"One word: WOW! I placed the order on the 13th (late evening) and it arrived on the 16th, almost an entire week ahead of schedule. I don't think I've seen such a fast turnaround time in years, given the shipping time/method that I chose (free but slow shipping). I'm extremely impressed and pleased. If I had chosen the fastest method (and consequently paid another 20 or 30 dollars) I would have received my shipment only a day earlier. Anyway, the product arrived in pristine condition and I'm all ready to rock and roll. Thanks, Dell."
"Ordered a 2GB memory pro-duo stick. Price was outstanding but was back orderd. I kept up with acknolegements to not cancel my order with a lengthy back order process. After over 3 MONTHS of waiting they canceled my order even though I replied to all their emails to not cancel. It's obvious they never intended to fullfill the order, and only used the price to get me to buy from their site. Will never purchase from the company again."
"I bought an Inspiron 6000 four months ago. I bought the full in home service warranty. After only four months, the hive file is corrupt and the hard drive had to be replaced. Dell has been awful about honoring their warranty commitments. They have not returned phone calls, have transferred me to non-working extensions, put me on hold for long periods and then disconnected me and repeatedly given me incorrect information. I have tried contacting supervisors but they don't return phone calls either. I wil never purchase another dell product and wish I had done better research before buying this one."
"Hard drive crashed a few months after use. Dell had Airborne pick up my computer for repair and I have not seen it since. I have spent a total of 17 hours on the phone playing customer service ping pong. After being on hold for hours, my calls get dropped and I have to start all over again. Last information I received is that they think they sold my computer. Now they are saying they never recieved it. Worst customer service I have ever dealt with!!!"
"I bought a digital camera from Dell.ca (Canadian site). Shipping was prompt (and free!). I noticed the item ws defective (has a "hot pixel" in the sensor) and phoned Dell Canada customer service immediately. Typically long wait (about 20 minutes) in the queue, but no different from the phone support hotlines of IBM, other electronic stores and mail order company. Realized I chose to talk to the wrong person (I got technical support) - however the guy was very nice, let me describe the problem with the camera and note that I want an exchange, and then he transferred me to the appropriate person (customer/ sale service) so that I can get an item return label for shipping the camera back. Waited another 15 minutes (again not unusual for phone support services), finally talked to the customer service, who already has all the information the previous person entered into the computer system, so no more question asked or answers repeated. Got the item return label by email, sent it back to Dell by courier (free of charge), and surprisingly, they have already shipped out the replacement camera after we talked on the phone because it arrived the day after! This is definitely "no question asked" exchange policy!! I bought a PDA from Dell before and there was no problem with the item and the service I got, so I will definitely buy from them again!!"
"Dont buy dells extended service its a joke and a waste of money they dont back up what they say at time of sale if you have a problem with a dell computer you better have some repair know- how there on phone service has you taking your machine apart and you have to tell them whats wrong so why pay for it
online techs are a joke they can barley speek english let along help you I will nevery buy a dell product again thank you george h robinson "
"Web site is clunky. I don't like the way their pricing is structured. If you order through Small Business division you often get a better deal. Small Business division offers different models, than Dell Home. Most deals require rebates which I'm not a fan of. "
"I've purchased from Dell several times in the past. There have even been times when the machine received was not as expected and Dell has picked it up and refunded my full amount paid. When I'd had missing parts that was in my order but not sent, they were sent with no charge even though I hadn't been charged for the item. When I've told them of missing sofware, it was sent right out. When I called about charges for services I didn't order, I was credited. Sometimes I've had to wait too long to talk to tech support, but they've always been able to help or gotten someone who could. My last machine XPS 140 might have been a little on the high price side, but it's a nice machine. More importantly, to me, I know I can count on Dell to honor their warranty. I would definately recommend Dell to my family and friends."
"I was very satisfied with my purchase of Dell's x50v. The overall process was quick and I received the PPC quickly. I also bought it during one of their promotional periods and got almost $200 off so I can't complain about pricing either. I would buy from Dell again."
"I would like to share my extremely negative and unpleasant experiences when purchasing from Dell Home division. This incident with Dell was so dreadful that it will prevent me from buying anything from Dell any time soon.
In short, the following are the problems that I have experienced:
1. Completely failed customer's (mine) expectations due to complete disconnect between an actual inventory and web site stock.
2. Dell's denial to honor their own set discounts: when item that you purchase is discounted, they would much rather mark it as back-ordered than honor the sale. The back-ordered item would usually be cancelled later.
2. Horrible (actually, non-existent) customer care. The so-called "customer care" reps require you to explain your problem many times. They will listen to only part of your complain and will offer is to cancel your order at best. They would not understand what is it that you have problem with and are have no power nor wish to fix it anyway.
3. No connection amongst customer care and sales exist: when customer care takes a weak attempt to fix things, the sales simply hangs up on you.
Now in more details:
I have placed a phone order with Dell Home Electronics and Accessoires division on December 28 around 3:00 PM EST. The order was for a digital camera that would come up in a search results on Dell web site, however at order attempt, the web site returned an error.
At the time of the order I specifically asked if the item I was about to order was in-stock. The sales person replied that there was about 60 (sixty!) units available for sale. I asked about the item arrival estimate; the sales person replied: 2 days. I asked if there were any promotions/discounts available for this camera. The sales person responded that there indeed was a discount. I gave him my credit card info and the order was placed.
