Why I Hate Dell: A Customer Service Experience

Hi everyone, I registered to these forums back in August when I was purchasing me first ever laptop. The e1505. I was very excited seeing as how i had gotten a good deal. This was just before the Core 2 duos had come out.

I had the laptop working fine and then one day I noticed that the palm rest was becoming faded. I called dell about it and after a 45 min cell phone conversation (25 min on hold), they tell me that they will send a box out to me and that they will cover charges. Though not happy because the product is only 5 weeks old, I agree and they send me a box.

Thursday afternoon, October 26th I send them the package through DHL. Friday the 27th, I get an automated call saying that my package has been received by the service center and that I will receive automatic updates on the status of my laptop.

Friday morning while in class I receive a call from Dell. The automated teller says that my package has been shipped and provides me the DHL racking number. I get home very excited seeing as how I use my laptop so often. On the bus on the way home from class, I call he DHL number and provide the tracking number only to find that the package had been delivered at 10:45 AM and signed by H MARRERO (ME!!!). Thats weird I thought. I get home and check with both the front office and my roommates only to find that the laptop wasn't there. I go online and fine that the package has been delivered to ORLANDO, FL. I live in Gainesville, FL. When I call DHL they say that it was not a shipping mistake. They just followed all the info that was provided by dell.

I go to UF ( University of Florida) and package was sent to : University of Florida, Orlando Florida. The are pretty dense in the first place if they did not notice this. UF is in Gainesville not Orlando.


The Dell Experience

*** I inform every person I speak to that I am on a mobile phone and that I do not have a landline they say that they will try to not have me on hold for very long***

Mondays Calls

I call Customer Service and the agent says that he is deeply sorry. He says that he sees that someone called under my name and changed my shipping address. After a 20 min convo over the history of the problem, he directs me to dell fraud where they put a hold on my account and tell me that in order to receive a discount I will have to sign paperwork stating that I did not steal the laptop. Sure I said I don't care. Investigate me all you want I just want my credit back now. He says it is not in his power and basically ends the convo there. He says that it will be two weeks before I can a refund. THATS 3 PLUS WEEKS WITHOUT A laptop because of a DELL screw up. I say its okay cuase I have to go to late class at 7:20pm.

Tuesday Calls

I get home from class and call again. This time I call customer service, and then they direct me to techinical services. Since they were the ones that "messed up" 25 min. later I am on the phone with a lady. After telling them the whole story she puts me on hold and after a while comes back and very sympathetcially says that she understands what it is like to not have a system and that she is deeply sorry for all the time i had wasted ( little did i know it was far from over). She guarantees that I have have a brand new system in my hands by the same time two days later. (Thursday November 2nd.) She also takes down my email and says that she will email me all info) The night passes and i receive no email.

Wednesday Calls

I wake up and check my email on my girls computer which I am currently on and there is nothing there. I go to class and when I get home the calling begins. At this point my patience is done with and I call. I call customer service. I ask to speak to manager. They say they cannot unless they know the issue. I FReAKING FEEL LIKE TAPE RECORDING THE NOW 15 MIN LONG Explanation of events which burn away my tmobile minutes. They take me to a manager which is unable to help. They direct me to returns. Call drops as I am left on hold for 20 minutes. I call back and speak to a another person and technical. He guarantees me that he will not drop my call. He puts me on hold for 15 minutes so I hang up. I call back and talk to returns which then tells me that they understand but they are unable to return my money because it is past the return date. He redirects me AGAIN to technical here they tell me that the promise from the night before was canceled because they are now trying to recover the laptop and ship it to me. I FREAKING GO CRAZY CUSSIN. Do they realy expect me to take a laptop that they messed up with and that was tampered with. The guy gets nervouse I guess so he transfers me. At technical I speak to first helpful person. After a long convo he tells me that he will get an L2 tech manager to call me in the next 24 hours.

Wednesday night I break my ankle ( left talus) while playing basketball.

Thursday

I hear nothing from Dell email or phone and I do not call becuase I have already spent more than 400 minutes on the phone for a refund. I did not even want to talk becuase of severe pain.

