They're one of those companies whose job it is to ask you at the end of your call with customer service how things went, and their survey results show that when asked how satisfied they were with their agent, 60% answered "very satisfied." Dell customers? Only 44%. Gateway followed with 37%. Not enough info is yet available on Toshiba and HP to be statistically significant.

So if you want to pay more for a nicely designed computer with the best customer service, looks like Mac is it. If you want to play computer games, you will have to accept worse customer service, and not get a Mac. Unless you use BootCamp and run Windows on a Mac. Oops. Full data below.

(Photo: Joi)

The note explained that although the leave program is voluntary, the company may resort to layoffs if it cannot save as much as hoped through this round of cutbacks. " [Dallas Morning News]

Ignacio says:

I would like anyone who has considered buying this plan for a computer or has one to be aware that this warranty is useless and a waste of money. Don’t buy it.

I had purchased a Sony Vaio TZ laptop about a year ago with the accidental protection damage (ACH) for several reasons, but mainly because the sales man suggested it for such a small laptop and for how expensive it was ($2200). Buying this warranty was a peace of mind that the sales man a year ago assured me of.

Jumping forward in time, a year later, I accidentally dropped my laptop and took in for repairs at the Geek Squad. The gentleman who attended me was very helpful and assured me that I would be taken care of with what he called “a high end laptop”. As a side note he even admired the size and weight of the laptop, which was the main selling factor for these laptops from Sony and why they were so expensive.

I received a call yesterday (10/31/08) from Best Buy saying the repairs were too costly and that my laptop would be replaced under warranty. I drove there today (11/1/08) to pick up a replacement. The attendant showed me a what she referred to as a comparable model (Vaio Z) and said I could take that as a replacement or use that money($2000) towards another computer , in essence store credit. I picked out a computer that was more expensive and she said it was fine, but I had to pay the difference. When we got to the register and as she started to ring me up, she stated that she had not done this type of return before and she asked a colleague to help her. She was told it was being done incorrectly and we were sent to talk to the supervisor of the computer department. This is where the trouble began.

I was told because of the specs of my computer the most comparable model was $600, which was an Asus EEE pc, but they would do me a favor and give me $1200 for a 15” Dell. When I stated to them that neither of them were comparable, because the sized and features that the TZ, they replied that they do it spec for spec and that my laptop only had 1gig of ram, a 1ghz processor and 100gig hard drive, and that was the closest computer. When I tried to explain to them that this computer was expensive because of the size features and ultra-portability; they ignored me and threatened to make my in-store credit less than $400 for some other netbook. I said that was not fair, the supervisor printed a gift card for $1200 gave it to me walked away. I asked to speak with the store manager.

The store manager, Huff, came and I explained to him what had happened in the last hour. He tried to understand what had happened and brought the supervisor from the Geek Squad department to help him out because he admittedly said, “I am not good with computers.” The supervisor told me the same as the rest that spec for spec there is no comparable computer, and that was the best they could do and I should be happy with that and instead of $600. I asked him to check Sony’s website so he can see that even a year later the TZ models are in fact cheaper, but more than $1200, and just as comparable with the one I bought. He said that he would not check any “junk” websites and only base his decision on what they had in the store. He told me to call Best Buy, and then yelled at the manager behind me, “This conversation is over,” and left. I was left standing at the cash register in the Customer Service area.

I called Best Buy customer relations from within the store, but they were of no help. They said they would not replace base on purchase price but “comparable technology.” When I said they were being unfair about comparing my computer the attendant on the phone said that was policy and there was nothing she could do.

So basically, to summarize, I bought a premium ultra portable laptop from Sony and it was compared to an Asus EEE netbook, under replacement, or a 15” Dell brick of a laptop that is worthless and not comparable. Salesmen are misleading when they are trying to sell you something. Good thing I didn’t order my laptop with the solid state hard dive, or else a comparable model would only have 60gigs of hard dive space. That is how “knowledgeable” the Geek Squad employees are, especially when the supervisor compares a premium notebook to a netbook.

I will not buy anything from Best Buy again. I spend thousands of dollars personally and more through my business, and I often refer my friends there as well. Not anymore, customer service is bad, the prices are more expensive when compared to internet shopping, and they rip you off. I encourage anyone not to buy from Best Buy and if you have to buy something there don’t waste your money any “peace of mind” insurance plans.

-Ignacio

We think Ignacio should launch an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) and see what Best Buy has to say, but we thought we'd throw this one out to the crowd first.

So, what do you think?

The majority of the laptops with the dangerous batteries were from HP, but there were also Toshiba and Dell computers included in the recall. The batteries were manufactured by Sony.

For a list of computers, click here.

Steven says:

I'd like to let you know about some extreme shipment delays with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. My order, which was originally placed on 9-11, has been delayed something like six times — generally for about a week at a time, so it appears they were merely stringing me along so I wouldn't cancel — and now for another month until 11-20.

Do you have any suggestions? I haven't been able to talk to anyone who is knowledgeable or able to help, whether by calling their support or emailing through their "escalation service." My order has been escalated and was supposed to be expedited several weeks ago, but obviously that never happened.

I can provide more details, including exact order dates and customer service representative names — but more than anything, I really want to know if there's any advice you might have. It was originally supposed to be delivered on 9-26, in time for my girlfriend's birthday, and I'm incredibly upset at Dell for appearing to string me along week-by-week when I would have just canceled if they could have made a realistic delay/delivery estimate in the first case.

Would this be something worthy of filing a BBB report? Or, is my only option really just to cancel — Dell does seem to have been rather deceptive in their dealings with customers throughout this fiasco, I'm certainly not the only one with a delayed order.

