Danny said:
Oh, you have no idea how much time I spent with Dell.
They did fedex my driver discs and the Windows operating system.
But, try as I might, they wouldn't do a thing for Office.
Let me ask the group at large:
Has *anyone* here really gotten MS Office from Dell as a backup disc?
What've I've got and what they supply with their hardware are the
recovery CDs. Their support is usually to send you the CDs (that you're
supposed to make yourself following their instructions) that restore
your computer back to factory-time setup. If they pre-install Microsoft
Office then it's in the image they restore.
Since your kid's hard disk crashed, restoring the factory-time image
onto the new hard disk is quick and gets you everything that came with
the computer.
Their level of support is what they bundled for a particular model.
They'll send you the restore CDs. There's a shipping fee, of course.
If your kid doesn't create the restore CDs himself then getting them
from Dell is a good idea for when the hard disk crashes again, his
system gets corrupted from malware or user error, or he somehow manages
to format the wrong partition.
0. PC PURCHASE:
Last week, I bought, for about $500, a Dell Inspiron 15 from Costco. That
Costco Dell Inspiron 15 did *not* come with any hard media.
Either there is a partition (a small one) holding the restoration
program. This may restore an image or perform the intial custom setup.
Or you are supposed to follow their instructions to create the restore
CDs yourself. You use their utility to create the restore CDs.
Both Windows 8 & Office Home & Student 2010 are on the hard drive.
The 25-character product keys for the OS & Office were *not* on the bottom
of the PC but were in a loose envelope in the box.
The pre-installed software is also pre-authorized. That eliminates
customers from having to perform the authorization after or during the
installation.
1. SCAM SUPPORT:
Unfortunately, there was no Dell telephone number in the package.
Not even "dell.com" was not listed anywhere on the packaging or in any
documentation? You never even thought of visiting their web site to
find their support pages and contacts?
Using Dell's web site for support has you enter their support tag ID.
That help focuses on what you bought from them rather than having to
ferret it out. They also list their contact telephone number on their
web site in their support pages.
Googling for "dell support telephone", 855-235-2101 was the first hit.
Calling that number (three or four times) was an exercise in
futility. Only later, did I learn that's a scam telephone number.
It's a fee-based support company called Albion Global Services.
Yep, lots of companies advertize themself as support for many products.
In fact, one reason you might switch away from Google as your online
search provider is that Google will knowingly sell ad-words to
competitors. For example, company-A and company-B are rivals so
company-B buys ad-words naming company-A from Google so users doing
Google searches click on company-B's ads in the search results thinking
they were going to company-A. Google doesn't care about this misleading
sale of ad-words. They just want the money.
So you're telling us about your mistake or Google's willful misleading
sponsor-ad search hits going to the wrong place but which has nothing to
do with Dell itself.
Because of Google selling their ad-words to competing companies and also
because their flagrant attempt to get you to change your home page to
them on every visit to their search site, I switching to Bing for online
searches. I still use Google for some searches, like for pictures,
because they seem to have a larger collection. If, for example, someone
wants to do something on their motherboard, I can find pics of it on
Google Images but not so many or not the right ones on Bing. Until
Google changes their evil ways for general searches, I don't use them.
3. DELL SUPPORT:
Finally, I found the "real" Dell telephone support number:
800-624-9896 (enter the express service code)
They were great! They are sending (some) of the disks:
a. Windows 8 b. DELL drivers c. But they do *not* send Microsoft Office
4. MICROSOFT OFFICE:
For Microsoft Office, they told me to download the disks from:
http://office.microsoft.com/backup
Here, you enter your 25-digit product key & can order disks ($13)
or download the installation files yourself.
Actually that would be something new as of Microsoft offering the backup
downloads. Before that, they wouldn't send you Office separately or
could even point you elsewhere. They would send you the restore CDs,
the same one you were supposed to make yourself.
In your case, you only wanted the install for Office. Dell doesn't have
that. They have their factory-time restore CDs. So you're lucky that
Microsoft later decided to provide backup downloads for their products.
However, since your kid's hard disk crashed, your kid will be needing
those restore CDs, anyway.
5. DELL DRIVERS:
They also showed me where to download the DELL drivers myself:
http://support.dell.com Product Support->Dell Software Download
Center->OS & Drivers
Of course, this presumes you can get online to visit their web site. If
the OS is dead on your computer, or you don't have network access
(because you only have 1 computer, the dead one, and need the mobo
chipset drivers that include network support), you either use the
restore CDs you created per their instructions or you have them ship you
the restore CDs.
6. REMOTE ASSISTANCE:
Since I was unfamiliar with Windows 8, they logged into my PC using their
GoToAssist program (
http://dell.com/dc1).
a. They turned on Windows Defender as my anti-virus program b. They turned
on Windows Firewall c. They installed
http://windows8.startbutton.com
SUMMARY:
Dell *will* send you the Windows installation disks, and the Dell drivers
and software disks; but only Microsoft will make Office 2010 available to
you as a disk ($12) or a free download.
< / long story >
So Dell's support is okay per your experience. Their support is to
restore your computer back to a working state. They know their setup is
okay but not anything you modified thereafter, so their support is to
get you back to the state of when you bought their computer. I'm sure
if they had bundled McAfee or Norton anti-virus suite then they also
wouldn't provide you a separate install of that and tell you to get it
from the software vendor. As an OEM, what they supply is their
customized configuration and that's what they support, not necessarily
pieces of it.
