In July of 1998 I purchased a Dell Inspiron notebook computer with a 4 GB harddrive. It is the only computer that I have owned.
Being a computer neophyte I did not check to ensure that the 4 GB hard drive that I ordered & paid for was what I actually received.
In fact, I would neither have known how to check (other than to look at the invoice, which I did) nor that it would be necessary to go through the system (again, having looked at the invoice) to verify that what I paid for was what I received.
I recently looked at the hard drive capacity because someone commented that it seemed to be awfully full for the applications I had installed) and discovered that the hard drive that I received from Dell when I bought the computer is a 2 GB hard drive, rather than the 4 GB hard drive that I ordered & paid for.
I emailed customer service & began calling (and waiting on Dell's interminable hold lines - getting passed from one extension to another) last week. (The email response that I received after days, was that I call customer service.)
Ultimately, after many calls & a total of approx. 2 hrs on hold, a customer service rep who identified himself as "Paul, badge no. 339905" made an appointment for a higher up person to call me between 9:00 & 11:00 A.M. On 01/07/02.
I held my work schedule open during this time. 11:00 came & went with no call from Dell.
I called 1-800-624-9897 ex 66966 & spoke with "Amanda" who refused to give me her badge number & told me that it was discretionary information.
Amanda put me on hold for a few minutes & came back & said she had spoken to her immediate superior & "Your warranty has expired, there's nothing we can do for you".
I replied that the problem has nothing to do with the warranty, it's not like a little trick game that Dell won - I paid for something that Dell didn't deliver on & Dell has an obligation to deliver what it sold to me.
But you know the end to this story. Amanda kept repeating that "We can't do anything more for you", (as though they had done anything at all for me!)
Dell refuses to make any effort to rectify their action. What might have been Dell's mistake has now become Dell's unabashed rip off of a customer.
So I'm writing to Rip Off.com to warn other consumers that Dell will provide good service when you order your computer, but the company has no integrity and is not interested in providing honest service once it has gotten your money.
Although my computer is working, I am going to try to sell it and buy from a reputable company so that I will not have to deal with Dell in the future.
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