Need help screwed by Dell..

So I ordered a E1405 back in May. I signed up for the Dell Financial Services and I was told it was no interest financing for 6 months. The guy on the phone who set up the account clearly reiterated at least 3 times I was getting no interest financing for 6 months. Today I got my 2nd bill and it listed all sorts of financing charges on it. When I called to complain they told me I didn't qualify. I would have never purchased it using the dell financing services if I would have not qualified for the no-interest. Thats the only reason I used them. Now they are telling me to bad and I'm screwed. Any ideas?

 

Sounds like you got servded a good plate of Dell ownage.

 

2 ways to look at it:

1. it's only interest free if you would have paid off the computer before the 6 months is up. if you haven't paid for the computer, IN FULL, within the 6 months, you have to pay all the back interest + any interest accrued while you keep a balance.

so, if you are not going to pay off the computer within the 6 month time frame, then there really is no difference.

2. you feel like you've been lied to; contact a manager and try to return the notebook for a refund.

 

I did plan on paying it off in 6 months, paying 200 bucks a month for 6 months would have done it. I didn't want to pay 1000 up front was the only reason I signed up. And I talked to a manager and she was like oh we can wave the first month thats it. And I don't think 2 months later they will take it back.

 

Interest free financing for 6 months is the standard offer on Dell purchases. So, let me get it straight: does your Dell statement mention 6 months promotion?

 

Keep on trying until you get satisfied. You don't have to stand and take a hit because it's mega billion dollar company. Set up online petition if you have to, and collect customers like you. Call them again, keep calling them wite them email talk to supervisors's supervisor, tell them if they don't comply you'll finally going to to go BBB with your petition friends. I think they sure will change their attitudes after you collect few customers who had same problems. Do what ever you have to get what they have advertised or your notebook returned.

 

AFAIK, interest free financing is not always available, & when it is, it's only available to "well-qualified customers."

Is there any mention of the 6-month promotion on your first statement? If not, you should have contacted Dell immediately after receiving the FIRST statement. On the statement, there is a section for "promotional offers" on which would be listed any promotional financing & the purchases that were made under those promotions.

Did you order your notebook over the phone or online? If you ordered over the phone you may have to contact the sales representative that helped you place the order. Also, check your packing slips/invoices for any mention of the promotional financing that you could use as proof.

This is actually the scary/tricky part. Dell financial services and the sales division are actually independent of one another. The manager from DFS probably won't be able to do anything about a return & the manager from sales probably won't be able to do anything about finance charges (except issue a credit back to the original form of payment). This sounds like it's going to get messy & that there'll be a lot of finger pointing.

OP, was the representative who promised the promotional financing from DFS or a sales representative?

 

I ordered it online but when I signed up for the Dell Financial stuff it said call this # blah blah to verify more information. This was the guy who clearly stated the promotion was valid.

It didn't list anything on the first statement, and it said finance charge 0 so I didn't think much about it.

 

Well, the good thing is that you'll only have to deal with DFS then, which might make things a little bit easier.

& yeah, the first statement wouldn't have shown any finance charges since there's usually a ~20 day grace period.

Either way, unless you have something in writing or you remember who you spoke with, you'll just have to hope that Dell does the right thing. Good luck & keep us updated.