Dealing With DELL, HP, or GATEWAY

[petef]

I'm operating my own computer services business for years now doing

mostly software solutions on desktop PCs so I've had very little need to

deal directly with HP or DELL or GATEWAY.

 

I'm now getting more into hardware & laptop repairs which often require

that I contact HP or DELL or GATEWAY for replacement parts or computers

under warranty issues. I typically have to spend an 30 to 60 minutes or

more dealing with tech support via online chat or telephone to get their

approval on warrany relacement parts and to order the parts.

 

I'm wondering if there is a faster way for a computer service business

to deal with HP or DELL or Gateway because it seems rediculous to spent

60 minutes just to order a replacement part or a part under warranty.

 

---pete---

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It seems to me that if your an authorised dealer for those companies Pete then they will need verification of your account details etc when ordering new parts.

This surely is what's taking the time yes?

 

I can't see a way round it Pete.

[Seth]

As a side note Pete, I'm wondering what parts you need to order? In my shop, I rarely have to contact a manufacturer.

 

It's not very often that I come across a warranty repair on hardware. If I get a call such as that, I refer them to the place of purchase and/or the manufacturer.

 

For non-warranty work, most replacement devices are hard drives and power supplies. I maintain an ample inventory of such along with ram, fans, etc. I order these from a distributer about every 6 months.

 

I no longer replace motherboards for reasons I'll post if you want to know.

[hardware_dave]

You could get a trade account, we have one with dell but not the others. We mainly buy new servers, but I am sure having an account manager would speed things up.

 

I agree with Seth on the under warranty stuff, if its out of warranty why not use off the shelf parts ? If its a custom part, its probably not worth the cost of a replacment.

 

Seth : you only go the suppliers every six months ? that must be one hell of an order <grin>.

 

Dave

[petef]

I agree with Seth on the under warranty stuff' date=' if its out of warranty why not use off the shelf parts ? If its a custom part, its probably not worth the cost of a replacment.[/quote']

I'm talking about proprietary items such as laptop CD/DVD drives, keyboards,

proprietary PSUs on weird form factor PCs when there is no other alternative.

I've also had a few customers who bing me their broken hardware to fix while

still under warranty simply becasue of the hassle they'd have to go through

dealing with tech support. See, if it takes me 1 hour on the phone with tech

support it can often take much longer for the customer to do the same

thing and many people just don't have the time or patience to endure all

that.

 

Yeah, as suggested, Dell does offer some kind of business account but

I've yet to speak to someone at Dell who would sign me up. Believe me I

did try one day and got bounced from one department to another until I

finally gave up. I'm not an authorized dealer for any of those companies

and I'm not even sure if they offer such a designation. That's why I'm

asking here.

 

This is why I much prefer working with software solutions. :)

 

---pete---

[Tony D]

Dell is a real pain to deal with unless you're a business customer. One of my customers, a business, purchased a machine and hired me to set it up and transfer files from old machine and a few other things. The machine arrived missing a cable to connect the digital monitor to the tower. I called Dell as a business customer and had a wonderful (I can't believe I wrote that) experience. The person I spoke with was relaxed, knew the language, was in the USA.

 

Although I was passed around until I got to the right place, it was a nice experience. Now for consumers - it's still a pain,

[petef]

If its a custom part' date=' its probably not worth the cost of a replacment.[/quote']

Dave, here's 2 recent examples....

 

* Dell Laptop, still under waranty, only a few months old. Two keys fell off under normal

typing conditions and by time they called me the parts were lost. I had to contact Dell

and spent at least 30 minutes explaining the situation and having Dell send out a new

keyboard.

 

* HP Laptop, still under warranty, less than a year old, the DVD/CD drive is not

working, (will not eject). My diagnosis (bad switch inside) becasue it will eject

via software commands but not when you press the button on drive. I contact

HP support and I have to explain all my attempts to fix it untill they finally

take my order to send me a new one. 50 minutes wasted doing all that.

 

See, in both cases the parts are not high priced items but the computers

are almost brand new and worth fixing. Too bad we couldn't simply go

online at the manufacturer's site, enter a product SN and order any part

we needed without having to talk to human.

 

---pete---

[hardware_dave]

I see what you mean, I usualy just do search on the part number and buy from a 3rd party supplier. If its more expensive than an original part that gets passed onto the customer. Compared to paying me to spend 1hr on the phone it will still be cheeper.

 

To get a dell account just buy a server or 2, they will call you. <grin>

 

Dave

 

PS. Dell seem to be in the habit of sending either the wrong or no vga cable.

[petef]

I see what you mean' date=' I usualy just do search on the part number and buy from a 3rd party supplier. If its more expensive than an original part that gets passed onto the customer. Compared to paying me to spend 1hr on the phone it will still be cheeper.[/quote']

Excellent point, Dave!

Here's a quick story and referral on this topic of 3rd party suppliers.

 

One recent 2 hour call to DELL ended with them telling me they

didn't carry the proprietary PSU I was looking for. DELL referred

me to a 3rd party supplier named Circle Computer. Circle Computer

sells proprietary replacement parts for Dell, HP, Compaq and

other computers.

 

So I called Circle Computer and a female human answered the phone.

Wow, how unique, no phone tree! She quickly determined the exact

PSU part number that I needed and took my order payment by credit

card and I received it in a few days, shipped UPS. If I needed it faster

they had other shipping options. Theysell PSU's, motherboards, and

more! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

 

Bottom line, if you need a proprietary part like a PSU or

Motherboard, you can call Dell or HP/Compaq and risk wasting

hours of time speaking to countless people, or... You can call

Circle Computer and speak to just one person and have your

part ordered within minutes.

 

 

 

---pete---