One man's experience with Hell

Hello everyone,

It's been a long week between me and Dell. Many chats, many calls, many unanswered promises... and still no E1705. At this point, I'm not sure how to address this or with whom, but at least, I hope my experience will serve as a warning to others.

On November 2nd, at the very last possible moment, I ordered my Dell E1705 laptop. Everything confirmed, everything went through, and Dell committed to building my laptop and shipping it to me in the fastest possible way. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how brilliant I felt - in less than a week, I was promised, my laptop would be at my door.
Fast forward a week of anticipation, an order expedite or two, and a free upgrade to one-day shipping, and my laptop is built. Since I need it for work, I call Dell Home/Home Office and ask them when exactly my laptop will be delivered to my door, figuring that they would have the information of when exactly my laptop would be put on a plane, processed, etc. I go all the way up the ladder to the manager of customer service for home/home office, and it turns out nobody there has any information about the status other than the canned estimate date they list in their 'status' page.
At this point, I use their chat feature and tell them to change the delivery address to my office. They are happy to comply, and all is [relatively] well.
Fast forward to Nov. 8th, and my laptop finally ships...

Nov. 10, 3:11pm. UPS tracking system. Delivery status: "THE RECEIVER WAS UNAVAILABLE TO SIGN ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE" I call Dell and ask them why the order is listed as "UNABLE TO SIGN", when I and my secretary were both in the office at the delivery attempt. They shrug, and after some screaming, agree to refund me with $50 for shipping...

Now, I call UPS to find out when my package would be delivered. They tell me my notebook is shipping to my home, not my office address. Now, keep in mind that when I recieved Dell's shipment e-mail, the address on that was my work address - not my home. This is yesterday. I tell them to hold my package for me, that I would come pick it up. An hour later, I recieve a call from a representative in the shipping center near my house and - surprise, surprise, UPS cannot locate my package because the deliveryman did not properly scan it. In other words, it's somewhere in a gigantic processing facility, and nobody knows where the package is or how to find it. So much for reliability.

Today, steaming pissed, I call Gregory at Dell customer care, and am informed that their systems are down, and will not be up for most of the day.

Conclusion: My laptop is still not here; Dell still has not changed the address with UPS; Dell doesn't know what's going on; UPS has no idea where the package is whatsoever, and I'm left bouncing between them trying to get someone competent enough to work with, while my $1,700 laptop is sitting somewhere in a warehouse, begging for someone to come steal it.

Even if you get a very good deal with Dell. Even if they seem reasonable at first, please think twice before ordering from this company.

 

Shame,A true shame...
Is there any way for refund or ... ?

 

I hate waiting for things to be delivered. If it said first delivery made and no one to pick up, if there actually was someone there, then the person delivering your laptop probably couldnt be bothered to deliver it, It might have been that it was the end of the day or something and he wanted his dinner. No doubt when it finally does arrive the delivery man will make up some pathetic excuse involving a computer system that did not work. They always blame it on that, :/

 

Sounds like more of a UPS screw-up than Dell screw-up... but why didn't you give them your office addy to begin with?

 

UPS service has hit rock bottom IMO. I got the same "THE RECEIVER WAS UNAVAILABLE...." message when my 1705 was enroute. They went to my neighbor's house. The next message I got was it was heading back to Dell! After a frantic and pissed off call to UPS, the local office called, apologized, and said it would be delivered the next day. Needless to say, I drove over and picked it up. I guess the GPS system just isn't good enough for their drivers. Plus, apparantly they cannot read the address printed on the box, or call the phone number that's on the label.

More recently I ordered a new receiver and the same sort of thing happened. This time, the stupid driver dropped my receiver to the wrong address (about 2 miles away). He figured out his screw up, went back and got the receiver, but didn't bother to deliver it to the correct address. It went to the warehouse. UPS never updated the website - it still says the package was delivered, even though it came the next day. I had to return the receiver due to damage (hmmm, think it was damaged during shipping?) and I had to convince the company that I was inside the 14 day return window because UPS misdelivered the package.

UPS customer service is absolutely no help, as they will say anything to get you off the phone, but not actually do anything to help you.

Until you see you laptop, don't blame Dell. Once it's in your hands, and your home address is on the label, then call and complain.

 

I'd have to agree that this is more of a UPS issue than a Dell one. My experience from ordering a variety of merchandise online is that address change requests made after an order is placed do not always go smoothly.

 

Think your week with Dell sux? I'm just over 1 month and still no laptop. The bad thing is that they got my money.

Oct 9, Placed and order
Oct 19, get laptop but broken
Oct 23, send to repair
Oct 27, get back laptop but graphic card was downgraded to ATI x1400 from 7900GS
Oct 28, call for an exchange, they dont want to upgrade me to vista since I place first order before Oct 26 so I ask for a refund.
Nov 3, Send laptop back to Dell, Place new Order for An XPS 1710 this time.
Nov 7, Dell call to confirm billing address, I confirm that on the phone with him.
Nov 8, Order Canceled, Call Dell get new order.
Nov 9, Get email to confirm billing address, reply but order was already canceled somehow on the same day. Get New order number by email from someone at dell without asking for it so maybe they and an issue.
Nov 10, Get voice message asking to call back to confirm billing address again. Call back but order was canceled again on the same day.

