Dell
reviews and complaints

Dell canada

I have not, as yet, been able to have dell and dell financial services properly deal with the issues happening to my account.

I have below a timeline of events that have transpired:

Feb 2007 ordered computer system from dell

19 march 2007 contract arrived from dfs

21-23 march 2007 parts of system arrive

27 marcy 2007 system arrived from dell - did not work

28 march 2007 called dell, spoke to ann, received the following dps numbers for returning system:
Xxxxxx044
Xxxxxx337
Xxxxxx659

28 march 2007 called dell financial - informed them I did not accept terms of contract & that system was being returned to dell

30 march 2007 system returned to dell - picked up by ups - everything packed in one box to save dell shipping charges

04 may 2007 received letter dated 25 april 2007 from dell financial services (Dfs) stating that I owed $101.80 - spoke with dfs who stated that one item from system hadn't been credited to my account & that they could do nothing to help me - had to speak with dell and have them credit my account.

04 may 2007 called dell - customer service agent told me that one dps ([protected]) hadn't been processed. Told me it would be fixed within 5 business days, alternative solution would be for me to pay for item, then wait to be credited. I told dell I would not pay for anything I had returned to them. Given case #xxxxxx121

05 june 2007 received letter dated 25 may 2007 from dfs stating I now owed $103.00. Called dfs - still not credited - can't help me, must go through dell.

05 june 2007 called dell, spoke first with adam, then when he couldn't help me, asked to speak to supervisor. Eventually transferred to shane, supervisor, who told me the keyboard was the issue, and had not been credited. Gave me new case #, xxxxxx867. Told me he would put in credit template for me, at which point phone was cut off. Called back, placed on hold, eventually told he would call me back.

05 june 2007 sent letter to dell, detailing problems to date. Haven't had a response to letter.

07 june 2007 dell called back. Customer service was rude, kept asking me the same question I have answered since the beginning - "did I return the keyboard?" eventually told me they'd look into problem, then hung up.

09 july 2007 received letter from dfs - I now owe $104.15. Called dfs, spoke with sue, unable to help - up to dell. Still haven't received credit.

09 july 2007 called dell - spoke with nicki, who told me she would escalate info dfs. Says they credited in april 2007, then told me the system showed a credit went through on 08 july 2007. She then called dfs while I waited on hold, then told me an investigation had been started on

08 july 2007, not a credit as previously stated. Supposedly a credit would be issued when investigation completed. I asked to speak to supervisor, eventually transferred to mike. He told me a credit was issued in april, and would escalate to head office, and would call tomorrow. I asked to speak to his supervisor, as I was now being given yet another version of what was happening. He refused to let me speak to his supervisor, stating he wouldn't waste their time since he had taken care of the problem, and it would all be solved within the next 3 days. When I insisted on speaking to his supervisor, he hung up on me.

08 august 2007 received call from sue at dfs wanting payment. I informed her that as far as I am concerned, I owe dell nothing, and that dell could go to hell as far as I was concerned. She told me she would put that quote in her notes - I told her to go right ahead.

08 august 2007 called dell, spoke to helen. She read notes on the file, then told me she would transfer my call to mike, as he was the one handling the problem. After 15 minutes on hold, she came back online to tell me mike was on lunch, and he would call me back after his lunch was finished. I asked when I could expect that call, and was told he would definitely call me back that afternoon. I asked if he didn't call, was there another number I could reach him at - was told no - just customer service.

09 august 2007 I have not heard from dell. No returned phone call.

At this point I am truly unable to fathom the behavior of the customer service staff at dell. I have repeatedly been left on hold for lengthy periods of time. I have been told to "just pay" and be credited later - which is not going to happen, as I have now seen how well their crediting system works. I have been treated extremely rudely, to the point that one of your supervisors, mike, actually hung up on me, rather than "let" me talk to his supervisor, when clearly the problem was not, and has not been, solved at his level. I am still waiting for this same mike to return my call from yesterday, after being told "for sure" he would call me back that afternoon.

Dell hell is definitely the right name for it. Never again. I bought a mac. Works great.

WOW! The worst and most confusing mess ever!

Trying to wade your way through Dell Financial services and their web sights is like trying to wade through the Florida Everglades infested with crocodiles!

