Re: Outsourcing - A Horror Story With a Happy Ending

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From: Carey Frisch [MVP] (mrxp2004_at_nospamyahoo.com)
Date: 03/12/04 

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 20:58:35 -0600

If you have a problem with Dell support, then contact
Dell support!

Welcome to Dell Support
http://support.dell.com/home.aspx

Welcome to Dell Community Forums
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/ 

-- 
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Be Smart!  Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"PT" <xyz@xyz.com> wrote in message:
 news:eXbLAz9BEHA.1704@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
| This morning, I turned on my Dell computer, and received an error message:
| "NTLDR is missing.  Press any key to restart".  After several attempts at
| pressing the "enter" key and getting the same message, rebooting several
| times and getting the same message, I called Dell Phone Support.
| 
| 
| 
| The technician somewhere in India told me that this was a relatively common
| problem, and required reinstalling the file in the I386 folder.  He then
| went through a long sequence of steps to try to reinstall the file from the
| Windows XP reinstallation CD.  He kept running into problems, getting the
| message "Access denied" when we tried accessing the I386 folder.
| Eventually, after about an hour on the phone, he told me that several files
| had been corrupted, and the only thing left to do was to re-format the hard
| drive, reinstall Windows, and try to rebuild the system.  I was told that
| the process requires about 2 - 3 hours to complete.
| 
| 
| 
| I decided to do so using a local computer servicing company which had
| previously installed Ghost and made a backup image of my hard drive.  I
| started out by explaining the NTLDR error message.  The following is a
| nearly verbatim transcript of our conversation"
| 
| 
| 
| Local Tech:  "Do you have a floppy in the floppy drive?"
| 
| 
| 
| Me: "No --- Wait a minute - yes I do!  I guess I should remove it?"
| 
| 
| 
| Local Tech:  "Yes, then reboot"
| 
| 
| 
| Me:  "It's booting correctly - Is that what the problem was?"
| 
| 
| 
| Local Tech:  "Yes - That's the message you get when you try to boot from the
| floppy drive - It's a standard cryptic MS error message.
| 
| 
| 
| So how to I rate the advice the Dell Indian technician provided?
| 
| 
| 
|  1.. Not only didn't he know the simple and apparently obvious solution to
| what is an extremely common problem - a badly designed Windows XP error
| message.
| 
| 
|  2.. Not only did he waste an hour of my time on a fruitless exercise when
| a knowledgeable tech could have solved the problem in ten seconds.
| 
| 
|  3.. But - if I had blindly followed his advice, I would have at best, lost
| all the programs, data files and everything else I've added since purchase.
| 
| 
| To summarize - this incident has severely shaken my faith in the quality of
| Dell support service,  I should mention that when I told the local tech of
| the procedure that the Dell support tech had followed, and the
| recommendation he gave - the local tech told me  "those guys don't know very
| much - they just follow scripts, and rush you into replacing equipment and
| software."
| 
| 
| -- 
| PT
| 
|

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