Getting Money Back...

Actually you may have lots of leverage; you just need to know how to go about things. First off, contact a CSR during business hours so you stay 'local' and not across the water. Next, if you have been involved in major Dell purchases or can be in the future, dont be afraid to bring that up. A CSR who believes they are about to grab a much larger purchase (future business) will be much nicer.

Approach it as a game of chess and be very business like. Alot of people lose their stronghold as soon as the CSR realizes they are frustrated.

Next, if you change your order, it will give you a new delivery date and put you at the back of the line...which they may have already done with th delay.

I would configure the new system you want online and then see what the delivery date it gives you is; dont complete the purchase however.

I believe, if you politely explain that Dell has really let you down in this case and prices are making a better system within reach, you may have some success.

First, if you cancel, the sales rep who sold you the system loses as well. Thats a plus.

CSR's can credit you up to 200 bucks for no reason right off the top and send it back to your CC but, only certain CSRs are willing to do so.

My approach is always to contact them and let it be a back and forth conversation; dont be afraid to dwell into what their job must be like with all that Dell has just brought in.

My last two conversations, after I received my purchase resulted in 200 back and a complimentary monitor. I will concede I was contacted after the fact and asked to rescind the monitor (they cant take it back once you are given an order number) to which I did. Nobody would believe the deal I got on my humongous Dell E228WFP sitting right in front of me for doing Dell that favour.

Good luck and dont be afraid to PM or let us know how you did.

 

Thanks for your reply. I'll try a US rep. Actually money doesn't matter for me, since I'm not paying for the notebook, I just want the notebook asap.
As for my work related dealings with Dell, we have had tremendously positive experience. A) We get incredible deals, much better than what home customers get and B) The service is absolutely superior, in most cases the Dell tech comes the next day around noon and fixes whatever machines need fixing, once we called them up. We have our own sales guy for these orders, so maybe it will be not too silly to bring this up with him.

 

Absolutely bring it up to him...you may find he thanks you for the business by pushing it through much quicker.

 

That's bang on info flamenko

 

Tx alot...

 

Okay, called him up and brought my notebook issue up, there is nothing he can do, since I didn't order through him. He gave me the 1-800 number I have been calling before....

 

Alright, flamenko I need your advice. I ordered a $1789 1720 (2.0GHz, 2GB RAM, 160 HDD, Bluetooth, Wireless N, Webcam, 8600GT, WUXGA [1900 x 1200], free office 2007). I've been delayed twice already, 8/16 8/27. I want to get it upgraded to a M1730 (with at least slightly better specs). But, what is my best course of action?

 

The most they would do is give you money back on the order as the "Guide to Dell Freebies" clearly states. They are not going to upgrade you to that better system. You bought an Inspiron line system; the 1730 is an XPS. Two totally different lines of systems! And its not even out yet. Get real! If you want a 1730 wait for it to go on sale and BUY one!

k

 

Dell will occasionally make laptop upgrades when an order is placed for an EOL product whose parts are heavily back-ordered (and the end user is essentially guaranteed of never receiving it), but otherwise you're spot on. it's a hysterical request, but all the luck to the original poster in seeing it through.

 

Agreed with the above two posters. Toyota may give you free floor mats and a coupon for oil changes if your Camry is delivered late, but they're not going to give you a Lexus.

I'm curious, though, as to what experiences people have had with pie-in-the-sky requests. In my case, when I wrote in to complain about my particularly bad experience with a sales rep, I received a response pledging to credit me to the maximum extent possible on my order. On a lark, I asked for $200; they came back with $100 and a free printer. I get the sense that my rather high request helped me to get a good "counteroffer", but I wonder how high I would have had to go before they took the attitude of "this guy will never be satisfied, screw him."