It is utterly appalling and totally shocking to me to find that the most advanced and what is considered the best computer producing company in most opinions can't find people to design a simple "easy" to access website. I think this website borders on criminal only in that it appears as a plan to make you give up on trying to find information and let your accounts go unpaid at which point they bombard you with all kinds of phone calls and additional charges.

Besides which I doubt I would ever buy another Dell. I have been a sworn Dell user but when I heard that they have teamed with Wall Mart I no longer have any desire to associate myself with a post Wal-Mart associated Dell Corporation. By supporting a post Wall Mart Associated Dell I feel I and anyone else who buys a Dell at Wal-Mart is supporting the further exportation of American jobs off shore.

Dell Financial Services (DFS) repeatedly and falsely accused me of failing to return a leased printer at the end of a business lease. Not only had I returned every piece of leased equipment by the deadline, but I had paid DFS more than $150(!) to come to my home office to pick up and ship my leased laptop and peripherals (including the printer in question), hoping this would ensure proper handling of the equipment and make the end of the lease go smoothly.

DFS should have arrived at my home office with a complete list of items to be returned, and they should have checked their list against what they picked up on March 15, 2007. They neglected to follow these simple and common-sense procedures, and in their unpreparedness and lack of attention to detail, they failed to properly account for the printer that they loaded onto their very own truck that day.

Although the situation has apparently finally been resolved in my favor, the entire fiasco – which resulted in DFS’s collections department hounding me with phone calls, something I've never experienced before and hope to never experience again – has left me with extremely low regard for DFS and Dell. (The collections department even called me on Memorial Day, a national holiday!) Despite my longtime (about 10 years) status as a Dell customer in good standing, DFS took it upon themselves to assume, before doing a thorough check of their records regarding their own handling of the return of my equipment, that I was intentionally violating my lease agreement. They treated me in an insulting, undignified and unfair manner.

I will never do business with DFS or Dell again, and neither, I believe, will any of the friends, family members, clients, and business associates with whom I will share this horror story.

Jeff Hirst

What a farce - computer is great - printer is trash - like everyone else on the net this printer was working fine then suddenly "right cartridge incorrect" message appears and will not go away even with brand new £28 pound cartridges - think I'll take a sledgehammer to it in the garden and replace it with something where the cartridges are cheaper and the after sales service may possibly exist.

I don't mind Dell's insistence that one buy only their ink and only by delivery, but I've had several faulty cartridges, and if the faulty one is the last one in the house, one has to wait two days to get a new one. And, when I called to try to get tech help the technician took me through all the steps on their webpage that I had already tried multiple times. Only he took far longer as he studied and explained in a language that was probably not his first. I did get a free cartridge, but only after an hour and a half on the phone. Clearly not worth it. Next time I get another brand of printer, even though I like this 964.

We bought a Dell Inspiron 1501 Notebook . We ordered this over the phone and built with a representative extension # 795-8578. We ordered a specific chip in the computer the AMD Turion 64 x2 (Dual Core), this is not what we received. In the notebook we received a Turion 64. We have been trying to call Dell and get this corrected, as of right now I have been working on getting this resolved for the past 2 1/2 hours. First we were talking to someone that does not speak English, we were then transferred to Mark (had a bad connection) was disconnected I gave Mark my home phone number and he told me he would call us back, he never called back.

Then I called again and spoke to Mary, she transferred us and we waited for 45 minutes and we are now talking to Victoria.

What I think is that Dell is deceiving there customers and not putting in the parts that the consumer is
requesting, and switching them out. THIS IS DECEITFUL PRACTICE.

As a note when my husband ordered the computer Dell told us that they would send us a free digital camera as a gift, that as we have confirmed was never ordered or sent.

You see the x-mas commercials that are out for Dell that the gentleman is ordering a Dell for his daughter for college, but what you dont see in the commercial is all the hold time it took for him to get to speak to someone at Dell.

Dell is certainly wanting to take your money but to correct anything well then they dont want to be bothered.

I purchased my Dell XPS 200 Desktop about 6 months ago. Recently, I went on vacation for two weeks. The computer was not used at all during that time. When I returned, it would not boot up and gave me an error message that a Windows file was corrupt.

