"I ordered a Canon S410 digital camera.

I received an order acknowledgement e-mail, and then an order confirmation e-mail (including an order number). No shipping confirmation e-mail to speak of!

The order should have shipped, so I logged into my account on dell.com and my order DIDN'T EXIST according to the site.

So, I had to attempt to navigate horrible telephone menus to talk to a person. He said my order shipped and should actually be arriving today. Great. He then gave me the DHL tracking number that he used. Let's hope it does arrive today.

I hung up with him. I then tried to track the package myself on DHL's site. The package DIDN'T EXIST in their site!

The bottom line is, I had to spend 15 minutes on the phone to determine (with almost no certainty) where my package is, and I couldn't even do that.

No computer system I've tried recognizes any of the tracking or order numbers I've been given. "Must be the Christmas rush" the company representative said. As if this is their first experience with December.

UPDATE: I received my order. It was the correct product for a good price. However, getting information from Dell about my order before it arrived was very difficult. It was available online, but in a very round about manner. Their touch tone system is a nightmare."

"Purchased a Dell Inspion 1200 laptop on 11/25 as a Christmas present. It arrived 12/1/05. The laptop arrived with a 2 inch blue line in the screen. Called Dell. Transferred repeatedly but finally after 98 minutes they had setup to ship a replacement laptop. I was emailed confirmation with a "Dispatch Reference #065644xxx. After 14 days, I went to check to see where the replacement was... When searching the online system "no results returned". I called to find out the status to find out they cancelled the order for the replacement system without notifying me and without notating the case notes as to why. I've made 3 calls so far and have spend over 5 hours on the phone trying to get a replacement system. Only to be transferred over and over, each time having to give them name, case #, phone # and email address and then explain the problem. The previous call ended when I finally hung up after the rep went "to review the case notes" and I sat with a dead phone for well over 1/2 an hour and no way to get back to a person. I'm still on hold (3 1/2 hours today so far) trying desperately to get a replacement system sent out and have it here before Christmas. I hold little hope. During the 50 minutes I was on "ignore" I filed a BBB complaint, and a Paypal complaint since I used them for payment. Paypal immediately "closed (it) because it does not meet PayPal's complaint policy guidelines." Thanks Dell and Thanks Paypal for making this just the best Christmas EVER!"

"Ordered a Inspiron 700m in August. No problems with the unit up until now. The power supply adapter has gone bad. Was transferred four times, and once I finally reach the business tech. support advisor, she told me we needed to troubleshoot a dead AC adapter before a replacement could be sent out. I told her the green LED no longer lights up on the adapter, so I would say it's the adapter that is bad. She wanted me to turn on my Inspiron 700m, but I asked her how I turn on a laptop with no power, and that pretty much stumped Dell tech. support.


Also, I could not understand any of the four advisors I spoke to, all of them are from India. Dell is a great company customer service wise if you understand one of the eighteen languages spoken in India. Your service request would be expedited like a speeding bullet."

"I purchased a Canon A610 camera from them at a very good price after the two coupon discounts I applied. I placed the order on Sunday, 12/04/05, and received it at my door in California on Thursday, 12/08/05. I can't judge customer service as everything went as planned, the camera worked, and I did not deal with them. I was very happy with this transaction and would purchase from them again."

"Dell seems to have some pretty good deals sometimes. About two weeks ago the deals were so good that the at the prospect of saving $200+ over dell nearest competitor I instantanly chose Dell. I ordered an Inspiron 6000 with a 1.6 ghz Pentium-M 533mhz FSB. The website when I ordered the laptop said 533mhz, the email confirmation said 533mhz FSB, and the invoice on the box said 533mhz. Seems like a pretty good deal until I open up the box, turn on the computer and run CPU-Z, and it is running a 1.6ghz CPU with a 400mhz FSB (I was running prime95 to be sure the system was not just throtled down). Not what I paid for. In fact one of the reasons I chose Dell was because I thought I was going to be getting the 533mhz FSB.

So last night I called Dell's "customer service". After waiting on hold and speaking with two different people, I somehow reach the Dell hardware waranty support. I then speak to a man who tells me Dell does not make an Inspiron 6000 with a 1.6 pentium-m with a 400mhz FSB, because Intel does not make this processor with 400mhz FSB. After about 15 minutes of arguing (including going to the Intel website and looking at the product info to show that Intel does infact make this processor). Finally he says to wait so he can check my order. He comes back and says oh my mistake it does seem that you have received the wrong processor. So he gives me a case number and tells me to call another number tomorrow and they will send me the correct computer. I was okay with this resolution.

