Dell - Tech Support Assistance Premium

Calling Dell's Tech Support was surprisingly easy. As a general rule, I put off calling tech support as long as I can because usually I sit on hold for a long time and nothing really helps. Most of the time, I get told to take my device to a store, so I try to cut out the middleman whenever I can. However, I don't live near a Dell store and my laptop is acting funny so my only choice was to call and see what they could do to help me troubleshoot the problem. 

Lately, when I turn on my laptop, it seems like the screen flickers for about 5 minutes before it starts working properly. This is not only hard on my eyes, but my laptop is only a year old and there's no reason I should be having issues like this. There are probably hundreds of reasons why people end up calling Dell Tech Support, so I was prepared to spend a lot of time on hold. Luckily, it only took about 5 minutes to talk to someone, which is a wait time that felt worthwhile. 

When I answered, an automated voice said, "Thanks for choosing Dell," followed by, "Now, what can I help you with today?" I told the voice I needed customer service and then it responded by saying, "Okay, I can connect you with someone. Just give me a little more information about why you are calling." I wasn't sure what it wanted from me, so this time I tried saying "technical support." That worked because then it responded, "Okay, technical support. Before I transfer you, I need a code from the sticker on the bottom of your device. If you see a six or seven-character code, say service tag."

I told the system, "I don't see it," because I wasn't near my laptop and didn't want to bother until I was talking to the actual agent. That worked out well, as it simply responded, "No problem, I can still get you to the right technician. I just need to collect a little more information. What is your device primarily for, personal or business use?" 

Once I said personal use, it asked me what type of device it was and I responded that it was a laptop. Then it asked for the model type and after I said Inspiron, it told me, 'Hold on while I transfer you." This part was a bit weird because the line went dead like it had hung up on me, but it didn't. It was just dead silence, but in about a minute a tech specialist picked up so I'm glad I didn't hang up. He had a thick accent but discussed a few things I could try to see if it would fix the problem and was mostly helpful.