Over the past few weeks my computer has been working poorly. It’s only a few months old and the browser started freezing. First it was once or twice a day, then it was several times a day and finally it was freezing a few times every hour. I called Dell to get some “technical help” or “customer service”. There is a timer on the phone so I know I was on the phone with them for 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 37 seconds. Let’s call it two hours. Most of that time was spent holding. I spoke with 8 different people largely because I was erroneously transferred to the wrong person again and again. The last person with whom I spoke took control of the computer and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the hardware; the problem was with the browser. As such, even my extended warranty didn’t cover software problems. I needed to pay for getting the problem fixed or had to call Microsoft where she warned me, “they would charge me at least 4 times as much.” Hmmm…
She installed an anti-malware program, ran it, and then asked for my credit card number. I touched the mouse and moved the cursor. Keep in mind this is my computer. She told me to not touch the mouse. She continued to explain that I owed her $129. I clicked okay to uninstall 357 ad bots. She didn’t like that. She told me she wanted my credit card number and I told her I wouldn’t give it to her. I explained, pretty darn calmly I thought, that I had been on hold for 2 hours and that I charge $250 an hour for consulting work and that she actually owed me money because they had wasted so much of my time. She kept insisting I had to pay and I told her I accepted PayPal for what Dell owed me. I told her I had been connected to customer punishment not customer service. I told her the bottom line was that I had received such bad service from Dell that I wasn’t going to pay anything and that I was going to hang up. I did.
After hanging up I did a Google search of “bad customer service from Dell.” I got over 2,340,000 hits in .61 seconds. I didn’t take the time to open all of them. I did open a few. One of them was a recording of an extremely unhappy customer swearing and complaining incessantly at a Dell representative. After my bad morning experience with Dell I found myself laughing pretty hard. I hadn’t said any of what that guy had said but certainly found myself thinking some of it.
Did I mention that the problem wasn’t fixed by uninstalling the ad bots? What finally did fix the problem was uninstalling the Google toolbar.
Early this week I had a dream that I had been videotaped holding for two hours and talking to all of the different people at Dell. Someone had put the video on YouTube. I was embarrassed. Okay, it was just a dream, and dreams are whacky a lot of the time. I was saying stuff in the video that I had thought but that hadn’t actually come out of my mouth.
I woke up thinking two things. First, I’m sure glad I hadn’t been taped. Second, what would my behavior be like if every time I got angry I was taped and the next day it was on YouTube? Maybe remembering that will help me keep my cool.
It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.
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