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Dell no longer wishes to do business. They're a mail order company that has forgotten how to mail things. Now off my recommend list for good.
By Andrew Pollack on 08/25/2007 at 06:06 PM EDTIt’s a good thing Dell is starting to sell via Wal-Mart. That’s where they are headed anyway. They’ve just lost my business, and I can no longer recommend them to anyone.
It is now finally completely clear to me that Dell simply doesn’t want to do business.
I have posted here about my issues dealing with Dell’s extremely bad customer service before. I’ve had shipping problems, I have had sales people refuse to give me part numbers so I could order them directly, and I’ve had their corporate sales people utterly fail to even attempt to return contact requests when I inquired about their thin client solutions.
What a shame. I like my Dell Laptop. I liked the one before this one. I also liked the one before that. Unfortunately, the quality of their peripherals has steadily declined and their ability to provide parts and service had fallen faster than Enron stock.
My wonderful new laptop came with a battery that gave me 2.5 hours of use on a very high end machine. That’s Impressive. A year later, I get 40 minutes. Other people are saying the same thing about these batteries. I watched mine go from showing 52% remaining after 25 minutes to showing 6% remaining at 30 minutes. I am fairly sure that there is a defect or damage to one of the connections between the cells. That may even be dangerous. Lithium Ion batteries are very unstable, and only their complex electronic controls prevent them from catching fire.
NOTE: I have included the full text of each of these transcripts, which I promise you will find boring, at the end of this document just to be sure I'm being complete here for anyone who cares.
On August 5th I ordered a new battery and an upgraded cellular modem. I expected it five days later, but it was delayed. I chatted with them on the 13th
* Edited to show the important bits, if you want the whole transcript, email me.
08/13/2007 11:14:15AM Agent (Paritosh Dobhal): "Andrew, as I see from the records, new estimated shipping date for your order is Friday, August 17, 2007. I am sorry to say that the items ordered by you are backordered."
08/13/2007 11:14:49AM Andrew Pollack: "BOTH of them?"
08/13/2007 11:14:59AM Agent (Paritosh Dobhal): "Yes."
08/13/2007 11:15:01AM Andrew Pollack: "so its taking dell 2 weeks to get them in to ship to me?"
08/13/2007 11:15:17AM Andrew Pollack: "Then I expect dell will upgrade the shipping to overnight, yes?"
08/13/2007 11:15:31AM Agent (Paritosh Dobhal): "Sure."
08/13/2007 11:15:44AM Agent (Paritosh Dobhal): "I will upgrade the shipping to overnight delivery method, right away."
On August 17th, I received an email that the order would be delayed again. I called them and they swore it would be shipped overnight and be here by the 24th.
On August 21st, I received an email that my order had shipped overnight.
On August 22nd, I received nothing.
On August 23rd, I checked their website, and although DELL’s site showed the order going out overnight, DHL’s showed it going out ground. I chatted with Dell again.
* Edited to show the important bits, if you want the whole transcript, email me.
08/23/2007 03:02:07PM Agent (Sandeep Kumar): "I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration caused to you. Let me go ahead and help you with this issue right away."
08/23/2007 03:04:40PM Agent (Sandeep Kumar): "As per the records, I can see that we upgraded the shipping method to free Next day delivery."
08/23/2007 03:05:18PM Agent (Sandeep Kumar): "However, when the order shipped the information was not updated with DHL and the order shipped though ground shipping."
08/23/2007 03:10:59PM Agent (Sandeep Kumar): "Andrew, please be assured that you will receive the order on 08/24/2007."
08/23/2007 03:11:38PM Agent (Sandeep Kumar): "The order will be delivered to you on 08/24/2007 between 8 - 5 PM CST."
On August 24th, I got a small box with the cellular modem, and no battery.
Dell’s site does not show anything outstanding. DHL does not show anything outstanding. I called Dell, demanded a supervisor, and was assigned a case number. I demanded they overnight ship the battery for Saturday delivery the next day but they would not commit to doing so. I have replied to the email with the case number twice, with no response.
Today I chatted with them again.
* Edited to show the important bits, if you want the whole transcript, email me.
08/25/2007 03:34:33PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "I apologize that you still have not received the battery and it is missing."
08/25/2007 03:34:34PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "Please don’t worry. I am here to take care of this for you."
08/25/2007 03:35:00PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "Can you please tell me the box in which you received the order was tampered or not?"
08/25/2007 03:35:04PM Andrew Pollack: "so you say, yet I have a box here with no battery in it, that was shipped dhl ground. the shipping on your site is wrong both in that it was overnight (itwas night) and that there was a battery -- there was not."
08/25/2007 03:35:15PM Andrew Pollack: "the box did not appear tampered with."
08/25/2007 03:35:46PM Andrew Pollack: "it looks to me like someone didn't ship the stuff I ordered. I know that the system you have says overnight, yet DHL's system shows it shipped ground."
08/25/2007 03:35:53PM Andrew Pollack: "so at least one other thing was screwed up at the same time."
08/25/2007 03:36:11PM Andrew Pollack: "the box is small."
08/25/2007 03:36:14PM Andrew Pollack: "a battery would not fit in this box."
08/25/2007 03:36:23PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "Andrew, I will set up the request for the new battery to be sent to you."
08/25/2007 03:36:40PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "The new battery will be sent to you in next estimated 8 business days."
08/25/2007 03:36:46PM Andrew Pollack: "hell no."
08/25/2007 03:36:50PM Andrew Pollack: "that is not acceptable to me."
