Dell's's Appalling 'Business' Practices

Firstly, the cartridges arrived today. And yes, they are unopened. I just opened the cardboard box and saw that they were wrong.

I opened a ticket and that was their reply. I have replied back 'explaining' what I intend to do. So it is up to them.

Luckily I bought it on my personal credit card with the intention of claiming it back off the business later: so I know my legal rights to return within 30 days. They probably think they can pull a fast one over a small business. Wrong.

The other luck is that I am about to replace all the PCs here, which are all Dell's from about 5 years ago. Now that I know the nature of the company, there is no way the new ones will be Dell. Not now, not ever.

I am absolutely disgusted to be honest. Even if it was my fault, and it wasn't... I would expect any established honest company to be reasonable. The only upside is as mentioned: that I know their nature now.

hi, I just posted what happened to me that was totally dells fault so I know how you feel. Mine all started on the 4th so if someone suggests about calling I have been on the phone constantly. no more dells for me. unfortunatly I have the dell card and they wont help me either. good luck  bella

Looks like a Cut-n-paste "reply". I wonder if you even attempted to call Dell customer care and work out a resolution? I know they have a fairly liberal returns/credit policy if the goods are un-opened and you call them in a REASONABLE amount of time.

They continue to add insult to injury. The response to my last message?

"All complaints must be submitted in writing to the following address, Dell Customer Complaints Dept, Dell ProductsCherrywood Industrial Park Cabinteely,Dublin 18."

Well... thanks for that Dell, but I have a better idea.

Rather than burn my time sending snail mail to another country, missing the legal deadline to enforce a refund, I'll go ahead and chargeback and contact the authorities.

They don't get it do they? Fortunately I bought this on my own card as an individual: they HAVE to accept a return by law, within 30 days. So they are currently breaching UK legislation.

Quite apart from the business practice aspect of treating customers so appallingly (I will never deal with them again), they break the law by refusing a customer his statutary rights.

What sort of company are they? I now know.

In the UK, here are my legal rights: http://www.whatprice.co.uk/shopping/legal-rights.html

It seems though that Dell prefer hostility with their customers and warfare, rather than common sense. So firstly I will chargeback on the card, and then I will seek an avenue to recover my costs in terms of the time I have spent chasing them to meet their legal obligations in this country.

I have never known anything like it. It really is a disgraceful way to treat people: grab the money and run.

dell is deleting critical posts and i have been on the phone since the 9th when i got norton in the mail. i asked if they did a bait and switch sell me a program that takes down my computer then say all you need to do is buy more memory.

hey. for 1 i deleted anything with names dates numbers etc. Ijust printed thier replies . 2nd dell on call sold me the software i asked what was best for my system. When you pay someone for thier knowledge you tend to think they know what they are talking about. So of coarse when norten came in the mail 3 days later I opened it and installed it opened ie to finish install and thats when this night mars started. Been on the phone since the 9th. On call admitted they sold me incampatiable program.i was told norton needs 2 gigs of memory and mine only has 1. of coarse they did offer to sell me more memory. this computer is almost 4 years old i would buy another before sinking money in this one.So I called customer service again today and said fine you wont refund, program don,t work so exchange, they said they would not even exchange because norton 360 is incampatiable and the exchange would not work either. Oh and they even sent me to norton tech support who also said this program would not work on this computer. So here I sit no refund, no exchange, no support, just 100 dollars poorer and a whole lot wiser about where my next computer will be from bella

Hey,

So I talked to tech support who admitted that norton 360 wont run on my computer and tech who sold it to me should have known. They admitted fault and told me to call customer service and give them the case #. Of coarse cs said software is opened and not returnable. Fine I called today and told them exchange it then i,ll send it back then they can exchange again. Guess what, they said it they would not exchange because norton is incompatible for my computer and to call back in 24 to 48 hours. also they have deleted quite a few of my posts on this subject. I asked them to send me a virus program that will work even if its cheaper then the norton 360 was and they tried to send me to sales. so here i have norton they wont refund, exchange, or send me a cheaper program that works in exchange. dont just be afraid to shop online be afraid to shop with dell period. on the plus side i did get refunded most of my dell on call. i paid for a year and they kept 1 call worth and wasnt going to refund the rest either because they said i used 2 calls. I told them any calls after 4/4 all were about norton so i got most of that back.BUT until i see it on my statement i wont believe it. its amazing that dell is willing to lose future business over something like this. good luck all. bella

