[Note: Make sure you don't miss the followup to this article in "Dell Update & Other Warranty Work Meanderings".]

The PC market is coming back strong, according to new research released today by Gartner and IDC. But HP and Dell, the leading US manufacturers, are losing share to their Asian rivals.

~ Mullin, Sheppard. (14 Apr 2010). PC market roars back, rivals gain on HP and Dell. Retrieved from: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2010/04/14/pc-market-roars-back-rivals-gain-on-hp-and-dell/

Dell stocks seem to be going back up on rumors of a Dell Windows 7 smartphone and some Android ones as well.

However, I believe that consumers will continue to turn elsewhere for PCs and, particularly, laptops. I have had more than one customer tell me that they did not want to buy another Dell laptop.

The first time I heard this, I was puzzled. Admittedly, Dell has put out some dogs, but most of them have been in their desktop lines, not their laptop lines. Even their Lattitudes seem to take some punishment, and you can still find D600s and even C600s out on eBay. Inspirons, their more modest but feature rich consumer line, are probably somewhat less durable, but they are also one of the easiest laptops in the world to service.

The second one brought it home for me, though. He absolutely did not want another Dell laptop. He had purchased 2 of them for his daughters, and each of them quickly broke. That, however, was only the surface of the issue. As we talked, he complained about the Dell warranty and the frustration in finding a suitable service center.

That’s when it clicked. I had attempted to get Dell certification for John D’s in order to do warranty work. I got nowhere. So, I decided to give it another go.

Even finding the Dell Certification program takes quite a bit of Google’ing. I wound up on the DSCE (Dell Certified Systems Expert) page, which has a very short Program Overview. On it, you read:

The program allows technicians to validate their technical knowledge through self study, self assessments and examinations covering all Dell product lines while improving their installation, troubleshooting, repair, and restore skills for Dell products.

View the ESF Version 4.0 Product Matrix

So, click on the “product matrix”, and you are taken to a login page. In fact, click on any of the links, and you are taken to a login page.

Hello? Dell? I don’t have a login.

So, I naturally click on the “Click here for DSCE specific login-information and assistance with the site.” I am confronted with “Log in with the Tech id and PIN that you would have used on the DCSE site. On the new DTT, your Tech ID is a Username and your PIN is a password.”

Hello? Dell? I don’t have a Tech ID and PIN.

So, naturally, I click on “Never used the DCSE site? Click here for additional information”. It takes me back to the Program Overview!

OK, I must be doing something wrong. I click on the Back button. Then, I notice, “Click the ‘Set up Account’ link. If you are prompted to create / update profile, please complete this page before proceeding.” Finally! Getting somewhere! But, where is this link? OK, so I go back to the login screen, and sure enough, in very small letters it says, “Set up Account”. So, I go there.

I start to fill in the information. Stupid form does not show my state! OK, maybe it is an Internet Explorer friendly page. So, I go to that page in IE. I fill in everything I can, click on Submit, and I’m greeted with “CompanyId and EmployeeId cannot be empty”.

Hello? Dell? I don’t have a CompanyId.

OK, so you tell me why someone has trouble finding a Dell service technician nearby.

Oh, it gets better yet. I swear if I had an employee that did this, I would fire them.

I go to submit feedback on the site. Here is what I wrote:

This website goes in circles. How do I become DCSE certified and how much does it cost?

The reply? “Not my job”! I kid you not:

Dear User,

Thanks for your email. Sorry to say that this is out of my area of support.

The DTT team

No “contact so-and-so”, no acknowledgement that their website is crap and not even a decent link to point me to.

OK, so why do I think twice about recommending Dell? Why do people have such bad experiences after buying Dell laptops? If nothing else, “that’s not my job” says it all, doesn’t it?