The Big Dell Mistake Part 1

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I decided to order a Dell computer for the first time and perhaps it's
for the best that I will likely never see this laptop from them. Be
extremely wary when ordering from a company where you have to wait for
your computer to be "built." Unfortunately my experience with Dell is
not with one bad apple, but how poorly this company has been designed
for customer service.

Dell "builds" your PC where you're just put in a queue waiting for
your model to be available from their assembly line. I put in my order
for a laptop on 4/4 and it was estimated to ship on 4/14. A long wait
but I'm leaving on a trip on the morning of 4/22 so plenty of time to
receive the item prior. Well Dell made a *billing* mistake and didn't
apply the discount to one item which ended up on a separate order
number. I called and they corrected the billing error on 4/7 -- no
problem right? Wrong. In order to fix their own billing mistakes, Dell
must CANCEL all your orders and create all NEW orders for you which
will result in a significant DELAY of your shipping date since you are
then placed on the BACK of the queue. Say what? Have you ever heard of
anything this STUPID before? Hard to believe but this is true. They
claim to have no mechanism to make a simple *billing* adjustment to
correct one item or their stupidity. They cannot "uncancel" this order
either.

I noticed on 4/8 that my laptop was now scheduled to package to ship
on 4/21, which means it will be delivered approximately three - four
weeks after my order and *after* I leave on my trip and will have
delivery attemped to an empty home. I called again and I was told that
they would request to "expedite" it, which looking at the latest order
info means it is now scheduled to package to ship on 4/19, still far
too late for my trip. And they kept me on the phone to ask me about
buying further Dell services for our business? Are you KIDDING me? If
they screw up the order just once your equipment might be obsolete by
the time you receive it...

I'll keep you filled in on this story.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Mike wrote:

> I decided to order a Dell computer for the first time and perhaps it's
> for the best that I will likely never see this laptop from them. Be
> extremely wary when ordering from a company where you have to wait for
> your computer to be "built." Unfortunately my experience with Dell is
> not with one bad apple, but how poorly this company has been designed
> for customer service.
>
> Dell "builds" your PC where you're just put in a queue waiting for
> your model to be available from their assembly line. I put in my order
> for a laptop on 4/4 and it was estimated to ship on 4/14. A long wait
> but I'm leaving on a trip on the morning of 4/22 so plenty of time to
> receive the item prior. Well Dell made a *billing* mistake and didn't
> apply the discount to one item which ended up on a separate order
> number. I called and they corrected the billing error on 4/7 -- no
> problem right? Wrong. In order to fix their own billing mistakes, Dell
> must CANCEL all your orders and create all NEW orders for you which
> will result in a significant DELAY of your shipping date since you are
> then placed on the BACK of the queue. Say what? Have you ever heard of
> anything this STUPID before? Hard to believe but this is true. They
> claim to have no mechanism to make a simple *billing* adjustment to
> correct one item or their stupidity. They cannot "uncancel" this order
> either.
>
> I noticed on 4/8 that my laptop was now scheduled to package to ship
> on 4/21, which means it will be delivered approximately three - four
> weeks after my order and *after* I leave on my trip and will have
> delivery attemped to an empty home. I called again and I was told that
> they would request to "expedite" it, which looking at the latest order
> info means it is now scheduled to package to ship on 4/19, still far
> too late for my trip. And they kept me on the phone to ask me about
> buying further Dell services for our business? Are you KIDDING me? If
> they screw up the order just once your equipment might be obsolete by
> the time you receive it...
>
> I'll keep you filled in on this story.

IBM works exactly the same way. If you want it _now_ then make sure it's a
"ready to ship" configuration.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 4/9/2005 12:38 PM, Mike wrote:
> I decided to order a Dell computer for the first time and perhaps it's
> for the best that I will likely never see this laptop from them. Be
> extremely wary when ordering from a company where you have to wait for
> your computer to be "built." Unfortunately my experience with Dell is
> not with one bad apple, but how poorly this company has been designed
> for customer service.
>
> Dell "builds" your PC where you're just put in a queue waiting for
> your model to be available from their assembly line. I put in my order
> for a laptop on 4/4 and it was estimated to ship on 4/14. A long wait
> but I'm leaving on a trip on the morning of 4/22 so plenty of time to
> receive the item prior. Well Dell made a *billing* mistake and didn't
> apply the discount to one item which ended up on a separate order
> number. I called and they corrected the billing error on 4/7 -- no
> problem right? Wrong. In order to fix their own billing mistakes, Dell
> must CANCEL all your orders and create all NEW orders for you which
> will result in a significant DELAY of your shipping date since you are
> then placed on the BACK of the queue. Say what? Have you ever heard of
> anything this STUPID before? Hard to believe but this is true. They
> claim to have no mechanism to make a simple *billing* adjustment to
> correct one item or their stupidity. They cannot "uncancel" this order
> either.
>
> I noticed on 4/8 that my laptop was now scheduled to package to ship
> on 4/21, which means it will be delivered approximately three - four
> weeks after my order and *after* I leave on my trip and will have
> delivery attemped to an empty home. I called again and I was told that
> they would request to "expedite" it, which looking at the latest order
> info means it is now scheduled to package to ship on 4/19, still far
> too late for my trip. And they kept me on the phone to ask me about
> buying further Dell services for our business? Are you KIDDING me? If
> they screw up the order just once your equipment might be obsolete by
> the time you receive it...
>
> I'll keep you filled in on this story.

