Dell

[Gaffer]

I have been trying to order a notebook from Dell for over 3 days.

I finally ordered it with *** at 12.30 on the 13th April.

I never received an order number only a reference number and I called back yesterday but still the order had not been placed.

I was assured that the order would be placed yesterday but on calling AGAIN today it still hasn’t been placed and now the order cannot be upheld for whatever reason.

The notebook came with a memory upgrade, free printer and a carry case.

Can they legally not give me the exact notebook and the stuff I ordered even though the order si sat there waiting to be processed?

I unsurpriseingly cant get through to the sales agent/his manager/any manager/complaints.

Where can I go from here..?

Claire

[anonymous-user]

To MESH?

[chrisgr31]

Gaffer said:

I have been trying to order a notebook from Dell for over 3 days. I finally ordered it with *** at 12.30 on the 13th April. I never received an order number only a reference number and I called back yesterday but still the order had not been placed. I was assured that the order would be placed yesterday but on calling AGAIN today it still hasn’t been placed and now the order cannot be upheld for whatever reason. The notebook came with a memory upgrade, free printer and a carry case. Can they legally not give me the exact notebook and the stuff I ordered even though the order si sat there waiting to be processed? I unsurpriseingly cant get through to the sales agent/his manager/any manager/complaints. Where can I go from here..? Claire

I had great problems ordering my Dell laptop. Well to be fair the ordering bit was easy. It was order, I got a confirmation it was in production, so I waited for it to arrive.

10 working days later it hadn;t arrived so I phoned them and finally got a real person, to be told my order had been cancelled. But they said they would put it through again and they will call to confirm. Wait a few days, and hear nothing. Phone to investigate, told there is a problem as they have no stock of firewire cables. I say I don;t really need one, surely you could have called me? They say we should have done so, we'll put it through again.

I wait again, no laptop, no call, phone again, and this time get told the order has been cancelled as they no longer have tat chassis with that DVD player. So I demanded to speak to customer services, got told they would call back, responded they hadn't before so why should they now.

Eventually got put through to a supervisor who asked me to reorder, and told me I'd get a 15% refund on the price.

I reordered a new system (better for same price as prices fallen) and it arrived in just over a week including Easter. Now awaiting the refund.

Oddly no sign of it!

[Pickled Piper]

I've had similar problems with Dell. I couldn't contact the original sales person, supervisor etc. I just got passed around an Indian call centre until I got passed to the official "appologiser" he just kept saying I'm very sorry but wouldn't refund or compensate etc. They intentionally make it very hard to complain. The sales people just "disappear" and or hang up on you whenever there is a problem and you just get passed to another person so you can explain your complaint over again. I tried searching for a Dell UK number but was always patched through to the Indian call centre.

I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t.

Vote with your feet.

pp

[Gaffer]

Pickled Piper said:

I've had similar problems with Dell. I couldn't contact the original sales person, supervisor etc. I just got passed around an Indian call centre until I got passed to the official "appologiser" he just kept saying I'm very sorry but wouldn't refund or compensate etc. They intentionally make it very hard to complain. The sales people just "disappear" and or hang up on you whenever there is a problem and you just get passed to another person so you can explain your complaint over again. I tried searching for a Dell UK number but was always patched through to the Indian call centre. I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t. Vote with your feet. pp

Thats exactly what I got and am still getting

C xxx

[venom]

Pickled Piper said:

I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t.

That goes along with my experience. Dell machines here and when anything goes wrong the hnadling agents tend to sort us out within 24 hours. Due to my experiences with their Business arm I was getting drawn to the idea of buying a new machine from them for home, not least because their pricing seems very competitive. Horror stories like these though are making me think twice.

[vixpy1]

I had no problems, found the service excellent

[chrisgr31]

Pickled Piper said:

I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t. Vote with your feet. pp

A friend orders business kit from Dell, and his wife had a problem with a personal order.

