Elizabeth's story is just one of the many examples showing that piss-poor customer service can directly lead to lost business.

It has been over 3 weeks since I ordered a set of windows XP replacement cds, and still no sign of them. I ordered the disks using the form on dell.com and received an email saying that the disks would be sent to me in 3-5 business days. When I had not received the disks after over a week of waiting, I checked my account information on dell.com, hoping to find some answers. It was clear that the customer service rep never read the original form that I submitted and sent the disks to the "original shipping address" instead of the "current shipping address".

I replied to the original confirmation email (as the email told me to do if I had a problem) and explained the situation. I received what was obviously a form letter in reply saying that the situation would be corrected and that they would send out a new set of disks the following day. After waiting a few days for the "order info" to appear in my account information on dell.com, I was shocked to see that the disks had AGAIN been sent to the wrong address.

This time I tried calling customer service directly. After being on the phone for nearly an hour being transferred to a series of people whose English was barely intelligible , I was finally connected to a rep who said that because the package had not yet been picked up by DHL that he would personally contact DHL and change the shipping address on the package. He also stated that I would receive a confirmation email that same afternoon with the case number of my problem and all of the relevant shipping information.

By the next day I still had not received any confirmation email. My dell.com information still had the incorrect shipping address. Likewise using the DHL tracking number provided on the dell.com order info page, I saw that DHL still had the incorrect shipping address listed.

I called customer service again and was told that I had to be transferred to the technical support department to solve the problem. While I was on hold, the voice recording over the hold music told me to "have my credit card ready" so that technical support would be able to charge me for talking to them. I immediately hung up when I heard this. There was no way that I was now going to pay to talk to technical support about a shipping issue for a supposedly free set of disks.

I called customer service back immediately and was connected to a different representative who said that he would indeed be able to help me. He pulled up my file and said that he saw I had called the previous day and that the agent I had spoken to had contacted DHL and had changed the shipping address. The representative was quite rude and treated me like I was crazy for calling to confirm what I had been told the previous day. When I asked why I had not received a confirmation email about this (as the rep the previous day had promised), I was told that between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon Dell had changed their policy and that they were not allowed to email me a copy of my case number and complaint information nor could they even tell me the case number over the phone. I was however promised by this rep that the disks would arrive on Tuesday.

Tuesday came and no disks. I received an email stating that my order had been "resolved and closed" because the package had been delivered. Magically, they now included the case number in the email, the case number that on Saturday I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to know due to their "policy". The Dell representatives had blatantly lied to me.

I checked the DHL.com tracking information. The disks had been delivered alright...AGAIN at the incorrect address. I called DHL directly and asked them if they had ever received any request from Dell to change my shipping information. Of course, they had not. The Dell representatives had blatantly lied to me about this as well.

I called customer service for a third time and explained the entire situation again. I told the rep that I had just gotten off the phone with DHL and that even though her computer said that Dell had contacted them about the shipping change, DHL had no knowledge of this. All she could tell me was that because the order had technically been delivered, the only way to receive the disks was to start the request process from scratch. I did so. So here I am Friday, sitting here still waiting for the disks to arrive knowing that some poor soul at my old college dorm has now received two sets of windows XP disks and is probably wondering what the heck is going on.

There is currently no information regarding this third order on my dell.com account info page. At this point, I just want to see if Dell will EVER be able to send the disks to me. Thank goodness all I had ordered were a set of free disks, imagine if this had been done with a full computer system.

This was not my first horror story with Dell customer service, but it will certainly be my last. I am currently typing this on my shiny MacBook. The final selling point for me was that there is a physical Apple store nearby that's open 24/7 - 365 days a year with customer service reps that I can look in the eye. Then if they lie to me, at least they have to do it to my face. ;)

Welcome, Elizabeth, to a new, better world.

(Photo: Getty)

I am a faithful - *religiously* devoted - reader of your blog (but not in a creepy way), and a huge supporter of your customer-focused stance. I've emailed your articles to friends, family members and strangers.

Unfortunately, I'm writing you today with my own customer service nightmare. I'd like to call it: (cue ominous music)

DELL MAKES PROMISES IT CAN'T KEEP, CHEATS CUSTOMER OUT OF $70, CHASES SAID CUSTOMER INTO THE ARMS OF STEVE JOBS

(Okay, that's not very punchy... but Dell cheated me out of 70 bucks, and I'm too mad to make a snappy title)

So here's the SHORT VERSION:

I'm a Mac and PC user, and recently had to buy a new computer. Solely based on price, I decided to buy a Dell on 01/31/08 - it was on sale, and they had a nifty promotion for a $70 gift card to be mailed to you with your purchase. (I think you can guess what the problem is going to be...)

