LEMON Dell update

For crying out loud!

Dell is ridiculous... they did send the kid the replacement hard drive she needs... but now they are refusing to provide her with the disks needed to restore her computer.... they are intent on charging her more than $200 - because THEY SELL LEMONS.

What the hell good is the one without the other?

These people are RIDICULOUS.

Every single time there is a problem - and there are altogether too many of those! - it is like pulling teeth to get them to make it right.

Dell does not provide a good product, and they do not stand behind their lemons when they crap out - over and over and over.

NEVER AGAIN.

Why I will never EVER buy another Dell

So... I had a Dell laptop - it was pretty.... and it actually held up fairly well, even though it was involved in a serious car accident a couple of months after I bought it.

The screen was smashed, and things were rather off kilter... but it kept working and working....

The cost to get the screen repaired after the accident - by Dell, anyway - was LUDICROUS... basically they thought I should just pay the entire cost of the laptop again ... not happening... but I plugged it into an external monitor and was able to keep using it.

SO ...when both of my (adult) kids decided to buy new laptops and both went to Dell, it seemed reasonable to me. NOT. Both of them got complete and total LEMON Dells - a year apart ... but still, both lemons.

How many times is reasonable to have to replace the hard drive? Every other month? Seems a bit excessive to me!!

Computer #1 went through 4, I think... with much drama, and many many arguments with Dell .... before they finally fixed it properly - which means that rather than just replacing the hard drive so that it could crap out again, they actually replaced the motherboard.

Computer #2 is now on its 3rd (nonfunctioning) hard drive .... each time it has crapped out, of course, includes more drama, lost data, and more expense.

And again they are not interested in doing a damn thing about it. It's out of warranty, now, of course - the fact that each new hard drive lasts less than 6 months means bupkiss to them. They'll ~fix~ it for her - at their RIDICULOUSLY INFLATED out of warranty repair cost... AS IF.

NO MORE DELL. Not ever.

Trombly's Tackle Box

Wow... now there's some bad customer service.

After my boating accident last year, we had to replace bunches of tackle. All of our rods, all but one drawer of tackle....

insurance company told us to go buy it all and send in the receipts. We talked about driving down to Bass Pro Shop but then decided to go to Trombly's in Orillia instead- it's closer, and, we'd heard, among the best tackle shops in the area.

Bad plan, apparently.

One of the reels we bought did not hold up at all - less than a year old - and of course, it wasn't used all winter - so really, it crapped out with only 2/3 months of use. Not one of the cheaper for company so it will hardly get used reels - we went with a more expensive but supposedly better quality Pflueger...

crap. Took it back yesterday and while hubby was dealing with that, kid & I were in the back room looking for glow in the dark goodies ....and listening to rather obnoxious guy telling another that someone (that would be hubby) had brought back a reel and no way he was replacing it - tell him to take it to their repair guy. Snotty tone, y'know? Like we - well, hubby - had a lot of nerve to bring back something we bought there and expect them to make it right.

Offensive.

They did, in fact, refuse to replace it - gave him a (wrong - the road she highlighted for him no longer exists) map and sent us to the other side of the city to drop it off to be fixed.... should take a week or so. Only HAVE a week or so until we start back into full time school, running to Peterborough, etc - but hey, he can use one of the supposedly lesser quality reels in the meantime.

The other thing we did while we were there was to pay to have someone replace a rod tip for us. Not a big job .... but we did actually PAY to have it done. So ....getting all set to go out and have another go at the pike hubby lost last time out (or any of its not-so-little friends) .... pick up the newly replaced rod and he notices that it is not inline with the other eyes. The guy we PAID to fix the damn thing took off the old one and plunked on a new one. NO GLUE. It was just sitting on there lose and ready to fly off the first time it was cast.

If that's the sort of customer service one can expect when they walk in and drop a couple of thousand dollars in one shot I can't imagine it gets any better when you've just bought one or two items. Won't be shopping there again. Ever.

NO matter how many glow in the dark fishing goodies they have.

Rogers again

Got mail from Rogers today.

Well no, actually. Of course, I did not.

I am, after all, of no importance whatsoever.

Hubby got mail from Rogers today - a "letter" signed by Matthew Ariker, VP, Customer Marketing... which, at the top of it says "Please keep these exclusive prices on the latest phone upgrades to yourself (It'll be our little secret)" ...which amuses me as it is no doubt meant to make me - oops, sorry - hubby - feel ~special.~

Might be just a bit more effective if there were actually any "exclusive prices" that one COULD share - or not - in here. Whatever... they lose, of course, since hubby has no interest whatsoever in dealing with them.... and hey, THEY have no interest in dealing with me. Let the shopping around begin. *sigh*

I hate shopping.

I especially hate shopping for cell phones.

I would have been very happy to stay with Rogers just to avoid the whole ordeal.

Oh well...what can you do?

Rogers

So... we have already cancelled our Rogers cable & Internet - about a year ago now.... but at that point, my phone contract had more than a year left on it, so I left that alone.

Now, though, my phone contract is running out...

Silly time to be screwing with me, Rogers!

I have twice called Rogers lately, trying to get a better price on the data plan for my Blackberry, since I am still paying an inordinate amount. I got the phone almost 3 years ago - at that point, they were charging silly prices for data. My kid has a Rogers blackberry now and is paying about a third of what I have been - so it seemed like they should be able to do something.

First call - NO. Absolutely not - you are locked in and can continue paying 3x what other people are paying just cuz you were dumb enough to sign with Rogers back then.

Second call - sure, I can help you with that - and I'll even give you a $5/month discount - just let me lock you in for another THREE YEARS!!!! Uh no - the previous call proved how dumb THAT would be, didn't it?

I OWN MY BLACKBERRY. OUTRIGHT. Less than a year ago, my original was lost in a boating accident - so insurance replaced it. I do not need a new phone - but to get a $5/month discount she wanted to lock me in for 3 more years?! I think NOT!

So today - I wanted to pay my bill - but I tried the wrong password for my online account first. Did you know you only get ONE shot at it? ONE - and then you are locked out for 24 hours.

Ludicrous.

So I hit the button for the online Live Support...waited 7+ minutes .... asked customer ~service~ rep to reset my password.

Went through their security sh*t and FAILED - because I am not the primary name on the account.

Except that - for the phone - I am, actually. It was set up in MY name... by ME... and I am the only one that has EVER had anything to do with it.

But hey - you don't want me to pay my bill? You don't want my account? I can fix that.

I told the customer ~service~ rep that I was not impressed - and that my husband, whose name WAS the primary on the CABLE account that we no longer have - was actually here .... but hey, if Rogers doesn't want my business, fine by me...

She offered to send another security form for me (him - because I'm not a valued customer, you see) to fill out and send over the internet.

Uh yeah... sure... I'm going to send - among other things - his Social Insurance Number and his Drivers License number and hey ...why don't I just give you my username and password for my bank accounts too.... If you're going to ~protect~ us by suggesting that we send those things over the net, might as well, eh?

Ludicrous! And SO not happening.

So - presumably when I don't pay my bill because they can't be bothered to allow me more than one attempt to login to my online account - they will eventually send me an overdue notice? Or maybe - once I have calmed down some, and done all the other things on my list of annoying tasks I need to do today - I will try calling and asking them how much they would like me to pay them.

So not worth the aggravation - I think I would rather sign up with another company altogether - even if I do have to start with a new phone - than to continue to deal with Rogers. At least then I can be the primary person - for real - on my very own account.