Dell support sent me the O/S disk - which did NOT come with the computer - something I was a bit disturbed about.

After waiting to receive the disk, support was unable to fix the problem. The ghost, original setting also did not work. And, I had to reformat the entire drive. I lost data and spent hours on the phone with them and loading everything again.

That was only a week ago from today.

Well, right now, the same computer is overheating. A strange smell comes out of it and then it shuts down. I contacted support and they will be sending a tech some time next week to check the fans and motherboard.

Needless to say, I am disappointed by Dell. Not by the service. But by the product. XPS is their top of the line? And in 6 months I've had two major problems already?

I know that I'll think twice about another Dell in the future.

Dell is getting too big - and is making their computers cheaply now. And the growing amount of complaints all over the media and the Internet confirm that fact.

Oh yeah and one more thing: Dell is an American company. I have nothing against anybody or foreigners at all. But why is it that when I contact Tech Support, I talk to somebody in India?

Keep our jobs here for crying out loud. We certainly need them.

I’m a Mac user and a confirmed one at that. But my “significant other” has always been a PC lover. So a few years ago when her desktop went up, I bought her a Dell Dimension 2200 and she’s been very happy with it.

For the holidays this past year, I bought her another Dell—this time a laptop (Inspiron B130). And after a mere few months, Dell has done what I haven’t been able to do in over 6 years: they made my significant other a Mac person.

Out of the box, the B130 wouldn’t load correctly, flashing an esoteric Windows error message. A call to Dell Customer Support IN NEW DEHLI, INDIA brought this response, “You did not wish to purchase software support so there’s nothing we can do.”

We told them that the computer was “non-functional” on initial startup, but that didn’t make a difference. Dell Customer Service was adamant that no matter what this was a software problem and software problem resolution costs $100 an incident if you didn’t buy the software support.

I intend to take this issue straight up the Dell management line to Michael Dell because it’s obvious that trying to get it resolved through normal customer service avenues is a waste of time.

We also discovered that the internal clock was wrong half the time. Dell sent us a detailed troubleshooting plan since there are several clocks in the computer and you have to figure out which one is haywire. So I guess that Dell’s idea of in-warranty hardware support means that the customer has to do the troubleshooting. We did it and duly reported back to Dell who sent us: 1. The wrong battery and 2. An invoice for the wrong battery. Another hour plus call to NEW DEHLI CUSTOMER SUPPORT resulted in an argument about whether it was or wasn’t the wrong battery. The battery on the main board has two wires and a tiny connector but the battery NEW DEHLI CUSTOMER SUPPORT sent didn’t have the wires/connector. After an hour on the phone, NEW DEHLI CUSTOMER SUPPORT informed us that we were right and that they would send out a replacement battery. Maybe this one will have the two wires and the connector.

Dell’s approach to customer service is abominable! A company that I had no reservations about buying from again managed to alienate me to the point where they won’t see another dime of my money. But, hey at least they did what I couldn’t do: they made my VSO a Mac person.

Rick
Sparks, MD

Incident

I had a dell laptop damaged during a dell personell doing maintenance, which a screw is appear to be broken, which appear to me caused by poor quality screw or poor quality service.

The customer service in here classified this as a physical damage which did not commit to follow-up, no matter it is proper or non-proper use.

We are buying numerous laptop from Sony, IBM, etc. It is first time I hear people reasoning like that.

Worse the customer service have very bad attitude. She assume herself in suppreme power that no one can challenge, I'd never met a customer care with that service attitude.

Worse than that, when I do complain to dell, the person who handle it is still the customer service. I thought about complain to the US site, after I browse the internet, I thought it's gonna end in nowhere because same complaint always route back to the person who handles it.

Now, I thought the best way to complain is to tell every of our customer to stay away from Dell. (We are doing IT strategy consulting for big corporates) And tell the local PC magazines and post to every forum, making sure everyone I know to stay away from Dell. Aim, simple, people with bad customer service should not survive in the market. I'll try to make sure that happen because it will be fair for people like IBM and Sony who perform satisfactory service.

Damage Resulting

Nil, I can get my engineers to fix it within an hour. At most scraping 8 dell we purchase last year. Compare with what dell gonna loss, I guarantee it is nothing.

