Stay away from Dell AND Amex

Question

So I get an letter in the mail from american express saying that they were going to raise my interest rate by 6%. Never missed a payment, never been late - had the card for 15 years. It really made me mad, so I called them and asked them to lower my interest rate and they said they couldn't. I therefore started the process to cancel my card. Only problem is that I had built up a LOT of Rewards points from Amex.

In deciding what to do with my amex rewards points, I decided to transfer them to Dell and get dell gift certificates. I thought I would use them to get a new laptop. After all, I had enough to get $900 worth of dell gift certificates, so I figured I could get a really nice laptop. So I start transferring the points, but they only let you get $200 gift cards at a time. On top of that, they run out of the $200 gift card, so I end up having to get several $100 gift cards too.

So now I go to Dell's website and find that it lets me use only one gift card at a time per order. There isn't any way to add multiple of the gift cards together. So essentilly, I can only get $200 off of one laptop and the rest of the gift cards are COMPLETELY usesless. Dell just plain sucks. I talked to 3 different managers and asked nicely if they could help, and they all declined.

So I warn everyone, do NOT transfer your amex points to dell gift cards unless you only want $50, $100, or $200 gift cards. If you are wanting to buy something more expensive, you can't use multiple gift cards. And frankly, given the poor customer service, I wish I had not gotten the cards at all.

So in closing, all I have to say is stay away from Dell. If someone from Dell customer service wants to address this and help fix this, I will be happy to amend this post.

jkelling · Answer

It's almost been a week, and I haven't received any sort of reply from Dell. I'm not suprised with they lousy customer service, lousy policies, and other bad experiences I have seen people report.

Kind of sad at this point - all I'm really asking is for someone at dell to make it possible so I can bundle my gift certificates together so I can buy a decent dell computer - and they can't even do that. If their ordering system is this lousy, it makes me wonder how their computers really are. I used to use an optiplex at work and it was nice, so I'm willing to give their hardware the benefit of the doubt. But so far everything else has been pretty pittiful.

If someone at Dell could please help solve this, it might restore my faith in this Texas based company for this Texas native :)

Davet50 · Answer

This is a user to user forum and not monitored by Dell. You ar better off doing as hrova suggest and hasing this out with AMEX...

hrova · Answer

Unfortuante that this happened... Have you tried contacting Amex about it? Maybe they can help.

Ziggy45 · Answer

Most places have a set amount of gift cards/cert you can use at a time. You shoud always look before you buy.

hrova · Answer

I am guessing the terms were available before you traded in for the gift cards, so I think Ziggy45's response was very appropriate.

It doesn't hurt to ask, but it sounds like they've answered. Hard to fault either Dell or Amex for sticking to their policy....

jkelling · Answer

Dell says to try amex. Amex says to talk to dell. They are both pawning it off to each other. It's basically why I say they both stick. No-one wants to take responsibility or help.

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to do something and you asked your mom. Then your mom said to talk to your dad. And your dad told you to talk to your mom, and you just ended up going in circles. Now you get the idea of what is happening here....

jkelling · Answer

First, looking at the post count by hrova and Davet50, that's a lot of posts for a foum that doesn't have a huge amount of activity. Are either of your Dell Employees?

Second, I did do my homework, but both Dell and Amex have more than confusing policies. The Dell site says that a single order can take up to 3 forms of payment, which means I should be able to use at least 3 certificates - not so. The Dell site also implies that you can combine multiple gift card into a single one:

http://www.buygconline.com/consolidation/index.aspx

The Amex site says I can use only 1 gift certificate per order. But given the dell capability to combine, I redeemed my points for the gift certificates. Later on, you find out that you aren't actually getting dell gift cards from amex, but instead you are getting "coupon codes" similar to the 15% off codes that you enter to discount an order. The combine website doesn't work with the "coupon codes" but only gift cards. Unfortunately, neither the dell website or the amex website explains the difference between gift cards and gift certificates, and that you can't combine them.

