exhibiting.

I read through the settlement statement and realized part of the settlement was extending the warranty till September 2007. I was more than happy with this, there was still the issue though of having to battle the dragon that was supposed to be Dell's customer service and warranty people. All of the horror stories I'd heard and read led me to believe I was in for one heck of a fight.

I put of contacting Dell for a couple of weeks just because I didn't want to deal with a full on battle just to get them to fix my computer.

Last Friday night I finally had the time and attitude ready to go to war with them. I logged into their support chat, waited the requisite 27 minutes on hold to talk to a live person.

24 minutes later, I was connected. They asked the problem, I checked my ammo load out, got ready for battle and waded in. After a quick explanation of my problem I was stunned to see them say, "that's a known problem with that model and if you wait a minute I will set up a call tag so we can start the repair process".

I was literally stunned! Within 15-20 minutes we had the warranty process started and a shipping tag on its way to the Monkey Ranch.

People can say what they want about Dell, but I am one happy customer. When it does come time and the budget permits, I'll be buying our next computers from Dell. Service like I recieved is well worth rewarding and encouraging.