Thursday, September 20, 2007

Dell Bad Customer Service

Hi All,

Now I've never thought of myself as one of those keyboard warriors who feels the need to spread ill-favour all over the Internet about every little silly problem they've had with a big corporation, but this time I think I've got a reason.
Dell - Everyone knows them. Great computers, great prices and all that, but what about customer service? You'd think that when you hand over more than $2500 to a company like Dell that should entitle you to some kind of customer service, right? Well, that simple theory has been proved very wrong by the service - or lack thereof - I have been given over the last two weeks. Let me tell you exactly what kind of service $2500+ worth of computer gives you today.

I ordered my new XPS M1330 laptop via Dell Australia early last week, Monday (10SEP07) to be exact. Before I go on I would like to point out that I do know about the problems that Dell are having supplying the M1330's due to their high demand. Still, that shouldn't mean that I should have to endure what I have so far.
I was speaking to a girl who called herself Kay (which of course wasn't her real name as she was Indian) who I thought was quite pleasant to deal with. She called me to confirm my payment after I had placed my order online and I told her that I was going to pay her via wire transfer. She emailed me the bank details for Dell, along with a detailed invoice of everything that I had ordered, and I transferred the money from my account. This would be the last I would hear from Kay.
the week went by and I thought nothing of my order until I spoke with a friend of mine who asked me if I had been tracking my order online; something which I was unaware I was able to do. I emailed Kay regarding this and I never received a reply - a common courtesy which you would expect from a company with whom you had just given $2500 of your hard earned money.
Monday the next week rolled around (17SEP07 - a week later) and I thought I would send Kay another email. Again, no reply. About now was when I was starting to regret placing my order with Dell.
So, I waited until Tuesday (18SEP07) and emailed Kay again. Surprise, surprise, no reply. So I waited until late that afternoon and called Dell myself. This is where things really start to go to shit.

I was told that Kay had moved to another department so she was no longer dealing with my case. Great, I thought, so why the hell wasn't someone else? I asked the person who I was speaking to (didn't get a name, should have) if Kay's email address was still the same and they told me that yes, she still used the same email.
So, she still gets paid by the same company to deal with customers but just works in a different department. She was still getting my emails, she just didn't feel like replying. She didn't even feel like giving my order to someone else to deal with. Great customer service.
I was then transferred to someone else who would (apparently) help me with my problem from here on, his name was Inderpal. I was hoping that he would fix my issue, but alas I was wrong.
After Inderpal told me to tell him my customer number which was on my invoice from Kay, he told me that he could not find my order. I thought this was unusual as I had the invoice in front of me, staring me in the face. So I sent it to him. He told me that they had no record of this order in their system and that he would have to search for it and call me back. I was advised to expect a call in the next fifteen minutes while he checked my details. I would find out soon that this call would never come - the first in a series of let-downs that I would experience from other staff in the coming days.
I waited an hour and Inderpal's call still did not come so I decided to call him back. When I answered, I asked why the call didn't come. He replied that he just got off the phone with someone else and he would look into my case now and call me right back; basically, he lied to me.
I waited another half hour and he finally called. He then proceeded to give me the news that my order had been lost and I would have to order it again. Fine, I thought, let's just get it done so I can get what I paid for.
But here comes the great part.
He proceeded to tell me that unfortunately, I could not longer have the special offer I had originally ordered and paid for, as it had finished. Also, Dell Australia was no longer offering the fingerprint reader so I couldn't have that either. Even better, the order would now cost me OVER $200 MORE than I had originally paid for it because they were no longer running that offer.
Let me get this straight: I've already ordered and paid for it, you had my money when that order was on and I have the invoice from when I paid for it but I now have to pay more to get the same computer with less features? this has gotta be some kind of sick joke. Apparently it wasn't.
As you can probably guess, I expressed my insane disbelief with what he had just told me. He advised me that unfortunately he couldn't do anything more than what he had done so he will get his team leader to call me in the morning with a solution. I asked him with a timeframe and he said I would definitely get a call between 11AM-12AM.
So if you were a betting man, would you place your bet on that the call came on time, or that the call never came at all? Well, let's find out shall we...

