Every once in a while Life's Little Goodies has to step aside for The Rant Box. Goodies will most likely be back in the next issue, but today I have to tell you about my "customer experience" in buying a Dell computer.
Late in January of this year I ordered a Dell computer online. I paid for it with an e-check (electronic check) and everything seemed to go fine. I received a call the next day from a Dell sales rep saying the check didn't go through. He offered to put it through for me.
That was fine, I needed a new computer fast so I could finish my book. My old computer has become problematic and was making it difficult to work. He tried, and it didn't go through again, so he tried one more time which also failed to go through. Those 3 tries were on my business account, so we tried one more time using my personal checking account. That also failed.
At this point I asked the sales rep to make sure those order tries were cancelled and wouldn't go through, after all, I only needed one computer. He assured me they were all cancelled and set up an account for me to go online and see for myself that they were cancelled. I checked, and they were indeed all cancelled. I ended up re-ordering the computer a couple days later and put it on my credit card after I had the limit raised higher. Because the card limit was lower than the computer cost was why I wanted to pay for it with an e-check in the first place.
About a week or so later, I noticed a lot of money missing from my bank account. I had the teller run a list of activity for the past week, and I found where the money went. In addition to Dell putting the computer on my credit card, they somehow managed to force all four cancelled orders through several days AFTER the orders were cancelled - I was missing $8,900.04 and Dell had it!
I didn't like that at all, but I'm reasonable, and assumed it would be an easy mistake to straighten out. I went home and called Dell, explained what happened a few times until I finally talked to a woman who said she could fix the mistake. She asked me to fax a copy of the bank records and she'd take care of it right away. She also said it would take three to five days, depending on how fast my bank acted. I had the bank fax the record to them...then I asked if it would take as much time as the Dell rep had said. As I suspected, that was a lie. The money is back as soon as Dell reverses the charges. Any delay would be because Dell was slow to act.
Okay, I waited...and waited. Finally about a week later, the money was back for one of the four orders. I waited a few more days and nothing more was returned to me. I called Dell back, explained the situation again - and you should know that each time I called I had to explain the situation to several people, sitting on hold for long periods of time between each person - but finally I got a lady who said she'd fix the problem if I'd fax the bank records to her.
I explained that I'd done that once already, but would do it again, but first I said that I wanted her to understand something. I said if it isn't fixed this time, I was going to file a complaint with the Attorney General of Wisconsin, the Better Business...and she interrupted me and started SCREAMING at me to JUST FAX IT, FAX IT!
Now, as angry as I was, I hadn't raised my voice once to any Dell employee. I asked for her last name because I was going to report her. She screamed her badge number at me and something else that I've forgotten...but then thought better of her behavior and became condescendingly cordial, assuring me she'd take care of it.
I then asked for her phone extension so I could call her if it wasn't fixed because I was tired of explaining it and sitting on hold. She said she didn't have a phone extension, but would call me back.
She didn't call back. She didn't fix the problem either. I dinked around like this for over a month with them. Finally I filed an affidavit with my bank charging Dell with making unauthorized withdrawals. My bank finally got my money back, but I went through Dell hell.
During this time I'd also written to nine Dell executives. I sent registered and certified mail so they'd have to sign for it and I'd get a receipt knowing it was delivered. One letter came back as undeliverable, the rest were delivered. Do you think I heard from a single one of them, or any of their representatives, or anyone at all?
Nope. Them stealing money from me wasn't important to them.
If Dell's customer service is this poor when they make an egregious error that is 100% their fault, how bad will their customer service be for lesser problems? I patiently tried to have this corrected quietly, but Dell stood in negligence. I feel the public deserves to be warned of corporations that do business this way. It's totally irresponsible, totally unacceptable, and totally and disgustingly outrageous!
I gave them the chance to write the end to this story, I told them I would publish it. This is the ending they chose. They chose to keep my money, and cared little about giving the money back that they stole from me - and they did steal it! Forcing through the charges for orders that were cancelled days before they put them through may have been an accident, but keeping it is theft!
To me, $8,900 is a lot of money. Can you imagine how you'd feel if your bank account had been looted like this and the company that did the looting didn't care about the trouble they caused you AND promised to return the money but didnt? What if there would have been an emergency and we needed that money immediately? We'd have been out of luck. What if our bank wasn't able to get our money back and we couldn't have made mortgage payments or car payments? This could have easily turned out much worse if not for my bank coming to the rescue.
I also had an a former Dell employee that is a subscriber to this newsletter write to me. She wrote, and I quote, "I walked out of my job and never looked back. I could no longer be a part of a company that has no respect for it's customers...and even less respect for the employees that deal with their customers. I will never as long as I live own a Dell. Why...because I do not want my hard earned money to be part of a gain for a disgusting company such as Dell."
That's a powerful statement, and she had a lot more to say but there isn't room here to include it. All I have left to add is that I'll never buy another Dell again either, and I'd strongly urge you to reconsider if you're thinking about it.
I never had this kind of trouble when I bought a new Gateway, and it was a fine computer. My next computer will probably be another Gateway unless a new player comes along, but one thing for sure, it won't be a Dell. You've been warned.
http://www.gateway.com I am not affiliated with Gateway Computers in any way.