[OLDNY]

Philey, that may be true but I found out that if you get to the 5th support person, they are in the US. Every time I call Dell they ask me to do the same dumb things and I just play along and say no it didn't work until I get to number 5 and finally have an IT person who isn't reading off of a card. Really I can't see how that saves Dell money. Not with the phone bill and 4 salaries to pay, and they finally have to pay the IT person here in America anyway. I've told the Dell IT people what I do and most tell me that lots of people are catching on and doing the same thing. Dell does make a good product, but they are way over priced. Over priced that is, except for people like me who can't build his own.

[phileysmiley]

Brilliant! I will remember that. Thanks!

There have been cover stories on this just in the last few months in a couple of the magazines I get. Their advice was simply this: if the person you are dealing with is not able to understand you, or if you don't understand them, ask to speak with someone else until you get to someone you can communicate with.

Their research also showed that if you use the payment method of $XXX per minute you have a much higher probability of reaching someone who will actually be helpful. Next choice would be $XXX per incident. I actually paid per incident one time and had a very bored IT person at the other end talk to me for an hour (maybe he thought it was per minute).