Future daze

On a slow news day, spare yourself the heartache, don’t buy a Dell computer.

I wish to outline and explicate my severe disappointment and frustration with ordering a Dell computer. I’ve found my recent online ordering experience with Dell to have been the worst of my entire life. As you will see from my detailing below, I’ve found the quality of service provided to be appalling and incompetent.

On the 8th of November I placed an order online for a standard Inspiron notebook. I explicitly chose for Dell due to recommendations which seemed to be backed up by the brand research I had done. The promise of delivery within ten days as indicated by the Dell website suited my personal schedule perfectly. However, after nine days of waiting I grew concerned and contacted Dell customer service hoping to receive an update on delivery time. Not until the next day (the 19th of November) was I informed that delivery wouldn’t take place until the week after (well in excess of ten days, that is). Since I was moving into new premises then, I had to change the delivery address on the order. This process involved multiple telephone calls and emails (details of which emails I can provide if needed, though I suggest you check your own order logs) — most of which were at my instigation since the customer service representatives consistently failed to provide me with detailed or accurate information about the status of my order, whether the change of address had even been received by the carrier, etc. Often these representatives did not call back as promised. Several reasons were offered with regard to the lack of information, relating either to Dell procedure or poor communications with the Dell logistics department and/or the carrier company. Another week passed without clarification despite numerous emails to ‘resolution experts’ in India.

In desperation I called the carrier company (InterLink) myself but they couldn’t assist me without a dispatch number, which further communications with Dell customer service couldn’t elicit either. The carrier mentioned this was a frequent problem and complaint regarding your branded company. The ongoing process of desired clarification and resultant obfuscation finally resulted in a representative calling (another week later) to inform me the carrier had “lost” the order and would therefore have to be re-ordered and assembled from scratch at the plant etc. This representative understood my frustration and offered a 10% discount to continue with the order — though I did not receive written confirmation of this discount. In addition to hinting the reason for the delay was purely my change of address (and hence my fault), no accurate delivery time was indicated — though in a perverse parallel, my mobile number seems to have crossed with another Dell customer waiting on an order, so that I started receiving calls related to that order but none regarding my own.

The week after placing this second order (all the while receiving no order updates as promised), another representative called to inform me the renewed order had been processed with my old address details, not the new address which I had twice already provided at my own prompting. The representative said the updated address details had been forwarded to the carrier company again, but couldn’t give any indication of the expected fulfillment. I was now expecting a repeat of the delay procedure mentioned above.

By this time my frustration and utter disappointment with a ‘ten day’ order had become overwhelming. Another representative called to say that prioritized delivery had been arranged for Monday the 13th. Needless to say, the order didn’t arrive then either, despite my taking time off to receive it. And neither a phone call from Dell or the carrier company to clarify why. Again, I had to instigate communications telephonically — and though I expressed the urgent desire to cancel the order with an eye to a complete and direct refund, the representative promised to clarify the situation with the carrier by calling back within several hours. Which, when he did, was only to tell me he had no further details to add. Since no further update was forthcoming, I rang again on Tuesday the 14th to cancel the order. It appeared, from discussion with the CS representative, that my computer had again gone to the old address. Despite everything I had done to provide the correct address.

And in closing, it seems the carrier attempted to deliver it about 7-8 times in total, just to the wrong address every time. Dell have apologised in full for the debacle, but didn’t offer any incentive for ordering with them again. Watch out, people.