Dell/Alienware complaints

Does anyone have a phone number/contact details of any members of staff at Dell or Alienware? (ordered the laptop in the UK)

These people are driving me insane...

I ordered a new Alienware 15 and then advised them to cancel the order (this was about a week before the laptop shipped) they told me it would be cancelled and they would collect it once it arrives in the UK and that I would have a refund early the following week (last week). No refund arrived....I called them and they say no I won't get the money until they have collected it from the carrier and it has been returned to Dell.

So first question - how is it any of my concern or responsibility whether or not they return it/collect it/whatever I never received the damn thing and cancelled it over a week ago this point before it ever even shipped from China. I call them again once the unit updates to collected on Thursday and they tell me the refund will be in my account early next week. So I check today and nothing, call them again now I'm told they have confirmation that the laptop has been received and that I will have the next 7 days or by the end of next week.

To me this is just simply unacceptable, they are holding onto my money for long as they think they can get away with it and it's actually starting to take the piss.

I've tried complaining to customer care over the phone but all I get told is "oh yes sir this is high priority, check again next week" which is about as useful as a chocolate tea pot!

Really I just want to get to someone at Dell/Alienware that might actually care enough to get this resolved in a timely manner - the way they've dealt with this is up to now is just not good enough by any standards. I feel like everyone I've spoken with at Dell is reading from a script and haven't actually listened to a single word I've said.

Rant over, needed to get that out!

 

If they haven't returned your money but the refund is complete, file a chargeback with your bank.

 

I don't think it is complete as yet getting a straight answer from Dell is like getting blood from a stone or it has been so far, but yeah that might be an idea!

 

Ah man, I feel your pain.

At the start of January I got a machine from the outlet, it took a week to get to me and upon receipt I quickly realised it was not the advertised spec (AMD instead of Nvidia). Took me a week to send it back because some jobsworth forgot to actually get the courier to pick it up. Once it had been picked up I sent confirmation to the guy at Dell I had been emailing the whole time to get it sorted, even sent a picture of the collection receipt as they said it would speed up the refund process so that I could get the offer on a new machine that was running.

Long story short, I got my refund........ nearly a month later and after a lot of phone calls. Every time they said "you should see it in your account" yeah yeah, so why am I calling then huh?!.... It then transpires that when they tell you the refund should be in your bank in 4-5 days, in reality, what they have done is merely submit the request to their accounts team who are in absolutely no rush to sort your refund.

After the initial quote of 4-5 days, it landed 3 weeks later......

 

I just honestly cannot believe how they operate, I wouldn't mind so much if it was small amounts of money but this is thousands of £ worth and they just stall and stall as much as they can, its utterly shocking. I don't even know what to do at this point they are just holding my money indefinitely it seems while fobbing me off on a weekly basis that I will receive the money next week.

The thing that gets me the most I cancelled the laptop before it was even manufactured how on earth it got to this stage is just staggering I've called them every other day and clearly they have ignored me every single time.

You would never have such a horrible experience with Apple or any other large business quite honestly.

I can guarantee one thing if this had happened before I bought the Alienware 15 from the outlet there is no chance I would have bought it, I think hell will freeze over before I ever spend another £ with Dell unless their treatment of customers drastically improves.

If there is an Alienware/Dell rep here could I get a response on why the company thinks it's okay to treat customers with such disregard?

 

If you order at Apple you cant cancel it while it is being constructed either if you have an order with custom specs you will have the same issue. I do get your frustration but on the other hand a company is building a laptop for you the day after they receive the order, the whole process has started and is actually costing them money. The sales offices in your country hardly have a connection with the factories in China. The factory in China only receives a building spec sheet and the address to where it needs to be shipped all linked to an order number. It is not like A sales rep in for example the UK has direct contact with the factory in China. They could handle their refunds better though. But in the end you just didnt want the laptop anymore and kinda costed them money because you saw a nicer deal at an outlet afterwards. It is human nature to get the best price ofcourse. But there is a limit to how convenient a company can be.

 

Sorry mate, the whole "its costing them money" thing doesn't wash. ITS THE LAW that if you buy something online you can cancel within 14 days of ordering or of receipt, whichever is the latter. So that is no excuse for poor service. Alienware's customer service sucks **** big time. They have to be the worst company I have ever dealt with.

And as for not having direct links to the factory goes... do you really expect people to accept that ? One of the largest computer companies in the world cannot have its customer service department contact the factory and instruct them to change the delivery address of a custom build to "Outlet Sales" and action a refund ? Rubbish.

 

Its the law in Europe only, and it can be abushed. The payments are by the way not done by Dell itself but the same company that handles that stuff for Apple for example. This is what makes it extremely slow.

So you expect a company to built a brand new laptop for you, which costs manpower etc and you cancel it so they have to sell it for less in an outlet to people that buy it there in the first place because they cancel their order to get the outlet discounts? Read your own post back and imagine how you would feel if you had a business.

