EECB Saves Reader From Dell Hell
While we never like to hear the awful stories that come through our doors, it's a relief to know we can help. Listen to Reader B.J's harrowing Dell tale, and the EECB that saved the day.
B.J. writes:
Something you guys might find interesting:
Evidently, the EECB technique still works with some of our friends over at Dell. Let me explain. Back on December 8th, I called up Dell interested about placing an order for a new laptop for my upcoming college semester. I spoke to an excellent salesperson named Michael who graciously walked me through all of my options based on what I was looking for. Great, as this is what I was expecting and I wasn't let down. I ended up selecting the Dell XPS m1530 laptop in midnight blue. Seeing as I work in New York City and am also a student I needed something decently powerful that doesn't weigh a metric ton. Once we had wrapped up the call I was given an estimated ship date of 19, December. Since I am remarkably impatient once I actually decide to buy something (I'm kind of meticulous when it comes to purchases, not pain-in-the-ass meticulous but the be-sure-of-what-you're-buying kind) I prudently checked the status of the order.
Fast forward about a week and a half. The Wednesday before the 19th I decided to give Dell a call to see if there were any chance of the laptop being sent out earlier than its projected ship date. If there's one thing I USED to know about Dell, its that they're typically pretty good at beating their own deadlines. I was told to check back in the morning with a department called order modification, which resides in the warehouse and could provide me with a better answer.
*shrug* not a problem. I call back the following morning and to my astonishment I am informed that my order had been canceled. Canceled? WTF? I never canceled it? What the hell happened?!? Well, the sales associate, in her disconnected, I'm-only-here-for-the-paycheck way said flatly that there was an issue with credit processing. So here I sit, wondering if I went over my credit limit as I waited for somebody from Dell financial to get on the line. Finally, they inform me that as a new customer, they had to verify my information before the purchase went through. I asked them why now, and not when I ordered a week and a half ago. Nobody had answers. I clear up the block and was sent back to customer care to reinstate my order.
Ok, so here's where things get pharmaceutical...
Now, with most companies if there's a problem with an order they usually contact you, right? After all, they want your business as much as you want their product. No such luck here despite having all three of my phone numbers (home, cell, office) and two email addresses. Furthermore, even though this all happened ONE DAY before its ship date, Dell evidently cannot simply reinstate an order, even if is was their fault. Their resolution was to place an entirely new order for the same configuration as before, wait another two weeks or longer (due to holiday volume) and have a new estimated ship date of 23, Jan. And send that out to me next day comped. Hideously inadequate when you're talking about a previous order that was right on the cusp of completion when somebody on their end nozzed it up on me.
Order canceled late on the 17th. I just checked it earlier that afternoon. wow.
At this point I'm getting feisty because that makes no sense to me whatsoever. What the hell happened to my original order? Did they disassemble it overnight? Did it disappear like the Cheshire cat? The associate was actually trying to answer my rhetorical questions, how's that for sharp? I ask for a supervisor and get somebody who tells me that she's not a supervisor and that there are none in that building. After calling back 9 different times, speaking to six 'supervisors' being held for hours and dropped a few times for good measure I check out Consumerist. I'm pretty sure I'm glued to some unruly customer list because after about the third person I starting cussing people out something lovely.
I applaud the work you guys do, btw. They ways you deconstruct the corporate run-around is admirable. I'd love to work for you.
That said, on your site, I was looking for phone numbers to executive customer service and I happen upon the Michael@dell.com email address. By now, I'm thinking its a shot in the dark and if it doesn't work, I'll go to Sony or Apple the next day. I email my litany of woe and a way to reach me.
I should also mention that I paid a visit to Ihatedell.net and read the horror stories therein, had I read them earlier before I made the initial contact I probably wouldn't have gone here.
According to what I've read on your site, executive responses are often either surgically decisive or glacially slow. I was not expecting a prompt response. Suffice it to say that only maybe two hours later I have an email in my box from somebody at Dell's Global Escalation Management Team.
The epilogue is this:
After talking to the lady at the GEMT she hacked the new laptop's build and ship time from three weeks plus to two days and comped next-day shipping. This mess started on a Thursday and another laptop shipped on Monday. (Didn't get it till last Saturday thanks to FedEx's holiday bumbling, another story entirely) It arrived with upgraded components (higher processor, memory, backlit keyboard, screen) and with headphones and a personal letter of apology. Interestingly enough, despite dell's horrendous incompetence they still seem to get things done you just need to get to the right people. The company employs around 88,000. They can't all be assholes. Happy shopping.
By the by, the computer works great!
Lesson? M.Dell's personal email works. quickly and I would recommend it to anybody who gets stuck in this web.
Among the stops on my Dell Call Center World Tour:
Indonesia, Maylaysia, Ireland, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and that old, outsourcing favorite, India.
B.J.
Photo:[Getty]
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Comments:
Great news on the PC. I tend to take the existance of the "Ihatex.com" websites as a mark of a large company more than a crappy company.
