Customer Services & Support

Last week I had the pleasure of emceeing three contests on Twitter for two Alienware M17x laptops and other prizes. I was simply amazed by the sheer number of responses I received. The M17x is a very popular item judging from the responses, and with good reason. It is an amazing machine, simply put.

While conducting the contest I received a personal message on twitter from co-optimus.com owner bapenguin, letting me know he had ordered an M17x to review for his site, and his order had been delayed for several weeks.  A quick perusal of the internet showed others are experiencing similar delays as well. I knew something was up when I got a direct message from another twitter friend, csharpzealot, who wrote: "Seems like the popularity of the M17x has landed Dell/Alienware in a bit of a parts problem :) oops..victim of your own success."

I decided this deserved a little looking into.

Here's the scoop: due to popular demand, there's been a slight hiccup in the supply LCD panels for the M17x, so csharpzealot isn't too far off with his statement. These aren't just your average LCD panels, but some of the highest quality LCD panels available, so just substituting any old panel to fulfill the orders just won't do. This part shortage is the root cause of most M17x delays, and the system's popularity is a major cause of the parts shortage. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the supply problem is well on the way to being conquered, and while we can't say when the shipping delays will subside, we know they soon will. If you're one of those waiting for your M17x to ship, you can be assured that when your system is built, it will be built specifically for you with the highest quality parts available.

Hang on to your hats, folks! Your M17x's are on their way!

I would like to share some details on an important update for the Drivers & Downloads application on Support.Dell.com. Recently, we completed the launch of the new Dell Driver Download Manager. This new functionality, which is available globally across all of Support.Dell.com, has been created to improve your experience when downloading files from Dell.  

The big change you will see when using the new Driver Download Manager is an improvement in download speed. The time taken to download files using the Driver Download Manager is a lot shorter, up to a 30-40% reduction, depending on your internet connectivity.

The Driver Download Manager also offers a number of improvements to help you through the process of downloading files from Support.Dell.com. You can now pause and resume your downloads. The progress of your download can be saved via an icon on your desktop which you can restart at any time. You can also restart your download should your internet connection get cut off in the middle of a download, as the Driver Download Manager saves your progress ensuring that you don't lose out.

To use the Driver Download Manager (Fig 1 above), you will need to complete a once off install of the application on your system.

Please take some time to visit your local Drivers & Downloads site and check out the Driver Download Manager. Hopefully you will find this new functionality useful and that it helps improve your download experience. I look forward to your feedback.

Editor's Note:  Eoghan has posted an updated blog post at this link.   To make sure everyone gets the newest information possible we're turning off comments to this post.  Comments are still welcome on the newer blog post, so please click on the link above to find the new post.

Windows 7 General Availability
Today on the other side of the world, at the Computex show in Taipei, Microsoft confirmed that later in the year, on October 22nd to be exact, you will be able to purchase Windows 7 factory installed on your favorite Dell PC. YEA! We have been working with Microsoft for the last three years to develop the best possible computing solutions for you and we are excited to see our work come to fruition. Globally, Dell will have a broad selection of netbooks, laptops and desktops available for you on both www.dell.com and on the store shelves of our retail partners.  

Dell Windows 7 Upgrade Program
Microsoft also confirmed that as with previous Windows launches, they are partnering with PC manufacturers like Dell to offer the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program. Later this summer, if you purchase select systems through retail or directly from Dell you may order a Windows 7 upgrade kit. It’s important to note that the Windows 7 upgrade kits will not be shipped until AFTER Windows 7 has officially launched (Oct. 22 as noted above). Once the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program is officially announced more details will be available including supported PCs, languages and countries.

Windows 7 Release Candidate testing feedback
I also want to provide new details since my last post on how our internal testing and developments efforts are coming along with Windows 7 release candidate code. So far so good…Overall we’re impressed with how well the operating system is working on our systems. Here are some of data points that we have captured over the last 4 to 6 weeks:

• Solid Improvements in boot time (ie hitting the power button and getting to the desktop)
• Suspend results are looking much better (versus Windows Vista)
• Battery life is still trending to be as good as Windows XP (and better than Vista)

And this is more qualitative than quantitative…the systems just feel faster in a good way.

We’re looking forward to adding Windows 7 to our compelling notebook and desktop systems later this year.

