Dell - STAY AWAY

peter_green · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 1

Purchased a dell axim x3 navigation system from them, port at the bottom broke within 12 months, they do nto want to know about it and their serivce is in India so it is like talking to a BRICK WALL

Tim Buxton · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject:

Ha, reminds me of my own Dell, on which I'm typing this. It's just over a year old and the DVD RW has given up. I tried their email support which I think is also India-based. The nice man, after two email exchanges, advised me that the DVD RW had gone bad!
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Tim

tomo1340 · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:05 am Post subject:

DON'T get me started on Dell! I bought my girlfriend a Dell laptop at what seemed like a good price for a good deal. They emailed a delivery date and I took the day off work (it was a birthday suprise) and it never turned up! Emailed to find out what was going on and was given another delivery date and the same happened again! This time I rang them and got the indian call centre only to be told that the particular product I wanted was a clearence item and had been cleared within 10 minutes of the deal going on line ("vee are very popular sir!")
I tried to explain that they shouldn't of had the deal still on and take money from credit cards if they can't make good with the goods. This was met with a pathetic statement of how it was MY fault as I should have known they would sell out fast, it was obviously an on screen q card he was reading. I asked for a manager to talk to me "very sorry sir, all managers busy" so I tried getting the idiot to offer a realistic solution as so far he had refused to refund me and was trying to sell me on a laptop costing £200 more! I told him I would certainly take the laptop he was offering but at the price I had already paid. He insisted he did not know what I meant, this went on for a further 20 mins before I lost it! I said I was very sorry and I understood he had a job to do but his slipping grasp on the English language was preventing him from obtaining satisfaction from his customers, ie ME. I told him I can't speak hindi, but I don't have a job where speaking hindi is essential and to either transfer me to someone who can speak good english and resolve my problem or refund me my money and the interest they have earned on it for the last 40 days, one or the other or I was going to take legal action to recover my money. He took my number and I was called by a nice woman from Ireland who upgraded my Laptop and chucked in an all in one printer/scanner jobby and I didn't have to pay any extra.

I have nothing against these unfortunate people in India who in desperation to make ends meet take jobs where good English is needed, however we all have folk in our towns who need jobs and have nowhere to live who would be able to understand you and sort your problems out, and sort their own problems out in the process. Of course we will always have the dickheads who don't want jobs and are happy to sponge off the rest of us but thats another story.

Something needs to be done with all these call centres in India, it's not fair on the poor

who have to deal with people like me who get more and more irate with not being understood, and it's not fair on the customers.

bitching session over! :D I hope I haven't offended anyone.

neil01 · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:02 pm Post subject:

I am having great difficulty keeping my soap box under wraps - just to say that a mate complained once and was accused of being racist - he blew his top - in that particular case local knowledge was required, and a call centre in Bristol would have been useless (unless the person knew the Cheltenham area!) you should have seen them change their tune when they realised that he was right and they had just made a false accusation - oh by the way he was born in India - came over here when he was 7!

joeninety · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 24, 2004 Posts: 74

tomo1340 · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:15 pm Post subject:

This just scratches the surface with getting started with Dell, I would need 6 months off work and a good publisher to vent my spleen as much as they make me want to!

ipod · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 28, 2005 Posts: 27

i know many people have dells that break 1 day after their warrany runs out. many not working at all, lose all their data. get an ibook, my battery died, they are sending me a replacement!

marksfish · Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:14 pm Post subject:

If you purchase your item with a credit card and the sale is over £100, then you have a fall back with your card issuer under the consumer credit act.

From my experience (although not with pc's, pda's, sat nav, etc), when you purchase an item from a retailer, they have a duty to comply with the sale of goods act. This states that an item should be fit for the purpose sold and should last a "reasonable amount of time". The last phrase is the important bit. For white goods and tv's etc, the unwritten rule is that the retailer is liable for up to 6 years for any breakdowns which cannot be attributed to fair wear and tear. I believe that pc's are limited to 2 years because they so quickly become obsolete.

I have had problems with Comet in the past which for which I have sued them in the small claims court in the past (I know you shouldn't have to, but these big companies like to try it on), twice for a television (broke once at 18months and once at 30 months with the same problem) and once for a PS2 which became faulty. All claims were settled out of court with added vouchers for instore use (which I gave away as I have vowed never to shop there again).

At the end of the day, the extended warranty peddled by these companies is usually a waste of money and doesn't give you much more cover than the sale of goods act.

If you still fail to get any sense out of yhe retailer and you do not want to go to the expense of small claims (about £25 which should be reclaimed with your settlement), or the retailer has ceased trading then take it up with your credit card company, they have an obligation to fulfil.

**This is not legal advice, merely personal experience and advice received from trading standards.
Regards

Mark
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Garmin Drivesmart 51 LMT-D Europe

tedkay · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:06 pm Post subject: Dell Indian Call Centre

... the answer of course is to make enquiries about the after-sales setup prior to purchasing. I know that one doesn't always think of this at the time, but if we all got into the habit of checking first, and avoiding those who have outsourced, then the sales fall would soon make the companies think again. I think the cynicism of companies such as Dell is clearly demonstrated by the fact that they do not outsource their sales to India.

I agree with the writer who, very fairly I thought, opined that the system of outsourcing calls to India is bad for the people in India as well as the poor customer, and I don't suppose their being continuously berated by frustrated customers will be doing a lot for international relations! The problem is of course that English is a complex language, and simply having a grasp of the mechanics of it does not mean that the Indian can communicate properly with a person for whom English is the native language.

Mind you, occasionally a companys' ineptitude can work in your favour. I know someone (not me, honest !) who had a problem with a new top of the range Dell desktop PC. Dell agreed to replace it and a brand new machine duly arrived. The pick-up for the faulty machine never happened, and after a while I (oops, he) got the faulty machine looked at. It turned out that the video card was loose, and it took seconds to fix it. So Dells' bungling cost them instead of the customer for once ! Wink

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