Outrageous and Unethical Treatment by Dell

Based on my recent experience with Dell, I will go out of my way to; 1) never purchase anything from Dell, and 2) make sure my contacts are aware of my experience.  For anyone considering Dell, I offer the chronology of my experience.

• I purchased software for $59.99 3.5 weeks ago. 
• After a week and no software, I checked online for the order status.  It had been changed, even though I received no notice.  Dell listed a status definition of “in production” which was not included in the drop down list of order status definitions.  So I contacted Dell order support via email to see what was going on.  They emailed me back with the new estimated ship date that was over 1 month from my order date.  Thanks – I already knew that.
• After 3.5 weeks, I checked online again.  It said my order had been changed.  I found out that the system had canceled my order.  No notice, no communication.  I had not canceled the order, so I called Dell.
• Customer Service told me the software had been out of stock, and was now assigned a new part number, which is why the order was canceled.  They would have to reenter the order with the new part number, and they would confirm availability with sales.  I was put on hold.
• Suddenly a new person came on the line.  I had been transferred to sales, but hey had no idea why I was transferred.  I had to explain the whole situation.  Sales told me my order had been canceled – thanks, I knew that.  They said they could reenter the order, at a new price of $129.95.  That’s right – 117% higher than the price I ordered at – for THE EXACT SAME PRODUCT.  I let them know that’s unacceptable.  I had been waiting 3.5 weeks, had received no info or updates from Dell, and did not appreciate how I was being treated.  The sales rep put me on hold for another 10 minutes to try to get approval to reenter the order at my original price.  He came back and said he could not get approval, he could only sell me the product at the new price.
• Now it’s 3.5 weeks later and my business does not have the software we needed to create and produce product videos.  I’m back to where I started.

This treatment by Dell is unethical and may even be illegal.  The amount of money is small, but the principles involved make me outraged at Dell’s business practices.  They have lost this customer (and Dell Latitude E4200 user) for life.