Think About The Worst Service You've Ever Received

NOW MULTIPLY TIMES 100. 

I'd like to tell/warn/make people aware at the least of what I've experienced from Dell in the past 72 hours. Friday night I was planning on buying an Alienware Aurora computer. I found the one I wanted, put in a cart and went to check out. First, before paying, I had applied for credit to help with the purchase of this computer. I was APPROVED on the spot for a $2000 line of credit. With the credit, my plan was to put $500 from MY CHECKING ACCOUNT and use ~$1,100 of the credit to pay off over time. And that's exactly what I did, it went through, I checked out and I thought it was over and on the way. Within 5 minutes I got an email that my order has been put on hold and I need call a phone number to fix the issue. It was 9pm CST when I called the number, however I never got through on Friday because they were closed even though the hours say open 7 days a week until 10pm. But whatever, its close to Christmas, hours might be a little different - I get that.

Moving on to Saturday, December 17th. I get a phone call from an Alberta, Canada area code phone number. It was a representative from Dell calling to fix the issue with the account and get the order off hold and sent out to me. I give the last 4 of my social, phone number AND then finally they text me a code that I must read back to the rep to verify the order. DONE. I give him the code, he says "Great! It has been verified and now your order is off hold and on the way!" After that I buy two sets of headphones for me and my brother to have for Christmas totaling around $300. I get 2 CONFIRMATION emails stating BOTH the orders have gone through and are on the way. All is good.

Now, it's Monday, December 19th. I get two emails in the morning stating both orders have been cancelled per my request to cancel. I know that's not right, I never called to request that. Immediately I call the number listed to see what's going on. I speak to one representative, get no information at all. This rep transfer me to another department where I am on hold for 50 minutes!!  This person just continues to tell me nothing can be done because "I see here the order has been cancelled." I'll spare you the amount of additional times I was transferred but it was around 6 different times and was "disconnected"/hung up on twice (after being on hold for around 2 hours total). I give up since I'm at work and clearly this is not going to be a quick fix, I have stumped the whole team apparently. I have another family member call. Goes through the exact same process. No one has any answers. We decide to give it another shot when we get home but ask for a supervisor this time after being told our account is back on hold because they believe identity theft is in play. We are hold for around another hour and a half, still with no answers at all. Before being transferred to the supervisor, the rep from the verification team tells us we will have to call back to verify our account because she cannot do it (even though she is in the verification dept ??? GOT IT). 

I promise this is almost over. Finally, we get to a supervisor who confirms they are holding our account to possible identity theft and will not release it until further information is verified. Keep in mind we've already verified the account once, gave the man the number that was texted to us and he literally used the words, "your account has been verified." But that was Saturday, this is Monday. A lot happens at Dell in 48 hours apparently. We ask why has our account been flagged like this. "Oh, we cannot tell you that information." We ask, what do we need to verify the account since anyone/everyone they will need to verify info from is on the phone with them right now. "Oh, we cannot release that information, you'll get an email about that." Finally we are told the verification is a two step process so we must be patient. Apparently at Dell, after you verify your information once they CANCEL your order in order to verify identity theft isnt in play???? GOT IT, MAKES SENSE.

After being completely frustrated and getting no answers at all, I give up. I've spent $500 dollars of my own money that no one would tell me if I get back or not. That's something identity thieves do a lot though I've heard, usually giving $500 of their own money AND applying for credit. If anyone here could give me some kind of answers or at the very least my $500 back so I can spend my money elsewhere, that'd be great. After all this I still do want the computer, I do not understand why this must be so difficult. I will not be able to give my siblings their gifts for Christmas now, so I appreciate that. With all due respect Dell, you're selling computers, there is absolutely no need for this kind of verification. I gave you guys everything you could ever need, multiple times, online and on the phone. You're trying to guard myself from me? I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with this customer service department because it seems they do not care for their customers or are even fully aware of policies/ procedures. I got a different response from almost every rep. I would like to give a shout out to Javier! He was actually incredibly helpful and was the only rep that seemed like he cared! 

TL;DR

Spent around 5 hours total on the phone. Got literally 0 help and 0 answers. They are trying to protect me from me but will not verify any information for the second time. Most frustrating customer service experience I have ever encountered.

**EDIT- Three days later, still no email for verification and still no word on the status of the $500 that came out of MY CHECKING ACCOUNT.**