Wonder why service sucks?

[MindPilot]

For a whopping $50-$100 a day--out of which you must pay for tools and work-related transportation expenses--with apparently no benefits you can fix Dell Computers provided you have 3 years of experience, hold a current DCSE, and A+ along with an AA in electronics.

I just got an email with this fantastic job opportunity:



Currently recruiting for a Dell Field Technician in your area.

This is an open-ended contract opportunity to work as a consultant to repair desktops, laptops, and printers. The candidate will perform desktop computer “Break/Fix” support and simple to complex installation, add, or change requirements of peripherals & device drivers. This is a great opportunity for the right individual.

The troubleshooting has already occurred between the end user and the Client's help desk support line. That support line has determined the problem is hardware related and ordered the components for replacement.

Your job will be to pick up the hardware and take it to the end user's location (home, home-based business or small business), swap the part(s) out and return the warranty part(s) to the Client.

This contract pays $25.00 per ticket within 50 miles and $33.00 per ticket from 51-75 miles, and you will be assigned an average of 2-4 tickets a day. The mileage is included in the price per ticket.



Position Overview:


Duties and Responsibilities:

· Provides quality customer service and support for designated equipment.

· Escalates problems to appropriate next level of support when necessary.

· Monitors assigned service calls to ensure timely completion.

· Ensures all time reporting, expense reporting, and other required reports are accurate and submitted on time.

· Completes all administrative duties correctly and promptly

· Meets or exceeds various service levels as established by assignment (calls per day, ETA’s, on-time response, administrative call closure, customer satisfaction.)

· Responsible for ensuring on-going maintenance and development of positive customer relationships with all business partners and customers.

· Ensures that quality and service level goals are achieved in a timely manner.



Requirements:

· At least 2/3 years hands on experience working on hardware repairs and/or upgrades on pc's, laptops and printers.

· A+ certification, Associate’s Degree in Electronics, formal PC hardware service courses, or similar military related training can replace a year of hands on experience.

· Must be comfortable swapping out motherboards (Desktop experience necessary, laptop experience desired)

· Must have experience diagnosing/troubleshooting hardware issues on pc, laptops, and printers.

· Proficiency in desktop support of individual PCs. Minimum operating system knowledge includes: Microsoft Windows 9x, 2000 and XP

· Basic understanding of TCP/IP networking, hubs and switches

· Support of computer networks, as directed by a Level II or III Engineer/Technician

· A+ certification is preferred

· DCSE Certification is a plus ( If you are not DCSE, our customer will cover the cost to get DCSE certified)

· Must enjoy driving, you will be driving from location to location

· Must have your own tools for repairing computers that include anti-static protection and DC volt-meter

· Must have your own reliable transportation and valid driver’s license

· Ability to locate addresses in your immediate area

· Must dress business casual for the position. No jeans or tennis shoes.

· Must be well organized

[blondeatlast]

1. God, how sad. Yet I know many who've worked in good IT jobs that would

gladly take the work out of desperation.

[virgogal]

2. God,what an awful job. Poor Michael Dell

must be really hurting to pay so little. (Sarcasm intended)

[sharp_stick]

3. $25 or $33 per ticket

including mileage and it doesn't look like you get paid by complexity of the job either. $25 to go around the corner and add some RAM or a video card is no big deal. Swapping out a Motherboard and making sure the rest of the components still work for $25 I don't bloody well think so you could be there for hours.

What an unbelievable opportunity for someone to be taken advantage of. I don't even know if you could possibly make your daily expenses back most of the time at 2 to 4 tickets a day. I'd tell them to cram it if possible.

[Warpy]

4. What a wretchedly bad deal

While it's relatively easy to swap out a drive or power supply, what happens when it's the motherboard? If all your calls are 25 miles apart, you're only going to be able to do a couple of them per day if you live in a congested urban area because you'll be stuck in traffic. Never mind you get no benefits, at all, and can't even dress according to what the job requires, which is often grubbing around on a dirty floor and inside dusty equipment. Business casual, my flabby old ass. Oh, and what about paying off those student loans that certified you to repair their crappy equipment?

Lincoln freed everybody. Dell can go fuck themselves.

[MindPilot]

16. A drive would be the worst...

data recovery, image, reload software, data restore, listen to user complain about how nothing works like it did before...that could take hours.

[Bitwit1234]

5. And that price hardly pays for the gas which is now up to $2.75 a

gallon her in MN.