So, yes, I did my homework, but both companies are doing their best to obfuscate the truth. You know after typing this, I kind of feel defrauded, and think the better business bureau and the texas attrny general wouldn't mind hearing about this.

hrova · Answer

1.) No, I do not work for Dell...

2.) I do understand your frustration. I would be uspset too... But...

3.) The entity giving you the card told you the rules (one card per purchase) and you chose to ignore that. If there was confusion, you should have looked it up for clarification. You would have found this....

4.) Taken from Dell's web site regarding American Express Gift Cards - Terms and Conditions page:

"Using Multiple Cards

10. At this time, Dell will only accept a limited number of Card(s) per purchase. Funds from Promotional Cards cannot be merged with funds from any other Cards."

The full text of those terms and conditions can be found here by going here and choosing Terms and Conditions:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/gift_card_amex?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Like I said, there was no harm in asking if they could be flexible for you... But now that has been done and both sides answered... Just because you don't like the answer does not mean there was fraud involved.....

EDIT: By the way, the link you provided seems to indicate there are different rules for Promotional Gift Cards.

jeba12 · Answer

I made this error by mistake, i knew about it, have used it before without issues and now I am as frustrated as everyone else.  It just does not make sense

pollock77 · Answer

There realy going to bend you over now.....There are way to many loop holes in that bill....

pollock77 · Answer

Sorry to hear about your delima....The part about you american exspress CC,is just the tip of the iceberg. I my self got letters from CC companies say alot of the same. You have only ''ONE PERSON '' to blame for that... His name is Barrack H Obama....He signed that new law that go;s into effect next year...The CC people are going to ''bend us over''...

beamermt25 · Answer

Hello! Call American Express and request they refund the cards back into points and then use them for something else seeing as they (dell or amex) cannot or will not help you. From there, if you cancel your card, it will ding your credit score. Please be aware that due to the economic issues all over the world, Banks are raising intrest rates, mostly without telling customers, for people in your situation. The banks made bad decisions, the government is punishing them for it, and they are passing it on to you, the consumer. There greedy, and worthless in my opinion.

Regardless, see if Amex can void the cards and reissue you the points to spend on something else.

beamermt25 · Answer

That is a stupid responce.  The president added consumer protections against what the credit card companies were doing.  the ONLY problem with the protections is they gave the cc companies too much time to 'get ready' for them.  Its the Credit card companies that are bending you over and la de da, not the president.

hrova · Answer

Nobody is forcing the CC cards on anyone....

Regardless of what the CC companies are doing, the consumer has the right to pay off their bills each month and avoid whatever interest rate is being charged.

sabujp · Answer

http://www.buygconline.com/consolidation/index.aspx

^^^ Does anyone know if this site is still legit? That is, If I go through all the forms will it consolidate all my cards into one card? If I go to the base url of the site It says:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, the webpage you are attempting to access is unavailable. If you need assistance with purchasing Dell Gift Cards, please contact Dell Customer Care toll free by dialing 1-800-624-9897.

If you need to check the balance on your Dell Gift Card, please call toll free 1-800-242-5353 for available funds and transaction history related to your card."

Which seems to me that Dell doesn't want people to know about the online consolidation forms. I have 4 non-expiring Dell GC's that I was awarded via the university that I work for through Globoforce and will try to consolidate them tomorrow, first by calling customer support. I haven't been able to get through to anyone on the weekends. I have the cards scanned and ready to fax as mentioned on the terms page:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/gift_card_opt_tc?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~lt=popup&~section=002

Using Multiple Cards

10. Dell will only accept a limited number of Cards per purchase. If you would like to use more than one Card, you can merge funds from multiple Cards onto one Card by calling Dell’s Customer Service department at 1-800-624-9897. Your Card can only be merged with other non-expiring Cards issued by Dell or through its retailers and affiliates. When you call you will be asked to fax photo copies of the Cards to verify possession. Gift cards that were not originally purchased but were distributed by Dell or its partners for free, may not be merged with purchased Cards. Dell reserves the right to reject request for consolidation of any Cards at its own discretion for any reason.

I hope everything works out, wish me luck!

Customer Care

Stay away from Dell AND Amex

Using Multiple Cards

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