Dell: Do they operate from another universe?

gman2k

I wanted to buy a Dell widescreen monitor as spotted on one of the bargain alerts, so I thought it would be an easy process;)

So, as I have access to a business account, we tried to put the order through online. Once we hit the visa verification stage of the process, everything froze. That went on for a couple of days until I said I'd give them a ring and order it over the phone.
By this stage one of the additional reductions on the price was gone....
So I rang up and spoke to a guy, and he said they were aware of problems with the online sales process.... but not fixed yet!!!
So he transfers me to someone in sales - but they can't help me cos they are not in sales. So they transfer me to someone out in some call centre, who then have to transfer me to someone who handles Irish sales.
So this person then tells me that sales people are all at a meeting, and she cannot hep me, and will get someone to ring me back in an hour.

Of course no-one rings me back, so I start the process again, and three times when the phone gets answered in sales - they hang up!

Eventually.... I get to put an order through with a guy, and next thing he tells me that he will be sending me an email regarding the order to which I have to respond to, to confirm that I want to buy the product!

At this stage, I'm not a happy camper, and after checking the email, I find out that all he has sent out is a quote, and I have to get back to him to confirm I want to buy it!!!

Look Mr. Dell, if I want to buy something, it should be a straightforward easy process - check out other companies that sell things in the 21st century.
And then I see today that Dell may be pulling out of Ireland. Now, I feel very bad for all the workers, but the company they work for needs a serious wakeup call......

ttm

Well first guy you talked to was talking b%£%$£t as there has always been a problem with online ordering with credit cards. I've had several sales go through and look like they have completed online only to discover a couple of days later that Dell have no knowledge of the order.

Their system sux but many of us keep buying computers from them.

The quote part is quite normal and lets them off the hook if there is any mistake in the order if you have signed off on it. I've had the problem of signing a quote that I thought was the same as that I had asked for on the phone only to realise that it was quite different, long story but got what I wanted in the end at a bargin price.

therewillbe

Muppets at sales.I WAS BILLED & RECEIVED "2" PCS TOGETHER. I only ordered one.

BostonB

Personally I'll only deal with Dell via the web and email. So you have a paper trail etc. Always get a name and cc everyone you deal with on your emails. People have a habit of being a bit more professional once they realise you have their name and other people are reading how they deal with a customer.

ttm

therewillbe wrote: »

Muppets at sales.I WAS BILLED & RECEIVED "2" PCS TOGETHER. I only ordered one.

Thats not that uncommon . And they often don't have a clue what they have done and only bill you for one.

Calhoun

gman2k wrote: »

Look Mr. Dell, if I want to buy something, it should be a straightforward easy process - check out other companies that sell things in the 21st century.
And then I see today that Dell may be pulling out of Ireland. Now, I feel very bad for all the workers, but the company they work for needs a serious wakeup call......

The situation you have describedin the above is typicall of a company that has outsourced most departments to foreign countries who through a combination of language barriers and overall crappy processes results in bad customer experience.

I feel sorry for the consumer once the pull out of Limerick and for Limerick itself as the econemy of that place is going to go to ****.

Mcfast

gman2k wrote: »

I wanted to buy a Dell widescreen monitor as spotted on one of the bargain alerts, so I thought it would be an easy process;)

So, as I have access to a business account, we tried to put the order through online. Once we hit the visa verification stage of the process, everything froze. That went on for a couple of days until I said I'd give them a ring and order it over the phone.
By this stage one of the additional reductions on the price was gone....
So I rang up and spoke to a guy, and he said they were aware of problems with the online sales process.... but not fixed yet!!!
So he transfers me to someone in sales - but they can't help me cos they are not in sales. So they transfer me to someone out in some call centre, who then have to transfer me to someone who handles Irish sales.
So this person then tells me that sales people are all at a meeting, and she cannot hep me, and will get someone to ring me back in an hour.

Of course no-one rings me back, so I start the process again, and three times when the phone gets answered in sales - they hang up!

Eventually.... I get to put an order through with a guy, and next thing he tells me that he will be sending me an email regarding the order to which I have to respond to, to confirm that I want to buy the product!

At this stage, I'm not a happy camper, and after checking the email, I find out that all he has sent out is a quote, and I have to get back to him to confirm I want to buy it!!!

Look Mr. Dell, if I want to buy something, it should be a straightforward easy process - check out other companies that sell things in the 21st century.
And then I see today that Dell may be pulling out of Ireland. Now, I feel very bad for all the workers, but the company they work for needs a serious wakeup call......

that is actually insane

CJhaughey

I bought a Dell dimension a few years back, it was one of the refurbished models and was great value (I thought). I remember having a rough time trying to pay for it with a credit card, order cancelled, repeat order etc.
Very hard to contact customer service and finally after a year or so the Machine stopped working!(just outside warranty).
That was my first and last experience of Dell, from a personal perspective.
I am still using their laptop but that is supplied by work and appears to be a good machine.

MOH

I was ordering a PC a couple of years ago - website crashed midway through first order, ordered a different model the next day. Got a confirmation e-mail for the 2nd one, followed by a confirmation e-mail for the first order from the day before which I thought hadn't gone through. Had to ring them up to sort it out.
Fifteen minutes after I hung up, got a call from a different girl in Dell asking had I intended ordering two machines, and when I explained I'd just been on to cancel one of them, she checked and I now somehow had 3 machines on order on the system.

Kept a close eye on my credit card statement for a couple of months after that.

BostonB

I've bought about 20 machines over the past couple of years, mainly from the outlet, mainly laptops. Never had a problem with an order. Returned one as the screen was dire, they sent a replacement DVDRW for another. A third machine had the trackpad buttons fail just outside the warranty, but they took it back and fixed anyway.

The only real hassle I had was the last time. Previous to that I always made a point of dealing with the one person, an Irish Girl. Always by email. So there was a record, and there was one person with ownership of the transaction. No problems.

The last time however I ended up dealing with indian support, again via email, and they seemed to be able to email in perfect oxford english, better than my own, but only barely able to understand what they'd written. So it took about 2 weeks of emailing before I got it sorted. They'd write one thing in an email, then go do something completely different. They were obviously using scripts but couldn't understand them. But as I did it via email, it was all trackable. As I could quote their own replies back to them.

For business machines I've ordered hundreds of Dells. While you get the odd issue, and you get a certain amount DOA's its never been excessive. But generally your dealing with a completely different part of Dell that you are with consumer machines.