I own a Dell Latitude XT (yeah, it’s a really cool covertible tablet, and yes, it cost a nuclear bomb). In a class today, I depressed the stylus in its housing to release the stylus and sort of misjudged the rebound, whereby the stylus flew from it’s housing and landed on the ground, a good three feet below. Now, this has happened before, but I don’t know if it was the angle or what, but the stylus buttons have stopped working. They won’t get pressed, and so I have no right click and erase functionality any more. (Dell should consider a redesign to prevent this from happening in the first place.)
So, after the class, I call up Dell Support (because for some weird reason their chat isn’t working, and email takes ages) and had to wait for all of six minutes before my call was answered by someone who was noting down people’s details so that the real tech guys can call them later (an arrangement as they were experiencing a large volume of calls at the moment; still better than dropping my call – am looking at you, Nokia).
15 minutes later I get a call, and I tell the chap truthfully that the stylus fell and it won’t work anymore; needs replacement. He takes a minute to figure out if they can replace it, and probably misunderstood me thinking that the screen was broken. Clarified. He said that he’ll get back in an hours time after checking inventories.
2 hours later, the local service provider from Kolkata calls: “Sir, we have received a call from Dell. Your part is here, but because there’s a bandh in Kolkata, we cannot deliver it to you tomorrow.”
“It’s here? Already? How is that even possible? No problem, send it across on Saturday then.”
“Thank you sir, for understanding [as if i had a choice]. Please return the defective piece to the technician.”
“Sure.”
Now that’s some service! Kudos, Dell.
I don’t know how Dell does it, because this isn’t a standard part, and I’m sure you don’t just have them lying around everywhere, given that there must be single digit XT machines in the country! Pretty cool.
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Also 1: You get what you pay for. I paid some 12k extra for the ProSupport and Dell Complete Care for 3 years. But totally worth it.
Also 2: No, I don’t get paid for this, but I wish I did.
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UPDATE: Received the stylus today. The retail price is Rs.1744.62/- Of course, the warranty meant I didn’t have to pay for it. The delivery guy from Dell said that they had the stylus in stock, which is why they were able to get it in such short a time. Even if they didn’t have it, they’ve got in within a day. So I can now erase and right click!
They also took the broken stylus away, as part of their policy. I understand that they refurbish it and reuse, which is cool. Also used to study what went wrong and thus improve the product.
The fun thing is that the stylus came in a relatively BIG carton box, and had the usual add-ons of nibs and the princer to pull nibs out, and the teether, all of which was packed in a nice plastic case which was loaded on a foam package which in turn was in the BIG carton. Funny to see something so small come off that big a package. Such waste!
The foam packaging is actually “Sealed Air” Instapak. It has toll free numbers on it for return and disposal locations, including a cell number for India. These custom packs are designed with requirements in mind, so lesser material is required. The polyurathane foam is covered with a polyehtylene film that can be resued as a carton filler or disposed off with ordinary waste. The packaging material can also be processed in municipal waste-to-energy facilities. It also compresses to 10% of its original volume in a landfill, complying with international legislation restricting the presence of heavy metals. It will not degrade to pollute air or groundwater. It also conforms to 94/62/EC = European Packaging Directive, and will be accepted by third-party collection organizations in Germany and throughout Europe.
All of the above is detailed on the packaging itself. 