 

Hey Guys,

I ordered my Inspiron 1431 back on Aug 10th and just received an email from a "Resolution Specialist" saying that it shipped a couple days ago on Sept 5th. It's odd that on Dell's status page, it says it's still in production and not yet shipped. Anyways, I asked for compensation on the long wait since I probably still won't receive it till Sept 20th and he came back saying he'd put $70 back onto my Visa.

Is this bartering? Should I come back at him with a counteroffer of $150 or $70 + an AIO Printer? Or just take the $70 and leave it be? I don't want a bad mark on my record.

Thanks!
Dan

 

Hey flamenko, So I had a little chat with our sales rep, the one that we order many machines with every month. Even though he cannot do anything for me, he apparently contacted some higher ups with the result that someone from Dell called me and confirmed that I'll be getting my notebook in a few days. Thats it. Online status still shows "build stage" and no other changes have occured. Now what ?

 

You could call and check on its status once a day or so and when doing so politely address how frustrating a process this has been. Most of my bonuses have been through that method. I had no qualm in asking ' Is there anythi9ng can do for me through all this inconvenience?"

Try to find reps that you mesh with...

Good Luck.

 

OT: Are you a Camry owner?

 

The reason why I think it might be possible to upgrade from a 1720 to a M1730 is that...
1. The M1730 isn't that far off, at least it's going to come out long before my laptop ships
2. I paid $1800 for my 1720, if they compensate for around $400 then it's going to be enough for a base M1730. And if I get how much flamenko gets then I can probably get a pretty good M1730. Eg. nVidia 7950 GTX vs. 8800GS. Not too much difference.

If they don't do that then I'll just buy the Toshiba x205. Not much difference except it has a slightly weaker processor, but eventually it's going to be the 8700M GT that bottlenecks.

F!@#, I hate getting worse costumer service when I paid $1800 for a laptop than paying $40 for Guild Wars. Difference of several hours to a few weeks, for the email support. Though ArenaNet doesn't have phone support, but it's negligeble when I couldn't get anyone from Dell.

 

Jarrod...

I have never listed the full result of my efforts at being compensated by Dell as I have been requested not to. I can say however, that to get anything near what I have, you are going to need to endure over 26 cancellations, each of which you would of had to call back and fight for what you had for a few hours. The end result, of course is well over 50 hours with the phone to my ear and getting to know alot of Dell people, some very helpful and some not so helpful.

I have realized through this that there are 'cant help you' people that have this philosophy right from the outset and there are a few, very few, "I will help you' people that you get to know and hold on to.

You are going to have to also effectively get your emails, phone conversations and direct snail mail to the right person because, without this specific person helping you, your efforts go unnoticed.

Having said that, good luck in your venture.

and yes I can sign,

A very, very happy Dell Client.

 

Okay, called today. The result is that they told me that unfortunaly due to unforseen circumstances the LCD panel, the brown lid, the CPU, the wireless N module and the 1720 base are on backorder. They recommend that I cancel the order and try to use a different model (not 1720).

 

Sorry...did you ask what they could do to keep you a happy dell customer because this is very disturbing that a Dell representative is actually telling you not to buy this system.

This is something you may want to call back and speak to a spvr about.

 

Well, I should have mentioned that this was his suggestion under the condition that I want my notebook soon. He said based on the backorders that are on my order, he would not be optimistic that it will ship on or before 10/01. And there is nothing he can do for me, other than allowing me to cancel, which he recommends if I really need a notebook anytime soon.
I'm actually trying to work with my rep from work, maybe we can work something out through him (maybe place a new order through him).

 

You should feel lucky, at least this rep. is telling you the truth, unlike the rep who told me that the "paint" would arrive on the 20th (August), and production would end on the 21st. Too bad I don't have one of those hand-free phones, or else I could just wait hours on hold while playing Guild Wars.

Flamenko: I guess now I know why you should've received a lot of compensation. I mean 50 hours is a long time and if you worked for that long, even for minimal wage, it would've been at least $400. Just curious though, why wouldn't Dell want us to know how much they've given you? Do they not want to show their generosity? Can you pm me?

