Episode 21

Dell to the rescue

About ten years ago, I read a full page ad in the NY Times for a laptop.  I decided to call, since it seemed the Dell model was well equipped at a good price.  It came two days later, along with the receipt which I also opened. Boy was I shocked when I discover I have been placed into a monthly payment plan.  That wasn’t right. I paid in full with a credit card when I ordered it.  You know how this part goes, two hundred phone calls and a hundred supervisors later, they can not find any record of my sales transaction.  “But you tape all the calls,” I try to remind them of their prerecorded announcement. “We don’t have your call.”  They seem to think the case is closed.

The next day, I call my credit merchant who finds in their records the full payment funds which were never collected by Dell (they'd been parked in the merchant's account).  Odd occurrence, but fortunately the merchant operator wants to, at least, try to help me out. She does a bizarre thing, something I’ve never heard of before (though I also never heard of the merchant sitting with uncollected funds for that matter).  She tries to make full payment to Dell but is unable to find the routing system. I have little choice but to call Dell who finally agrees to take full payment, but not to release me from the financed account since I am told, these two outfits operate separately.  The parked funds (full payment) is finally taken after 2 years of endless phone calls. But that is not all.

The financing division still wants to fight over accrued interes. Three years later (accrued interest of $345) I finally cave and pay off the wrongful charge so that I do not hurt my credit rating (I was about to make a large purchase so any bad credit could cost me, say a quarter point on a mortgage, business loan, or car purchase to name a few).  I pay up but am furious. Over the years, I have written no less than ten letters to the executive office never once receiving a reply.  I write to the better business bureau and consumer protection agencies to no avail.

The day of reckoning finally comes.  Several years later, I hear on the news that eleven hundred victims, like me, were put through the very same ordeal in NYC.  The attorney general of the State of NY has pressed charges.  While I can’t get back more than a few cents (the amount class action suits typically pay out to the plaintiffs) I am somewhat satisfied, but not made whole.  It’s not over; Dell has seen the very last dollar they ever will get from me. I think the matter is closed, but then I get another very strange bill in the mail.

Upon opening the bill I discover a $700 charge with ATT for an account I do not have! I repeat, I do not have an AT&T account so how I got a bill is quite the mystery.  Apparently I was only one of a wise few who called and rid the matter. Later that week, I hear on the news, AT & T has apologized for the billing error which reached thousands of NYC residents. The spokesperson went on to say that the problem was due to a computer error and that anyone who calls ATT will receive a refund. I can only imagine how much money AT & T raised from people who paid the unjust bill and did not call to remedy.

Back to Dell – so the then new computer which wasn’t a bargain after factoring in the undue finance charges is three years old and needs repair. I have since divorced and moved out of my former Park Avenue residence into a new place.  I provide Dell with my new address. My computer is picked up the very next day at my new apartment building.  And true to the representative’s word, I get a call one week later that the laptop is fixed and ready to be returned. I verify the new address, expecting delivery the next day which happened to be a Wednesday.  Wednesday comes and goes, as does Thursday.  It’s now Friday and I do not have possession of the laptop.  I call only to find out it’s been delivered to my former, Park Avenue address.  

Ok, despite going over the delivery detail severals times, I am told someone screwed up on the paperwork.  Mind you this is no ordinary screw up, but rather a major league douser if you factor in pick up occurred at one address and delivered to another. I am patient, figuring the matter will be resolved with a promise to have my laptop delivered on a Saturday, “first thing in the morning”.

Six days later, still no laptop.  Dell has the computer picked up from Park Avenue residence and then an hour later redelivered to that same address – yes, you read this right, three days in a row, picked up and returned to the same place in an hours time.  The phone reps did not have accents, mind you.  Finally a week later, I get my computer back, but I have to consider if after all the juggling whether the computer’s been compromised. Perhaps that too was part of a corporate plan.

But wait, the story does not end here, because it’s not just Dell who can not handle a simple delivery.   Four years later, I call Costco after seeing an ad for a portable A/C unit. Delivery address is my home, but billed to Wolf.  Simple matter, one would think, right? Wrong.  

The A/C shows up at Wolf’s home.  We discover it in the driveway in the evening.  Ten calls later, the A/C is picked up the following morning and redelivered, for the next two days, to his address again and again.  I give up and cancel the order thinking to start from scratch (place a new order, after all we're in the midst of a heat wave) but am told the A/C has to go back to a warehouse in the State of Washington, where the order originated, before it could be redeliver a third time. Delivery will take another week. Nope, not waiting any longer, we went to Home Depot and bought an A/C which fit into the trunk.

Seems Dell and Costco use the same delivery service. At least Costco doesn't cheat on billing.  Don't ask about my recent forray into the local ATT store in the Treasure Coast Mall. Suffice it to say I was quoted one national plan's cost in Fla. but given a lower rate in NYC for the same plan (national plan)....go figure.

I've just completed reading, The Sociopath Next Door, which claims 1/25 people we encounter are missing an important gene. There not all murders, but they are all problematic and should be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, when they work in the corporate world, well there's really no avoiding them.

And then there's Maude.....(another chapter)