Dell took my money 2 weeks ago - why cancel my order now for no reason? Anyone got the same problem

I bought a 15” Alienware laptop from Dell on 24 Sept, the money was taken from my bank account on the same day. Three days later I received several phone calls and emails from someone who claimed she was from the Dell credit team and kept asking for my student email or business email. I had several conversations with the same person where I had to repeat that I am neither a student nor a business - repeatedly! The reason being that I wanted this laptop to be delivered to my work place as there would be no one at home to receive the order during weekdays. She asked for my company name and found the company phone number online, which she called and spoke to my colleague to confirm I am actually working there (I don‘t understand why she did needed to do this after our numerous phone calls and the fact that Dell had already accepted the money, this was very creepy! I paid money to buy a laptop, but she acted like a police or immigration officer in that she was determined to prove that something was wrong with the order – again despite having already received the money and my explanation as to why the order needed to be delivered to my work – you would expect Dell to understand this particularly given that their phone lines can only be contactable during normal office hours; however, clearly their staff don’t ever have anything delivered during those times!).

After she contacted my colleague and was put through to me (therefore presumably confirming that I exist and that the money that Dell had received was not from a fake person), I was told over the phone that everything is fine with my order, and that there would be no more harassment. I checked the order status and it showed the order was expected to be delivered on Oct 16 (which is more than 8-10 working days, so a lot more than is stated on the Dell website, but I decided that given that I had specifically designed the laptop to meet my needs then I could accept waiting for one more week). I checked the order status on a daily basis and up until yesterday everything was fine – the status was still that the laptop would be delivered on 16 October; however, this morning the status suddenly changed and the order has been cancelled! I find it absolutely shocking that Dell had not attempted to contact me to set out any problems with the order, have not emailed me or called me to state that this is cancelled or to give any reason, and most shockingly of all are still holding my money that was paid to them on order three weeks ago, so at the moment Dell have both my money and are apparently refusing to honour my order made in good faith that a supposedly reputable company should be able to fulfil, otherwise why would they make a service available to design a laptop and require immediate payment!

I have tried to try to contact Dell customer service, but the phone gets hanged up and the number that I was called on by the customer service representative when she was harassing me goes to a different persons voice mail now. I am extremely concerned at this low quality customer service and I don’t understand why I have not been contacted therefore have no way of knowing what will happen with either my laptop or my money paid.

Can anyone tell me what happen to my order? Dell took my money 2 weeks ago - why cancel it now for no reason?

 

Yes, Dell are awful, and this is matter of course. Many people here have experienced the same thing (I had 4 cancellations before I got into production). A side point: are you sure Dell truly extracted the money from your account? Typically they'll place it in a hold once the order is placed but only take it once it's shipped (meaning that it's still in your account but not accessible and will be returned once the hold expires). Better that than gone, at least.

I assume you've ordered one of their new range (ie 15R2)? There were a couple of rounds of cancellations recently (for those in the UK at least) -- the first to actually upgrade the order to Skylake (meaning the initial order was really just a placebo and wasn't 'real'), and the second due to a problem with the SKU. Probably a different schedule for mad cancellations depending on where you are!

I found the most expedient way to get the order re-placed was to talk to the online Sales chat about it (tell em your order number as well). Gets you an Account Manager as a constant point of contact as well.

Ultimately, don't worry... this is typical, no matter how nuts it is.

 

Dell took my money in full mid September, there was no hold. Then 2 weeks later cancelled my order and re-ordered it twice.
After all the drama and problems I was dealing with, they offered to upgrade hard drive to the next size. I took the offer. Sound good at this point?
Nope, the order actually shipped a day after the offer, now they have to get it shipped order back from wherever it is right now to their stock first, before they can place another order with larger hard drive.
Dell said they need to make a credit note once back, and only then can a new order be placed. Also I was told by Dell that if any options change over the 2 weeks they are waiting to "stop shipment" that I will not get what I originally ordered plus the hard drive upgrade.
I asked them to just place the order now so I don't miss out if something changes in the meantime and so don't have to wait 2 weeks plus another 2-3 week for another order to be placed. Dell declined to do anything.

 

I recommend you contact your bank or other authorities to get the money back, and maybe some compensation due to the struggles you went through, then join the dark side (clevo). Or any other brand for that matter, alienware products don't seem that good anymore since the 2015 refreshes.

 

I have had two shady dealings with Dell. Never again.... I wish you the best with your order.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

Be careful with compensation. I got compensation after my order shipped "SSD upgrade from 256GB to 512GB", now Dell stop shipment of my order, Dell said they cannot place the new order until they bring the order they shipped back into their stock again which could be 2 weeks, then a new order will have to be placed, with another 2 weeks wait.

Bottom line is comsensation will have to wait about 4 week or 1 month before get it, which would mean I paid in full almost 2 months before recieveing anything!

 

You're better off purchasing Alienware from Amazon when they become available - not third-party Amazon sellers, but Amazon itself.

My laptop had an issue with the trackpack, and I requested a replacement on Friday (10/9). It arrived on Saturday. That's damn good service.

 

Now that's what I call expedited postage. But then again, I'm not surprised. In all my dealings with Amazon, I have to say they really understand how to provide great customer service.

Something that, in my experience, Alienware and Dell could learn a thing or two about...

 

I eventually managed to speak to someone at DELL on Monday having worried about this all weekend and was informed that this was due to a faulty batch of processors. I was promised the order has been rebooked and the new delivery date will be on 26 Oct. Also DELL said they will speed up the order plus offering some goodwill such as upgraded hard drive.

But one day later I received an incredulous email saying due to payment issue now they have rebooked the order. Clearly it cannot have been a payment issue as DELL have been in receipt of the money for three weeks.(Given the fact someone at DELL stated to me that it was due to a faulty batch of processors the day before)

I am not sure whether or not the order will be delivered quicker than 26 October given the incredibly poor customer service provided so far, contradictory statements by members of the Dell customer service team and the fact that they have had our money since 24 September. I will be most unimpressed if DELL fail to expedite the order to an earlier delivery date AND fail to deliver on the goodwill.

 

Sorry about the issues that you've had to go through to get your order. I don't see why the order would need to be sent back to change the hard drive, but I do understand that there are certaing policies that they need to follow to do some stuff like this.

My recommendation is to try to expedite the order. Once you get the order at your place, send me a PM with your service tag. I'd like to do a deeper analysis and submit the feedback to the team in charge.

 

Hi buddy, I think i might be able to shed some light on why your order was possibly cancelled as I almost experienced the same thing.

So I too needed my order shipped to a different address, after payment was placed on hold on my account I had Dell contact me a few days later and ask me for a work email address, or student email. I told them that I was a freelance designer and that I could verify myself with ID (passport, Drivers License) I was then requested to send a picture (not a scan) of my passport (which I did)

I was told that they needed to confirm I who I really am because my shipping address doesn't match my billing address. and If i didn't confirm this there would be a possibility that later down the line my order would be cancelled by the fraud team.

So I think that your order was cancelled because you failed to verify yourself by not providing a work/student email or Further Identification.

By the way it could possibly be something completely different but it sounds like this is what could have happened.