Dell Unboxing #2

So I have been reinstalling software on my new computer for the past three days.

As you can see, I have a lot of software.



And when I staged this photo, I accidentally forgot to include the Mrs.'s copy of Visio and MS Project - software packages I really need on my home PC for certain projects when I work from home.

And the Oscar Wilde book gives me something to read while the software loads.

Here are some interesting things I learned from this experience.

1) Microsoft deserves its reputation for being evil. To install the latest Service Packs for MS Office, the website would not give me the software until I let the "Windows Genuine Advantage" application scan my computer to determine if my software is legitimate or pirated. It determined that my software is legitimate, but STILL wouldn't install the updates until I put the original CDs in the drive and let the installer verify the legitimacy of the software again.

2) iTunes lets you use one account on up to five computers at a time. Because I did not plan on my computer crashing, I did not get a chance to deactivate my old computer. So I am now up to my limit of five (the desktop, the laptop, the work laptop, the dead desktop, and one mystery machine (it is either my wife's laptop or my computer at my previous employer). In case you wind up in a situation where you have a dead computer still listed as an active iTunes account, you can deactivate all five computers and start over. You get to do this once a year.

3) Sony Media Software is AWESOME! I log into my account and can download and reinstall my registered software directly from the website. So I don't need my CDs (even thought I have them), I just need my account and my registration numbers.

4) Final Draft and Final Draft AV are also pretty good software packages as far as re-installation goes. The website lets you download the latest version of the software from the website if you are a registered user (which is awesome!). You are only supposed to have this software on two machines (a desktop and a laptop) so you need to activate the software. Of course, my activation did not work because I am at the 2 machine limit. The software gave me a 1-800 number that I had to call to deactivate my software to reactivate my software. Call wait time was less than 90 seconds and the phone rep was awesome. Everything is working fine now.

5) Starcraft apparently doesn't care if you register the software or not. When you click "Register Starcraft" after installation, you get a nice juicy 404 error on the Blizzard site. Same goes for the PC version of Halo. Not that I use the computer to play games. No. It is to be productive and nothing else.

Still working on the data recovery. I will try to write about that. Haven't configured Outlook yet. Probably won't write about that.

Dell Unboxing #1

So my replacement Dall arrived last week.

There are three general phases to getting a new computer.

1) Unboxing it and doing the manual setup.

2) Installing all of the software and configuring the machine.

3) Restoring the data from the old computer system.

As of this writing, I'm finished with 1 and am in the middle of 2. It looks like 3 is going to take about six hours to do. The good news is that there is SOMEthing on the backup hard drive that I thought was wiped. The bad news is that I am not quite sure what it is. Sunday night, I started the scan and recovery process and went to bed, only to check the machine on Monday morning to find that the whole process "hung up" (the technical term) at 1:10 am. I do not know if this is a Windows issue, a Dell issue, or the data recovery software's issue. All I know is that the entire operating system froze and neither the keyboard or the mouse worked. (My guess it has something to do with the default settings on the powersave/hibernate option.)

But that is neither here nor there. The purpose of this entry is to describe the unboxing of the replacement Dell.

As some of you know, I through a fit here on the blog after the incredibly shoddy technical support I received from Dell and its third party vendor. Brad at Dell responded in my comments and we worked out a deal for me to exchange my old broken Dell for a new working one.

It came in a box.



Covered in Dell logos.



And an image instructing you to lift it out of the box with a buddy.



The box contained instructions.



And even instructions that depict users reading the instructions.



All of the pre-installed software came on CDs (which was very nice).



And I even found some religious pamphlets included in the box. I guess this means the system was blessed.



I cracked open the case to make sure everything was in order.



I set the new next to the old for some side-by-side comparison action.



Wired up all of my 5,099,234,155 peripherals to the machine.



And cranked her up.



Then I set the old machine in the box, preparing it for the inevitable Viking funeral.



To Be Continued....

Follow up on the Dell Thing

Some of you may have read about my situation with Dell tech support.

Brad at Dell posted in my comments, we had a discussion, and arranged an exchange of my old broken Dell for a new one. The new one was from the was same line (XPS) and was an upgrade in terms of processor power and hard drive space (which is very nice and is something Dell didn't have to do). It was supposed to ship on or around June 6th. It hasn't yet. (For those of you counting the days - the computer originally crashed on April 7th.)

Because this is a special deal and because this is circumventing the normal lines of Dell support, I do not think it is appropriate to complain. (And, in case Brad or anyone else at Dell is reading, this post is not a complaint - just a status report for my dozen or so regular blog readers.)

Brad sent me this email yesterday, which was pleasant and proactive.

***

Robert,

I have found out the part that is delaying the system is the 8800GTX, and the only card for this system that is currently an option on Dell.com are 2 8800GT’s. If the 2 8800GT’s are agreeable with you I can get the new order setup tomorrow. As of right now I do not have an accurate time frame of when or if we will offer the 8800GTX again. I apologize for the inconvenience on this but I did not want to keep you waiting much longer. Please let me know if you have any questions.

***

Here is my response:

Hi Brad -

This is good to know. My main concern about the graphic card is the dual-monitor support. I assume the 2 8800GTs will support dual monitors.

I do not need the HDTV out functionality the 8800GTX offers. That seems like the biggest difference between the two options and it is a non-issue. Simple dual monitor support is all I need.

So, yes. Please change the part and continue with the order. I appreciate your efforts.

-Robert

***

See? I can be a grown up about these things.

Shows how often I read my comments...

Hey!

I just read this in my comments area:

Dear Mr. Turnage,
I just read your blog post dated 11/15/06 and I am sorry for any confusion you may have experienced regarding the strange email. So that I may investigate the matter further, please send the email in question to me at the address below. I look forward to your email. Thank you and have a great day!

Best Regards,
Marie
Dell Customer Advocate
Email: Customer_Advocate@dell.com

That is totally awesome! Too bad I deleted that email weeks ago because, frankly, it is better to be safe than sorry, and anything that promises to give me a new Dell laptop is too good to be true.

But I'm happy to know where to go when I have a problem. I like the whole idea the Dell trolls the blogs, looking for complaints. That is a great business practice and Marie deserves a raise.

Believe me, if I ever run into a problem again, I will be emailing Marie. (If her text is any indication, she probably is the spitting image of Olivia Newton-John.) Marie, you are truly a wonder.

This made my day.

Another Customer Complaint

I recently bought a Dell laptop.

I recently got an email, apparently from Dell, saying that if I take this survey about my laptop, I might win another laptop.

This sounded fishy to me, or, more specifically, phishy.

So I filled out a customer form to Dell, copying and pasting the email into their form with a quick note, "Is this spam? Is this a phishing scam?"

And this was the response:

I would have been glad to assist you in this query, however, let me please inform you that we , at Customer Care only deals with post-sales and logistics issues.

Therefore, I would request you to please contact our Customer care department at
the toll free number 1-800-624-9897 between 7AM to 11 PM CST Monday through
Saturday for this particular issue as they would only be able to verify the
requested information.

***

I would think that, on a corporate level, that any company would love to have internet con artists not sullying their good corporate names and logos. Paypal, eBay, and Cingular all have email addresses for you to FWD emails to if you think they're suspect. Why isn't this an industry standard? And why can't the Dell support guy simply click the hyperlink in the email to see what happens? I'm totally afraid to, but why can't someone behind a Dell corporate firewall do so? And why can't someone in customer support just look at current marketing promotions and see if this is a legitimate one or not?

These are some of the problems with being a large corporation with a strong brand presence. I just don't understand why Dell isn't prepared for this.