Dell's Online Documentation and Quality Issues

The quality of the hardware I bought from Dell is superb.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

If the quality of Dell hardware and manufacturing is a 9.5, the
quality of their online documentation and written customer support is
a 3.

In my opinion, as a Dell customer, whoever is in charge of the Dell
online documentation should be replaced, because they are holding back
the rest of the company.

My particular machine is a year old and it ran Vista when I bought it
in April 2007, but a year later, the manuals for my machine describe
only XP file system repairs.

A hallmark of a qood quality organization is control of documents and
information, but the Dell documentation and online information is so
poor that the customer service people who answer the phone have to
substitute their own instructions or they send people to third party
instructions; because the official Dell online maintenance information
is, for all practical purposes, unuseable.

While it is convenient to blame the outsourced Dell online and phone
techs for their lack of knowledge and poor English . . . it is not
their fault.

In most cases, if the Dell online documentation was properly written
and well organized, it would be unncessary to use the phone techs.

I do not know if Dell undergoes any sort of ISO-9000 or other quality
audits, but it is basically impossible to get anyone in the Dell
organization to provide the contact information for their quality
office or quality director, or a summary of their quality policy.

On the basis of this, Dell should flunk any sort of modern quality
audit.

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:09:08 -0700 (PDT), Reporter
wrote:

The quality of the hardware I bought from Dell is superb.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

If the quality of Dell hardware and manufacturing is a 9.5, the
quality of their online documentation and written customer support is
a 3.

In my opinion, as a Dell customer, whoever is in charge of the Dell
online documentation should be replaced, because they are holding back
the rest of the company.

My particular machine is a year old and it ran Vista when I bought it
in April 2007, but a year later, the manuals for my machine describe
only XP file system repairs.

A hallmark of a qood quality organization is control of documents and
information, but the Dell documentation and online information is so
poor that the customer service people who answer the phone have to
substitute their own instructions or they send people to third party
instructions; because the official Dell online maintenance information
is, for all practical purposes, unuseable.

While it is convenient to blame the outsourced Dell online and phone
techs for their lack of knowledge and poor English . . . it is not
their fault.

In most cases, if the Dell online documentation was properly written
and well organized, it would be unncessary to use the phone techs.

I do not know if Dell undergoes any sort of ISO-9000 or other quality
audits, but it is basically impossible to get anyone in the Dell
organization to provide the contact information for their quality
office or quality director, or a summary of their quality policy.



On the basis of this, Dell should flunk any sort of modern quality
audit.

On the basis of that, so should almost any company.

Dell excels in a few key areas, one of which is the ease that drivers
for a system can be downloaded from their web site.

I have found the online manuals pretty good. There are pretty good
hardware schematics that have walked me through a few things.

As far as Vista goes, the majority of companies are behind the curve.

What do yo want to do that you can't find in the manuals?. Maybe we
can help you with it.

My particular machine is a year old and it ran Vista when I bought it
in April 2007, but a year later, the manuals for my machine describe
only XP file system repairs.

Vista doesn't break ! (LOL)

"Reporter" wrote in message
...
The quality of the hardware I bought from Dell is superb.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.


snip


I disagree. Compared to other OEM systems I've worked with, Dell's site is
far superior to that of HPaq, Gateway, or Lenovo or even Sony.

Certainly, the site could always be better - and I don't care for the
conversion of many of (what used to be HTML) guides to .pdf, but that's
generally more of an annoyance than real problem. Despite Dell's annoying
need to "freshen up" the support site, it remains the best OEM system
reference out there imo.

I recently had the pleasure of attempting to locate an OEM battery and AC
adapter for both a Gateway and Compaq notebook. Both were less than 5 years
old.

I literally had to spend 2-3 hours wading through dozens of SKUs and
countless model numbers for what has to be a commonly ordered replacement
part. Had it not been for detailed ebay listings, I may have never located
the correct or compatible SKUs/parts.

Had either/both been a Dell, I would've been able to locate both an OEM
battery and AC adapter as well as pricing information in less than 30
minutes.

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:09:08 -0700 (PDT), Reporter
wrote:

The quality of the hardware I bought from Dell is superb.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

If the quality of Dell hardware and manufacturing is a 9.5, the
quality of their online documentation and written customer support is
a 3.

In my opinion, as a Dell customer, whoever is in charge of the Dell
online documentation should be replaced, because they are holding back
the rest of the company.

My particular machine is a year old and it ran Vista when I bought it
in April 2007, but a year later, the manuals for my machine describe
only XP file system repairs.

A hallmark of a qood quality organization is control of documents and
information, but the Dell documentation and online information is so
poor that the customer service people who answer the phone have to
substitute their own instructions or they send people to third party
instructions; because the official Dell online maintenance information
is, for all practical purposes, unuseable.

