I've always had great Dell Customer/Technical Support in years past but tonight erases that memory completely.

I called about a very simple issue. The power adapter for one of my laptops is making a clicking sound which doesn't sound healthy. Since I've heard about power issues with this particular Dell and there are articles on Dell's site about this, I just wanted the thing replaced. Simple right? Wrong. Very wrong.

No word of a lie, I was transferred 4 times. The 5th person I spoke to was finally able to help me. Now, part of that may have been my fault in calling the wrong number to begin with but there were 4 attempts to transfer me to the correct department after taking my information each and every time.

Now, apparently Complete Care next day onsite service has some qualifications to it. If they send a part out instead of sending a technician, then next day is not next day. I guess they have never heard of overnight parcel delivery which would be satisfactory. I tried to get them to send a technician anyway just to deliver the power adapter but that didn't go over well. Apparently just about anything that a user can install themselves is sent unaccompanied by a technician and therefore void of the next day onsite service. The rep on the phone listed just about every component in this thing except for the motherboard and any components that are unremovable.

About all I can do is call Customer Care and complain. I really don't care to waste another hour on the phone and get nowhere. So I'll just post this and watch it rise to the top of Google.

Dell can contact me just like Linksys and Mattamy homes did after seeing their potential customers googling over to my weblog instead of their websites. Rogers still hasn't figured it out. What they don't know and likely won't because they aren't smart enough to visit here is that I'm likely to have some decision making influence for a multi-million dollar contract that they thought they had in the bag. Too bad they are a clueless organization.

In any event I highly recommend people to not waste their money on Complete Care next day onsite service and just go with the 2-3 business day service as it seems to be the same anyway.

Also, for the record, the reference number for the call was 76734170. The rep I spoke to at the end who was actually helpful was Alex (#54196).