Systemic shipping delays are always tough to deal with — because the problem is likely larger than just your order. Filing a complaint with the BBB is certainly an option, and it may help escalate your case to the next level and make it stand out from the crowd.

You do, of course, have the option to cancel and receive and immediate refund, because of the FTC's mail order rule. If you feel that Dell is violating this rule, you might want to report them to the FTC.

You can also contact Dell's executives with an EECB (executive email carpet bomb). For more information about launching an EECB, click here. Here's some Dell contact info.

Is anyone else having this issue? How did you deal with it?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

As a company trying to turn around its image as being customer-service indifferent, "that's not my problem" should not be in any customer service rep's vocabulary. A self-described "computer guy," Bill used to recommend Dell when people asked what kind of computer to get. After this experience, detailed more fully on his blog, no longer. Now he recommends Lenovo, and buying your batteries on Amazon.

Dell Laptop Battery Support Problems [Bits From Bill] (Thanks to Catherine!) (Photo: Ben Popken)

Michael Dell 'Friends' his customers [FORTUNE]

Elizabeth's story is just one of the many examples showing that piss-poor customer service can directly lead to lost business.

It has been over 3 weeks since I ordered a set of windows XP replacement cds, and still no sign of them. I ordered the disks using the form on dell.com and received an email saying that the disks would be sent to me in 3-5 business days. When I had not received the disks after over a week of waiting, I checked my account information on dell.com, hoping to find some answers. It was clear that the customer service rep never read the original form that I submitted and sent the disks to the "original shipping address" instead of the "current shipping address".

I replied to the original confirmation email (as the email told me to do if I had a problem) and explained the situation. I received what was obviously a form letter in reply saying that the situation would be corrected and that they would send out a new set of disks the following day. After waiting a few days for the "order info" to appear in my account information on dell.com, I was shocked to see that the disks had AGAIN been sent to the wrong address.

This time I tried calling customer service directly. After being on the phone for nearly an hour being transferred to a series of people whose English was barely intelligible , I was finally connected to a rep who said that because the package had not yet been picked up by DHL that he would personally contact DHL and change the shipping address on the package. He also stated that I would receive a confirmation email that same afternoon with the case number of my problem and all of the relevant shipping information.

By the next day I still had not received any confirmation email. My dell.com information still had the incorrect shipping address. Likewise using the DHL tracking number provided on the dell.com order info page, I saw that DHL still had the incorrect shipping address listed.

I called customer service again and was told that I had to be transferred to the technical support department to solve the problem. While I was on hold, the voice recording over the hold music told me to "have my credit card ready" so that technical support would be able to charge me for talking to them. I immediately hung up when I heard this. There was no way that I was now going to pay to talk to technical support about a shipping issue for a supposedly free set of disks.

I called customer service back immediately and was connected to a different representative who said that he would indeed be able to help me. He pulled up my file and said that he saw I had called the previous day and that the agent I had spoken to had contacted DHL and had changed the shipping address. The representative was quite rude and treated me like I was crazy for calling to confirm what I had been told the previous day. When I asked why I had not received a confirmation email about this (as the rep the previous day had promised), I was told that between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon Dell had changed their policy and that they were not allowed to email me a copy of my case number and complaint information nor could they even tell me the case number over the phone. I was however promised by this rep that the disks would arrive on Tuesday.

Tuesday came and no disks. I received an email stating that my order had been "resolved and closed" because the package had been delivered. Magically, they now included the case number in the email, the case number that on Saturday I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to know due to their "policy". The Dell representatives had blatantly lied to me.

I checked the DHL.com tracking information. The disks had been delivered alright...AGAIN at the incorrect address. I called DHL directly and asked them if they had ever received any request from Dell to change my shipping information. Of course, they had not. The Dell representatives had blatantly lied to me about this as well.

I called customer service for a third time and explained the entire situation again. I told the rep that I had just gotten off the phone with DHL and that even though her computer said that Dell had contacted them about the shipping change, DHL had no knowledge of this. All she could tell me was that because the order had technically been delivered, the only way to receive the disks was to start the request process from scratch. I did so. So here I am Friday, sitting here still waiting for the disks to arrive knowing that some poor soul at my old college dorm has now received two sets of windows XP disks and is probably wondering what the heck is going on.

There is currently no information regarding this third order on my dell.com account info page. At this point, I just want to see if Dell will EVER be able to send the disks to me. Thank goodness all I had ordered were a set of free disks, imagine if this had been done with a full computer system.

This was not my first horror story with Dell customer service, but it will certainly be my last. I am currently typing this on my shiny MacBook. The final selling point for me was that there is a physical Apple store nearby that's open 24/7 - 365 days a year with customer service reps that I can look in the eye. Then if they lie to me, at least they have to do it to my face. ;)

Welcome, Elizabeth, to a new, better world.

(Photo: Getty)

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Reader Nyck1118 says:

Just received this today. I giant box...on a pallet sent via a freight truck (not UPS or Fedex) a freight truck.

Contained inside: One 8 lb server rack shelf.

We asked Nyck if he was serious. Just a shelf? On a pallet?

That's all that was in it. We were amazed, one of our techs actually fit in the box himself and hes a large guy.

As for Dell, I purchased a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop last January. A few weeks ago, the CD/DVD drive stopped working. I called Dell, and spent a long time on the phone with someone who tried to instruct me how to remove the drive. I could not do it, and they sent me a DSL return box to send them the computer back.