 

No...I will tell you. There is much more involved in my and Dells relationship. To start, Im a persistant type of person as a few know here. When I first started realizing that my orders were being cancelled and they didnt know why..I did some background.

First, I learned that the cancellations were occuring as the order went to the build table and it was occuring because of machine, not man. That is why nobody rectified or could answer why.

I then had issues with my orders relating to LCD/LED sku's. If you go way back to my start here, you will see that I virtually solved the reason that thousands of orders in Canada were being cancelled. My next step was convincing Dell though.

Here is the link but grab a coffee if you want to really read it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137518&page=5

At first, they pretty much told me that i didn't know my #$% from a hole in the ground which led me to explore the right resources from that point. I took a chance and hit gold with a resource who put me straight to the top here in Canada. I now had my 'in' to solve my problem, which as it appeared, was a problem for way too many other Cdn orders. So...sent a letter with my theory.

I then got a phone call and thank you and was told things would be different from here on in...and they have been. Although they never told me that I was solely responsible, I was told that my letter led them in the right path.

Shortly after that...orders were reordered with over a thousand Cdn orders from what Im told and shipped Exec Expedite.

8 Aug - Re-Ordered
9 Aug - Built Malaysia
10 Aug -Flight to Texas
11 Aug -OS Imaging/Software
12 Aug -Boxed and Shipped
15 Aug -3 Systems at my door

That was when I knew I helped Dell...and they returned the favour, not only to me, but alot of others.

 

I guess I'm not in the mood for detective work right now, but how does it work? How did you "help" Dell? Well it seems to me that there was a bug with the ordering system which caused some XPS 1330s to be cancelled without warning, and you fixed that bug for them?

 

No I simply brought it to the forefront which saved them alot of time looking, probably several cancellations and loss of money...

 

Wow great info, Thanks. I just ordered a Dell1520 today and I have no clue when its suppose to come, 1st time dealing with Dell. We will see how this goes. UPDATE: suppose to ship by 10/09/2007 <- is that a normal wait time!?

 

Yes but it will prob come a bit sooner. They seem to be catching up to the Dell Madness campaign lol

 

It's not easy getting money back from Dell. However, here are some tips that'll be useful:

1. keep trying-- some customer support man/woman are much more helpful and kind than others. More reps = more chance of landing into the right one.
2. Use online customer support rather than phone (less waiting/ easier to comprehend)
3. If things fail, ask them if you can talk to the supervisor (now these guys are awesome)
4. Be nice and be clear about your problem. Present it in a professional manner
5. Call small business rather than Home (chat through business rather than home)
6. profit! (Joo > Dell)

I got $414 dollars back ($214 in credit/ $200 in coupon) from 1 m1330 order. In all of those rewards, I had legitimate problem/ issues.

Good luck!

 

They should really standardize the compensations rather than having us bargain.

 

I just called in to ask why I had only received the $75 credit (actually 81.19, I guess they refunded the tax on the $75, too) and not the $75 credit and $75 coupon I was promised.

The rep apologized and offered to send another $75 credit instead of a coupon. I really just wanted to see if they could give me the coupon number so I could buy a Timbuk2 bag off their website for $20, but hey, another $81.19 in the bank is great. Now I can get the bag off eBay or something.

I wish I could do the cool thing and just complain about how much Dell sucks and how much they ripped me off, but with everything they've done for me, I haven't had any room to complain.

 

Any recent luck with respect to this article??

