How Could They Mess Up This Bad... Again - $1500 PC Secret Shopper 2 Part 1

[jakkuh_t]

Thanks to dbrand for sponsoring Secret Shopper 2! Check out the new limited edition LinusTechTips skin drop at http://notlttstore.com/ and http://newandimprovedlttstore.com/

 

It's finally time again for PC Secret Shopper - where we document the entire experience of ordering a gaming system from your favourite PC system integrators. Let's see how they did.

 

 

[Lurick]

So would you like some anti-virus to go with your financed warranty plan?

[Bombastinator]

The biggest bonus I am hearing about for system integrators lately is they can get video cards not available in other ways.  If I hit a situation where I want an otherwise ungettable card I might buy and put up with an annoying or not so good experience as long as I could get the parts I wanted and just  make sure it worked right later.  If integrators are the only people that can get certain parts I need theyre where I will have to go. 

[Ankh Tech]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

The biggest bonus I am hearing about for system integrators lately is they can get video cards not available in other ways.  If I hit a situation where I want an otherwise ungettable card I might buy and put up with an annoying or not so good experience as long as I could get the parts I wanted and just  make sure it worked right later.  If integrators are the only people that can get certain parts I need theyre where I will have to go. 

Yes, overclockers pre-builts come with 3080s and 3070s that are kept just for pre-builts, so does redux

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Ankh tech tips said:

Yes, overclockers pre-builts come with 3080s and 3070s that are kept just for pre-builts, so does redux

Redux is already out of 3080s as of yesterday.  Possibly earlier.

[azkite]

The thing with the dell warranty, is often a sales tactic done by employees to boost their numbers on whatever it is the company wants.

Add on a warranty for X amount and then you discount the purchase by that same amount. So you get the warranty that the company wants you to sell and the customer pays the same price.

 

This was an issue when I worked at office depot. Company cared more about adding warranty more then selling anything. So people would add warranty then discount the price of said warranty.

[Rolling2405]

@jakkuh_t@LinusTech you guys should do different SIs instead of just doing the same ones like I would like to see AVAdirect, Xotic PC Hidevolution!

[Ankh Tech]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Redux is already out of 3080s as of yesterday.  Possibly earlier.

Yeah, but they have 3070s, which is just amazing since linus sponsored them, and it is still in stock

[plurus]

Poor IBuyPower, pretty good rep, but their billing system bombed.  

 

Also, I guess with NZXT, the ones directly buying from them are also the ones knowledgeable enough to use their website (and from a check, the very first Refurbed is a 3700X+2070S for $1349, and 2 year service, a pretty good value).  

 

And Dell's Consumer support line keeps being "AVOID".  

[samcool55]

That, was brutal, holy crap.

I expected bad things but dell was just disgusting. I honestly feel bad for anyone that actually gave them money.

 

Also corsair and NZXT, big oof man.

[Master Disaster]

I'm not sure about the Americas but here in Europe (and I'm pretty sure Australia too) what Dell did would have been 100% illegal.

 

You refused warranty and anti virus multiple times and they included it anyway. That's disgusting.

 

You guys should have got a guy to call up and spec out the same PC but tell them he was knowledgable about computers to see if they did the same thing to him. My guess is the sales reps are told to stick it on any call where the buyer is unlikely to notice just to bump up the price.

[Bombastinator]

13 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

That, was brutal, holy crap.

I expected bad things but dell was just disgusting. I honestly feel bad for anyone that actually gave them money.

 

Also corsair and NZXT, big oof man.

A lot of this may be specific call answers.  Hard to know.  It was a bad showing though.

[William M]

I am pretty sure I will no longer be recommending Dell computers to Friends and Family that don't buy things from website. I do IT work for local company and buy the computer from Dell, I have really not had a problem with them but I buy most of them website. When I need something built in certain way or I need something by short day we do have our rep. The point of me saying this is I have not had this problem with Dell. However that being side I would not what friends or family go though that experience. 

