Letter to Dell

This letter was e-mailed to Dell CEO's and high ranking professionals within the company:

First let me start by saying I’ve been a loyal dell customer for years. I have owned several of your desktops and currently own an Inspiron 530s and Inspiron N4110 laptop. I have never been dissatisfied with the service or products I have received.

Sadly, that all changed this week. The way I have been treated by your customer care staff, tricked by your marketing representatives, and forced to accept a product I did not want was beyond frustrating. I purchased an Inspiron 14z in black espresso as part of a black Friday deal advertised on your website. I did my research before hand, chose this laptop over others at your company and others made by different manufacturers. I knew that it would be competitive on black Friday, so me, my fiancé, and two family members waited on your website half an hour before 9pm PST. I inquired in advance via your chat support on which computer would be covered and was told that the black Friday page would refresh and display the 14z for purchase.

First off, let me say that this did NOT happen. Instead, many other computers were shown but not the one advertised clearly on your Black Friday doorbuster deals page. I took an e-value code, found on a scanned advertisement, and put it in the search box. Luckily, I was able to locate the computer and add it to my cart. Your site shut down more than a dozen times and I kept getting “gateway errors” and “cart is unavailable.” Finally, I was able to purchase the laptop and pay after a total time spent of one and half hours refreshing through this painful process. I got the laptop, was excited, my card was charged for $329, and I thought it was all over.

This was only the beginning of my trouble with your company. I got an e-mail late night on Sunday saying that you “oversold the 14z” and that they don’t “have the supply needed.” They instead told me my order would be automatically replaced in an Inspiron 15 that has “a larger screen and weighs almost 1 pound more than the Inspiron 14z.” I certainly don’t feel that this is an upgrade and wanted the computer that I purchased. For one, it comes in a beautiful espresso black color that the others don’t come in and is the perfect size. I have only owned 14 inch laptops, so all of my cases and accessories go with that size. Additionally, the extra bulk is not something I wanted at all. Even worse, the Inspiron 15 has some of the worse reviews I’ve seen, complaints from customers on your website about everything from battery failure, poor screen quality, to motherboard failure.

So I tried reaching out to customer care. I spent a total time of five hours for the past two days calling and trying to get representatives to take care of my issue. I wanted the 14z and it was the only thing I would take. I even have a confirmation that the 14z was in production. However, I was told by your customer care dell team handling this issue that there were no inspiron 14zs available and that I would be forced to take the 15 and a $100 gift card. I spoke to the following people on multiple days: the manager who was extremely rude and unhelpful, ,  (who said he was transferring me to the right person, had me wait 1 hour, just to be transferred to the same level representative),  , and  . Let me also mention that my case had been escalated on 11/27 and I was promised that I would receive a call from a manager named  because they were busy, within the next 24 hours. That never happened, and he never called. I was forced to wait again for hours on the line and then told that it didn’t make a difference.

They would not give me a similar laptop (14z ultrabook) or the one that I purchased. Based on the way I was spoken to and my case not being properly handled, I should have been able to receive that laptop or at least receive one worth more. I am forced to go to the with this issue and file a complaint with the . Not only have I not gotten what I purchased, I lost hours of time trying to speak to a representative.

I know many customers are equally as enraged as I am. There is a discussion post on the dell community alleging a bait and switch tactic was used on all of us who purchased the 14z. Not a single person in that forum claimed to receive the laptop. You have lost a valuable customer due to your unfair marketing practices and unhelpful customer service representatives and managers. I hope that you can learn to avoid tricking people, recognizing that our time and money is valuable, and stop toying with our hearts.

Sincerely,

Ashley