Apple did the same thing when I ordered a G5 iMac and then wanted to
make a change to a wireless mouse and keyboard.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:45:23 GMT, dxyzc@nospam.com wrote:

>On 4/9/2005 12:38 PM, Mike wrote:
>> I decided to order a Dell computer for the first time and perhaps it's
>> for the best that I will likely never see this laptop from them. Be
>> extremely wary when ordering from a company where you have to wait for
>> your computer to be "built." Unfortunately my experience with Dell is
>> not with one bad apple, but how poorly this company has been designed
>> for customer service.
>>
>> Dell "builds" your PC where you're just put in a queue waiting for
>> your model to be available from their assembly line. I put in my order
>> for a laptop on 4/4 and it was estimated to ship on 4/14. A long wait
>> but I'm leaving on a trip on the morning of 4/22 so plenty of time to
>> receive the item prior. Well Dell made a *billing* mistake and didn't
>> apply the discount to one item which ended up on a separate order
>> number. I called and they corrected the billing error on 4/7 -- no
>> problem right? Wrong. In order to fix their own billing mistakes, Dell
>> must CANCEL all your orders and create all NEW orders for you which
>> will result in a significant DELAY of your shipping date since you are
>> then placed on the BACK of the queue. Say what? Have you ever heard of
>> anything this STUPID before? Hard to believe but this is true. They
>> claim to have no mechanism to make a simple *billing* adjustment to
>> correct one item or their stupidity. They cannot "uncancel" this order
>> either.
>>
>> I noticed on 4/8 that my laptop was now scheduled to package to ship
>> on 4/21, which means it will be delivered approximately three - four
>> weeks after my order and *after* I leave on my trip and will have
>> delivery attemped to an empty home. I called again and I was told that
>> they would request to "expedite" it, which looking at the latest order
>> info means it is now scheduled to package to ship on 4/19, still far
>> too late for my trip. And they kept me on the phone to ask me about
>> buying further Dell services for our business? Are you KIDDING me? If
>> they screw up the order just once your equipment might be obsolete by
>> the time you receive it...
>>
>> I'll keep you filled in on this story.
>
>Apple did the same thing when I ordered a G5 iMac and then wanted to
>make a change to a wireless mouse and keyboard.

Well, I'll give Dell customer support credit. They answered my weekend
request on Saturday morning at some stupid hour of the night. I'm not
sure where the answer is coming from (perhaps overseas) but they have
people reading. That's impressive.

Dell not only sent in an additional expedite request but have changed
shipping to overnight delivery to make sure that the main laptop
arrives on the 20th and added in a little extra bonus as well.

As ticked off as I was and as backwards as the system is, they made
sure to get it out on time and provide extra effort to make the
customer happy. We'll see if it arrives but I'm confident that there
won't be a problem.

Here's kudos to Dell and glad that my original post will at least
serve to show that there is some hope on the horizon and that they've
done good by at least one customer at their own expense.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 19:10:16 -0700, "Richard Johnson"
<richj@remove.this.tairedd.com> wrote:

>
>"Mike" <tkdREMOVESPAMinthecity@yahSPAMoo.com> wrote in message
>news:5u2g515kep7pb8schom4g7jir83jhbfpjm@4ax.com...
>> I decided to order a Dell computer for the first time and perhaps it's
>> for the best that I will likely never see this laptop from them. Be
>> extremely wary when ordering from a company where you have to wait for
>> your computer to be "built." Unfortunately my experience with Dell is
>> not with one bad apple, but how poorly this company has been designed
>> for customer service.
>>
>> Dell "builds" your PC where you're just put in a queue waiting for
>> your model to be available from their assembly line. I put in my order
>> for a laptop on 4/4 and it was estimated to ship on 4/14. A long wait
>> but I'm leaving on a trip on the morning of 4/22 so plenty of time to
>> receive the item prior. Well Dell made a *billing* mistake and didn't
>> apply the discount to one item which ended up on a separate order
>> number. I called and they corrected the billing error on 4/7 -- no
>> problem right? Wrong. In order to fix their own billing mistakes, Dell
>> must CANCEL all your orders and create all NEW orders for you which
>> will result in a significant DELAY of your shipping date since you are
>> then placed on the BACK of the queue. Say what? Have you ever heard of
>> anything this STUPID before? Hard to believe but this is true. They
>> claim to have no mechanism to make a simple *billing* adjustment to
>> correct one item or their stupidity. They cannot "uncancel" this order
>> either.
>>
>> I noticed on 4/8 that my laptop was now scheduled to package to ship
>> on 4/21, which means it will be delivered approximately three - four
>> weeks after my order and *after* I leave on my trip and will have
>> delivery attemped to an empty home. I called again and I was told that
>> they would request to "expedite" it, which looking at the latest order
>> info means it is now scheduled to package to ship on 4/19, still far
>> too late for my trip. And they kept me on the phone to ask me about
>> buying further Dell services for our business? Are you KIDDING me? If
>> they screw up the order just once your equipment might be obsolete by
>> the time you receive it...
>>
>> I'll keep you filled in on this story.
>
>That is amazing. No difference in the laptop equipment, just a billing
>mistake and they want to delete your order and start it in the queue again.
>Most companies would simply CREDIT you the difference, and ship on time. Oh
>well, it's a Dell!

Yeah, it was a real shocker in that regard. I'm glad at least someone
there realized how inane this was and did all right, in fact even
better.