It was almost 12 o'clock and I still hadn't received my phonecall, which was kinda what I was expecting by now. When the call didn't come, I emailed Inderpal with the following:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 19, 11.57AM
>
>Hi,
>
>Can you please forward my complaint onto your supervisor who was supposed to call me this morning.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Of course, I didn't get a call or any kind of courteous reply to my email. So I waited until 2PM and called Mr. Inderpal again to find out why I had not been called. He just told me that he was sorry but his supervisor would be calling me very shortly.
I waited until after 4PM and I sent this email:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 19, 4.20PM
>
>Hi,
>
>I still have not heard back from your supervisor. I need a solution to my problem right away. So far, this has wasted >over a week of my time and as far as I am concerned Dell has taken over $2500 of my money and I do not have an >order. You cannot take my money and then provide no service.
>I did everything that was asked of me, I made my order online then I transferred the money. I don't care what you >have to do but I need someone to call me TODAY! Dell is a multi-billion dollar company and I don't think it should be >a problem for you to get someone to call me and fix this problem. So far, I have been told that I will be called back >several times and I have not.
>I need someone to call me to fix this problem right away as I need my computer by the 7th of October. If your >supervisor is going to be in a meeting then get someone else to call me. You have over $2500 of my money and I >think that should entitle me to some service. I need a phonecall today!
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

As you can see from my email, I am starting to get pretty ticked off. You'd think that they'd begin to take notice and actually give me some kind of reply wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong.
I received no reply to this email but the good thing was I was called just after I sent this by another Dell employee by the name of Sailesh. Here's what happened.
Sailesh told me that the issue had been referred to him and that he would be dealing with my issue from now on. Now let me ask you; if you were waiting for a supervisor to call you and someone told you what Sailesh had told me, you would assume that he was the supervisor you'd been waiting for wouldn't you? Maybe that's what they wanted me to think, I would find out later that Sailesh was just another deceitful and inept Dell employee.
Sailesh advised me that Dell was going to honour me with what I had paid for in the first place, which is great because there was no way I was going to pay more money, for less computer. I emailed him the original invoice that I had been sent by Kay well over a week ago so that he could make sure I got everything I was promised.
Now I was starting to believe that things were getting done and I was going to get service now, but as it turns out, the sub-standard customer service I had gotten so far would only get worse.
He emailed me back saying that he would send this to the finance team so that they could track my payment and get my order started. I then sent him this email:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 19, 6.17PM
>
>Sailesh,
>
>Will I receive an email when this has been completed? Also, I would like the order to be rushed to me. I definitely >need to receive it by the 6th of October at the very latest.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Simple right? All I was asking for was one simple courteous reply by email to a simple question. You'd think that after all the stuff that I had been through so far that Sailesh could have done this. It seems that spending ten seconds of his time to send me an email as a customer who had just spent over $2500 with Dell was too hard for him. I got no reply. That night or the next morning.

At around 11AM on the 20th of September, I got a call from Sailesh.
Bear in mind that at this point it had been almost two business weeks since I had placed my order and still I had no concrete confirmation that y order even existed.
So, Sailesh called me with more fantastic news. It would seem that not only did they lost my order but Dell had totally lost track of my payment. It didn't exist.
I almost threw my fucking phone out the window. How the fuck could Dell lose over two and a half grand of my money. It seems that they're really great at taking cash, they just have no idea of how to manage it, or orders for that matter.
At his request, I emailed him my proof of payment. He told me that he would send it to the finance team to track it and he would call me as soon as he had heard from them. Now, the usual waiting game would begin again.
In the mean time, I went onto Dell's Australian website to have a look at my computer again and I noticed something. I originally wanted to order a white M1330 but they were taken off the market due to some kind of problem Dell was having with painting them, but now they had been put back into production.
Cool I thought, since my order still hasn't been placed I didn't think it would be too much trouble for them to change it to the colour I really wanted. I mean, I think it would be a small condolence seeing all the trouble I had been put through. So, I emailed Sailesh this:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 20, 1.14PM
>
>Hi,
>
>I would like my order changed from a black laptop to a white one.
>
>Leon
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Now, it wouldn't take Sailesh much effort to reply to this but as we know, he doesn't think much of Dell's valuable (supposedly) customers. He of course, didn't reply.
At around 4PM I called Sailesh again as it had been quite some time since he sent y details to the finance team. Surely, it can't take this long to get an order in production. Sailesh told me that he received the information from Finance a while ago and that my order was in production. Okay, then why the hell didn't you give me the common courtesy to let me know? He assured me that he would email me the details in the next five minutes with the tracking number so that I could track it.
At Dell, five minutes must equate to an hour and a half, because that's how long I waited to get it.