He spoke with his trade rep, who said try and sort it again with personal side as I am not suppossed to get it involved, and come back if necessary. So he tried the personal side again. Wasn't resolved, went back to his trade rep who sorted it within an hour!

I was discussing my problems with Dell in an internet chatroom a few weeks agao. There were 12 in the chtroom, of those 6 had tried to buy a pc or laptop through Dell, only one had had a troublefree experience. 3 gave up altogether and went elsewhere!

Ironic that the kit has a reputation for being good if only you can get hold of it!

[pdV6]

venom said:

Pickled Piper said: I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t. That goes along with my experience.

Same here. Great for business but not so good for home users.

[njw 77]

Ive ordered half a dozen computers from them in the past year (including a high spec laptop 2 weeks before Xmas which turned up between Xmas & New Year, but thats probably more down to the courier's holidays)and found the service to be very good, with an average of 10 days from order.

[Podie]

pdV6 said:

venom said: Pickled Piper said: I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t. That goes along with my experience. Same here. Great for business but not so good for home users.

Hmm... I must be an exception then.

I buy Dell's at work for the company, and have recommended them to small businesses as well.

As a personal customer I'm on my fifth (two were laptops) and the only issue I've had was they charged my credit card twice...!! (which was promptly refunded)

[roop]

I ordered my laptop from Dell on Tuesday and had a call from them yesterday afternoon asking when I would like it to be delivered. It's arriving Monday evening between 5 and 8pm.

It's an end-of-line model so I got a bargain. I ended up with a 2.6GHz laptop, 15" XGA display, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, WiFi, 10/100 Eth, 56k Modem, DVD ROM, Win XP Home, Carry Case plus I got free double memory (normally £85) free shipping (normally £50) and a all-in-one photo printer / scanner / fax thing for an additional £10. Total cost - £420 all in.

I only need it for email on the move and some web browsing so it's perfect. Only thing I'd have liked in addition would have been integral bluetooth but that wasn't an option. I've got a BT USB Dongle I can use anyway.

It's the 4th computer I have bought from Dell for home use and I have never had any problems.

Bought loads off them for work over the years - all good stuff.

Bearing in mind the size of their operation and the fact that half of it is in Ireland with the other half in the East I'm amazed it works so well.

[chrisgr31]

roop said:

I ordered my laptop from Dell on Tuesday and had a call from them yesterday afternoon asking when I would like it to be delivered. It's arriving Monday evening between 5 and 8pm. It's an end-of-line model so I got a bargain. I ended up with a 2.6GHz laptop, 15" XGA display, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, WiFi, 10/100 Eth, 56k Modem, DVD ROM, Win XP Home, Carry Case plus I got free double memory (normally £85) free shipping (normally £50) and a all-in-one photo printer / scanner / fax thing for an additional £10. Total cost - £420 all in. ............. Bearing in mind the size of their operation and the fact that half of it is in Ireland with the other half in the East I'm amazed it works so well.

Thats a bargain. Similar to mine, but mine cost £805 inc VAT and delivery!

From speaking with other people it is apparent that buying from Dell is either a piece of cake, or a total nightmare. Theres no inbetween. A colleague bought a laptop from them before Christmas, and received it within a couple of days.

It just appears that when they fk up they do it well!

[mutt k]

I will never buy from Dell again. Their contracted shipping company subcontracts to someone else so when something goes missing during shipment you end up speaking to three different customer couldn't care less departments, includng one somewhere in the depths of India. No-one ever calls back when they are supposed to, or replies to e-mails. When the system works, it works well, but they just cannot handle things when it goes wrong.

[ricardinho]

chrisgr31 said:

Pickled Piper said: I'm told by the Business users that Dell provide excellent service. Clearly, they just treat private users like sh*t. Vote with your feet. pp A friend orders business kit from Dell, and his wife had a problem with a personal order. He spoke with his trade rep, who said try and sort it again with personal side as I am not suppossed to get it involved, and come back if necessary. So he tried the personal side again. Wasn't resolved, went back to his trade rep who sorted it within an hour! I was discussing my problems with Dell in an internet chatroom a few weeks agao. There were 12 in the chtroom, of those 6 had tried to buy a pc or laptop through Dell, only one had had a troublefree experience. 3 gave up altogether and went elsewhere! Ironic that the kit has a reputation for being good if only you can get hold of it!

