Dell / Official Complaints Procedures

[Relax]

If this is your first contact with Dell regarding a complaint please contact:

Non Technical Queries Email:Click HerePhone : 0870 906 0010 (expensive - last resort)

Technical Queries

Email : Click Here Phone : 0870 908 0800(expensive - last resort)

If somehow we have not delivered the quality service you deserve as a Dell customer via the above methods, please give your feedback via the following link “Complaint” . You will be contacted by a Dell representative within 24 hours of sending this form.

If you are still dissatisfied with our response please write to our Customer Relations Department.

A Dell representative will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and provide a likely timescale for resolve.

 

Customer Relations Department,

Dell Computers,

Dell Innovation House,

Cherrywood Science & Technology Park,

Cabinteely,

Co. Dublin

Ireland.

 

 

- Found on web page

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/email_customer_care/en/complaints_procedure?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Edited October 20, 2009 by Relax

[PedroTheBusDriver]

Having shared the Dell experience with a few like minded souls on this thread all I can add is the complaint link posted by Relax is the least time consuming and soul destroying way of dealing with them, should you out of necessity have the need.

 

For my part I am done with Dell forever. I am of the opinion they couldn't have designed their customer services to be less helpful and more time consuming, it has to be deliberate. Maybe they use the same agents of evil as BT.

 

In the revised new testament they may define hell as a four way conference call with Dell, BT, and HP. I would sin no more.

[LTN]

i am absolutely disgusted with dell customer services. I have just cancelled my order with them, because the item was suppossed to be here on tuesday, then thursday i was still waiting for it this morning. Im so fed up... they have taken my money, every time i speak to the people in the call centre in india, they say they have no manager, you just get passed on to different departments. I have wasted my time, engery and phone bill and no one has dealt with my complaint.....never again

I too recently almost purchased a dell.

 

Straightforward, i thought -I choose, I pay, I buy.

 

No.

 

Placed order (online) but was then left with no confirmation of it being processed. Made 7/8 attempts to communicate with them via chat feature, plus phone calls. Was repeatedly cut off and given no help.

 

It was really strange, I just kept thinking 'why won't you just tell me what's going on?' Their communication with me was lousy. In the end it dawned on me that if I couldn't even resolve a purchase problem, I would have no chance if there turned out to be a problem with computer.

 

So I decided to email them to cancel in writing. Couldn't find a contact address on their website so I yet again used 'chat' to ask for it and was, yet again very rudely cut off. So in the end I was forced to ring their expensive (laughably called) 'customer services' and via India cancelled order. Asked for them to confirm cancelation in writing, but of course they refused.

 

Lets hope they manage to get that bit right and I will consider it a lucky escape.

 

It's all been a very surreal experience and I am left with the feeling 'did that really just happen?'.

 

I will never buy a Dell. Asking for trouble...

[Mykill100]

It appears DELL don't have any official complaint procedure. I'm going through hell with DELL at the moment and cant get anything resolved. I spent £1750 on a gaming system which arrived about 6 weeks ago. I paid for 3 years premium warranty which let me tell you now stands for nothing. The computer had several major faults and all cards which were plugged into PCI sockets either didn't work at all or were working sporadically. I spent 3 days on the phone all payed for by me until they sent out a tech guy who deemed the PC unfix-able and told DELL to replace it. I payed them an extra £70 to upgrade the video system because the one it had installed was OEM and I couldn't get no support for it outside of DELL. I waited a week then got a call from DELL saying I couldn't have the machine because they didn't make it any more but would I accept a different one instead? I checked out the machine offered and it was nearly a thousand pound cheaper and I wasn't getting any refund. I refused outright and said I would pick the machine and spent some time trying to put a machine together online that would cost around the same. We finally agreed on a machine and then I was sent the specs for the machine they were building and they had taken off some parts so I was losing several hundred pounds. I phoned them again and after being shouted at down the phone by there people saying the machine was being built exactly has we had agreed I sent the emails to prove it wasn't and they agreed to build the machine has requested. I got an estimated delivery date of the 13th October but on the 12th of October they changed it to the 22nd October then on the 16th October they changed it again to 17th November, now don't forget I had paid for 3 years warranty and I was expected to spend 2 month of that without the machine, the warranty stated that if anything went wrong with the machine it would be fixed the next working day. I'm now trying to get my money back. Ive spent a lot of money, time and effort on all this and I'm going to come out of it with nothing. If anyone is thinking of buying from DELL please think again because it just isn't worth it. This is just the short version of events it would take several pages to explain it all, the lies I was told the attempts to cheat me. I will be writing to my MP to ask why companies are allowed to operate in this way in the UK. DELL have broken the law has well as all there agreements with me. To be honest I believe the machine they sent me wasn't even new but a faulty return. It had been deliberately under clocked below the advertised specs and locked there so it couldn't be changed. I'm so fed up with it all and wish I had never fallen for there advertising lies but I did and Ive ended up with nothing except an hefty phone bill. Please. Be warned.