 

The one tidbit is back when intel cpu were hard to buy. They did sell AMD based Optiplex.  It was 1 gen Ryzen. It was about that long ago, In order to buy the system you had to have Rep that knew of it existence.  I am not sure if they sell current Ryzen Cpu in similar matter. As know I can buy 8th gen have them on site in 2 weeks.  Intel 8th gen is cheaper then 10th gen and most of users of these system notice.  As we basically  going to websites on intranet and Office. Note that Dell has begin to stop selling 8th gen models. 

 

[iLikeBananas]

Very good video and looking forward to the next one. That said I barely made it through the Dell part. I would have ended the call right away.

[eeeee1]

i liked this one. i prefer the older "intro"

[SolarNova]

006.9 ..i see what u did there

 

Dell: Ah yes ..the middle eastern call center ...possibly the biggest reason i dont touch Dell products (ok so in terms of their actual PCs they sell , its what u get thats the biggest reason i stay clear, they are trash). Want customer support ..haha ..good luck.

That sale would certainly have been illegal in the UK , especially if the customer had the smarts to record it.

And that system ...I'd be willing to bet its garbage. Probably basic RAM, OEM PSU, lowest end retail  Motherboard or Dell OEM/proprietary. And ofc the OS is going to be loaded with bloatware.

 

HP: apart form the disconnect, pretty good tbh. Customer service wise, thats fine. it will all depend on whats actually in the system on delivery.

 

ibuypower: .. That wait time ..ouch. Good once u got through but damn.

 

Cyberpower : Yea ..for the general joe blogs ..not great, terrible in fact ..but. They seem more catered to people who know 'the basics' of PC hardware anyway. so ..the kind of customer u 'pretended' to be ..isnt really their target.

 

Origin:  Yea ..expensive.

 

Corsair: ..not much to say ..they failed. But i'd rather be failed by them , than suffer through and be ripped of by the likes of Dell.

 

Maingear: Solid customer support ..we'll see how the system turns out but i'd be happy with that kind of service.

 

NZXT: im not that surprised they closed for the ... 'extremely dangerous and scary virus' /s.. ... from what i've seen their Builder group is still a small part of their company. Still ..like corsair ..fail.

 

 

 

So my bets would be on HP and Maingear.

[JazzyCups]

1 hour ago, azkite said:

The thing with the dell warranty, is often a sales tactic done by employees to boost their numbers on whatever it is the company wants.

Add on a warranty for X amount and then you discount the purchase by that same amount. So you get the warranty that the company wants you to sell and the customer pays the same price.

 

This was an issue when I worked at office depot. Company cared more about adding warranty more then selling anything. So people would add warranty then discount the price of said warranty.

I would be that's why they gave such a bad GPU in the system, or even provided a Dell machine rather than an Alienware like Jake said. When I worked in phone sales my commission was mostly line activations and insurance plans, with small percentages for upgrades and accessory sales. It's a repugnant sales tactic, but very invasive in that world.

[Egg-Roll]

So a few things...

1. Dell needs to start doing stand up comedy
2. What Dell did may potentially be illegal in Canada by not displaying the prices for the add ons along with a separate configuration costs of the system to display transparency in what you are buying. You could go back and demand refunds on all things you didn't want as you have no proof they were not charged based on what was shown in video.
3. Why was HP/iBuyPower/MainGear swearing at poor Sarah _/s
4. Linus needs to hire that Rooster.
5. iBuyPower nearly put Sarah to sleep
6. 28:43 You forgave Dell already? That was fast.
7. 30:00 Back to hating, good
8. Why was Jake only wearing boxers?

 

Can't wait for the other part/s

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

[Bombastinator]

5 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I'm not sure about the Americas but here in Europe (and I'm pretty sure Australia too) what Dell did would have been 100% illegal.

 

You refused warranty and anti virus multiple times and they included it anyway. That's disgusting.

 

You guys should have got a guy to call up and spec out the same PC but tell them he was knowledgable about computers to see if they did the same thing to him. My guess is the sales reps are told to stick it on any call where the buyer is unlikely to notice just to bump up the price.