On Friday I missed the delivery. Today, though, I stayed home to wait for it till it arrived at 2:30 PM. There was a note with the computer stating that the drive was out of stock, that it would not be in stock for 2 or three days, and that they would be sending me one. I could install it myself, according to the note. Oddly, I'd sent them the computer precisely so I wouldn't have to do that.

What on earth is going on with a company that accepts returns, doesn't fix them, and then tells you we'll send you the parts and you can fix it yourself? Is there anyone I could contact who could actually help me rather than explaining all the things they can't do for me? It seems to me they broke the contract by failing to honor the warranty, and I've wasted a great deal contacting various useless employees who seem to be reading from cue cards. I'm thinking of taking them to small claims court and filing complaints with the BBB, but I don't even know who to name, and I'd really appreciate your advice. While I really like computers, the most I ever open them up is never.

If Dell won't replace the drive, ask the higher-ups for an explanation. Alternatively, you can always pay a tech-savvy neighborhood kid with candy to help remove and replace the drive to get around Dell's apparent incompetence.

(Photo: The Consumerist)

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An anonymous reader sent the photo in after they ordered a shipment of 50 CMOS batteries from Dell in an attempt to save time and money by asking for "fifty spare batteries instead of having them delivered individually." This is what they got, a big box with 50 smaller boxes inside.

Packing Done Right [Daily WTF] (Thanks, Everyone!)

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Long time reader; first time submitter. Going for greenlight! ;D

We ordered a pair of keyboard covers 'condoms' for one of our CNC machine PCs. The CNC has a habit of throwing aluminum strips around and getting stuck in the keyboard at the workstation next to it.

While Dell made with fast shipping from Texas in 2 days, they made the glaring mistake of excessively overpackaging the 2 items that weigh less than a few grams.

It bothers me to think of how many other items could have been shipped via Plane/UPS truck. With gas and the economy the way it is now, this is really over the top and quite unnecessary.

Edit: Items were 14.99 per - The shipping cost $16.00?!

Bravo Dell

Sixxtwo

The stupid shipping gang triumphs once again! Is there no stopping this wasteful bunch? Will common sense ever catch up to the stupid shipping gang? Stay tuned for more exciting episodes.

Stupid Shipping Gang: New Dell Version 7-10-08 [Consumerist Forums]

Meet Dennis Hallet and his wife, Sandra. "In thirty years I've never crossed up bills. I managed to send Dell my AT&T check and I sent AT&T my Dell check," Sandra told CBS 13.

Dell cashed the check made out to AT&T and applied the $235.00 toward Sandra's balance. AT&T cashed the $1138.33 check made out to Dell and applied the entire thing to the Hallet's phone bill. This left them with a credit of $903.33.

Meanwhile, interest was piling up on her Dell account. When she called AT&T to see about getting her money back, they told her it was her fault they cashed a check made out to another company and told her they'd give her money back in two months.

CBS13 called and got AT&T to apologize and refund part of the money in 7 days— with July's bill deducted. When asked why they cashed a check made out to another company, AT&T had no answer, so if you're mailing a couple bills at the same time — make sure you put the checks in the correct envelopes and save yourself a huge headache.

Call Kurtis: Check Switcharoo [CBS13]
(Photo: jetsetpress )

Normally I avoid Walmart like the plague, but having just moved I am skint (broke, out of money, impoverished). My computer monitor was broken (cracked, actually) sometime in the process of moving residences, and I needed a replacement ASAP. So I was price comparing online, and the Dell SE198WFP seemed like a nice enough deal.

Walmart advertises the SE198WFP for $188.72 on their website, and the site also says it's in stock at my local store. **The website also specifically says "Not Sold Online."**

Well, we get to the Walmart in Okemos, Michigan and find the monitor. It is tagged as $198.00, $10 more than the price as listed online. I grab the girl at the electronics counter (as she sighs because I am interrupting her text messaging), and inform her I need a monitor. At this point I am assuming this is a non-issue, and they will happily give me the web advertised price. Not so.

As she is unlocking the monitor from its electronic alarm, I mention the price discrepancy. She now has a sour look on her face and says she can't sell it to me for that price. But I read The Consumerist every single day. I felt bad enough shopping at Walmart to begin with, I wasn't going to let them get away with this.

I point out that advertising one price to lure customers into the store and then trying to charge another higher price is tantamount to false advertising. She says there is nothing she can do (lies!), and I need to talk to a manager. I ask for a manager.

Well, she walks away and ostensibly calls a manager with the issue. We wait for around five minutes, and the girl comes back. I get some more information, but the manager never appears.

She proceeds to tell me that when a product is sold out online, the website says "Not Sold Online," but they can't "comp" themselves. She then informs me she dealt with this same issue earlier in the day; someone wanted to buy a computer advertised online for $50 less than the store had it listed for. She continued with this talk of not being able to "comp" themselves, and how even though the website says "not sold online," lists a price, and informs you of your local stores stock status, that the price isn't actually valid.

I wasn't having it. I asked point blank, "so you are unwavering on the issue?" She says yes.

My response is simple. I tell her that it was unacceptable for a corporately controlled chain to lure customers into their stores with no intent to honor prices advertised by that very same corporation. Furthermore I tell her to do so is illegal in the state of Michigan (it is). I go on to say that if they were insistent, I was left with a specific course of action. I would file with the state AG office, file with the BBB (even though it does nothing), call exec.. cu... tive... I am cut off mid-sentence. That's all she needed to hear.

In a huff, she unlocks the monitor, takes it to the counter, and rings me up at the web advertised price without so much as a call to her manager. Apparently they can "comp" themselves.