[lib2DaBone]

6. This is typical across the board for many professions...

They have the American worker beaten down... on their knees.

Instead of opting for a high-tech high-wage economy like Germany, the Banksters and their puppet politicians have forced us into labor arbitrage, unlivable wages and astronomic taxes.

We desperately need a national work stoppage on all levels to get their attention.

[StatGirl]

7. Next step: "We can't get Americans to take these jobs!"

"We need more H1B visas!"

[leveymg]

14. At least H-1B workers would be paid the prevailing wage - this isn't.

At $50-100/day, this is barely prevailing wage for Indian IT, which is $7/hr. And, I can guarantee that in Chennai, the tech isn't expected to have to drive his/her own car to the customer site.

This is below Third-World wages and working conditions.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Thats the pay!?

I recently had a problem with my Dell and the contractor came from the next county (about 60 miles each way). He does this full time as a home based business.

Had I known, I would have quietly tipped him.

Wow.

[Pooka Fey]

9. Oh, brother. They can't be serious.

[crikkett]

10. I've always thought Dell should unionize n/t

[Regret My New Name]

11. This most likely isn't Dell directly

but rather a company that has a contract to do the service work for Dell.

[MindPilot]

17. It may even be a step removed from that.

A company which supplies the bodies to the company that contracts to provide the on-site service for Dell.

[MrsBrady]

24. that's probably more like it

or probably even...

a company supplies the bodies to a company that contracts to provide the onsite service that is contracted to the lowest bidder/vendor managing service.

[elehhhhna]

18. yes, it seems so. they also fail to mention that they will require

proof of auto insurance - possibly with an endorsement to themselves, and also need a criminal background check and drug test since the tech goes into private homes.

[Regret My New Name]

12. hah! They're not even paying the mileage? What joke of a company is this?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

19. No kidding.. I would be broke before I got to work if I took a job like this

Few years ago I itemized my paycheck and at $12hr I had a hard time getting buy.

Living paycheck to paycheck sucks and this is below that.








One of the draw-back living in the sticks is you have to drive a lot to work...but I LOVE IT!!

[datasuspect]

13. with some good old fashioned horatio alger pluck and a little elbow grease

everyone can be become a Rockerfeller!

we're a nation of subcontractors, this was the republican vision circa 1994. it came true.

[hobbit709]

15. I charge $40 and up per job.

You bring the computer to me and I fix it.The problem with Dells is that they use nonstandard front panel pinouts on the wiring, one time they used power supplies wit6h nonstandard wiring on the connectors-if you replaced with a standard ATX p.s., you blew it up. And they cram everything in a small case.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. AND Dell just got heavily fined for using malfuctioning capacitors and other parts

and swapping broken customer parts with ones which would break again!
They admitted they had known about the problem for years, yet did nothing.

Guess that is one way to keep a permanent customer repair list.

[MindPilot]

23. At my work, we buy 'em by the hundreds...and fix them by the dozens

Each model seems to have its own particular set of issues. For example about 20% of our Latitude E6400s have had their motherboards replaced to correct a random intermittent under-clocking problem.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. I went thru 3 Dell computers in 2 years!

Good news was these were "freebies", given to me by people who got newer puters.
Bad news was Mr. d was really ragging me about being a computer killer.
Till his went out.
Then I found the stories about Dell's dirty little secrets and gave him the info.

He built me the 64 bit dual processor machine I am now using, with Linux, tons of RAM, etc.
Has more power than his...hee hee.

So I guess I have Dell to thank huh?

[Rochester]

20. Dell is crap

In spite of a former girl-friend being poorly treated by Dell CS one time, I tried ordering a computer from them a few years ago. They wouldn't even accept the order. Bastards. Two fingers to Dell and I'll never in my entire life buy a computer from them. I ended up getting an HP computer and never had any problems with it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

22. Better to move to India and be a tech support person.

Wow. Dell is really generous, aren't they?

[SoCalDem]

25. A friend of mine was a "traveling health aide"...$8.00 an hour

and she had to visit 6 "clients" a day.. She was reimbursed for gasoline, but she put soooooo many miles on her car.. (Riverside County, CA is HUGE)..and she always got grief from her bosses because of her tender heart. Many of these old people she saw, craved attention and she would "waste" time, talking to them or maybe helping them change a light bulb or other things they needed help with.

She burned out in a few months