Dell Sucks! Within the last two months I purchased THREE Dell computers – one for me, one for my son Ryan, and one for my son Brandon. Ryan’s computer was a little slower than he wanted so he offered to pay for the upgrade. He called Dell and Customer Rep L. May told him he would have to pay 15% for a restocking fee and shipping charges to return all three packages (the monitor, the speakers, and the tower). When he explained everything was good except for the tower, she said it didn’t matter. To return the tower he has to return the three pkgs to three separate addresses AND pay about $165 in restocking fees.

What a ripoff! Dell Sucks!

Buyer beware! Do not purchase a compute from dell corp.,under the so called"interest free plan". This so call plan does not exist. Their interest free plan has an annal percentage 29.99% and i am a preferred customer. Can you imagine how much the interest would be if i weren't a preferred customer?

I purchased my computer in April, 06, after seeing a promotion advertising no interest for a year. This was on t.v. And also in a flayer.
After three months, here comes the interest. After many many phone calls, and not being able to under the person speaking, none sees to speak English these days. There telling me that they made the mistake. So to compensate for this mistake, they will give me a credit on the past payments that i have made in six months...i will contact the better business bureau and i will post this on every web page i may find...
Still not resolved-------buyer beware of dell's financial plans...they are saying one thing and doing another..

My bad experiences with Dell began in 2001 with the purchase of a Dimension 8100 desktop. Aside from the unstable Windows ME operating system (frequent crash potential 100%), Dell's "award-winning customer service" was deplorable.

Wait time was an average of 45 minutes, and the possibility of talking with a tech who actually understood computer problems was 50/50 at best. I won't even go into Dell's great warranty which began when the order was INVOICED, not when the order was received by the customer, effectively cutting the actual "warranty" period by half, thus preventing any possibility of a return. This complaint is about an aspect of Dell that is even worse than the product quality, warranty, and tech support: Dell Financial Services. Despite past experiences with Dell, in 2004 I decided to give the company another chance and purchase an Inspiron 1000 laptop for Christmas. While the product quality and tech support had improved a good deal (and Windows XP had increased overall stability), I had no idea how completely uncompassionate and unwilling Dell is to assist customers until I suffered a serious on-the-job injury in January 2005 resulting in a period of recovery and, alas, unemployment. Bills piled up to the point that bankruptcy seemed the only alternative for us; but, we believe in shouldering responsibility, and doing whatever it takes to get back on track, and out of debt. Most companies and financial institutions are willing to work with individuals in financial difficulty. Not Dell Financial Services. Finance charges are carved in stone, and the 29.99% APR they will raise your account to in the event of a late payment is completely inflexible. Several calls to attempt to work out an easier payment arrangement have resulted in ZERO assistance from Dell Financial Services.

Unlike other companies we have dealt with, Dell Financial Services offers no programs or means to assist customers who have suffered a period of financial hardship. As a result of my accident, my account balance is higher than it was when I purchased the Inspiron, despite efforts to make payments as regularly as possible. Unfortunately, this is an uphill battle, despite working two jobs, due to finance charges and a horrendous interest rate (to companies like Dell, suitable punishment for customers' financial difficulty is to make it even more difficult for customers in hardship by raising the interest rate to 29.99%; an act of sheer corporate-financial genius: "It's currently very difficult for the customer to repay. The solution is raise repayment options from 'very difficult' to 'near impossible'). Numerous calls have resulted in my being put on hold until the line goes dead, being transferred back to the main menu, or just being disconnected. I have rarely spoken with a "customer service rep" who speaks English well enough that I don't have to ask them to please slow down so that I can understand them (or having to speak very slowly and frequently reiterate so that I can be understood BY them). If Dell employed the same heavily Indian-accented English-challenged reps to take orders, I am quite certain Dell would have entered the dustbin of collapsed corporations years ago.

Life is uncertain, to say the least. Illness or accident can plunge individuals into seemingly insurmountable hardships. In those unavoidable situations, dealing with companies who are understanding and willing to assist those who wish to get back on good financial footing is critical. Dell is obviously not such a company, as evidenced by Dell Financial Services. We are working diligently to overcome the hardships of debt. One thing is absolutely certain: once our debt to Dell Financial Services is history, we will never do business with Dell again. I would never recommend Dell to anyone.

