Trials & Tribulations

[sirhc55]

I have read, on this forum and others, about the pros and cons of the Dell experience.

On Easter Monday I decided to purchase, from the Dell website, the 24" 2407WFP-HC for $799. Paid my monies via Visa.

Now for the fun part. I received email notification that my order had been received and the web address to track the progress of my purchase. I checked every day but progress was nil.

Yesterday I took the plunge and phoned Dell’s delivery line. Yes, you guessed right. I’m talking to a person who has a total lack of English comprehension but I did manage to get from him that delivery would be 3-5 days.

This morning I checked the tracking and it had not moved. So I phoned again. Different person but again very hard to understand. This time I was told that there was a problem with my payment to which I replied, its gone from my bank account, so what’s the problem? He then said he would get a sales representative to call me within the hour. Four hours later I call back and this time I’m told there is a problem with the order and a sales representative would call me back within half an hour. So, an hour later I call back and I’m told again about the money and a problem with the order at which point I decided to lose my cool. I told the person that is was my understanding that under the Australian Corporations Act to advertise and take the money for a product and not have stock is fraud. This had the effect I was after. Five minutes later I received a call from a very nice lady and repeated my statement, this time adding the word fraud. Within the space of two minutes I had the answers. The 2407WFP-HC is no longer available (read no longer made). I then said why was it advertised only last week if the product was no longer made.

The end of the story. She immediately upgraded my purchase to the 2408WFP-HC (no extra cost) and it will be delivered sometime next week.

I wish I had bought the Asus

[Oneputt]

I know it is no consolation Chris but you are not alone with that experience.

[Alpha_7]

Nice work Chris! Katie is so good at dealing with situations like this, I just sit back and let her do her thing and she sorts them all out.

[gstark]

The end of the story. She immediately upgraded my purchase to the 2408WFP-HC (no extra cost) and it will be delivered sometime next week.

Hopefully the tracking for this order now will not follow the same path as it previously did.

But this is very typical of Dell, and nothing has changed.

Many years ago, well before USB sticks became commonplace, I ordered one from Dell, to be delivered to me at the home of a friend in LA. They were shown as in stock, the order processed, and I immediately received a confirmation.

That the item was on back-order!

And no ETA for delivery.

I was ordering through their US site (this was before they had an Oz operation) but did anyone care that they were ordering stuff that they could not deliver? They didn't care at all.

Bunch of bloody morons, and I'm being very kind.

[BullcreekBob]

Errr, Thanks Guys

Yesterday we ordered Gillian's new laptop through Dell, we thought at the time we'd bought well but now you're making me feel very uncomfortable.

Bob

[sirhc55]

Bob - you will probably be OK. In my case they were advertising a unit that had been discontinued

[Geoff]

Bob, as Chris said, hopefully this is a rare thing to happen.

I know lots of people that own/ordered Dell's and their experiences have been almost all positive.

Let us know though, how you get on.

[sirhc55]

It would appear that calling them a bunch of fecking idiots worked a charm Just been notified that it will appear at my doorway between midday and 4pm this Friday

[Glen]

Dell are at Frenchs Forest, probably 10km from you, and only 2 weeks to your doorstep!!It is hard to beat prompt service. What is the top speed of the zimmerframe?

[sirhc55]

Dell are at Frenchs Forest, probably 10km from you, and only 2 weeks to your doorstep!!It is hard to beat prompt service. What is the top speed of the zimmerframe?

Zimmer specs:

Material: Titanium steel composite with Boron spliff inserts
Engine: Quad turbocharged V24 side-block double Boxter
Brakes: Faith in a higher being
Fuel: Various, but the top contender for that extra mile - Brussel Sprouts
Top speed: 1kpd

For those not familiar with the metric ‘kpd’ k=kilometre p=per d=day

[Glen]

Sounds like you will still be faster than Dell! Glad you got the upgrade, seems very fair under the circumstances.

[Wocka]

There is obviously a difference between “Home” and “Corporate” users.

As a Corporate customer and System Integrator I have a dedicated account manager (dedicated to approx 300 clients I expect) I receive quotes on systems within 24 hours. Yes I admit, the attention to detail is lacking (approx 7 out of 10 are correct), but these trained monkeys are dealing with high volume.

Dell Service is also acceptable once the language barrier is broken and you explain that you:
A) Know what you’re talking about.
B) Have done all the testing already.
C) Insist they just send out the technician with the new part.

This “negotiation” process takes 45 seconds. Then they respond, log the call and I have a bloke standing in reception for a server fault within 4 hours and a laptop fault in 6 hours.

Dell Finance, well a good kick up the bum for those untrained monkeys is needed.

And don't get me started on IBM, give me Dell any day.

Basically the bigger the company gets the worse the end user experience becomes. When you have 15 departments and sub-departments and no ownership of anything it's amazing how things get "lost" in the system of business. This happens with Telstra, Optus, Anz, Westpac, CommBank...... < insert any company name here>.

Cheers

[Glen]

Warwick, interesting explanation on how Dell choose to do business. By the two experiences above it seems they shaft the retail customer to pander to the corporate customer. My thoughts would be that one day any account could become more trouble than Dell think its worth.

You are very right about the bigger the company often the worse the experience. I find it amusing your comments about breaking the language barrier, it seems in IT, banking and the Dell world if you don't speak Hindi you can't communicate with your lack of service provider.

Personally I think Dell deserve a kick up the arse for the way they are prepared to treat people, Chris was given quite a run around on this and only his strong will got a reasonable and timely outcome. From other forums it seems this is quite a common occurrence to screw their retail clients.

[sirhc55]

The next step in the process is to see if the 2408 is any good. From what I have read on the Dell forum it’s a heap of crap and has had far too many problems.

[Killakoala]

I had no problems at all when I bought my Dell XPS M1210 notebook. I had it in my hands in the time frame they promised, even to a regional area and It still works. I wrote this response on it. Even the battery has NOT exploded yet.

[who]

I had no issues with my Dell order recently, although their order tracking online was of no real use, it never updated on status with my laptop after leaving Malaysia after build.

As for the 2408 - the 2407 HC I got in February is quite nice thank you, and the 2408 has an ven better colour gamut.

[stubbsy]

My guess is this can be pot luck

I bought a new dell system a month or two back - I had some questions and used the online chat to avoid the "english" issues. Asked my question (wanted a different monitor to the package) and after some chats the lady asked me for my phone # so she could chat better. She rang me and was reasoanbly easy to understand. She was helpful, sent me three quotes and eventaully I emailed her off my order. I orderd on a Saturday morning. The machine showed as shipped from Dell the following Tuesday and arrived on the following Monday. Just over a week from order to delivery.

[surenj]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I have bought a 22" WFP2007 and recently a inspiron laptop and they delivered within 3 days and I have been very happy with both purchases..

[sirhc55]

Well it all panned out OK and I’m now using the monitor. Just waiting on my Spyder3 Elite to arrive so that I can calibrate the screen. Decided to run my DiamondDigital 20" alongside in span mode using the Gefen USB to DVI through DisplayLink.

It’s a big bugger

[Justin]

I'm using a Dell 24" screen, got it about a year ago - probably the model that was discontinued.

Then I went and got a 46" LCD TV a couple of months ago (love DJs price-match+interest free)

The dang 24" looks tiny now!