What concerns me is not a measly $10. What concerns me is that, as she evidenced, this happens often. How many customers are going to brick and mortar stores to pick up items advertised online, only to find prices markedly higher than advertised? And how many of those customers cave in, not being aggressive about their rights as a consumer?

-F Scott

We hear about this sort of thing often. Some general advice: Some stores have mouse-print on their websites that specifically excuse themselves from having to price match their own websites. If you're going to try to get them to price match, make sure to bring a printout of the website with you, as some retailers have a habit of trying to skirt the issue by tricking you into thinking that the "sale ended while you were in the car."

As far as Walmart.com goes, "not sold online" is a very misleading way to say "out of stock." You were correct to demand the "not sold online" price. We're so proud!

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So my friend was complaining to me about how her Dell monitor finally died at the 2-year, 2-day mark (you know, right after the warranty runs out?) and so she called Dell to see if they would help her out. Of course, they are under no obligation to honor an expired warranty, but they did helpfully offer to perform an online service call. My friend (and I) questioned how they would be able to remotely repair a computer MONITOR, but the CSR assured her that they could just "boost the card." Since that meant nothing to my friend, and she didn't want to pay the $40 for them to attempt to repair what is essentially now a piece of office furniture and not a functioning computer, she declined. But not before checking to see if that $40 would be refunded of Dell wasn't able to actually reach through the phone lines or the broadband connection and fix the monitor. Of course not.

Have you ever heard of such a thing? What kind of wormhole does Dell have set up that they can repair a monitor over the phone or Internet? Can they also do a lobotomy? Is it even legal to offer this kind of service when it is clearly impossible?

Thanks,
Robin

We're going to toss this one out to the crowd because "boost the card" doesn't mean anything to us, either. Any explanations?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

Before we get to the typical bad-company shenanigans—in this case, Dell's $599 discount mysteriously shrank to $400 between when he placed it in his shopping cart and when he reached the confirmation screen—we want to share this bit of ridiculousness. Dell's CSR Vanessa gives us the scoop on Dell's sophisticated order fulfillment system:

Jack: Can you look at sales history today and verify whether you sold this system at $599 off today? This was to be my third dell purchase, now I will not purchase again!
ATG Vanessa: There isn't a cart history unfortunately.
Jack: Sales history! Actual people who purchased this system today!
ATG Vanessa: We don't keep record of that.
Jack: You're telling me dell does not know what it has sold today?
ATG Vanessa: Remember this is done online and there's some confidential information we usually erase to protect customers.
Jack: Like what computers you have to build?
ATG Vanessa: So no, there isn't a record where you can see how much have been sold.
Jack: How do you know what you have to ship?
ATG Vanessa: It depends on what we have available at the moment.

Aside from that nonsense, the problem here is that Dell enticed Jack with a weird bait-and-switch, and worse still, they snuck it in at the very last moment before he hit submit.

I had found a link for an XPS system that had a $599 instant savings. I configured my system and added it to the cart and the $599 savings still was applied. I chose to then apply for financing beacuse there was no payments for 12 months. Once I was approved, i proceeded to checkout. Once I reached the confirmation page to submit my order I saw that the price had risen by $200.00 when I went back to check what happened the instant savings had dropped to $400. Confused I then initiated a live chat which led to nothing.

---

ATG Vanessa: Thanks for holding, I have checked and the instant savings changed. Please be aware that configuration, pricing, tax, shipping & handling and monthly payment information that appears in your cart is estimated and presented for your convenience only, and is subject to change without notice.

Not only was Vanessa less than helpful, but she was pretty apathetic at the end, too:

Jack: Well dell just lost a customer.
ATG Vanessa: Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?

Umm, no.

(Photo of computers: Extra Ketchup)

In addition, the judge also found that Dell Financial Services "has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and improper debt collection practices."

NY's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, sued Dell and Dell Financial Services for depriving consumers of the technical support they were entitled to under their warranty or service contract by:

• repeatedly failing to provide consumers who purchased service contracts promising “onsite” and expedited service with timely onsite repair;

• for pressuring consumers, including those who purchased service contracts promising “next day onsite” repair, to remove the external cover of their computer and remove, reinstall, and manipulate hardware components;
• discouraging consumers from seeking technical support; those who called Dell’s toll free number were subjected to long wait times, repeated transfers, and frequent disconnections;
• for using defective “refurbished” parts or computers to repair or replace consumers’ equipment.

The lawsuit also accused Dell's financing operation of luring customers into high interest rate financing deals by using a "bait-and-switch" tactic. Dell advertised "no interest" or "no payment" financing, but according to the lawsuit, "the vast majority of consumers, even those with very good credit scores, were denied these deals. "

In addition, the lawsuit also alleged that Dell incorrectly billed customers on canceled orders, returned merchandise or on accounts that were fraudulently opened. The AG's office says that "Although many consumers repeatedly contacted Dell and/or DFS to advise them of the errors, DFS did not suspend its collection activity and Dell failed to expeditiously credit consumers’ accounts, even after assuring consumers it would do so. As a result, many consumers have been subjected to harassing collection calls for months on end and have had their credit ratings harmed."

For more information about how this lawsuit affects Dell customers in New York state, please click here. According to the Wall Street Journal, Dell has no comment at this time.

Decision and Order in NY vs Dell (PDF)[NY AG]

PREVIOUSLY: Help New York Sue Dell By Filling This Complaint Trough
NY Sues Dell For So-Called "Award-Winning Service"

April 7th - Top-of-the-line XPS Computer dies. Last words - "Hard drive failure." Fortunately for me, I have the Dell Super Duper You-Should-Never-Have-to-Worry-or-Suffer-Needlessly extended warranty plan. I feel confident in the personal guaranty I get from Dell.