Today I call the number and they tell me that they cannot do anything except give me a return code, and that I will need to re-order the computer online. I bought this computer during one of their sales and told him that this was unacceptable. He kept insisting that this was all he could do. Finally, I said that I am going to get off the phone and dispute the charge with the credit card company. The "cusomter service" employ then tells me he can transfer me to hardware support who have more authority. I say okay and wait 20 minutes. I transfer to hardware support and when the guy answers I give him my case number. As soon as I am done reading it, I get disconnected. I call back the customer care and get transfered to the hardware support this time waiting 40 minutes. I finally reach someone she says that she will talk to customer care while I am waiting and assures me that she will clear the issue up. I say okay. After waiting another 25 minutes and get transfered to spare parts ordering to a guy who has no idea what is going on with my case. He then sends me to cusomter returns. I then talk to a lady and explain my situation and she tells me that when I ordered it online I needed to click the right buttons, I guess basically telling me I ordered the wrong thing. I told her that the shipping invoice and the email both say it is suppose to have a 533mhz FSB .The lady then tells me that Dell does not make a pentium-m laptop with a 400mhz FSB (even though less than two weeks ago they had the inspiron 6000 with a 1.6ghz w/ 400mhz FSB) and that I they cannot go off of a third part product is telling me my processor is. Okay, I can understand that. So I ask her if there is utility that I can use from Dell to analyze my system to be sure that it is infact a 533mhz FSB. She says no because Dell only makes laptops with a 533mhz FSB. She then tells me to open system propeties and to look at the speed. I explain to her that the reported speed is the processor clock speed not the FSB speed. Anyway she says all she can do is set up a return and that I need to pay shipping. She says that she wants to give me the number to hardware support. I tell her not to bother because if I have to dial a number it will be my credit card company to dispute that charge. Finally after she saying she can do nothing for me, I told her I am disputing the charge and she says fine.

My next step is to dispute the charge and give a full acount of what has happened. Any advice? I do plan to tell them what I have posted here (with better grammar). "

"Dell Hell, I have been in it since Nov. 9th with no satisfaction. I ordered a nice new Dell on Nov 9th and it was slated to arrive via UPS on Nov. 16. Only the monitor arrived. No PC. Finally on the 18th UPS told me and Dell that the system was lost and to file a claim and tracer. Since the evening of the 16th (when my local ups already had told me it was lost but to wait til the 17th) I called Dell and got the Indians. I have called them literally 40 times a day since and have had no satisfaction. On the 22nd of Nov I finally was able to find someone in this country that claimed to be from their executive offices that would expedite my refund (by this time I never wanted to deal with Dell again and did not want another computer. They had refused to send me a new one until UPS either paid them back for the lost one or found the one I had ordered.

Anyway the person in this country has been promising me since the 22nd that I would get my refund overnite and today is Dec 5 and no refund!! The monitor went back to them on Nov. 23 and that took some doing!!! the indians never sent ups to pick it up!!) and ups found the other computer and returned it to Dell a week ago. Still no refund!! My only consolation is that on Dec. 22nd my bank card is going to credit me back inspite of Dell. Unfortunately my bank said they had to give them 30 days to credit me back after I put it in the dispute dept. Don't wait to dispute the charge with your bank if you have charged one. Do it right away because it is a long wait to get any satisfaction. The new date for my refund to go thru is monday but I am not holding my breath. It is now Monday nite and no refund and no phone call back as to the new excuse. I have heard this since Nov. 22nd. I will never do business again with Dell. In fact I bought a new HP the other day and it is wonderful.
"

"They cancelled my order just because they thought I'm a reseller. Their stupid reasoning is that I have an ebay account with the same email as my Dell account email. They even ignored a few emails that I inquire about the status.

Their reseller escallation team is really some a$$ hole, very rude and arrogent.

Don't buy anything from Dell. Go with Lenovo or Gateway."

"I bought my PC from their Small Business Division. The PC was shipped without the necessary software to operate the DVD drives (windows XP does not support DVD yet). I had to call three different numbers (being passed to their India division and back to the US Div. Several times) taking to multiple people in order to send me the program that would make my DVD usable. They asked for $69 for the software that should have been included in a $1,774 system. After lots of arm twisting and threatening to return the PC they agreed to send me the software free but as I found out they still charged me for the shipping of the items that should have been included with the system in the first place.

Although only have bought my PC's from Dell up to this point, however, my next purchases will not be from them. As a small business I do not have the time to deal with a dysfunctional organization.
"

"I asked when this (a camera) will ship and was told you must order to find out. (I should have known right there not to go further, but I figured there was plenty of time before Christmas) I ordered it Dec 3 and found that it won't ship until Januarary. The moment I found that out (about an hour later). I tried to cancel it. I have called twice and talked on a chat session (three hours total), and for some reason Dell still can't seem to cancel the order.

My next move is to call my credit card company to stop Dell in their tracks.