While it is convenient to blame the outsourced Dell online and phone
techs for their lack of knowledge and poor English . . . it is not
their fault.

In most cases, if the Dell online documentation was properly written
and well organized, it would be unncessary to use the phone techs.

I do not know if Dell undergoes any sort of ISO-9000 or other quality
audits, but it is basically impossible to get anyone in the Dell
organization to provide the contact information for their quality
office or quality director, or a summary of their quality policy.

On the basis of this, Dell should flunk any sort of modern quality
audit.


I can't speak about their telephone support because I don't use it
after warrantee (I do my own or I just dispose of the hardware) but I
found the on line stuff to be pretty good. And where it might lack,
this newsgroup more than makes up for their lack.... a lot of GOOD
people here.

From my limited experience and from my readings, I agree that their
telephone support isn't that great but my guess is that it is on par
with the others. In my mind, I guess it's hard to expect great
support with the prices going down each year on new systems (profit
margins either the same or less).

"incomplete, vague, not up to date" for which model? It helps to be specific...
Ben Myers

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:09:08 -0700 (PDT), Reporter
wrote:

The quality of the hardware I bought from Dell is superb.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

If the quality of Dell hardware and manufacturing is a 9.5, the
quality of their online documentation and written customer support is
a 3.

In my opinion, as a Dell customer, whoever is in charge of the Dell
online documentation should be replaced, because they are holding back
the rest of the company.

My particular machine is a year old and it ran Vista when I bought it
in April 2007, but a year later, the manuals for my machine describe
only XP file system repairs.

A hallmark of a qood quality organization is control of documents and
information, but the Dell documentation and online information is so
poor that the customer service people who answer the phone have to
substitute their own instructions or they send people to third party
instructions; because the official Dell online maintenance information
is, for all practical purposes, unuseable.

While it is convenient to blame the outsourced Dell online and phone
techs for their lack of knowledge and poor English . . . it is not
their fault.

In most cases, if the Dell online documentation was properly written
and well organized, it would be unncessary to use the phone techs.

I do not know if Dell undergoes any sort of ISO-9000 or other quality
audits, but it is basically impossible to get anyone in the Dell
organization to provide the contact information for their quality
office or quality director, or a summary of their quality policy.

On the basis of this, Dell should flunk any sort of modern quality
audit.

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

Who needs manuals ... the Dell Community forums are the best in the
business, IMHO .... moderated by (generally english speaking) Dell
employees who are expert in a given subject.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/


-- Paul

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:47:08 -0400, "Paul"
wrote:

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

Who needs manuals ... the Dell Community forums are the best in the
business, IMHO .... moderated by (generally english speaking) Dell
employees who are expert in a given subject.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/


-- Paul


Better than here? This group has a lot of varied experiences even
beyond Dell.

"RnR" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:47:08 -0400, "Paul"
wrote:

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

Who needs manuals ... the Dell Community forums are the best in the
business, IMHO .... moderated by (generally english speaking) Dell
employees who are expert in a given subject.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/


-- Paul


Better than here? This group has a lot of varied experiences even
beyond Dell.

When I say "best in the business" I mean compared to the online forums of
other computer vendors (if those other vendors even have open discussion
forums to begin with, many don't). I am certainly not slamming the advice
given here g

When I go over to the Dell forums it's usually to find an answer to a
PowerEdge server question, related to RAID controllers. There's a couple
moderators over there who know Dell RAID stuff like nobody else, and have
been there for many years.

-- Paul

Between the Dell community forums and this newsgroup, Dell computers are pretty
well covered. And you get to buy a fake watch, too. I still see no substance
to the complaint of the OP. But maybe I'm blinded as an alleged Dellbot or
simply enamored with my new fake watch... Ben Myers

On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:44:46 -0400, "Paul" wrote:


"RnR" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:47:08 -0400, "Paul"
wrote:

However, I would rate the quality of Dell's online documentation as
very poor.

It is incomplete, vague, not up to date.

Who needs manuals ... the Dell Community forums are the best in the
business, IMHO .... moderated by (generally english speaking) Dell
employees who are expert in a given subject.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/


-- Paul


Better than here? This group has a lot of varied experiences even
beyond Dell.

When I say "best in the business" I mean compared to the online forums of
other computer vendors (if those other vendors even have open discussion
forums to begin with, many don't). I am certainly not slamming the advice
given here g

When I go over to the Dell forums it's usually to find an answer to a
PowerEdge server question, related to RAID controllers. There's a couple
moderators over there who know Dell RAID stuff like nobody else, and have
been there for many years.

-- Paul