April 8th - Called Dell support and say that the computer fails to boot. "I think it is hard drive failure, because the computer gasped with its dying breath, 'Hard drive failure.'"

Dell's response: "We think it is a Windows issue. Reinstall Windows and it will work fine." It does not.

April 9th - Marathon SIX HOUR call with Dell support during which time we uninstall and reinstall Windows, erase and replace the BIOS, unpartition and repartition the hard drives (several times), and perform all manner of terrible remedies to the computer in hopes of reviving it. None work.

Before we begin applying the electronic version of leeches to the XPS, the Dell support person asks, "We will have to erase the hard drive, is that ok?"

"No problem," say I. "I have all my information backed up on this external hard drive. As long as no one touches the external hard drive*, everything will be fine."

"I think it is the motherboard," says Dell support eventually. "We will send a technician out. You should receive a call from the technician within 48 hours."

The technician never calls. *ominous foreshadowing

April 10th through April 17th - Wait for technician to call. Emailed Dell Support several times with issue number and nice little note asking about the technician call. None of the emails responded to.

Used Dell Support Chat a couple of times from work and get runaround about how much they want to help, but unless I am sitting by the broken computer, pulling my hair our in frustration when they ask me to reinstall Windows one more time, there really isn't anything they can do.

April 18th - Talk to Dell support chat on my laptop while sitting in front of my broken computer. Dell says, "Oh, you are using the wrong Windows installation disc, the wrong Dell support disc, and the wrong Dell diagnostic disc. We will send you the right ones." They send me the wrong ones.

Specifically, they send me the Dell diagnostic discs for their bottom-tier laptops instead of their top-tier XPS desk tops so none of the drivers on the disc work. AND Dell sends a French-language Windows installer disc, apparently because they want to reward me by giving me the opportunity to learn a new language.

May 9th - Long, involved, multi-hour chat session with Dell support. Dell support person says that yes indeed , they sent the wrong discs and they can try to send the right discs again to me.

Logic dictates that if they just try enough times, eventually they might correctly address my problem once, right? Sadly, I am past the point of logic.

I express a level of frustration and contempt that gets me transferred to a supervisor. Dell supervisor tells me that I might have been right after all and that it probably isn't a software issue. They agree to send out a technician.

May 13th - Dell technician comes out to the house. (I was at work and my wife was supervising the technician. He assured her several times, "I know what I'm doing.") Doesn't replace hard dives properly. Somehow, my 300GB hard drives gets magically replaced with a 150GB hard drive.

Also, the technician decides to plug in the external hard drive, the one I use as a backup into the computer and format it.

Apparently Dell technicians are NOT trained on the fact that FORMATTING A BACKUP DRIVE DESTROYS ALL OF THE BACKUP DATA ON IT.

May 16th - Dell support tells me that, yes, a Dell technician came into my house and effectively deleted about three years' worth of data. All the personal data. All the professional data. All of those iTunes files I paid for and backed up so that money wouldn't be wasted.

Everything. Now gone.

But somehow, thanks to the power of corporate magic Dell is not really responsible for this. They owe me nothing for my time and my grief and while they are very sorry for the fact I am effectively up the creek without a paddle, AND while they pretty much admit that they pointed me to this particular creek and then stole my paddle, I'm really on my own here.

So... um... that's my customer experience with Dell. I drop a large chunk of change and buy their top-tier computer and then pay extra for their top-tier customer and technical support and am rewarded by having my external back up hard drive erased.

Thank you Dell for taking all my money and then repeatedly kicking me in the virtual nutsack because it amuses you so. Thank you Dell for making me angry enough to blog about what a craptacular waste of time and money your entire support network is.

But mostly Dell, thank you for giving me a story to share with each and every person I know who comes to me and asks what kind of computer they should buy. Because I plan on sharing this story with as many people as possible for years to come.

Wow. As if we needed another reason to hate Dell, we can't imagine why the tech would mount an external hard drive and format it with blatant disregard to its contents. We're not sure what all of your lost time and data is worth, Robert, but we would really like to see Dell try to make this right.

Two Fridays ago I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against Dell because they ignored my repeated cries to please remove me from their catalog mailing list, and today I got this following message from Dell's corporate office (listen here). The nice lady says she located my address and is removing it from their system. This is redundant as some other Dell execs say they've finally got my address removed but it does show that filing a BBB complaint does work for getting Dell to promise to stop sending you junk mail (we'll have to see what the mail man brings, or rather, doesn't bring, to know whether it worked completely). Here's where you can go to easily file one online.

(Photo: What Rhymes With Nicole)

Bad
Service
Crap
Boring
Annoying
Broken
Cheap
Dull
Hell
India
Junk
Lame
Old and
Shit

...and then of course Comcast:
Bad Service
Assholes
Bastards
Big
Boring
Broken Bullshit
Cable
Comcastic
Craptastic
Crap
Evil
Overpriced
Monopoly
Ripoff
Slow
Sucks
TV and
Ugh

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you think of Sprint?

BrandTags [via BuzzFeed ]

UPDATE: After drafting this post, I re-emailed the Dell execs who said they would help me. One of them wrote back to say that these May catalogs are the last I will get. He says that I spoke with him back in March, they had already missed the May cuttoff because they process the files far in advance. We'll see what the mailman brings next month.

I am a faithful - *religiously* devoted - reader of your blog (but not in a creepy way), and a huge supporter of your customer-focused stance. I've emailed your articles to friends, family members and strangers.