America too usually.  Things get vague when they cross international boundaries though, and that was not a North American accent that woman had.  Possible an EU country could play that same game, if they rigged it right.  Also possible the rep just sucked.  I looked at the Dell site though and it was pretty unnavigable for me so it might just be that bad.  Warning sign for Dell brass.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

America too usually.  Things get vague when they cross international boundaries though, and that was not a North American accent that woman had.  Possible an EU country could play that same game, if they rigged it right.  Also possible the rep just sucked.  I looked at the Dell site though and it was pretty unnavigable for me so it might just be that bad.  Warning sign for Dell brass.

You don't need to have a accent from a country to be in said country. Many local call centers are actually full of people from other countries who moved here, mainly due to being at least bilingual plus it's an easy job that no one typically wants(they have a high cycle rate). It's the same reason why we still have to bring in temp workers to do farm work here, no one locally wants to do it.

 

Looking at indeed it seems they do/did have/had a few call centers around the US and Canada (had I guess, a CBC article shows them closing most back in 08 tho the Canadian review is from 2016, 2018 for BC). Overall I find Dell a fairly shit company since day 1 I've known them.

 

Also a lot of EU countries (because of the EU) have regulations around this kind of stuff, mainly for the reasons I said in my 2nd point in above post, no transparency so one can easily assume you got charged for something you didn't want. I would be interested to know if someone from the EU has the same crappy mysterious layout as LTT got.

 

I tried to order a laptop from them back in 2015, their site wouldn't process nothing forcing me to go threw online support, I didn't get scammed like LTT did (never bought it in the end). I think it's a stupid trick to force you to call in to get upsold, however the order layout is the same as displayed in the video which they really need to change because if they gave all the extras for free that would be great, but as it looks it is hard to tell. FYI I too got the "DISCNT" code yet no discount was ever applied as the total was no different.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

You don't need to have a accent from a country to be in said country. Many local call centers are actually full of people from other countries who moved here, mainly due to being at least bilingual plus it's an easy job that no one typically wants(they have a high cycle rate). It's the same reason why we still have to bring in temp workers to do farm work here, no one locally wants to do it.

 

Looking at indeed it seems they do/did have/had a few call centers around the US and Canada (had I guess, a CBC article shows them closing most back in 08 tho the Canadian review is from 2016, 2018 for BC). Overall I find Dell a fairly shit company since day 1 I've known them.

 

Also a lot of EU countries (because of the EU) have regulations around this kind of stuff, mainly for the reasons I said in my 2nd point in above post, no transparency so one can easily assume you got charged for something you didn't want. I would be interested to know if someone from the EU has the same crappy mysterious layout as LTT got.

 

I tried to order a laptop from them back in 2015, their site wouldn't process nothing forcing me to go threw online support, I didn't get scammed like LTT did (never bought it in the end). I think it's a stupid trick to force you to call in to get upsold, however the order layout is the same as displayed in the video which they really need to change because if they gave all the extras for free that would be great, but as it looks it is hard to tell. FYI I too got the "DISCNT" code yet no discount was ever applied as the total was no different.

Of course you don’t.  This is why I specifically did not say that. 

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Of course you don’t.  This is why I specifically did not say that. 

You said "America too usually" then proceeded with "Things get vague when they cross international boundaries though, and that was not a North American accent that woman had." which is what you said. Basically you said things get vague across international boarders which they don't, foreign support/sales are obligated in this case to uphold the laws they serve in, and when they don't companies are held accountable locally because they should have trained them better no differently than if the call center was in the country of sale. You then went on to say she didn't have a North American sounding accent which when combined implies you assumed they where not within any country in North America basing it on her voice alone and hence why she did what she did.

 

Now if you meant it that way or not idk. However I can't find anyway of rewording that entire sentence to not make it sound like you assumed she wasn't within any country in North America, and yes I have reread it several times to ensure I wasn't the one making an error.

 

Also the original person you quoted stated in Europe it would be illegal, typically when people say that they usually refer to the EU(and places like UK), so no EU country would permit knowingly what Dell did to Linus. I'm not trying to get you mad in any way, I just noticed this while double/triple checking I wasn't wrong.

[Letgomyleghoe.]

Really kinda hoped they could get Ivan back somehow for secret shopper 2.  R.I.P. Russian comrade

[atxcyclist]

Awesome. I've been hoping there would be another Secret Shopper.