In retail you always get what you pay for, and big box stores can only pass on so much saving through lower overhead and large buys. Some of it will be made up with less ‘one on one’ customer handholding as yours required.

So next time Sam .. pony up full price at Dell’s website … then if you don’t get your expected level of customer support, you’ve got something to complain about.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop thru’ costo.com. the cost as about $866/-, including a 2 year warranty. It was delivered on Sep 15th. It took me more than four hours on the phone with costco conceirge services and Dell to get the warranty information updated on Dell’s website. Without that, Dell would give no help at all unless I paid for it.So that was the first problem. According to dell, Costco hadn’t sent them the warranty information. so the warrant y appeared as expired [for a new machine!!].

Then, on Sunday 5th, the top of the HOME key on the extreme right of the keyboard came off. I tired to snap it back but failed. It is very delicate and fragile – a tribute to chinese manufacturing. I contacted Dell thru’ their chat line, and was told that a new keyboard and other stuff [ screws, screwdirver, etc] would be shipped and I had to install it myself. I was given a link to a page [ see below]

“http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1525/en/SM/keyboard.htm#wp1180346″

This page contians instructions on how to change the keyboard. I urge you to read it and decide whether this should be attempted by a lay non-technical person. I then called costco conceirge services and spoke to them. I was told that had I bought an HP, Gateway, etc, costco would do something about it, but not if it were a Dell. Now, how was I supposed to know that when I bought the stuff? There were no such warnings on the costco.com website which offered this product. Moreover, I think the costco.com buyer ought to be informed about the very poor quality of Dell machines. Now, I bought the machine from costco.com, not Dell. I was not told that I would have to be at the mercy of Dell. I bought the machine thru’ costco.com, thinking I was in the very good hands of a great company – costco.

The costco concierge services person I spoke to – Ms. TUNISIA, badge #800555 – was not willing to understand my emotional distress, and kept telling me that I had to go to Dell. At times, she was simply rude and impatient. She was doing her job roboticlaly without the slightest concern for my mental state. She did not even understand why this is bad business for costco, and why it shoud be reported to her superiors. I got tired of speaking to her, and asked to speak to her supervisor. I then got Mr. Marco, who was more understanding and has said he will escalate the matter, however I shoudl write to costco direct. after purchasing the machine, I have spent two hours getting th warranty updated, an hour with costco, an hour with dell, adn this note has meant another 30 minutes. tryin to resolve this serious quality issue. Is it true that great American companies are in real decline today? And is Costco also in the same sad situation?

The average customer visits their local Costco 22 times a year. The company has become one of the largest in the U.S., with 473 outlets and more than $50 billion in sales, and is also the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world. Its founde…

CNBC will be airing “The Entrepreneurs” on Wednesday October 1st at 10p ET featuring the founders of Feed Granola Jason Osborn and Jason Wright. They will be discussing the methods which led to their estimated three million dollar a year business. Additional web extras can be found at http://theentrepreneurs.cnbc.com

Please let me know if you would like any additional information.

Thanks,
Kevin
201 735 4730

What a great article!