Friday afternoon

I get home from my MRI and am on bed using my girls laptop when I get a call (36 hours later) from the l2 tech. He was real nice about everything and I told him the whole story and that I am on a bed with a broken ankle without a laptop because of all the crap that has happened. He tells me that he can either give me a refund or hook me up with w.e I want. He says that money is "not an issue" and that he is deeply sorry. He emails me and tells me that he will mail a nice laptop config for me to see and that I can change w.e I want. I tell him I want a maxed out e1705. He lets me know that we can communicate through email so I will not waste more minutes, I email him with me address and he replys with all his info. I reply again with my shipping address and account info.

It is now Saturday afternoon. I have called him and have had no reply. It hasn't ended and the false promises are still there. This is the 3rd dell guarantee that has no gone through. I do not know what to do.


Please be careful when purchasing from them. They are jerks and have treated me terribly. There disorganization is terrible and they have have me on the phone for close to a week now. What should I do??? Do you think I should email the L2 manager asking for my things and send him this post so he knows exactly what I have gone through? I do not know what to do. I have left so much out becuase I do not want to write more but this is the general experience.

 

that's a bummer. you'd think that scenario would be common enough that dell would know how to handle it.

i would just call your credit card company and dispute the charges.

 

hang on.... how about your e1505 laptop? don't u hav personal files or something in there? how come u replaced e1505 with a "maxed out" e1705? for free??!?! what happen next? aren't you gonna call them again? i suggest you contact consumer protection agency of some sort.

yeah dell is pretty crap, i will never buy from them again! their product quality slipped horribly over the year, including their tech support, my desktop computer has gone through a lot of trouble, and i have to live with it. dell dell dell dell dell dell, tch! what a boring brand!

 

Will people still buy from Hell!!

 

Go to the Better Business Bureau's website and fill out a complaint against Dell. Then, contact Dell support and ask for the complaint department and the mailing address to send a written, formal complaint. Explain to the complaint department that you have already filed a complaint with the BBB regarding the poor business practices to which you were subjected.

I've found that after being treated poorly by a business, the best course of action is to formally complain.

 

yeah. No i do not have any files on the laptop. I kept the hard drive and battery before shipping it out.

 

what is your info with dell? Did you put your home address or if someone else bought it for you? That could be a reason as I did not receive mine as it went to my parents as that is the information dell had on their account.

 

no, its my dell account my dell credit card and my shipping address in gville. They just plain suck.

 

Happened to me last year.

I went so out of the way to make sure they had my new address, I told, them, we double checked it, I had changed it in my support profile on their website and they still sent it to my old address, which was an empty house! Someone was there somehow to sign for it and who the hell knows where it ended up.

This is a very common scenario. They promise things just to get you off the phone, and then you are just one of a million problems.

I hope I don't regret this latest purchase. It was so cheap though with that 30% off coupon... argh. I'm already dreading the first time I have to send it in, which should be in about... 7 months or so.

**** it... argh...

 

yeah its just dumb. I dont know. I am not gonna get back on the phone until monday. Hopefully I will just get a call instead. I just have too much going on to worry over a laptop but I wish i had it here to play cs:s and stuff. All i have is the tv and its not fun to be limping around.

 

How the heck did someone called in to change your address? I mean Dell for a tech support call ask you: Service Tag, Name, Address, Postal Code (canada) and Phone number. So someone knows your laptop's going to be shipped back, your address, service tag etc. Wow either someone you know is a thief or Dell has to start investigating their own people.

 

they didint it was all a lie. they later went back on that claim.

 

well everyone. It turns out that after much complaining I finally got someone to help. They ordered me an e1705. core 2 duo 2 gig. 2 gig ram and 7900gs with 80gig 7200 rpm hard drive and 9 cell battery. All i gotta do is pay as if it was my old $1000 e1505. Pretty good but it was still a royal pain in the ass.

I still have no cell phone minutes left but at least now I am getting a sweet computer for basically less than half off.

 

So would you say this experience was worth it? You've received (IMO) fairly decent compensation for your inconveniences.

For future issues with Dell, I suggest you use their chat service as you can easily document everything they say and hold times are non-existent (based on my experiences). That way you don't have to waste all of your precious cell phone minutes.