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Old 02-10-2009, 11:27 AM
Cutch Cutch is offline
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What the Dell

My wife decided to buy her 16 yr old daughter a Dell laptop computer.

Here is her story:
On 28 October I ordered a Dell laptop on the phone using a flyer I had received in the mail. I thought the service was great. I was to get the laptop in 10 business days.

Around 10 or 11 November I received the laptop. It was for my 16 yr old daughter as a birthday present. She opened the box and found that it was in French, the laptop and the manual. I believed it was capable of being in either launguages and she had choose the wrong one when starting it up.

On the 21 November I had time to attempt to read the manual and look at the system and realized there was no English option on the computer. I waited until the Monday to call Dell customer service as I believed that I would get better service during the business week.

I first spoke to an American agency of Customer service as I had selected the option that I had received an improper order. The gentleman stated that the problem originated with the original order that was placed and that I would have to phone back to India, to resolve the problem. I phoned back that same day in the afternoon when they work and she stated she would look into it. She originally wanted to send me the English version and have me uninstall the French and install the English myself with the help of telesupport. I explained that we can't even turn the computer on as everything is in French and we have no understanding of the French language at all. She said she would get back to me.

In the meantime I had again looked over the laptop and found that the keyboard was also in French and had keys that I had never seen on an English keyboard. I had also spoke to 2 representatives of 2 local computer shops about the uninstall and reinstall and both advised it was very difficult and if it was not done properly I would run into problems in the future when trying to install or run other applications on the computer.

On the 27 November I phoned Minhaj back and advised her that the keyboard was also in French and apeared to have keys that the English keyboard did not have. She later called me back and advised that they would send me an English keybaord with the English system and also send a technician to the house to do the installation. For compensation for the wrong order she wanted to compensate me with a printer or something not over $100. I had purchased a printer with the laptop and didn't need a third printer. I requested the student microsoft word as when I was ordering I made inquiries and was advised that the program had been on sale for $89 but was now back to the original price of $150. I also told her I was not comfortable with a rebuilt laptop, that I had paid for a new English version and that was what I had ordered and didn't like it when she advised that the extra keys on the keyboard would just be inactive.

On the 28 November I was phoned back by Minhaj. She was still pushing for the reinstalls but I had now enquirred from the local computer companies if a reinstalled keyboard would have the same integrity and factory seal as the original one and again they said they don't think it would. She was trying to disuade me from a new one saying it was near Christmas and that delivery could be upwards of 21 or more business days.

On 28 November I spoke with Minhaj supervisor, Surya and it was determined that the old French laptop would be picked up by Purolator in 3-4 business days and the new laptop would be ordered and sent in 10 business days. The new computer would be $40 more and originally they wanted me to pay for the difference then they agreed to pay the difference and also still throw in the Microsoft Student Word for all my troubles. On this date the original purchase could not be located on Dell's end and I did not have the emails at home anymore (they were at work). I had to advise them of the notes I had taken on the 28 October when I had purchased it and I reopened the French laptop box and read off all the software disks that had been sent with the laptop. The laptop was repackaged and never reopened. Surya stated he would have to get the okay and would phone me back.

On 3 December I don't recall if I called Dell or if Minhaj phoned me but the order was sent to me for my approval. It included the Micorsoft Student Word but showed a price difference then the original computer. I phoned Minhah and she confirmed with me that the price would be adjusted to the price I had originally agreed to on 28 October and she was just confirming if this laptop was one one I wished to purchase. I sent back an affirmative on the original quotation. Minhaj confirmed that I would receive the laptop in 10 business days and that Purolator would come and pick up the other.

On aproximately 8 Dec I got a call from Minhaj asking if I had gotten the computer yet. I said no but it had only been 3 business days so I wasn't expecting it. She apologized and that was the last time I heard from anyone from Dell.