Now I forgot to mention that I asked Sailesh a few times what Dell would do to help me out. I mean, I at least wanted a rushed delivery, a discount or something considering the stress that Dell had put me through. I don't think that it is too much to ask.
When I spoke to Sailesh at around 4PM, he assured me that he had directed my complaint to the supervisor and he would be calling me in the next half an hour.
Supervisor? I thought you were the supervisor that I was dealing with.
Sailesh told me that he was not the supervisor, just someone that my issue was given to; I was lied to again by Dell.
He assured me that his supervisor would call me in the next half an hour with a resolution to my problem. And yet here I am, at 9.40PM with no call.

I thought that when you hand over more than $2500 to a company like Dell, that would entitle you to some kind of service. I was dead wrong. Not only was I lied to and given the worst service I have ever received by any company in my entire life, I wasn't at any point even offered any kind of resolution to my issue.
About an hour ago, I forwarded my complaint to Dell USA to see if they could help me and I spoke to another lovely Indian chap; my guess, from the same department that Kay, Inderpal and Sailesh work at.

So if you're listening Dell, my customer number is 3295836 (Australia) and I really want something done about my problem. I'm sure you can find my contact details by searching for my customer number.

Alright, I'm back again. It's 10.45PM and I'd like to share with you the fantastic response that I just received from Dell USA customer support:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 20, 10.40PM
>
>Dear Mr. Leon,
>
>
>Thank you for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.
>
>I apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail. We currently have a backlog of e-mails and are working hard to >answer all of them in a timely manner.
>
>I understand from your previous e-mail that you had a negative experience on Dell Australia. I apologize for the >inconvenience caused to you with regard to that situation and I will certainly assist you in this regard.
>
>
>After checking the records, please accept my apologies for the difficulties you encountered while trying to resolve >your issue. I assure you that your situation is not indicative of the quality of service Dell is capable of providing. We >appreciate your taking the time to share your experience with us. Your comments are very important to us and will >assist in making improvements where necessary.
>
>Once again, I thank you for sharing your experience with us. Whether the feedback we receive is positive or >negative, it remains a crucial tool for determining how we can best improve our products and services. We truly >regret any inconvenience or frustration this matter may have caused. We value you as our customer and your >satisfaction is very important to us.
>
>
>If you require further assistance, please feel free to visit our Online Customer Care Center at:
>
>http://support.dell.com
>
>Again, thank you for choosing Dell Online Customer Care and have a wonderful day!
>
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Marissa G. Rico
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Are you serious? There are so many things wrong with this email.
My problem has been turned into a lighthearted comment on Dell's business operation. Miss Marissa G. Rico (who I'm guessing is an automated mail-response bot) has just sent me a reply to my email about how many problems I am having with her company and she thanks me for my feedback.
No resolution. No care. Just thanks for my comments.
You know what else makes me laugh? She says that she is happy to assist me in this regard, but then at the end of the email she advises me to go to the dell support link if I need further assistance. I ASKED YOU FOR ASSISTANCE! And now you want me to log my complaint at the same part of the site where I logged the complaint to get this half-assed response from some mail-bot?
They also say that they value me as their customer....Yeah right. They value the $2500 I gave them but not much else.

So Dell, I am still waiting for a resolution to my problem.

