"I have mixed reviews of Dell:
Bad experience in 1999. My company policy is for professionals to buy a laptop and the firm reimburses. IBM I wanted was out of stock, so I buy a Dell laptop. The dvd wouldn't work. So tech support makes me go thru an hour of diagnostics on the phone (after I tried for 3-4 hours myself to get the thing to function). Ridiculous!!

For some reason, I decided to gamble on another Dell and used some BensBargains coupon info to order a tower p4. When I called intially to discuss, they put the hard sell on me by saying we'll give you another $100 off if you buy today. I fell for it. Then the next day I got buyers remorse so called to cancel. I get connected to a call center in India. They say, what can we do to get you to keep the order? Can we send a printer? No. I have a printer I say. Well, hmmm. Actually, which printer? Fast forward... I get a $100 printer.

The PC arrives...however, no printer. I have to make LITERALLY ten phone calls to get this sorted out. I did get it, and feel satisified that I got a great deal on the PC. But the headache was not worth it."

"I received a catalog from Dell advertising several items. In the catalog was a coupon for use on their website on any purchase I planned on making. When I tried to use the coupon, the site gave me an error. Out of curiousty I called Dell and asked about my order and why I couldn't use the coupon and was told "Using that coupon would cause that item to go below our at-cost price, so you can't use it"

Apparently they don't feel the need to honor coupons if it might cut into the profits on one individual purchase. I can't believe I was actually told "you'll have to purchase something more expensive with a higher margin to use that coupon" - apparently $400 isn't expensive enough to get 10 percent off. Ridiculous."

"------------------------------
*UPDATE*
It's now Dec 11th and lo and behold, my order has been cancelled with out any explanation or notification to me. If you browser the customer service forums at dell this has happened to a lot of people. Just goes to show how bad Dell's customer service is again.

------------------------------

I placed an order for a replacement lcd screen for my Lattitude X200 on November 17th. The rep said it would ship on the 21st and arrive the lastest by the 26th of November.

On the 21st I recieved an automated message on my voice mail saying the shipment would be delayed until Dec. 12th without any other explanation. I called customer service and asked about the call, the rude rep had no idea what it was about and said it'd ship out on the 21st. 4 days later I check my order status and it had been changed to ship on Dec 12th, which would make it arrive around Dec. 17th - 19th. A full one MONTH after I placed the order. Calls again for an explanation gave me the runaround. No discounts or anything offered for the delayed shipment which I was counting on getting before Thanksgiving.

Terrible company, their departments have no idea what's going on in other departments. Will definately not shop there anymore."

"Ordered from the website, then got a cancellation notice. They tried to do a bait and switch."

"I will add my experience about Dell service without having received the $2100 Notebook I ordered.

I wasn't too sure I wanted to spend over $2100 on a Dell Inspiron 8600 Notebook and this service just makes me want to cancel the order all together.

I placed this order on Friday November 7. Didn't receive the order number until November 14 after I contacted them. I was told that the Notebook
would be shipped November 21st. Now, shipping is delayed another 10 days (Dec 2) with no explanation. And it will be delivered anytime between December 5 through December 9. That's one month after I placed the order!

According to the order status page, it seems that this order is in the "Boxing" stage. What's the delay? Are they shipping from India?!

"

"Update. I received my computer in 4 days. Hooked it up and everything works. Dell could use some improvement on their notification system. I could not track the order. The tracking page only updates when the product reaches the regional center. Overall, I am satisfied with the experience. I should note I did buy a different monitor and memory upgrade so I paid more than the listed price."

"Probably one of the worst internet buying experiences that I have ever had!! First due to a mistake on their website they changed what they were going to ship to me. Then they didn't even notify me until after the system had shipped. Why they wouldn't ask the customer if this was ok is beyond me. Numerous calls to customer care trying to get them to cancel the orders with no call backs and just given the runaround. Talking to representatives in India who have no concept of the issue is like talking to a brick wall. I'll be very hard pressed to consider ordering from Dell again. Extremely poor customer support."

"Ordered two Dell 4600 computers. I ordered on Friday, and they arrived on Tuesday.

Each time I called with a question, a human answered the phone within a reasonable amount of time.

Overall, i'm fairly satisfied.

*EDIT* They forgot to send speakers with my two boxes. I have had a hard time getting in contact with anyone on the phone. I waited on hold for ten minutes; only to be hung up on.