08/25/2007 03:37:00PM Andrew Pollack: "i do not want a battery in 8 days."
08/25/2007 03:37:10PM Andrew Pollack: "I needed a batter 10 days ago, and ordered it 20 days ago."
08/25/2007 03:37:28PM Andrew Pollack: "I expect it to be shipped -- as promised 3 times so far -- OVERNIGHT."
08/25/2007 03:37:46PM Andrew Pollack: "do you need me to show you the transcripts where this was committed?"
08/25/2007 03:38:02PM Andrew Pollack: "or does dell just not have any, and has been telling me lies?"
08/25/2007 03:38:40PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "The replacement order will be sent to you overnight."
08/25/2007 03:38:54PM Andrew Pollack: "when will it be shipped?"
08/25/2007 03:38:56PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "However, it will take some to get the new order number generated and get it shipped out of Dell."
08/25/2007 03:39:08PM Andrew Pollack: "I need you to say, clearly, that it wil be shipped on MONDAY and will be shipped OVERNIGHT."
08/25/2007 03:39:35PM Andrew Pollack: "I am not a moron. I have been duped before. Not again."
08/25/2007 03:40:44PM Agent (Khushboo Sharma): "I can not assure you that it will ship on Monday."
08/25/2007 03:40:53PM Andrew Pollack: "then get me a supervisor who can."
08/25/2007 03:40:57PM Andrew Pollack: "right now please."
And later with the supervisor
* Edited to show the important bits, if you want the whole transcript, email me.
08/25/2007 03:55:03PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "Hi I am Nivedita the manager on Duty."
08/25/2007 03:55:16PM Andrew Pollack: "have you read the transcript of this chat?"
08/25/2007 03:56:06PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "Yes I have read the transcript."
08/25/2007 03:56:32PM Andrew Pollack: "Then you know exactly where I stand, I believe. I have offered Dell two acceptable next steps."
08/25/2007 03:56:59PM Andrew Pollack: "Either one is very easy to accomplish."
08/25/2007 03:57:20PM Andrew Pollack: "If dell wants to do business, it can. If not, it can refund the product it has failed to produce."
08/25/2007 03:57:26PM Andrew Pollack: "I see no other alternatives."
08/25/2007 03:57:31PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "You want us to send the product to you by Monday."
08/25/2007 03:57:40PM Andrew Pollack: "no, I know nothing ships sunday."
08/25/2007 03:57:51PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "This is not a possible option."
08/25/2007 03:57:54PM Andrew Pollack: "I want it shipped ON monday for overnight delivery by earliest available on Tuesday."
08/25/2007 03:58:34PM Andrew Pollack: "This will have a product at my door on Tuesday morning. THAT is very easy to accomplish."
08/25/2007 03:58:52PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "I am unable to promise a ship date to you."
08/25/2007 03:58:55PM Andrew Pollack: "I'm not an idiot, I know that you can't have it here on monday, but you can have it in a box marked overnight by monday afternoon."
08/25/2007 03:59:20PM Andrew Pollack: "I think Dell has none of these available, and has been giving me lies all along."
08/25/2007 03:59:37PM Andrew Pollack: "I expect you to refund (not credit) what I paid for this product you haven't got, immediately."
08/25/2007 03:59:54PM Andrew Pollack: "I will get it elsewhere, publish this and my other transcripts, and have done with dell for me and my customers."
08/25/2007 04:00:07PM Andrew Pollack: "I will also file a consumer complaint for the AG to determine if this is also fraud."
08/25/2007 04:01:23PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "Do you want me to process a credit?"
08/25/2007 04:01:37PM Andrew Pollack: "I want you to process a refund."
08/25/2007 04:01:48PM Andrew Pollack: "not a credit only usable at Dell."
08/25/2007 04:05:41PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "It will take us 16 days to complete the credit the request."
08/25/2007 04:06:08PM Andrew Pollack: "LOL. It didn't take 16 days for you to charge me."
08/25/2007 04:06:20PM Andrew Pollack: "but I'll make that complaint to discover and let them deal with it."
08/25/2007 04:07:04PM Andrew Pollack: "I'll order the same battery for 30% less here: http://www.5starsbatteries.com/products/35529.html and they'll ship it overnight on Monday."
08/25/2007 04:07:29PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "I am processing the request for the battery."
08/25/2007 04:07:43PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "I am processing a request for a refund."
08/25/2007 04:09:31PM Andrew Pollack: "ha, those guys even offer saturday delivery. I should have done this on Friday when the order was first wrong instead of giving dell a chance to fix it and charge more money."
08/25/2007 04:11:11PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "I am sorry for the delay."
08/25/2007 04:11:30PM Agent (Sup Nivedita Sengupta): "It will take me 2-3 more minutes to complete the request."
08/25/2007 04:12:10PM Andrew Pollack: "I'll wait. It has taken me less time to find and order the same part elsewhere for 30% less money, with guaranteed overnight shipping. I guess that company actually wants to do business and sell things to people."
08/25/2007 04:12:58PM Andrew Pollack: "I've even already recieved the confirming email with the order and shipping date listed."
08/25/2007 04:13:21PM Andrew Pollack: "You should be embarrassed."
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tell me they could ship a battery in under 8 days after its already 21 days
overdue and supposed to have been shipped.
With all the earlier battery problems on models up to but not including this
one (the 810 was in the recall, the 820 was not) I wonder if they simply don't
have any at all.
I may need to call those people in the press I know and ask some questions.