Fixing a Computer in Beijing

Sunday, July 18th, 2010 in: News, Travel

Two weeks into my stay in Beijing, the new Dell laptop I bought back in January decided to stop working suddenly, claiming that it couldn’t find the hard drive. Having only backed up about half of my travel photos with grandpa, I was promptly shitting bricks until I took it in to a local computer shop and was able to access my data and back everything up to a friend’s external drive. A sigh of relief was followed by a creeping realization that the problem was likely one of the other hardware components in the computer. Crap, this isn’t going to be an easy fix.

It seems that I’m pursuing a degree in understatement.

Alan from the school office told me we can take it to a repair shop and see what they think. I wasn’t too keen on shipping the computer back to the states to have Dell fix it, so we hopped on a bus to Zhongguangcun, THE computer neighborhood of Northern China. Think Akihabara but with way more people yelling at you. “Hello, hello sir! You want camera? MP4? Nikon?”

“No, no, no. Bu yao. I’m not here to shop.”

The repair shop was in the corner of a building with a bizarre layout, filled with people lugging around various peripherals. After explaining the problem and pointing out the part I suspected was faulty, they disappeared with the laptop and reappeared half an hour later, holding the motherboard and explaining to Alan that there was “something” wrong with the chipset, but they were really enthusiastic about being able to get my computer fixed and back to my in two days. Especially since I didn’t haggle. 600 kuai ($85) to avoid the hassle and expense of sending my laptop home? Whatever, just make it happen. It wasn’t necessary to dissect my computer and point at things, using technical terms to make it sound more complicated than it really is, pretending I’m an idiot. I knew it was bullshit but I wasn’t interested in making this any more uncomfortable than it already was. Yes sir we’ll call you Sunday. Awesome.

Sunday comes and goes without a call. Alan calls them on Monday and they say they aren’t quite sure what the problem is, but replacing the motherboard will “probably” take care of things. And how much is that going to cost? 1300 kuai. Piss off I’m taking my computer elsewhere.

So elsewhere we go, another repair shop in another building, more yelling on the way to the elevator. “You like Canon? Hello? Hello? Ni ting dong hanyu??” GAHH out of my face you computer urchins! I’ll tell YOU if I need anything.

This place was a little more friendly and took the computer apart in front of us, pointing out places where it looked like the last place tried to solder the boards. Oh great, so my warranty is probably voided, good to know. They’re also confident that two days is all they need. Two days comes and goes, no call. Alan can’t even get through to them. We wait another day, nothing. Finally Alan gets through. Yeah, the motherboard needs to be replaced, but you also need to replace the sound card which doubles as the hard drive SATA controller. They quote 1600. I tell them 1300 or go to hell; it was still ludicrous but I didn’t want to go back to this place just to take it to another useless repair shop. How hard can this really be to fix?

The next day we called and they said they couldn’t find a replacement SATA card. How long before you could get one, we ask. “Not sure.” One week? Two weeks? “Not sure.” GODDAMNIT. I’m trying not to lose my sense of humor over the whole ridiculous situation. It’s a struggle.

I hatched a plan; it seems like when I go with Alan, the repair shop sees me and sees a fool with money, and so they try to explain that it’s a really complicated problem that requires major components replaced, justifying their astronomical pricetag. The more I think about the problem, the less likely it’s anything but a faulty SATA controller or cable, so instead of taking it to a shop and saying “it’s broke, please to fix,” I had Alan call them and see if they could acquire JUST the controller card. Having already dismantled the computer several times, I knew I could replace it myself. Repair shop #3 said yes, they could get it. OK, get it and we’ll come pick it up. It’s just that easy!

We go to repair shop #2 to get the laptop. They pull out a bin and start to slowly reassemble it, and when they hand it back, I make note of the big dent on the casing and the missing screws, sending them into an indignant fury. “It was like that when you brought it in!” Uh, I don’t remember using a crowbar to remove the casing. Just another reason I’m glad you aren’t getting a penny out of me. Good riddance.

We arrive at repair shop #3 in mixed spirits. The last shop put me in a sour mood, but I had my plan and was now confident I was more competent than these people, I just needed the right part. Alan had called before we left the school to make sure they had the part. “Yes, I have it in my hand,” the guy assured him.

