Dell Lost My Computer, Then Thinks I Stole It

From my experience, Dell's customer service has been a sham from the start that tends to magnify problems rather than make them go away. Let me explain my woes:

Initially received an XPS M1530 in July 19th, 2008 with 2 year CompleteCare Warranty. These are the relevant events occuring over the last year:

November 24th: Sent my computer (XPS M1530) into a depot for repair (cracked screen) under CompleteCare.
December 15th and 16th: Haven't heard ANYTHING from Dell, so I contact them to see why my computer's not back. I find out that they sent me the wrong shipping label for the repair. My computer is now lost in a warehouse in Tennessee. They promise me a replacement.
January 16th: I finally get my replacement, a Dell Studio XPS 1640. I guess everything's fine!

June 19th: I contact Dell again. I've spilled water on my computer and it's a brick. They tell me I have no warranty on this computer; I remind them that the warranty from my previous computer should transfer over since this is a replacement. They apologize for the confusion and promise to create a dispatch.

And NOW...
July 2nd - 6th: Tried every day to see why my computer's not getting fixed. There's apparently something seriously wrong with my account. I tried contacting them with all 3 mediums - chat, email, and phone. They didn't respond to my email.

Chat:
07/06/2010 08:07:17PM Agent (...): "Michael I have checked the details and request you to please contact our customer care team at 1-800-624 9897 so that they can help you in resolving your issue."
07/06/2010 08:07:27PM Agent (...): "As I will not be able to help you in this regards."

Phone:
I call the customer care number and I get redirected twice, then put under indefinite hold. Stayed on the line for 35 minutes... whoops.

Finally I give my computer to a local tech store (they partner with Dell to repair computers under warranty).
Today (July 13th) the tech store tried to order parts, but they got denied. The reason? When I got my 1640, Dell never received my 1530 in return. Dell thinks I stole the computer they lost!

So, to summarize, Dell will not fix my computer. Every time I contact them I go through hell because they never received my old computer when they sent me a new one, that was sent because they never received my old computer. It's the Catch-22 of customer service.

Why is this such a problem right now? My warranty runs out in 6 days. This means that if the issue is resolved and I get my motherboard replaced and then we find that, say the HD is water damaged, I have no chance in hell of getting a replacement HD (even though I alerted them about this a month ago..) .

I'm not getting the service I paid for. Through no fault of my own I've been completely without a computer for a sum of 2 and a half months: 11/24 - 1/16, 6/19 - 7/13. (79 days, inclusive.) That's about a 10th of my warranty going unused. Not to mention the fact that I use my computer EVERY DAY in my studies as a CS major and in my programming internship; to not have a functional laptop is an enormous setback, and that is the reason I sprung for the warranty in the first place. And there's the very real danger that my warranty's going to expire before the reps sort this mess out. The rep told me that another year of CompleteCare costs $409(!!) for a computer that they've only had to cover for half a year (P.S. I think it's a raw deal to give me a new computer without the initial year warranty under the circumstances). It's my belief that I don't owe them ANYTHING, and they owe me a computer fix and a warranty extension. And they don't care about their customers. They're happy to sit and watch me struggle in their customer care purgatory until my warranty runs out and I own not a laptop, but a brick (unless I'm willing to shell out the $$ for a new motherboard, Bluetooth card, and keyboard.)

I'm a 20 year old college student majoring in computer engineering / computer science and after this experience, I don't see any choice other than to never buy Dell again and actively recommend against them to my friends. Is that what Dell wants? They're okay with providing a customer experience that results in potentially thousands of dollars in lost revenue? Does anyone think that, given my predicament, writing to the company can get something done?

 

Sounds to me that you should call then keep demanding to speak with a CS Supervisor... Did you save a copy of the return shipping label? If you did, you are covered as you have proof of the label they sent to you and you can track that number and PROVE they got it. Including the person who signed for it!

ALWAYS save a copy of the shipping label. IF you DO have a copy of it what you need to do is email them a scan of it, or fax them a scan of it.

Good luck!

Edit: Oh I also want to mention the label will have the RMA and Reference number on it so they can not deny that it is YOUR label.

 

The shipping label itself expired after 10 days, but I do have the UPS tracking number proving that my package reached its destination. Regardless, everyone at Dell I've talked to seems to believe my story (which isn't surprising, given that they work at Dell). So far, evidence hasn't proven to be an issue.

I was on the phone yesterday, trying to reach someone - anyone - at Dell with the authority to remove the hold on my account, which is the reason no one can order parts. 4 calls lasting 23 minutes, 33 minutes, 4 minutes, and 40 minutes later, I can state with confidence that no one at Dell knows what they're doing. Holds dept. redirects me to ARB support, which redirects me to XPS support. They, as well as every other dept. not listed, redirect me to Holds. I feel like Sisyphus.

When I demand to speak to a supervisor, they claim the supervisor will be unable to do anything since their department doesn't have the authority to remove the hold (yes, Holds, ARB, and XPS have all said this). I'm being redirected in circles. Not to mention that every time I'm redirected means a 15-25 minute wait. This is the shoddiest customer service I've ever experienced. I don't have the time to waste 2 hours a day on wasteful phone calls.

