<P>Sometimes it seems like vendors are running their support operations purely as profit centers. That's certainly the impression one reader had after encountering some annoying problems with the Dell Support Center 2.0 software upgrade Dell pushed on him last week.</P> <P>The reader wrote:</P> <P>"I think Dell has found a new way to make money. Last Friday I received a Dell Support alert that I needed to upg Sometimes it seems like vendors are running their support operations purely as profit centers. That’s certainly the impression one reader had after encountering some annoying problems with the Dell Support Center 2.0 software upgrade Dell pushed on him last week.The reader wrote:“I think Dell has found a new way to make money. Last Friday I received a Dell Support alert that I needed to upgrade my Dell Support Center to version 2.0 as all support for the old 1.0 version will end in the next few months. After I upgraded, every five minutes my work would be interrupted by a blank pop-up DOS screen, and every time I’d log on the Dell support folder would pop up on my screen.” “I called Dell tech support, which of course seems to be an overseas outsourced script-reading company. I described the problem. They asked me if I had an Internet connection. I said I did. To which they responded that my problem is most likely a virus. I explained to them that the problem only started happening immediately after I upgraded to Dell Support Center 2.0 and that if I disabled the service the problem disappeared. If I re-enabled the service the problem started again. To that the response was — since my warranty expired about a month ago — it would cost me $29.95 to continue the conversation.”“I opted not to pay the charge, to roll back my computer to the previous night prior to the upgrade, and to uninstall Dell Support Center 2.0. Seems to have undone most of the damage, although my Add/Remove programs refuses to uninstall the old Dell Support Center 1.0. And while it’s true my hardware warranty may have expired a month ago, the software which I was alerted to install was only installed about a half hour earlier. I guess this is a good way for Dell to earn a little extra money — have everyone install a buggy Support Center upgrade and then charge them all $29.95 when they call to report the problem.” Looking around the Internet, it appears that the reader isn’t the only one who has had a problem with the Dell Support Center 2.0 upgrade. And the new feature that Dell most enthusiastically touts for the new version is its “proactive alerts.” Is the message the reader got last week, warning of the dire consequences of not upgrading, just a sample of how proactive Dell is going to be? It’s one thing for a vendor to take an aggressive approach to helping its customers, but it’s quite another if the aggression is really aimed at drumming up business for its paid support.What do you think? Post your comments about this story below. Technology Industry