See I work on day time and I'm not able to call back in right away. But geez gimme at least 24 hour to call not 1 hour.

 

ad the same thing happen to me, UPS lost my package in transit however you all know it was stolen. UPS is doing an formal investigation... yeah bull****

 

Oh Yeah, I agree with you guys. UPS sucks. They almost lost my package, then I went to UPS head office and they had to find it in the warehouse somewhere. Luckily the driver scanned the package when he/she drop it off. Finally I got my package. But I have to wait like a week because of shipping back and forth because they couldnt find me and waste my time driving (45 mins) to the head office. From that point on I never use UPS service again.

 

why didnt you just go pick it up at your local hub? unless your way out in the sticks I'm sure its no less than thirty miles away

 

I tell you my experience with Dell.

1. I ordered a XPS M1210
2. Dell told me mailing in checks requires overnight to keep quote the same. Dell requires money to clear before laptop is built ok fine.
3. I got a receipt saying Dell got my check Mon Nov 6th
4, Nov 7th I get a call from Dell they had a problem with my check or account number to process so they were forced to cancel order. She said, if I get my bank to resubmit check we can do a reorder. I go since you had problems I'll cancel and reorder later.

5. I use online banking so I decided to see what was up as far as my account from my banks side . I thought to be safe I'll stop payment on my check my bank said, it was too late. So Dell got my money after all.

6. Wed I called Dell and they go your order was cancelled. I cancelled because you called and said, there was issue with my check and redo it again. I go Dell cashed my check and deposited my money. The lady goes Dell does not cash personal checks until laptop is built. I go I have proof by
copy of the check. Give me 7-10 days to see what's up. It's going to be a long 10 days.

7. Now I'm sitting here out my money and no laptop either. This is frustrating.

 

@lafguy - When at all possible, use a credit card to make purchases over the phone/internet/mail order. The credit card company provides excellent protection. Unfortunately, you've learned the hard way what happens when you use personal/bank checks.

 

Regardless of payment method how hard is it for Dell to find out. I have a copy of my cashed check ready to prove payment. Does it take 6 to 8 weeks to get refund. They got my money Nov 7th laptop was canceled Nov 8th

 

That sounds a lotmore like a UPS problem than a Dell problem.

I'm have a small shipping issue with Dell. The only issue being that in a single day my estimated shipping date went from November 20 to December 5. I'd be receiving it around the 10th of December, which is a month after the date I ordered it. I really hope the time is not extended any further than that. I was hoping to have my laptop before December. I defintely don't want to receive it after December.

Right now the order is still processing because my bank account has a $1000 a day charge limit. I called Dell and they said they'd charge part of it one day and the other part the next. I'm now hoping my order doesn't get cancelled. I don't feel like waiting even longer.

I've known that their customer service sucks. But I've also heard that their products are good despite that. So whatever it takes I'm hoping to get a deal on a good laptop.

 

I guess my payments finally went through because my laptop is now "In Production" and the estimated ship date is now set back to Nov 20, 2006.

Maybe they added 15 days to the the estimated date just in case there was some trouble in getting my bank to accept the payment and it took longer.

I hope to have my laptop soon. Hopefully it will not be a horoor story. If it is, I will be sure to post it here. I really hope I don't have to deal with Dell CS too much.

 

Well, it's been a few days, so here's an update:

I was promised a callback from a corporate manager. Someone with an indian-sounding voice called me while I was in the train. On my voicemail, she identified herself as "Jessica" and gave me a non-functioning extension. I tried calling them a total of 16 times today, trying both their automated system and various representatives in various departments. Along the way, I figured out a way to avoid long call times:

1. call their small business line
2. pound 0 until you get a human on the phone (~1.5 mins)

At this point, I'm losing faith that Dell or UPS know where my laptop is, or that it's actually getting to anywhere near me. All I can hope for is that I get either the computer or my money back...

Anyone have any idea of anything I can actually do?

 

Well, I finally have an update.

This morning, guess who shows up at my office? UPS, with my laptop. I think I nearly had a heart attack. Unfortunately, I hadn't had a chance to play with it until now, and now that I have... well, she's a beauty...

Took them long enough, but at least they're refunding me with an extra $150 for my trouble.

Lesson: if you can get them to get off their asses and deliver it to you at a good price, these things pretty much rock.

 

I'm supposed to be receiving an E1705 near the end of the month. Why can't it ship sooner!?

Anyway. I hope I don't have this big of a problem with them. If I have to wait even longer I wouldn't be happy.

 

Hey! "Dell" rhymes with "Hell"... LOL
sorry for your troubles

 

I wonder wich company Dell uses here in Belgium for shipping......

Ordered my 6400 on saturday, payed by bank transfer on monday
Dell confirmed by payment this morning and this evening the status changed to "Preparing delivery"
So I hope to receive it shortly, will keep you up to date
J