I recently purchased a new Dell R720xd with Windows 2008R2 with pro support and extended warranty.
The server sat for about 60 days until I was ready to roll it out as our new backup to disk server. At first I was disappointed to discover that the OS wasn't at least pre-installed as it has been on the last dozen server's we've purchased from Dell.
I almost immediately ran into problems with the OpenManage 7.0 software causing lockups at various points long before I could get to the portion where you deploy the OS. I managed to get to the the point that it asks what OS I'm installing but it fails shortly after and rebooted.
No worries I thought I'll call pro support and they'll get this fixed right up. I spoke to a gentlemen named Nick who had a few things for me to try, however my comfort level with him was low as it was obvious he had little to no experience with this hardware.
After trying his suggestions, I told him that I'm going to require an onsite tech to address the hardware issues with the server.
This is the response I received from my support request to Nick
"Since the operating system was not preinstalled as it was ordered, we can exchange the system for a correctly configured one, but we cannot send a technician onsite to perform an installation. If you would like to do an exchange, I can conference you in with Customer Care, or you can call them at 1-800-456-3355."
If this is what I can expect from Dell's Pro support, I see no value in paying premium for the brand and lazy support from under qualified techs.
