Did you buy a shiny new LCD monitor from Dell? If you did, the best advice I have for you is SAVE YOUR ORDER NUMBER! Make sure you can get to it. These puppies usually come with a pretty good warranty (my Mom’s had a 3-year on it), but if you don’t have your order number, there is absolutely nothing they can do. In keeping with the theme that these strange arduous tasks always fall my direction, here’s my experience with Dell over the last few days.

A few years back my Mom bought an 19″ LCD monitor from Dell. They loved it. Got one for my wife at the same time. Recently, the power supply in it just went out, so the lights won’t even come on when you press the power button. They were ready to trash it and had me purchase a new 22″ widescreen Viewsonic at a Fry’s deal a few weeks ago. (It looks sweet, btw). Anyway, before they tossed the old broken 19″, I asked could I have it and I was going to try and fix it. Well, I found the replacement power supply online for like $49 and figured that would be a deal. $50 bucks and I’ve got a new 19″ for my server in the closet.

Then it occurred to me to check to see if it’s under warranty. We couldn’t remember exactly when we bought it, and we don’t have access to the email account my parents had back in the day when they ordered it. No problem — I just call up Dell and give them the serial number of the monitor. They should be able to tell me if it’s under warranty. (Not so!) I called Dell, and spent over 30 minutes on the phone being transferred around, all the while assured that the correct tech support dude could look it up by serial number, only when I finally got to him, nope — it was not possible. I was told I needed to call Customer Support with my address and they could look up the order number. Fine — I’m tired — I’ll do this another day.

So I wait a week and call up Customer Support. “What’s the Dell express service tag?” gets asked of me at least 30 times. The only problem is, monitors bought without a system *do not have a service tag*. (Why they don’t put one on there, I have no idea). Next, “What’s your order number?” I don’t know that’s why I’m calling. Blah blah I’ll transfer you to my manager. I say OK and then they just hang up on me. Call back, same exact thing happens and I am hung up on again.

Finally my parents find their “Customer Number” but not the order number. They can login to Dell’s support site and under “My Account” it only shows orders in the last 2 years — this one was longer than that so it doesn’t appear. But now I have a customer number, so I call Dell again armed with this new info. This time I go through the same process only now the guy can actually pull up my acct info and give me the holy grail — the order number for that monitor!

I am then transferred to Tech Support (again) but with my order number I find out the monitor is still under warranty, and after 65 mins of over-the-phone troubleshooting, a brand new monitor is on its way to my parent’s house. Persistence pays off! (But oh yeah, make sure you have your order number and you’ll save yourself hours of anger and frustration!)