On 17 December (which was 10 business days from the email from Minhaj) I did not receive the computer and Purolator had not yet arrived as they had said it would to pick up the French system. I assumed as it was near Christmas there might be delays and that when they sent the new computer they would send the return shipping label for the old system.

On 14 January I had a baby and was preoccupied with that. I knew I had not yet received the laptop from Dell but I was dealing with Dell a major company with a good reputation for customer service so I wasn't concerned.

On 2 February I called Dell and left a voice mail with Surya when a voice mail told me Minhaj would not be in until the 4 February. On 3 February I received a call from Anil. I explained the entire situation and he again wanted to send me an English system and keyboard this time for me to install. I said no and wanted what had been agreed to with Suriah on November 28, nothing less or nothing more even though it was now past Christmas and I had missed several opportunities to purchase other laptops cheaper even through Dell as I was still reveiwing the weekly flyers. He said he would get back to me.

On 3 February I called Dell financial and was advised they are a finance company and that any issues must be taken up with Dell. They also advised that Dell has had the money since 6 November. They advised I neaded a certain number from Dell to cancel the agreement I had qualified for a preferred rate and was to make no payments for 3 months. The first payment was to be on 6 February. My intention was to pay it all off before the first payment, I was just waiting to receive the proper laptop.

On the 5 February Anil called me back and said I `would have to speak to Vishal John . I spoke to Vishal and he was to get back to me. Either Anil or Vishal explained that I could cancel the entire order. At this point I wanted to cancel but my daughter still wanted a Dell laptop

On 6 February I started calling Vishal from noon leaving messages for an email address and to return my call as he had promised he would before 2 pm. I had also located the original order and the quotation from my work computer and wanted to send him copies of the same. We were out for 1 hour which I advised him and in that time he left a message on the machine. It was apologetic and something about not being able to do something. We listened to the message over 10 times and were never able to fully understand it.

On 6 February I called Anil, Surya, Vishal repeatedly after getting the message from Vishal with no response. I called the general customer service and spoke to a male who advised that I would not be getting a new laptop and they would return the French one. The best they would do is send the English system and a keyboard and I would have to install them myself. I was LIVID. I demanded a supervisor and spoke to Sesh. He reiterated what the other male had said giving the excuse that I had refused to send back the French laptop when they had emailed me a return shipping label and there had been no correspondence from me for over 3 months. Sesh stated there was no one higher then him to complain to. I told him I had gotten no email with a return label and was told that Purolater would come to my door in 3-4 business days from the 28 November call with Surya. Either me or my husband waited at the residence for that week waiting for them. I asked what the email address the label was sent to he said "sueian@tabytel.net" when the proper address is tbaytel.net, which they should know as they had already sent us emails. Also "sueian@tabytel.net" is not a proper address and the mail would have been sent back to Dell as it does when I tried to send it from here.

Eventually he agreed to return the French laptop and I would be credited after 30 days of them receiving the shipment. He even had the nerve to ask if I wanted to put to the ordering desk as I had made a statement that my daughter really wanted a Dell computer. It was sent UPS at the first available day as it is not open on weekends.

I am sending you this letter as I am under the belief there maybe someone associated to Dell that wants to right this injustice. I had a contract with Dell. I was to pay $1104 and they were to send me an English laptop. I held my end of the contract. I do not wish to deal with the India office of Dell Canada. They are very polite but do not vary from their original position . If this can be righted it should be.

On 9 February I contacted Dell Financial which is actually CIT and not affiliated with Dell other then to supply people credit for Dell purchases and was advised that I had already accrued $40 in interest from the 6 February as the interest is calculated from the start of the loan which was 6 November. If I had paid it in full on the 6 February as I would have if Vishal had got back to me as he had promised I would not have had to pay the interest. As it stands I can only stop the interest if I pay it off in full including the $40 and will then have to wait for CIT Financial to get the money from Dell and then wait 30 days or so for CIT to reimburse me. When I was told it was Dell Financial and assumed it was all part of the Dell company, the thought of this occurring never crossed my mind. Just more to add to my discontent



Sincerely
Sue Munroe

I'm suprised that Dell would conduct themselves in this manner. Am I missing something here.
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Last edited by Cutch; 02-10-2009 at 11:36 AM. Reason: power went out
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  #2  
Old 02-10-2009, 11:48 AM
Paradiddle Paradiddle is offline
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You must have had a Friday computer or somthing.