 

Hey gang, just got off the phone about an hour ago with Dell about getting a discount for the m1330 that i received yesterday(5 weeks after order date) that had some very minor issues and i mean minor. This time it was a little different because it was made through a corporate purchase which i don't know how that happened but anyway i wasn't sure what to expect. It didn't matter anyway because i'm always polite and respectful to whomever i speak to at Dell. (why would anyone there want to help you if you're being a dick?) So i told the csr about the imperfections and asked for a discount to keep the unit as is since it was very minor it's a keeper anyway. At first the csr advised to just return it for an exchange and i politely told them that this wasn't an option for me this time. It was a discount to just keep what i have or return it for a refund. After 3mins the csr came back and offered me a $200credit off the purchase price or $350 towards my next purchase of a dell product. I thanked him for the kind offer but told him if they would give me $350 credit off the purchase price then i would be very satisfied with this purchase. 2mins later the csr came back and excepted the deal for $350 off! to make this laptop an incredible deal for me. It's almost criminal

 

Wow that's pretty good. I still don't get why Dell doesn't standardize its compensations...

 

wow, that makes no sense to me since I called today to ask about a $100 credit and $50 coupon I was supposed to receive (have the case numbers for both). Found out that the $50 coupon case was closed without giving me any notice, though they SAY a email was sent! Plus when I asked about the $100 credit they told me that the credit request was denied because I had already received a credit. I had to explain to them, for like the 7th time, that the $107 credit ($21.40 missing from the $150 DPA coupon I used + $84 in taxes lost since they cancelled my order that was placed during the tax-free weekend = $107) they were referring to was because of a pricing error made by the sales rep when I placed my order so I was being overcharged that $107. Since that rep said he couldn't do anything about the price adjustment error, I got customer service to fix the issue, thus the $107 credit. Then they had the nerve to tell me that each account has a maximum that it can be credited, so I was like my limit is $107?! Both customer service reps I talked to (the second alot nicer) told me that even if they put in the request in would likely be denied since I had already gotten a credit! The case number that the first rep sent me in the summary email wasn't even a valid case number! Plus, the number she gave me for the manager wasn't a Dell number either! Found that out when I was trying to give it to the second customer service rep regarding the above problems.

Anyone have any advice on who to contact regarding this? I would really appreciate some help because I am not asking for anything more than what was promised to me and am getting really angry with Dell.

 

Wait, you only paid $1140 for your config? lol i mean i hear ya they should at least give you what they said they would but man! $1140? where in the hell is this parity i keep hearing about? We Canuckleheads get ripped off bigtime!!:cry:

 

lol , shut up! well the weather isnt always great but our food definately beats mc donalds and co!

 

When purchasing a system, can you only speak to a saleperson, or can you also speak to a CSR?
And are all the salespeople etc based in India?

I briefly called Dell to ask a quesiont re the warranty (If the person who buys the system is the only one who can make claims or not), and the person I was put on to then started asking when I was looking to buy, that it was better if I bought through the phone as the people on the other end can push down the price a bit, and offered for me to work out a quote with the current offer, wait until Friday, do another quote, and decide on what I want from there.

I'm really doing my head in trying to work out the best system I can get within my budget ($3,000AU), what with coupons vs EPP vs phone bartering vs selling body parts

 

If you call during business hours, it should go to the closest sales team. Salesmen can sell you the system (I mistakenly use CSR at times when i mean salesman). Simply follow the how to guide under my sig block to make the best deal.

 

Hmm, interesting.

When I rang them, they all had strong accents, and a noticable delay on the phone. Not to mention the guy I spoke to sounded exactly like one of those pre-recorded voices. Scary

That guide of yours looks extremely helpful though. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I think it's going to help me a lot
(Though funnily enough, with thanks to salary sacrifice, I'm going to be getting a $3,000AU laptop for between $1,900-2,100AU, so really I'm just being greedy ;P)

 

Flamenko

Thanks so much for all your posts and suggestions! I am currently trying to get compensated for my wait after receiving a notice that it will be delayed at least two weeks. I know many others, like myself, have to count pennies and appreciate your help!

