Suddenly got a pixel wide vertical blue line just off centre on one of the monitors; was blue and couldn't be seen on the Windows desktop, today it's red and can be seen. Monitor is only 5 months old, called Dell Support and they said they will replace the unit tomorrow if they have stock. Nice of them to try, but given that shipping is typically from Malaysia and takes about 5 business days, I would be pleasantly surprised if they manage that. Anyway I can still work with the unit so it's not such a big deal. I have the warranty extended to 5 years for the monitors, and have a whole new appreciation for NBD on-site support that one gets with Business Class workstations.
I have a long experience with Dell Precision. It's their BEST line of computers (though not the most expensive), and technical support is EXCELLENT!... troubleshooting, parts, all of it.
Update:- 1) Called Dell TS Thursday 19th. 2) Friday 20th Dell called me, replacement monitor to be delivered Monday 23rd. 3) Replacement monitor delivered Monday, assembled in box, no protective material on screen??? Not new for sure. Anyway, no point discussing with delivery guy, accept it. 4) Check the manufacture date from the SN, turns out to be 11th December, 2012. WTF, my monitors were produced on 3rd April, 2013. 5) Call TS the same day and explain situation. Establish that the monitor is refurbished, tell the rep I think given failure after 4 1/2 months, I should get a new unit. 6) Rep asks me to speak to Level 2 (a.k.a. I can't handle this shit). Level 2 tells me Dell Thailand has a different policy, only failures in the first 30 days get a brand new replacement, after that refurbished. 7) I explain to Level 2 that I bought the extended warranty to 5 years, and if the failure happens year 3 or so I could quite understand not getting a new unit. But this is a premium product, priced at a premium to the competition, and it has failed after 4 1/2 months. 8) I further explain that in giving me the used unit at that age, whatever was not replaced in it has probably had at least 1000 hours of use, so MTBF in my hands is 1000 hours already on the clock. 9) Level 2 says he understands this, but that's the policy so he will escalate to Customer Care. 10) About 20 minutes later I get a call from some woman who makes it very clear she has no interest in handling the matter, and that I should call TS. She practically hangs up on me. 11) Tuesday 24th, no call from TS so I call them again. Woman answers, I give her my case number, she says hold for a moment, 14 minutes later I'm disconnected. 12) Call TS again, give my case number, again I'm asked to hold so I practically yelp no, tell him he's the 7th person I'm speaking to since this started, perhaps he should call me back. He doesn't put me on hold, open line, and goes about his business (seems from the clack of the keyboard they work on chat / IM for record purposes. 13) OK, it's the same guy as yesterday, so less explaining to do, but oh the joys of dealing with TS for whom English is a 2nd language. At one point he asks me what I mean by brand new, so I explain out of the box with all the original factory packaging, cables etc, ie the same packaging I got when my monitors were delivered. Later he tells me that if I want new cables that is not normal practice so he's not sure if it would be possible. Suddenly I'm in danger of being categorised as a greedy bastard who is taking a monitor failure as a chance to get new cables. For what, my Firepro graphics card only has 1 DL-DVI output so I already have 2 cables I'm not using. Ãnyway, explain that to him so they don't have a rotten perception of me and decide to be less helpful. Jeez, hope he finally understood. 14) More clacking of the keyboard and then he tells me he has checked with Level 2 and it is now referred to Customer Care and the Sales Rep who sold me the rig, and they will work it out and contact me. He tells me there is no log of Customer Care talking to me yesterday, so that sets off some bitter complaining that Customer Care is a misnomer, given that she made it abundantly clear she had no interest in the problem, but I took the call on my mobile 'phone and I could give him her mobile number and the exact time of the call if he doubted it. No need. 15) I also explain to him that if they absolutely can't give me a new unit as replacement, fix my original unit and send it back to me whenever, I can survive using the replacement until then. I look after my rig like a new born baby, guaranteed my stuff is better than any crap they can send my way. If you think this is long, today's call alone lasted 26 minutes, and as I said it was the 7th conversation. Not quite the longest soap opera in history, but Season 1 for sure.
So much for my view of excellent technical support... but then I've never had a monitor replacement situation... I did have an early-failure monitor replacement situation with HP once. They also sent refurbished... with 4500 hours on it.
Well, any time one deals with folks for whom English is a second language, and not a close second at that, there is an additional factor to contend with. Additionally, we just had a new country manager for Thailand and that is presumably because things are not going swimmingly. Well, just visit the website for Dell Malaysia, click on the 'Deals' box lower right of page and see all they have to offer. Then visit the website for Dell Thailand and you see nothing of the sort. It is a basic website of the type "we have to have one, here it is" with no thought to marketing opportunities etc. I made a career out of sorting out this type of problem, pity Dell Corporate cannot see the reasons why there are issues here in Thailand. It really isn't that hard. Yeah, it's a small market but if it is too small to bother with then don't do business here. I'm retired now but back in the day if I had experienced this sort of thing, one call to our Asian HQ and there would be no more Dell stuff purchased throughout Asia by the company, so is it really worth risking a brand over this kind of stuff? There are any number of expats based in Thailand with regional responsibilities, pissing them off is definitely a bad idea.