There’s an old saying in the newspaper business. Never get in a fight with a guy who buys paper by the roll and ink by the barrel.
And while Wizbang might not be the NY Times we have a fairly decent footprint and today I intend on using it.
A few recent Dell horror stories.
– I had a customer who bought a Dell laptop and had the screen go out. We shipped it to Dell and 3 months later they shipped it back. By that time it was out of warranty so when she had another part failed -just 2 days after she got it back- she was out of luck. A call to Dell got us scolded for not buying an extended warranty.
– I had a customer who was shipped the wrong thing -3 times- and had his charge card billed each time.
Then there was this week’s battle. I ordered a product on April 9th. Within a few days I got an email saying the ship date had slipped to May 2nd. I was annoyed but I let the order ride.
On May 2nd there was no package but an email saying I would get it May 9th. The 9th came and went and all I got was an email saying May 16th was the ship date. At this point I had had enough. So I picked up the phone and called Dell India.
India was polite enough but they couldn’t understand me and I wasn’t doing too well understanding them. 66 minutes later I convinced India to give me to someone who actually spoke the same language I did.
Another phone number got me to Oregon. After 32 minutes on the phone with Oregon, we came to the conclusion that nobody in Oregon knew when -or if- I’d ever get shipped a product. So Oregon sent me to another phone number where they could “absolutely” give me an answer. I tried every branch on that phone tree and could not even get a human. It was an automated system which simply said my order was “being processed.” – That much I already knew.
So I called Oregon again and after 23 minutes the guy told me that there was no way I was getting my product, that Dell no longer carried it. I asked why I kept getting emails saying the product would be shipped on a specific date and he explained to me that if their system sees a missed ship date that it automatically sends a mail out tacking 1 week onto the last ship date. — In other words, the emails were completely bogus. It was a lie. There was no ship date.
I told the guy I didn’t appreciate being lied to and he said that it was a computer sending the mail and computers could not lie only humans could.
So I drew a deep breath and explained that I did not appreciate the the humans at Dell who programmed their computer to lie to me. He then told me he didn’t appreciate me being rude.
I then asked -in a calm a measured voice- if he thought it was rude to take someone’s money then lie to them about when they would ship their product. He stammered a few times then put me on hold to flip me to some other person who was going to jerk my chain some more.
After 2+ hours, I hung up the phone and blogged it.
I might not get my product and I will certainly never get the 2+ hours of my life back they wasted, but I can spread the word how much Dell Sucks. The only thing does right is the make good monitors,
Look people its the computer illiterates who want cheap stuff that made this happen. Cost cutting had to come from somewhere. I am sure there was a day when toasters were a high quality product.
Thanks to cheapskates, my profession is almost obsolete. Thanks cheap consumers
The company I work at have dell computers. I have to fix them when something doesnt work and I got a dell laptop. The laptop is not worth 1 dollar. its so annoying. The performance is way below what it sais it is supposed to be. When I open word, listen to music and the computer starts the screensaver the fan starts blowing at 100%, making a loud noise. But it doesn’t help. All it really does is make noise. The screen saver lags (its just a flash screen saver). The quality of the laptop is also horrible. My friends here at the company with the same laptop had a bunch of problems. Keyboard keys wouldnt work. Mainboard broke by one of them and 2 of them had to replace their screen. Then I had to repair a desktop pc. it dropped about 3 inches on floor. Shit happens but the bad thing was that all the parts in the computer were displaced! for example the cd rom and powersupply. Dell sells cheap computers with windows etc. so its an attractive offer. but dell builds their pcs with machines and if something is broken they dont try to find the problem they just replace that part of the computer, like an entire mainboard. they say its cheaper for them that way. We also had a problem where a whole series of computers had a problem with their condensators. I just don’t think dell is worth it. you buy the computers at a nice price, but eventually you have too much trouble. I prefer HP for companies. But I guess everyone has their own aspect. This is just my opinion i became after working with dell pcs for 4 years. Every friend that buys a dell computer after I told him not to wont get my support 😉
I have had a Home Office and Business relationship with Dell for about three years now. About two years ago, I bought a Dell 8600 and took what I considered to be great care of it: I utilized it only to play MP3’s for my business. To this day, it has never been put online nor installed any other software other then PCDJ, which is what I use for my business. In total, I would guesstimate that I have only put about one hundred working hours on since purchasing it. Seven nights ago I inadvertently left it plugged in overnight for the 1st time. In the morning I found that the LCD was not working at all. I called Dell, and, after being put on hold for an exorbitant amount of time, I found myself being transferred from incorrect department to incorrect department to incorrect department until I finally reached someone in the Dell Support Dept who could help me. After working with the Dell Support team for a while, they concluded that the LCD was completely dead. This led me to another several hours of waiting to talk to another department and four more bad transfers. Then I was sent to their “Out of Warranty Department” who told me that the only solution was to replace the LCD for $584.00. Great solution to my purchase of a $1,500.00 computer, don’t you think? On my way home, I stopped by a computer repair shop. They see a lot of Dells come in and they cannot say enough bad comments about Dell as a whole. I find it conveniently odd that just after my warranty ran out that my Dell started malfunctioning. This is not acceptable. There have not been any warning signs that the LCD was going out along the way; it just died. According to some research I have done on the Internet, I am not alone. There are tons of bloggers out there who have had the same or similar issues with their Dell computer and their customer care lines. In conclusion DON’T BUY A DELL.
