Dell outsourcing their customer support

I've made 3 purchases in the past few months and all but the last one which I just placed last week has not had issues or required me to call in.  

Every time I call in its at least a one hour call, I get transferred a few times usually about 3, sometimes they just hang up if they can't answer.  Whenever you want to talk to a manager they are like you can talk to customer care then transfer me to the generic 1800 number.  It is such pain to call in, only to get transferred around in circles, then when you get to the right department they are handcuffed in what solutions they can offer.  These people in India lie and hang up on you which is such a pain considering how long you've been on hold.  I know when dell had customer care representatives in the US it was a totally different story.  Thats why I prefer amazon and other online retailers who have people in the US you can talk to for help.  

 

My First order

I placed a TV order a few months ago using some dell gift cards 1 regular gift card and 2 promotional. the tv cost about 1k, if I had known how trouble it was beforehand I would have avoided it.  I tried to use 3 gift cards to make the order, unfortunately the person could not get it to work correctly, after an hour of online chat, I had to talk to a person for another hour who still could not get the order to go thru.  Finally I paid for it with 2 gift cards and my credit card.  Luckily my credit card placed a hold on the charge, and when the holding department contacted me it was a person who was from the US and I explained the situation and they rectified the order and was able to apply all 3 gift cards.  How easy, wish I could have talked to that person before wasting my time for a few hours.  

However there was some issues with the tv, and dell offered to give me back a credit of $130 which seemed fair to both parties.  I was assured that the entire credit would be issued to my normal gift card, since the 2 promotional ones I use would expire.  Weeks pass and no refund, I finally email them and they split say they split up my refund between two cards, very annoying, not what they said, but not the end of the world.  However, only one of the refunds went thru so I was still missing about $50 on a promo gift card.  After emailing customer care over and over for over a month, with them saying the refund was already issued, I call in.  After an hour on the phone, and transferred 3 times over I get my answer, there was a glitch on dells end and the refund never got processed.  They will do it now, however it takes about a week.  My promo gift card ends in 2 weeks.  I tell them this is unacceptable and I need the balance transferred to one that does not expire or issued a new one since I cant use it in less than a week when I should have 90 days.  Says its impossible,  I ask to speak with a manager and the rep says I been working here a few years the manager will say the same thing that it cant be done.  I say please transfer me anyways, then the rep says there is no manager here.  Really?????

 

Second Order

I ordered a high end 30" monitor that was on sale a few weeks ago.  I have the item in my cart and am online talking to a chat representative.  So I can use all these stupid promotional gift cards from dell that they wont let me combine, since the dell website wont let me use more than 1 gift card which makes no sense.  They are unable to place the order for me since its no longer in stock but its still in my cart so I can check out.  They said just check out and apply the extra gift cards after.  I call in to do that, the first time after holding for 45 minutes they said its not possible yet because the order has shipped call back when its delivered.  I call back later after another 45 min hold and a few transfers and they said they will put in the request,  of course this gets denied like usual.  Why does dell lie to sell products.  

 

I am so fed up with dell , and their unethical practices.