Grrrr Dell!

Just tried placing an order with Dell for a new Inspiron 9100 laptop (worth ~£1746) and charging it to my Amex card. Got a phone call to say that the card was declined - surprised (I have had no problems with any charges on or payments to my card since I got it), I rang Amex to ask what the problem was.

Amex say - no problem with the charge, it wasn't declined but referred for manual authorisation and Dell should ring the Authorisation Centre for this.

Ring Dell back - after a 15 minute conversation with various people including a supervisor at the end, they flatly refuse to do anything but put the charge through their software.

End result? 1 x cancelled order with Dell, 1 x Merchant complaint to Amex (I believe that it's a merchant's duty to perform manual authorisations if necessary), 1 x complaint to Dell customer services, and 1 x *&^%$£@ annoyed mcuth (it was a nice laptop [:(]).

Still, if one person's business means so little to them, then I'm glad I'm taking it elsewhere [:(!]

Phew - rant over, I'll return you to your normal programming now

Cheers

Michael

Michael
I bought the 9100 a few months ago and its a great machine. Its big and so is the power adaptor but the performance outweighs the size issues.

If you can put this experience behind you and go ahead and make the purchase, you won't be disappointed by the machine.

Just in case you're wondering, I don't have any connection with Dell - I just happen to really like my 9100.

Mike

Michael,
Dell offer great deals; however you are one punter in many and if Dell cant cope with Manual authorisation take your business to a smaller friendler dealer!!

if you shop around im sure you'll find something as good if not better!!

Personally I will never deal with Dell as so many friends have had issues with CS/late delivery/no delivery of items.

[Decker]

Funnily we had a VERY similar problem with Virgin Holidays! But at least they eventually agreed to call Amex. Sorry to hear about your experience - we've been having good experiences with Toshibas bought from the Tottenham Court Road lately...

A friend of mine bought a Tosh laptop recently too
Apparently you get a lot of machine for the £££

quote:Originally posted by Decker
Funnily we had a VERY similar problem with Virgin Holidays! But at least they eventually agreed to call Amex. Sorry to hear about your experience - we've been having good experiences with Toshibas bought from the Tottenham Court Road lately...

Wouldn't be from Morgan Computers by any chance would it?

Just got a Toshiba laptop from them recently via their Morgan Auctions site. It's the Satellite A30 - P4M 2.66ghz, 256meg RAM, 30gig HD, 15" TFT. Cost - 440 + VAT. It's a great spec for the money, and it's a really nice laptop - metallic blue casing, not too big for the screen size and not too heavy either. Thoroughly recommend it - Jonathan is quite right about getting a lot of machine for the money.

Morgan were selling them on their main site for 500 + VAT, then stuck a few on their auction site. Seem to have gone now, but if you can pick one up for this price it's definitely worth it.

[Decker]

Gultronics I think - we've bought a few there now. Ironic - we have a trade account with Ingram Micro but can still buy cheaper OTC.

[RichardMannion]

Oh that sounds familiar about Dell.

And when you phone through to complain you suffer the pain of Dell's 'offshore' approach to call centres.


Fortuantely we have an account team, so I kicked off the issue with them and things started to happen.

Michael - surely your company has an employee deal with Dell, PM if you want and I can send you the phone number for the employee purchase line - which is manned by native English speakers and you should get a discount of some form.

Thanks,
Richard

Thanks for the tips folks - I'm having a look round. Problem is that I want quite a high spec, and I'm having difficulty finding a site that'll let me do some configuration myself [V]

RM - apparently we do have an employee deal, but it's not very good (would've been more expensive than the deal I got on the web!) and uses the same payment authorisation process. Also, spoken to a couple of folks here that used it and they didn't come back with any postitive experiences. [:(!]

Such a shame, I was really looking forward to playing with that 9100 [:(]

Cheers

Michael

Slightly different "credit" experience caused by Dell. A few years ago I ordered a desktop and paid in full with a debit card. About six months later I was refused a mobile phone contract and had to resort to getting my credit file. Found out that Dell had done 20 pre-delivery address verifications in 2 days and this unusual activity had blown my credit rating. GRRRRR! indeed[:(!]

quote:Originally posted by patjohnson
Slightly different "credit" experience caused by Dell. A few years ago I ordered a desktop and paid in full with a debit card. About six months later I was refused a mobile phone contract and had to resort to getting my credit file. Found out that Dell had done 20 pre-delivery address verifications in 2 days and this unusual activity had blown my credit rating. GRRRRR! indeed[:(!]