So did anyone contact “Nancy” or “Lionel” from dell’s customer care dept? If so what has been the outcome?
I too have a Dell horror story involving botched ordering, double charges to my visa, numerous calls to customer care, being promised and lied to, being called a lier and blamed for creating this entire mess myself. I’ve been hung up on, put on hold for 30 minutes at a time, transferred to numerous differnt people….etc…..etc….
I keep getting the standard appologies and assurances that this is not the norm at Dell, but nothing changes other than to get worse. I am now at the point where I am ready to ship the laptop back tp Dell and never buying from them again, but after owning 2 other Dell laptops in the past and not having such problems I am hesitant to do so….
Part of me hopes this is just an isolated incident but not after reading such horror stories.
Here is the only responce/correspondence I have had with Dell reguarding my issue post dated July 27, 2006. To Start it off this is Matt from “Dell’s Customer Care Department”. >>>> Michael,
I am not able to repair the system at Dell’s cost since the service contract for it expired over a year ago. Another option that you have for the LCD is to buy the part only and have it installed by a 3rd party.
Matt UID: 403186
Matt-
If you are not able to repair the LCD yourself then may I suggest perhaps you find a supervisor to do so. I will not go back and forth with this
issue. I will however go to the BBB with my complaint and inform them just how many clients have the same issue as I do.
Mr. Michael
Michael,
I am a supervisor here at Dell. The system was not purchased with an extended service contract past the one year Return to Depot. The date the
contract ended was on March 14, 2005. You can see that information on this link:Â
>http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/en/details?
>Here is the direct link to Dell’s Better Business Bureau page.
>http://austin.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=41453
Matt UID: 403186
Matt-
It seems so convenient to have all your computers malfunction after the “Warranty Period” ends. Perhaps the BBB needs to investigate this issue.
Although the internet community has spoken loud enough to get my attention to the class action suit forming. Your company has elected to blow off their customer base so much that you have to list the BBB link with your reply. How unprofessional can Dell get, to not even respond to the original complaint with any other offers other then referring to the “Warranty Period”. Take some responsibility for your products and maybe in the future Dell would not have so many consumers dis-liking their business practices to
make less complaints to you, the BBB, consumer reports not to mention word-of-mouth. If Dell is not even able to offer a discount repair price
from the $584.00 quoted over the phone, then Dell has lost my business for LIFE. If that is the case I ask you Matt, to delete me from all mailings in all departments and to stop sending me any promotional items. Or exercise
your last chance to recover a consumer by calling me directly to discuss your other alternatives to my $1500.00 purchase. I can be reached at
555-555-5555. If I miss your call you can leave a message with YOUR DIRECT
NUMBER. I will call you back.
Mr. Michael
Michael,
The system was purchased nearly 29 months ago. Both the one year hardware warranty period and the one year Return to Depot service contact, that was selected at the time of sale, had long expired. Again, you can see the dates of
service contract at this after entering in the service tag:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/en/details?
