I recently decided to use my Dell preferred credit account to make an online purchase at Dell.com
I hadn't used my account for some time, and it had a zero balance, and I had heard stories of people's credit accounts being closed for non-use; so I thought I'd just buy something small, like a $119 (on sale) GPS unit, just to keep my account active. With the offered free shipping & tax, the total price would come to around $127 and some change. I could live with that.
So, I added the item to my Dell online cart, and attempted to make the purchase with a few clicks.
The first problem that I noticed was that the total price for the order was too high. Dell was showing my total Checkout price as $140.+, whereas it should be $13 less than that. I took a quick look at the shipping charge, and instead of it being zero, as advertised, it was displayed as $12.99; so, I clicked the shipping option tab & saw an option for free shipping and I selected it. I updated the price & it descended to just above $127, as it should have been from the start. Then I clicked to finalize the order, and I got an error message, which read:
Due to system error we cannot process your application currently. Please choose another payment method.
This was discomforting, as the purchase method was my Dell preferred credit account which had a zero balance, and plenty of available credit for this purchase.
I went back and tried it again & got the same error message.
I began to get frustrated after the second failed attempt, and it just got worse from there.
Each time I tried to re-initiate the purchase, I noticed that the Dell system would bump my price back up to $140 concurrently with defaulting the shipping method away from the free shipping, and to the $12.99 Two Day shipping method. This was annoying, since the average person, such as myself, would probably not notice this unintended and unauthorized change in the shipping method, and not notice the change in the final cart price, either.
Thankfully, I noticed it & kept changing it back to free shipping; however my attentiveness was futile, since every time I re-attempted to conclude the purchase I would get that dreaded error message... again and again and again. I attempted to make the purchase five times, and after that I sat back in resignation, and anger, and thought about how I was going to deal with this.
I decided to call Dell and ask their sales people, or customer support, or anyone, to place the order for me, from their end. I found their 1-800 number on the Home Page of their website, and I called it. An automated voice answered and gave the, now standard, English or Spanish question. Then I get "if you know the seven digit extension of the person you would like to reach, please say or enter it now"
otherwise you can say "check order status"; "make a purchase"; "technical support"; or say "none of those".
I say: "make a purchase", because I figure that a sales associate may be able to access my order and cancel, or change, it.
Then the conversation??? proceeds as follows:
It: "in order to get you to the right sales agent quickly, i need to ask you a few things".
It: "first are you calling to make a new purchase."
Me: "yes"
It: "please tell me what this purchase is for. please say "a home", "a home office", or "a business"".
Me: "home"
It: "ok, i'll get you right over to an agent"
Then i get a message saying that there are no agents able to help me at this time. Please call back during business hours which are blah blah blah.
I give up on that and focus on reaching their support via email. They have an option to contact customer support via internal email, which I use, and fully expect to yield no results, as turns out to be the case, as the order "did" ship, even though they had plenty of time to cancel it after receiving my request for cancellation.
I must have spent 45 minutes, to an hour, trying to find any place on their website where I could obtain satisfaction, or obtain a phone number which could lead me to a real person who could lead me out of this quagmire. My blood pressure was way up & I was basically screwed.
Eventually, I went to bed & woke up the next day during the afternoon & called Dell customer service. I got an Indian guy & he informs me, well this is exactly what he said:
Dell Indian guy: Sir, at this time I can not promise you anything. It is handled by our customer service department (Uhm, excuse me, I thought that's who I was talking to). You must receive your order first.
So, knowing that this was going nowhere, I said "ok", and I hung up.
The order arrived a couple of days later & I immediately called Dell to ask for them to waive the $12.99 fee, or to give me a return authorization so that I may return the item for a refund (minus the shipping charge).
Naturally, before I could talk to a real "Indian" person, I would have to navigate through, and endure the Dell Bullshit. Here's the sequence of events, roughly:
1. Call the 1-800 number
2. Get the automated answering voice
3. Deal with the never-ending parade of distracting questions from the auto voice
4. Wait for 10 minutes for a real "Indian" person to answer
5. The Indian guy answers and says "My name is Rogut, may I have your Dell order #?"
then "Did you receive your order?"
then "Ok, let me transfer you to our internal specialized service"
then "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble connecting your call. Let me try again. Just give me a quick minute please."
6. Then an automated voice tells me that my wait time is less than 5 minutes.
7. Then the other real Indian guy answers and says "My name is Marsal. May I have your Dell order?" "Did you receive the order#?" "Ok, let me connect you to someone who can possibly waive the $12.99 shipping fee".
8. The other other Dell Indian guy answers and says "Sir, I can not waive the $12.99 shipping fee".
With that, I asked for the return shipping authorization and I said goodbye.
I can't excuse Dell for it's, in my opinion, incompetence. Dell is, by it's very nature, a computer company. Being computer savvy is a first and foremost requirement for them. For them to have a website which butchers customer's orders is a concept which I find ridiculous to entertain. Furthermore, I have no sympathy for companies who take your money in error, or dishonesty, and then refuse to return your money when you call-them-out on it.
Regarding Dell's website, I have many times attempted to log-in to my Dell account, late at night, during the a.m. hours, and have been unable to do so. I would just get an error message each time. Each time this happened, I would tell myself it was because Dell was doing a nightly system update; however, they would never display any message indicating such. You, the customer, just had to figure it out for yourself that you'd have to wait until normal business hours before you could observe your credit balance, or schedule a payment on your account. If you could not schedule that payment on time, due to their website being dysfunctional, you can be sure that they would assess the late fee penalty to "you" (and not to themselves); and if you went over your limit because you could not make a payment at their website, then "you" would pay the price of the over-limit fee they would impose, not them, and not their Indians.
In my opinion, this is exactly what you"don't" want in a company that you choose to do business with. You want the retailer to intervene on your behalf preemptively, and proactively. If they (the business) are going to have a website, then it should work. If it does not work, then they (the company) should bear the burden of paying for the failings of their system, not the victimized consumer.
In this minor ordeal, I am out a whopping $12.99
It's no big deal; however, the underlying principle which caused me to be out $12.99 is a big deal.
On the surface, Dell has demonstrated themselves to be no friend of mine... and the further implication is that Dell is no friend to the consumer (their sustenance).
My only recourse is to let other's know of my unacceptable experience(s) with Dell.
I did, however, contact the online Better Business Bureau, regarding this matter, and filed a complaint. A Dell representative responded immediately by contacting me & letting me know that all fees that I had originally paid, had been refunded. Now I consider the matter satisfactorily resolved & closed.
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