I never finished documenting the fiasco with Dell Support that I wrote about on December 21 and December 22. The Dell Corporate sales representive is going to stop by on Thursday so I figured I had better organize my notes...

We shipped the PC to Dell on December 23. It arrived back early on December 31. Sharon was very excited, until we opened the box. The box included a note from Dell saying that they had determined the problem with the hard disk. The note went on to say that we needed to call and get a new hard disk shipped to us. Both of us were incredulous that they had diagnosed the problem and then shipped the PC back from the depot still broken.

I got back on the phone with Dell and ended getting a very combative tech. It took me awhile to explain to him the situation and for him to review the information on his side. At this point, he indicated that he did not agree with the depot's diagnose. He wanted me to start over at the beginning with the troubleshooting efforts. I would not agree to start at the beginning. I explained again that the letter in the box with the PC said to call and get a replacement hard disk. After some back and forth, he finally said that he would order the hard disk. He said that he was not able to give me a tracking number so that I could track the shipment.

The hard disk did not show up on Friday. Saturday afternoon, I called Dell again and asked for the tracking number on hard disk that they were supposed to be shipping us. The tech was unable to find the tracking number. He indicated that he could see the hard disk in the system, but was unable to find the tracking number. He assured me that it had been shipped.

The hard disk did not show up on Monday. Late Monday, I called Dell again. After an extended discussion with the tech, he indicated that there was something odd about the record. He put me on hold for an extended period and when he came back he told me that the hard disk had not been shipped. He was fixing the problem and it should be shipped in the next day.

The hard disk finally arrived Wednesday, January 6.

Replacing the hard disk appears to have fixed the problem. The PC has been running trouble free for almost three weeks.

This is the second hard disk failure in less than fifteen months.

I posted Heringer's in the Philippines, Day 14.