Dell really disappointed me!

Placed an order with Dell for a D630 using the same American Express card that I always use. Got an email that they could not process the charge. Called American Express... no problem with the account.

Called Dell and talked to Matthew who tried to process the charge again. Still would not go through.

Next, we had a conference call with Dell, American Express, and myself and American Express told them there was nothing wrong with the account and confirmed all my credit card info. Still would not go through.

Next, had a conference call with merchant services department at American Express and Dell where they provided Dell with a manual authorization code to process the charge. The Dell rep (Matthew) then indicated that this would complete the order and it would proceed.

All this took about 35 minutes on the phone, but I finally thought we got this order taken care of. I asked the Dell rep what I could do to avoid issues like this in the future and he seemed unconcerned and uninterested in assisting me. I figured that this was typical of a company whose market share is going down the tubes... hire customer service reps who don't care about giving customer service.

Well, this morning I decided to check order status just to make sure everything was proceeding smoothly. What a nice surprise. Dell canceled my order. No email informing me of this, no phone call trying to obtain another credit card number, just canceled my order. What a slap in the face!

I tried to call them tonight after putting in a 16 hour day, but they close at 7:00 p.m. CST. I tried to get into a chat session but it was FULL. So, I opted to send them a lengthy email.

Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed with Dell and it will take some extraordinary action on their part to re-instate my order.

What is really ironic is that I have used this credit card for the last 5 years and ordered well over $ 100,000 worth of computer equipment. I also have a Dell credit line established, so how they could treat a customer like that in this way is beyond me.

If I wouldn't have spent so much time on the phone with the Dell rep making sure that all the "i's" were dotted and "t's" were crossed... oh well, maybe that's why Dell's market share is going in the wrong direction.

 

You're just another consumer I think when they release the new Santa Rosa notebooks, Dell's market share will go crazy I myself, will be purchasing the xps m1330. I've always gotten good customer service from Dell.

 

Santa Rosa has been out for more than a month. Didn't you hear... ACER is now the #3 world wide distributor of computers and move a head of Lenovo to take over the #3 spot. HP moved to the #1 spot last year and remains there while Dell's market share is going down, down, down. Don't respond with your emotions, read the facts! They're on THIS site.

 

Yet you are using your emotions.

 

Part of the reason I switched mainly to Macs, is the sort of customer service you're receiving. Dell's products are fine, IMO, but its service personnel seem unmotivated, irresponsible and too often, lacking in knowledge. Probably never would have bothered with another brand had I not had to lock horns with Dell "Service."

Not too many years ago, Dell's service was very highly rated. Sad change, ain't it.

 

You're wrong, I'm responding with my pocket book. I decide whether to buy from Dell or not and to share my experience with other potential customers... which I did.

 

I've heard a lot about Apple's service and I just got through reading Laptop Magazine's survey of customer service by vendors such as Dell, Apple, HP, etc.

Not surprising based on your experience, Apple rec'd an A.

Perhaps I should consider making the switch to another Mac.

 

im happy with my dell. have been for the past year. havent had the need to phone in problems...

also, my multiple rebates that i used all went through, and the system shipped
within 4 days and arrived on a friday.

 

When there are problems with payment, it's standard practice to cancel orders. Dell don't want to get ripped off. Just re-do the order, or take your business elsewhere. You have to understand that stuff like this happens one in every thousand cases. Glitches happen.

 

Did the billing address you gave Dell match the address American Express has ? Thats probably the issue.

 

This was NOT a first time order with Dell. I've been a customer of theirs for years. I buy dozens of computers from them every year for clients that I service. Generally, I have no complaints about the way they handle my orders, but when something like this happens, you suddenly wake up and say, "hey, if I have a problem, this is what I can expect from Dell." Then you ask yourself if another vendor might do a better job.

Here's a link to a recent survey that Laptop Magazine conducted. Interesting reading and paints some of the vendors in a not so pleasant light.

http://laptopmag.com/index.htm

 

If it was standard practice to just cancel the order, why did they send me two emails over the weekend alerting me to the fact that there was a problem with payment. I just went through this 10 days ago.

This may only happen to one in a thousand, but when you're the one, you are really upset. It's kind of like them saying, "take it or leave it, but if you take it, you take it on OUR terms, not YOURS!"

 

After 12 hours, here is the only reply from Dell so far...


************************************

***THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT -- DO NOT REPLY***



Thank you for contacting Dell's Customer Service. This message is being sent to let you know that we have received your request for assistance. We are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to answer customer inquiries. Our email agents normally respond to inquiries within 6 hours.

***********************************

Looks like they are really burning the midnight oil to rectify my situation!

