Dell Computer "Marketing Error"

dafischer · 12-30-2005, 08:41 PM

With yesterday's mail, we got a "Happy New Year" card from Dell, (I guess they like us since we bought a honker of a system for the business last year) urging us to "Celebrate the New Year with special savings from Dell". $20 off accessories purchase over $200, and 20% off desktops and notebooks over $999...time to pick up that additional note book we've been thinking of.

Long story short, go to check out and apply the discount code, and WTF?....5% off! Pick up the phone, call Dell to ask what the deal is, and get to listen to come smug little snot explain to me that the card was a "marketing error". And no, they don't have to honor that discount, because if I read their legalese, Item #12, paragraph 16, subclause 12, sentence 16, I'll clearly see that they are not responsible for making good on "marketing errors".

Needless to say, cancelled the order, and as I'm hanging up on him, I can hear the perky twit asking if there's anything else he can do for me today.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a classic bait and switch?

Anyway, I'll share the codes out of spite:

$20 off is: PSCHN6680TH5D2
5% (not 20%) off is: 9?CR79?CLTN2LV

Pass them around...they're good till 01/31/06. Maybe they won't give the 20%, but maybe a lot of people will make it up in volume.

FrayAdjacent911 · 12-30-2005, 09:55 PM

That's DFS... They're a bunch of putzes.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-30-2005, 10:01 PM

Dell sucks ass. But I've said that before and people just don't freaking listen.

aap1966 · aap1966's Garage

Heard it before about Dell.

Dan J · 12-31-2005, 05:35 AM

Ditto on the Dell sucks ass. Worst customer service in the world

SLO-BOB · 12-31-2005, 06:08 AM

You screwed up. You should have let it ride, received it, and then called to return it. They always offer a kickback to keep it-about 20%

.

Still time.

I have one cheapy P4 Dell for the kids. No problems with it or their customer service. I don't like their laptops tho.

Brian 162 · 12-31-2005, 10:12 AM

Dell bites. Worst customer service ever. My notebook started to shut down and wouldn't re-boot. It happened 10 days out of warranty. All they would do is charge me $195 plus shipping to see what problem is.I couldn't lodge a complaint. I ended up taking it to some guy locally. Charged me $50. Says bad solder joint somewhere in main board.He couldn't find it.Believe it or not I brought it home and it worked. It started to act up again, so I turned it over and punched it and it has been fine ever since August.

Happy New Year

Brian

HardDrive · 12-31-2005, 10:26 AM

I support hundreds of Dell boxes and servers. I have been pleased with their service. I have noticed a decline in quality in the past few years. Their 270 series had wide spread problems. But they fixed it without giving us any grief.

Icemaster · Icemaster's Garage

Dell has sucked since I first got into the biz formally years ago. It's always teh same attitude about the products and service - "We don't make mistakes, we're Dell..."

Even when you chart out a line to them indicating a consistent repair problem with a line they argue back that it's still poorly trained technicians. Technicians that they trained and certified...

I'll never let my rep live down the time they had a recall on system boards for GX200's. He insisted it was a "voluntary proactive replacement" and that we not refer to it as a recall. He gets up and sez this ina meeting with one of our customers who responds with "...'voluntary proactive replacement'....sounds like Dell-ease for "recall" to me..."

Whole room lost it.

Dell sucks.

scottmandue · 12-31-2005, 12:09 PM

I have found their laptops make EXCELLENT rolling trays...

Dude....

89911 · 12-31-2005, 12:37 PM

I've used Dells for years(2 at home and 16 workstations and 1 server at my office ) and have had little problem, at least not enough to not recommend them. To those that knock them, Is any manufacturer that much better? Gateway? Compaq? Plenty of complaints, little solutions. I too got the 20% off card and called to order a laptop. Didn't work though.

Icemaster · Icemaster's Garage

Yes.

I've had great service from Sun, IBM & HP on servers and better support than Dell on PC's.

Dell cops an attitude that they could never possibly make a mistake, this seems to permeate the comany.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-31-2005, 12:50 PM

Apple has always fixed any problems I had to 110% satisfaction.

Venetian · 12-31-2005, 01:41 PM

I have a Dell desktop(3 years) and have not had any problems with it other than virus issues. I have called there customer service several times(mainly regarding virus problem) and have had prompt service.
They seem fairly knowledgeable but understanding foreign accent is at times a problem.

Don Ro · 12-31-2005, 01:57 PM

Happy New Year!
.
I rec'd the same Dell "card" in the mail. Tossed it, not in the market.
.
'Bought a Dell Dimension 8100 in Fall of '01 w/a 3 yr. extended warranty - $70.
1 month prior to the end, power supply went out - they sent a tech out 2 days later to R&R it.
Overall, no prob's w/the rig - only w/the operator.

.
First two years of ownership, I called several times - got decent help.
After that, I really tired of calling their Tech Center and getting folks in India/Philippines who spoke very poor English.
They were always very polite, however.
.
Last time I called 'n spoke w/a lady in India, I asked where I was calling.
She said, "I'm not allowed to say that." (in an Indian tongue)
Me: "Am I calling India?"
Her: "Sorry sir, I'm not allowed to say."
'Suffered through 10 minutes or so, excused myself, and redialed a few minutes later.
Me: "Where am I calling?
Him: "You are calling Texas, sir."
.
I don't know a good laptop from a bad one, but prior to Christmas, Office Depot had a sale on a Toshiba Satellite for $899.
'Think it was this one: Toshiba Satellite® M55-S3292 14" Widescreen
.
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=341576&&An=browse
.
I think the snot 'n sass is due to today's narcissistic/arrogant society.
After all, there IS a parenting crisis in this country.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

come to the dark side....you need a Mac.

Over the years I've bought literally hundred of Macs (not all for me mind you). Very few problems, and the ones we had got sorted quickly and to our satisfaction.

The only PC I have (high end game system) is a PC Club clone job built down the street. If it goes down I just haul it a few blocks away and they'll fix it (in theory...hasn't broken yet).

SLO-BOB · 12-31-2005, 02:27 PM

Ughh. Now I have to jump in and Mac bash. My ibook fried 5 logic boards in one year. Yes-Apple covered it. So what? I was w/o my computer 5 times for 2-3 weeks while it was having it's guts replaced. That sucked. I sold it on Ebay (the brand new one they finally sent me) for more than I paid for my E-machine (AMD) but half of what I paid for it. The E-machine has worked perfectly for a year now-although it didn't come with an OS disk. Even my Dell desktop supplies that.

How the heck am I supposed to reformat? Oh well, I digress.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-31-2005, 02:40 PM

Moral of the story is all hardware companies suck quality-wise.

The question is whether they actually try to take care of you after a failure, or if they leave you hanging.

89911 · 12-31-2005, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Moral of the story is all hardware companies suck quality-wise.

The question is whether they actually try to take care of you after a failure, or if they leave you hanging.

Or learn to fix it yourself. It is amazing how much you can find if you just put a simple explanation of a problem in "Google" and search.

Joeaksa · 12-31-2005, 03:37 PM

As well have used Dells for years and found them very good and still use one of their laptops. Yes, they had a powersupply problem and motherboard problem on certain laptops, but otherwise worked very well for us. Our company worked for Dell (marketing) and we had almost 500 of them in the business with few problems...

JoeA