I need serious help. I bought a Dell Inspiron 5150 back nearly 2 months ago now and have yet to get a working machine. From the very beginning I've had serious issues with it and have been making phone calls and sending emails and am getting absolutely nowhere and so frustrated that I just want to return this computer and buy one from HP. I can't take this aggrivation anymore and have lost around 20 customers and roughly $45,000 in annual business since these problems began. I can't take it anymore and have got to have resolution immediately or I might as well shut my doors for good. If I lose anymore customers I'm out of business.
The details:
William J Lockard
Order Date 4-2-2007
Customer Number - 81764374
Order Number - 598324609 & 598325952
Financed and ordered on a Dell Preferred Account
Tag No GDXNRC1
First Case number - 161196050
Second Case number - 161197106
Third Case number - 162380539
Chat Session Log - 11177307
Chat Session Log - 11177307
Fourth Case Number - 164541727
Yet another email sent 5-30-07 - Was told the problem was escalated to the REC in Texas. Adam UID: 141169 Case: 164541727.
Activities with Tech Support:
Uninstalled McAfee
Reinstalled Vista (was not told I'd lose all installed programs btw)
Ran full diagnosis 7 times with both US and UK tech support
I have various other emails and contacts but the meat of the story is below:
Finally escalated to customer support after Tech Support gave up. Ms Vinishaa Parthipan promised to email me to get an address to which she'd be sending the new system. This was Thursday May 31. By noon the next day, I'd still not heard from her. Tried to call customer support and was told I was absolutely not allowed to speak to a customer support manager by some rude switchboard employee. Explained to him how upset I was and how his behavior was making the situation much worse. He replied, "I really don't care. You're not going to speak to a customer service manager. You can speak to Tech support." I explained to him that i'd already spoken to tech support a dozen times and they could no longer help me. Their words. Not mine. And they'd transferred me to customer service. I finally got Tony's supervisor on the phone who said he'd transfer me since I'd already spoken to them once. Then I got disconnected.
Finally contacted by Vinishaa Parthipan Customer Relations UKIRE late on the 1st and asked for an address for a new system to be sent to. I emailed back immediately asking for an estimated delivery date.
I was told that it'd be 10-15 working days before I could get a new system with XP instead of Vista. Informed her that I was losing business daily and really needed it sooner. She committed to 7-8 working days and would confirm a delivery date soon. On the following Monday, she'd still not put the order in and said she'd get to it on Tuesday. As of today (6-13-07) I've not received the PC or even a delivery date. Ms Parthipan has no business in customer service and in my opinion should be fired. She's ignored every email I've sent in days. Has NOT followed through on her promises. Has not delivered what she said she would and I'm convinced she didn't even put through the order like she said. I informed her that I approve the purchase orders for the World's 3rd largest engineering firm computers and up until this point all of them were purchased through Dell. I've now cancelled many of them and directed them to be purchased through HP. She apparently didn't care that her attitude and rudeness is losing business now for Dell like Dell has for me. I've lost over 20 customers for my photography/graphics business because I couldn't deliver on my contracts without a working machine. I can't take this anymore. All I wanted was a working machine. She promised to get me the same laptop with Windows XP instead of Vista. All I asked was to get it in a timely manner. I've done everything I was asked to do and am now being ignored and I don't understand. This was the 2nd machine I'd bought from dell and after this will probably be the last for me and for the corporation I work for.
I will also be posting this to several blogs and to my website along with the companies intranet and a global email throughout the companies 35,000 or so employees if this isn't resolved within the next 48 hours. I've been poorly treated, lied to, jerked around, hung up on and am thoroughly disgusted by this entire experience. I literally cannot take anymore. I was even getting late charges because I'd financed through Dell and hadn't made a payment yet because I didn't have a working machine. Fortunately they were the one group willing to work with me and understand. Please ya'll I need help. I just want this resolved one way or the other and it MUST be resolved immediately or I'm finished. This business was to be my retirement and if I lose the customers I have left...well I'll have no choice but to join the NY State Attorney General because it's all I have left. Don't let them ruin my business and DUDE DON'T GET A DELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me in a kilt and more shots from my new home...
For YEARS now I've been trying to get to Scotland. This is the land of my ancestors. I even have my Clan Crest tattooed on my left calf as a tribute to my grandparents. My brother and I got matching ink the day after my grandmother was buried. I denied my blood and my family for many years, essentially because I was denied by them and abused by a certain member of my family. So I forsook by heritage and blood but the older I got, the more I realized that frankly it's who I am. I am a Scottish-American and I'm now very proud of that fact. I own 4 kilts now and wear them proudly. I really don't care about the thick-headed, uncultured, inbred, goat-shagging, trailer trash that is stupid enough to call a kilt a skirt. Their opinion and comments to me are worth less than used toilet paper. Get a life, grow up, and read a book. Well first I suppose they'd have to learn to read but they're likely too stupid to accomplish even that. Oh well. Say it to a Scot's face and then I might listen though you'd not be able to talk with your broken jaw wired shut.