By delaying and denying me warranty service when the cause of the issue was clearly not beyond their control, I have reason to believe Dell is breaking its own Accidental Damage Service Contract (section 3b1, in case anyone's interested). I'm not sure what the next step is from here, but their ineptitude does not instill in me a sense of confidence that I can get anything done.

3 days on my warranty left...

 

Well since they believe you did indeed return it, it looks like each department does not want the responsibility of lifting the restriction in fear of losing their job... Being sent to every department in circles is silly, but I guess they would rather pass the issue on to someone else rather than deal with it them selves. This is a shame. I wonder if this would have happened if you had gotten the North America tech support (paid for it extra sadly..) instead of the normal Indian support.

I know many times I've been on the phone with an Indian support agent and have heard their kids or dogs in the back ground, so it's obvious most of them work from home which is retarded. And when they have an issue they use chat to talk to another agent at the office. I personally don't think that this is how support should be.

I just wished I knew of someone who you could contact! One thing I can think of is make a thread in the Dell community on their site and see if a moderator/dell employee sees it! I know this has been effective in the past with other people as the majority of the employees who use the community forums are American.

I still think it's a sham to have to pay extra for NA tech support. I remember the good ole days when you'd call Gateway support and get a real American who'd help you quickly and you were off the phone in a jiffy with the issue sorted. I have nothing against Indian people.. And I suspect it's more of a Dell thing by not teaching their Indian support teams correct procedure, product knowledge, etc. Ah well I've talked enough and ranted a bit...

Don't give up! Keep calling, keep emailing, keep nagging, write in their forums, write on planet feedback, heck I'd even try to nab some of the boards numbers or email addresses and shoot them a mail telling them what is happening. BE PERSISTENT!

 

Try contacting a Dell employee on Dell's forum and see what they say. You can also try the unresolves issues form here:

https://support.dell.com/support/to...t/dellcare/outstanding_issues?c=us&l=en&s=gen

 

Here's an update, since if I were anyone else I'd be pretty interested:

The tech store I gave the computer to spent almost a month (from 7/9 to 8/3) trying to get contact with Dell; finally, one of their sales reps at Dell was given clearance to order whatever parts he needed with respect to this situation. All the parts should get here by the 10th. In summary, I've used Dell's Accidental Damage twice in the last year, and been without a workable computer for 101 days and counting as a result.

In the meantime, I sent a strongly worded complaint to the Board of Directors. Unsurprisingly, they forwarded it to someone who called me yesterday and basically stated he would call someone else and then call me back.. maybe today (obviously that hasn't happened), maybe Friday. He was not in the least apologetic, and he didn't seem to know anything about my case other than that I 'currently own' a M1530 (suggesting that no one actually read my email). I take Dell's lack of self reprehensibility extremely seriously. The issue is that I spent dozens of hours unsuccessfully attempting to resolve THEIR mistakes - among the dumbest I have ever seen a company commit - and I have yet to see accountability. I don't think an apology is too much to ask for. If I don't hear one, I'm notifying the FTC.

 

Go with the BBB complaint route. Alot easier, and I think noticed faster.

 

Double entered, sorry - It Does say Newbie!

 

They don't think you stole it - They just CLAIM you stole it! (Without proof). You have the docs to counter the lie, then they should retroactively restore-extend the warrantee for the time unavailable.

 

Wow, friend...This absolutely sounds like a disaster. I am glad you kept your tracking information and proof of delivery. Not doing such is by far one of the biggest mistakes that people can make and usually grants them no leverage what so ever.

I do not like the idea of how you keep being passed around but that is how things have become with growth and yes, outsourcing. I can tell you for sure that if they sent you an exchange then ARB exchange collections is the one that put your account on hold. When they have an open exchange that hasn't been satisfied with return of the original product or another of the exchange units then everything gets locked down. If your POD is the approximate weight of the unit in question and it shows at one of their facilities then they should immediately place only the lost service tag on hold rather than your entire account, that is in fact if everything was trasferred to your replacement system including any left over warranty.

I know first hand that units get lost. Sometimes it is Dell's fault, sometimes the carrier, and other times it is the customer's as they randomly stick labels on boxes when certain product goes to different locations. On Dell's side I also do know their is blatant fraud commited by customer's regularly so I do understand their apprehension in most cases but it is not their place to assume without proof of such activity.

As others have stated, the best thing you can do is write up a detailed account with all the facts including any representatives you may have spoken with. Escalate, escalate, escalate! It is a pain and it is time consuming but usually worth while in the end.

I do hope you get this resolved because you seem to have done everything right on your end. Sometimes, it's just back luck with the reps you get. It's a gamble for sure. Someone needs to take ownership of this on Dell's end and stop passing the buck internally.

 

At this point, you were in good shape. Ideally, you'd have saved a copy of the shipping label and saved the tracking information.

It sounds as if Dell did the right thing, and made good on the mistake.

I think that you should call it even after getting your notebook back. After your second "glass of water" incident, you were probably "flagged," and rightly so. You might have a warranty that covers accidents, but you really should take reasonable care and I would hope that you've learned a lesson you can apply in your future professional life.

 

Now whose fault is it that you used the warranty twice in a single year? In any case, you could have paid for on-site repair instead of mail-in.