When 2 hours later I checked my order status, the item (The Nikon D50 SLR KIT 28-80 LENS) was marked as backordered with estimated shipping date 1 month from the day of order. Does this mean they sold all 60 units while I was placing my order? Or, perhaps, someone bought all 60 digital cameras at once? I doubt all 60 units were sold out in 5 minutes it took to complete an order. The back-ordered item with 1 month shipping lead time suggests that the order will never be fulfilled. Most likely the order will eventually be cancelled and the item will appear back in-stock but at different price.
There were many people on the digital photography forum who received this camera in the matter of 1-2 days. This suggests that the item was in-stock, so the only logical conclusion is: the preference was made to someone who either paid a full price or got a lesser discount!
I needed this camera for my New York trip badly. I was going to take pictures of our New Year's celebration on the Times square. Due to the Dell's inability to match their customer's order to their own inventory and unwillingness to honor their own discounts I was left with no camera. Interestingly enough, there were several smaller online stores (samys.com, abesofmaine.com) that were offering this camera for the same or even better price. I choosed Dell because I presumed it as hassle-free and dependable company. This experience left me extremely disappointed with Dell: it's unexcusable for such a large company to set the customer's expectations that the item is in-stock (in fact 60 of them), and then immediately mark the item is back-ordered.
On December 29 I sent Dell Customer Care an email outlining my experiences with the order. On December 30 a heavily-accent Dell CSR gave me a call. Don't get me wrong, I speak with an accent myself and English is my second language but I don't insist on working for Customer Support/Care. The first thing the customer care rep. did is offered to cancel my order. When I insisted that I still want this item, they offered to cancel the order and buy this item again (wasn't it back-ordered even before?). I said that I want my order filled as-is and I want to talk to a supervisor. The CSR kicked me back to a waiting call queue. Then I was connected to another CSR who had no previous knowledge of the reason of my call. That CSR started asking me all over again. And again, that CSR could not offer any help but to cancel the order. I asked for supervisor again and again was kicked out to a waiting queue. After spending 45 minutes on the phone and patiently explaining problem to 3 more customer service representatives I gave up and hung up the phone. I still have 2 case numbers that were assigned for my complaint and extensions of multiple so-called "customer care" representatives. As all those reprs were either powerless or unwilling to make any corrections, my problem still remains.
In the future I will think twice before doing any business with Dell. Most likely I will be ordering the high-end electronics and computer items from the companies who can keep their inventory in real time and who do not fail their customer's expectations like Staples, OfficeDepot or OneCall."
"Price changed on the product I was going to buy overnight so called in order instead of going online. Automated attendant is not great, but not bad. Salesperson after some wrangling agreed to discount that got unit close to the sales price of day before but slightly higher. On the web, they are offering $10 total shipping for printing but had to ask to get this on the phone. Confirmation came with full shipping charges of $55. Called in to correct, but was transferred and disconnected. Reached second person on second call, who after a long time corrected the problem. Very poor ordering experience, dramatically worse than someone like newegg. "
"I ordered a Canon A610 digital camera and 2-yr. extended warranty. The camera came quickly (3 days), but only after I told the sales person over the phone that shipping on December 23rd for a Xmas gift was unacceptable. They even waived the special handling fee for expedited shipping.
I received the camera but no word about the extended warranty. Three extended calls to their Indian customer service department and their live support chat room revealed that Dell's agents don't know anything about the extended warranty either and can't help. I finally got some info, from of all places, the Dell web site. Wish I had skipped the customer support staff and saved myself hours of waiting and arguing with them online and on the phone."
"***Update*** After about a week after posting this reviewI was contacted by a Dell Resolution Specialist and he was able to ship me, at no cost, a TV Tuner/Remote and a 60GB 7200 RPM HDD. I have come to rely solely on Dell as my only laptop I will buy.
I completed my purchase on 12/28 for a 9300. After completing the purchase I reviewed the confirmation email only to find the TV Tuner/Remote missing from the order. Then began the nightmare that is "Dell Customer Care". I have spent 3 days and many hours on the phone trying to solve this proplem. I was told by several employees that since it was not on the order I would have to pay for it. Worse yet I included an upgraded 60GB 7200RPM HD that was NEVER included in the build. On both of these items I was VERY clear to the sales rep what I wanted. Two of the service reps were rude to me and that is not good "Customer Care"!!!"
"I purchased the Dell 2405FPW directly from Dell when they were having a sale. I got a very good price, and it was shipped promptly.
The monitor I received from them had a defect, a dark spot near the center of the screen. I called Dell and they shipped me another monitor. They had me keep the first monitor until I was certain the new monitor was good, and then they had their shipper come out and pick up the old monitor. Overall it was an excellent experience as far as customer service."
"placed an order for a pc from dell on 11/24/2005. at the time that i placed the order, the estimated ship date for the pc was 12/15/2005. i was suprised to find that the pc had shipped on 12/4/2005, and i recieved the pc a few days later. excellent shopping experience with dell.
*update
i recently placed a second order with dell. i ordered a monitor on 12/14/2005. on dell's website, it indicated the monitor typically ships in 5-7 business days. my order shipped on 12/15/2005, the day after it processed and is scheuled to arrive this week. after this second flawless experience with dell i would definetly recommend them to anyone!
although, after reading other reviews of dell, i fully agree that their tech support and customer service is a joke. if you order from dell, youd better hope you never run into any problems with the product or order, because calling dell for help will result in extreme frustration."