[Mykill100]

Oh by the way on the 14th October I tried using the complaints link posted by RELAX the reply was another month added to my delivery date. Be aware of this also Dialling a number starting 0870 or 0871 should ring alarm bells. While named NationalCall rate numbers, they're more akin to premium rates, costing up to 10p/min, massively more than a normal call. These numbers are everywhere; household names like Comet, Vodafone and Barclaycard all issue them. Worse still, it often means that call to complain and the company you're calling will profit from the call. Be warned.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Mykill100

[InformedSearcher]

'Mykill100' - simply take them to county court. You will on what you have stated 'win'. Go and do a search on CAG for more details - there are quite a few links and also you can do your court application on line. Just remember to claim for all your costs too and that includes your phone bill as well as court and inconveniance.

 

Michael

[Relax]

I think I'll be going down the county court route. The Red bit are my son's account

 

We bought a laptop for our son for Uni last September. By Jan it had stopped working - wouldn't boot, so my son called Dell - The person on the phone ran through some diagnostic checks on the computer with me and the messages that came up were enough for him to decide that the laptop would have to be returned to Dell as the Hard Disk needed to be replaced - it was sent back to Dell for a new hard drive.

 

In June it stopped on the loading Windows screen - this time the support went through the painstaking process of re-loading the operating system from CD - I made one initial phone call when I went though the re-boot. He then called me back the next day to finish it (as it was the evening when I made the initial phone call the previous day). I then rang him a week later as the system was not in perfect order, ie. The mouse was lagging a little bit. He contacted me at work, I asked him to ring back but he never did. I then just continued to use the laptop presuming that I was never really going to be able to get it working perfectly with all the problems, and was reasonably satisfied that I could actually use the laptop again.

 

In September it stopped booting again and Dell agreed to again replace the hard drive. Two weeks after we got it back it AGAIN refused to boot this time with a “No bootable Device” error. It's now out of warranty

 

Sent a recorded delivery letter to Dell Dublin and was phoned back two days later with the offer of an on site visit - even though the laptop is out of warranty .

 

At this stage I have no confidence in Dell's ability to repair the laptop since they've already had three attempts and have failed to Satisfactorily repair it

 

I replied to the e-mail offer of an onsite repair asking for a percentage of the purchase price back (some use through the year) or a replacement with a year warranty (to make sure they don't give us a duff). This has been ignored so I'm sending another recorded delivery letter asking for the same set out below:

 

==============================================

20 October 2009

 

Sir/Madam,

 

Since I have had no reply to my e-mail sent on 1-october-2009 to xxxxxxxxxxxx@Dell.com. I am sending this letter recorded delivery

 

Thank you for the offer from Mr xxxxxx, (on behalf of Dell – copy of email enclosed) for a free repair for the laptop in your e-mail of 28th September 2009. I feel though that it has gone beyond the stage where a repair is acceptable and would again like to insist on either a partial refund or laptop replacement since I have no confidence in Dell’s ability to fix the laptop to a reasonable standard.

 

Since over the last year the laptop has had some use made of it, I am prepared to accept less than the full purchase price in compensation, a value of £399 (full price was £509). Alternatively a replacement laptop of equal or greater specification should be supplied with a year warranty to protect against the replacement laptop itself not being of satisfactory quality.

 

The fact that the existing laptop is out of warranty is irrelevant since under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended), section 14,

 

(2) Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality.

 

(2A) For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.

 

(2B) For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—

 

(a) fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,

(b) appearance and finish,

© freedom from minor defects,

(d) safety, and

(e) durability.

 

My contention is that a laptop which has four major faults in the first 13 months of use would not be regarded by a reasonable person to be of satisfactory quality, and hence Dell is in breach of contract and I would be within my rights to seek damages from the county court.

 

I would obviously not want to go down this path and would prefer to come to an equitable arrangement with Dell to resolve our dispute.

 

If you do not have the authority to negotiate an equitable resolution to our dispute please pass on the relevant correspondence onto someone who has the authority.

