A true story of LIES, DECIEPT and UNDERHANDEDNESS by DELL

Lets see where to begin....

I get my new dell laptop (inspiron 6000) 20 days after they promise it would be there within 7 - 10 days. I pour more than 10 gigs of personal data into it from my work computer, configure it to work like I like it etc and within two days of it's arrival, the computer dies! just powers down and won't turn on, not a pulse left in this little dell. I spent two hours with tech support in INDIA, the lady is not exactly a nice person like you would expect. The lady had me take the entire computer apart hard drive, DVD player, RAM, keyboard and some other stuff I don't even know. By the end of it all , the machine still won't work.

I ask for my money back and she says that the computer has to be sent back in working condition to get my money back so they have to send me a new one and then I could send it back for my money back, I'm so tired by now, I just agree with them. So the new laptop arrives as expected 5 days LATE! Then I call them to return the machine and she says it has been over a month since I ordered it so I can't return it for my money back, while their policy clearly says that it's 30 days from the time I recieve it, I bring that to her attention and now she says I received it 33 days ago, when I know I only recieved it 25 days ago!!
So there is the first LIE.
Then she says they will make an exception in my case but since there's nothing wrong with the computer, I have to pay for shipping and handling! thats over $150 CDN. Now I'm pissed, turns out if I had asked for my money back the first time (like I had) I wouldn't have had to pay shipping. So I tell her what the Indian lady said to me but this woman doesn't believe me! then she appologizes for being misled and lied to but she can't do anything about it! I tried over and over again to explain to her the whole story, but all she can tell me is to sell the computer to someone else to get my money back! is this chick for real? Is DELL for real? I now know that the only way they make money is by selling cheap machines that don't last and by LYING AND CHEATING their customers.
So the moral of the story is DON'T EVER BUY A DELL! if you do, don't say you haven't been warned.
Thanks for listening to me rant and rave.. hope this didn't happen to you to.


Greetz

This will be short and sweet.

1. I am a Dell Owner and Technician
2. You bought the cheap laptop (Inpirion)
3. You should have bought a Latitidue
4. Yes it is a bit more expensive ($200-$500)
5. You probly didn't get the warrenty support (just the basic mail in support)
6. I have never had any issues with my Latitude D505, if I did I called Dell Tech Support stated my problem and all the resolution steps I have done, the next day I recieved my parts.

Your best bet would not to buy the cheapest Dell computer but to spend a little bit more time and money on a Business Class computer from Dell

Business Class:
Latitude D Series I think is the newest(Laptop)
Optiplex GX 280 I think is the newest(Desktop)
XPS (Gaming) it only comes in Inspirion but it is a better machine than the cheap inpirions

PS. you might have thought you took the laptop apart but if you did not unscrew the palmrest from the base nor did you take out the motherboard then you got away with the easy stuff from the India lady.
I have seen regular customers, that don't know a pencil from a pen taking laptops apart cause the India Lady told them to or they would not get Support.

Lastly if you get a Business Class computer from Dell you automatically recieve US Support when you call. (Probly cause you wanted to spend that extra effort on a better quality machine)

i have 2 book's ent one is asus it wa 1/2 prise of dell en it works bether then dell, i dont know why but I dont think that I wil buy another dell!



This post has been edited by cmatcmextra: Aug 24 2005, 04:32 PM

Sorry to hear about that thanks for the warning.
And as for Klass, someone shouldnt have to buy the high end laptop to get decent tech support. They make low end models for a reason, they should support them!

it is not the high end that gets the best support.
just a step above regular home user plus the business class is a much better product.

also they do support the cheap computers you just get India Support and not US support.

Inspirion/Dimension Cheap India Support (Unless you paid for the 4 hour support then you have US Support)
Latitude/Optiplex Better US Support
XPS/Servers Great US Gold Support

I would making $300-500 on a computer that is less than $3000 in value is a lot. For people that have basic knowledge of computer hardware it is much easier and cheaper to buy all the parts separately and then assemble everything yourself or find someone to do it for you for little price. You can also always find some smaller companies that offer products of the same quality but for much less.

Doesn't that seem a little unfair? Even if you do buy the cheapest model you should still expect it to arrive on time and the staff to be couteous. I'm sure theres also a law stating that any product has to last for one year or a reasonable expected time. 2 days doesn't seem reasonable.

Well the thing is with Dell.

You build your computer online, buy it. The next day the little dell gnomes get to work. They actually build the computer, test it, including stress tests, etc. so after all this is done is when it is finally shipped.

Now lets backup a minute. When you configured your computer online from Dell, there is a spot near the price that says estimated ship date is _______
This is the estimated ship date after the gnomes have built and tested your computer. Most users think when they purchase something online it will be shipped the next day, with Dell that is not always the case.

ajey said shipping back to Dell would be $150 CDN so this means that after the computer was shipped from Dell it got stuck in customs at Canada, more waiting period.

My mom's had an Inspiron for over three years and it's worked perfectly. It also does help to buy a warranty because you never know what might happen. Now, with my computer, there was a harddisk issue which is because of Windows, not Dell. Rant and rave about how much you hate Microsoft, and I'll side with you, but I love Dell. They have good prices, decent computers, and good support (at least on my end, since I'm in Houston and they're in Austin).