No help from Dell!!

Kind of a cross post, and I'm wondering if we can do anything more than ventilate here, but it sure feels good to know I'm not alone. This is a rant rather than a linear discussion of my problems with Dell in the past week (one of those problems being the layers and layers of employees, supervisors, and whatever else CS has dreamed up to keep you from getting to someone who can resolve your problem for you. I have been stalled 8 times by three different people when asking for an address or phone number of any sort where I can just voice my concerns about the direction customer support is going in and the fact that they can't offer any sort of fair restitution when they screw up multiple times. The rest of the rant:
I originally liked the way they had switched to online chat customer service because you can't type with an accent (although I came across a supervisor called Kanika yesterday who couldn't type either). We have an older Dell with ME that I've actually had little trouble with, but this high-end workshorse Inspiron has that three major problems in the year I've owned it, the most recent being a complete hard drive corruption. I can't say they are not polite, but they obviously have no idea what they're doing when it comes to either tech management (we had to send in a photo of a small ding in the case and they tried to reneg on the promise of a new hard drive because I had obviously beaten the case with a hammer and that was the problem. Was the ding anywhere near the hard drive compartment? Nope.) I have asked several people now for an email or a hard address that I could write to just to express my concerns (they agreed to replace the hard drive but I've now gotten two shipments of the little screws that hold it in, but no drive and no discs). I rarely feel this strongly about a company but I have to agree with the above comment that I hope they go under. You'd think problems with the company would make them want to have *better* CS, not people that make promises the company can't keep, blow you off, and try to tell you that something that should not logically void your warranty voids it. I'd be a millionaire if I had a dollar for every minute I've spent in a chat with them in the last week. I run a small business and we always make restitution to unhappy customers. At this point I feel they should be coughing up a new computer not stalling me with a song and dance about "warehouse issues." If Obama can intervene in the management of big motor companies, why can't he do something with Dell? Oh, maybe because their CS has been outsourced to another country so that it's taken away jobs from Americans who needed the work and could actually have performed it.

Using "help" or "customer service" in the same phrase with "Dell" makes it an oxymoron, as far as I can tell.

Despite being sucked in by the next-day repair and service plans (thank heavens I have not been duped into extending them, despite their repeated emails!) I have never, ever, been able to get assistance that was worth anything. If my car has a problem, imagine if the mechanic wanted me to run advanced diagnostics and take the engine and transmisstion apart before coming in for him to have a look. For Dell, that is standard.

My most recent problem is that my 5 month old XPS laptop is having a vertical line on the screen. I want someone to look at my laptop and fix it, but that is too much to ask. One "support" person asked me to first hook up an external monitor. Where would I obtain that, I asked. "Try a neighbor?" he replied. Another call got me equally no where. When I said "Why did I pay for this plan if you are going to ask me to run two hours worth of diagnostics myself, when I have no idea what I am doing?" The reply was "Well, I cannot tell my supervisor there is a problem until we do all these tests." 90 minutes later we were no further along, and I had to go to work so said goodbye.

I realize the only way to get my system fixed is to pay for repairs locally. Even at this the Dell "support" had an obstacle to erect, "Well, if they are a Dell licensed repair, otherwise we won't cover any warranty." Great. They won't honor the "next day on site repair" but they sure as heck don't want me seeking repair either.

How does Dell keep doing this when they are so evil?