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My Order Experience
In the past, I've ordered from Dell numerous time for my employer and once for myself. Back in 1999, when I placed a personal order the process was smooth and pleasant. I got my financing, placed my order, and received my product within 2 weeks with little problems. It was a reasonably decent experience as is when your buying for a business. Now here I am, 10 years later, trying to keep myself from going off the handle at this new experience of shopping for personal from Dell.
I noticed the XPS Studio 16 laptop and liked it. I proceeded to configure my laptop and apply for the Dell Preferred Credit program. The process required me to call in, probably because of the credit hold I have to protect myself from identity theft or the fact I had an account previously. Either way, I get it set up...supposedly. I then try to checkout again. I get the error every time I try to checkout using my social and mother's maiden name. Over and over again the error. I call in and the DFS representatives are about useless. The first time I call, I find out that DFS has my new address and my address from 1999. I ask them to remove the old and that doesn't fix it. I call again a few days later, again no resolution even with the EPP order rep trying to manually put it in the system. I call DFS again and they tell me to just wait for the Welcome Packet. I ask them to read the address that they sent it to, especially since they had my old address in the system before. They read off my new address but skipped over the state. I asked them to reconfirm the state and realized that they didn't have a state for me in the system. I just did their job for them by resolving my own complaint and telling them how to fix it. After that, it was working and I was able to add my Preferred Account to my profile.
So I reconfigure my system, much of this is in another reply to a different thread, and get an estimated ship date of early to mid Nov. That's fine, no big deal. The order acknowledgement email comes in and says EDD of 25 Nov for the whole order. Ok, still on track here given it is an APO address and it will take 1.5 to 3 weeks on average from the day it is shipped. Then the confirmation comes in and my printer is due in on 13 Nov and my laptop 21 Dec (not a typo, actually 2 whole months). So from the checkout process to the order confirmation, the date changed by over a month and a half. I'm sorry but if it is on a backorder by that much, it should be caught during the checkout process via the estimated shipping date. So I keep checking on my order and I have 2 statuses for the laptop. One status says In Production and the other is a mysterious Work In Progress that no seems to know what it means nor can it be found on the site. My printer, which Dell doesn't have to manufacture, also got bumped back to 21 Nov. I submitted a ticket to Dell over 48 hours ago (actually early Friday morning before their hours of business) and have yet to receive a response. I asked for clarification on the Work In Progress and what's the hold up. I also asked about if I can just have Windows 7 thrown on it since it'll be coming that far past the order date. Nothing. I will not call because I use calling for those I trust. Dell, sorry I don't trust you so I use the email system for accountability and continuity.
Hopefully something will change and the system just has an issue with tracking but I doubt it.
bjcogdill
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October 20th, 2009 06:00
So call me impatient but I decided to call Dell Customer Service just to inquire about the status. Maybe because my question went 48 hours, excluding the weekend, but my patience is beginning to really die off. So I discuss what I'm looking for with an obviously non-American individual but she isn't too bad even though she has a fairly thick accent. I'm still able to understand and get through. Next it takes about 20 minutes, among giving her an order number, purchase id, customer number, and even my email for them to look up my order. After all that waiting, they tell me the exact same information I can already see online. I asked for what was the hold up not the EDD which I already know. So she says that for that info, I'll have to be transferred to sales. Well I get some music and then nothingness followed by the annoying disconnection sound. Geesh, at least I got a number to the sales department.
_______Update________
Tried the number they gave me, it sent me back to the same automated order status system that would have sent me back to their office. So I went with the EPP phone number and finally got at least some answers that made sense. The reason why my order for the laptop is set for so far out is because it is going by APO/USPS (overseas US Military address). They allow for 6 weeks for it to make it here which is actually very conservative since it usually takes 2-3 weeks. Dell really should add that information to the EPP Federal FAQ. At least I got confirmation which sets my mind at ease. I also asked about the Windows 7 Upgrade offer and found out how it will work. The upgrade will come from Microsoft not Dell. Now its a sit and wait game. At least the EPP customer service rep was very helpful and still foreign (non-US). It just shows you that it's not necessarily where the call center is as much as the skills of the individual on the other side of the line.
bjcogdill
7 Posts
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October 23rd, 2009 19:00
Well my Artisan 810 printer shipped finally, 5 days after it was ordered. How does it take 5 days to send something that isn't manufactured by Dell? It should have some warehoused, ready for shipment. BTW, I recieved the shipment notice 2 days after it was actually shipped. If I was in the states, wouldn't have known it shipped and I could have missed the delivery.
bjcogdill
7 Posts
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November 2nd, 2009 17:00
So I have received 2 emails since my last posting. The first stated that nothing was on back order so I sent a reply asking if that meant it would be shipping soon. The second was the reply stating that now the ram is on backorder. How in the hell did it go from not having anything on backorder to having something as trivial as ram on backorder? Dell, you need to examine your priority system for backordered parts. I highly doubt the 2 gig of ram is the hold up for the last 2-3 weeks.
bjcogdill
7 Posts
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November 3rd, 2009 15:00
So now I received a third email stating that my order was changed due to a web glitch. It supposedly had the wrong part number for the wireless card and that required a whole new order number. That is nonsense, the order has been in there for 3 weeks and now it notices not to mention that now it moved me to the bottom of the line for the laptop. Why didn't you just change the part number? It's a simple db edit, remove the part w/ the bad number and put in the part with the right number. Wow this definately isn't the Dell I remember in 99 when I first ordered from them.
So I guess words that children are allowed to say in school are deemed offensive because my original was deleted.
bjcogdill
7 Posts
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November 30th, 2009 00:00
The order finally shipped on the 13th of November and arrived the 24th of November. It actually arrived the same day as the printer that was shipped out 2 weeks before. Thankfully the products I ordered were great, now if only Dell could improve its customer service from order placement to shipment
APO Shipping note
APO shipping is done via Parcel Post. Parcel post is fairly close to Space Available mail and if items are bigger, like printers, they can take up to 4-6 weeks. Smaller items usually take 2-3 weeks. Why they don't provide the option for Priority shipping I don't know. I've had boxes the same size as my Epson Artisan 810 box, if not bigger, come from Newegg using priority mail. Yah the 60-120 dollars shipping is steep but if someone wants to pay it, it should be an option.