 

Sorry mate, the whole "its costing them money" thing doesn't wash. ITS THE LAW that if you buy something online you can cancel within 14 days of ordering or of receipt, whichever is the latter. So that is no excuse for poor service. Alienware's customer service sucks **** big time. They have to be the worst company I have ever dealt with.

And as for not having direct links to the factory goes... do you really expect people to accept that ? One of the largest computer companies in the world cannot have its customer service department contact the factory and instruct them to change the delivery address of a custom build

I dont need to read my own post, I wrote it ! And I dont feel sorry for Dell if a few customers exercise their legal prerogative. And to be honest I doubt Dell care either. Do you know how much they make each year in profit ? Read their financial returns and tell me you think they care about having to sell a few items via discounted outlets. LOL. The key issue here is their abysmal service. I dont care WHO handles their refunds. It needs to be faster. Anyone who thinks otherwise and "pities" big business has their head in the sand.

 

Who said anything about "pitty" and big business. All I see is an a-hole ranting about how slow banking and return systems are as if they haven't been like that since the 80's and as if ranting on a damn message board will somehow make it improve. Guess what. it won't, and all you have done is make a few dozen other people think you're generally a jerk.

Nice job, didn't make Dell or anyone else look bad. just yourself.

 

I do know how much they make in profit and it is lower now than it was in the past, source http://www.statista.com/statistics/262630/dells-net-quarterly-earnings-since-fiscal-year-2010/

Every company would care, its just almost not do-able in big businesses to do it faster. The strenght of Dell is mostly their in house repair services though. This is where the money goes for Dell. Not manpower for handling refunds because someone abuses the system.

 

Are you stupid or just being deliberately obtuse. Executing legal prerogative (which incidentally, Dell make a big point of telling customers they are perfectly happy with when you speak to them; in fact I have been actively encouraged to make a purchase and "if I am not happy or change my mind thats fine, Im free to cancel or return" when speaking to sales agents) is not abusing the system. What an uneducated thing to say. PMSL.

"The strenght of Dell is mostly their in house repair services though." Im not sure I know whether to laugh or cry at this comment !!! Laugh I think. And if you need an explanation; suffice to say, any company who has to lay such a claim has serious quality issues in the first place. Hardly a recommendation there pal !

 

You are just not happy because you are a cheapskate If it was the wrong product, a faulty product etc I would fully agree with you. But just because you suddenly find a better deal? The law also says a customer has to research properly before buying a product as well.

If you make such statements back it up.
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf
http://www.consumerreports.org/laptops/laptop-reliability-by-year/

But every product can break ofcourse. The nice thing is that you dont need to be without a laptop for weeks though. Try again to make some good look bad. You aint good at it and actually does make you look dumb. With in-house I mean as in-house > On site ofcourse.

 

Haha, you dont have a clue what you are talking about fella. Im not even the one returning it !! Im just saying that the guy is perfectly in his rights to do so and he should not have to wait weeks for his money back when he has no laptop to show for it. Anyone who tries to argue against that or suggest the buyer is in the wrong, is, basically, retarded and does not have a clear grasp on reality !

Me a cheapskate ? PMSL. Im about to potentially spend over $3000 on a laptop (I did the exchange calculation for you since you dont appear to be too clued up). But yeah, Im a cheapskate. LOL. Go back to cloud cuckoo land and stop acting like a troll.

 

Did I state that you are returning it? I just find the reasoning something a bit unethical. Oh and I am European, you where just too dumb to understand the meaning behind what I said. That it is legal to return it with no questions asked in Europe and not in for example Asia just shows how relative it al is that it would be right.

 

Yawn. Im switching off notifications on this topic. Ive seen your argumentative drivel on other posts too where you wont shut up because you think you are right. You contradict yourself almost as often as you fail to grasp the basics of reality.

 

Yap yap yap, but properly responding to a post is not something you are able to so instead you go in little kid mode.

 

I'll say 3 things here -

A) You don't know all the information surrounding this problem which began with a sales agent giving me an overpriced quote, to question it and have a manager respond very abruptly and rudely essentially saying "up yours".
B) I cancelled it before it went into production so if Dell lost money it is entirely down to their own failure to communicate I gave them more than enough notice.
C) It has nothing at all to do with whether or not someone is a cheap skate and everything to do with big business thinking that it's acceptable to walk all over paying customers.

And just for good measure btw -

D) I bought the laptop in the UK (aka Europe) and so the only rules that apply to me are European rules, not Asian, not American, European. Where Dell chooses to operate has no bearing on it the purchase was made with Dell UK from the UK and so UK/EU law applies.

Anyway I didn't come here looking for an argument or to try and justify myself to another consumer I simply wanted to vent and see if anyone had some contact details for anyone at Dell, so I could get this resolved. In-spite of what you may think having to call Dell almost everyday to get them to actually do something is both time consuming, costly and very frustrating.

 

Bravo. You may want to consider a solicitors letter. Good luck. Appalling company to communicate with.

 

Managed to get this sorted at long last, refund arrived yesterday.