External 250GB hard drive £23.86 from Dell

Sponge

I had two emails from Dell yesterday.

1138hrs:

I understand you situation and would like to inform that we cannot reinstate this order as there was an error on the website and the price was quoted incorrectly.

All the orders placed for the hard drive have been cancelled and the amount charged has been refunded.

1432hrs:

Dear Customer,

We are very sorry - we've had an error in our systems, and the product you thought you were ordering was wrongly described on our website. The product code and price of your order related to a completely different product, and was incorrectly linked to the description of the Iomega Hard Disc Drive you requested. In fact, this is a discontinued product and is no longer in stock.

Due to this, your Dell Order Iomega Order Number: xxxxxxxx has been cancelled. Within the next 5 working days any pre-authorisation on your credit/debit card will be cancelled and we will refund to your card any money already collected.

To place your order for a different Hard Disc Drive, please go to www.dell.com or talk to your sales agent.

We are sorry for the inconvenience that this error has caused, and thank you again for choosing Dell.

Slap in the face or what?

I think Dell have a lot to answer for regards their T&Cs, some of which are definitely asking to be legally tested. I wish I had the time and money to take it all the way, but I don't.

I hope some others pursue it further, but I'm bowing out...

KrispiiDuck

daggman wrote: »

well i have given dell some bad PR.

I informed the inquirer yesterday off this. people who know the inquirer know it is the best IT news sites on the internet, and gets millions of hits a day, from day to day users and people in the IT industry.

well today they have posted a story but could not get dell rep to reply.

link to story :

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41851

daggman

OOPSY on the part of the inquirer - they quote that there are over 6000 posts on the MSE thread - the 6000 refers to the "Gone" board, not this particular thread!!

wavefinder

jesus christ! why can't you all move on! i myself tried to buy one,received the emails, END OF STORY! you can buy hard drives pretty cheap from just about anywhere on the earth right now. its always the same when these misprices happen, the flock keep on having there moans,on and on and on,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:D

neutron

wavefinder wrote: »

jesus christ! why can't you all move on! i myself tried to buy one,received the emails, END OF STORY! you can buy hard drives pretty cheap from just about anywhere on the earth right now. its always the same when these misprices happen, the flock keep on having there moans,on and on and on,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:D

If you find the posts here so annoying why don't you heed you're own advice and move on.

Odd_Fellow

Sponge wrote: »

I had two emails from Dell yesterday.



Slap in the face or what?

I think Dell have a lot to answer for regards their T&Cs, some of which are definitely asking to be legally tested. I wish I had the time and money to take it all the way, but I don't.

I hope some others pursue it further, but I'm bowing out...

From where I am right now, the cost of taking Dell to court on this will be about £35 for a small claims action. The damages will be the cost of the average selling price for a comparable product minus the selling price of the phantom poduct from Dell.

There is very little paperwork on this - it's effectively Dell's email correspondence with me and whatever passes between me and Dell that's not marked "without prejeduce". Dell may try to produce a bucket load of paper, but it's not really in it's interest as the terms of the contact are very clear from Dell's own emails. It can't easily cloud the issue.

I ordered 4 drives, so I imagine my damages are about £80 (£20 a drive). I am collecting comparable information on alternatves now.

Dell may be stupid enough to allow this to go to court, but I would doubt that the huge amount of publicity I could kick up about it (I was the first person to take my bank to court for a DPA claim and win in 2006) would make it worth it's time.

Whirly

Strangely enough Dell still haven't bothered sending me a "cancelled" email.

I suppose they'll only explain & apologise once I complain. Not so good as I buy from them regularly.

Odd_Fellow

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Aiadi

A reply I've received from Dell:
"Dear Customer

We understand from your email that you are not satisfied with the
explanation you have received so far. We thought it may be useful to
set out for you in further detail exactly what happened and why we have
taken the decisions we did.

As we have explained in previous emails, the error arose because two
manufacturers have used identical product codes for two different
products. This is an extremely unlikely scenario which has never
occurred before. It meant that our ordering system displayed on the Dell
website a product code for one product and a product image and
description for another. When you thought you were ordering the Iomega
HDD, our system was processing an order for a completely different
product. In fact we are not alone, as we believe that other online
retailers are having similar problems with these products for the same
reasons.

We took some time to realise this error had occurred, as our system was
operating on the basis that the orders taken were orders for the other
product, which is in stock. This is why some people received delivery
dates.

We are sorry for the inconvenience caused

Kind regards
Dell"

handsomeDaddy

Aiadi wrote: »

A reply I've received from Dell:
"Dear Customer

description for another. When you thought you were ordering the Iomega
HDD, our system was processing an order for a completely different
product. In fact we are not alone, as we believe that other online

Kind regards
Dell"

err... I got confirmation email from DELL's system stating Ive ordered:
Iomega Hard Disk Drive Hi Speed 250GB USB 2.07 FireWire 7200rpm External - Retail


go on Aiadi, fight for it..

hammy_the_hammer

Aiadi wrote: »

A reply I've received from Dell:
"Dear Customer

We understand from your email that you are not satisfied with the
explanation you have received so far. We thought it may be useful to
set out for you in further detail exactly what happened and why we have
taken the decisions we did.

As we have explained in previous emails, the error arose because two
manufacturers have used identical product codes for two different
products. This is an extremely unlikely scenario which has never
occurred before. It meant that our ordering system displayed on the Dell
website a product code for one product and a product image and
description for another. When you thought you were ordering the Iomega
HDD, our system was processing an order for a completely different
product. In fact we are not alone, as we believe that other online
retailers are having similar problems with these products for the same
reasons.

We took some time to realise this error had occurred, as our system was
operating on the basis that the orders taken were orders for the other
product, which is in stock. This is why some people received delivery
dates.

We are sorry for the inconvenience caused

Kind regards
Dell"

it's strange but pages and pages ago i had input item codes around the one for the hard drive and they were all iomega products.
i am waiting for some detailed info back from dell asking for the actual items and codes that have caused this 'problem'.
making it up as they go along springs to mind