 

 

References:

Invoice number: xxxxxxxx

Customer Number xxxxxxxxx

Dell Order No: xxxxxxx

 

Product Service Tag: xxxxxx

Express Service Code: xxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Please reply within 14 days (by 4th November 2009) or I will apply to the county courts for damages for breach of contract.

 

Bla Bla Bla

==============================================

Lets see how this pans out

[InformedSearcher]

'Relax' - Just a little tip/suggestion. When you give someone 14 days always add a couple of days for postage. I only say this due to experiencing banks doing this and 'losing' because they did not allow delivery time.

 

I personally would allow the 'on site' visit. It might be out of warranty (but not being fit for purpose) but OTOH you get a face to face technician. This can only be positive albeit it does seem you have not been lucky with their products.

 

Michael

[Relax]

'Relax' - Just a little tip/suggestion. When you give someone 14 days always add a couple of days for postage. I only say this due to experiencing banks doing this and 'losing' because they did not allow delivery time.

 

I personally would allow the 'on site' visit. It might be out of warranty (but not being fit for purpose) but OTOH you get a face to face technician. This can only be positive albeit it does seem you have not been lucky with their products.

 

Michael

 

It's being sent recorded delivery and should be delivered Tomorrow (Wednesday 21st - 14 days to 4th Nov). I started this process on 28th September with the first recorded delivery when I gave them 28 days to resolve this so I think my timescales are reasonable.

 

I do take your point though

 

I think there is some basic problem with the Laptop which could be difficult to resolve. I don't believe it's just a couple (or maybe 3) bad hard drives. After three chances to fix the laptop I'm simply not prepared to continue the cycle since I can see the laptop breaking down again in another month or so.

[Conniff]

it does seem you have not been lucky with their products.

 

 

That is what happens with a lot of people but instead of sticking to their guns like Relax, they tend to say 'ah well', and go get another one'.

[InformedSearcher]

It's being sent recorded delivery and should be delivered Tomorrow (Wednesday 21st - 14 days to 4th Nov). I started this process on 28th September with the first recorded delivery when I gave them 28 days to resolve this so I think my timescales are reasonable.

 

I do take your point though

 

I think there is some basic problem with the Laptop which could be difficult to resolve. I don't believe it's just a couple (or maybe 3) bad hard drives. After three chances to fix the laptop I'm simply not prepared to continue the cycle since I can see the laptop breaking down again in another month or so.

 

I'd totally agree with you. Maybe also looking at a small claims (county court) might be a suggestion/solution. In fact if Dell got wind of that they might even put themselves out to resolve the situation once and for all.

 

It's so strange that for some reason Dell appear to have varying manners in the way they do technical support. In my case I had a man from Canada who was so helpful and even called me back. Then he spent almost 2 hours with me and I allowed him to access my PC from his location. It was so efficient and yet I read here snippets of entirely different manners from them, of dealing with problems.

 

I hope it all works out well for you. Your problem of course is time and even postage with apparantly no definate solution.

 

Michael

[Relax]

I'd totally agree with you. Maybe also looking at a small claims (county court) might be a suggestion/solution. In fact if Dell got wind of that they might even put themselves out to resolve the situation once and for all.

................

Michael

 

If you read my letter it's the county court I've threatened them with. My understanding is that the small claims is a fast track process within the county court system which the court decide to implement for low value simple claims

[InformedSearcher]

That is what happens with a lot of people but instead of sticking to their guns like Relax, they tend to say 'ah well', and go get another one'.

 

 

Yes agreed! I used to be like that once but no longer. Always best to get what you paid for.

 

Not unlike the case of those Renault cars on WD - How the heck a company wants £100 from all their customers when 'they' supplied inferior dashboards in the 1st place.

 

Michael

[heliosfa]

Personally, I would take the onsite visit first. The On-Site technicians tend to be VERY good and they will pick up on any other isssues that have been missed.

 

 

As for 3 hard drives dying, Generally with hard drives, they only die in the following situations:

• Immediately on first power on or within the first week or two ("Bad" drive from Factory)
  
  
• After several years from Wear and Tear
  
  
• After some form of "abuse", e.g. moving the laptop alot while it is on, overheating, dropping, etc.
  
  

If drives keep dying in the system, and replacing the drive causes it to work again for a bit, it is unlikely to be the motherboard. All that could cause the drive to die from the motherboard would be power, and as the HDD in a laptop runs off the 5V and 3.3V lines which are shared with other components, if nothing else has dies, power is ruled out.

 

That points to heat (again unlikely as other components would be affected) or an external cause. Does the laptop get moved about alot while on? e.g. shoved into a backpack on in between lectures so it is instantly on?