The offers that Dell makes for the systems are the choices of service contracts and their stated time. These were not exercised by yourself or an agent working on your behalf.
Matt UID: 403186
Matt-
You and Dell have lost my business for LIFE. I am requesting my name and address to be removed from all department mailings commencing immediately. Please send confirmation that you have deleted my information.
Mr. Michael
Michael,
Here are the confirmation messages:
removed from future mailings has been received.
We will process your request promptly. However, it may take several weeks for some changes to take effect. In the interim, you may continue to be included in marketing programs as described above.
P.S >>>>>> Dell Satisfaction Survey
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support on 07/26/2006 with a question or need from Dell. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and are interested in your feedback concerning our performance.
Dell has asked TNS Prognostics, a customer satisfaction research company in the IT industry, to help us conduct a survey regarding your experience. To help ensure we are providing expert assistance, please provide your feedback in this brief survey. This survey should take approximately 5 – 7 minutes to complete.
To complete the survey, please click on the web address below. If that does not work, copy and paste the entire web address into the address field of your browser.
https://dell.prognostics.com/s.asp?ID=A3793F07C4D94E79A0AA6E2FB4431B12
If you are an AOL user, please click on the following link:
HREF=”https://dell.prognostics.com/s.asp?ID=A3793F07C4D94E79A0AA6E2FB4431B12″>Take
Survey
NOTE: Some e-mail programs may have split the above URL onto two lines. If you
are prompted for a PIN, please cut and paste the following into provided space:
A3793F07C4D94E79A0AA6E2FB4431B12
We look forward to your feedback.
Sincerely,
Dell Support Team
WAAAAAAAAA…. WAAAAAAA WAAAAAA….
You’re all a bunch of winers.
Dell’s service on all fronts sucks as much as Bush’s foreign policy. Both make money for rich shitheads, but working class folks get fucked all around.
I hope Dell and Bush become absent, soon.
First of all, forget about ihatedell.net – it’s run by a bunch of corporate shills and whores for Dell. You post a complaint there, then they tell you 1000 reasons why the customer is an “idiot” and a “moron” and they wouldn’t want to help you.
Second of all, it seems like whenever any customer, anywhere, has a complaint against a company such as Dell, they’ll tell you you’re being “rude”. If you want to get what you paid for, or get them to honor a warranty, how dare you ask for your money’s worth? You’re being “rude” if you want what you paid for! Nice excuse so they can wriggle out of doing the right thing – the customer is rude, blah blah blah. Never that THEY are incompetent idiots and morons.
And the outsourcing to India – don’t even get me started on that!
Letter I sent to DELL. -YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE, We received a GX620 with the Ultra Small Form Factor case, We have loaded and set up the computer and registered it with Microsoft, We realized there was a problem with the bottom case cover, I have spent 2 hours on the phone trying to explain and getting pushed around to other departments to get no help. I need a new bottom cover or bottom chassis, 4 screws and it is replaced, Your tech had me dis-assemble it to verify the problem. NO ONE can convince me the part is not available when you are still selling the product. I don’t want another PC I want the repair part, I have friends that work for Dell, They told me to order another, swap my drive and send the other back. But no, thats not allowed, and not somthing I would consider, And I am not buying an additional piece of software to move files to another new computer just because you are unwilling to support the product. One tech suggested I buy ghost and get a new PC, If you people would just Send a replacement cover then we will be square. Basically the lady that called back around 10 Central indicated I should buy some other vendors product. I have 2 Dell PowerEdge 4400 Servers and 1 Dell Precision 610 workstation, And I just gave My son one of the old GX300 systems that I thought I didn’t need anymore. I thought I would upgrade Our desktops to newer Dell, But considering the way I have been treated, and the lack of repair parts Maybe I should send back the two We just bought and go back to the HP/Compaq’s we previously had. Apparently Dell won’t supply simple repair parts.
Basically I was told if I didnn’t like it I could go somewhere else. It’s unfortunate that DELL doesn’t care for anything but the dollar. and doesn’t stand behind their product.
Everything produced my Dell is junk. Dell is Wal-mart in computer industry. Here is my timeline of Dell Inspiron 700m.
Bought: Nov 2004
Screen Broken: Oct 2005. (After sending 20 emails, an Indian from India working for Dell admitted that was their fault.)
