My Day With Dell Customer Service

I had the worst customer service experience in recent years on the phone today. This was surprising because it was with a company that I spend a lot of money at, every year. It’s safe to say that I am a frequent customer of Dell. Last Christmas, I purchased 2 XPS desktop systems and received two $150 gift cards, as a result.

On August 3, I made two purchases. One was for a Studio Laptop and the other was for an mp3 player and a PS3 video game. Both orders were purchased online with the gift cards.

The cards were entered and the $150 was removed per card. I put the remainder of the bill on my Dell charge. I received my bill, a week or so later, to learn that the gift card money had not been deducted for these charges, despite the Dell website claiming that the gift card money was removed.

I called to handle the issue and spoke to 5 people that transferred me, all of whom could not speak English well enough to understand me. The fifth person transferred me to another person, also a person that did not speak English and was incredibly rude. He blamed me for not realizing that you cannot use Dell gift cards and Dell credit cards in the same purchase. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, he rudely informed me that it wouldn’t make a difference because a supervisor would not change the rules for me. He ended up transferring me to another person that could not speak English, who was rude, and was unable to work her phone well enough so she ended up hanging up on me.

I called back to request a manager, which once I got to her, made her the ninth person I talked to in a single day. The manager was the most polite person I spoke to, but when it came to dealing with the issues I had, she put me in touch with someone from returns. That person (number 10) claimed that he could not take the charges from my account, but due to the fact that the computer was already malfunctioning he would offer a discount on the computer. He offered $120, which I declined. When I informed them that my Microsoft Office CD was stuck in the computer, the first response was that a CD like that isn’t that expensive (though Dell charges close to $400 for the one I have) and the next response, once that was pointed out, was that you can download the program, so as long as I have my activation number that CD should not matter.

At this point I was through. I informed the man on the phone that I wanted $150 off the laptop and both gift cards returned, since the money for them was never taken off anyway. He claimed that he was unable to offer the additional $30 so I have made plans to send the laptop back. After that he connected me with person eleven in order to get my gift cards back since they were never used.

Person eleven rudely explained that I lost my cards (I didn’t lose them – I threw them away when the website said the charges had been removed as I no longer thought I needed the cards) and they could not reissue new ones. Person eleven then sent me to twelve, who eventually sent me to thirteen. Thirteen was the rudest of all, claiming that I lost my cards and that there was no way I would be getting new cards from them. When I explained again (and again) they just kept claiming that it’s not Dell policy to reissue lost gift cards, even though persons between 1-10 had all said I would get my gift cards back.

It’s also not Dell’s policy to be polite when dealing with customers or to allow information that explains how their gift cards can be used. It’s not their policy to use gift cards with the Dell credit card, though it is their policy to make you think the money came off the purchase even though it didn’t.

The moral of the story is that Dell lost a customer. I used to purchase 2-3 computers from Dell nearly every year for the past 3 years. After the treatment by customer service and the poor quality of my newest purchase I will be taking my business to someone that can better appreciate it.

Update: I received a UPS tracking label to send my Dell Studio laptop back to the company since I no longer want this broken down piece of trash. This label was sent from number 13 (who I spoke to on the phone). After boxing it up and heading to UPS (I was told I’d have to pay shipping if I didn’t waste gas money and go to UPS, despite the fact that UPS comes to my house every day, at least twice a day, with deliveries for my online business, Literary Illusions), I had to return home with said laptop. UPS said the tracking label had already been used, and showed me it had been used on their computer. It’s nice to see Dell just continues to mess things up. I’ll have to contact #13 to get a new tracking label. In the meantime, I’m currently looking into Sony and their VAIO laptops.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Poor Customer Service, Customer, Lost Customer, Years, Loyal, Awful Experience, Computer, Laptop, Gift Card, Disgraceful, Non-English Speaking

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