Dell Is Trying to Rip My Son Off

What the hell does Dell think they are doing? My son bought a Dell Inspiron 530S last year with a 350 watt power supply and built in video from Best Buy. The built in video did not give the system even basic game capabilities according to Vista. Having made the mistake of recommending my son go ahead and buy this computer based on the Best Buy weekend special, I didn't feel confident to recommend a video card. After my son bought a minimal game that would not load on the system due to the lame video capabilities, he and I went to Best Buy to find a slim video card that he could use. Considering Best Buy's technical credentials, it should be no surprise they had no clue what card might be used in this system to give it even basic gaming capabilities.

Since Dell built the system and it had such a lame excuse for a power supply I looked on the Dell web site for a video card with a slim form factor. I found several costing between $39 and $60 on the Dell web site that should meet his needs, but since I had recommended he buy the POS to begin with, I had lost my confidence and didn't want to recommend which one would work on this system. Instead, since Best Buy didn't have a clue or know what they were doing, I recommended he contact Dell Support and ask them which card he should get. He did as I recommended (see Support Chat Session below).

Well, since I'm writing this Dell obviously failed to come through and has tried to take advantage of my son. Based on the chat session below, Tech support identified a card meeting his needs at 1:41:11 which was a P/N 2542453 for $ 55.99. When he was transferred to Sales, low and behold they told him "Oh no, that's not the right card. You need a a A2418153 (aka GeForce 9500 GT) with a TV tuner and 1 GB of video memory for $99. In addition he needed a mysterious $10 cable to install this card in his system. Now don't get me wrong, this card is awesome, but with the statement on the side of the box, "POWER SUPPLY ADVISORY NVIDIA MINIMUM POWER SUPPLY REQUIREMENTS - Minimum 400W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 18A). Yeh, this card that Dell sales managed to convince my son to buy would probably work for a week, a month, or maybe even several months while the power supply fries itself and the system overheats. How dare Dell take advantage of my son's innocence, naivete and inexperience to sell him a card that exceeds what he needs and will eventually damage his system as it approaches it's end of warranty period.

On my son's behalf I will contact Dell first and the Colorado Attorney Generals office if I am not satisfied with their response. I don't like the idea of some sleazeball salesman taking advantage of my family.

+---- My Son's Dell Support Chat Session ----+

This is an automated email sent from Dell Chat. The following information is a log of your session. Please save the log for your records. Your session ID for this incident is 29324473.
Time	Details
08/03/2009 01:12:49PM	System: "Thanks for choosing chat for your technical support needs. A chat agent will be with you shortly. Just so you know, you can also visit our website at support.dell.com to get technical help."
08/03/2009 01:14:49PM	System: "Thanks so much for your patience. Chat agents are eager to help you with your troubleshooting needs, so stay on line and the next available representative will assist you."
08/03/2009 01:17:54PM	Session Transferred to Agent (Jaswant _110991)
08/03/2009 01:18:07PM	Session Started with Agent (Jaswant _110991)
08/03/2009 01:18:16PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Im having trouble finding a Video card for the inspiron 530s i have is there anything I find that is good enough for under $50"
08/03/2009 01:18:19PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Welcome to Dell's Technical Support Chat! My name is Jaswant. How may I assist you today?"
08/03/2009 01:18:54PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Im having trouble finding a Video card for the inspiron 530s i have is there anything I find that is good enough for under $50"
08/03/2009 01:19:24PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "I apologize that you had to wait too long to reach us, we have been experiencing high chat volumes today and are working on it. Let me understand the issue we’re facing with the computer right now so that I can assist you right away."
08/03/2009 01:20:22PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "You want to upgrade the video card. Is that correct?"
08/03/2009 01:20:30PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Yes"
08/03/2009 01:20:52PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "May I know do you want to install any specific card?"
08/03/2009 01:21:59PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Well Im not sure I bought a game for my son and it says the video card needs to be better im at a 3.0 rating and needs to be a 4.0"
08/03/2009 01:22:29PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "I understand your concern and I will personally attend to the issue. I assure you that I will do my best to provide you quality service. Please give me a minute to pull up your account information."
08/03/2009 01:22:52PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Thanks"
08/03/2009 01:23:59PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Thank you for staying online. I appreciate your patience."
08/03/2009 01:25:15PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "I am checking the video card which are under $ 50."
08/03/2009 01:27:22PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "May I know the name of the game which you ant to play?"
08/03/2009 01:27:51PM	Brian Xxxxx: "The Witcher"
08/03/2009 01:28:02PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Thank you for the information."
08/03/2009 01:29:08PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "I tried to find a video card lesser than $ 50 and I am afraid that I was not able to find any card in that range which will be compatible with this game and can also give you a rating of 4.0 I will recommend that you may contact our sales department to ge"
	t less expensive card.
08/03/2009 01:29:26PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "The best people to assist you with regards to purchasing the card would be the Dell Spare parts Department. For ‘Home & Home Office’ customers, they are available daily between 7A.M. and 11P.M. CST at 800-357-3355, extension is 72-69938. They would be abl"
	e to recommend the correct part, considering your requirements. Our Spare parts representatives would be happy to assist you and provide any additional information that you might need.
08/03/2009 01:30:13PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "I will be happy to help you order a card which is $ 55.99 excluding taxes and shipping."
08/03/2009 01:31:11PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Yeah thats fine if it will get me to the 4.0 and fit in this slim box"
08/03/2009 01:32:42PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "May I know the address at which you want to get this card?"
08/03/2009 01:33:26PM	Brian Xxxxx: "xxx S. Xxxxx St. Xxxxxxxx Co. xxxxxx"
08/03/2009 01:33:52PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "May I know from where did you order this computer?"
08/03/2009 01:34:17PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Bought it at Best Buy"
08/03/2009 01:34:44PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "According to our records, this system is still registered under the name of Best buy. Would you like me to transfer the ownership on your behalf so that you don’t face any issues in availing technical support in future?"
08/03/2009 01:35:59PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Yeah I thought I had registered it and also I accidentally gave you the wrong zip code"
08/03/2009 01:36:28PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "May I have the name, telephone number, complete address and e-mail of the owner?"
08/03/2009 01:38:00PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Brian Xxxxx 303 xxx-xxxx xxx S. Pierce St. Xxxxx Colorado xxxx Brian@ourdomain.dom"
08/03/2009 01:38:25PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Thank you for the information."
08/03/2009 01:38:37PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Could you please stay online for 2-3 minutes while I transfer the computer under your name?"
08/03/2009 01:38:47PM	Brian Xxxxx: "No problem"
08/03/2009 01:40:07PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Thank you for staying online. I appreciate your patience. In order to place an order for this card I will recommend that you may contact our sales department as they will be happy to assist you and also let you know if a also expensive card is available."
08/03/2009 01:40:27PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "They are available daily between 7A.M. and 11P.M. CST at 800-357-3355, extension is 72-69938."
08/03/2009 01:41:11PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "The Dell part number of the compatible card which is $ 55.99 is A 2542453."
08/03/2009 01:41:40PM	Brian Xxxxx "Ok Great thanks for the help"
08/03/2009 01:42:17PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "You are most welcome. You will get our chat transcript in your E-Mail box for future reference so that have the part number and phone number handy."
08/03/2009 01:42:35PM	Brian Xxxxx: "Thanks again"
08/03/2009 01:42:58PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "You are most welcome."
08/03/2009 01:43:03PM	Agent (Jaswant _110991): "Is there any other DELL hardware related issue that I may assist you with?"
08/03/2009 01:43:04PM	Session Ended