"

"I am extremely upset with dell. I have bought from them in the past and i got a rock solid zero problem computer at a fair price. Now, 3 years later, i got back to buy another fair priced computer. I recieve it on time and promplty, very good serice. (Atleast when you are ordering) I recieve the computer, everything is in order, it hook it up. It is the most slowest thing i have ever come across, whether that is dell's fought or the manufacture is not to be decided here, why i said the above so to explain why i returned the computer. So back to the story. Slow computer; get on the phone; call dell; return it. This is where it starts, i can transfered back and fourth over and over again. Once you get in the return section of the calling service, this 'great' customer care goes RIGHT OUT THE DOOR. Nothing buy chiness hard to understand people not wanting to help. I finally! FINALLY! Got them to take back the computer, after a few minutues of them offering me stuff to keep it. I kept telling them i would more than likely buy a better faster and more EXPENSIVE computer from them if this goes well. Guess they werent listening. It has been over 3 weeks now and i just called and they say they cant start the return process until all 3 packages arrive! Ok, that is fine. THen the guy says they sent one of the packages to an entirely different place then the other 2 and they cant sta rt doing anything until all 3 packages are there. Ok that is fine, i will assume an honest mistake. I can live with that, to cap it off, once the last package arrives, 2-3 they say, it will take 5-10 business days to process the return and then another 15-30 days to credit the money back to my account!!!! This is rideclous, my future order with them is completey unheard of in my head right now. This is insane, 3 weeks to arrive at the company. The third one still isnt there. Plus 2-3 for it arrive from some other location, PLUS 5-10 days to process, PLUS 15-30 days to credit the money!!!! So, altogeather around 45 days to do this most would think simple action of return. At NewEgg.com, 1-3 days to arrive, 1-2 to process, 2-5 days to credit the money. THIS IS CRAZY! Dell, you would have gotton a more expensive buy from me but with your hard to understand and unknowledgable return staff, and your policies about 'lets hurt the custumer just because he is returning a product' routine just cost you another sale. To bad you are such a big company because you might care about me and the next person buying from you. So go back to you and all your custumers, oh did i say custumers, i meant custumer numbers. In case i didnt make it clear in the above, dell is a good company, terrible technical support, all asians or people that have spoken english for 2 days, rock solid computers, prices are OK but not near what others have, and last but defiantly not least, their terrible attitude to their custumers, afterall, what is 1 mad custumer in a 100 to them. NOTHING. Dont go with dell, go with MonarchComputers.com or NewEgg.com or Abspc.com. They actually care about there custumers and wont say, you are custumer XXXXXXXXX.

Just terrible, Dell you disappoint me."

"I suggest that ANYONE considering ordering ANYTHING from DELL, go DIRECTLY to the DELL COMMUNITY FORUMS (Customer Care,et.) @ DELL.COM.
That tells the whole story. I wish I would of browsed around the Forums before I becoming one of the Dell Victims having DellMares."

"Dell is awesome! Got a wonderful deal on this laptop. Costumer service was wonderful."

"Just an update to my previous post...

Today I received notice that my order would be delayed until 1/5/03. That's over a month from today, and three months since my initial order - for one hard drive.

As Dell has the hard drive I ordered available for their laptops they sell, it shows me they do not truly value the customer, only the profit a customer is able to provide.

Dell has proven to be a BIG disappointment. I will NEVER order anything from Dell, and I will encourage my friends, colleagues, and anyone willing to listen to review resellerratings.com's reviews on how Dell has disappointed MANY others.
"

"Last month I order a linksys wireless usb adapter, there was sth. wrong with the website, I placed the order but did not get any acknowledgement and confirmation,and had to wait for a 24 hours again to place order....

finally after I got in, my order status was " inproduction" , I have been waiting for several days ( up till now 2 weeks ) , and called manyyyyyyyyyyyyy tiimesssssssssssssss, have a longgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg waiting online.... finally, I got the reply it was a back order, and the shipment date would be probably a month later......

I can not wait any more and finally I placed the order via amazon. ironically, amazon ship my order the next day...
What a contrast !!!!

Bye Bye DELL ------------ FOREVER!!!!!!"

"THE worst customer service i have experienced in a loooong time! I purchased a CPU and Monitor from Dell. The monitor was 'dead-on-arrival' and returned, waiting for an exchange. After a month and 3 days...countless phone calls, the monitor still hadn't arrived. The order was cancelled by Dell, i was not notified or asked permission. A week later i still have no refund.

There has now been 10 messages left to Customer Care for a manager to phone me, to headquarters to phone me, and to a manager himself to phone me. And I have yet to receive a phone call.

I could not use my new computer ($1800 package) for a month. And had to buy a monitor from another source.

Not happy at all with Dell.ca"