It's been 3 and a half months, and I NEVER GOT that $70 gift card. I called their customer service three times:

#1 03/30/08: Spoke to a supervisor, who asked me to PROVE THAT I QUALIFIED for the gift card. I forwarded him my confirmation email (with the gift card listed in the order), and he said he'd have a supervisor call me back, no one called me back

#2 around 04/15/08: Spoke to "Anne" who said she'd have a supervisor call me back, hung up on me, no one called me back

#3 05/05/08: Spoke to nameless CSR who said that all the $70 gift cards were all sent out and if I hadn't received one - TOO BAD - they were all out. Nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor, she refused to connect me, said he'd call me back, no one called me back

During the three calls, the CSRs were rude, obstinate, uninformed and, of course, unhelpful. Can I mention again that each time a CSR promised that someone would call me back, and I have yet to receive a phone call from anyone at Dell?

So... Now I'm at the point where I am being a good Consumerist reader and sending Dell an EECB. And I want to share my story with you - considering, also, that I must not be the only one Dell cheated out of the promotion. I mean, we all know how horrible their customer service is - but I didn't know that they blatantly lied to their customers to boot. BUY A MAC!

Julia wrote back today to tell us that her EECB has been ignored and she's heard nothing back from Dell. Is she the only one who is having this problem?

Any advice for Julia? She could report Dell to her state's attorney general for not living up to their advertised agreement. What do you think?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

UPDATE:

I have an update on my case - Dell will be issuing me a credit of $70 back to my credit card. (!)

I actually had two interactions with Dell, seemingly unrelated:

Geoff [Ed.— He's a helpful Dell guy who reads the blog.] got back to me, and told me he would be taking care of my issue

Before he could do that, a woman named Anne called me me from their "Customer Resolutions Center". She was the one who promised me that she would be crediting my acct., and that she will follow up Mon. or Tues. It seems that she was following up on my EECB, as she and Geoff did not know anything about each other.

Anyway... Yay for Consumerist and the mighty EECB!

The EECB is magical, is it not?

When DELL failed to show in court, Pat Dori, of Hackensack won $3000 by default. A ruling allowed court employees to close the kiosk and confiscate equipment if the judgment was not paid.

Dell settled out-of-court with Mr. Dori under an undisclosed arrangement.

The victory came after five-months and 19 phone calls to Dell after Dori's laptop fan broke. When he turned it in for repairs, Dell lost his laptop and returned just his hard drive. To compensate, Dell offered a refrubed laptop without an extended warranty.

"My big issue was, they never wanted to talk to me, never wanted to hear me,'' said Dori. "The little guy found a way to hit them in the head with a rock. You get their money, you get their attention. God only knows how much their legal team cost them.''

— BEN POPKEN

NJ Man's Lawsuit Against Dell Settled [1010 Wins] (Thanks to Stefan!)

At The Consumerist, we're always happy to bring a shaft of sunshine into our reader's lives. After reading about the Dell discount offers we posted about, WebKatz went ahead and got news PCs, including the fancy schmancy XPS desktop.

His letter reveals what happens when you have a "Customer Relations Rep" call whose motive is more insidious and ulterior then calling to see how everything's going.

Upselling only works if the customer is in fact satisfied with the product to begin with.

"Your whatzit doesn't work."
"Well, have you considered getting two whatzits?"

This happened to us, too after we bought a Dell XPS laptop. A few days later a rep called to "check in" and we soon found ourselves answering questions about how many servers we would like to buy. Bad Dell, bad. Trust erosion.

Basically, we agree with Jarvis. Surprise! Also, we just came.

I don t think I influenced a thing. ... I was merely a leading indicator of the problems that had built up in Dell s customer base with its unreliable products and unsatisfying service. I could have put my story out there and no one could have responded. Instead, hundreds responded. When you saw that, folks, you should have sold your Dell stock. Fast.

Read the 'study' yourself, if you like. We could make head nor tails of it. It seems that blogs do things.

Onalytica: Measuring Blogger Influence [Onalytica (PDF)]