Let me tell you my story on how Dell sent me defective merchandise and then proceeded to rip me off through a series of incompetence and inability to neither ever offer any effective customer service nor honor warranties or simply make any attempt to supply equipment that works. I bought a high end Dell 1355 CNW printer and bought the extended warranty on it too. Eleven months ago the printer totally broke and Dell did replace it without any hesitation. This is where the problem and the rip off started.
The replacement printer that they sent me was a “refurbished”. This refurbished printer, replacing what was a perfectly good “new” printer before it broke, never properly worked. Approximately every third time I printed, the printer jammed and I had to open the printer and pull paper out from the back. Also, the fax and wireless functions never worked. So I began to call Dell about the problem typically once or twice a month. But here comes the rip off scheme.
The replacement printer that Dell sent me had a Service Tag number and an Express Service Code on it that neither was anywhere in Dell’s records / systems. So every time I called or went on-line to try to get help I was told that they could not help me because they could not find my merchandise in their systems. Further, I could no longer locate my extended warranty account as I had not kept be Service Tag number that was on my original equipment as Dell made me ship it back to them.
Finally, about a month ago, the paper jammed several times again (as usual) when I was printing but this time when I tried to pull the paper out it tore off and is lodged on top of the fuser which I cannot get the paper out. I even tried to figure out how to take the machine apart to get it out but to no avail. So I called 4-5 times begging for a technician to help me but again my Service Tag # was not found so they refused. Further each time they promised to call me back and even sent an email once but I never got a call back. I finally lost my temper and escalated it and they finally took three days and found my accounts (duhhhhh. I have bought three laptops and two printers from them in the last few years all on a Dell financial account. Is it really that hard???).
They did not of course call me back so I called again and was finally informed that they found my account and that the printer was no longer under warranty (it expired three months ago), they did not care that they shipped me defective hardware and I had been calling for ten months, would not let me extend the warranty, would not give me any technical help, and told me to go to an Office Depot type place and let them fix it on my nickel. It is amazing to me how incompetent Dell is and how they can put you off for months using lame excuses every time when they created the problem by sending defective merchandise in the first place and then their systems issues with the Service Tag number prevented them from doing what was right.
My advice is to avoid Dell is you too don’t want to be ripped off. I understand that sometimes equipment does not work right, especially when refurbished, but Dell’s incompetent and unfriendly customer service and messed up systems have the potential of ripping off anyone.
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