Complaint Review: Dell Computer Corporation - Internet

Let me preface this by admitting up front that I was in the wrong when this nightmare began. I dropped my laptop and broke the LCD. Can't deny it and won't try to. But the nightmare that follows is so absurd that people deserve to know exactly what they can expect should they ever have to speak to Dell "Customer Care".

It all began like I said, my laptop fell and the display broke. I called the 800 number that 411 gave me for Dell. As it turned out this number was wrong. To this day I really have no idea what the number was really for, you see, it answers as Dell and begins sending you through the phone maze but everytime I would be connected to the technical support department I would hear the two tones they told me to listen for then I would be re-routed to any variety of different places. The first time it simply disconnected me, the next time it sent me to a mortgage company. Then to a vacation/travel company. While this was annoying, it was the least of my problems to come. It took me about an hour but I finally managed to find the right number to call.

So I call the right number and get through to a technical support rep who diagnosis my issue and tells me that the damage isn't covered under warranty and that I will have to pay $300+ dollars to replace the screen. Knowing I was in the wrong here, I reluctantly agreed and they sent me out a box to ship them the computer in that I received a couple of days later. After shipping it back I got an automated phone call from the repair depot in the middle of the work day that told me I needed to speak to a technician about the repair and asked me to hold for the next available tech. Well after being placed on hold for 15 minutes, a new recording comes on and tells me that there are too many calls at this time and to call back. Callback? They called me!! So I am busy at work over the next two days and see their number on my cell and don't have the time to talk. Then on the third day I call them back and get a tech who quotes me the price and I authorize them to charge my Dell account for the repair. He tells me I should have it back in 5 days.

Fast forward to 5 days later.... Laptop arrives, turn it on and voila!! They didn't repair a thing, LCD is still busted. I call Dell who blame me for the mix up. They tell me that they will only hold a system for repair for 10 days before they return it to the customer unrepaired due to lack of storage space. They tell me that I didn't contact them and authorize the repair in a timely fashion. Now I am getting a bit annoyed. The rep I am talking to is blatantly lying and I can prove it. I have the tracking information from DHL that shows the date I sent the computer out and the date I received it back from the repair depot. Matching those two dates clearly shows that it had been only 7 days. I point this out but alas, it falls on deaf ears. So the rep suggests I simply send them the computer back again and we can start the waiting game all over again. Which I suppose is somewhat reasonable but not particularly good customer service. Before I agree to this I ask the rep to check and see if my Dell account had been charged for the repair already. This is where the real fun begins...

He looks it up and yes, in fact, the account was charged. Huh? I was charged for a repair that was never performed? And I am told the repair was never performed because of my negligence? Even though records clearly show I acted in a timely manner? So now I am growing angry. And to add insult to injury, I am told that I need to wait another 7-10 business days to get my computer back a second time for a repair that was supposed to have been completed already and I have already paid for? I tell the rep that 7-10 days is unacceptable and ask is there is an authorized service center nearby that I can take the system to for repair. I am told no. I ask if they can expidite the repair given that I have already been charged for it. I am told no. So at this point I may or may not be in the right. Perhaps my expectations for customer service are a bit high? I don't know but I really believe that Dell owes me some concession to make up for the mistake they made. But the rep refuses. So on to the supervisor I go.

I spend nearly an hour on the phone with this supervisor to no avail. Same robotic response, same "deal with it" attitude. I ask for his supervisor and what happens? He drops me back into the call queue and I go back down to the low level reps again. Only this time the new guy I get is helpful. He understands that they made a mistake and to keep me happy they will have to go above and beyond their standard policies to make it right. All I want at this point is a local service center or a promised 3-5 day turn around time. He puts me on hold for at least 45 minutes, of and on, and when he returns he offers to ship me a new(refurbished) computer, remove the charge for the repair and call it even. The caviat being that it will take 5-7 business days to receive. Now while the wait sucks, the deal seems more than fair to me so I agree. I mean a new laptop, with a good display and I don't have to pay for anything including the repair. So after a half hour more on the phone he sets every thing up and it's all good. I was even so happy that I immediately call Dell sales and purchase a RAM upgrade. It took me 15 minutes on the phone to buy the RAM and I had it two business days later. Why it took so long for the replacement computer to ship out and the RAM came in 3 days is beyond me, but ok, it's still all good at this point.

7 business days later. No laptop, no updates, no follow up. I call customer care again and spend 30 minutes riding through the phone system again, finally I get another fist level rep. It takes another 30 minutes to explain everything. And as has been the practice with them every other time I call, she constantly places me on hold, comes back online and asks a quick question them puts me back on hold. Finally she comes back on line and tells me that the request for the replacement computer was in it's "final stages" and just needed a couple more departments to sign off on it and that it should be shipped out to me "shortly". I asked her to define "shortly". She said she couldn't but that she would setup an email or phone call once it was dispatched. Now this was just plain stupid. They didn't meet the promised delivery date, and try to placate me by using the vaguest possible explaination. I told her that was unacceptable and she told me there was nothing she nor I could do about it. I asked for a supervisor. Reluctantly she connected me to one. He started right off on the same line of nonsense and further explained to me that the original rep who promised the 5-7 days was wrong (like that makes it better). This supervisor said he couldn't tell me when the machine would be released but that it could take from 10-15 business days, from that day!! Now I am getting livid. It's taken easily 8 hours of phone time to get here. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He flat out refuses. We argue back and forth for a while and he finally relents and I get his supervisor.

