My Revenge on Dell bwahahahaha

I have a love hate relationship with Dell. Their computers are built pretty well and their next day service on notebooks is a lifesaver. I even like the offshore based tech support.

What I DESPISE is how Dell, whenever they make a mistake, or you have something out of the ordinary, shifts you from one person to another, makes you hold forever, stonewalls you and generally avoids resolving problems. Its happened a couple of times to me (and I bet to you too) over the years.

The latest was a change on 3 refurb desktops we bought in one order online. After ordering I found the same desktops for 25% less so i called to cancel. They said it was too late to stop shipment (even tho they didnt actually ship for 3 more days) and advised us to refuse delivery. I knew then this was gonna be a headache.

Sure enough, we refused delivery but they only credited us for one of the 3 computers. Two weeks later and several emails, they credited the second, but not the third. They told me there were parts missing which i explanined could not be our doing since we never had possession and refused shipment for the entire delivery. I get an email from them acknowledging it was their shipper's fault and I would get a refund for the third computer within days.

Two weeks later no refund. New email. Different CSR who says I was already refunded and go away (confusing the refund on the first two puters).

SO HERE WAS MY REVENGE. I realized that Dell has this bank of csrs in India that do not communicate with each other. In frustration, I sent the same email TEN TIMES by cutting and pasting.

Geuss what? I got TEN different and inconsistent responses and 3 coupons! Some told me to blow off; others gave coupons. Finally, one reached the guy who had worked on the prblem and this week I got my refund.....

Plus $190 in coupons. BWAHAHAHA!

On the 9200

LOL. I was on the fence on returning it. That 35% off enabled me to configure a new 9300 with a 2.0 sonoma with the same specs for only a $100 more after mail in rebate). But I would have to go the hassle of returning the 9200, had to wait 20 days for production and pay return shipping so I decided to keep it.

From what I can tell the 9200 is identical for my needs except for the sonoma chip...

On other companies.

I learned from experience that Dell is to computer companies as democracy is to other forms of government in the words of Winston Churchill: the worst form of givernment except for all the others.

I swore off Dell 3 notebooks ago over the wait time and runaround on an issue post 9-11 (around that time Dell layed off a bunch of folks and their support was horrid). I bought a Sony Vaio.

Never again. First, my reseller neglected to explain that the upgrade next day 3 year service warranty I bought only gave next day AFTER year one (the mfr's warranty) was up. At that time Sony didn't offer next day service.

My Vaio (GRV670?) had a known defect with the battery connection coming loose on the motherboard (known since a tech support guy told me this was an ongoing problem). Less than 3 months old, it had to be sent away for THREE WEEKS to be fixed. My entire work life is in my notebook and I was useless for most of that time.

k. I shoulda known that a consumer grade notebook doesn't come with next day service.

But then the notebook motherboard had the same problem 2 months later and yep I had to send it away for 3 more weeks. To Sony's credit, and my advantage of being able to play the "lawyer" card (one of only two times in my 17 years of being a lawyer I have sent a threatening letter on my own behalf on stationary), they refunded my purchase in full.

I went back to Dell buying my Inspiron 8600 which, yes lost a hard drive and a charger and DVD over 18 months of 10 hours a day 7 days a week use, but Dell promptly replaced them and I was very very pleased.

As i said, Dell seems to be worst in its bureaucracy ind ealing with out of the ordinary stuff. All told, I am pretty much a Dell customer for life.

Yeah they are the worst computer computer company...except for all the others...