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March 2nd, 2014 14:00

Time and Money lost due to Customer mix up

This all started about 3 weeks ago when found a small welcome to dell pamphlet. In that pamphlet, it informed me that i purchased an inspiron 660s  from dell on 8/07/2013, at that point i was wary confused since i haven't purchased any from dell in 4-5 years. Then it dawned on me that this could be an Identity theft or a simple mix up. So i tried to call dell to see if they can give me any information regarding this purchase so that i can tell if this was a mix up of customer info or my identity was compromised, but since it was Saturday when i found this pamphlet i could not talk to anyone because of this, I had to consider the worst case scenario, Identity theft. Since all this happened six months ago I had to pull my credit report and recheck all my credit card bill for the past 6 month for any unusual activity costing me $46.99 for the 3 bureau credit report and most of my afternoon but at least I confirmed that there was no unusual activity anywhere for the past 6 month, but i still had to confirm what this was, a simple customer mix up or did someone truly used my info to purchase a dell computer. The confirmation process took me about 8 hours in the frame of 3 weeks, calling home sales, outlet, small business, medium business then finally Employee Purchase Program, but got nowhere since all they did was telling me they cannot access this order and tell me to call this number and that, but finally on call with rep from small business was able to tell me some information including Shipping address, Phone number, last four digit of credit card used to purchase. Now that I think about it, I really don't think your CSR was supposed to give out these info. On Thursday 2/27/14 someone from medium business call me while at work and introduced himself as dell verification officer and finally confirmed what this was all about, in his exact word he said "there was a mess up on  our system that mixed your info with this customer due to your name being same as the customer who made this purchase, after he confirmed the problem, I then asked who I needed to contact to receive compensation for the time and money I had to spend for the past 3 weeks and I was told to call customer service and gave me the number which was 1-800-624-9897. On evening of 2/27/14 I call the number I was given and talked to someone named "Terry" and started to tell him what was going on and what I wanted but before I could finish, rep started to talk with a extremely demeaning tone that this all happened because of me, that how I messed up by not updating my account info, so I started to explain my situation again and that I changed my info right after I moved from texas then he started to tell me it was still my fault that maybe the person who lived before me had the same name. Of course it did the address that I changed to when I move was my parents address who lived there since 1998 but my account with dell was created when I was in austin texas which was 4 -5 years ago. At this point I was extremely irritated with his demeaning tone and trying to make this situation my fault  so I told him that he is  and what can he do to fix this, at this point he told me that I could not read or see anything regarding this situation because the order number I gave him was from different department and that he could not do anything. What he told me was the final straw that broke the camel's back  and asked what his name was and what his CSR number or any identifying number but he refused to give me any number that would trace back to him citing company policy and reluctantly game me a name "Terry", I'm guessing the policy was  and the name "Terry" was also fake  but at least he game me a number to call which was 1-800-695-8133. On 2/28/14 at 5am PST i called the number "Terry" gave me and waited 20 min to talk to a rep who told me that I called the wrong department and gave me the exact same number I called to talk to her and transfered me to in her words correct department. 2nd rep i spoke to, after i told her what has happened asked why i had to check my credit report for... so i had to explain how we in the stated had a major problem of identity theft and a letter informing me of a purchase i never made could be the first clue and since this was dated over 6 months  I had to consider the worst case scenario, which she could not understand since she was in india. At this point i again told her what i wanted which was compensation for the time and money i had spent over this mess up but she told me that she could not do anything for me at the time so i had her transfer me to her manager. The customer service manager was no help since she keeps telling me i could have resolved all this on the following monday and that i shouldn't have to spend anything even tho i told her multiple times that it took 3 weeks for dell to figure out what was going on and which department had access to this order. It seems that rep in India could not understand how much damage identity theft could do to a person and how much fear is in the air with multiple companies data being compromised like Target, after 30min of going nowhere her final stands was, we are sorry but all the time and money you spend because of our mess up is your problem not ours, so basically your loss not ours. So finally the point of this post is.I found a pamphlet stating that i purchased a computer from dell. I panicked since dell's customer service is closed on weekends and since this was from 6 months ago had to pull my credit report for 46.99 and spend hours checking every credit cards statement for the past 6 month. Called Dell over the past 3 weeks getting transferred back and forth trying to figure out which department has access to this order number. Finally gave up on talking to live rep, Emailed. after 3 days someone from dell's verification rep called, explained to me that it was just a system mess up on dells part. Called the number that was given from verification rep. Asked for compensation for the time and money i had to spend, asked for $46.99, Rep tried to blame everything on me with this demeaning voice and attitude but after 30mins of   finally told me he had no access to this order number and could not see any notes. asked for name and CSR number, refused citing company policy even tho every CSR from every company has some sort of identifying number for customer. finally give a name " terry" that seems to be fake. Called Employee Purchase Program Customer Support, told she could not do anything, asked to be transferred superviser got manager but was told that even tho it was dell's fault for messing up customers info but its just your loss not ours. All i wanted from the start was prompt explanation why i got this pamphlet regarding  a computer purchase  that i never made but took 3 weeks for a confirmation of the mess up but since so much time has passed, I now wanted some sort of compensation for all the time and money i had spent but all i got from your indian call center rep was an attempt to shift blame on me with some extremely demeaning  voice even tho this rep had no access to this order number and the correct departments manager basically said sorry about our mess up but it your loss not ours. What i want is compensation for the time and money i spend because of dell's mess up and a sincere apology from dell regarding this screw up and total  i had to go thru with your Customer Service. I do apologize for any grammar and spelling issue that i may have made, I'm currently fighting a really bad Cold/Flu, hopefully this will tell you how  i am to write all this while i can't even walk straight.

