Area-51m, ordering issues, defective

I would like to provide some feedback on my experience so far in attempting to spend $5500 on a laptop computer from Dell.

My first attempt was on the website on the morning of April 18th, 2019. I went through the site, configured the machine I wanted, attempted to complete the purchase, and was met with an error that read “Sorry, due to technical issues, the purchase cannot be completed. Please contact the sales department” with the phone number listed.

So, I then called the sales department as outlined on the website. I spoke with a sales agent named Steve (name changed for privacy). The agent advised me that the reason I received the error on the website was that I was trying to apply for the Dell financing for my purchase (I wanted to take advantage of the 12 months no interest promotion), but Dell would not finance any purchase that exceeded $4000. I asked if it was possible to purchase the laptop by financing the $4000 and paying the rest up front, he advised it was not possible. He then told me that “if I couldn’t afford to buy the laptop, maybe I should get something cheaper” which I thought was quite rude of him to comment on his perception of my financial situation. I no longer wanted to deal with this sales agent due to his attitude, and I now had to reevaluate my purchase due to the new information I got from him.

I decided to go ahead and order a lesser spec’d laptop that came in under $4000 so that I can take advantage of the financing. I then called again to attempt a purchase. The second time I called, I spoke with a sales agent named Susan (name changed for privacy). This sales agent was excellent and helped me through the entire process of completing my purchase. I was very happy with dealing with this sales agent.

After my purchase was completed, and all my confirmations were sent to me, I received a call from the first sales agent Steve asking if I was still interested in purchasing a laptop. I told him that I had already purchased one, at which point he pulled up my account information and started telling me about my purchase. Then he sent me confirmation emails duplicate to the ones I had received from Susan earlier. I was a little confused, but I didn't think anything of it.

I logged into my dell account on Friday morning to check on the status of my order, only to find out that my original order had been cancelled, and a new order had replaced it. I didn't understand why this would have happened, so I contacted the chat support site. During my chat support they told me that they didn't know why my order had been cancelled, and I needed to call Steve. I attempted to call Steve, but he was not in the office so I sent him an email. He responded back to me later on Friday that my order had "not been processed correctly" so he cancelled it and put in a new order. I suspected at that time that Steve had changed the sales agent on the order from Susan, who was the helpful professional sales agent, and put himself on as the sales agent instead, even though he did nothing to help me.

While I was on the chat support, they also told me that my new order is on hold for "verification purposes", which of course upset me because my original order had already been verified and approved. I emailed Steve again asking why my order was now on hold, and he waited until the end of his shift when the departments were all closed to tell me that I had to call the finance department to verify my order (even though I had already done so with my original order). I couldn't call to verify my order because the finance department was closed. Saturday I called the number he gave me and the agent I spoke to said that it was not a finance verification hold, it was the sales agent who had to release the order, but Steve was off for the weekend now.

At this point I was extremely frustrated that this sales agent who had nothing to do with my purchase has now interfered with my order, messed up my already approved order, and caused a significant delay in processing as well as me spending hours of my time trying to figure out what is going on, so in desperation, I called my original sales agent Susan. She immediately was able to help me get my order sorted out and approved and back on track, even though she isn't getting anything from the sale because the other sales agent stole the sale from her.

While I was on the phone with Susan, I asked her for the contact information of her direct supervisor so that I could address the situation with him/her. She gave me the contact for a Tom (name changed for privacy). I emailed him with an outline of my situation similar to what you have read so far. He called me on the phone, and advised me that he understands the situation, and he apologizes for the inconvenience. He said he would ensure that the correct sales agent would be put on my file for the commission, and that there would be no delay in the processing or delivery of my order due to the issues caused so far.

At this point, I assumed everything was well, and that my laptop would arrive on May 06, 2019 as was the date listed in my original order for delivery. During all of my conversations with the various Dell staff, I stressed the importance of me knowing when the delivery would arrive, because I need to be at home when it arrives or it is likely to get stolen if it gets left on my doorstep. I understand that delivery dates are estimates until the product is shipped, and I don’t need more than 1 day of notice, but I need to know when its shipped so I can be home to receive it. I was assured multiple times that they would update my order status with any changes to the delivery date on the order status website, and I should just keep checking it.