I found this at engadget. Disgruntled Dell customer finds crafty path to lawsuit settlement. Pat Dori, a disgruntled Dell customer who found no resolution to the issue of a broken laptop after five long months and 19 wasted phone calls, decided to go legal and sue the company for failing to adequately address the problem.

The method by which Mr. Dori initiated the claim is the juicy core of this story: instead of going through the normal process of sending the court papers to Dell's headquarters in Texas, Dori thought to have the papers delivered to a Dell shopping mall kiosk instead. Quite unsurprisingly, no-one from Dell turned up in court on the stipulated date, resulting in Dori winning a $3,000 default judgment and a ruling to allow bailiffs to close the kiosk and seize items if the judgment was not paid. Dell has now settled the case out of court for undisclosed terms, although the company would have appealed the decision -- had it actually turned up to court, that is. Mr. Dori, our latest hero for sticking it to the man in such a crafty manner, says that he thinks "any regular person can do this," as long as you "have the law on your side." Apparently the key is to "get their money" first, which will inevitably be followed by "[getting] their attention." It's gotta beat screaming down the phone, that's for sure.

I liked my new Dell Insperon E1505 until it ceased to operate after 5 months. Now, I have had first had experience with Dell’s deteriorating hardware Technical Support.

I have talked with 7 different technical and customer care representatives for 5 hours on two continents (India and US), who cannot resolve my problem in a timely manner. My support contract calls for “Next Day” on-site support. However, the two technicians and supervisor I talked to in India said the on-site support representatives could only replace parts and not diagnose problems and they could not identify the defective part. I would have to send my computer into the Depot for repair and I should have it back within 5 business days. After problems with DHL picking up my computer (a fiasco worthy of another negative review), I got the computer to Dell’s Depot in Tennessee on the second Business Day. An automated phone message from the Depot said it would be a 10 business days repair. Thus began my odyssey of talking to Technical Support and Customer Care Reps who cannot solve the problem of getting my computer back working in a timely manner. The latest US Tech support supervisor rep said it would be up to 15 business days (3 weeks). To speed things up, the supervisor said he could have it sent back to me broken and he could identify the part so an on-site person could install it (what I wanted to begin with). However, he could not get my computer returned to me broken for another 5 Business Days (and two weekend days). So I won’t have a working computer for another two weeks. I am so angry at DELL technical support that I will never buy another Dell Product.

Dell has be withholding the $120 rebate that was submitted about 4 months ago (8/20/2006). I had received confirmation of the rebate submission (rebate Tracking number: [protected]), and then time passed and no rebate ever came, so I started a search with their rebate processing center and days later they send me an email confirming the submission and a new rebate tracking number ([protected]).

Again I let more time pass, and I find myself requesting this rebate, and now they claim it was sent as a check (check number 580338) issued on 10/24/2006, and since no check has been recieved it has now become a new record for snail mail to my corporate office in San Francisco.

In the meantime I have now began giving our Dell Corporate Sales rep (Ryan Murphy in Corporate Sales at least seems to care about their image and responds to the customer issues) a call to see if he could break free the log jam (since we spend a lot of money with Dell every year). The response I got from them is unbelievably unprofessional and shows a clear corporate policy for neglect of the rebate submissions, since even with multiple confirming official email records from Dell the response is "seems the reason they never sent a rebate check was because they never received the form". They send this even after last week claiming they sent a check and provided a check number. Is there some sort of legal action to take, and where do I sign up, I have all the emails and content saved and documented (what a waste of my time)? In any case I am a manager in a Forture 100 company with direct purchasing influence, and this nonsense will definitely be influencing me in our near an d long term purchasing.

Damage Resulting = Numerous emails and still no rebate, hard to place a value on the damages.

Although, I think other Consumers need to be aware that the Dell you supported for the last 20 years is gone and replaced with an outsourced, off-shored, and de-balled behemoth that is at very best...

