Kudos to Dell

Earlier this year, I bought a refurb computer from Dell. The boys needed to be upgraded from 98, not to mention other system updates (those darn games need great video). Its a nice system, Intel Dual Core, 2GB RAM, DVD+R, DVD-R/W, 256MB Video RAM, for less than $600 as I recall. Before we went on vacation,
the power blinked off, during a storm, and when the power came back on the Dell gave me a BSOD. Restarting didn't fix it, and I didn't have time to look at it before vacation. [time lapse music here]
Booted the Dell, to see if the computer elves had done their magic, but alas, no joy. The error message on the BSOD said "Unmountable_boot_volume." Next boot, I hit F12 and selected HD Diagnostics, and once the sector read errors started, all blocks subsequent failed, with an IRQ timeout message. I went to Dell's support site, and selected the chat support option (since I tried to search for the error message and only received BIOS doesn't detect my hard drive fixes). A new window opened and I was connected with a Dell Support Agent (Shirish). I passed on the same info as above, and the Agent told me that the hard drive had failed and they would send another. I told them that I was comfortable installing it myself. I passed on the serial number of the drive, my address was confirmed. Shirish asked if there was anything other issues and I told her that I would like the installation discs shipped also. The reply "No problem." Shirish was very pleasant to chat with, and within 5 minutes of the window opening, I had a very satifactory resolution to my problem. I confirmed I would get email status reports and closed the window. Next day, DHL delivered my hard drive! I expected it after the weekend, at best, but it arrived the next day. Today, I received a follow up call from Dell, and told them how pleased I was at the speedy service.
I myself have blogged about Dell's various forays into an online presence, both their successes and stumbles (often in the same post). Oops, looks like Jack has blogged about Dell more. :)
Kudos to Dell!!