Flamingo Pink Inspiron 1521
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2.0 GHz/1MB
High Res 15.4" 1440x900
2 Gb ram
Order Date 9/26
ESD 10/15
new ESD 10/29

 

Bump....I received 3 comments/requests with respect to this today so i thought i would bump it to the front. Pls feel free to comment if you like the thread, otherwise, it gets lost in the shuffle and its hard to find again later on.

Good luck!

 

do you think dell people ever check this forum out. i mean notebook review is one of the largest(and best) websites that provides information about laptops so it would make sense that they have people doing market research or other stuff on here.

 

One thing not mentioned in this thread is the wisdom of aftermarket upgrades.

I paid $798 for my Vostro 1500 on the 2nd, base model except for the 8600GT, wxga+ screen, bluetooth, intel wireless card, and 9 cell battery.

I get it tomorrow. 7 days from order to arrival, with free shipping

It will cost me roughly $70 for 4gb memory, $250 for the T7500, and $117 for a 250gb hd, via Newegg. Total price is $1100. Priced from Dell its $1500...

Think of it as money back

If I had it to do over, I'd certainly have followed Flamenko's advice beforehand. Would have gotten a better deal, in all probability.

I will however call the next day if I'm unhappy with anything... well within the return period, and go for a discount, or warranty upgrade (the latter seems really appealing...)

 

flamenko,

I have been following the M1330 specifically and all of the discussions on it since I first heard of the beautiful little critter. I am simply one of those here at the forums whom decided to keep his posts to 0 until I had said M1330 in hand and being used. And also because most information is repeated a thousand times if one just looks. But I finally need help and have a reason that relates to MY M1330's (that feels so good)

I am highly impressed with most that you say and entirely agree with what you have said about being a consumer and getting as much of a deal as possible from DELL, we are still both benefiting and there is no harm in trying.

I FINALLY had enough money saved and ordered my two M1330's on the 27th January this year. One for myself and a surprise for my girlfriend. One in cash one on a preferred account. Both priced right at $1500.00 after the $799.00 instant discount.

Of course I then realize that I completely overlooked the holiday 10% discount and also the 12% EPP discount. (I am even a college student if that matters) But with the total of 22% in discounts I would have saved roughly $660.00. I did not want to cancel my order again and have to have them resend it so I spoke to a supervisor and she was very understanding with what I wanted. (Just that money in credit to spend with DELL) This woman advised me that the best way to do this is to wait until the order invoices (does this mean ships?) and speak with the return department due to the fact that they have more clout and are able to help ONLY AFTER the order has been "invoiced"

Is this true? Do you think that there is the possibility I can get this money back in credit rather than going through the process of cancelling and re-ordering? She surely thought it would be no problem and said she would send me some E-Mail and I could respond to it once my 2 notebooks had invoiced (both ship seperate times if this matters) (also I have not received the E-Mail she spoke of yet...eight hours later) She also said that although it was the 27th when I ordered she could still get me the 10% holiday promotion off. And if I can get credit after they "invoice" am I going to have to do it at two seperate times due to the fact that both items ship at seperate times?

I am hoping I have clarified this situation as much as possible and I hope you know exactly what I am saying (logical). You have my first rep point given if you can help me out on this...I want to know how I can get the "most" out of my purchase. What all can I be comped for AFTER I have already received my notebook. Can I upgrade my 3 year limited warranty they threw in to a four year complete care? What else are simple upgrades that are good?

Thanks for all...if you need anything else let me know!!!

Also what are the best numbers to speak with in trying to get some compensation here in Great Falls Mt? I have a tough time being thrown all over the place...THANKS!

 

PM'd u with the answer...since u pm'd me. Later Great Falls.

 

Hey flamenko, first of all I'd like to say that you have been pretty generous on your experiences and how you have helped the community.

I just have one question, do you have any experience in returning a Dell notebook and getting some sort of upgrades?

I have a 1520 with dysfunctional speakers/headphone jack. I plan on returning once the school year is done... any advice on what i should do? I kind of still want a dell notebook