There have been nightmare stories about Dell’s support when things go wrong. This is not one of them.
On Saturday, the LCD screen on my laptop gave out when the flourecent backlight refused to work. It only two conversations in Dell’s new instant message tool to confirm that the backlight was the problem… and only because I had used the laptop, instead of what is now my brother’s desktop, to connect with Dell, and that Dell had me perform operations that required me to restart the laptop. A ticket for the LCD screen was issued.
A tech called this morning, and my mom said I would be here at 1:00. I didn’t get out there until sometime after 1:30. The tech left a “sorry I missed you” note with a number to call. Fortunateally, he had another job in Lawrence, and I was patient enough to wait for him. Once he got here, it didn’t take him long to get the screen switched out.
The LCD backlight in this laptop is embedded in the casing, and is not field-replacable. I’m glad that this thing is covered (hopefully) under warranty and accident protection.