11.10PM and they did it again. First I got an automated email saying that they will be sending another email regarding my problem and then I get this wonderful piece of cut-and-paste work:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 20, 11.03PM
>
>Dear Mr. Leon,
>
>Thank you for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.
>
>I apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail. We currently have a backlog of e-mails and are working hard to >answer all of them in a timely manner.
>
>I understand from your previous e-mail that you want us to assist you with your concern. I apologize for the >inconvenience caused to you with regard to that situation and I will certainly assist you in this regard.
>
>
>After checking the records, as much as we want to assist you, we cannot pull out your account on us but we are >trying to help you with your issue on Dell Australia. All I can advised you is to call Dell International at >1-800-847-4096 .
>
>
>If you require further assistance, please feel free to visit our Online Customer Care Center at:
>
>http://support.dell.com
>
>Again, thank you for choosing Dell Online Customer Care and have a wonderful day!
>
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Marissa G. Rico
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

They thank me for choosing Dell online customer service - customer service that really hasn't done anything for me at all. And it seems like Dell's customer service really isn't customer service at all, merely a third-party portal where I have to get sent to receive my customer service somewhere else.
So in summary, I've paid $2500 for no computer and the worst customer service known to man.
In case anyone at Dell is reading, Miss Marissa J Rico's employee number is 149870. Please teach this person how to provide customer service.

Thanks Dell. Thanks for taking my money and giving me screw all. Watch this space people, I'll keep you all posted on everything else that I have to deal with, unless Dell comes to me with some kind of resolution.

11.51PM, so I decide to call the so-called International support number that the crappy automated bot suggested I call in her last email. Turns out, it's not International customer support at all but Dell Canada customer support and of course, they couldn't help me. I even told her the problems that I had been faced with for the last few days and if there was anyone at all I could possibly contact to resolve it and she just directed me back to call Dell Australia. The same Dell Australia who has given me nothing so far. Great.
So far, I've been going around in circles for the last 2 weeks and nobody has been able to help me. Is there actually anyone at Dell that is employed to help people who give them money? If there is, I'm yet to speak to them.

It's now the 21st of September, at 1AM. I replied to the last bot-mail I received from Marissa telling her that I would like to speak to a manager or supervisor. I received this email back not too long ago:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 20, 12.30AM
>
>Dear Mr. Leon,
>
>Thank you for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.
>
>I understand that you want to contact a supervisor or manager based in the U.S.
>
>Again we do apologize for the inconvenience and Dell is always ready to listen to any feedback coming from >customers located anywhere across the globe.
>
>As per my supervisor, you may call our Corporate number at (512) 338-4400 for any grievances you may have with >the service coming from our Dell Australia support.
>
>Respectfully,
>Frederick
>Rep id. 133368
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

This time by the looks of things I'm not just getting some lame, nonchalant response from someone typing a few words on a template like the last two I have received.
Frederick tells me that he is sorry for the inconvenience and that he wishes to help me by listening to any feedback. I don't care if you listen at this point, only if you do something to help me. I call the corporate number hoping to get some resolutions and again I get an Indian call centre. From the message Frederick has sent, I assume that I can actually address the grievance I am having with Dell Australia, as that is what he is telling me I can do.
Not likely.
When I call the corporate number the girl I am speaking to asks me for an order number or customer number. I give them to her but I also say that it is from Dell Australia but she asks for them anyway. When she cannot pull up my details, she asks me if I made the order through Dell US and I say no, it was through Dell Australia - I mentioned that already.
She then tells me what I was hoping not to hear: This line is for Dell US only, not Dell Australia. I tell her what Frederick told me in the email and I tell her that I want to complain about Dell Australia and I would like to speak to someone at Dell US about this problem. She tells me again that nobody there will be able to assist with this problem and that I would have to speak to Dell Australia.
Frederick, you are a fool. Why tell me that I can complain about Dell Australia to this so-called corporate office when I clearly can't?
So, I then told the girl I was speaking to that I would like to speak to some kind of manager, or supervisor about this problem and I refuse to leave this call until I do. Again, I'm told that they wont be able to help me but I really don't care at this point.
Right now, I'm on hold and have been for the last twenty-two minutes. Apparently, getting transferred strait to the manager takes time. My $2500 wasn't good enough for Dell to take notice of me as a customer...

