Background and situation:
I ordered a refurbished laptop from @DellOutletUK on the 15th of January, 2012 at around 4pm UK time.

Sometime later on the same evening of ordering, I noticed a better deal for a different Dell refurbished laptop on the @DixonsOnline website.

This laptop had a newer 2nd generation i3 processor, 1GIG more RAM, a better webcam, and, a better screen. Not only this, but with the discount code working at the time, this laptop would have worked out £20 cheap than the @DellOutletUK #Dell laptop.

As per my basic human and consumer rights, I wished to cancel the order with @DellOutletUK. Surprisingly, #Dell Customer Service phone lines only operate between 9am-6pm on weekdays, only. So I called first thing the next morning, on the day of the 16th January, at 9am.

Amazingly, baring in mind #Dell is a leading IT company, simple tasks like cancelling orders are turned into complex, convoluted and drawn out procedures.

I was issued a Cancellation Number code and told they would ‘confirm’ the cancellation by the afternoon of the same day (their official terms are 12/24 hours.) To add to this, you can only cancel an order if the status is not flagged as ‘Shipped’, which mine WAS NOT. I believe there are also added complications if you wish to cancel a custom built machine, which again, this was not, it was an off-the-shelve #laptop.

I graciously recorded the Cancellation Number and thought it’s no big deal, I can wait until tomorrow to purchase the better value laptop, it will probably still be there by then.

By mid-afternoon the next day, the 17th of Jan, I had had absolutely no contact from anyone at @DellUK, so it was left to me to contact them. I sent a number of emails, and received one back confirming that it was in process and should be confirmed soon. Baring in mind this was now well over the 24 hours of their official confirmation time terms.

By this point I was feeling powerless to anything. I had done all the right things: called and requested the cancel; backed it up with emails; I had been polite, courteous, trusting and patient.

Fast-forward to the end of the day of the 17th Jan; 2 WHOLE WORKING DAYS after asking for my order to be cancelled, at 6pm UK, I received an email that my laptop has now been shipped along with a tracking number. To my absolute dismay.

Remember that their phone lines close at 6pm, and there would be little point in sending emails at this point. So, I tried the Dell Live Chat system to try and get some answers, this system closes at 8pm UK time.

The assistant who was assigned to me could only tell me the Live Chat system only acts to help with people who want to make orders, so I asked to speak to his supervisor, whom he put me through to. The supervisor seemed to have little to no experience in how to deal with and treat customers and proceeded to fob me off in a rather patronising tone with vague promises that all is well and I should ignore the ‘item Shipped’ notice. His advice was proven to be totally wrong and wreckless.

I have uploaded the transcript of this Live Chat session so you can witness the lacklustre attempts of customer care and service given by #Dell’s member of staff. Please view the transcript PDF here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10868058/Print_nGenera_Customer_Interaction_Management_Customer_Client.pdf

Sometime during in this whole debacle, the deal on the better value laptop I wanted to buy had now expired. Thanks to #Dell’s incompetence, I had now missed out.

By this point I felt extremely upset and let down. Lied to and cheated. #Dell had cost me money, time, stress and a number of actual, physical, migraines.

I turned to twitter and publicly expressed my miss-treatment. One of their ’social media’ agents, @StephenJatDell, a nice fellow, was quick to respond and act, picked up my tweet and offered to investigate. This was late in the evening of the 17th of Jan.

The next day,18th Jan, I received 2 phone calls from a very nice sounding Indian gent who informed me he was calling from the aforementioned social media team, and queried me about my issues.

By this point, #Dell had stressed me out so much that I spoke to this very nice man in a raised voice, my frustration was overflowing and the poor guy was the unfortunate receiver of this release. I didn’t abuse him or anything bad, but I am not proud of speaking to him with an angry energy which was only due to the ludicrous service I had so far received via #Dell’s internal infrastructure and policies.

19th Jan, I received a phone call at the last of that day 6pm only to be informed that my laptop had now, somehow, been physically tracked down in the postal system, and apprehended!!!!! AMAZING.

Am I now a happy #Dell customer? What do you think?

Perhaps #Dell considered this a result! Only by the letter of the law!

I am a first time #Dell customer. #Dell had the opportunity to embrace me as a new customer, perhaps a new customer for life. And now? I am an ex, never-to-be-again customer, who will never recommend them to anyone, not only that, but one who is taking the time to write a lengthy and detailed account of my experience on twitter to make aware what other potential new #Dell customers will be letting themselves in for. This will be syndicated in as many blogs and Internet platforms as I can get it on to.

I don’t know, but I thought customer service was about making customers happy, earning their trust and a lengthy relationship. Not to #Dell. Instead of giving me the option of a discount or other ’sweetener’ by means of an apology for their incompetence, they choose to just haul the laptop out of the postal system and throw my money and any future custom back in my face. That is not amazing customer care and relation, it’s not even great, or good… it’s absolute borderline legal bare minimum. That’s disgustingly, fundamentally WRONG.

Now my bank account will be refunded in 5 working days… so that’s yet another 5 days I will have to wait before ordering my new laptop.

Thanks #Dell, thanks for absolutely nothing but stress and disappointment. You should be ashamed of your faceless, soulless, totally unsociable, barely human, amoral attitude to building personable customer relationships. I can only hope that some good comes of this account and all the above points are addressed, but I won’t be holding my breath.

(This document is publicly available on Google Docs, and anyone is welcome and encouraged to publish this on other websites: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPIY1HO5b_cOpodW2JVra7NfPNu-AkR5u31tEP7TO0A/edit )

Thank you.

The interview was very interesting. It wasn’t at all bad. I do think they listen to customers and I do think they produce machines that are reasonable. Michael Dell was insightful, perhaps also very lucky in taking his company forward on the internet. I just wish their reps weren’t quite so annoying when they call me!