Dell

Wed Aug 13 14:09:54 PDT 2003
One of the people here at work dropped his laptop yesterday. I went
to Dell's website to see if I could figure out how to send it for
repair.

While there, I noticed a tab on the left side of the page that
said, "Manage my systems". Clicking on it, I noticed it seemed
like I could enter all my service tags and then it would
be easier to lookup updates, etc.

In terms of the dropped laptop, I eventually gave up trying
to find the information on the website and phoned up the Gold
support line. Dell gets an A+ for this one because they actually
told me on the phone that the repair of the laptop is coverred under
warrantee - even though I asked them for their billable repairs
department. So thats all worked out, but now back to the website
issue.

I start entering service tags and descriptions. I finally get
to number 16, and it says, "Error, you can't add any more service
tags". What the heck? I have about 25 dell systems that I manage, 
and the service is useless if I can't add them all. So, I send
a message to the webmaster using a link at the bottom of the page.

Very blatantly, it says on the page, "This is NOT a technical support
email. This should only be used for website issues".
So, I fill in the question, "I want to add a bunch of service tags to the
"manage my system tab", but it only lets me add 15. Why is that,
and can I increase it somehow?"

I get back a response which is just stupid:

Thank you for contacting Dell US eSupport. An artificial intelligence
tool designed to interpret your message and respond quickly will
conduct this first reply to your message.

..... snip - some stuff deleted ........

1. I want to upgrade my system's memory, what do I need to order?
2. How do I install my memory upgrade?
3. I'm curious, SIMM, DIMM, RIMM - what does all of this technical stuff mean?


It then provided the answers to these questions.....
I just don't understand it - They KNOW its not a technical support
question because I sent it to the webmaster. Why provide me with 
answers to technical support questions?

At least it did say I could respond to this email if the answers
didn't fit my question. I've done that. Lets see if the actual
human is more helpful.