I have had to deal with Dell again in the last couple of weeks, first off to order a computer for someone else and then for a cheap linux box myself (I must be crazy).

The story starts with me ordering a computer for someone else (they really don’t get the internet hence they want a computer to learn). The laptop was around £900 and ordering it online went well. Literally like 3 minutes after I placed an order I had a call from my credit card company for a fraud check (Well done to Virgin (MBNA)). They said to contact Dell by phone or email to let them know that they can take the payment now. So I thought I would give them a ring. I called their number, ending up getting through to India once again. I must have pressed about twenty different options, and when I finally got through to someone I get passed passed around about four times. It appears that no one there actually understands how to deal with this matter. During this they decide to drop my call – this is after having been on the phone for about 40 minutes. Furious now, I ring them again. I finally get through to someone after about 20 minutes and guess what, yes, they pass me over again. This time I was angry enough to stick it to the next person who picked up and said this was a disgrace – never in my life have I had to fight for a company to take my money. The annoying thing as well is that I am having to wait back in the queue every time they pass me over to someone else.

Anyway, I finally get through to someone who can deal with me. Within about 1 minute she does something and that’s that. Something which just took me about an hour on the phone was completed in about 20 seconds – I was even more peed off now. I told the lady that the credit card company has allowed them to take the money out within the next 24 hours so they must do it by then or else it wil bounce again. Can you guess what happens next? Yeah thats right, they didn’t take the payment again so it bounced once again. I was seriously pissed off by now. How unprofessional can one company be? It turns out that very!

So I now have visions of being stuck on the phone again for another lifetime but thought sod it. I just called my credit card company, and got through to a human in like 3 minutes (take note Dell), and told them to extend the time for the payment which they did. I thought I would just wait for Dell to take the payment again and if they don’t then its tough luck and they can sod off. Anyway, they did end up taking payment later on Sunday night (remembering that I placed the order on Thursday). I get my confirmation email and the date of arrival is a month in the future – WTF! I even called the sales team before I placed the order to get an idea of how long it would take and they said about 7 – 10 working days. This would come way after Christmas so was a bit pointless as a christmas present. I ended up calling them up again to cancel the order. This time it seemed fast for Dell’s standards – about 20 minutes on the phone.

Now for the second machine. I have wanted a cheap laptop to install ubuntu on and I know that on Dell hardware it pretty much installs easily, so went for the £300 Inspiron 1545 and upgraded the battery and memory so it came to about £335. Exactly the kind of price I wanted to pay. I know I should have known better by now but it was cheap (and I think this is the only way Dell gets business these days) so thought what the hell. Anyway, this one went fine with the payment but when I got the arrival date it would arrive after I head back to Germany, so again would be no use to me. I cant believe they cant get it to me within 2 weeks. So anyway, I am literally now on the phone waiting to get through to someone to cancel the order (again) and have had time to write this while waiting.

I have just come off the phone with them – a total of 30 minutes! I told the guy on the phone that I was not happy about having to wait 28 minutes to get through to someone, his reply was “that they have a very high volume of calls coming through” blah blah. It’s the same answer I get every time I call. I told him the mechanics of the company don’t interest me in the slightest, and if they are struggling isn’t that enough information for them to hire more call operatives. He seemed a little puzzled by that question for some reason.

So my question is “What has happened to Dell?”. I can say that they used to be fantastic – absolutely fantastic! I wouldn’t have gone with anyone else for the same sort of price. Their customer service was brilliant. I remember getting through to an Irish call center and their staff there would always deal with your issue immediately without having to pass you on to about twenty people. When you had problems with the hardware you got through to some technician who understood your point and opinion and sent your stuff out pretty quickly so you can do it yourself. They listened to reason and took your word for it accepting that you may have a brain.

Since HP took over from them as the biggest computer seller it seems that they completely panicked and thought of nothing but getting that spot back again. They seem to have removed all the Irish centers (I have not yet got through to one in a while) and moved them all to India. Now I don’t have any problem with Indians in the slightest but I find that it just takes so much longer to explain to them what’s going on and you have this problem when they just don’t hear things right (accents play into it here). I remember having to repeat my address to this one guy about 20 times. The technicians just don’t take your word for it and make you go through all this crap just to get to the place where you started.

It seems to me that in the hope of cutting costs they have lost the one major thing that is important – the customer’s respect!

Update: It would seem that Dell has now been put into third place thanks to Acer