Chat with Dell Tech Support

Here are parts of my conversation with Dell tech support. I saved the chat log, but that turned out to be unnecessary as they emailed it to me a few minutes later.

09/07/2007 06:33:15PM	Session Started with Agent (Harshavardhan_77570)
09/07/2007 06:33:27PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Thank you for contacting Dell XPS Premium Support. My name is Harshavardhan and my rep ID number is 0177570. How may I assist you today?"
09/07/2007 06:34:08PM	Colin Kern: "I have just installed Windows XP on my XPS 410, but ethernet and sound doesn't work."
09/07/2007 06:34:22PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "I will assist you with the issue."
09/07/2007 06:34:40PM	Colin Kern: "Thank you."
09/07/2007 06:36:29PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "When was the first time you had this problem ?"

Notice it was a about 2 minutes of silence after I stated my problem before he asked that question. Also notice I have already answered it in my initial statement.

09/07/2007 06:37:37PM	Colin Kern: "I bought the computer from Dell with Ubuntu Linux installed, and everything worked fine then. But I have just installed Windows XP, and the sound and ethernet don't work."
09/07/2007 06:39:02PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Have you made any software or hardware changes?"

Umm....I'd say I made the biggest possible software change? Also, notice the almost 2 minute delay again.

09/07/2007 06:40:35PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Have you tried any steps from your end to resolve the issue?"
09/07/2007 06:41:53PM	Colin Kern: "I looked in the device manager to try to diagnose the devices, and they did not appear in the list, so I believe the problem is that I don't have the drivers."
09/07/2007 06:42:15PM	Colin Kern: "I looked at Dell's support website, but was confused as to which drivers I need to download."

I like that I was asked what I had already tried, instead of the normal tech support experience where they take you painfully through everything you've already tried in mind-numbing step-by-step instructions.

09/07/2007 06:43:13PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "All right."
09/07/2007 06:43:34PM	Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Can I take the control of your system to check with the issue?"

Now, if you read my previous post, you know that I put a wireless card in the computer. But he didn't know this, so I don't know how he was expecting to be able to connect to my computer. I had already told him one of my problems was with ethernet device. Luckily, I did have the wireless card. The Dell software to do this failed the first time, but it worked on a second attempt. After connecting, there was a delay of a few minutes, followed by him opening Device Manager, then another long delay. A total of 12 minutes after he connected to my computer:

09/07/2007 07:13:59PM

Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "You need to install the drivers on the computer."

I waited for more, since I had stated above that I was pretty sure this was the problem but that I didn't know which ones to download. I finally asked where to get them and he said he'd give them to me; then navigated to the driver download page and began downloading. It was going to take 40 minutes, so I told him I had a slow connection and that if he just gave me the URLs to the drivers, I could download them and install them on my own. He gave them to me, and even asked me if I wanted him to call me the next day to see if it worked. I told him I'd just contact tech support if it didn't. I guess this was a pretty good tech support experience, compared to others I've had. From beginning to end it was 1 hour and 15 minutes, but during a lot of that I was waiting for a response, and could watch TV.