A serious problem

Let me start by saying that I have been a Dell customer for years and am writing this post with the hope that Dell will acknowledge the problems in their system and make some changes.

My entire family has used Dell laptops and I've been a Dell customer since I was old enough to buy a laptop. I've always felt like Dell was always the best choice - good quality products, responsive customer care and great after sales service, especially repairs under warranty. 

Last year I was in the market for another laptop and bought the Dell XPS 9500 without hesitation. Now, I am truly regretting it. It has been 7 months since I placed my order and I have received 2 defective laptops from Dell. One month for the first laptop to be delivered, 3 months for Dell to run tests and deliver the second one, 3 more months and I've yet to receive the third. 

In the past 7 months I have received many scripted apologies and promises, yet there has been no effort to rectify the situation. I've also become familiar with how various teams within Dell function and to be honest it is quite shocking. 

1. There is no sense of accountability. Absolutely zero. The sales representative ignored my emails and dodged my phone calls for weeks. When I tried to escalate the situation to his manager, he pretty much did the same. I needed to talk to someone so I contacted customer care who asked me to email the CGM team. They too ignored my emails. I was finally able to speak to someone after I shamed Dell on Twitter. Even so, there was no acknowledgement, forget an apology for this unprofessional behavior.
2. The TAT for a replacement laptop is around 60 days. Yes, Dell is very open about their replacement policy, but isn't it time they changed this? 2 months to replace a laptop is extremely impractical and frankly unheard of among Dell's competitors. Moreover, a customer first needs to return the defective system, only after which Dell will place an order for a replacement system without even knowing if one is available in the country. If it is not available, they will order it from elsewhere and that just adds to the delay. This shows a complete lack of consideration for the customer and the resources they have invested in Dell's products. This really needs to change. Dell's competitors deliver laptops within days, or even weeks, not months. Even if we try to attribute this to heavy quality control - how did I receive 2 defective laptops?
   
3. Customer Care (phone and online) have limited and sometimes outdated information. They are also not willing or able to answer any of your questions. For some reason they do not have all the information and I can only postulate that Dell does not consolidate customer records in one single location. These people need to contact other departments to figure out what's going on and as a result, they are reluctant to even try. I know this because after half an hour of arguing, they finally decided to look into it, only to find out that Dell needed some information from me and had somehow failed to ask for it.
   
4. Customer Care and Technical Support seem to be completely firewalled from the Replacement Team. There is no way of getting in touch with them except via email, which largely goes ignored. You are completely at their mercy and if you want an update on why your replacement was delayed yet again, good luck. 
   
5. Dell doesn't reassign cases when its employees go on vacation. This basically means, your emails will go ignored for weeks at a time. This has happened to me twice in 7 months.

A brief search online will show you these are not isolated incidents. This is becoming increasingly more common and Dell doesn't seem to be doing anything to change this. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with how Dell has handled things and I suspect this will be my last Dell laptop. 

I apologize for the long post and hope it will be of use to other customers who run into these problems.