 

That's normally how business works.

 

Cancelling orders for card issues is not uncommon. You may have been contacted and not been there.

 

i am assuming you are a corporate card holding, since you have spent $100,000 dollars in the past 5 years. and you should have a secodary billing account in case your american express got "issues". Dell's customer rep. for small or large business will always call you; before they cancel a order. And they do follow up calls right after the delivery, how do i know? cuz i am a corporate account holder.

For the past fews years, i have few order cancelled on me for whatever reasons. but not once i wasn't notified and they usually fix the problem within a day or two.

 

I have my own software/consulting company and we process in excess of 4,000 credit card orders annually. If we have a problem with a credit card, we contact the issuer and resolve ASAP. We have never canceled an order because we couldn't get hold of them.

We process the bulk of our orders during the Christmas buying season and it is not uncommon for our customers to max out their cards before we process their order. They typically order annual upgrades a month or two before we process their order.

If we started willy-nilly canceling orders just because of a credit card issue, we'd be losing customers... and we're not! They like the fact that we pursue them to resolve these kinds of issues.

Let's not forget that I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with one of their reps who assured me that my "issue" was resolved! The next day it was canceled.

 

You need to re-read the first post in this thread. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with the Dell rep who assured me the issue was resolved! Does it sound normal to then cancel the order?

 

Yes, I have a corporate account with Dell, but it's under my company name. This order was placed under my personal account with Dell, but also lists my company name.

I wouldn't be so upset except I was told by the Dell rep that my order was going to be processed and that my credit card would be charged for it manually.

 

I put this off as long as I could, but I finally called Dell. After that 30 minute excursion into the lost world, it would have been easier if I would have just left things as they were.

Call #1 - The gentlemen I talked to wanted to re-do the order. I finally told him I wanted to find out why my order was canceled. He said he would transfer me to another dept who would be able to help me. Sent me back to the voice menu and I hung up.

Call #2 - Talked to a woman this time and she wanted to re-do the order also. I told her I was not interested in re-doing the order until I found out why the order was canceled. She was very nice and said she would transfer me to the credit card processing dept who would be able to answer my question. She even took the opportunity to give me the direct phone number in case we got cut off.

Transfer to Credit Card Dept - Talked to another gentleman who wanted to re-do the order, but after explaining what happened, he said he would transfer me to Shannon who was working on my order. I thought it was canceled?

Shannon in Credit Card Dept - We had a bad connection so there was a noticeable delay in our discussion and we constantly tried to talk over each other. Anyhow, she explained that my order was canceled on Monday and last night when I talked to Matthew and got the manual authorization that the order would be automatically re-instated after she reviewed it. I told her I did not want to re-do the order because Matthew indicated that the order would be processed. She tried some double-speak about them having an automated system that would re-instate the order since a manual authorization was provided.

Anyhow, I told her I would check their website later today to see what the status of the order was. She wanted to assure me that the order would be re-instated as soon as their automated system got the manual charge. Sounded like total "cover your ass" speak to me.

I told them I was very disappointed that I had to initiate the calls to get this straightened out TWICE and they made little or no attempt to contact me other than send an email to me OVER THE WEEKEND.

I'll keep you updated...

 

Wow, i wish i dont have to put up with Dell like you do. but have you tried get in contract with a case manager for small business? somehow i felt they have more control and knowledge over things, maybe worth a try? and i believe their customer service call center only works on weekday, so if you placed your order on a weekend. They probably wont call you personally until next Monday. But do keep us updated, i am interested to found out how Dell handles this problem....

 

LeeC81

I just checked order status and my original order is still canceled, but there is now a new order placed today which is the same as the one that got canceled. I guess they figured out that I was good for the money...

Would have been nice if they would have sent me an email informing me of this, but no email.

 

I placed an order with Dell SB once and had a problem with a credit card processor. Dell tried to contact me every morning for a week trying to resolve it, by email and by phone. So glitches happen. As someone who placed five-figures' worth of orders with Dell without so much a hiccup, one would thing the company earned one "gimme" with you.

 

Due to some one’s fault at DELL your order was cancelled; get over it and re-order or buy from somewhere else. These things happen.

You have dealt with them for years and this is the first time they made a mistake. And their mistake only cost you a couple of phone calls. So give them a break. They deal with millions of customers.

You are comparing a company that has 4000 credit card transactions per year with a one that has close to 10 million transactions per quarter. You have to understand that they have to depend a lot on their automated systems to handle such a large volume of transactions; and that things go wrong with computer systems all the time. I’d be surprised if things like these didn’t happen. You are only making matters worse by dragging this on.