Ahhh Dell tech support, the best you can ask for.....*laugh

[Amstell]

So i wanted to post this hoping others will get a laugh too.

I have been having lock ups on the Dell 1420n. The touchpad will lock up randomly, so I contacted dell over chat and this is how they resolved it.

12:29:40 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 After about 15minutes, your moisture on your fingers will soak onto the integrated touchpad, leaving a thin film of body oil... Then after about 5 minutes of taking a break this moisture should evaporate. If you don't take a break, your computer will keep sensing the oil left on the integrated touchpad and not your fingers therefore it will stop working after about 15 minutes.

So my response is of course...yeah, I don't think so.

So then I get this next

12:30:14 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 If you replace this touchpad with another one of the exact same model, it will still have the same exact problem.

Then I learn something about the oil on my fingers from a tech support guy, if thats what you would call him

12:31:05 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 Or you can use wipes to clean the sensor, keep in mind you may need to wipe a couple of times since body oil isn't that

And so I fire back with t his....

12:31:07 PM Customer Andrew well i'm sorry but that is not a solution to my problem

His Reponse

12:33:44 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 This is how all touchpads are designed, I'm sorry, there is nothing more I can do, you may consider replace the touchpad interface with another type of mouse device, maybe an optical mouse? I can transfer you to Sales for pricing information if you want?


Now is when I start laughing ...

12:37:06 PM Customer Andrew i don't understand what you are suggesting, are you trying to sell me a mouse to resolve my issue?

His Response:

12:41:31 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 Your welcome to do whatever you want.. I don't mean, in any way to impose another purchase on you.

Me.

12:42:26 PM Customer Andrew you still have not resolved my issue, what should i do in order to fix my touchpad, have other problems been reported with this laptop?


Yes of course but I'm not going to tell you that, i want to sell you a mouse you don't need.

His Response

12:46:01 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 There have been reported problems before in the past about many integrated touchpads, usually not too many though, however sometimes palm rest will break but nothing much else about this specific issue.


My response

12:47:19 PM Customer Andrew so what was the resolution to the reported problems, can i request a supervisor to call me, i feel like i'm doing your job

And finally

12:49:07 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 I'm sorry there is not anything else I can do for this issue, if you want a speak to a supervisor, then I can transfer you to one, however their guidelines for replacing anything are similar to mine and they will require you to troubleshoot before replacing anything, if you have a claim it should be handled by Customer Care department. Do you think you wish to speak to a supervisor?

So i get a call from a supervisor and he suggests that I have spyware or maybe even a virus. Now I know linux is not immune to everything, but really, that is not the answer. I ended up laughing at the guy and hanging up.

When Michael Dell created Dell, he believed that without great customer service, no product would be able to compete and customers would go away. Dell's Customer Service continues to drop to the bottom.

I am never buying a dell again. I am just sick of dealing with them..

Cheers fella's just thought I would share a laugh from the other day.

[swoll1980]

At least he speaks English

[prshah]

12:29:40 PM Agent SLCg_Jeff_161288 After about 15minutes, your moisture on your fingers will soak onto the integrated touchpad, leaving a thin film of body oil... Then after about 5 minutes of taking a break this moisture should evaporate. If you don't take a break, your computer will keep sensing the oil left on the integrated touchpad and not your fingers therefore it will stop working after about 15 minutes.


Riposte:
Nevertheless, the molecules in some kinds of liquids, like oil for example, are rather large and
well-tangled up and attached to each other. This means that evaporation, if it occurs at all, is
very slow. That is why cooking oil, even though sometimes heated to a very high temperature,
does not evaporate to an appreciable extent.

[aaaantoine]

This thread makes me want to wash my hands.

Anyway, I've been using my Acer touchpad for well over a year now, and despite its greasy appearance, it has never had a problem. This means, either your hands are oilier than mine (which I doubt), or the Inspiron 1420n has a crappy lowest-bidder touchpad (which is far more likely).

[maniacmusician]

Riposte:
Just what I was thinking.

It's basic common sense. Since when have you seen oil evaporating off an oily or greasy substance? That's just...[shakes head]

[Joeb454]

At least he speaks English

That doesn't mean he's from the US or UK

[K.Mandla]

Moved to Dell Ubuntu Support.

[prshah]

Moved to Dell Ubuntu Support.

Now that is a master stroke.

[jrusso2]

Well I have not seen that or even heard of it and in 11 years of doing corporate IT and dealing with thousands of Laptops over the years I have not seen this happen even once.

The last time I had a crazy Dell support I emailed m.dell@dellcom and the next day I had some assistant to Michael Dell on the phone and got things resolved very quickly.

[CloudFX]

Dell tech support is in India right? I've always found that there tech support was very good. Once when my keyboard started merging buttons, I called up and got a replacement in 2 days, and another time when my sister's power cord stopped working.

Despite their accents, I think the support is quite decent.

[intel]

Hahahaha

You guys think you are Geeky?

the synaptic touch pads are indeed operating on "capicitance" look it up.

The OLPC (thats one laptop per child) program is also suffering from this
problem,
http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2008-April/013373.html

Are you going to apologise to tech support ?


The solution to your problem is,
- change the touchpad (mayb get a resistive one?)
- don't operate it in moist conditions
- keep your fingers dry (install air conditioner to control moisture in the room)

[CloudFX]

Couldn't have said it better intel ;)

[RedRat]

If you were having this problem on one of Dell's Linux machines, did you call the Linux support line or the regular Dell support? It was not clear in your message.

As to the touchpad, all touchpads that work on capacitance can suffer some problems. Whether the touchpad was the particular culprit here is not clear from any of the discussions you had. I would suggest that you at least try to get a replacement pad.

It does sound as if you have other issues in the computer, but I would certainly try the replacement touchpad. I think the suggestion to try plugging in a mouse might be one way of trying to resolve the touchpad issue. If using the mouse, eliminated your problem it would certainly indicate you have a too sensitive touchpad issue.

In the end, having dealt with support from other companies, I think this is a case of escalation on both parts. I am not saying that the support guy was correct in his/her diagnosis, but you sometimes have to be a little forgiving when trying to solve problems over a chat line or phone line.

[Sammi]

Classic case of support personnel and customer just not seeing eye to eye and working together. You're really working against each other, and neither is being as helpful as you should, as I read the discussion you had. Support over a phone or text chat requires two open minded active listening parties.

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I've had terrible problems with Dell tech support (as any other tech support) for computers bought by normal people, but I was quite pleased with the response I got from Dell's support when doing tech support for my church, which bought computers under a small business account. I have learned that buying Dell Small Business is the way to go, if you're going to buy from them.

[mrynit]

My tackpad locks up too but it is super sensitive and clicks when i dont mean it to. I turned off touch pad clicking but still have the issue. Come to think of it I dont think i had the problem before untill I turned off touchpad clicking.

I use my brothers optical usb mouse now becuse its better than a track pad so I havent been using it lately to tell if it still locks up.