I have been screwed over by small companies and large ones, and I have had equal amounts of luck getting problems corrected. Both Dell and Apple have gone out their way to make problems right for me, while some small shops have been completely uncaring in our dealings.
It is kind of a trade off: personal stake in the company inspiring good service vs ability to absorb costs with correcting crappy service.
(oh, and WalMart still sucks)
Extra points for fine storytelling style, B.J.! Good luck in the new semester.
Hopefully, they can get my order right. I put an order in for a laptop on December 10th, had to cancel the order and put in a new one to change my shipping address (I was staying in Michigan with family when I ordered it, but found it would ship after I left there), the ship date was December 30th, but I got an email on the 30th stating my new ship date is January the 6th (though they didn't tell me why it was delayed). Winter semester starts on January 12th. I am desperately hoping that it gets here by then.
This is not something that I want to read early in the day while I'm at work, it almost put me to sleep. Congrats on getting your computer though.
@floraposte: Yeah, it was a little long, but it didn't feel too long; there was a lot of meat (please don't tell me "that's what she said").
@tmed: I've mostly had good experiences with Dell. Last year I had a laptop screen problem and I had my laptop back in 4 days. I have a friend who bought an XPS laptop on Eb-ay, but it still had warranty and he had the technician on-site in 2 days. Large companies will always have problems that fall through the cracks. I see the "IHateXXX.com" as the resort of the people who don't read Consumerist. They do it because they are frustrated, where we stay focused and write effective EECB's that get our problems solved with free headphones. :)
EECB is a great way to get the customer service we deserve. I'm surprised companies don't see this as counter intuitive, afterall, they spend millions setting up their call centers and customer service management. Again and again, we have to bypass those bureaucracies in order to get anything done. Why? It's almost as if the executive customer service is competing against their own customer service center (upgrading components, comp for two day shipping, etc).
I wonder what is the percentage of customers who bypass customer service and use (or know about) executive customer service...
When oh when will this horrible outsourcing get better.
Hey, regardless of whether or not you liked it notwithstanding thanks for reading! There IS help, you just have to make enough noise. LONG LIVE CONSUMERIST!
Considering they lost a major client or two over the last month of last year, you'd think that they would straighten up and fly right. The company I work for switched to HP desktops and ordered several thousand over the holidays.
@tmed: I'll second the good Apple experience... iPhone backlight just flat-out died. I took it in, they made sure I didn't turn it off by software, then they replaced the iPhone for me. Simple and easy. :)
Had much the same thing happen to me. I was in the carribbean on vacation when I found the refurbished Dell laptop online the was just what I wanted for a very good price and ordered it online. The sale appeared to go thru and a ship date was given, but when I got home and the date came, No Laptop! I called Dell CS and all they would say was "We couldn't verify your order ffrom that area." I eventually managed to find another refurb(I'm retired and not rich) that would do b ut not as good as the first deal. Still not happy with their customer service.
i must say, this is very different from my experience a few years ago - i ordered a monitor, and typed in the wrong 4 digits from the back of my CC - within 30 min of the order,i had an email saying the last 4 digits were incorrect, and to call the credit card company - i call them, they confirm it was the wrong 4 digits, and to call dell back and explain - which i did, and they immediately were able to process the order
My very first computer was dell and something like this happened minus the good ending (this was before I knew of Consumerist or EECB). I bought it and then when it was supposed to have arrived I checked its status and there was a problem with credit processing. My card did block the purchase but you would think Dell would have called or emailed about that part to keep your business. instead they re-ordered the "same" computer for me but it arrived without some of the upgrades I had originally chosen.
I had a similar "Dell Hell" experience. It was resolved, but not really because of Dell. Read about it at my blog here: http://lostincode.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/lost-in-dell-support-maze/
"I starting cussing people out"
Apart from the grammar, obviously you don't really read Consumerist very often.
I just bought a Macbook. The deciding factor, was that I had heard so many horror stories about dell. Dell really needs to make sure that they're following up and keeping their customers happy. It doesn't take much.
I've sent my laptop to Dell once to be repaired under warranty and it went well, only they forgot to tell me that in order to get the shipping box, I had to call DHL. They told me they were having a box sent and took my shipping address. 3 days passed and no box, so I called back to ask where it was. The CSR assured me it was on the way. 3 more days, still no box. I called back again and this time the new CSR said, "Didn't anyone tell you to call DHL to get the box?" Um, no! They told me Dell would send the box and took my address! So she gave me the DHL number, I called them, and they had the box to me 15 hours later. I had no problem with calling DHL myself, it just would have been nice to know I had to do that 6 days earlier!
@Bryan Jackson: No, I actually liked it. Usually, most 10+ paragraph posts are barely readable, but yours was pretty good. I'm glad you were able to get some results with the EECB; I've been able to get some good stuff from that line of attack recently, as well.
@batsy: Yeah, we all know that's a cardinal rule here. On the other hand, he WAS dealing with Dell "support"... ;)
I'm so sorry to hear you had an awful time with Dell. Before I got laid off with no prior knowledge (which is another story entirely), my manager made us check all of our orders daily to see where they were in the process of building and shipping. If there was ever a problem in DFS or with any credit card, we'd have caught it and gotten permission to call you back. So know we weren't all eff-tards.