I am surprised. My experience with Dell (business) laptops has been apalling. Delivery of new items is rapid. I don't care if they react quickly to repair and replace - what's important is that they don't break in the first place! Over the last 4 years I have bought just 6 Dell laptops for the business. Every one of them has rubbish build quality, has substandard componentry, substandard materials and have suffered numerous hardware problems from about 1 months use onwards - USB, Bluetooth, AC Adaptor, Power module board, keyboard connections, touchpad connections, system boards, screens etc.....

At the same time I have bought about 100 HP/Compaq laptops over the same period. We have had 1 system board replaced and a couple of drives reach end of life. We use laptops til they die. The Dells have died many times and been replaced.

In conclusion, Dell maybe cheaper to purchase initially, but what price quality and reliability? We all know laptops cost more to fix and are more susceptible to damage than desktops, but in my experience Dell is simply not worth that initial cost saving and are not up to the job (especially for a home user).

Claire
If I were you I'd cancel the order and buy from somewhere else (whether on the web or not). Otherwise you could be looking at a very long story of problems. Take your 'order problem' as a warning. Also I'd ask yourself whether you really need a laptop or whether a desktop would suffice. If you were to buy a desktop, the spec you would get would far outweigh the spec in a laptop of the same price.

Knowing that you work in the industry like me, I suspect this might be like teaching your Grandmother to suck eggs. Laptops have improved in may ways over the years, but I don't think Dell has!

Richard

[Podie]

Check out the Dell outlet stuff as well... goes quickly, but sometimes you can get a bargain.

[ghosty o'shark]

I tried to order a PC from Dell once, I got the Indian call centre which was absolutely useless. I only wanted to query a couple of things on the web site but the muppet wouldn't answer my questions until I gave him my details.
I didn't give him my details but said I would if answered my questions, which he couldn't and just kept making things up, agreeing with all my own suggested answers and then promising me he could "do me a very special price" in a Goodness Gracious Me stylee.

In the end I gave him my phone number so he could check a couple of things and call me back. He didn't call me, I didn't buy.

Indian call centres, what a false economy. It's a shame because I hold Dell in high regard and it's a strong brand.

[Gaffer]

The laptop I am going for is the same as Roops and he had no issues whatso ever in ordering.

Anyways about 20 mins ago I got a call back (finally) from the original agent and they have agreed to honour the spec and price.

I now have an order number so I am holding it to them. Only taken 3 days, 4 emails and umpteen calls.


Claire

[njw 77]

roop said:

. Only thing I'd have liked in addition would have been integral bluetooth but that wasn't an option. I've got a BT USB Dongle I can use anyway. .

Sorry, o/t here

Roop, I bought a Tech USB mini Dongle (ooh err) from Orange, very basic instructions inside, but I cant get the bloody thing to work. Appears as installed and finds the phone on setup, but cant work out how to find/connect the phone thereafter. Maybe a setup issue on the phone rather than the dongle? Im not a complete numpty with such things, but this has got me beat, so more poor dongle has sat in it box for 2 months!

[roop]

Hrm, not sure on that one. If you are running XP SP2 make sure you are using either the supplied drivers or the generic XP drivers and not both else they cock up. Is there some way of 'trusting' the phone so they work together. I'm not very good on BT I'm afraid

njw 77 said:

Sorry, o/t here Roop, I bought a Tech USB mini Dongle (ooh err) from Orange, very basic instructions inside, but I cant get the bloody thing to work. Appears as installed and finds the phone on setup, but cant work out how to find/connect the phone thereafter. Maybe a setup issue on the phone rather than the dongle? Im not a complete numpty with such things, but this has got me beat, so more poor dongle has sat in it box for 2 months!