I am VERY dissatisfied with my Dell Photo All-In-One Printer 924. I will never purchase a Dell Printer Again! It is extremely hard to change the ink cartridges. The design of the printer does not lend itself to ease and convenience for older people to see how to replace the ink cartridges. I have spent 3 days trying to get the printer to work. I keep getting messages such as: Left Cartridge incorrect. I take it out and try again. Then it says Right Cartridge incorrect. If I have taken the cartridge out once, I have 50 times to reinstall. I had to replace the color cartridge as I had almost run out of ink. Now Nothing works! Before trying to replace the color cartridge, the black was perfect.

I dislike having to order the ink from you and that Big Drawback was not mentioned in your advertisement. So when I was about out of ink in August, I ordered 2 color and 2 black. They did get here promptly but it cost over $142.

Today I ask a friend to come by and help me. He had the very same results that I have had for 3 days.

I called the support system. Well, the call took over 1 1/2 hours because she did not understand me and I could not understand her. I had to spell EVERY word to her and even then when she repeated, it was often wrong. This call could have been completed in 30 with a English Speaking Technician-----even one from Canada.

She had me shake the cartridges. Wipe with a damp cloth. Hold under hot water. Is that a normal step in replacing the ink cartridges? I think not.

I am ready to go back to my HP printer. I just thought that I wanted a printer that prints, copies, scan and fax--NOT if it won't work. I will check to local office supply store and see if they have a HP that prints, copies and scans----forget the fax mode.

My brother selected my Dell computer for me in 2002 and I have been extremely satisfied with it but the Dell Printer to me is a Piece of Junk! My adult daughter at 46 was going back to college and she needed a computer so I bought the complete package from you. She did not need the printer so I have it.

Dissatisfied customer,
Mary
Ponca City, OK 74601
Computer and printer was sent to:
Paula
Bartlesville, OK 74005

I am writing this letter to complain the quality of the Dell Computer products and the quality of the Dell Service.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1705 around the end of July. Right after the product was delivered, I noticed the newly arrived computer had several serious problems. First, the LCD display contrast was way off. I noticed user could adjust the brightness of the LCD screen display. But we could not adjust its contrast. The problem became quite obvious while we were playing movies (with Window Media Player). The picture was too dark to watch while the brightness was lowered. And a layer of white fog showed up on the screen if the brightness was increased. The display brightness problem bothered us badly since we got a headache after working on the computer for more than one hour. As a result the computer is not usable at all.

I also noticed the audio output was not working properly. The sound from the build-in speaker was always muffled. The output sound was distorted and with very poor sound quality.

Additionally, I found a problem with the flash card reader. At the time I inserted the SD card into the flash memory slot, the system reported “some problem” with the drive. But the device manager claimed the flash card reader was “functioning properly”. The window explorer never reflected the existence of the drive.

I have been patiently working with Dell customer support team to resolve the problems (case # [protected] and [protected]). Unfortunately, we are getting anywhere even three months after the computer was delivered. I have run the system diagnostics with the Dell support team and Dell technician for more than 10 times. I have updated the BIOS. I have installed several and different versions of device drivers. But, the problem persisted. Finally, Dell Support claimed the motherboard is defective.

It took another one week to see the Dell technician with the replacement motherboard. Unfortunately, the Dell Support delivered a refurbish board, and it was DEAD ON ARRIVAL. It even did not boot up after it was installed by the Dell technician, who decided to put the original motherboard back.

I call Dell customer support again complaining about the situation. I elevated the problem to the highest level possible. I was able to speak with Mr. Bernard Santos, who claimed to be the highest level manager in Dell. His title was “Manager of Support”. I specifically complained about

The quality of the Dell computer I received.
I paid the price of a new computer, and I got a refurbish board for the replacement.
The replacement board was dead on arrival. As a result I have not been able to use the computer for three months.

I spent more than three hours on the phone with Mr. Santos, and he hanged up the phone on me. I did follow up several times. My phone call was either transferred to an extension without attendance, or the line was cut off automatically. I could not believe the quality of the Dell product was so poor. And I could not believe the way Dell Customer Support treated their customers.

A week later, the Dell technician showed up with a replacement LCD display. I was told that Dell did not deliver another motherboard with the reason that Dell “had already delivered one motherboard, and it did not resolve the problem. It got to be the LCD display”. Obviously, they did not aware that the motherboard they previously delivered was dead on arrival.