Unfortunately, I'm writing you today with my own customer service nightmare. I'd like to call it: (cue ominous music)

DELL MAKES PROMISES IT CAN'T KEEP, CHEATS CUSTOMER OUT OF $70, CHASES SAID CUSTOMER INTO THE ARMS OF STEVE JOBS

(Okay, that's not very punchy... but Dell cheated me out of 70 bucks, and I'm too mad to make a snappy title)

So here's the SHORT VERSION:

I'm a Mac and PC user, and recently had to buy a new computer. Solely based on price, I decided to buy a Dell on 01/31/08 - it was on sale, and they had a nifty promotion for a $70 gift card to be mailed to you with your purchase. (I think you can guess what the problem is going to be...)

It's been 3 and a half months, and I NEVER GOT that $70 gift card. I called their customer service three times:

#1 03/30/08: Spoke to a supervisor, who asked me to PROVE THAT I QUALIFIED for the gift card. I forwarded him my confirmation email (with the gift card listed in the order), and he said he'd have a supervisor call me back, no one called me back

#2 around 04/15/08: Spoke to "Anne" who said she'd have a supervisor call me back, hung up on me, no one called me back

#3 05/05/08: Spoke to nameless CSR who said that all the $70 gift cards were all sent out and if I hadn't received one - TOO BAD - they were all out. Nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor, she refused to connect me, said he'd call me back, no one called me back

During the three calls, the CSRs were rude, obstinate, uninformed and, of course, unhelpful. Can I mention again that each time a CSR promised that someone would call me back, and I have yet to receive a phone call from anyone at Dell?

So... Now I'm at the point where I am being a good Consumerist reader and sending Dell an EECB. And I want to share my story with you - considering, also, that I must not be the only one Dell cheated out of the promotion. I mean, we all know how horrible their customer service is - but I didn't know that they blatantly lied to their customers to boot. BUY A MAC!

Julia wrote back today to tell us that her EECB has been ignored and she's heard nothing back from Dell. Is she the only one who is having this problem?

Any advice for Julia? She could report Dell to her state's attorney general for not living up to their advertised agreement. What do you think?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

UPDATE:

I have an update on my case - Dell will be issuing me a credit of $70 back to my credit card. (!)

I actually had two interactions with Dell, seemingly unrelated:

Geoff [Ed.— He's a helpful Dell guy who reads the blog.] got back to me, and told me he would be taking care of my issue

Before he could do that, a woman named Anne called me me from their "Customer Resolutions Center". She was the one who promised me that she would be crediting my acct., and that she will follow up Mon. or Tues. It seems that she was following up on my EECB, as she and Geoff did not know anything about each other.

Anyway... Yay for Consumerist and the mighty EECB!

The EECB is magical, is it not?

PREVIOUSLY: Dell Won't Stop Sending Me Catalogs So I'm Burning Them

Would you like to contact the same "dedicated" team of customer service reps every time you call? Would you like those reps to be "empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues?" Would you like those reps to be "based in North America?" All this can be yours, if you're willing to pay extra for it.

From Dell's press release (emphasis ours):

Dell's new premium support service is to provide a dedicated team of technical professionals which customers can contact directly for support of any Dell-branded product. This new fee-based offering is designed specifically for those customers who want to engage with the same dedicated team each time they have an issue with any of their in-warranty Dell-branded products.

The premium service offer provides household support by an advanced support team in North America for one year. The technicians are empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues across the breadth of Dell's product line.

"Our commitment to a great customer experience has never been stronger," said Ray Roman, vice president Dell global consumer services and support. . "This premium service is all about making the tech support experience more personal; users who want high-touch support can now receive it. We're excited to bring them to the market."

You: "Can I speak to your supervisor?"
Dell: "Ha, ha, ha! That'll cost you."

Dell's New Premium Support and Integration Services Build on Existing Tools and Improvements for Consumers (Press Release) [Dell] (Thanks, Beecher Bowers!)
(Photo:fallenposters)

David writes:

Recently, my son Justin and I both ordered Kingston 2GB USB "thumb" drives from Dell after seeing it mentioned on slickdeals.net. My son's arrived a few days before mine, and he told me that when the delivery guy handed him the box, he asked if there was anything actually in the box because it was so light. I didn't see the packaging myself until my drive arrived the other day. I asked my other son Brett, a budding photographer, to document the "unboxing" this time.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

PREVIOUSLY: Dell: Let's Ship Tiny CDs In Massive Boxes!

Andrea eventually shipped the laptop to Dell so they could repair Joel's damage. Sadly, they forgot to repair her headphone jack.

Andrea writes:

I was just reading the story about the pubic hair laptop, and I have my own story about Dell!

Since I bought my Dell Inspiron 9100 in fall 2004, it has had so many problems, making my extended accident insurance totally worthwhile! My charger died after about a year, they replaced it after 3 hours on the phone, and that one died shortly after, which was also replaced. I reformatted the summer after college, and my Wifi quit working. I spent hours on the phone with a multitude of different techs and the last one realized the cd they'd sent me wasn't for a different wireless card. But the worst thing to go wrong was my computer's fans. Being an overzealous first-time computer buyer, I didn't realize what a GIANT this laptop is. After just a few minutes on, it heats up fiery-hot and kicks on the jet-engine fans. And after a few months, the headphone jack attached to one of the scorching fans stopped working.

