So I bought a Dell during the sale days...

[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

[Bobblehead]

Maybe they put $10 on each card?

[Bertuzzied]

i have 2 of those monitors too. it kicks ass. Never had a problem with them and i probably made about 10 purchases through them.

I would never buy anything regular priced from them. Just wait for Dell days. They seem to happen every month now. hehe

[DuffMan]

So, you used 2 seperate CC's to buy one item online?
I didn;t know that was possible, and I can see where it may cause some confusion.

[Coolsurfer79]

I've dealt with Dell twice in the past without any problems with the transaction or the product. It seems a mistake was made, but they seem fairly reasonable in their remedy. After hearing some of the horror stories on this site about other places Dell seems pretty reasonable.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I've had my share of Dell customer service hell. Once you get transfered around into the depths of Indian call centers it's a tough climb out.

That said, their products can be awesome, and the pricing untouchable. Unless you're prepared to shell out more money for better customer service, that's the price of getting a good discount. You get what you pay for - luckily it's the service and not the product this time.

[Agamemnon]

Checked the other card, no $10 credit to that account... great idea for a second though, I thought you might have it there.

[Clarkey]

Mistakes happen, it looks like Dell has been pretty good about rectifying the situation. If I were you I would be more ****ed at the $20 rip-off charge your banks is dinging you with.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Mistakes happen, it looks like Dell has been pretty good about rectifying the situation. If I were you I would be more ****ed at the $20 rip-off charge your banks is dinging you with.

I hear ya. When I talked to the bank I asked why they let me go that far over my limit, and then charged me a $20 fee for it. The response was, 'because you're a good customer'. Sheesh... if I'm such a great customer they could have just raised my limit automatically and not charged me anything.

I'm more ****ed at the length of the bungle rather than the intensity of it, especially flubbing up my over-limit credit amount. Thats pretty much what inspired the vent. I'm also pretty miffed that someone can just 'charge' an amount to my credit card days after a legitimate purchase. As far as I'm concerned, now that Dell has my credit card info, apparently they're free to bill whatever they like to me and ship it out, and its on me (ie my _responsibility_) to assist them in rectifying the situation by carrying their false charge on my credit for 2 weeks.

I shouldn't have to. I didn't pay for it, the charge should be removed... immediately. I don't care how 'good' they are about it, their attitude or actions are of no concern to me. They billed me for a product I didn't order, on a day on which I ordered no products. The fact that they even suggested that I was being treated as 'returning the monitor' ****ed me off to no end. I wasn'treturning it, because I never bought it...

[Bobblehead]

I've had a couple 'magic' charges show up on my credit card. They weren't large amounts, and only twice over the space of the last 10 years. Each time I was told the credit card company would need to check with the seller, and I would have to sign a form to swear that I did not receive any goods. Both times I was also told any interest would be reversed when the item was removed from the bill (and it was).

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I've had a couple 'magic' charges show up on my credit card. They weren't large amounts, and only twice over the space of the last 10 years. Each time I was told the credit card company would need to check with the seller, and I would have to sign a form to swear that I did not receive any goods. Both times I was also told any interest would be reversed when the item was removed from the bill (and it was).

Yeah... I've a feeling that since I'm going through Dell for the refund I won't get the interest back... shouldn't amount to more than a few dollars, but if I'm calling them back over the $10, I guess I should include a few bucks interest. Ah well, I'll just be happy to get my $10 and be done with it.

[Agamemnon]

nm

[Red Mile Style]

Originally Posted by fotze

Tell the credit card company you would like to cancel the card because of the charge. Ten billion other companies would gladly give you a card.

Are you aware that Visa and Mastercard are in reality the same company? There is nowhere to take a stance against the Man - he's everywhere, everything...

Trust no one. The truth is out there.

I miss the X files.

About your Dell problem, you're crazy! Dells are awesome. Short of being thrown off a mountain, my laptop has withstood it all. Plus I had a nasty virus on my second-hand, three year old laptop, and the customer service representative walked me through what to do to get rid of it over the phone.

If you want to trash a company, go with Nike or big business tobacco. Good luck talking to anyone in PR regarding that nasty case of cancer you recieved from their product.

But here's a violin for your $10 :baby:

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Red Mile Style

Are you aware that Visa and Mastercard are in reality the same company? There is nowhere to take a stance against the Man - he's everywhere, everything...

Well.... no... they would have cancelled the charge, they just said it was faster if Dell did it (no idea if thats the truth though).

About your Dell problem, you're crazy! Dells are awesome. Short of being thrown off a mountain, my laptop has withstood it all. Plus I had a nasty virus on my second-hand, three year old laptop, and the customer service representative walked me through what to do to get rid of it over the phone.

My issues with Dell didn't involve the quality of their product.

If you want to trash a company, go with Nike or big business tobacco. Good luck talking to anyone in PR regarding that nasty case of cancer you recieved from their product.

Uh... I don't smoke, and didn't buy Nike. This thread was about my personal experiences with Dell recently.. did you read the stuff I posted?

But here's a violin for your $10 :baby:

I'd probably just prefer that you said nothing.

[Agamemnon]

Update: The saga continues. Dell refunded my $20 fee for blowing my credit limit on the second monitor they charged to me... but they refunded $10 to each card, when they only 'illegally' charged the second monitor to one card. Obviously I wanted the $20 put on the card that was charged the $20 fee, but Dell saw fit to divide the charges (wierd, considering _they_ mistakenly charged to the second card, then mistakenly refunded to both).

However, thats just incompetence, and as long as I got the $20 I'm happy. They didn't refund my monitor purchase until the 26th... and they left off about $30 of the price.

So now Monday I have to call them for the fourth time and ask why they only refunded me $445 when they owe me $471... after all this...

Love the monitor though! Its ridiculously huge, I run two explorers side by side, native resolution is 1680x1050 (drool).

Too bad I won't buy a Dell again... they sent me a 10% off coupon too!

[Flashpoint]

Can I have the coupon?

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Can I have the coupon?

PM me your email and I'll forward it to you.

[Flames_Gimp]

too bad u went through the hassle, I would have bought the second monitor from you.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

too bad u went through the hassle, I would have bought the second monitor from you.

Yeah, I was thinking about that at Purolator when they tried to get me to take both. Unfortunately I didn't really know anyone personally who I thought would be in a position to take it off my hands quickly. It was a pretty good deal, I think $650 regular, though its down a bit from that now.

[TheCommodoreAfro]

My Dell horror story is that my Insprion 8200, only two years and a bit after purchase (at the time it was bought for almost $3000, but since my company paid for half it didn't cost me that much out of pocket), had a motherboard crash. Turns out the model was notorious for this - lots of problems with the model and the motherboard. Sent it in for repairs and they were going to run close to $900.
After a lot of back and forth and phone calls where I asked them to make some reparations by not charging me the full amount for repairs, I dumped dell, bought a new laptop (for a couple hundred dollars more) and even got Dell off the shortlist to install new equipment in our office (they actually phoned our company to find out why - that was fun).