A really good tip, ALWAYS get the reps email address (never their extension, Outlook is open all day every day on our systems, in case Michael wants to fire people through email suddenly) and possibly their manager's email. Since everything is metric and profit driven, most of us would bend over backward if a customer contacted us directly. Plus it's their asses, if you get to a manager's email the repurcussions will trickle down...
I get the impression that the poster went a little over the top. Part of your deal was the shipping time, yet you ignored it and thought putting a laptop together, getting paid and shipping it on your schedule without increasing the cost is normal.
It is not! Sorry.
@batsy: I think it's natural for people to get frustrated after the Nth call to an overseas call center simply because you are trying to give them your money for a product. Hell, the person he cussed at may not have even understood the words.
Obviously he didn't blow up too bad though, as he managed to get the GEMT to expedite his order and thrown in some upgrades.
Pretty much the same thing happened to me the one and only time I ever bought a Dell. What should have been a 5-day ship timeframe turned into a 5-week nightmare. My order was canceled, without explanation or notification, 3 different times.
When I finally got the computer, it was the biggest piece of crap I've ever had the displeasure to spend $1300 on. Among countless other problems, the proprietary power supply failed after about 18 months and they wanted $250 for a new one. I had my husband build me a computer from scratch for $600 that was a million times better than the Dell.
Dell? Never, never again.
So I ended up ordering a laptop. It was first canceled on me, so I called back. After a week of ordering it, it was canceled for same reason as OP. I finally got them to order me a laptop, they gave me overnight shipping free. Finally the date it was supposed to be shipped I get a 1 month extended ship date. I eventually call again change the color of my laptop save another 50 and get it 2 weeks later. I then emailed that michael dell email and got another 53 dollars off because i told them about how i was now in school and my dad had to drive it 2 hours both ways to me.
I applaud dell.
Also had an accident with mine and the replacement laptop was there next day no questions asked.
I recently got a Dell in the beginning of November. I started having issues in December and have spent hours upon hours online with technical support. My Studio 1537 laptop with a new Intel P8400 and 4 gigs of ram is very slow, and very hot. I'm now waiting on a technician to come and replace the same exact parts they replaced 2 weeks ago. I guess I need to look at EECB since I'm obviously in Dell Hell. It still exist and is very much alive!!!
Have fun when the motherboard on the 1530 goes. I replace at least 4 or 5 of them a month. Not sure if they had a crappy batch of them when they first started production but for a brand new laptop I work on them a lot. I can strip one down and get it back together in just over 30 mins now because I've taught myself all the tricks being that I've worked on that model a lot.
My job depeneds on them breaking so keep on buying the 1530, as I said. Takes me just over 30 mins to strip it down and rebuild it and I make good money doing it.
I would take a 1530 if it was given to me for free with a 3yr onsite warranty but I would not pay for one and if you people out there do get a 1530, get the 3yr warranty. You will need it.
I won't tell you folks my DCSE number but I have one.
@admchnty:
The most they will do if the problem continues is to send it in for depot service. Which means it will go to Texas for repair.
You can try an EECB but I doubt it will do much good. I've only had to work on 3 Studio models so far but none for an over heating issue.
BTW, even though it is only 2 months old the parts that are being replaced are not new. They are refubrished. I've only seen Dell send out new parts when a system was only 1 week old and had issues.
Several thousand? Most companies never order several thousand computers at a time. In any case, business in the US (espically for business) is not where the money is, emerging markets, such as Brazil, India, and China are.
Glad to know you had a happy ending. Dell is a really good company, despite people's complaining. People make a much bigger fuss over something negative than they do positive.
BJ, however, should have been able to figure out that his order wasn't going smoothly when his order was placed though. All he had to do was look at his bank statement online and see that the money hadn't been taken out of the account, and the problem could have been resolved a lot easier. I always check my account when making large purchases to ensure that they go through. (I don't use credit cards, so I like to make sure that everything goes through on the debit card ok, with daily spending limits and such, Wells Fargo is great by the way!)
@aaron8301: Of course it's a natural response. Doesn't mean it's going to get him anywhere. He obviously didn't swear at the GEMT.
Wow, I could swear that you were describing my recent laptop purchase from Dell. Everything down to the last detail, except after the EECB (Which I also got from Consumerist) all I received was a call and a very broken-English apology. They did not offer to upgrade the laptop, offer free shipping, nothing...
@brodie7838: @brodie7838:
same for me, brodie.... seems that the way this multinational company works is that there's only ONE person in the world who can assist you. and she doesn't return voicemails. after 3 weeks of back and forth with India, i gave up. I'm very happy with my MacBook, thankyouverymuch. And I made sure to tell Michael Dell as much.
@brodie7838: all I can tell you is bitch like the day is long and try the Michael@dell.com address. By the time I sent the EECB I just about gave up hope. Good luck!
"Ok, so here's where things get pharmaceutical..."
Phrase of the day. Love it!