I love it here. It's one of the most incredible places I've ever had the priviledge to be. The people are incredibly friendly and kind and it's become amazingly evident why the people of Scotland fought so hard to keep their land and why they were, and are, noted as some of the most aggressive and fierce fighters in the world. The wearers of the blackwatch kilt are still noted and respected as some of the toughest soldiers on the planet even now. The land here is hard but unbelievably beautiful. I've shot over 3000 photographs in the 7 weeks I've been here and plan to shoot thousands more. I'm even working on a book I hope to publish if/when I return to the States. Although I'm not sure I ever want to leave at this point. I'm so very happy here.
Here are just a few shots from my current life in Scotland. I've not got around 600 sellable prints that will soon appear on my website www.wjlockardphotography.com. I absolutely love it here.
This Castle in the midlands of Scotland is considered the most photographed in the world. On this day, the tide was in and a storm was approaching. The light was perfect and magnificent.
I've worked many long, hard hours to get where I am with my photography. It's frustrating at times because 90% of the population are under the severe, and tragic, misconception that every bonehead with a digital camera suddenly has become a professional photographer because their camera had 10 mega-pixels and has a 'P' mode which must mean 'professional!' right? W R O N G!!!!! There's so much more to being a pro than just looking through a little window, telling everyone to say 'cheese' and hitting the button. Sorry guys it doesn't work like that. There are rules of composition and there are the times where you must know when it's ok to break those rules. How you keep from making your sister look like she's got a HUGE nose when in fact, she very well may, but there are tricks of the lens to keep it from appearing that way. Or what about the method from keeping even a supermodel in a size 0 from looking like she's in a size 16. It's possible and quite easy in fact to do it that way. Not so easy to make her look like she's in a size 0. It's not all airbrushing folks. News flash!
Professional photographers are just that. Professional. We've worked long and hard to hone our craft. I don't think of myself as an artist but as a craftsman. Sure some people can get mediocre shots and turn them into something with a $700 program like photoshop. But I shoot to stay out of photoshop unless there's something creative I want to do with it, or create an album page layout. Anyone can stick photographs in a book, but not everyone can create an album design that you'll want to pull out over and over again to show everybody year after year. I have a stack of wedding photographs 300 deep, but do you know how many times I've looked at them in the 8 years I've been married? Twice. Know how many times I've shown them off? Once and that was to my mother. I don't want that from photographs I've shot. I want the happy couple, or the proud mom of a senior to pull that album out for many, many years to come and be just as proud that day, as the day they got them. I don't want to be rich, I just want to re-create memories for the people they belong to. I want the spine of that album to contain just as much magic 20 years from now, as the day it was created. That's when I'll know I've made it.
Please don't be one of the people that think that just because they have a 10Mp Nikon point and shoot digital camera, that you're now qualified to shoot professionally. I've been shooting professionally now for over 10 years and I've still got a long way to go before I compete with some of the big dogs in my business and I've worked my ass off to get even here. That "P" on your camera doesn't mean 'professional'. It means PROGRAM or 'fire & forget'. It'll give you red-eye. It might give you the right lighting, but it won't give you the correct composition. It won't follow the rule of thirds. It won't tell you that Jim has his eyes closed or Mary has a tree sticking out of her head. It won't tell you that Sam has 1/2 his head cut off and you don't get those chances back. And for God's sake, stay away from Wal-Mart or Sears to get your portraits done. Your kids are only that age once so trust those photographs to a professional. We work for a living and will give you something quality. Not the conveyor belt, cookie cutter, harsh lighting crap you'll get from JC Penney. It's worth the extra cash. Trust me, I'm a professional.
www.WJLockardPhotography.Com
I spent yesterday in agony. My back is in bad shape these past few days. I've got to have another surgery but I'm not sure when yet. Yay for me. I just deal with it and Cowboy Up for now.
I've received several job offers lately. One has me traveling CONSTANTLY. I'd be scheduling turnarounds for different plants all over the world. I'm also angling for a gig in China, but today I got a line on a position in Scotland. I hit my knees and prayed when that one came through. I've been dying to go there since I was a wee lad. It's where my family is from and in fact tattooed my family crest on the back of my left calf with a celtic band all the way around. It really turned out beautifully and was a tribute to my grandparents. My grandmother traced our lineage all the way back to Sir Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. In fact, my ancestor carried the heart of Sir Robert into and back from the Crusades. Our family motto is: Corda Serata Pando - Lays Open Locked Hearts. I suppose anyone who knows me would attest to the truth of that statement. So, pray for me that I get this job. I'll take all the help I can get. It'd be perfect for me.