So I called Dell. Over, and over, and over. Keep in mind this was in 2005. Every tech had their own idea what to do, and many of them spoke almost no English, so it usually took at least 2 hours just to explain what was wrong. Don't get me wrong, they were courteous and they wanted to help, but they just couldn't understand me. Finally, in fall 2006, someone decided to do something about it. They offered to send someone out to replace my motherboard, or ship it off to Dell somewhere. I couldn't afford to not have my computer for a week, so I opted for the Dell technician. Oh jeez was I stupid.

The next day, a gentleman named Joel called to schedule my appointment. He arrived at the scheduled time and went to work. I was alarmed by the overwhelming scent of ALCOHOL and cigarettes on him, but too polite to say anything, I let him do it. Except, he forgot his tools in the truck. He returned 5 minutes later reeking more strongly, but ready to fix my computer. I watched him take out all the parts, gently. My IT boyfriend came over around then, and we sat watching videos and watching Joel. After removing my motherboard, he started replacing parts. Except, they didn't fit. What to do?? GET OUT A HAMMER AND HAMMER IT BACK IN!!?? Oh yes, he did. With my LCD monitor attached.

When completed, there were a few problems. The frame around my monitor was cracked through, and there were 2 nail holes coming up through the wrist rest area and frame of the keyboard. I pointed them out to Joel [the destroyer] and he said 'Yeah, I thought that was weird when I got here'. He asked if it was working now and I said yes(like I was going to say no and have him touch my poor laptop again!) When I lift up my laptop, there was a neat little pile of the bits of plastic he had broken off.

I called Dell right after this and the tech I got was pretty indifferent. After 3 hours, they said they'd send out a different Dell Service Technician to fix the problem. Guess who called? You're right, JOEL! I didn't answer his call. So I called Dell again, and said no, not Joel. I had to explain the damage to this technician too, which despite showing them pictures still took 3 more hours, they put in another service order. It was Joel, AGAIN! This time, he showed up AT MY HOUSE, WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT. He called me 5 times that day, each time leaving angrier and angrier messages about where am I? The only reason I didn't call the cops was because I had just moved and this creepy freaking guy outside my house all day didn't know that I no longer lived there. He had been calling me on his cell phone, so I had no idea what company he worked for or what I was supposed to do. I asked Dell. They told me if I wanted someone else, I would have to call the company. So I did. I complained about him and demanded another technician. And they said he is the only Tech in the area, so it's him or nothing. So I decided maybe losing my laptop for a week wouldn't be the worst thing ever. I am still pissed that his company felt too good to give me an apology. If you live in Madison, WI, beware of JOEL!!

Dell shipped it out and back in 4 days to replace the cracked frame, nailed wrist rest and keyboard frame, and motherboard. Keep in mind the WHOLE POINT was to fix my HEADPHONE JACK. Everything came back all pretty except the jack was STILL BROKEN. AND the computer overheats and shuts down now! I called Dell, again. They stayed on the line with me for hours AGAIN. And FINALLY I got someone who knew something about my laptop!!! Dana shipped me a replacement fan, which was also a replacement headphone jack, and TADA! After 2 years, my headphone jack worked! Now, if my warranty hadn't expired, I could get my computer to stop trying to start on fire, and then shut down! It is completely worthless if I want to use it for longer than 5 minutes.

I attached 3 of the most obvious photos of what was damaged when he hammered my computer. The first is of the cracked LCD frame, the 2nd the weird dent from hammering a screw into the wrist rest, and the 3rd the completely drilled through keyboard frame. And in Dell's defense, my boyfriend got me a Latitude C640 from 2002 they were throwing out at his work and it's wonderful. It is portable, reasonably fast, and doesn't overheat, even after 6 years of use.

It is amazing how good it feels to vent that to someone who could benefit from my experience! Thanks for this opportunity, Consumerist!

Tom said he "tried to control all the variables: Same date/time, same browser, same external IP address, same Dell login, same navigation process (Dell.com>Small Business Desktops>Dell Deals) & (Dell.com>Small Business Desktops>Vostro), and exact same visible URLs." Here are screenshots from the Dell Deals page: as you can see (with some squinting), there is a sizable difference between the dual-panel Vostro system. Computer 1:
Computer 2:

Next, Tom tried to check the price on the dedicated Vostro page. Again, the prices were different. Computer 1:

Computer 2:

Pretty bizarre. Do any of our helpful Dell-employed readers have an explanation for this?

Charter Cable: gets all-around poor marks for quality of service, customer service, and technical support. They're on the record as admitting to blatantly lying to their customers. One time they irrevocably deleted 14,000 customer's email accounts, including all their emails, even the ones that you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the secret message. Whoops.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Dell vs Home Depot,
Sears vs Citibank, Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx, Mattel vs ATT, Capital One vs Video Professor, eBay/Paypal vs COX, Apple vs SallieMae, Diebold Vs Pfizer, MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon,
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers, Starbucks vs United Airlines,
Exxon vs Crocs, Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods

Home Depot: Got rid of all the nice retired electricians and plumbers on its floor staff and replaced them with surly low-paid workers who didn't know a brick from a brace, and didn't care. They let their in-home installation business line be contracted out to incompetent unprofessional local contractors and then didn't hold those teams accountable when egregious mistakes were made and seemed to make it a policy to, at the store level, ignore customers who complained. Perhaps because these were the same guys whose business Home Depot was trying to attract by focusing on the lucrative contracting and construction industries.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Sears vs Citibank, Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx, Mattel vs ATT, Capital One vs Video Professor, eBay/Paypal vs COX, Apple vs SallieMae, Diebold Vs Pfizer, MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon,
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers, Starbucks vs United Airlines,
Exxon vs Crocs, Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods

So I rarely resort to complaints as I think I am an easygoing consumer, but this time Dell went over the line. Maybe I just needed to write this email to vent, but I think it may be worth a post on your site...

