Let me apologize in advance for the title of this post, as I don’t normally use that type of language, so that should give you an idea of what I’m going through right now. As I write this post, I’m forced to resist the urge to go to the doctor and get my blood pressure checked. See, I just got off the phone with Dell. Or should I say I was just disconnected from the phone by Dell?
It all started a few months ago when my wife decided she needed a new desktop computer for her business. After looking at her computer, I realized she was still using an old Gateway we bought 6-7 years ago! She has always used PC’s in the past and is comfortable using them, so naturally we began looking for a good deal on a brand new personal computer. Over Memorial Day weekend we received an email with some specials from Dell which were pretty good deals, and I’ve read a lot about how Dell has improved their customer service from Jeff Jarvis, so I decided we would give Dell our business. I gave Dell a call and spoke to a friendly sales woman who worked with me to find the best PC for our needs. I stressed several times throughout the call the only real need we had was for a dual monitor setup (needed two identical monitors and a card that supports dual monitors). I also am a proactive person, so I decided to have them build a wireless modem into the desktop computer as well since they were custom building it anyway. After we got everything figured out at a price I was happy with, I placed the order and all was good.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and my wife is excited the computer and monitors has finally arrived. I unpack it and begin getting things setup only to discover to my horror that they shipped me two DIFFERENT monitors. Not only are they different, but one is a 20 inch monitor and the other is a 22 inch widescreen which operates on a different resolution. When I open up the box to the computer, I also discovered they simply threw in an external wireless antenna instead of building it into the computer (like they’ve done on our other Dell computers in the past). In other words, I’m stuck with a worthless piece of hardware.
Of course from what I’ve heard about Dell’s new and improved customer service, all is good, right? I’ll call up, they’ll correct their error and all will be good….or so I hoped. Unfortunately within 5 minutes of making my call, I had been transfered a total of 6 times to different people, most of which were difficult to understand. I finally landed with someone who I thought could help me, but after 5 minutes of explaining the details and providing the order number for the 6th time, I was informed that I had again been transferred to the wrong department and they would be transfering me again. After being sent to representative number 7, he took the information, then informed me I would need to speak to their returns department to return my monitor, then once that was done, I’d need to speak to the technical support team (who’d I’d already been transferred to in the past). After I politely complained about the customer service I was getting, the gentleman (I use this term loosely) placed me on hold and I was introduced to the dial tone. Thats right, apparently I had been hung up on.
So, now I’m out countless hours that I’ve invested into researching, purchasing, setting up, and now dealing with these problems, and I’m no better off. My wife has two different size monitors that don’t even operate on the same resolution, and I’m out a significant amount of money. To make it worse, my wife is the one who will suffer because I convinced her to go with Dell. I’m at a loss as to what to do now, as I can’t seem to find anyone within the company that can help me. Anyone have any ideas?
This song is amazing. He always came with a nice and good song. 
I totally agree Kyle; Amazon is certainly an excellent retailer. They have done very well because of their customer service ...
Give Dell a prestigious consumer award....Tell your story via video on youtube with the climax being your blowing up of ...
Well I am not letting it go easily. I am going to keep going to complain unless someone from their ...
David on June 20, 2009
Don’t use the phone. Use their e-mail and web support tools. I have had amazing success with them.
The people on the phone are nearly useless. If you do phone again, always ask to speak to a manager, and explain that more than one transfer will make you send the whole thing back and you’ll expect a full refund for the time they’ve wasted.
Never let a business get away with making you pay for what you don’t want, especially in this market.
Be persistent, and I am sure you’ll get this whole situation rectified. Dell has improved by leaps and bounds from my own experiences over the last three years (2 laptop purchases).
Kyle Eslick on June 20, 2009
David,
Thanks for the tips! It is good to see that you have found a way to find success with Dell. I have tried the supervisor approach, but the broken English is still frustrating, so I will have to give that a shot.
I should publish an updated post here shortly!