What Happened to Gateway Computer?

So what has happened to Gateway computer?

First, a little background. I've never owned a Gateway computer. I've had Compaq, HP, IBM, Dell, Acer, even Packard Bell and a slew of homebuilts, but never a Gateway. Considering I grew up in Iowa, that's sort of strange. I've always heard fairly good things about them other than they tended to use non-standard parts which you had to go to them to replace or upgrade. So far I've not seen this problem.

Last October, in 2008, I bought a brand new Gateway LX6200-01. So this is my first experience with Gateway computer. The computer is awesome and Gateway did a fine job bringing this to market. It has a 750GB Hard disk, 8GB of memory, two really cool external SATA drive trays, and every interface imaginable under slick hidden access panels. I bought it at the local Best Buy. I thought my only problem was that I told the salesman I wanted a non-built in video card, but then found that it had fairly decent ATI HD 3200 (AMD) video. I've been pretty happy with the computer overall. Then I tried to contact the Gateway technical support ...

I bought the computer on October 25, 2008. On October 31 I contacted Gateway support about an issue I was having with the computer recognizing my Hannspree HF229H 22" monitor. Their immediate solution was to use the backup created as part of the initial setup to essentially re-image the machine. Having already installed enough software that I was not willing to start all over, I decided to contact ATI (AMD) and see if they knew how to fix the problem since re-imaging and then booting again would just cause the problem to recur. Like most hardware vendors, ATI suggested completely removing their Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software and installing new drivers. What they suggested fixed the problem with the monitor, however I noticed the screen saver did not work. Eventually I found that after every boot and log in the screen saver delay was reset to 1 minute. Setting the value to 30 minutes each log in seemed to deal with the problem.

In early November 2008, I contacted Gateway Tech support to ask about software for the Fax/modem. Their response was that the operating system they included on their computer didn't support the included Fax hardware. After shaking my head, all I could do was shrug and say to myself "What are these people thinking?".

Since the only less than stellar aspect about the computer, causing the "Windows Experience" to only be 4.0, was the graphics adapter I decided to add a new video card. Not being a high end gamer, but expecting reasonable performance on Micro$oft Flight Simulator FSX, I chose a Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 to minimize the system change. The card has 512MB DDR2 memory and is working great today.

On May 9th I grew tired of the screen saver issue and I was feeling happy that I had cleaned up the other issues mentioned earlier. I contacted Gateway tech support describing the problem [090509-000110]. They informed me that my computer was not registered based on the serial number submitted, said that they would be happy to register it for me if I gave them the information, that my computer was indeed under warranty, and informed me that to set the screen saver I should "right click, choose personalize..., etc.". Since their response was almost a quote of my original Tech support request, I asked whether they even read my original request. I also asked why the message from Gateway, dated October 31, 2008, entitled "Thank you for registering" did not mean I had already registered the computer. By this time, I was suspecting I was dealing with a "Help Desk" that didn't have a clue, or at least didn't care and my response was with a smart ass attitude and I included Google results showing this is a well known issue with their computer, even Answers Microsoft is aware and Windows VistaForums has six pages on the problem. The response I received really shocked me. I was told that obviously the person responding couldn't help me with my problem and they gave me the pay for support number to call to find a solution.

In one breath, Gateway Tech support is telling me that my computer is under warranty and the next that I need to pay to find a solution. Does Gateway still employ any technical types who see they have a problem and find a solution, or have they gone to "don't care zombies" who just collect a paycheck?

Thanks Gateway, you ruined a really promising day and convinced me never to buy another Gateway computer all in the same day! What was this, a lazy and/or stupid employee, or a company's attitude toward their customers? Doesn't matter it was Gateway.