Kaad_g

Update: I was able to finally cancel my order today; hopefully, it is actually canceled."

"I made the mistake of buying a Konica-Minolta camera from Dell. AFter the rebate, they were the cheapest reseller I could find, BUT they didn't send an invoice so that I could APPLY for the rebate, their online support said I wasn't a customer, that my order number was invalid. When I called the 800 support number, I was cut off after 15 minutes on hold. I finally got through and they SAID they are sending an invoice, BUT THERE'S NO WAY THEY SAVED ENOUGH MONEY FOR ME TO BUY FROM THEM AGAIN.
I should have learned when it took me 2 months to receive a defective notebook, return it for replacement, cancel the order, have my crdit card charged for the defective unit AND the replacement I didn't get, and then have them try to charge me a 15% restocking for returning a computer I never received. NEVER AGAIN DELL!"

"I purchased a 1D mark II n from dell about a month ago 25oc05 for $3399.15 + $200.00in taxes it was supposed to be shipped 08no05 a day before the ship day I called them and had the shipping address changed to Alabama (my mother inlaw) to save on taxes they said it will be no problem the next day I was sent a email to confirm the amount $3399.15 I save around $200.00 by doing this.Then an hour later I received an email saying it will be delayed till 15no05 (no biggy to me) so on 15no05 I recieve another email telling me that it will be delayed till 12DE05 (Sad).Last week I recieve an email telling me that it was shipped (22NO05.and guess where to my home address ?.So I email them and the guy Ive been dealing with says yes they messed up but I lucked out they are not charging me sales taxes .Today I get an email telling me that I owe $3924.95 when I call or email them they tell me that the $3399.15 never existed.I dont know what to do the camera arrives today.They are CROOKS"

"I recently purchased a Dell XPS M170. The purpose of this purchase was for high end graphics, animation, video editing, etc.

This system was highly recommended by Dell Representatives for what I sought. In addition, I read reviews which pretty much stated the same.

When I received the unit, almost immediately after I booted I noticed that the display was very dark, and the text and icons were distorted.

I called in to support, the tech and I went through troubleshooting, and even downloaded more drivers. At the end of the call, we both agreed that a replacement would probably be best.

There was a replacement sent out, I was still not satisfied with this product and have asked for a full refund.

It’s easy to inform of the negative experiences, so I have decided that I would take a different approach. I will tell of all the positives, despite being disappointed with the product.

I was satisfied with the representative that assisted me. Her name was Ladonna Kappler (ext. 9570187), she is in the home and office department. She was extremely helpful in answering all of my questions. She returned all calls and bent over backwards to help me out in anyway possible.

At some point we realized that I was in the wrong department. So after all of her kind work, I had to take the business to the business department. She was very understanding and even offered to answer more questions if necessary.

When I got to the business side, there was a sales person that went out of his way for me as well. His name is Larry Trinadad (ext. 7134438). He followed up for the most part, and tried to get me what I wanted at a bargain.

Overall, The Sales aspect went well. Customer Care. . .

In summary, if you are attempting to decide on a Notebook for Animation, Video editing, high end graphics, the XPS M170 is probably not your best bet.

I have done extensive research and have found that the Xtreme notebook is what I am going with. Right next to Xtreme was Voodoo PC. Voodoo is more expensive, mostly because your options to custom build. Xtreme is focused more on performance.

The bottom line is that everyone should put extensive research into your investment prior to purchase (no matter how large or small). I am aware that with a new product there may not be as many reviews or information, however, past products should give you a good ideal.

Good luck with your next purchase ! ! !
"

"you would think such a long standing company would have worthy customer service, but no. The service for Dell is significantly lacking. First the MENU TREE at the organization's phone system is more complex than the average person can comprehend. So many department's that its hard to find who you need to speak with.
However, once you get to the right department, you will HOLD....and HOLD...and HOLD! Well unless you are calling "sales" then the hold time is shorter. Fact is, in my experiences with getting customer service on the one product I bought at Dell I experienced horrible service! One I did reach a human, it was some one with broken english who had the brains of a chimp. And to top it off they were rude!

In summary.. Complex communication system, long hold time, unprofessional service.

Will not buy from them again. And I sure hope they get the message, because the corporate buying power of this company could be something very big (like a walmart) - but they need much better service to make it work. Just my opinion from first hand experience."

"Another disaster story on a 700m laptop. Started with flashing video and after going back to the service depot (in this case) I think it was Solectron it no has no post and no video. I have asked for a replacement unit and we will see the response. The price was good but it seems it was too good."

"I was charged tax to my order, which they should not. I fulfilled requirements of Dell Tax department, twice and they still charged my CC 50$ more. I'm trying a month to resolve this.
The Dell customer service sucks.
I wonder what they will do after I'll decline this charge on my credit card.
Never again!!!"