Replacement Screen Received: Dec 2005
CD-Rom broken: Dec 2005
Hard Drive Broken: Dec 2006
DO NOT BUY DELL. You will definitely regret it. Dell is Hell. Save some money and buy an IBM!!!!!
On September 7th, 2006, there was a deal that was advertised on the site that if you bought a new Inspiron laptop, qualifying customers would receive no interest for one full year.
I called up Dell and asked them if I would qualify for this deal that they were advertising. A Dell Customer Service Representative that I spoke to me told me that if I purchased my laptop it would tell me if I was qualified on my statement that I would receive. Note: I have been using my step-mother’s account, because I didn’t have one and it was easier just to buy one on her account.
On my first statement, I was not charged any interest, so I figured that I qualified. It didn’t tell me ANYWHERE that I was not qualified. So, for the past six months, my step-mother was just telling me how much the bill was and paying three to four times as much as my minimum payment.
Just recently, I happened to glance at the bill because it was left on the table, and I noticed an interest charge. So, I found the previous bill statements and I was charged anywhere from $25 to over $50 in interest fees.
Concerned, I called up Dell in a calm manner and spoke to a CSR. I quickly became irate when he told me that I didn’t qualify for the offer and there was nothing he could do. He told me that in the Terms & Conditions that I received, it said that I had to have a specific credit rating with them to qualify. I asked him where did it say my credit rating and he told me that it doesn’t say on it. Then he told me that to get it cleared up, I had to call when I received my first bill. I asked, “How come there is no interest on the first bill, but there is a $50 interest charge on the second one and so forth?” He told me that I was charged double on the second bill and not the first.
I asked, “Then how the hell did I know that I wasn’t within those 30 days if Dell didn’t charge me an interest fee?” He couldn’t answer me. So, then in a more angry manner, I asked, “So, you’re telling me that by the time I get my second bill, it would be too late to call you up and get this cleared?” Again, he couldn’t answer me. I asked to speak to a manager.
He forwarded me to a manager, where the manager told me that there was nothing he could do. (This is after being transferred from different representatives a total of four times and being on the phone for almost two hours). I was completely irate and I did disrespect him by yelling and using bad language. He told me several times that there was nothing I could do unless I could prove that I was approved. But how can I do that when there was nothing that TOLD me whether I was approved or not? I was irate and kept him on the phone for about a half hour just complaining about the company and how they screwed me over. He finally said, “Well, I can give you a $30 rebate–” and I interrupted him not knowing whether he would give me a $30 rebate off from my bills or ANOTHER (horrible) purchase from Dell. I was irate. I got his name (just incase) and he gave me an address where I could contact someone if I had proof of the offer. He then told me that there was no offer advertised.
So, after being charged over $400 in interest fees alone and over $1000 in interest fees by the time I get this paid off, he could only give me a $30 rebate?
I am completely pissed off with everything about Dell, from their horrible customer service, to their sneaky tactics on how to screw customers over.
I am out of options and I don’t know what to do. I have to pay the payments, obviously, but they have already suckered me out of $400 and by the time I pay it off, there will be over $1000 paid to Dell.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard of many lawsuits on Dell. I wish I could just sue them on Judge Judy. I would only sue for the laptop and everything that I paid to be paid back to me. I’m not greedy, I’m just completely angry that they could do that to me. But then again, I doubt that would be a viable lawsuit, not to mention, if I did sue, the money to hire a lawyer would be just the same. So, then I’d have to sue for the money to pay the lawyer too.
If you read that, sorry it was so long. :\
Hmm…When we had our horrible Compaq 3 years ago, i swore that that was the worst computer ever made!
So i decided never to buy one again. So my dad (3 years ago) decides hes gunna be cool and Get a Dell dimension desktop. Wow it looked fantastic. At the time I knew absolutely NOTHING about computers, didnt even know what pc stood for, lol.
So we ordered one and everything was fine. 2 weeks later, since the computer was sooo great my dad ordered another one for my Brother. Big mistake.