 

 

3 Apprentice

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8.8K Posts

March 2nd, 2014 15:00

YourLoss

Hello, first of all, unless you already had gotten your once a year FREE credit report from all three agencies, all three agencies will do just that: give you a free credit report once a year .  Have you already requested you reports this year?

Second, I hate it also when the rep tries to turn the table on you, but I have always been able to turn it back around.  It's not right, but they try...(not all of them of course).

As far as your out of pocket expenses for the cost of  the credit report, I'm afraid that won't be reimbursed, that's just the way Dell works...I would imagine other companies have a similar policy. 

Wish I could help you more.

Z........................

3 Posts

March 2nd, 2014 17:00

I tried the free credit report but it failed to confirm my identity and told me to call on normal business hours which was on monday and due to the sensitivity of the worst case scenario i needed to know now so that i can act if such unusual or questionable transaction was completed with my identity so i HAD to use paid service from Experian. I have spent over 8 hours ( just the ones that i can remember right now ) calling dell support  due to this mess up, if i were to calculate those hours with my minimum pay amount which would be around $43 and add in the $46.99 i spent on credit report,  i could have bought a computer by now, which was what i was trying to do rummaging through my catalog bin looking for a coupon from dell. Even worse while i was trying to find who bought this with my account, one of the rep gave me the other person's address, phone number and last 4 digits of credit card used,  After the call it dawned on me again if DELL'S customer service rep will disclose such sensitive info on the phone like that this really could be a identity theft resulting from Dell's customer database breach. To me time wasted and 46.99 isn't much of a problem now.. It's more of a principle of a company on how they treat their customer and how they handle their mess ups not just accuse the customer of the problem and shutting the door on  the customer will make it go away. Since I've already lost time and money and been insulted by Dell's CSR i will pursue this till the end and see where this will go to. I really don't think OTHER normal companies will drag the problem this long and insult their customer with the policy of we will not reimburse consequential damage even tho it was our fault. i even told them that i would take credit or some sort of coupon for the value but CSR manager refused, I really dont know why  i asked for something that will make me do business with dell again but  i got tired of hearing . At this point I would love to receive a email regarding this ( since i cant receive any cell phone calls while in the office )with the persons direct number who i can speak to thats in the states not some foreign call center .

3 Apprentice

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8.8K Posts

March 2nd, 2014 20:00

YourLoss

You can fill out this form, someone from Dell will get back to you in a couple business days.

Unresolved Issues

Z..................

3 Posts

March 3rd, 2014 19:00

Well, I did expect something like this when i decided to post on this forum but it still makes me angry. I say bogus because the link does not work, it returns an error on every browser i used both while logged on and off. Second. I guess i have to apologize for using the 2 abbreviated letters  in CAPITAL for the term meaning " Nonsense", especially in a rebuking response to communication or actions viewed as deceiving, misleading, disingenuous, or false and the word that describe as " What would you be if you were attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis? For using these two words mod edited my post with a blind labeled  and word wrapped the post thus deleting any paragraph spacing making it almost impossible or extremely hard to read. zbestwun2001, I am not sure if you're the mod that locked my post so that i can no longer post replies but i was only going to post one last reply anyway, so here it goes in cap. YOUR LINK DOES NOT WORK!, It gives ' Access denied on '  IE V.11 and ' Sorry, there was a problem with your last request! ' on Firefox and Chrome. so can you please give me a correct link, i still have a small ember of hope for DELL, please don't step on it.

Community Manager

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54.9K Posts

March 4th, 2014 05:00

YourLoss,

Zbest cannot lock threads. He is not a Dell Liaison, simply a user trying to help. The link Zbest provided is valid. I just clicked on it. It works in both IE8 and Chrome. We do not allow any profanity in any form on this Forum. No, you cannot have a direct phone number or email address to a USA employee. You will use the normal channels like any other customer has too. Fill out the form Zbest linked to and escalate that way.

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