Rob tells us he ordered a Dell laptop from their outlet store, but received the wrong machine. He says he called up Dell and asked for them to send the computer that he actually ordered. “Sure,” said the nice folks at Dell. “We’ll overnight you the correct computer within eighteen business days.” Rob was confused.

I ordered a “Previously Ordered New” Dell Adamo 13 on 10/30/09 from the Dell Outlet Store, which basically means that it’s a new computer, never been used by anyone else.

Speed ahead to today and a box comes from Dell. Inside is a Dell XPS One DESKTOP computer. Uh oh. I call Dell customer support and go through the usual phone tree and get transferred to three different departments, each one taking down information until I finally get to the department that deals with sending out replacements. The rep apologizes again for the mishap and says that they will send the replacement via overnight shipping from their warehouse within 18 business days.

WHAT!?!?!? I asked her if that was correct to which she responded, “Oh yes sir, we need to find a computer with the exact specifications with the one you ordered.” When I asked what would happen if you didn’t have the exact one in within that time, I didn’t get a direct answer.

I paid more than $2,000 (if you include the accessories I bought in a separate order) for a Dell Adamo that I will not even get to touch for several more weeks. It doesn’t seem fair to me. I thought the point of the Outlet store was that the computer is already made and therefore you can count on getting it quickly (and yes, at a discount… although for the one I ordered it wasn’t THAT substantial)!

Maybe I should have just followed my friends and got a Mac instead…

Nooo! Anything but that!

Why should Rob have to wait up to a month for a replacement computer when it was Dell’s fault that he received the wrong one? Maybe this is a case for Dell’s Customer Advocates or even Michael Dell himself.

(Photo: thievingjoker)

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