One more thing half the people I talked to said my computer met the requirments but that it would slow my computer down, others said not enough memoryand it will not work, and yet others said if i just disable most of norton 360 and just let the virus program run that my computer would work fine. The original tech on 4/4 said nothing about memory requirements. slowdowns, So while I understand policy they wont even exchange it now which is policy exchange for same software. just wanted to clarify that in this case they are picking which policy to adhere to(no refund on opened package) and which one not to (exchange for exact same software)

another funny thing. the account is in my husbands name with me authorized. well i have never had sales ask to talk to my husband before letting me purchase something. earlier this week i contacted dell financial to set up online payments. for whatever reason i was not in thier system as a authorized user and they would not talk to me until after they talked to my husband. so they will sell all you want as long as you know certain info whether your name is on the account or not bella

UPDATE:

I have now done two things:

1. Initiated the chargeback on my credit card. It is frozen, and I will be completing a lengthy form when it arrives. I had a long chat to Visa about this, and I am on sound ground.

2. I have sent back the useless cartridges by recorded delivery. So I no longer have their 'product': it has been returned, as per my legal rights. If they send it back I simply won't accept it. 

I have also thrown out the Dell printers and replaced them with HP C4580's. Printers and even AIO's are cheap: a vehicle to earn money via ink sales. I am simply not prepared to hand Dell any money for anything at all, either now or in the future. I simply don't have tot trade with those who try to rip me off, and won't.

I had 2 dell financial accounts, for 2 seperate companies and they canceled both my accounts for no reason, I made all my payments on time and neither were over the limit. No notice, not even a reason why once I called them.  Completely ridiculous.

I had to find 10k in 2 weeks to finance a new store I was building out.

Interloper1,

GREAT Choice, the HP C4580.

Good luck,

Rick

Thanks Rick. They are certainly a lot faster and cheaper to run than the Dell's were.

UPDATE:

The returned cartridges have now arrived at the Dell building in Bracknall and have been signed for. Next stage is to force through the chargeback and then contact the trading authorites.

The cookies that store your selected products and are used to transmit that information to Dell are the same ones that cause the items to display on your screen when you check out.  Do you have any proof that it wasn't you who messed up here (like a screen shot of the order confirmation page)?  Your story is wildly implausible.

Dell sends email confirmations of the order.  I wonder what product was listed on yours? 

I know what I did, Mr 13,734 Posts, so please don't infer that I am an idiot to a liar. That, though, is the sort of approach I expect from Dell.

I looked at the A940 cartridges, started to order, realized it was wrong, back tracked, looked for the A920 cartridges, found them, proceeded to order, and the purchased.

On completion I was issued with a confirmation/acknowledgment (printed!) for 'printer cartridges'. Not A940 printer cartridges, nor A920 printer cartridges, but just 'printer cartridges'.

Those are FACTS from a guy who is not insane, has worked in IT for 30 years, owns an internet business, and is capable of ordering products from a website, even a website as badly designed as yours.

However Dell tell you to misrepresent me or my actions will not change that. Nor will they change: the chargeback, the return of the products, the removal of all Dell printers (and eventually PCs) from here, the posts on forums such as this, the complaints I intend to press through trading standards and other parties, and the other initiatives I have planned to expose Dell for what it clearly is.

I am opting out of this thread at this time.....

Am getting sick and tired of hearing this lamentable story.

Deal with it, please, and get on with your life.

If you don't like the thread llynster, don't read the thread. Problem solved. There's no need to cry about it to us. Best of luck with your future transactions with Dell though: the chances are that you will need it.