Trouble with Dell Support

zuliano

bod1467 wrote: »

Question - have Dell sent you anything in writing (email is OK) about the service plan, including your rights to cancel? I believe that a supplier needs to provide contract information in a durable means (being stated on a website does NOT count) for that contract to be enforceable. If they haven't sent any information then could it be argued that the contract has not yet commenced?

Oh right --let me check that...No I have checked from the 15th November and I cannot see any email confirmation of the transaction.

I also asked about this problem at another consumer forum I found a while ago and got this reply:

"Re: WHY won't Dell Support refund my money? Under the distance selling regulations you have 7 days to cancel the service assuming you informed them of your wish to cancel within this 7 days, you're ok. If it was outside the 7 days, the regs also state the 7 days starts after confirmation of the order was received so you may be able to go for this option.

Write to them (email will suffice) and confirm your request to cancel the agreement from __ date, make sure you keep a copy of the email along with the date it was sent, not just the content. They then need to cancel your agreement and refund all your money.

Hope this helps."

So my problem now is what to say in the email? I can claim that they never evn confirmed the transaction/contract in an email. What ideas do you have for the wording of it? At the moment they are seeming to ignore my messages. It IS over 7 days, but I was so stressed, and didn'tr have access to a computer for a few days, and also I had asked for an immediate refund on the 15th and was first screamed at and refused and then reluctantly offered the £59. I only accpted because in my sttressed state and not knowing my rights I didn't want to jepordise what they they were conceding to refund--if you get me?
But I was NOT happy, and in the recent emails i have asked for a total refund but the first time put in a email qs told I was only gonna get 59 quid of my money.

what a mess!!

bod1467

That other advice echos my post (so I'm obviously going to agree with it. ). I'd suggest wording along the lines of ...

To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing in respect of the support contract I have allegedly taken out with Dell on _DATE_. I wish to cancel said contract on the basis of:

1. It was engaged at a time when I was under significant duress, due to a computer virus issue which you were unable to rectify. (You have already agreed to refund the £59 charge for that failed support action).

2. I have not as yet received (in any durable means) the terms and conditions of the contract, including notification of my cancellation rights. In accordance with the Distance Selling Regulations I have the right to cancel the contract up to seven (7) days following the day after receiving such details provided I have not used the service.

I have not used the service, and I have not received the noted details, hence I am still within the "cooling off period" as defined within the Distance Selling Regulations. Please take this correspondence as official notification of my cancellation request, and refund all monies paid in respect of this contract (£100 - insert the exact value) in accordance with said regulations.

Yours faithfully
etc.

I've included item 1, but you may wish to remove it. Whilst it is a valid complaint, and supports your case, I'm not sure if it has any legal bearing on the situation.

Equaliser123

bod1467 wrote: »

I've included item 1, but you may wish to remove it. Whilst it is a valid complaint, and supports your case, I'm not sure if it has any legal bearing on the situation.

No it doesn't have any legal bearing on the matter and detracts from whether there is a right to cancel.

However, the problem here may well be that English law doesn't apply....

bod1467

Depends on whether it was a Dell UK contact number that was called.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/dps/solution_station_home?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

Shows a UK (0844) number, so infers UK (English) law applies.

zuliano

bod1467 wrote: »

That other advice echos my post (so I'm obviously going to agree with it. ). I'd suggest wording along the lines of ...

To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing in respect of the support contract I have allegedly taken out with Dell on _DATE_. I wish to cancel said contract on the basis of:

1. It was engaged at a time when I was under significant duress, due to a computer virus issue which you were unable to rectify. (You have already agreed to refund the £59 charge for that failed support action).

2. I have not as yet received (in any durable means) the terms and conditions of the contract, including notification of my cancellation rights. In accordance with the Distance Selling Regulations I have the right to cancel the contract up to seven (7) days following the day after receiving such details provided I have not used the service.

I have not used the service, and I have not received the noted details, hence I am still within the "cooling off period" as defined within the Distance Selling Regulations. Please take this correspondence as official notification of my cancellation request, and refund all monies paid in respect of this contract (£100 - insert the exact value) in accordance with said regulations.

Yours faithfully
etc.

I've included item 1, but you may wish to remove it. Whilst it is a valid complaint, and supports your case, I'm not sure if it has any legal bearing on the situation.

This is great --thankyou. I will email this without part 1, as you seem to think it has no bearing on this particular part of my demand. Thwey have already recently sent an email confirming they choose to repay £59.

OOOPS I was looking a day to late. I have just looked at my 14th Novemberr emails and they HAVE sent me a receipt!
So the problem remains that:
1) I did not have access to a computer for days after. In my ongoing confused state of not realizing I still had a defauly email to see their recept, and
3) when I asked outright for a total refund over the phone, I was not informed by people there my rights.

zuliano

what do you think of this? Is it too personal?

In 2006, I chose to buy a Dell computer, and in the three years following, from 2006, when still under guarantee, I was very happy with the kind helpful support I received from Dell Support, but I have been left very upset in this last ecnounter with Dell support, at a time I was very under a great deal of stress.

I not technically good on computers, but do a lot of research of my own interests and have many files, and when I found I had a very serious virus infection affecting thousands of files, etc, I was really opset and at a loss because I was so worried about losing all the work I have done.