 

 

What model of Dell laptop is it by the way?

 

Thanks,

H

[Relax]

During the winter it would have been moved between Halls and lectures in it's carry case. During the summer it was left at home and to be quite honest after it was fixed on the second occasion it wasn't used that much during the summer since he has a desktop system. Again after the second trip back to base in September it was in his room for just over a week before giving up the ghost.

 

As for the home engineer visit I think it's pot luck as to the dedication of the engineer you get.

 

The hard disk isn't recognised, lets change it - Oh it works now - bye bye - what do I do if it fails again before christmas!!

 

They've had three chances to fix it already - one should have been enough.

[Mykill100]

I actually thought RELAX was a DELL employee lol. Well I'll scream till I'm blue in the face and do what ever I can to stop these crooks. What they have done to me is just plain illegal. You cant advertise a PC has a 2.5GHz CPU speed then alter the speed to 2.3GHz and lock it there or offer an extended premium support warranty then expect the customer to spend 2 months of that warranty without even a working machine. Thats not to mention all the attempts to blatantly steal money away from me by offering me inferior products has a replacement. The whole thing is like an Only Fools and Horses story, in fact the name Delboy will have a whole new meaning for me from now, yet still be associated with crooked trading.

[Relax]

I suppose working for Dell would be one way of ensuring premium support!!

[InformedSearcher]

I actually thought RELAX was a DELL employee lol. Well I'll scream till I'm blue in the face and do what ever I can to stop these crooks. What they have done to me is just plain illegal. You cant advertise a PC has a 2.5GHz CPU speed then alter the speed to 2.3GHz and lock it there or offer an extended premium support warranty then expect the customer to spend 2 months of that warranty without even a working machine. Thats not to mention all the attempts to blatantly steal money away from me by offering me inferior products has a replacement. The whole thing is like an Only Fools and Horses story, in fact the name Delboy will have a whole new meaning for me from now, yet still be associated with crooked trading.

 

Would you like to post a copy of this showing the actual model you say they advertised? Easy to see what was wrong here. Simply show the advert and then a screen dump from 'system' in Control Panel.

Why was the OEM a problem? All PC manufacturers use OEM parts and those parts where applicable are under warranty. I mean even Windows from PC manufacturers are normally OEM too so using your criteria you stated you'll need a full version. Pemium support is that, they repair the product they supplied to you and that does not include anything else. Who did you pay the £70 to, Dell?

 

Now with hindsight and what I've read 'Relax' - Have you had another laptop and used it in exactly the same way as the Dell? What happened if you did? In fact if you did have another make why did you not just get a replacement rather than change to Dell.

 

Michael

[Relax]

.............

Now with hindsight and what I've read 'Relax' - Have you had another laptop and used it in exactly the same way as the Dell? What happened if you did? In fact if you did have another make why did you not just get a replacement rather than change to Dell.

 

Michael

 

The Dell was my son's first Laptop. Since it's currently not working he's taken his desktop to uni this term but he needs a laptop (making note at the library etc) so we'll have to get him another - it won't be Dell.

[InformedSearcher]

'Relax', I guess you have much experience of home visiting technicians by your comments. I must say I've never experienced one but I would have thought 'hands on' beats sending something away.

 

'Heliosfa' has summed it up perfectly. Have you not posted your problem on the Dell forums - They have loads of people who are most helpful?

 

Michael

[Mykill100]

Would you like to post a copy of this showing the actual model you say they advertised? Easy to see what was wrong here. Simply show the advert and then a screen dump from 'system' in Control Panel.

Why was the OEM a problem? All PC manufacturers use OEM parts and those parts where applicable are under warranty. I mean even Windows from PC manufacturers are normally OEM too so using your criteria you stated you'll need a full version. Pemium support is that, they repair the product they supplied to you and that does not include anything else. Who did you pay the £70 to, Dell?

 

Now with hindsight and what I've read 'Relax' - Have you had another laptop and used it in exactly the same way as the Dell? What happened if you did? In fact if you did have another make why did you not just get a replacement rather than change to Dell.

