I would like to start off this report by stating the outcome of the issues my family and I have had with dell. The end result lead to the release of my social security number and my dad's also, I am a student at Clemson University, which is one of the top 30 colleges in the united states, in which they are well informed about everything that has happened.
I would also like to say, with humble intentions, that i have had years and years of experience with computers and have never dealt with anything like this before and have done very well in school. My credit card also has been stolen too with fraudulent charges. We have irrefutable evidence that 100% proves that we have been riped off and I will now explain from the beginning to the end of the serious issues that lead up to these outcomes.
My parents got me a surprise birthday gift which was a $6,000 dollar Dell XPS M1710 laptop for school and it was purchased, we were told at first, through our university. We placed the order on October 23 and received it on October 28. We customized our order through a representative over the phone and also was offered their platinum service pack that includes basically 4 years of any type of support from software to hardware, they also told us the best protection for my computer was trend micro internet security 12 and went along with their recommendations.
On October 28, when i got the computer, we immediately had problems with the hardware in which my computer said that my hard drive, memory, and cpu was completely different from what we have ordered, from the day i got the computer we had to use the services for customer support and technical support, those issues were explained saying that the reason why those hardware is not showing up as what you have purchased is because its reserved for the windows vista upgrade. I thought that it was shady but let it go.
We have a very fast cable internet connection with a very secure router to connect my computer through, the moment i connect to the internet i got a firewall message saying "Dell Quick Set" has been granted full access to the internet, i called back again and they said that dell software automatically updates itself. After that happened my computer was acting crazy such as applications opening with words being typed that i was not doing, my mouse was moving around with out me doing so, these problems were constant and i called nearly everyday to get this issue fixed in which they were not fixed but ignored.
When calling and using the services we have paid for, I was denied nearly every time to those services even after providing my order number, service tag and express code of my computer. The services that we paid for, which cost $861.27, were denied to me through the representatives and their automatic service when asked to enter your number and the automatic service repeated my service code correctly and said it was invalid.
A very serious incident that involved Dell's Direct Connect service, they were on my computer for over an hour and would not give me an update on the progress they were making on my computer and even worse never told me what was wrong. During the direct connect service, the representative was making small talk with me and I politely and respectfully continued a conversation with that representative while he was working but when I asked how the progress was coming along the representative would either ignore me or ask me more questions.
The discussion was started by the representative asking me what i was doing in school and also commented on how secure my computer was because of the security programs he saw on my computer, which was shady because he was suppose to be fixing all of that because they never worked; however, this made me suspicious because those products wouldnt work with my computer and I've wasted a lot of money on every security product available because not one of the products were able to be used even after spending hours of technical support with Norton, Macafee, Trend Micro, Kasperskys, and Computer Associates.
This representative continued to question me and make comments to me. After an hour the manager came on the phone and said they are done with my computer and said goodbye and hung up. After the hang up i turned off my computer and went to bed because i had school the next morning. I woke up and all of my school papers were deleted, windows updates deleted, program files deleted, a messed up screen that looked shattered glass, and my computer took longer than 15 minutes to boot up and was impossible to shutdown and could not even enter safe mode.
That day after i got done with classes i called dell back asking for help and they denied that i used that service and have no record of that service being used, and said that they could not help me because they said i was accusing them of messing up my computer when that was the last time i used my computer, which was the dell direct connect service.
After that incident, even before that incident, i was denied to even speak to someone to get help with my computer and the more i called for help the more disrespectful and denial of services i got from them. Many of the representatives have raised their voices at me, got fed up and told me that its fixed when it was not and hung up on me, gave me fake names, fake case numbers, fake id numbers of the representatives, and have even also purposely did not record on my account of the many times i have called for help. I have sincerely treated each and everyone of them with respect and patience and got nothing but horrible, ill mannered attitudes from most of them.
On December 10th, about a month and half of having the computer that still had all of these problems, i called Geek Squad out to help me, in which we got to the source of all of the problems. The geek squad representative, coincidentally, graduated from the same college i currently attend. He investigated my software and found spy ware and a key logger in Dell's programs that came preinstalled on my computer b4 i received it.
To go back in time before Geek squad came and fixed my computer, when i called about the Dell Quick Set program being a key logger, Dell told me that it was a key logger yet harmless and its uses were to change the color of the lights on the external parts of my computer and use it to remotely connect to my computer if needed.
