Online ordering and cutomer support frustration

I used to like Dell. I used to get good support and services from Dell. I used to not have any problems until yesterday. 

I ordered a new laptop for a colleague who lives in another state from the "Personal" sales instead of "Business" sales side. I made the appropriate shipping address change, since I don't want to receive the laptop for myself.

This morning, I received an email stating that my credit card information was no good. I login online and I noticed that my display name has changed to my colleague's. I checked the laptop order and also noticed that my billing address has changed as well. No wonder the credit card did not go through. 

I called Dell and the first heavily accented rep tells me I have to cancel and reorder. I spent 30 minutes telling her this would not work, because online automatically changes my billing address when I change the shipping address. She said she will forward my call to another department. I was on hold for 15 minutes and when I was transferred, I received a recording that says they were closed.

I called again and went through the same explanation again to another heavily accented rep, who kept telling me that my credit card info was wrong even after I spent 20 minutes explaining why the billing address changed. When I asked to be transferred to someone who would listen and can actually provide any service, I was transferred to another heavily accented rep, and once again, I had to spend time explaining the whole issue all over. At least this one listened, but once again, he was not authorized to make any changes, so I was transferred again.

At least this time, the rep who answered the phone had a reasonable accent (Hispanic, I believe), and he was authorized to make changes. I still had to spend time explaining the whole situation again. 

All in all, it took about 2 hours for a simple order that Dell online screwed up. My take away with this experience is that Dell does not want you to order stuff for other people, they will try to screen support calls with incoherent reps who will not listen to you, and they are happiest if you just give up and go away.