Re: Poor customer support

Question

Dell has apparently built some pretty  bad customer service processes  into its model.  Its all about sales, with poor after-sale service, and basically no real complaint process. This forum is as close as it gets, and its pretty obvious from other posts that customer service is not an isolated issue with Dell.  Contrast it with Amazon and other online vendors, who will bust a blood vessel to make their customers happy.  Heres my story. I decided to buy my son a basic Dell laptop for Christmas,  to replace his current Dell Mini notebook.  That nightmare went as follows: On 12/7, I bought a new factory sealed Dell 15'  i-3 laptop  on sale at Walmart.  Upon turning it on, there was a dead horizontal line, maybe one or two pixels wide, across the entire display. I returned it to Walmart and decided against replacing it with the same model because of the defect, and because  I saw on line that Dell had discontinued that particular model.  They had a comparable model available on line. Since the Dell on- line ship date at the time was already 12/18, I went to the local Dell mall kiosk, hoping I would get a safer before-Christmas ship date.  I ordered the comparable laptop along with a wireless mouse.  The delivery date was to be 12/20 or sooner.  Even though shipping was advertised as free, I had to pay the normal shipping cost upfront, and I was to get it refunded when the laptop arrived. The mouse arrived in 4 or 5  days, and had the shipping charges for the entire order attached to it. On paper, the shipping cost was more than the cost of the mouse itself.    At the time, I had  2 lengthy text chats and I think I made 3  phone calls to offshore  Dell agents to clarify questions I had about the laptop arrival date, and the shipping charges.  The laptop was always in production, but the 12/20 arrival date was consistently confirmed by all (and online).  However, no one could provide me with any information on when the laptop might actually be shipped, nor answer any questions about  a refund of shipping charges, nor even tell me who the shipper would be.      On 12/19, the day before the laptop  was to be delivered,   the on-line anticipated delivery date for the laptop was suddenly changed on the website page  to 12/28. I went back to the kiosk agent, who contacted Dell shipping staff by phone.  They told him that despite the on-line information, the 12/20 delivery date was actually still good. Apparently they are out of the loop too ...because....     Later that same day at home,  I received a rather blunt  automated phone call from Dell telling me that the laptop was on back order, would not be delivered, and offered me only an option to cancel. This is happening  six days before Christmas. The kiosk agent then recommended a cheaper but similar  Dell Pentium  laptop, which was available, and could be shipped quickly. In desperation, and instead of starting all over elsewhere, I went for that, cancelled my second Dell laptop purchase, and did a third order for the Dell Pentium laptop.     While checking the new order status on line later, I noticed that Dell had  cancelled it, with no reason shown.  The kiosk agent checked it for me, and called me later to tell me that the Dell fraud department had cancelled the new laptop order, apparently  due to their determination that my re-order was  somehow suspicious.  It was necessary for the kiosk agent to conference- in the offshore Dell fraud people on our call  so that  I could prove to them that my purchase was legitimate. When  I checked the Dell website later,  the new purchase order was reopened and the laptop was shipped soon after,  but per the Dell website, the anticipated delivery date was now 12/26, too late for Christmas.  Fortunately that date was also wrong, and FedX  showed a 12/21, next- day delivery date, which is what really occurred. Dell was five days off on this delivery date.   The local kiosk agent  was actually great, and was more than helpful. Everything else was just awful.  I still cant believe just how badly this simple order was messed up in so many ways. Some of this may relate to Christmas, and some may be inadvertent foul-ups, but most of it seems to relate to problems with  Dells own built-in processes, so Im guessing they occur all the time.         -A  brand new sealed Dell laptop (in a box with no damage) is shipped to Walmart with  an obvious defect on the screen? Clearly a factory issue. -Dell is aggressively advertising and selling products with insufficient inventory to cover orders? -Customers and Dell sales and service staff are in the dark about the real status of orders and the adequacy of  inventory? -Anticipated delivery dates on the website are simply wrong? -Apart from the terrible wait time, offshore Dell call staff are also unable to provide  very much customer and order information? -Dells offshore  fraud staff can summarily cancel customer orders without a good reason, or any research or justification other than a possible fraud  profile they have been given? -Dell charges upfront for advertised free shipping,  then returns the  shipping costs only if the customer aggressively pursues it? More phone calls and hassles, including a call to an offshore  special resolution agent and eventually their  supervisor -A 3 week wait to  finally get free shipping charges back?  And then only after getting a supervisor to agree to approve the refund? -All the while, Im getting advertising emails from Dell, telling me I've still got time to order  on line from Dell and get  free delivery before Christmas? -There is really no functional Dell complaint process?  Everything is funneled to the website or to offshore phone lines, where the agents cant tell you much, or fix issues. They often refer you to other Dell  offshore numbers.  If you fuss enough you get a Dell resolution specialist , who cant do much either. Apparently supervisors have to approve even obvious refund situations.   -It takes 3 separate Dell laptop purchases before I actually receive a working Dell laptop, and then its not the one I really wanted? I just hope it works out. I shudder to think about Dells customer service followup if it doesn't.     Obviously  I like Dell computers, since I have now purchased  a total of 4 of them...all 4 of them are still working by the way.   However, there is a limit to product loyalty when Dells customer service is this bad.

shesagordie · Answer

buzz22 I have moved your post to the Customer Care forum, where hopefully a Dell Liaison can address your issues. Bev.

MsJulia · Answer

, that really . I like Dell computers too - Recently decided to order a new Alienware Laptop for myself. The shipping for my laptop has been placed 'on hold' due to some delays. Haven't gotten any updates from Dell yet, but from what I gather from other posters, I'm worried it will be another month or two. Don't get me wrong, great computers...TERRIBLE customer service. With so many other computer manufacturers out there competing for business, I will probably decide to purchase my next computer elsewhere.

Customer Care

Was this post helpful?