This supervisor is actually trying to be helpful. She explains to me that because I am calling on a weekend that the departments she needs to speak to are closed until Monday but she promises to get in touch with them first thing Monday and resolve this issue. Additionally, she escalates this problem to some "Corporate Response Team" whose supposed to get back in touch with me in 24 hours (not business hours). She gives me her contact info and that's all that can be done. I wait for the call back from the Corporate Response Team". Nothing, nobody calls me back. So I call them back making my way through the phone system again I ask to speak to the same person from the day before and low and behold, she is not in that day. So I instantly ask for a supervisor, get one and proceed to have to explain everything all over again. He basically does the same thing the other girl did, escalate to the Corporate Team and email the other departments for status on Monday. Nothing else I can do so I give up until Monday.

To my surprise, Monday I get a call from a guy named Mark at Dell. He lets me know the new system has been shipped out and it was overnighted so I will have it Tuesday!!! He also informs me that it is a newer better model. They sent me an Inspiron 1505 instead of my Inspiron 2200!! Excellent!! Just one last issue I have to resolve with Mark. Remember the memory upgrade I purchased for the old system? I need to return that since it won't work in the new system. Mark promptly give me an RMA # and tells me UPS will be by to pick it up in the next two days. Also, I confirm with Mark that the original charge for the repair would be taken off my Dell account. He told me it would take a few days but that it would come off. All is well.

Tuesday comes and the new laptop arrives!! And I have no complaints!! Much better than my old system!! Dell did something very right!!

So the instructions in the box tell me to take the old system and ship it back to them. I tape it all up that day, call DHL and it ships out the next day.

But the pickup for the memory return never shows. I get busy and a week or two goes by. I get my Dell statement and see both the charges, one for the repair and one for the memory and call them straight away. I explain that they never sent anyone to pick up the memory and that the repair charge should have been removed per their promise. The new girl I am speaking to tells me it will be 7-10 days but that at the end of the 10 days both charges will be gone. She also assures me that someone will be by to pickup the memory return in the next two days. I take her at her word and wait....

Three days go by and nobody comes to pickup the return. But by this time I feel I have done my due diligence and decide that I will wait to call Dell until I can confirm the charges were removed and that if the package had not been picked up by then that I would address it with them them. I had grown far too tired of spending endless hours on the phone at this point.

Now about a week or so ago, I start getting calls telling me they never received the old laptop back. Which is strange as it was shipped weeks ago. So once again I end up spending the better part of an hour on the phone with Dell to find out that they were wrong and it had been returned. In fact they had refurbished it and resold it already!

So it's been about 12 days today and I call to confirm that the charges are gone. First I get a Customer Care rep that somehow disconnects me. I start over. The next girl I get keeps putting me on hold because it takes he that long to read all the nonsense associated with my case(s). This is what really put things in perspective for me:

One of my co-workers had to go to the CA Department of Motor Vehicles, without an appointment, to get an ID card. I started my days quest with Dell when he left and was still on the phone with no resolution by the time he returned!!!

Anyway, so after another hour or so, she informs me that the charge for the repair has in fact been removed, but she says that there will be no credit for the memory until it is received by them. I explain that I have asked on two separate occasions for them to send someone out to pick it up and that nobody ever came. She promised that it would be picked up no later than Tuesday. But this causes a bit of a problem. The charge is from November 2nd, best case scenario is that Dell receives it by the last couple days in December or the 2nd of Jan.... That puts the charge at 60 days, which means they will likely notify the credit agencies that I am 60 days past due on a bill that shouldn't exist in the first place. Now I would like to think that somehow their system would catch such a detail and make sure that nothing gets reported since the charge is invalid at this point, but I have no faith in Dell's ability to manage my little problems much less something that complex.

So after approximately 23 hours of my life spent on the phone trying to sort this issue out, I still cannot say this is resolved. That's really all I want. Just put an end to this!!

Now, I know in my case Dell did try to make things better by sending me the new/better system and for that I commend them. But the endless hours of phone calls I have had to endure after the fact have been absurd. Here's the really sad thing:

If they had just fixed the old system right in the first place none of this would have had to happen. And when the mistake was made all I wanted was to have Dell's promise that I would get my machine back faster given the mistake. I was more than happy to pay for the repair. But that's not how Dell works anymore.

I have worked in customer service related industries most of my life and as cliched as it is it still holds true, "the customer is always right". It's just that simple. I used to recommend Dell to all my friends, family and customers for the outstanding quality of their support and customer service. In good conscience I cannot do so ever again. The nature of the policies that Dell has created and forced their call centers to enact are ascinine and arbitrary at best and down right disrespectful and contemptuous of the customer. It really boiled down to this for me:

What kind of customer friendly company hides it's phone numbers from the public? There are basically two places you can call to speak to someone at Dell, Sales and various call certers (Technical support, Customer Care, etc..). There are no listed phone numbers for their corporate offices listed in any public directory in the United States. Additionally, nobody in their call centers or sales departments are allowed to connect you to of furnish a phone number for their corporate offices. What does that say to you?

To me it says that there are a lot of angry customers out there that they want to isolate themselves from.

Anyhow, just thought this experience deserved posting somewhere on the net for others to read and make educated choices when buying their next computer.

Chris

Dana Point, California
U.S.A.

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