Just tried to get a very simple question answered by Dell. Apparently this is impossible with out having someone hang up on you.
Has this ever happened to you? ...
First I read through the webpage of the item I want to buy (see link below) about 4 times to make sure I wasn't missing whether it comes with a carrying case and cables. Maybe crossing 40 has done less for my eyesight than I thought, but I couldn't find it.
So then I figure I'll just do a quick chat with Dell and I'm sure Sales can just answer the question and I can go back to getting this purchase order submitted. No problemo. So I try the chat line, only I'm in Firefox and Dell no comprendo Firefox-o. So I open IE and find my way back to the sales chat link which took a little doing in itself.
Finally, I get a Dell rep on the chat line and she finds out what I need. Then she goes to look. Alas, she is unable to find out "online". Apparently (and here I'm guessing) she is not behind Dell's firewall (working within the Dell complex) where she can ask the right internal systems this simple question for me.
So she gives me a landline to call with an extension to get me right into Sales.
I call it and all seems fine until the hold music disappears. So now I'm wondering whether I'm even on hold any longer. But my company's phone system is keeping the line open so I guess that I am. A couple minutes go by and then the line crackles and I hear the muffled voice of a rep. I indicate that she is not sounding clear at all. Her response is to simple repeat over and over "Sir, how can I help you?", apparently assuming my ears are full of something I could simply remove.
When I tell her what I need (again it's a simple question--does X item come with a case?), she proceeds to ask me for my phone number, then my first name, then my last name, then spelling it a couple of times. Then she wants my mailing address...
This is where I ask if this is really necessary? She says she has to build a profile on me first to answer this question. I indicate I'm likely to buy this item somewhere else if I can't just get this simple question answered without all this extra stuff happening.
<click!> She hangs up!
Not exactly in line with what Michael Dell believes.
Link: What I WAS going to buy