Complaint Rating:

I ordered a laptop from Dell in June 1999, a few months before starting law school. Immediately, I noticed problems. It would stay on for more than a few minutes, applications weren't operating properly, etc. I called the same day I received it and repeatedly called at least once (up to four times) a day until November to complain. Dells' phone reps would give me incomplete information, refuse to identify themselves, hang up on me all the time and not log my calls. Dell absolutely refused to replace the laptop even though by the time August rolled around, the keys were falling off, the mouse would lock up, the screen would go dead and nearly none of the applications would work properly. I lost all of my first semester notes right before exams! I even got the IT people at the law school involved and reached the VP. I wish I could remember her name because she was unbelievably rude. She accused me of lying and trying to con my way into getting another laptop. I guess she didn't consider the only reason I would want another after only a few hours of ownership was because what they sent me was junk. She advised me on the phone that I was "very lucky" that they were offering to replace my laptop with a refurbished one and that I should be grateful and take it. I didn't spend $2,511 on a used laptop! No thanks! After hundreds of hours wasted trying to resolve the problem directly with Dell, I contacted the Better Business Bureau. Within three days, Dell refunded my money along with a very nasty note from the VP mentioned above. As a bonus, the woman at the BBB who contacted me regarding my complaint said that she was assigned to handle only Dell laptop complaints because there were so many of them and that when she previously worked for FedEx in Texas, they had a dedicated warehouse for all of the Dell laptop returns. I still smile when I hear business reports that hold the promise that Dell will go down the toilet. I can only hope Mr. Dell and his cohorts suffer the same miserable "customer service" when ordering their yahts and sports cars.