Work sucks btw. I do cost and scheduling for construction projects. Some little, some big. The current one is around $11 Million but I'm working on a proposal for a $55 Million dollar job. China, if I went there, would be in the Billions most likely. Really boring stuff for most. I do like scheduling, but HATE doing Cost. I'd rather be doing contracts and can't wait until I have enough money in the bank to open my photography studio. That's what I feel like I was born to do.
Anyway...GEAUX TIGERS!! They kicked the CRAP out of those stupid little Notre Dame leprechauns. They actually thought they could come to our house and win. HA! LSU-41 ND-14. Fools. Can't beat the LSU TIGERS! NEVER!!!
| Start: | Nov 12, '07 10:00a |
| Location: | wherever I am |
Christmas is now over. YAY! Sadly I really don't like Christmas much anymore. There are several reasons I won't get into on here. It's just not for me anymore but then it is now for my son who LOVES Christmas. He made out like a bandit this year getting everything he asked for and TONS more. The in-laws were here this year so of course he got spoiled. We went to Universal Studios on Saturday. They went to Disneyworld yesterday and it appears they're going back today. What am I doing? I'm working 1/2 day doing absolutely nothing of any redeeming value then going to the Doctor to get my spinal cord implant adjusted. Yay for me!!! I can hardly contain my excitement. Someone better strap me in. Ugh.
Ok I'm done bitchin...for now. Later!!!
This is my website. I'm working with a new company to revamp this site and I'll warn you there are, and will be, some nude images here. I'm a professional photographer, however, and anything you see on here will be artistic and tasteful. I DO NOT SHOOT PORN!!!!!!!!!!!! There will be a warning page before you get to the nekkid stuff, however, so it's safe to browse. I also have some links to two different charity pages I have. One is for the American Cancer Society and the other for Hurricane Katrina Victims. EVERY SINGLE PENNY I make in profit will go to these organizations. I truly believe in helping out my community and Katrina broke my heart like no other woman ever has and that says alot.
This is a portfolio for a group I belong to that does wonderful things to promote State Parks all over the US. I'm working on uploading my portfolio so check back often.
| Start: | Oct 14, '07 11:00a |
| Start: | Jan 15, '07 11:00a |
| End: | Jan 18, '07 |
| Location: | San Antonio |
Well I'll just tell you a bit about myself and my history I reckon.
I currently live in Tampa, FL. I say currently because I've lived in 10 states in 7 years so that will most likely change soon enough. In fact, I'm angling for a project in China at the moment. I work for one of the worlds largest construction firms as a Project Controls Manager. I've also done contracts, procurement, and lots of other really boring stuff. I also, however, own and operate a photography business both portraiture and fine art. I'm 33, male, blonde hair and blue eyes. I have an 8 year old that is the SPITTING IMAGE of me. "I shall call him...mini-me!"
I recently returned to Louisiana after Katrina hit. People that know me, know that Louisiana is my home. Even though I've lived everywhere, Louisiana and South Mississippi will always be my home. When I returned, I spent 10 months in New Orleans trying to get it back on it's feet. It was a long, heart-breaking 10 months. When I arrived in October there were more refrigerators on Bourbon Street than people and it was difficult to bear. Seeing my home like that really hurt. I did, however, spend alot of time shooting photographs and am currently working on a book of photography of what I saw and lived through. It's coming along and should be something really special when finished. My goal, is to get out of the construction business and become a full time photographer. I'm hoping a year in China will not only really bolster my portfolio, but also my bank account so I can get er done.
I've been through alot including 3 back surgeries now. This is most likely a direct result of spending a few years as a professional bullrider. Yea, for those of you who know me, I rode bulls for several years. What can I say I'm an adrenaline junkie and a glutton for punishment. As a result, however, my back is in bad shape and won't get any better. Nothing to do about it but suffer through it. I'm an avid reader, and LOVE being outdoors. I own several boats, camping gear out the wazzoo and would live in a tree if the climb didn't suck so much.
My son is my pride and joy. He is my world and my life. He is everything I could hope for and more and is very, very special to me. He's also my biggest pain in the ass. But then he wouldn't be a child of mine if he was otherwise...right?
My friends, though I have but few close ones, are my family. I'd die for any of them, and I'd give them anything I had just to make them smile. They know who they are. Yes Kimmy you're one of them and Jeremy too. I miss ya'll.
And that's about it. If you wanna know more...just ask. My website is WWW.WJLockardPhotography.Com. It hasn't been updated in awhile but I've got some pretty good stuff on there.