My Mother in law bought my wife a laptop - she asked me what I recommended and I said Dell as I've always had great experiences with them (I'm typing this on an 8 year old Dell as I "speak").

It showed up a little under a week ealier (and this was in early December) and it was perfect.

On the other hand what you went through just stinks.

Jeff
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Old 02-10-2009, 11:51 AM
TObject TObject is offline
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The computer companies as of late have implemented draconian policies for the post-sale support. I don't know why, I guess people were taking advantage of them somehow. I had a similar experience with HP, only I gave up after three days and sent the computer back. These days, I recommend to ether buy computers locally, where you can return one to the store immediately, or be prepared to ship the computer back to the store; don't even bother with customer support.

Check return policies beforehand.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
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Old 02-10-2009, 11:58 AM
Dukes69 Dukes69 is offline
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Well that sucks. We just had a problem with one of our laptops. Wife called dell, they said they'll send a box for the computer, fix it and send it back. No questions. Maybe its a Canada thing.
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Old 02-10-2009, 12:24 PM
Jerry Bransford Jerry Bransford is offline
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Wow, I hate to read that and it has probably soured me on my upcoming laptop buy. The last laptop I bought was a Dell for my wife but that was several years ago. Maybe it's time to just go get one of those Acer laptops I see in Fry's Electronics which I hear nothing (so far) but good about.
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Old 02-10-2009, 02:55 PM
speaceman speaceman is offline
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That's a crazy story. It's completely opposite of any dealings I've ever had with dell. Dell customer service, for me at least, has always been quick and top notch and I've gone through various Dell PC's for home and work.
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Old 02-10-2009, 03:48 PM
Provelogear Provelogear is offline
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We only buy Lenovo now. I was a big fan of HP until they bought Compaq then they went down hill. Lenovo was IBMs manufacturer of the IBM Thinkpad line then IBM decided it wanted no part of the PC business and sold teh line. I've bought and sold hundreds of notebooks and they are by far the best.

Granted I get mine from the distributor and have a local contact from Lenovo should anything happen. The software on the Thinkpads is worth every penny of the notebook. The rescue and recovery programs are second to none. So when you get a nasty virus all you do is recover the OS and bam you good to go. All of the OS is stored in a secure partition that you can access via hardware only.

The other feature I really like is the Network Profile Management. This program manages all of your connections. Are you at home on the wireless access point and which printer you are using it will automatically connect you. At the office are you connected wired or wirelessly and which printer do you want? Once you setup your profiles commuting is a breeze.
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Old 02-10-2009, 08:52 PM
Jeff Weston Jeff Weston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford View Post
Wow, I hate to read that and it has probably soured me on my upcoming laptop buy. The last laptop I bought was a Dell for my wife but that was several years ago. Maybe it's time to just go get one of those Acer laptops I see in Fry's Electronics which I hear nothing (so far) but good about.
Are you talking about the netbooks for $300-ish? Tried a few different ones out, Acer and Asus EEEpc and returned them both. While they were both nice little machines for the money, the drawbacks were a bit much for me. The Asus keyboard will drive any touch typist crazy as it is just a bit too small. The Acer definitely had the better keyboard. The main drawback to both is that the screen was too small vertically. It is practically impossible to use a web based email without constantly scrolling up and down because the preview pane takes up most of the space.