The Dell technician successfully replaced the LCD display, but the problems persisted. The display contrast was still way off. The audio was still not working properly, and the flash card reader was still not functioning. I took a peek at the flash card slot. I noticed there were two pins inside the slot were bent and touching each other. I showed my discovery to the Dell technician, who agreed with me the mother board originally delivered with the computer was defective. That was the main reason why the video display, the audio and the flash card reader was not functioning properly. Blindly replacing the LCD display panel did not resolve the motherboard problem.

A copy of Email to Dell and NCR:

Dear officers at Dell and NCR,

I write to express Dell and NCR's complete failure to provide their contracted, warranted service. While I am ordinarily willing to forgive minor delays in service, NCR's incompetent service and poor communication with Dell Support left me without a functional computer for more than two weeks beyond the warranted "next business day service" period. This cost me serious inconvenience, as I, like almost all of my fellow law students, rely heavily on my computer for my professional needs, and as it left me ill-prepared to meet job-application and other deadlines. NCR's technician also forced me to miss a day of my work in order to accommodate him. The contractor's incompetence reflects poorly on Dell, to the point where I, a happy Dell customer for five years, no longer have "confidence in Dell." Rather, I plan to circulate my experience in popular consumer forums, such as Consumer Affairs, IHateDell.net, and Complaints.com, as well as to bring it to the attention of my school's Information Systems Technology officers, who are responsible for the school's relationship with Dell.

Some time before my initial online chat with Dell's service respresentative on September 29, 2006, my computer began not to respond when I would press the start button. Eventually, it failed to turn on whatsoever, and I was left without a functioning computer.

CALL #1: I contacted Dell online on Friday, September 29 (using a friend's computer). In an online chat, I was advised that the source of the problem was probably a faulty motherboard. The representative told me that she would enter a service request (case #[protected]), which meant that Dell would send the new motherboard to a service technician, who would then contact me within the next business day to arrange an appointment for service. I provided my only current telephone number and email address.

CALL #2: On the late afternoon of Friday, October 6, I called Dell to inquire into the status of my warranted service. I was told that the part had arrived at 7:35am (EST) on October 4 - two business days earlier! The representative and I discovered that Dell's files contained an outdated telephone number for me - surprisingly, not the same number as the one I had given the representative on September 29, but a number that has been invalid for two years. The October 6 representative corrected the error and called the contractor. When she returned from hold, she told me that she had instructed the contractor to correct the error in their records and that she had "escalated" my service. I should be getting a call on Monday, October 9. No call came on Monday, October 9. I allowed an extra day for the holiday, but no call came on Tuesday, October 10.

CALL #3: At 6pm on October 10, I called Dell a second time. This representative called the contractor a second time, only to discover that they still had the wrong telephone number in their records! The representative again "escalated" the service request and (supposedly) talked to the manager with the contractor. The representative assured me that I should receive a call within the next two hours, or else I could call Dell again. No call came between 6 and 8pm on October 10, however.

CALL #4: I called Dell again. This representative called the contractor a THIRD time, only to discover that they STILL had the wrong telephone number in their records! The representative "escalated" the service a third time, spoke with the contractor's manager, and assured me I should be hearing from the contractor first thing the next morning. As of 10am on Wednesday, October 11, I still had received no call.

CALL #5: I called Dell AGAIN, and the exasperated representative (none of these representatives were the same) finally gave me the contractor's direct phone number. I immediately called the contractor NCR. The first time, a surly receptionist transferred me back to Dell upon the mere mention that I was a Dell customer. The second time I called, the receptionist noted that NCR STILL had the WRONG contact number for me - despite the fact that (1) I gave Dell my correct contact number in the beginning, and (2) THREE Dell representatives supposedly called them to correct the information! The NCR receptionist told me she corrected the error, but she refused to allow me to contact a technician while she had me on the phone, citing rigid corporate "policy". She then HUNG UP ON ME.

Now that I had personal assurance from the contractor that the error had been fixed, I waited all day for a call. Still, no call came.

CALL #6: I called Dell yet again in the evening of Wednesday, October 11 - a week after I was due for my "next business day service". This representative (he identified himself as "Russ", but the confirmation email was signed "Matthew") decided to "re-boot" the entire service. He was very diligent in asking me for various forms of contact information, even asking for an alternate person's contact information who could relay a message to me from the technician. "Russ" assured me that the part would be shipped immediately, and that I would receive a call from the technician Thursday, Friday, or Monday at the latest.