Sorry for going OT a bit, but when something like that happens, do you have any form of redress to get your credit rating restored or do you just have to lump it?

I think the most you can do anteo is post a "statement" to your credit file that explains its an error. AFAIK this doesnt necessarily make much difference as most credit decisions are automated.

I was once foolish enough to think that a Three mobile phone might be a good deal. It wasnt, eventually persuaded them to close my contract early and take it back. I then recently had a credit check done on myself as I like to keep an eye on it, and found that they had performed no less than 17 credit checks on me! No wonder when i got it it took them a while to work out how to connect the thing!

How much damage this has really done will never really be known I guess.

Steven/Pat

Credit file searches should only stay on your credit file for 12 months before dropping off - you can check your file with Equifax/Experian online these days (slightly more than the £2 statutory fee, but instant). Also, you can complain to them if you feel that there's erroneous data on there - they'll contact the enquirer and if the enquirer agrees (Experian/Equifax can't do anything without the enquirer's consent), they can change it.

HTH

Cheers

Michael

Thankyou Micheal,

I also apparently am not shown as registered on the electoral role for my address. I was going to take this up with the local council, but as I used Equifax for my last check I have just logged on to find I can file for a dispute online.

Interestingly the 17 "Three" searches were in April last year and still show. So I will query these too. Not sure if they are any better now, but when i used to try and contact Three direct was nothing short of your worst nightmare [}:)]

Thanks for your help

Steven

You'll probably have to check up with your local council too - just to make sure you really are on the list

I just queried the search retention with Experian today, and they said 12 months, I dunno if Equifax are different [?] Anyway, I wouldn't contact Three about it, let Equifax do the donkey work

Cheers

Michael

Just in case anyone wanted to see what's (hopefully) going to replace the Dell order:

http://tinyurl.com/5jy7x

Put a web order in at Simply tonight - let's see if they'll ring if it's required

Cheers

Michael

good choice have read about the 3000lmi and it got a good review in custom pc nice to see youve gone the 64 route now all we need is for ms[xx(] to release xp64.

Cheers

Phil

Yeah, I heard some good things about it, and should go like &*^% off a stick What I really want is for SuSE to support the 64 (gonna try the install anyway for the laugh [:p]), but I hear that's on the way anyway

Cheers

Michael

I've had a good experience with Equifax - they linked my name (Patel) with another Patel family (the ones who bought our house) - from that point on, whenever anyone in that family got credit, my name (at the old address and their subsequent new addresses) was linked to it.

I'm sure it's cost me a few credit decisions, took them a while to remove the link and I had to explain several times that just because someone else has the surname of Patel, it doesn't mean you're related [:(!]

I think it's one of the fringe benefits of having an entire volume of the phonebook to yourself

Regards,

Sahajesh

yeah i got a 64 3400+ with a 1gb ram and she fly's but it's missing something like a 64bit op sys.
oh and a sata hd but thats on it's way:D

Twin SATA hds in a striped RAID array here...you can't afford NOT to ;)

ok dont rud it in[:(] i will aven get a pair:)

quote:Originally posted by mcuth
Just in case anyone wanted to see what's (hopefully) going to replace the Dell order:

http://tinyurl.com/5jy7x

Just checked the link and it mentions a carbon fibre strip across the keyboard to give the users a realistic feel of a racecar. Do you get the pit girls to install XP for you then?

Sahajesh

[/quote]

Do you get the pit girls to install XP for you then?

Sahajesh
[/quote]

Well it's easy enough for them to do:D

quote:Originally posted by sahajesh
Just checked the link and it mentions a carbon fibre strip across the keyboard to give the users a realistic feel of a racecar.

Yes, that bit worries me somewhat

quote:Do you get the pit girls to install XP for you then?

I wish

Cheers

Michael