Easy as Dell? (Dell)

Name: hollymck

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Product:	Dell
Date:	09/11/02 (7823 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dell Customer Service is polite, helpful and seemingly sincere in their apologies

Disadvantages: At least three and possibly as many as five missed deliveries by Walsh Western couriers, Walsh Western customer service representatives have an unorthodox interpretation of truth, Large amount of money spent on a computer which still hasn't arrived and Dell admits it may be difficult to retrieve it and resend with a different courier

I haven?t even received my PC yet and already I?m reviewing the company?that alone should say something. I?ve just read Sue?s brilliant review of her situation with Dell and their courier, Walsh Western, and felt I just had to share my story.

I had just finished a very protracted struggle with The Computer World (formerly Time / Tiny) to get a refund for a computer which was dead on arrival and a co-worker recommended Dell. It seemed to make sense: we use them at work already and I?ve never had a problem with mine. After the previous PC-buying nightmare (detailed at length elsewhere on this site), I decided to get a second and third opinion. I spoke to the head of IT and the head of Finance as my company is about to move to new offices and looking for suppliers for roughly 600+ new computer systems. They both recommended Dell.

I went on-line and had a pleasant experience selecting components and watching the running total at the bottom grow and shrink (but mostly grow) as I played with different options before settling on something which was probably more than adequate but hopefully not in need of upgrading for a good long time.

Dell was in frequent e-mail contact over the next few days, keeping me up to date on the status of my order and expected date of delivery. On Friday 1st November, just four days after placing my order, I had a call from the courier saying delivery would be made on Tuesday the 5th between 8am and 6pm. I booked the day off work and sat by the window, looking for the courier van from Walsh Western. I tried entering my customer details in the order tracking screen on Dell?s website and on Walsh Western?s website, but both sites told me they couldn?t recognise my order number and I would have to phone customer service. I wasn?t worried. I had been told it would arrive today before 6.

By 2.30 that afternoon I was feeling a bit anxious and rang Walsh Western and was reassured by their customer service d
epartment that the PC was picked up that morning before 8 and would arrive by 6 that evening.

It didn?t. I tried ringing Walsh Western to see what had happened only to discover their call centre closed at 5.30. I called Dell, who apologised and said that their records showed the PC was picked up that morning, but there really wasn?t anything they could do.

The next morning I rang Walsh Western and was informed by Richard that ?sometimes the driver just runs out of time?. I asked why no one called me and why at 2.30 that afternoon I had been assured of a delivery by 6. Richard kept repeating ?sometimes the driver just runs out of time? and ?it?s not our fault?. I told Richard I would like to be reimbursed for the time I took off work and he said I had to ask Dell because Walsh Western doesn?t reimburse customers if a delivery isn?t met and ?it?s not my fault you stayed home?. I asked to speak to a manager and he refused. I told him this lack of service was inexcusable and called Dell. There I spoke to someone who was very apologetic and took Richard?s name and extension number and said she would have her manager contact Walsh Western because that isn?t the way Dell wants its customers treated. I felt better and she arranged for a special delivery on Thursday night, 7th November, between 6 and 10. I asked that she pass along my phone number to the courier just in case.

Thursday night I was at home but Walsh Western never showed up. There was no way to contact them so I had to wait until Friday morning. As I had on Wednesday, I sat in a long queue listening to a message that they were experiencing extremely high call volumes; this felt to me a little unnerving ? perhaps I was not alone in having delivery problems. As soon as the Walsh Western customer service agent heard my account number, she said, ?I?ll get a manager to call you back within the hour?. I hadn?t even said why I was calling.

Two and a half hours later th
e same person rang back and said she had been investigating and that they had tried to deliver my PC on Wednesday during the day but I wasn?t home, and again on Thursday during the day. Since I had not been contacted prior to these deliveries, there was no way I could have known to be home. She also said the Thursday night delivery was missed because the day-time driver returned the PC to the depot too late to catch the night-time driver after attempting a delivery that afternoon. I had I told her I had not been called, nor had I received a delivery notice through my door. She said that is what her computer said had happened and that the PC would be delivered Saturday morning (9th November) between 9 and 1, then hung up before I could say anything further.

Friday evening I returned home and found my invoice from Dell had arrived in the post. There was also a delivery notice from Walsh Western informing me I hadn?t been home that morning at 9 to receive 4 boxes from them ? of course I hadn?t been home: no one had told me it was being delivered then! But at least I now knew they had been to my house. It?s a start.

My Dell invoice had a different customer number on it than the one I had received in the confirmation e-mails, so I tried entering it in the Dell and Walsh Western websites and ? voilà! ? delivery details appeared. Contrary to what Walsh Western had claimed on the phone, there were no records of attempted deliveries on Wednesday or Thursday, during the day or night. There was a record of Dell?s call arranging for a special Thursday delivery, but nothing was done about it. There was also a record of the Saturday morning delivery being arranged so I expected that this time it was bound to show up.