On Friday, October 13 - exactly TWO WEEKS after my original service request - I received a call from the NCR technician while I was at work. I called him back immediately after work, but instead of scheduling an appointment then, he told me he would call me back on Monday. He did not. Instead, I called him on Monday. He told me I was "out of luck" for service that day, and that we would "shoot for Wednesday."

In the end, I stayed home from work for the morning of Tuesday, October 17. Again, he did not call me, so I called him at 11am. I informed him I had to leave for class at 1pm, and he told me he was on his way. At 12:10pm, I called again. He arrived at 12:30pm - essentially the "last minute" to provide service for me, three business days after he received the part from Dell and two and a half weeks after Dell opened the service case.

In sum, either Dell's representatives or NCR failed to use its best efforts to perform the warranted service. Five Dell representatives supposedly gave NCR my contact information - as I did personally - but NCR somehow failed to relay the correct information to its technicians (or subcontractor). Regardless, diligent contract performance would seem to require NCR to seek alternative contact information after it was unable to contact me using a disconnected phone number. The contractor failed to do so, and in doing so, ensured that DELL FAILED to provide the service DELL warranted to me. Also, while I am understand the exigencies of field technician work, the technician was lax in accommodating my schedule, especially in light of my thoroughly disgruntled status.

This experience is not what I expect from Dell or its contractors. Despite my prior satisfaction with Dell's products and Dell's past service, I am now extremely disenchanted with the company and will seriously consider other providers for my future computing needs.

Very truly yours,
Jacob

Chevy Chase, MD 20815

My complaint is against Dell Computer, Inc. I’ve been a long time loyal customer of Dell and now I find myself rethinking whether I want to continue to do business with this Company. Recently I had tech call with Dell on my Dimension 4600 Desktop Computer. After a local power failure I was unable to turn my computer back on. The Tech had me go through a series of diagnostic procedures to determine what the problem was. I didn’t mind unplugging and plugging cords, but when I was asked to open the side of the computer I felt uncomfortable with that. In spite of that I did open it and followed the Tech’s instruction of unplugging and plugging small wires inside. In the end he determined I had a bad mother board. When I asked if Dell had any local authorized service centers, I was surprised to find out they did not.

I was told I could purchase the part needed from Dell and they could walk me through the installation or I would have to have it installed on my own. Since I am not a tech person and only know how to operate my computer, I opted to take it out for repair. Instead of purchasing the mother board from Dell I brought it into Geek Squad at Best Buy. They diagnosed it in less than 5 minutes as being my power supply. While they did not have the part, I was referred to a local computer store that did. Before I took it to the store I contacted Dell to see how much the part would be. Not only was it difficult to get through to the proper dept and/or person, I would have to possibly wait seven days to get the part. Then I would have to get it installed on my own. With meant my computer might have been out of commission for well over a week. The next day I took it to the computer store, had it repaired the same day and I was up and running. After this experience with Dell and others I’ve had, I finally decided it was time to divorce myself from Dell Computers.

When I originally purchased the 4600 I had issues that lead to Dell offering me a $75.00 credit toward the purchase of my choice. What I didn’t realize is there was an expiration date and I never had the opportunity to use it. When I tried to get Customer Service to reinstate it, I was told there is no longer a record of the credit in their system. Then there is other tech support calls, speaking to individuals from another country that at times I could not understand. Many times it was obvious to me they were reading a script, and it was a hit or miss as to whether I would get my issue resolved. Finally there is my X5 Axim PDA that had a problem from the onset with the back up battery. For some reason on this particular model the battery did not make proper contact. It took awhile for me to get it resolved, no thanks to Dell.

Over the years after reading the various complaints against Dell that are the same, similar and different than mine, I’m convinced this Company does not care about the consumer much after the warranty has expired. The rating they get from Consumer Reports on tech support year after year is anything but glowing. Now I’m in the market for a Notebook and Dell is not my first choice. I believe the only real way a consumer can send a message to a company that they are not performing is by not buying their products and tell others of your experiences.