Of course, when we get there, the guy Alan talked to wasn’t there, and they said they couldn’t find where he put it. Did… did they just say that to get us to come in? My opinion has sunk so low of these shops that I’m expecting the worse. They manage to surprise me.

“Ohh, we found it.” You have an HP right?

“Are… Are you kidding?” Dell doesn’t sound ANYTHING like HP, even in Chinese. “This is the product number of the part we need. Can you get it or not?”

A short wait later confirms that the part is nowhere to be found, but there’s an official Dell repair center just down the street. Thanks for not taking me there first, Alan! Bless your soul. They gave me some screws to replace the ones the last shop absconded with, and a decent price on an external enclosure so I could do a more thorough recovery later.

The Dell shop wasn’t able to sell us any individual parts. “This is just a repair depot, but we can fix it for you. Where and when did you buy it?”

“January this year, in the US.”

“Oh hm, you’ll have to transfer your warranty to China then.” Apparently, they’re different companies. A phone call to the service center and he sent me a link to the warranty transfer request form, which I promptly filled out on my iPhone. “How much does this cost, and how long should this take?” I ask with trepidation.

“Oh it’s free, and they’ll fix your computer for free after the transfer goes through in a week or two.”

“What. The. Hell. Why does it take so long!?”

“I’m not sure sir, but they need to confirm your details between the two companies.”

“It’s an electronic transfer of information, there’s absolutely no reason it should take that long.”

“I’m sorry sir but it just says to allow up to 1-2 weeks for processing. You can e-mail me if you have any further questions though.”

It took me a moment to realize that it was the first time anyone had apologized for being completely useless in the three weeks my computer had been getting “repaired.” I thanked him and hung up. We left the laptop at the repair center to wait for the transfer to go through. I wanted them to start working on it as soon as they can. Before we left, I made it plainly clear that I did NOT want my hard drive erased or replaced before I get an opportunity to back it up. We’ll see how they manage to screw that one up.

That was roughly a week ago. Still no word from Dell on the status of my warranty transfer. This ordeal so far has not cost me a dime, but I have lost so much valuable time, I’ve been quite thoroughly robbed by this entire experience. So what’ve I learned from all this?

• If your computer breaks in China, avoid the “repair shops” at all costs
• People will assume you are gullible and/or rich, especially if you are foreign
• Estimates of time and money are completely arbitrary and meaningless
• Calling people out on their bullshit just embarrasses them and makes them angry
• Everyone here is way less capable than they make themselves out to be. It’s a big confidence game.
• Dell’s customer service is relatively prompt and friendly, but cannot make anything good happen.
• And lastly, my next computer will be a Mac. My iPhone has been a lifesaver throughout this whole ordeal and Apple has won me over with their smart interface and product design. I’m typing this post on a friend’s MacBook and it just works, and I’m sad to say that that’s a refreshing change of pace. Dell has managed to do what years of peer pressure and advertising have failed to do — convert me to an Apple user. Well done!

UPDATE: My warranty transfer went through according to the email I received from Dell, but the people at the service center are apparently still waiting for some sort of confirmation, and according to Alan, had kind of a nasty attitude about it. Just another nail in the coffin, Dell!

LAST UPDATE: About a week after I received the e-mail confirming my warranty transfer, I was walking from the supermarket and I got a text message that read:

Dell维修质控部:如果您不满意此次服务或机器仍有问题,请回复D,将有专人与您联系解决问题.本短信1个月内有效,请保存【神州 数码】

Which basically translates to “if you’ve had any complaints with the service you’ve received, reply to this message “D,” and someone will get back to you within a month.

I was a little confused by this, but since I certainly had a complaint about the service I’ve received thus far, I replied “D” and of course, never heard anything back from them. A week later, I asked Alan to give them a call to see what was up, since they never called us. Apparently, when I had received the text message, the computer had been fixed and they assumed that I had already picked it up. We went to pick up the computer the next day, and I’m still waiting on Dell to get back to me about my “complaint.” Clearly, customer service is a major concern here.

To recap: in two months, between 4 different repair shops–one of which was the official Dell repair center–we NEVER received a phone call from any of them. The only contact we got was the SMS Dell automatically sent me, then promptly ignored my response.

You win this round, China.

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