Dell has been selling systems at Best Buy for over a year now and to say that there has been some confusion on support is putting it mildly.   Many Dell customers, like brlfqq and Ron Schenone, show examples of customers who were bounced around between Dell and Geek Squad when looking for support on their systems.  There were many times were both Dell Techs and Best Buy’s Geek Squad members were confused  over which company was to provide the limited hardware warranty and tech support on these systems so I can imagine how frustrating it must have been for our customers.

Thankfully, that’s all ended.

Customers that purchase Dell systems or monitors at Best Buy can get limited hardware warranty support from either Best Buy’s Geek Squad or Dell’s Technical Support.   If it’s easier for you to contact Dell via telephone, email or online chat, then that’s the option for you.  If you prefer to take your system into a store and have a Geek Squad Agent work on it then you can get support that way as well.  You can even switch between Dell and Geek Squad as your needs change.   Here’s a little more detail into the kinds of support options you have between Dell and Best Buy:

• Tech Support (based on our Limited Hardware Warranty)
• Payment Issues
• Returns
• Wrong / Damaged Parts

• Tech Support (based on our Limited Hardware Warranty)
• Missing Parts
• Reinstallation Media

System returns will be handled by Best Buy according to their return policy.  Normal Dell limited hardware warranty limitations such as data recovery, advanced software support, accidental damage, and out of warranty still apply.  For more details, go to http://www.Dell.com/warranty.  

One of the easiest ways to get support through Best Buy is to carry your system into one of their stores or you can take a look at their Contact Us page.  You can reach Dell’s Technical Support group by calling 1-866-955-2251.  Techs are available 24/7 to help you.

If you do purchase a Dell system from Best Buy you will want to register your system with Dell as soon as possible to make sure there are no delays in the event you need to contact Dell support teams.

• Go to the Internet and visit Dell’s Product Registration website at http://www.Dell.com/register
• Select the language, country, and retailer from where you purchased and fill out the online form.
• Once the form is complete, click Submit.

If you are unable to register your product online you can call us at 1-800-624-9896.  We’re available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For customers purchasing a stand-alone Dell monitor from Best Buy you will need the PPID number for support.  That number is a 20-digit alphanumeric identification code printed on a sticker attached to the back of the monitor.  They normally begin with two letters and look like this:

Dell Technicians will be able to identify your monitor using that PPID code and determine whether your monitor is still covered by our Limited Hardware Warranty.

We rolled out a new version of our Community site in early November last year. The goal was to create a community site that combined blogs, forums and wikis. Since that time, it’s been a bumpy ride for many of our users, and they’ve let us know it.

Up to this point, we’ve made updates to the site, improved performance issues that prevented users from posting reliably to the forum and worked to implement some fixes along the way. That said,  It's still a work in progress. Not too long after we went live with the fix for the performance issue, Geoff Knox published a poll to get feedback from the community. One clear request from our readers was to make the forums look and function like a forum. Last night we rolled out some design and functionality changes that attempted to do just that.

One thing we tried to do is make it easier to post. You'll see the Start a New Thread button right near the top of the Forum aggregator page. Clicking on a board from the left hand nav will bring you to a page that's divided into board sections. See the Laptop board below as an example (click on link or or the image below to go there). Each section then displays the three most recent related threads.

At the sub-board level, you'll see two clickable options:

• View All Messages - This will show you all threads in that board
• Create a New Message - This will allow you to create a new thread in that board section

At the main board views, you'll see Posted By, # of Replies, # of Views, Last Action which shows who last posted to it with a date/ time stamp and Accepted Solutions which shows if the original issue was marked as solved by the user who created the thread.

• Made it much easier for users to post a message on a forum
• Finally added the ability to mark a forum thread as Read
• Given Announcements and Floated Threads specific icons so they're easier to spot.
• made it much easier to see the latest post in a forum thread
• Added the ability to filter by Accepted Solutions
• Fixed many of the line break, bullets and numbering issues in the text editor
• On the blog side, we fixed the Category pages - See the Events category on Direct2Dell (or click the image below) as an example. From the category view page on any blog, you can get an RSS feed and filter it to show content from All Blogs that feature that category.

I hope these visual and functional changes move us closer to what you've wanted. There’s still a lot of things we have to fix: search doesn’t work, we need to improve the single sign on process in a big way, have more work to make blogs look like blogs and  we have more to do in forums etc., but we're committed to getting this right.

To customers who contribute to the Dell Community, we appreciate your efforts as well as your feedback. Know that we remain committed to making this work.