Consolidating Gift Cards, a Painful Experience

My 13 year old son has been asking for, and receiving Dell gift cards as gifts for Christmas and his birthday for the past year.  His goal is to purchase a Dell laptop for use at school, and for gaming.  He has six gift cards totaling several hundred dollars.  To my surprise, when we went to purchase a Dell laptop online, the website allowed us to enter only three gift card numbers, and combine them with another form of payment to finalize the purchase.  Needing to use all six cards, I contacted Dell to consolidate six cards to meet their online purchase limitations.

The agent I spoke with explained the process and followed with an email requesting eight separate pieces of information.  It took a few days to gather all of the information since they requested scanned images of the front and back of the cards, along with an image of my drivers license.  I requested a confirmation of receipt with my return email, but did not get one from Dell.  After four days of no confirmation emails from Dell, I sent another email requesting an update.  I did not receive a reply from Dell.  I called Dell again on day seven.  The Customer Service person I spoke with could not find record of my request or submission using my email address, my physical address, or my phone number, all of which was requested and included in my original email to Dell.  Fortunately, I kept the name of the original Dell Customer Service person and their twenty-four digit unique tracking number included on my only email from Dell, the one with the consolidation instructions.  The current Customer Service person has promised that I will receive another nine digit confirmation number today by email, and the cards will be consolidated by this evening, followed by a call from Dell Customer Service.  I hope that I can trust Dell to follow through with their commitment.

Dell, this is a painful experience, and an unnecessarily complex process.  Please reconsider how you address the application of multiple gift cards, and accept them for online purchases in greater quantities.  I am sure that I am not the only person experiencing the same frustration with your gift card limitations, and your consolidation process.

Dad in North Texas