Dell system for £185 incl. VAT

singhfello

Woohoo
We made the headlines!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005053446,00.html

Johnnypanic_2

singhfello wrote:

Woohoo
We made the headlines!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005053446,00.html

Don't see how they figure this, we haven't received the pc's yet

Johnnypanic

carnet

Typical of the Sun "Newspaper" to get it wrong.

I thought the same spec. PC was now available for £310 or thereabouts, meaning that Dell are "only" losing about £250,000 - if they honour the reported 2000 orders.

If they don't honour them I should think the adverse publicity will hurt them even more.

And, it's hardly a "top model" !

arushofblood

Is there a number to contact Dell at weekends please ? Seems CS is closed today ? !

Ta

ben500

Just a few tips for anybody thinking about phoning Dell about these orders.

1 Use someone elses phone

2 Make sure you have a supply of field rations handy

3 Ensure you have a bedpan or other suitable ablution facilities at hand (your call WILL be answered if you visit the toilet and disconnected as a dead line)

4 Remember you are phoning India, whilst these call centres have been set up for a while and the usual teething problems about language barriers,trading laws, cultural differences etc have mostly been resolved, the fact that they just don't care is still a hurdle you have to overcome,

5 Getting transferred five or six times is NOT unusual so don't be unreasonable about it.

6 Be patient when on hold. Try to remember this particular advisor could have up to 30 other people on hold at the time and needs to return to each caller periodically to announce "won't be a moment just checking your order/with supervisor/the sunday roast"

7 The advisor is not lying they cannot see your order as they don't have a monitor in front of them! (there is a supply issue with them which is due to be resolved when someone notices it)

8 Dell don't actually sell computers they just run call centers!

Finally you can actually make an enquiry online if you visit

https://www.howmuchtimeyougotonyourhands.com

biglugs

"Top-of-the-range" PC worth £406? Just goes to prove that you shouldn't read anything you see in the papers.

• This PC is actually "Second Bottom of the Range".
• It should have been £325.
• Dell haven't "lost £450,000" because they haven't actually delivered any of these systems yet.

So in a 36 word article The Sun has managed to make 3 material errors. At an average of 1 serious mistake every 12 words that would make The Sun almost as competent at checking their facts as Dell!

Now that this story has hit the papers it will appear in the Press Cuttings which the very top managers get to see, so a block will be put on these orders - if it had been kept quiet I would have expected middle management to let some or all or these go, but wouldn't hold out any hope now.

By the way Dell has pulled ALL Dimension desktops from its medium business site - looks like they've decided not to sell any more of these until the smoke blows over.

psybear

Anybody got the full article that they could post? Or scan it and bung it on a website so we can read it?

No way am I buying the Sun.

kopo

copy from dvdforums

the sun 05/02/05 page 31

byte of a gaffe on pc price

A COMPUTER firm has lost £450,000 by mistakenly offering a top model at a bargain price.

Around 2,000 customers bought a top-of-the-range Dell for just £185 from the firm’s website - it should have cost £406.

dell has prosmised to honor the transactions leaving it almost 1/2 million out of pocket - after a call from the sun on behalf of cumstomers

it worker steve hugons of witwick leics brought four machines

steve 33, said "it was too good to miss. iam really pleased dell are going to honor the sale

a dell spokesperson blamed a techincal error

Derek_Duval

biglugs wrote:

"Top-of-the-range" PC worth £406? Just goes to prove that you shouldn't read anything you see in the papers.

• This PC is actually "Second Bottom of the Range".
• It should have been £325.
• Dell haven't "lost £450,000" because they haven't actually delivered any of these systems yet.

Not forgetting that they sell the PC's at a profit anyway, so if they make £75 gross profit on each system, that leaves them £65 out of pocket per PC. Multiplied by 2,000 = £130,000, probably about the same cost as one TV advert & it gives more publicity. They can't say that they would have sold the 2,000 PC's at the full price, most people only ordered because they were such a bargain.

ben500

I bought a 4700 for £341 Friday had a telephone call Saturday when I was out and two emails confirming order with pdf. still not heard a word about the £185 deal placed on the Friday that the post came up I forget the date now seems so far awayyyyyyyyyyy,though despite two emails to them regarding it.

A little inconsistency there wonder if there is any particular motivation behind it?

PS I still don't believe they actually sell pc's until I get one on the doorstep. I think the c/s agent who telephoned would probably have only asked me to call her back so she could put me on hold for twenty five minutes before cancelling my order anyway.