Any Alienware reps still here? DFS trying their best to screw me!

I see Luis hasn't been around for almost an year now and I haven't been very active either. I want to try to go through a reasonable rep and not create any issues here for my purchase of my M17xR4 via DFS. Anyone who can help me here? Thanks a lot!

 

r4 is a discontinued model.

 

I was hoping to keep this between a rep and myself but perhaps I should have put in more info here. I paid for part of my laptop ($1500) using a DFS credit account in Nov 2012. They delayed in setting up the account and said the 18 month no interest promo would begin from Jan 4 when they finally accepted my first payment. I paid off the $1500 in March of this year (so 14-15 months at most). I also got a warranty extension for the laptop on this account for $150-200 (unsure of exact amount) or so after gift cards were used. I was told by 2 reps and a supervisor that this charge would be completely different from the earlier $1500 and I would have an additional 3 months to pay this after I had paid off the $1500. So this past Monday I log in to pay off the remainder $110 or so and I see a $330 interest charge saying my 18 month zero interest promo ended on May 4 and I had now to pay an interest on the entire $1500 amount! Heck, I was even asked to pay a late fee early this year because they had revamped their website and turned off my autopay without any warning to me!

Even if the 18 months began in Nov of 2012, I had still paid off the $1500 within the time frame. So what am I being charged the interest for? Also, DFS charging the interest on the entire credit limit and not the remaining balance is criminal. I called up DFS on Monday immediately after having seen this and was told someone would get back to me within 3 business days. Nothing yet till Friday so I call again and the person says there is no record of my complaint and hung up on me saying it was now 5 min past their service hours (we started talking about 30 min before the time frame). Needless to say, no matter if I get this issue resolved, I don't know if I can ever be a Dell customer or advocate my University labs that buy dozens of Dell pre-builts to do business with Dell anymore.

 

Luis Porras is still here, but if Luis Pardo is who you are referring to, he has pursued a different career path.

 

So he is, thanks again Mr. Fox! I will PM him and try to get this resolved.

 

I'm still here. Unfortunately I'm not part of the DFS team and won't be able to provide much help on this type of issue. I would recommend you to contact the DFS team and explain them the situation.

 

Hey Luis, I did go ahead and contact them.

My DFS account was setup in end of Dec 2012 with the first payment due Jan 4, 2013. That's what the initial statements and phone conversations/emails reflected with specific notice of the 18 month period beginning Jan 4, 2013. Now the newer statements (that only go back an year) say the 18 months expired May 4, 2014 out of nowhere. I went through to a Supervisor who was pretty rude to me despite me having kept my cool. I then requested a transfer to his manager at which point he said there would be a brief hold during the transfer. For some reason I could still hear him and not the piped-in music and I was pretty upset to hear him laugh loudly about my situation to his co-worker. I bring this up with the manager along with all the discrepancies (there are plenty I have not mentioned in here including no statements ever being sent to me, no warning about the revamped payment methods that cancelled my autopay etc) and in the end all the guy says is that I was given 18 months, he has no record of the second transaction done on the account despite me telling him I have emails that I can forward, and that I had a $100 balance left on May 4 following which they charged the deferred interest. No apologies, no reasoning with logic, nothing. I told him I would be filing a formal complaint as suggested here and the guy just goaded me to do so.

I have not been this angry in a very long time, but looks like I got no other tangible alternative other than to pay off these crooks. I will make a thread of other PC forums I frequent and also post this on their Twitter/Facebook page but I fear nothing will be done. I understand DFS is a separate division so I still have nothing against Alienware sales/marketing but I will not be a Dell customer anymore and neither will be my labs that order $10-20,000 worth of PCs every 3 years.

 

PM me your contact information and order number. I'll look for someone in that department to help you out!

 

In most cases if you accumulate a late payment during your promo period it will void the promo resulting in interest... That is the only reason i can see that happening.

 

That's the reason they give despite me having proof otherwise. Luis has been great as usual, so now I am just waiting to see if anything gets done.

 

Hanging up just because it's the end of their shift, ouch.

 

I know, right? That wasn't even the worst service I got from DFS either- the laughing Supervisor takes that crown

 

Just paid off my alienware m18x r2 last month. The month before the promotion ended I paid double to finish it. I didn't want to take this risk

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

Update:

<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-conversation="none" lang="en">

@VSG28 Hi, we just had an update from our Financial department. If you pay $100 by 30/05/2014, we are ready to waive off the remaining fee -

&mdash; DellCares ( @DellCares) May 23, 2014</blockquote>
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-conversation="none" lang="en">

@VSG28 - which is outstanding on your account. This is a one time gesture in good faith as we do value your association with our brand. ^VS

&mdash; DellCares ( @DellCares) May 23, 2014</blockquote>
I had linked these two threads in a tweet to Michael Dell's twitter account and Dell Customer Care saw it and got back to me. While this still doesn't really excuse DFS and they continue to not admit fault, I have to give props to Dell's general customer service department. While these guys were doing this, Luis was also helping me out and I bet the two separate enquiries resulted in this. So while I will likely never use DFS again, Dell seems to have come through and I will continue to support them once the fee has been waived.

 

That's great to hear - nice that @DellCares came through for you and that Brother Porras was there with an assist. As you mentioned, DFS are a different entity, so Dell stepping in and sorting it out was a very nice gesture of good will. I'm not exactly sure what the relationship is between Dell and DFS - more than likely, DFS is just providing the finance options and that's it.....Still, if you tie the Dell name to finance companies that try and con it's customers, Dell should disassociate themselves with such a company, IMHO.

Still, all's well that ends well, I guess...

 

Agreed and they did do that. If Dell can take a look at the customer service from DFS, which seems to be different from that of rest of Dell (Alienware, Precision, Latitude etc), and get them re-trained. DFS hasn't yet accepted my $100 payment so far for whatever reason, but Dell customer care told me the fee would be waived even if they delay accepted it past May 30. So I am just waiting for the whole thing to clear up before I declare anything.

 

This can be the issue with outsourcing departments but finance almost always is.

 

Good to hear it all worked out for you, but I wanted to make a point about the full interest they were going to charge. The transaction would be called a "deferred interest payment" plan, it means interest will accumulate on the initial loan amount at the rate given (typically something ridiculous like 29% APR), you will not pay the interest as long as conditions are met. The main conditions are that a minimum monthly payment is made (this is so people can't just send in $5/mo and then remaining balance on the last day) and the other condition is the balance is completely paid off by a certain date, defaulting either condition adds the interest.

I did this with my R4 through Dell and quite a bit with Newegg and Amazon, it's credit without the penalty (i.e. interest).