How do you fix a Computer in Japan?

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 in: News, Travel

Trick question!

After my troubles in Beijing, I would like to think that my computer karma meter was topped off and the gods of electronics would soon smile upon me and their warm caring embrace would fill me with bits and bytes of joy. About a month after getting my computer back from Dell China, and two days after my return to Japan, I turned my laptop on go be greeted by a familiar and unwelcome error: the same one I got when my computer first broke.

With the help of my friend Masato I called the customer support in Japan and asked about getting it fixed, again. I was told I would have to submit another warranty transfer request before I could send it in for repairs, same as in China. I found the form online and filled it out. I was told it would be another week or two to complete the transfer, which I still think is an unreasonable wait in this day and age. It’s as if Dell has two monkeys hand-filing the warranty paperwork unless you buy their overpriced premium support packages. I took the laptop back to my friend’s apartment where I was staying, dismantled it, and began to back up the hard drive once again. Fortunately, I’d purchased an external drive in China and so the loss was more a nuisance than a catastrophe. For safety’s sake, I also started uploading my backup to my server back home. I’ve been stung by the thorn of data loss enough times to know that just one backup gives a false sense of security.

I got to Nagoya a week later with the broken Dell in tow, with nary a word from their support center. By this time in China I had already received a confirmation e-mail giving me the go-ahead to take it in for repair, but I guess Japan just doesn’t have its shit together yet. I was quickly absorbed in my work and before I knew it, a month had passed by and I still hadn’t heard from Dell. Even by their own estimate, that is unacceptably slow, I thought as I redialed their service number. The service agent didn’t seem to share my indignation, as he casually said that it wasn’t uncommon for it to take this long, and my request was still pending, so if I wait a while longer they’d call to let us know the next step.

By this time, I had already come to the conclusion I couldn’t trust Dell or their machines, gone computer shopping, picked out a spiffy lightweight Acer, ordered it on Amazon, and had my family ship it all the way to Japan so I could start working on my personal projects again. Because of this, there was no sense of urgency, and my indignation was held in check by the fantastic new laptop I’d been using. I was getting this stupid Dell fixed, but I didn’t really want it back. I don’t care if they really fix the issue this time, I cannot endorse their products or service anymore.

Fast forward almost another month, and it’s just getting silly. We called the service number again and was once again given the run-around. We pressed a bit further and the agent said that she would dig deeper into the situation–because apparently there’s all kind of information vital to their job that they aren’t privy to–and call us back “within a couple days.” So a couple days later, I logged onto Dell US’s service chat and ask an agent what was going on. I wasn’t sure if I was still covered because I had already transferred my warranty to China, but it was worth a shot. Turns out that not only has the warranty transfer not gone through, they didn’t have any record of my request to begin with. Smooth. On the bright side, I was then told that my original transfer to China was never “fully completed,” so I could still get the computer fixed in the states. No way was I going to entrust the situation to Dell Japan after all this, and I told them to write up a service request, cause I was sending this piece of shit home.

Once the computer was back in the states, Dell did perform their job admirably, sending a box with detailed instructions that even my mom was able to follow*, and got the computer fixed and back to her within a week, whilst being tracked the whole time. I guess the moral of the story is if you plan to travel with a computer, don’t get a Dell. Or if you do get a Dell, I seriously hope you don’t plan to take it out of the country.

Speaking of which, does anyone want to buy a slightly used Vostro V13? I can guarantee that I’ve only used it a few months out of the year I’ve owned it.

*I am not bagging on my mom, she is wonderful and has been nothing but helpful and supportive during my time abroad and I wuv her vewwy much.

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