m2bord's Journal: So it costs extra to speak to an American for tech support

So tonight I was looking for a new laptop to replace my old workhorse laptop that I'm "donating" to my girlfriend. I went to Dell's site, not really intending to buy a Dell due to all the problems that my company has had with their systems in the last year since we upgraded to new GX620's.

Anyhow...I got to a page where it starts asking me to pay for technical support. And after I said no to accident care the next page that popped up suggested that I pay and extra $100 or so dollars for, and I quote:

"Add peace of mind with Gold Technical Support featuring North American-based technical phone support that is designed to deliver speedy access* to advanced level technicians and fast problem resolution."

North American based technical support?

Does this mean someone who knows what they are talking about in English? I have nothing against Indian tech support so long as they are knowledgeable and able to communicate with the customer. So far, my experiences with Dell's overseas technical help has been anything other than helpful.

I actually called them once while working on a client's PC and the Indian tech, reading from a script instead of using common sense, asked me to first, check in the system's Control Panel by clicking on Start->Control Panel.

I told him, "dude...the system will not turn on"

He said, "okay, reboot the system and press the F2 key to enter the bios setup" and again I repeated, "dude...the PSU is dead and the box will not turn on."

After three more silly requests from him, he said, "it sounds like you might be having problems with your power supply. Can you please unplug it and plug it in again" and I replied with "no..you come over here and do it because it's arc-ing every time it comes in contact with electricity"

Anyway...it's very maddening to have to pay extra for the one thing that made Dell computers so desirable a decade ago. Back when Dell sold 486's, they offered lifetime telephone technical support and I never took advantage of it but then again, their PC was so solid, I didn't need it.

It's sad to see what Dell has become and I will not fork over $132 extra to speak with someone in the United States. If US technical support is considered the "Gold Standard" and if overseas technical support is inferior, then why doesn't Dell offer that to their customers to begin with.

It might just alleviate a lot of the problems and anger that Dell has aimed at it from disgusted former customers like me.

And if this is old news, I apologize. It's new to me and that's because I have not purchased a new Dell since they have become so problematic for consumers to own and since they have turned their back on the American workers that made them into one of the largest companies in the world.