In desperation, I contacted Dell Support, and at the time because of the threat to my computer gave money to you for £160 --which included the work to be done to fix the virus, plus a years technical support. But you failed me concerning the fixing of my present problem because the technician didn't warn me what would happen if the computer broke down, even though he warned it might. As a result when it did, after a minute of him taking over the controls, the screen went blue and that was that. The Dell technician eventually phoned me up and tried to revive the computer with my help but couldn't, and then I was asked if I had a computer which I didn't, which he said he could continue if I had one. So he was helpless. Now it is true that this part has been refunded---IS to be refunded as I have an email confirming it. But when I asked for a total refund on the phone on 14th November 2011, I was shouted at that I could not have a refund at all, and I had to insist until they said I could have £59.
I was not told that I can have seven days to cancel my contract.
I then could not get access to my computer and had to find a firm to fix it which cost me £85. I had no access to any other computer at this time.
All I am asking for now is a refund of my £100 which I am entitled to, but my recent emails to Dell Support are being ignored which I just find very upsetting. Please do the decent thing and refund the rest of my money?

Elle7

zuliano wrote: »

what do you think of this? Is it too personal?

In 2006, I chose to buy a Dell computer, and in the three years following, from 2006, when still under guarantee, I was very happy with the kind helpful support I received from Dell Support, but I have been left very upset in this last ecnounter with Dell support, at a time I was very under a great deal of stress.

I not technically good on computers, but do a lot of research of my own interests and have many files, and when I found I had a very serious virus infection affecting thousands of files, etc, I was really opset and at a loss because I was so worried about losing all the work I have done.

In desperation, I contacted Dell Support, and at the time because of the threat to my computer gave money to you for £160 --which included the work to be done to fix the virus, plus a years technical support. But you failed me concerning the fixing of my present problem because the technician didn't warn me what would happen if the computer broke down, even though he warned it might. As a result when it did, after a minute of him taking over the controls, the screen went blue and that was that. The Dell technician eventually phoned me up and tried to revive the computer with my help but couldn't, and then I was asked if I had a computer which I didn't, which he said he could continue if I had one. So he was helpless. Now it is true that this part has been refunded---IS to be refunded as I have an email confirming it. But when I asked for a total refund on the phone on 14th November 2011, I was shouted at that I could not have a refund at all, and I had to insist until they said I could have £59.
I was not told that I can have seven days to cancel my contract.
I then could not get access to my computer and had to find a firm to fix it which cost me £85. I had no access to any other computer at this time.
All I am asking for now is a refund of my £100 which I am entitled to, but my recent emails to Dell Support are being ignored which I just find very upsetting. Please do the decent thing and refund the rest of my money?

This is too emotive...it will be more effective if it is written more objectively, like the post above.

That said, if they did email you a receipt, what exactly did this say? Did it inform you of your right to cancel within 7 days of that date?

zuliano

Elle7 wrote: »

This is too emotive...it will be more effective if it is written more objectively, like the post above.

That said, if they did email you a receipt, what exactly did this say? Did it inform you of your right to cancel within 7 days of that date?

It has this in the message:

"Use the link below to request product support, see your order information online, retrieve your receipt, obtain an official invoice, request refund or to have your product/registration keys resent (if applicable), do not reply to this email as your reply will go unread:" [emphasis mine]

Of course it is only recent since I have found that I can access emails from my pre-existing emails address. You know how it is when you are supet, and your confused right. But it is not mentioned about the 7 day time allowed, and it wasn't on the phone wyhen I immediately asked for a refund. The technician did not say I will receive email with cahnce to ask for a refund!
I have just gone to the link and even there theres no mention of a 7 day chance of refund.

What now?

Laz123

If you could have got to a command prompt by pressing F12 on bootup they could have fixed the problem by giving you the debugging script. This is how Dell support helped me a few years ago. It roughly goes along the lines of:
Bold blue face is user entered. Normal type face is what the system returns. x ’s are variables.


Type C:


C:\> debug

-F 200 L1000 0 <Enter>

-A CS:100 <Enter>

xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <Enter>

xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <Enter>

xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <Enter>

xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 <Enter>

xxxx:010C INT 13 <Enter>

xxxx:010E INT 20 <Enter>

xxxx:0110 <Enter> ß Leave this line blank

-G <Enter>

program terminated normally


<Crtl-Alt-Del>

This wipes out absolutely everything, including viruses and then you can reload the operating system. Presumeably you weren't able to get to a dos command prompt.

zuliano

I had been contacting Dell Support through another of my email address and if I hadn't been checking the other one I might have missed this which SEEMS to confirm they have accepted my demand for a total refund, but I am fonfused because they are saying the amount in dollars...?

I have a feeling it is not for full amount as I am not sure of difference between currencies. I had paid them £160 remember and they are aonly offering me back £59

here's message I just found:

Dear ,
We hereby confirm that a refund transaction for Annual PC Technical Support $199.99 - Full Version was made on 11/23/2011.
Please find the transaction details at the end of this message (You may print this page for your record)
For Customer Support, please contact the seller, Techvedic Inc, at the following email address: [EMAIL="contact&#64;techvedic.com"]contact@techvedic.com[/EMAIL] (Please allow the seller 2 business days to respond).
Best regards,
The Plimus Team - online reseller for Techvedic Inc
** PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL AS THIS ADDRESS IS NOT CHECKED **


IMPORTANT NOTE:
The refund has been issue and may take up to 5 business days to appear in your account.
For refund confirmation, please contact your processor company (credit card, Paypal,etc. or bank)."