I checked the order status website every day just to make sure I didn’t miss any updates. On Saturday April 27th I checked the status of the order, and the delivery date had been updated on the website to Monday April 29th. I was happy to see that my order was being delivered early, and that I had received the update as they said I would. I took the day off work on Monday in order to ensure that I was home for the delivery. The laptop never came. I called in the afternoon to confirm that it wasn’t actually coming, and I received word from the agent I spoke to that the laptop was still in processing and had not been shipped from China yet, so it definitely was not being delivered that day. I advised them that I had been told that the updates on the order status page would be accurate and that I had taken the day off work without pay based on that information. They told me that the update on my order was a “technical glitch” and that they apologized for the inconvenience

On Tuesday April 30th, I received another update stating that my order would now be delivered the next day, on May 01. Not wanting to take another unnecessary day off work, I called to see if I could get any confirmation. While on the phone, I was advised that my laptop would indeed not arrive on May 01, and that the update to my order status was another “technical glitch”. This agent advised me that she would personally contact me with updates to my order so that I would have the correct information, which I appreciated. She sent me an email the next day advising me that my order was being shipped from China to the Dell facility in the US, and was due to arrive there on May 07, 2019. Once it was there, it would be shipped to me, which would take 3-5 business days, so I could expect my order to arrive around May 13th. This was significantly longer than my original delivery date of May 06. At this point I contacted Tom again to ask him why he would assure me repeatedly that there would be no delays to my order, and then I hear from someone else that my order was delayed by over a week. He assured me that the previous information I had received was incorrect, and that HE would now contact me directly with any updates going forward. He also advised me that due to yet another “technical glitch” he could not change the sales agent associated with my order to the one who actually helped me, so they would get no commission for their work.

Over the course of the next week, I received numerous additional conflicting updates on the status of my order, including two phone calls, 10 minutes apart from two different people. One who told me it was currently being built in the factory, and the other told me it was in transit from the factory. I eventually received my laptop yesterday (May 07th) for which I had to take another unpaid day off work to be home for the delivery.

I wish that was the end of this story, and I was happy having received my unit, but its not. After taking the laptop out and plugging it in, I turned it on and proceeded through the “first boot” process. About halfway through configuring Windows, the laptop screen just went blank. Everything else was still running, but the screen was completely off. I was confused, so I tried rebooting the computer. This time during the boot process the screen again turned off. I called the Dell technical support line to get some assistance. I spent 55 minutes on the phone with the tech support agent running me through numerous tests on the system. Eventually she concluded that the system that had been sent to me was defective. She then casually advised me that my only option at this time was to send it back to Dell, and get a refund, and then begin the purchase process again. I asked about repair or replacement, and she said the best thing to do was to get a refund and start all over. She then transferred me to another agent who had no idea why I was being transferred to them. I explained the entire situation again, and they told me that the previous tech person I was speaking with put no notes in my file, so I would have go talk to yet another tech person before they could process anything for me.

Extremely frustrated at this point, I emailed Tom advising him what was happening. He called me immediately and told me that he was yet again “sorry for the inconvenience” and he would process a replacement of the unit for me. I asked him about the “onsite technical support and repair” that is advertised as part of the Alienware purchase on the website, and he advised he knows nothing about it, and my options are refund or exchange, with exchange requiring them to build an entirely new laptop and me waiting for another 3+ weeks.

So here I sit, after going through a month of purchasing, with a broken laptop and a $4000 bill. My options are to wait another month, or give up. I consider myself a loyal customer. I own a previous generation Alienware 18 that I paid $5500 for. I own an Alienware 34” ultra-wide gaming monitor that I paid over $2000 for. I have recommended your products to other people for years. I know I don’t spend as much as some people, or nearly what your business contracts make you, but I would have hoped for better service than this.