Most interesting of all was the record that the driver ran out of time at 16.21 on Tuesday ? although I had been quoted a delivery time from 8am to 6pm, the driver had ?run out of time? and returned my PC to the depot over an hour
and a half before the end of my delivery period. The depot is just over 40 miles from where I live ? why wasn?t someone else sent out with the PC? Why wasn?t I phoned?

Saturday at 11 I rang Walsh Western and was informed that the PC was on the truck right now and it would be delivered before 3. I said I had been told to expect delivery between 9 and 1 and the girl said that sometimes it can be as late as 3. I added that I had been told by a manager that it would arrive between 9 and 1 and she said that if a manager said that, then it would happen.

It didn?t. It didn?t even arrive by 3. I tried ringing Walsh Western again and discovered their offices closed at 1 and would not re-open until Monday morning at 9. I called Dell and they were again apologetic but there isn?t anything they can do. They offered to re-schedule a delivery for me on an evening next week, but since they also cannot contact the courier until Monday morning, it is unlikely the delivery will be before Tuesday night ? over a full week since I was first told to expect it.

I know my argument really isn?t with Dell but with Walsh Western, who seem able to lie outright to customers, claiming their computers show delivery attempts when they clearly do not and promising deliveries which fail to show up. I have e-mailed customer support at Walsh Western, with the first letter being sent last Tuesday, to which I received an unsigned and horribly misspelled e-mail confirming the Thursday night delivery and apologising for ?the failure of you [sic] new Dell P.C.? My PC didn?t fail ? at least, not to my knowledge. I?ve never seen the thing!

Other than that one e-mail in response, the remainder of my letters to the Customer Care department at Walsh Western have not had a reply. I am not sending huge rants, swearing, writing all in capitals and misspelling words like ?your?, just listing the dates and times I have contacted them, the people I have spoken to, the
dates and times I am ?guaranteed? delivery, and the results of this.

Dell explained to me today that Walsh Western isn?t really the courier, but a co-ordinator of courier companies, so another company does the actual delivery, which is why Walsh Western?s customer service centre doesn?t seem to be able to help. I asked Dell to please have their management note that they should use a different delivery provider because this lack of service is not in their best business interests. I cannot complain with the service I have received from Dell and they are arranging to have a manager contact me on Monday to discuss the delivery problems, although I am unsure how that will accomplish anything.

Dell also told me today that each time Walsh Western says they have made an attempted delivery, they bill Dell. The original delivery charge was included in my purchase price, but the other ones have all been billed to Dell. They were very interested to hear that the delivery dates and times Walsh Western says are on their computer do not match what Walsh Western has on their website.

Again, I am not having issues with Dell itself as the customer service I have received has been with kind, helpful and polite people who have tried to assist as much as possible: their attempt to reschedule the delivery is even noted on Walsh Western?s website (although Walsh Western didn?t bother delivering it). But Dell did take a very large amount of money from me in return for goods yet have hired an unreliable and incompetent courier and I take exception to that.

I don?t know how to wrap up this opinion: I still have to wait until Monday to find out the latest from Dell and Walsh Western and then see if they actually turn up whenever they quote their latest delivery date. I have asked Dell to collect the PC and have it delivered by a different courier, but they said they may have difficulty scheduling this with Walsh Western. Why does that not surpris
e me?

Dell?s website has the slogan ?Easy as Dell?. What does that mean? Based on what I have experienced so far, it isn?t complimentary.

***UPDATE: ONE WEEK LATER***

I'm now writing this on my new Dell. It turned up on Monday afternoon while I was on the phone with the courier and they were admitting they had lost it and had no idea where it was or when it would be delivered. As I hadn't been contacted (again) prior to delivery, I couldn't make arrangements to be home, but the driver thought up something all on his own: he walked up and down the street ringing doorbells! One of my neighbours was watching this and offered to sign for the packages, noting on the delivery slip that they were uninspected and he was signing at the behest of the driver, not the purchaser. His delivery complete, the driver popped a handwritten note through the door of the wrong house, saying their new computer had arrived and could be picked up at the neighbour's.

I am just very grateful for honest neighbours who also knew I was expecting a computer. I think everyone on my street now knows I have a new PC and I am not home during the day. At least I know most of my neighbours, but that was just horrible to learn, especially as the same time all this was happening the call centre reps at Walsh Western were assuring me they couldn't deliver the PC to anyone but the purchaser.

Once I had found out it had arrived, picked it up, set it up and checked my e-mail, my very first message was from Walsh Western, scheduling a delivery for the following evening. Much to my disappointment, a second computer did not arrive that day. The following day I had a phone message from Dell saying they had spoken to the courier and arrangements for delivery were being made for Wednesday. On Thursday Dell called me at work to see if I would be home that night for delivery -- what on earth were they trying to deliver at this point? -- and
I explained what had happened. They offered me a £200 rebate for the trouble and I accepted. They will bill Walsh Western for the amount.

I hope Walsh Western sends the cheque by Royal Mail!

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