 

Michael

 

Dell have been very crafty with the way they underclocked this PC. It shows in the BIOS and in Nvidia control panel and if I run Prime 95 to run all 4 CPU's at 100% Everest will show how fast the CPU can run at but in system the software has been altered to show 2.5GHz. There is no problem showing the fact, I did this in my post "CPU underclocked on XPS630I" in DELL forums. I even put a link to a screen shot of me doing this. Cant get a screenshot of the BIOS allthough I could post a photo. In the BIOS under Overclock I might add the CPU has been under clocked to 2333MHz 7x333MHz. It has been locked that way and all the controls in the bios under overclock are greyed out. Has for the driver it was for a GTS240 which Nvidia didnt release drivers till 5th October nearly a month after I got the machine. Not that the driver did any good the system became even more unstable and I had to revert to the old driver which came from DELL. There a problem on the PCI bus, every thing plugged in either doesnt work at all or works sporadically.

Edited October 21, 2009 by Mykill100

[Mykill100]

Actually I might be wrong there, I dont think they would have to mess with the software for System because I think it just reads the name of the CPU which comes back has [email protected] but when not throttled the CPU actually runs at 2GHz yet system will still report 2.5GHz, I have to task the CPU to get it up to 2.33GHz. Also I have posted my problems on DELL forums. If I could change the multiplier to 7.5 I'd get the 2.5GHz but this machine has been altered to prevent that from happening. The PC is faulty in many other respects, that, me and DELL agree on, there own tech guy came to my home to try and fix the problems although I was'nt aware of all the problems at that stage. I want answers has to why it has been underclocked and why Ive been put through hell trying to get a replacement. I could push up the clock speed by increasing the FSB but havent tried that, besides the controls in Nvidia control panel I have tried fail to respond.

[Mykill100]

Would you like to post a copy of this showing the actual model you say they advertised? Easy to see what was wrong here. Simply show the advert and then a screen dump from 'system' in Control Panel.

Why was the OEM a problem? All PC manufacturers use OEM parts and those parts where applicable are under warranty. I mean even Windows from PC manufacturers are normally OEM too so using your criteria you stated you'll need a full version. Pemium support is that, they repair the product they supplied to you and that does not include anything else. Who did you pay the £70 to, Dell?

 

Now with hindsight and what I've read 'Relax' - Have you had another laptop and used it in exactly the same way as the Dell? What happened if you did? In fact if you did have another make why did you not just get a replacement rather than change to Dell.

 

Michael

 

Here you go Informed searcher, these pictures show everything anyone would want to know. The first shows the info in system showing 2.5GHz with the info in Nvidia control panel showing the true clock settings. The lower program Everest is showing the real time speed of the CPU. In the very top right hand corner you can see the core monitor. http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb274/mykel100/cpu1.jpg

 

This link shows the same programs but now I'm using Prime 95 to stress the CPU. You can see by the core monitors all 4 cores are at 100%. You can see the real time core speed in the Everest window.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb274/mykel100/cpu2.jpg

 

This is the first desktop I've ever bought, Ive been building them for years, most people wouldn't have even noticed this and I can bet you a pound to a penny that there's hundreds if not thousands of DELL customers who dont know there system is underclocked. I only found out because I was troubleshooting other issues. I needed to know what the fault was on the computer that was preventing the PCI and PCIe cards from working. Ive got it fairly stable although the TV card and PhysX card dont function at all and my video cards are very unstable and I cant update anything. But there you go.

[jo1lygrngiant]

Just an idea, re the overclocking.. Has there been a bios update yet do you know?, as this could unlock the 'locked' items. To enable you to increase the fsb.

[InformedSearcher]

Here you go Informed searcher, these pictures show everything anyone would want to know. The first shows the info in system showing 2.5GHz with the info in Nvidia control panel showing the true clock settings. The lower program Everest is showing the real time speed of the CPU. In the very top right hand corner you can see the core monitor. http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb274/mykel100/cpu1.jpg

 

This link shows the same programs but now I'm using Prime 95 to stress the CPU. You can see by the core monitors all 4 cores are at 100%. You can see the real time core speed in the Everest window.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb274/mykel100/cpu2.jpg

 

This is the first desktop I've ever bought, Ive been building them for years, most people wouldn't have even noticed this and I can bet you a pound to a penny that there's hundreds if not thousands of DELL customers who dont know there system is underclocked. I only found out because I was troubleshooting other issues. I needed to know what the fault was on the computer that was preventing the PCI and PCIe cards from working. Ive got it fairly stable although the TV card and PhysX card dont function at all and my video cards are very unstable and I cant update anything. But there you go.

 

Erm well I would first like to say that this is one of a hell quality gaming machine! Puts my XPS720 (4mb max/2.4 quad Q6600 CPU) to shame. Must have cost a fortune too!

 

I see what you mean. However you might even be able to help me!!!

 

See: http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii235/informedsearcher/MyDell_XPS720_eek.jpg

 

Michael