Dell Technical Support

Has anyone ever actually gotten through? My video card has gone faulty and I have been on the phone for 5 hours, with 10 tech's and have yet to have a successful result.

tech 1 > We can't do that, let me transfer you to the Ubuntu Team ... Hang up

tech 2 > Let me transfer you to the ubuntu tech team ... transfered to wireless support

(so on and so on)

tech 10 > I'll send a lcd to you, and schedule a technician to come and fix it (IT IS NOT THE LCD IVE TOLD YOU THIS 5 TIMES)

I have tried the direct number to the "ubuntu" number as well, it seems that they do not exist, because it always automatically sends me to some other department (after two tones and a pause).

866-622-1947 <- Ubuntu team does it work for anyone else?

I am waiting for the LCD part to arrive, and the "tech" to schedule a service call once it arrives (should be monday). I know the LCD is fine, but have to jump through these hoops anyway.

Anyone else suffer from trying to get anything accomplished through tech support?

Man I'm cranky now :(

If it's an issue with your video card then it's a hardware issue and there should be no need for Ubuntu support (or that's my understanding).

The PC needs to be serviced and the card replaced.

I had a keyboard issue with my Mini 9 and Dell support was actually very good: did some troubleshooting on the phone and then they sent me a replacement keyboard (since it's easy to replace).

That is exactly what I told them, but they refused to help me the first 5 or so times (my service tag being labeled an "ubuntu installation".

Worse, they refused to go through the diagnostic procedure on my windows installation (i dual boot) because they didn't sell it to me.

I've had too many experiences with Dell and their carelessness/ignorance.

The way to approach this situation is the following:

The two things that I would recommend doing: restore your notebook to its factory software settings (reload Dellubuntu on it). Call tech support and tell them that you want a replacement, and not any more support. They will replace it for you, shipping paid by them.

Then, after you get the replacement, call them and say that you want to return the laptop. They will then offer you an incentive to keep it, usually an amount of money. If for any rare reason they do not, just say that you changed your mind, and you're still left with your (hopefully working) replacement laptop.

This will work.

That's probably the avenue I am going to take after this tech call. My problem wont be fixed so a replacement would be warranted.

And while getting some money/upgrades out of them would be nice, I'm not looking for a whole lot of that mess, I just want my warranty contract to be fulfilled!

Now, in the meantime, I suppose I should find my original dellbuntu cd (I think it was feisty? perhaps gutsy? eesh, that was a while ago :-p)

yakker.yak said: If it's an issue with your video card then it's a hardware issue and there should be no need for Ubuntu support (or that's my understanding).

Dell's Linux support is (or was) hardware-only--software support is an optional add-on, and is provided directly by Canonical.

The upshot of which is, talking to the non-Linux support drones about a hardware issue on a machine that was purchased with Linux on it is about as useful as trying to teach a pig to sing. I had a bum floppy drive on the computer I bought, which could be (and was) diagnosed by using the Dell hardware testing partition. I mistakenly called the general support number and tried to explain that I booted into the hardware test partition and it told me the hardware is bad, here's the error code. I could not get them to stop telling me to click on the "Start" button and sorry, we do not support "lin-icks."

Once I called the Linux support line, I got a very helpful person who quickly realized that I knew what I was talking about and arranged to send me a replacement part. Unfortunately, it seems that the Linux support line may have gone the way of the dodo.

One can hope that this is a temporary problem, but if it isn't, then it's a very big deal. Without the Linux support line, we in effect have no hardware support for Dell Linux purchases.

gbrainin said:

Once I called the Linux support line, I got a very helpful person who quickly realized that I knew what I was talking about and arranged to send me a replacement part. Unfortunately, it seems that the Linux support line may have gone the way of the dodo.

One can hope that this is a temporary problem, but if it isn't, then it's a very big deal. Without the Linux support line, we in effect have no hardware support for Dell Linux purchases.

Was this recently or some time ago? My Dell Mini 9 was purchased 3 weeks ago with Ubuntu pre-installed and when I did call Technical Support last week the issue of whether my Mini 9 was a Windows or Ubuntu system was not even brought up or discussed.

I ran the hardware diagnostic tools, reported the results, and they sent a replacement keyboard. It was completely painless and the replacement part arrived in 2 days via priority shipping.

I really like the fact that the part was shipped to me and that I didn't need to send my Mini away for service for something simple to fix. I could continue using it with no downtime.

In any case, the Mini 9 was my first Dell purchase and this was my first and only warranty service experience, but it was very positive and a good one.

yakker.yak said: Was this recently or some time ago?

My particular call regarding the floppy drive was over a year ago.

Well, I am finally happy to say that my machine is running again, A tech came to the house (twice, since they refused to listen to me) and replaced the motherboard (laptop video card).

I finally got dell to send the tech by, in a sense, lying to them and telling them what they wanted to hear. It's not easy getting over on the tech support running from a script! (heh)

Glad it is fixed, glad the nightmare is over.

ghoti2007 said: Has anyone ever actually gotten through? My video card has gone faulty and I have been on the phone for 5 hours, with 10 tech's and have yet to have a successful result.

tech 1 > We can't do that, let me transfer you to the Ubuntu Team ... Hang up

tech 2 > Let me transfer you to the ubuntu tech team ... transfered to wireless support

(so on and so on)

tech 10 > I'll send a lcd to you, and schedule a technician to come and fix it (IT IS NOT THE LCD IVE TOLD YOU THIS 5 TIMES)

I have tried the direct number to the "ubuntu" number as well, it seems that they do not exist, because it always automatically sends me to some other department (after two tones and a pause).

866-622-1947 <- Ubuntu team does it work for anyone else?

I am waiting for the LCD part to arrive, and the "tech" to schedule a service call once it arrives (should be monday). I know the LCD is fine, but have to jump through these hoops anyway.

Anyone else suffer from trying to get anything accomplished through tech support?

Man I'm cranky now :(

Ubuntu was a pilot project at Dell. It was started as a loss-leader to the select few who requested it via the Dell Idea-storm. Unfortunately, stocks shifted and the company shifted from a Customer-Service oriented model into a Economic-Savings model.

In order to sell at the lowest prices and be competative, the sales team kept reducing the price of the premium brand to make their quota - this reflected negatively in overall cost and support was also cut in the process.

Having english speaking North American support costs $$$$$$.

The Ubuntu team, sadly, is no more.

You will only get standard support - if it's hw just ask to run diags.

Good luck y'all.