...31 minutes...

While I'm waiting, I decided to email Frederick to see if I could get some response about a correct number to call:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>September 21, 1.34AM
>
>Frederick,
>
>Unfortunately, the service and support I have been given by the staff at Dell is sub-standard yet again. The number >you have given me is not for any kind of corporate office that I can use to complain about Dell Australia. I have been >told that they cannot assist me with any kind of issue unless it is with Dell US.
>Please supply me with a telephone number where I can reach someone regarding this problem. I need to speak to >someone who is of some managerial importance who can help me, not just send me somewhere else.
>
>Leon.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

...44 minutes...

...50 minutes...

Spectacular. Someone answers at fifty-three minutes into the call and then the line goes dead. Totally spectacular. I wish there was some way that I could invoice Dell for my time.
I'm going to call again.
I get connected and speak to Imprasham (think that's how you spell it) and she was helpful and apologised for the disconnection and tells me she'll connect me to a manager, but that the manager is on another call. Instead of putting me on hold, she just mutes the mic so I can't hear her typing and stays with me. First bit of decent customer service I have received so far.
Alright, the manager is free so she's transferring me again, hope all goes better this time.

...It's ringing, but nobody is answering...

Speaking to Roy. Of course, Roy can't help me but he is willing to get his manager to call me. Let's just hope that he can do something.

Thought I'd get some sleep so now I've woken up at 12.11PM (just after midday) on the 21st of September.
No missed calls from Dell. Only one email from Dell US which is a sad excuse directing me back to the very Dell Australia I am trying to complain about:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>Dear Mr. Leon,
>
>Thank you for your reply.
>
>This is Rakesh, case manager from Dell online customer care.
>
>Mr. Leon, as you have mentioned that you have an issues with the order placed with Dell Australia, so I would >request you to call Dell Australia 1-800-812-393. Please be informed that you have reached US home and home >office department. So we do not have an access to your account with Dell Australia.
>
>I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
>
>In case you have any more questions please feel free to revert and I will be more than happy to answer them.
>
>Mr. Leon, we value you as a customer and we are determined to provide you the best of the services at all times.
>
>Thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist you.
>
>If you require further assistance, please feel free to visit our Online Customer Care Center at:
>
>http://support.dell.com
>
>Thank you again, for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Rakesh Kumar Aery
>Rep ID 110785s
>07:00 A.M. to 04:00 P.M. CST
>Dell Online Customer Care
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Useless. Another great example of the bad - or should I say horrendous - customer service I have received from Dell in the last two weeks. I love the line how Rakesh says that he values me as a customer and that he would love to help me. Instead, he just palms me off to someone else which is exactly the crap I've suffered through so far.
Now you may remember Sailesh, the last guy who I was speaking to at Dell Australia. Decided to send him an email just now to see how much Dell really cares about my problem. Let's see how long it takes him to reply or call, that's if he ever does at all. This is the email:

*****************************************************************************************************************************************
>Sailesh,
>
>So far, you have not replied to any one of the emails I have sent you. If you do not get your supervisor to call me >today with a resolution, I will take my story to the media and to the ACCC.
>Reply to this email and tell me that something is being done.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Now while you're waiting, you may want to type 'Dell bad service' or 'Dell bad customer service' or 'Dell horror service' into Google's search engine. I was delighted to find this morning that this blog is listed on the first page of all three searches and it actually shows up in the top two spots if you type 'Dell horror service' into it. Maybe now I'm going to get noticed and get something done.

So, I finally get a call at around 1PM from someone named Srinivas at Dell Australia who claims to be a manager. You'd think that being a manager that they'd be able to help you wouldn't you? Well it seems that they really can't.
Srinivas says that he wants me to give Dell another chance and that he would like me to tell him what the problem has been from the start. Honestly, I couldn't really be bothered so I just give him the link to this post. He tells me that he will call me back with a solution.

