Dell complaints

[jandal]

I posted this on my blog http://bit.ly/my-dhell and if you have a Twitter account i'd be grateful if you'd retweet it

I’ll try not to bore you all with too many details – but here’s the SHORT version of events.

I am currently in New Zealand, I bought a Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop. I needed something with high performance and this sounded just the thing. It arrived about two weeks later and from the beginning I noticed things were not right. The performance certainly was very disappointing, it was making beeping noises randomly (no I wasn’t leaning on anything), the screen would dim, and the battery wouldn’t show charged past 6% then it would show charged 100%.

I rang Dell on 10 February and reported the poor performance and battery issue, I said I thought I had a “lemon” as there seemed to be so many things not right with it. I was told there was a problem with this laptop, a problem caused by an issue between Microsoft and Intel with Dell in the middle but that this was likely to be the cause of the performance issue with the laptop. As this was the case I said I did not see any point in getting a replacement and I requested a refund. My laptop was picked up and returned to Dell on 16 February.

I was told the refund would take about 7 days.

When I didn’t see the money going back into my bank account after seven days I started to make enquiries.

* I sent 5 emails to anz_cc_cust_in@dell.com (2) and ANZ_cc_cust_serv@dell.com (3) between 19 – 28 FebruaryNo replies despite the Dell website saying A representative will usually respond to your email inquiry within one business day. I didn’t get one reply, I note the usually….

Now remember I’m currently in New Zealand, the Dell auto reply says:

Thank you for contacting Dell’s Asia Pacific Customer Care Centre. This is an automated response, acknowledging receipt of your enquiry. Please do not respond to this email. We will be in contact with you within the next 3 business days. For your information, our business hours are as follow :

Australia: 1-333-55 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm EST
New Zealand: 0800-775-771 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm EST
Malaysia: 1800-881-306 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Singapore: 1800-394-7430 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Thailand: 1800-006-007 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm

EST is Eastern Standard Time, so I can ring Dell Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm EST mmm lets see that means I can ring Dell between 3am and 11am New Zealand time! Hey, so customer centric Dell Asia Pacific Customer Care Centre you want me to get up at 3am and talk to you? But, I hear you say, I could call you at 9am, mmm..apparently not – more on that later…

* I rang Dell about 8 times and gave up waiting. By the way Dell you give me so many reference numbers – why? When I ring I get asked for a tag, internet ref, returns ref, order number.You then put me through to another person who asks me the same information again. You make me listen to whale music, there are no helpful messages like – “you are 102 in the queue”, “your estimated wait time is 6 hours” – nothing but whale music that now and again stops and you think you’ve been cut off until it starts again. Dell “CustomerCare line” is like the black hole.

* However when I didn’t get replies to my email I thought I’d just have to set aside time and wait and wait on the phone.

* 26th February, rang Dell 0800 941 121 – to cut a long story short – waited, listening for whale music for 50mins, a “Customer Care” representative answered – she wanted my order number, I didn’t have it because it’s never provided in email sales correspondence from Dell. You actually have to log into your online account to get it and if you’ve ever used Dell online you’ll know that’s not a smooth experience. I said I had my Internet Reference number and my Returns Reference number – would that do? She said yes, typed it in then said she had to put me on hold to check my account. Lesson 1. Always ask a Dell representative for their name (yes we know they a given fake names) and never let them put you on hold. Anyway, she bounced me back into the phone queue where, furious, I continued to wait for someone else to take my call. 35mins later I got the surly woman who wouldn’t take my Internet Reference and simply cut me off. 1hour 25mins on hold and she cut me off.

* I rang back, told the reception I wasn’t going to wait again and want to speed to someone “in authority” – by this time I was very annoyed, she said no one was available but that she would get a customer service manager to ring me back. She confirmed my telephone number. No one rang me.

* 1 March, rang Dell 0800 941 121 again. Waited 1hr 13mins on hold. Got through to a “Customer Care” representative. Asked for a name this time. She said she would contact the refund section and I would get an email from them within 3 hours. That was 5 days ago, no email. I also said I wanted to speak to a customer service manager, she said one wasn’t available but that she would request for one to ring me that day. 5 days and not call.

* So…that’s a total of 5 emails – 2hours 38minutes on hold (actually it was a lot more than that as I had tried but tired or waiting previously) – two requests to speak to a customer services manager not replied to despite being told I would be contacted.

* 5 March rang Dell New Zealand 4 times 0800 941 121 and 0800 289 335 between 9.35am-10.06 was told there was told “customer care” was not open and would need to ring back after 10am, when I did they still were not open. I asked on all occasions to speak to a Dell representative and the receptionist, on all occasions, put me through to an answering machine in Australia that said they were not open yet and to ring back.

* I tried Dell on Twitter, Dell keeps a low profile on Twitter – I can imagine why, you don’t really want to deal with customers. First tried @dellhomesalesin no reply. Then LionelatDell , he replied on 1 March, looking for contact details. I have not heard anything from Dell.

Dell “Customer Care” is in systemic failure. They have lost my business and that of my network.

Any other suggestions about how I can take this further?

Thanks
Nick

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Just this week a mate from Australia got results by referring to the government legal agency in charge of trade.

You've already discovered that Dell's phone answerers are determined not to give you any results under any condition. They are not singling you out, they do that to everyone.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'