IO ERROR's Journal: Dell Premier Support

Recently the keyboard on my three-year-old Dell Latitude CPx (P3-650, 256MB, ATI Rage Mobility 8MB, 20GB, Red Hat 9) decided to stop working. Specifically the F6, 8, I, K, comma, Page Up, and Page Down keys stopped working. I've been using it with an external keyboard for a few days.

So after exchanging a few nasty emails with Dell Support, they are actually sending someone out to me to fix it. The tech called me earlier today and he is waiting for the replacement keyboard to show up.

Amazing, all the evil things I've heard about Dell support, and they're actually coming through for me. The only mysterious part is this: I have 28 days left in my extended service contract. Don't parts usually fail right AFTER the warranty expires?

Update 6/3 7:17 pm: The technician came by, swapped out my keyboard with a brand spanking new one, did it in about 10 minutes much to my surprise, and after he let me test it to make sure I was satisfied, off he went. Now my only problem is my keyboard looks new, but the rest of my laptop's outer shell doesn't.

dell support

[Admiral Lazzurs]

Well they must be better than sales then

I got my manager to get me one of those 'natural' keyboards with the new machine he was ordering and he described it clearly to two people on the phone and they said order the dell multimedia keyb

So he did and surprise it was not what we were looking for, all it had that was special was a volume control knob.

Next day he went to the local computer store and got me a keyb :) (which is what I told him to do in the first place, but you know phbs)

known issue

[rhizome]

I've had several Inspirons from 2000/2001 come across my desk and one thing that I've learned is that the 8IK keyboard problem is a common one. Some of the keyboards have a weak circuit that handles that line of keys. I had some laptops that were out of warranty and they sent free keyboards (and a tech, once) to fix them. I think the key to your problems may lie in "angry emails", since they do know about this problem.

Re:known issue

[IO ERROR]

I think the key to your problems may lie in "angry emails", since they do know about this problem.

Indeed. I went back and forth with tech support for a while, enduring their stupid form letter responses (see below) and finally I got fed up and said, in part:

Thanks, but I am NOT very happy right now with the support I have received. I have been asked to repeat myself several times, I have been sent form-letter responses which don't apply to my problem or to this computer, and finally you ask me to rese

Great Dell server story

[override11]

We had a Dell, I believe it was a 1600 series, server. We were running CheckPoint firewall on it, and it would constantly reboot, seemingly randomly. We formatted, upgraded the OS, re-installed all software, and it was doing the same thing. After getting Dell support on it, and replacing the 1000 mhz processor and the memory and the power supply, they were stumped. So, they sent us out a brand new dual Xeon 2.4 ghz system, with tons more RAID storage, and 1/2 gig of ram! After we re-built onto that mac