Recently my 1 year old Dell laptop stopped charging the battery, so I called technical support (still under 3 year warranty) to try to resolve the issue. The technician recommended trying to plug another Dell power adapter into the laptop to see if this was the problem, and surprisingly it worked - problem solved...send me a new power adapter and I'll be on my way.

Unfortunately here things took bad turn. The technician thought that it would be a good idea to try the faulty power adapter in my other Dell laptop just to confirm that this was the problem. I told him that this laptop was no longer under warranty and that I didn't really want to mess with anything else since we had already resolved the issue. He said that we had to confirm this before he could authorize a new adapter being sent to me. So I plug it in and ZAP! Burning smell, and my old laptop was fried - nothing could revive it. At this point I was worried the technician would hang up, but to their credit they stayed on the line and after about an hour finally agreed to replace my old laptop. At this point, I was rather satisfied despite all of the problems - I was getting a new replacement for my old laptop.

About a week later, I get my "new" Dell laptop. I open the case, and the instruction manual is bent out of shape, and I start to worry. I reach the bottom of the box, pull out the laptop, and first thing I see is the top is covered in scratches. Some people may say that I should be happy since I was getting a newer model laptop to replace an old laptop with no warranty. My old laptop, however, was in great condition. When I opened up the new laptop, I saw the screen was scratched and dirty, and the keyboard was covered in debris. Wait, not debris....what is that? HAIRS!? Not just any hairs - these could only be described as pubes. I hate to be so crude, but pubes are pubes. Not the incidental curly hair, but rather mini-tufts between the keys. My only guess is that Ron Jeremy was the previous owner. At this point, I called Dell back, and I have written this email in between talking to 3 different people and over an hour of hold time. Nobody wants to help, and I'm reached the limits of my tolerance for poor service.

At this point, I'm considering 3 options:

1. Vacuum it, douse it in alcohol, and just try to use it and forget about "the hedgehog"

2. Sell it and buy a new laptop

3. Go to the gym, run 3 miles, trim body hair directly over the keyboard, send laptop back to dell (this is the cleaned up version)

Any other ideas?

("Free Human Hair" Photo: Kevin Dean)

She recently sent us the Executive Email Carpet Bomb she lobbed towards Dell's headquarters:

To: tips@consumerist.com
Cc: michael_dell@dell.com, donald_carty@dell.com, ronald_garriques@dell.com, michael_cannon@dell.com, mark_jarvis@dell.com, lawrence_tu@dell.com, susan_sheskey@dell.com, andrew_esparza@dell.com, paul_bell@dell.com, stephen_felice@dell.com, david_marmonti@dell.com, brad_anderson@dell.com, jeffrey_clarke@dell.com, martin_garvin@dell.com, alex_gruzen@dell.com, joan_hooper@dell.com, william_gray@dell.com

Good Morning,
This is my last resort. I am writing today to share with you a problem that has become so excessive over the last eight months that I no longer know what to do with it. I have given up the idea of ever having a Dell hassle-free life so I am just trying to live mine by minimizing their interruptions in my day to day life. Here is my story:

I am not a Dell customer. I DO NOT OWN ANY DELL PRODUCTS (AND I NEVER WILL). I got a new job last July and for my job I inherited a very important phone number that all of my clients have used for the past seven years. I work for an extremely small non-profit (i.e. I am the only paid employee) and I work with youth and their families. I have 30 families who move around often and the only way we keep in contact is through this stable phone number so changing my number was not and option.

In August 2007 I started receiving calls from the Dell collection center in India. The calls were not for me or my job, they were for the man who previously had my job and phone number. He linked his personal Dell account to his then work phone number. The first ten times Dell called I gave them the previous employee's new phone number and asked them to remove my number from that account as it was no longer current... But the calls kept coming....

Steps I have taken to avoid hearing from Dell:

1) I notified the person they were trying to reach. I had him call and change his contact information. He did that and Dell assured him the problem was solved and that they would not call me again. But the calls kept coming...

2) I had 6 lengthy conversations with supervisors at the Dell Call Center in India. Sometimes they would give me a badge number, recording ID, their name and one time in a thick Indian accent I was told I was speaking with a "Michelle Woodward" for the record. Dell promised the problem was solved and that they would not call me again. But the calls kept coming...

3) I called the customer service line on Dell's website. Since I am not a Dell customer and I don't even know what item they want me to pay for that I do not own, it was a long and frustrating call. In the end Dell assured me the problem was solved and that they would not call me again. But the calls kept coming...

Now, 8 months later, Dell calls my work phone up to three times daily. I finally bought a new phone (but I can't change the number because I need it to do my job) just so I could set it to ring silently when Dell calls. I try to ignore the calls the best I can, but recently the calls have started coming from local DC numbers as well as the Indian 800 number. I am sometimes fooled into answering the local calls only to find that I am again on the phone with a company where I am not a customer.

Now I understand that people must lie and give fake phone numbers to dodge paying for their stuff. I am sympathetic to a point about how hard it must be to streamline a system. But I have done everything in my power to point Dell in the right direction, but they refuse to take my number out of the system. Dell you don't want me. Please leave me alone.

Finally someone suggested that I write to consumerist. I saw the Dell executive emails on your site, so I will be CCing this email to them as well. All of them. We will see if they respond. Maybe I will start calling them three times a day.

Sincerely,
Dell's used up call girl
Kat

Except as provided in section 1692b of this title, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer, his attorney,