Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Dell
United States
www.dell.com

I purchased my Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop with the wireless router and wireless printer back in March/April. Immediately I had major software compatibility issues between Windows Vista and the wireless printer. In addition to that Windows Vista made the computer screen flash and does other crazy things. I called Dell Customer Service to fix the problem and was on the phone with a very, very, very hard to understand rep for about two hours!! Eventually the problem got fixed by the person taking over control of my computer through the internet.

Well after the rep "fixed" my printer problem she created a new problem for me. I kept getting error messages recommending me to shut my computer down. Also if I left the computer on and didn’t return to it for more than 45 minutes or so it would apparently "shut" itself down and when I tried to start it again it would come up recommending starting in "safe" mode because it was shut down improperly. Once again I found myself on the phone with tech support for waaaaaaay too long with another person who was seriously hard to understand again!! I got no where with her because she didn’t know what she was doing and sounded like she was reading solutions from a computer screen or something. I couldn’t stay on the phone with her after and hour or so because I had to tend to my two children under the age of 3 yrs old! I called back and finally got so aggravated again because AGAIN the Dell tech support person was so hard to understand that I demanded them to return the system completely.

They agreed but then called me back to try and convince me to keep the thing. I said only if they send me a new one and take the old one back. I was hoping I just happen to get a "lemon" computer or something. Well the new one arrived and same problems!! printer problems, self shutting down, hours on the phone wasted with tech support who are very hard to understand because they speak very broken English (they are out of India apparently). I had no time to deal with tech support at this point and needed a functioning computer for school and work so I had to pay my techie friend to come and fix it for me. Finally that did the trick and the computer worked. Even the wireless printer worked.

By then Dell Customer Service called me to check and see how my experience went with their tech support and I unloaded to him all of my on-going problems. I demanded I be credited some money off of my system due to my horrible experience and due to how much time I literally wasted on the phone with Dell tech support. If I am to keep this Dell computer it needs to be worth my while as a customer. The representative said he would get back to me after he got permission from his supervisor for the credit.

Well this rep went out sick and did not call me back after days passed by!! I left two messages on his VM (which did not say he was out sick by the way) to ask if I would indeed be receiving my credit. In the meantime my first statement arrived for payment on the system and I was NOT going to pay it until I heard back from the rep about my credit. Because if I was not going to be receiving the credit I had told him I may just return the computer for good

I then called another Dell rep to tell him I had not heard back about my credit after repeatedly leaving messages. He then got in contact with the original rep and finally the original rep called me and told me he was out sick and apologized to me. By this time my payment would have been considered late and he told me "don’t worry" just pay two months when I get my next statement. I said fine. He told me I was granted the credit that I requested.

Next thing I know and before my next statement came, I get a call from Dell Credit telling me I need to pay my "late" bill!!! What the heck!!! I tell the Dell credit person that I was told not to pay it until next month's statement. She said to avoid a "late" charge I should pay over the phone right now and that they would even waive the pay-by-phone charge for me. WOW. Aren’t they great? At this point I say fine Just to get her out of my hair and I pay by phone.

Well I receive my next statement to see a "late" charge on there. OMG I scream!!! I call Dell credit and they remove the fee after I tell them the story.

I receive my next statement and send my payment out on June 6th. It was due June 10th. Enough time to go from Pennsylvania to Illinois. Apparently they did not get it (or did not post it) until June 12th. And there is no grace period apparently. So I get ANOTHER late fee. I promptly call Dell credit to complain and demand that the late fee be removed. They then tell me that they are only allowed to remove one late fee within a 12 month period. I am furious at this point. I explain to the Dell credit rep that the first late fee removal should NOT even be relevant because that was not my fault. Still, the rep refused to remove the fee from my account. At this point I tell the rep I will be paying off my entire Dell account next month minus, of course the ridiculous "late" fee. And that I will NEVER pay that late fee because it is not justified. I explain that I have A-1 credit and have never had such problems with a company in my entire life. I pay all of my bills on time and don’t deserve to be treated this way by Dell credit.

So now here I am disgusted and appalled with the entire Dell Corporation and ALL of it's departments including; Tech Support, Customer Service and Credit. I will never, ever buy anything from Dell again and will advise all of my friends and relatives to do the same. I will post this on every "complaint" site I can to share my experience with and warn other consumers about Dell’s dysfunctional employee communication and products.