Going back to December 10th i discussed that with him telling him that Dells software was automatically granted access to the internet from the moment i plugged my laptop to the my very secure router, in which geek squad says its as secure as it could be and they did not have to do anything to it.
Since geek squad figured out the source of all my problems on my computer, we realized the dangers i have been put in from day 1. I also informed my university's security department and met with them to explain what happened, they had already known about this program and they both said it its a useless program that should never had been on my computer and it is a very dangerous program if it was granted access to the internet, which it was granted access to the internet automatically from the moment i connected my computer to the internet.
Since during all the times i tried to get help and was told that i have never called about those issues ect. I went to my cell phone service provider to get a record of all the calls i made to dell from the day i got the computer until the present. According to my cell phone company, they told me to go online and create an account online that requires my cell #, billing address, and your social security #. I have never created an online account before so when i went to do that it said account has already been created and it was locked because of their security they have for online accounts.
I called my service provider back saying what is going on here and they told me i already had an account when, again, i have never created one, so they asked me for my password to my account and i had no idea what they were talking about so after about 35 minutes on the phone with them they asked me for my information and the reseted my password. Because of this incident we have prrof that my social security was used to create an online account.
I also went to my bank company to get a credit card print out of all the purchases i made and there were charges for online purchases that i have not made. My phone records clearly show the date/time/duration of call of each time i called dell. It only gave me the calls all the way to December 4th because i cant get the rest till my next billing statement.
Not only did those incidents prove i have had identity theft, but my Clemson account was also altered where my password was changed and i was unable to access my account so i had to change all of that.
From day 1, i have wasted my money and time trying to get help and buying security products that never worked on my computer, no updates no virus scans no nothing. Since i know about computers, and since if all of the information was released, i knew that the mac filter on my router was useless because the the hackers, who hijacked my computer, have all of the information about my computer and everything i have accessed on the internet including my Clemson account, used my credit card to pay for books, and anything else i have done on my brand new computer was recorded and set out to them because a key logger recorded every key typed on my computer and used the "Dell Quick Set" program to control my computer amongst the extremely mean representatives from dell (that despite their horrible treatment i still did not show any disrespect and treated them as polite as possible).
My dad used my computer during the time when we were unaware of how dangerous it was to access anything important to us. Unfortunately he used it to check his stocks that requires one to enter their social security number. My dad is far to busy at this moment in time to even get this investigated by going to the social security center and all of the crucial necessary steps to secure his name. So we are in a very serious predicament.
Since my mac address is like a social security number in the way that it can not be changed but yet cloned very easily, my computer would never be safe no matter what kind of security program i would have on my computer or how secure the router is even with a mac filter. We called technical support, in which they were the only English speaking people we have talked to from dell, they were shocked and appalled about the way we have been treated, they are sending us a brand new network card free of charge but also sending a new mother board because they said that the new network card wont work with my current mother board, which is BS also.
We spoke to my universities security department to figure out what actions are appropriate in our situation, we can not hold dell responsible for the identity theft, but we are entitled for full reimbursement of the $800 some dollars we paid for services that never fixed a problem or even gave us those services according to my university, geek squad, and dell's technical support.
Technical support said that we can be reimbursed for all of those services since my computer is so new and of all the problems they have given us. However, they would not reimburse us for any of those services and said again, you have not called about these issues, when right in front of us is our phone records that clearly shows otherwise.
I have contacted them almost everyday for help, and have called over 100 times according to my records, in which 60-70 of the times i have called were denied service, sent to a number that was not valid from the representative, and being denied period for services we have been paid for.
Technical support said if they are not cooperative with us then we can fax a letter to dell's legal department explaining everything i have just explained.
Even though Dell did not release my social security ect, but they with out a doubt responsible for putting on my computer in danger, which lead to the hack of my computer in the first place, which in reality makes them responsible, but, legally not responsible.
To summarize all that i have stated, my parents purchased a $6,000 computer that has never worked safely or properly from day 1, they have denied me access to services we have already paid for, ignored me and treated us horribly, and their spy ware that they put on my computer b4 i received it has caused us the worst case scenario of what could happen to someone on the internet and there is little to nothing we can do about it, i hope someone who has good integrity, honest and respectful will try to help us with this extremely terrible events.
I believe if anyone of you has read this would have an idea how we feel right now, i have explained clearly and chronologically the best i could of the horrific events that has occurred and thats just about all i have to say for dell.
Matt
easley, South Carolina
U.S.A.
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