I never get a call back from Srinivas, I get a call from another manager who says that he is the highest manager for Dell Australia Sales. He tells me his name, but I can't pronounce it, let alone spell it.
I am told that Dell wants to do everything in their power to help me and that he wants to assist me with my problem. He asks me what I am expecting as a resolution for my problem and I tell him that I really just want to know what Dell is prepared to do for me.
He craps on to me a little more about how there are delays with the M1330's (Yeah, I know this, that's why I ordered it two weeks ago) and that Dell really can't do anything because I have already been given a huge discount on the products I have already bought...
I purchased an M1330, which I get a free bag with. This was an offer they were giving out to EVERY CUSTOMER. He also tells me that I was give a discount already on a 24" monitor when I bought it with the laptop. Again, this was an offer they were giving out with the purchase of the laptop to EVERY CUSTOMER!
He's not even prepared to rush my order to me. Nothing. It seems that the only thing that Dell is prepared to do for me is to restate what I bought and tell me that it was such a good deal. They're not even prepared to change the colour of my computer.
So, for two weeks of wasted time Dell offers their valuable customers absolutely nothing at all. A multi-billion dollar computer company cannot even rush an order to me. It seems that this is out of the scope of their power.
So, I tell this so-called top Australian sales manager that none of that really helps me at all. He then tells me that he will find out what he can do and call me back within the hour. The head of sales for Australia cannot even do anything for me there and then, he has to find out what he can do. Does anyone in this company carry any kind of power? It seems not.
So, the waiting game begins again.

I just got some fantastic news. I just got the estimated delivery date on my computer and its estimated I should get it November 5. Now, I am aware that the estimated delivery time of the M1330 is around 5-6 weeks, but do you think that it's really fair considering that they're giving me six weeks delivery now, when they've already wasted the last two weeks of my time?
They waste my time, they lose my order and now they refuse to even rush my delivery. This is how much power a multi-billion dollar company really has. Nothing. They can't even speed up my order.
Also, I would really like for someone at Dell Australia or Dell US to call me that can actually help me. So far, I have gotten nothing but Indian cal centres that have little-to-no power to do anything.
Why pay these people to do a job if they can't do anything?
Dell, if you're reading this, I'd like to add that I work from home. I'm self employed and my time is valuable. So far, I have spent in excess of fifteen hours of my own time trying to rectify this problem. Six hours of that was last night alone, on the phone to Dell US and other Dell departments who game me nothing but useless information. I wish I could bill you for my time.

3 comments:

Matt said...

I found your site whilst waiting for an update on delivery for my newly ordered Dell system. I ordered a Dell Insprion 530s Desktop on the 20th September, with an initial delivery date of 4th October accoring to the Dell Support Order Status site.

Imagine my surprise when I logged on near the date to find out that the date had been moved to the 15th without any reason. I emailed and someone called me back (within 2 days). I explained that according to the site, no work had commenced on my machine (after all, I have paid upfront) and dates were being changed without any notification. It was explained that there was a shortage of displays, but she could see what could be done. On the 8th October, the order was apparently with the local delivery company. I even received a call on the 10th asking me to be available for delivery from 9am to 1pm.

Naturally, it was a no show and no contact numbers had been provided. I emailed again from work and received a call back later asking me whether the machine had been delivered. I do not know whether this is in response to my lodged support ticket (done through the site) or good customer care from the responsible party. Anyway, I was supposed to get a call first thing this morning with an update. I have just left a message trying to get someone to call me back asap. It seems that it does not matter whether your machine is even built, delivery could be yet another issue.

I stopped ordering Dell equipment for my business when replacements such as power supplies for a laptop started taking 3+ weeks. I thought I would try them one more time for personal use, given the amount of machine you get for your money. Unless something drastic happens, it is unlikely that I will ever use or recommend Dell to anyone else.

Kudos to you for starting this and good luck with your order. I am seriously considering my order today and buying a lesser machine for the same money from a known, local supplier.

Jay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LadyMomo said...

Dell's service is absolutely trash, that is very unfortunate for you and i am extremely sorry to hear about it, in my case, Dell had "ceased" my order without warning me as they ran out of the covers which i originally ordered so mine came 15 days late instead of 7-10, then on top of that, the printer i ordered was faulty and my laptop are missing parts, i rate Dell's service and quality 0/5
a very unhappy customer