Problem with Dell refund.

SwiftY

Hoping you have patience as this is a very long story.

Back on June 3rd i decided to order myself a new laptop from Dell/Alienware. After browsing there site for a while i got in touch with one of the staff who work on the chat room side of the Website to which i gave him a few details and he called me.

After dealing with him i had a think about what to do and left it a few days before ordering anything. During these 5 or 6 days i received numerous e-mails asking if i was interested in the XPS laptop to which i replied that i was thinking about it. I also received a few phone calls asking me the same thing, this was already getting annoying.

In the end i decided to purchase an Alienware M17X from Dell on a Buy Now Pay Later (1 Year) contract. The person i spoke to was very quick and eager to make the sale and all the paperwork had been signed, agreed upon and sent off.

Now the fun part, after eagerly awaiting my laptop i continued to check the progress of the order as time went on, finding that nothing would change even nearly 3 weeks after the order had gone through. Eventually i decided to phone Dell as i hadn't even been given an expected delivery date. It took for me to call them before i was given this date and a further few days for the site to display this information. The delivery date was set 26th June.

The day came around and nothing, no e-mail, phone call or anything stating why it hadn't been delivered. I took time off to accept the delivery and nothing turned up. I phoned Dell to find out why and was told that it would be delivered on the 27th June, again i waited in and nothing. Back on the phone to Dell and then informed the Laptop was still in China. After following this up with UPS i discovered that Dell had failed to even give the laptop over for delivery and it would still be a few more days and was also told by UPS that the pickup was in Holland and not China.

Eventually i belive it was on the 3rd of July the laptop turned up, i opened it up to find everything that i expected and got the thing setup. Turned it on to find it unbelievably slow, which i thought unacceptable for £1,700. The laptop also got extremely hot, very fast. First thing i did was phone Dell yet again and explained the problem to technical support. According to the person i spoke with there was a high number of people experiencing this problem and he wanted me to wait 5 days for a call back so he can tell me how to fix this problem. On the 2nd phone call i made to Dell after receiving the Laptop i requested a refund.

Apparently Alienware were going to dismantle one of there M17Xs to find out what the problem was. When the day rolled around i received no phone call so again i had to call them only to find that they still had not solved the problem. Waited a further few days as i found this acceptable at first.

Nearly 2 weeks on and still no fix, no call backs from the terrible technical support and I'm left £1,700 short. I phoned Dell back again and this time requested the refund that i had before asked for.

When i first asked for the refund, I was given this e-mail from a Dell Customer Care agent stating that even if i waited past the 28 day refund period i would still be entitled to it because i had asked for it so soon after receiving the laptop.

Dell agreed to send me a letter in the post to state that i would be getting a refund and once i had this letter they would send out someone to pickup the laptop. - This all happened on a Thursday Night

Monday rolled around at around 9am a Delivery company pulled up, asking for the laptop to which i refused to give them it as i hadn't received the letter stating i would get a refund.

I had asked for this letter because i have heard of other people having trouble with refunds from Dell before.

2 days later, Dell called me and asked if i had sent the Laptop back to which i said No and then explained why. Before i got a chance to ask for the letter, the person who ignored me when i asked her name, then hung up.

Now a week later after agreeing the refund, i was back on the phone trying to find out where this letter was.

Strangely enough i got through to the person who had earlier sent me an e-mail stating i would defiantly be entitled to a refund, After spending around 4 on the phone and speaking to 18 different people because Dell kept putting me through to the wrong department i was told the following.

1. I was not entitled to a refund because it was over the 28 day period.

2. It is not a 28 day refund period it is infact a 14 day refund period. (In another call i was told 7 days and either way, i had asked for a refund on DAY TWO).

3. Because i refused to give the laptop over to the delivery company, they could not put through another request to pickup the laptop. (Obviously a lie, as Delivery companies are paid to do this).

4. According to Dell they don't send out letters stating that i will get a refund, when the person i spoke to stated that Dell did this automatically through a automated system.

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The End .

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Now the dates written there may be a bit out, it may also be slightly confusing but I'm going over it and correcting it.

Any suggestions? As I'll be looking to Citizens Advice and possibly contacting a Solicitor soon.

- Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes in a rush.

rachel6188

contact consumer direct and ask there advice.
i rang dell tech support and they tried to charge me £67 to tell me how to sort out a virus - i laughed and reformatted it myself.
good luck x

Mechanicus

I am only repeating what I said on my own thread, so don't take this as gospel truth, but it worked for me...

It seems that everyone's email address at Dell is in the format [EMAIL="firstname_lastname@dell.com"]firstname_lastname@dell.com[/EMAIL]

With that information in mind, go to Dell's page, here and find someone who you think might be worth contacting. I suggest this person. Send them an email outlining everything you have been through. Include copies of any correspondence (if you emailed them). Also sent the same email via their online support form.

When I did this, I had several emails and phone calls telling me they would refund my item. In fact, I had another one yesterday keeping me apprised of the status of the refund. They even said if my order turns up I could keep it as a goodwill gesture (I had already refused delivery of it but oh-well).