I returned them both and have a little Thinkpad that is the cat's meow for all the reasons mentioned in the post above. I did buy my young kids a $400 dual core (not core2duo) Acer that works pretty well for kicking around (literally).
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Old 02-11-2009, 03:02 AM
quadna71 quadna71 is offline
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has anyone considered getting an apple and then just running all their PC software through parallels? i went that route and have to admit that i'm just tickled with the reliability. a little pricier in the beginning, but the everything just seems to work. hard to speak on their CS though...haven't needed it (yet).
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Old 02-11-2009, 06:47 AM
Lawrence Lawrence is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quadna71 View Post
has anyone considered getting an apple and then just running all their PC software through parallels? i went that route and have to admit that i'm just tickled with the reliability. a little pricier in the beginning, but the everything just seems to work. hard to speak on their CS though...haven't needed it (yet).
I have one and I couldn't be happier. Customer Service is pretty good too. After I bought mine, I felt like the aluminum casing was getting hot, perhaps hotter than normal. I really didn't know, so I made an appointment with my local Apple store. I explained my concerns and simply asked them to check it out and let me know. The lady went to the back room, brought back a brand new one, and said "there you go, have a nice day." I also like the fact that I don't even run an anti-virus and that it works like it is supposed to, dead on reliable. The only drawback is Safari, some site don't support it. Firefox is better, but still some problems with a handful of sites.
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Old 02-11-2009, 11:55 AM
Jerry Bransford Jerry Bransford is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Weston View Post
Are you talking about the netbooks for $300-ish? Tried a few different ones out, Acer and Asus EEEpc and returned them both. While they were both nice little machines for the money, the drawbacks were a bit much for me. The Asus keyboard will drive any touch typist crazy as it is just a bit too small. The Acer definitely had the better keyboard. The main drawback to both is that the screen was too small vertically. It is practically impossible to use a web based email without constantly scrolling up and down because the preview pane takes up most of the space.
Yeah I saw those small models Jeff but their screens and keyboards were too small for me too. The Acer I'm talking about is a full-size laptop... 3GB RAM, 160 GB disk, R/W DVD, etc. It'll easily outperform my tired 4 year old Dell tower computer with its old processor and only 512K of ram.

One question from one who doesn't really like laptops due to their keyboards... when I plug in a USB mouse, does it disable the pad that is used when there is no mouse? If not, is that little pad easily disabled? My thumbs often bump that little pad while I type which sends the cursor all over the screen... and because I often type without watching the screen, I often don't notice it until it's too late and all screwed up.
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Old 02-11-2009, 12:09 PM
Provelogear Provelogear is offline
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Jerry,

The mouse pad or keyboard are not disabled (unless you want them) when you attach a USB mouse/keyboard in. You just go into the control panel and disable the mouse pad.

Gerald
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Old 02-11-2009, 12:36 PM
Jerry Bransford Jerry Bransford is offline
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Thanks Gerald, that's what I'll do.
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Old 02-11-2009, 02:21 PM
NikVallens NikVallens is offline
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My roommates dell laptop battery was getting so hot he was unable to touch the keyboard. He called and Dell's customer service was absolutely awful. At first they refused to replace it under warranty. A recall has since been issued but, unable to wait around with a useless computer, he had to order a new battery on his own dime.
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Old 02-11-2009, 06:37 PM
JeepGal JeepGal is offline
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Wow. I guess I was just lucky.

We got one of those mini laptops with the purchase of a desktop recently. I would never have bought it if it werent $99. Its great for surfing the net, I carry it in my purse. I have NO applications installed on it aside from what came on it.

One day, (less then two months after we got it)I pulled it out of my purse, and it was froze. It runs Linux Ubuntu, so Im not really familiar with navigating the diagnostic screeens at startup. I called Dell. The Indian Man that I spoke to attempted to help me. He then stated that he thought the operating system had become corrupted somehow. He asked if I had access to a external CD Drive, which I did not. (The computer is too small for one) He then said, "No problem, Ill send you a box for you to return it to us in. We'll either reinstall a new operating system and fix the problem, or send you a new computer" The box arrived the next day. Its been about two days since I shipped it back. We'll see what happens when I get it back

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