Hiya From A New And Disappointed Customer

Hello to the wider Dell Community,

I wish my introduction would be under happier times but sadly as a new customer of Dell, my initial contact with the company, just three days ago has not been as I'd expected.

Having bought one of their laptops online, I received an email acknowledging my purchase, this was followed up by a curious email from (Dell order verification team) who requested that I reply to his communication (via "my student or work email" with the message 'I Validate The Order'.

Being aware of a considerable number of phishing attacks related to Dell, I contacted on Twitter @DellCares who asked me to message my order number and a print screen of the email I'd received. I did so and was assured the email was genuine and advised to reply as previously instructed. So I emailed back to . The response was:

"Dell Customer Communication - Confidential, Dear Customer, Kindly reply from your student/work email."

Now that's strangely restrictive, as I am neither a student nor do I have access to a work email account. What is that all about? Surely Dell is not selling its products only to people with email accounts at Universities or a place of work? Something seems very wrong.