3 months after my dad ordered his it became extremely sluggish. Opening microsoft word took 2-3 minutes. (My dad uses his comp. only for email, Word, and very minimal internet, NO music)
and again, 3 months after my Brother got his it did the same thing, but he was doing heavy Music and surfing
Yesterday my brother couldnt take it and made me call CS to talk to a rep, and i ended up having to reinstall the OS to factory settings…
Today my dads computer wouldnt even load windows. So i troubleshooted and nothing worked. Ive been in the Dell Chat with a rep for 2 hours, and he JUST told me i haveto reinstall the OS…
So wat i understand from this is that every year or 2 we will haveto reinstall the OS?
The funny thing is that i have a HP Laptop and ive had it for almost 2 years and its just like i started it yesterday! I Do Very heavy music (I have a little music company), Video edditing, and lots of Photoshop. And i have the exact same specs as my Dad and Bros pcs…..WoW, that says alot
(And i have a laptop which is supposed to be a little slower than desktops)
Screw Dell, im not going to reinstall the OS. I am just going to spend money and get a good computer, im leaning towards a mac (lol my dad has no say in this……
Have I mentioned that i NEVER had a problem with MY laptop?
Let me just add DELL has lost my business not only were they a little shady in their business, giving me the run around for a couple of weeks but I now have a NON – PIP LCD TV when I purchased a PIP w/dual HDTV Tuners LCD TV.
Here’s the story, I bought the Dell 26″ PIP Dual HDTV Tuners. Within the first year it started to shut off by itself as did the next 3 replacements. Some started to do this right out of the box. So Dell sent me a new 26″ NON – PIP No dual HDTV tuners. I quickly informed them they’ve made a mistake & set the wrong TV. After some running around Dell said since I was having so much trouble with the TV, like Dell wasn’t they’d send out a 32″.
I received the 32″ PIP w/ dual HD tuners. I had earlier bought an antennae for Free HDTV & was enjoying the set a great deal until & this is all within my extended warranty there appeared to be lamp burn in on the screen. So I called Dell ask if it was under warranty & the girl said they’d have it replaced. They than sent a 32″ LCD TV – no PIP no Dual HDTV Turners. So my antennae is now for the birds. I can’t watch my surveillance cameras on PIP.
These were the reasons I bought the TV I did originally. Dell has said they have stopped the warranty on this TV & will do nothing further. I also own 2 high end Dell computers & when they sent the 32″ I felt like they would stand behind their products. Silly me went & bought the 37″ PIP Dual HDTV tuners for the next room. In order to synchronize free HDTV both sets need the dual HDTV turner. Now I can’t have the volume on if I’m watching the same channel as the other set due to the time delay in HD to Analog TV which is what I’m forced to view, not HDTV like I bought. Touch wood I’ve not had any issues with the other products, yet. The 37″ TV is the latest purchase around a year old now, yikes!
They don’t make the original 26″ LCD PIP HDTV anymore. I would have been happy if they’d sent me a refurbished 32″ PIP HDTV. I feel I don’t have what I paid for & the warranty is still ongoing.
I need to purchase another brand but not from Dell & put this 32″ TV in one of the other rooms to collect dust. It’s not what I would have bought for the office. It’s like them giving someone a computer with more memory but with No CD/DVD drives. Yeah it works but not very practical to use in the office.
Well now we all know better than to buy Dell ever again.
I have been a reseller of Dell products for several months in a very small town, doing about $10,000 in sales for them a month. My problems with the company started almost immediately. First was the always late shipping, items would always be atleast a week late. Account rep Greg Bunch would never return your calls, ever. You would have to make a complaint to his supervisors to get him to return your calls. When he did he would say its on its way. The last problem was a $10,000 sale, paid off the Dell account to $0 placed the 10,000 order and they said oh you are no longer a reseller, you are hurting our sales in that area. I built my business on selling Dell, and was found in a very bad position. Quick actions helped save the business, but that doesnt help with the additional $10,000 they say I owe. Guess It’s time for court.
Pissed of EX Reseller of the worst PC maker ever!
now that a NY judge has come down on Dell, perhaps contact them for info on how to deal with all of these problems. I’m a Canadian who has also had problems, and am looking into what can be done up here.
Buying a Dell desktop was the biggest mistake I’ve made in the last twenty years of personal computing. It’s failures get greater as the months go by, and that’s only a few months. They so far refuse to refund my money, so I must watse more time and take Dell to small claims court.