[Agamemnon]

Here's the Dell story (those of you who already know enough to boycott Dell need not read further).

Saw the advertisement here on Calpuck for the Dell 7 Days of Deals (or whatever its called). Thought I'd take a look around, and surprise, it was monitor day. I just bought a new system, but have been using a terrible, old, scratched up monitor 3rd hand.

I bought the 20" widescreen ultrasharp for $471 including everything (tax, shipping, etc.). Now I'm no 'smart guy' when it comes to spending... I likes me credit cards and the toys it gets me 2 months earlier than if I'd saved. I have 2 cards with very low limits (probably for the best), so I split the purchase between them, as my preferred card didn't have quite enough room to cover the whole purchase.

3 days later I'm checking my credit card statement online and discover that _2 days_ after my initial purchase, a second monitor had been charged to my 1st credit card (shattering its credit limit) and shipped to me. When I went to Purolator to pick up my monitor (same day I discovered the charges), sure enough, there were two there waiting for me. I called Dell and gave them the big WTF???

As far as I was concerned, I never purchased the 2nd monitor... so I shouldn't have it on my card (obviously). In addition, I was charged $20 by my bank/card for going over my limit (which they so nicely allowed 'me' to do). So I call Dell, tell them to remove the purchase, and also to pay me $20 for the fee they've inflicted (I offer to show them online statement, call my bank, etc.). The guy basically agrees, sees that its pretty shady that a second was charged to me 2 days later and sent out.

However! The guy won't credit me my money back for 8-10 business days after they've received the 2nd monitor back! So I have to carry $480 on my card for 2 weeks because Dell screwed me over?!?! He said until they got that second monitor back (from purolator) that I wasn't getting my money back, and that I was essentially 'returning' the monitor.

So I called my credit card company and told them the story, and said that Dell would verify that they were in the wrong (which they admitted to several times). VISA says sure, they can remove the charge... but it will take longer than the 10 business days it will take Dell to do it, so that I should just go through them and not worry about it.

Now I'm waiting for Dell to credit my $480 back (naturally I haven't been able to use the card since then, because I dont' have $500+ laying around to clear the card and then more for future use, so I'm $480ish over my limit for weeks.

To top it off, I checked my credit card today and instead of crediting me $20 for the fee for going over my limit, they only gave me $10...

I call them, they say they've given me $20 already. I say I only got $10. They say I'm wrong, and to wait and see if another $10 comes. I tell them they're all nuts and question how they're still in busines, then hang up.

The worst part is, I absolutely love the monitor. Its freaking amazing, I play CoD2, Oblivion, EaWar, AoE3, and they're all stunning.

That said, unfortunately, I'll never buy a Dell again, and will encourage everyone I know not to buy. Turns out service counts for about as much as the product... especially when we're talking about bad service.

/vent