What Would Google Do? Book by Jeff Jarvis « KyleEslick.com on July 2, 2009
[...] to Michaell Dell, the CEO of Dell computers. Ironically enough, I was going through my own troubles with Dell at the time (which didn’t end so well), so it made this particular chapter all the more [...]
Pissed Off At Shitty Dell (once again) on October 21, 2009
i have a dell xps gen 3 and it is the biggest peice of shit ever. the fan sounds like a god damn jumbo jet taking off, it hasnt worked correctly since the day i bought it and it plain old fucking sucks
Alex C on November 6, 2009
Give Dell a prestigious consumer award….Tell your story via video on youtube with the climax being your blowing up of the offending piece of Dell crap, then make certain to link it to every social network site using ‘Dell’, ‘pc’, ‘customer service’ & every other appropriate keyword that someone researching/ buying a computer online might use for their google search…monetize it by selling “Dell sucks” bumper stickers, t shirts, refrigerator magnets, etc….then buy yourself a mac.
Erin on December 4, 2009
I have a Dell computer and buying one is easy – giving them money is very EASY !!!!! Once you need them – well that is another story !! I was in the hospital with my husband and my computer just died. Wouldnt turn on. Due to stress and stupidity I was convinced by the tech person that I needed a new battery even though I always plugged it in. I quetioned multiple times how this could be and he said that the combination of the battery pack under the computer and the one you plug into the wall was needed for it to work. Call me blonde I bought it as I needed to keep up with the family while my husband struggled to stay alive in TLC – Trauma Life Center. Well, it didnt work. We just got out of the hospital today (37 days later) and followed the instructions on my invoice to call for a return auth. number. I was advised I was too late and they couldnt return it. I had to do this within 30 days. When I complained they transferred me to customer service and asked how would I know about the 21 days as I could not find it any where on my invoice, acknowledgement, etc. He said that everyone in the United States knows the 30 day rule and that it is on their website. They didnt need to put this on their invoice. When I complained about this and asked for help I was transferred again. This person told me that I only had 21 days for software. I said it was a battery and not software and I was advised they considered a battery in this category. Again questioned where I could find this or why the tech person didnt tell me this as he knew I was in the hospital and wasnt sure when my husband would be released – he just apologized and said he couldnt help me. I asked for a Mgr. and he said that he is on vacation and there are no other one’s here. Even if he was their computers are not set up to be able to return anything after 21 days. So, no one could help me. I said how do I even know the battery worked ? He said to find someone with the same computer and test it !!!!! OMG !! I read their invoice which indicated the steps to return something and all he would do was apologize and say he cant help me. I was transferred to tech support again and this new person said that I could return it. I said great – would they credit my Credit Card. He said that there would be no refund, but I could return the battery. He offered some coupons instead for $25. The battery was $145. I said how would these help me if I dont have a computer that works ? I am very very frustrated and cant believe this is happening to us. Does anyone have any suggestions ? If this were maybe $40 it would be one thing but $145 we just cant afford. Although this may be the price of my being blonde I really hope someone has a solution.
Thanks,
Erin
Anita C. on March 17, 2010
Wasn’t just what I was trying to find but started reading the first few lines and it was interesting so ended up reading the whole post, thanks.
Fuck dell and all their personell on April 1, 2010
Well I am not letting it go easily. I am going to keep going to complain unless someone from their superieor staff hears me. So, tired of this dell customer service. I am not being rude just so fed up with this company. There is something needs to be done. And I need somebody to lesten to me and be heard. I am hiring the lawer tomorrow to cue their ass off. Fucking done with dell forever.
Bruce on May 19, 2010
Give Dell a prestigious consumer award….Tell your story via video on youtube with the climax being your blowing up of the offending piece of Dell crap, then make certain to link it to every social network site using ‘Dell’, ‘pc’, ‘customer service’ & every other appropriate keyword that someone researching/ buying a computer online might use for their google search…monetize it by selling “Dell sucks” bumper stickers, t shirts, refrigerator magnets, etc….then buy yourself a mac.