Two months ago, I ordered a monitor extender from Dell. It didn’t work as I’d expected. I thought I returned it. Today, I learned hadn’t. Horror — it’s now 20 days past Dell’s 21 day return policy. Would they be flexible? Would they be understanding? No. Worse, they were just inept and wasteful of my time on the phone.
Below, a short recreation of my past hour….
NOTE: Dell’s since resolved the issue, as noted at the end of this piece.
Me: Ring Ring.
Dell: [Automated System, a billion choices, please enter your order number]
Me: [punches in the number. and again. and again until it takes]
Dell: Hello, Dell Returns.
Me: Hi. I have this thing that I forgot to return within your policy. Any chance I can still return it?
Dell: What’s your order number?
Me: Here you go.
Dell: [after a wait] – OK, I need to transfer you to someone who can help you.
Me: Awesome.
Dell: [new person] Hello, how can I help you.
Me: Hi. I have this thing that I forgot to return within your policy. Any chance I can still return it?
Dell: What’s your order number?
Me: [wondering if I've been locked into some sub-routine]. You want that order number I punched into the system and just gave to the other person?
Dell: Yes.
Me: Here you go.
Dell: [after a wait] – OK, I need to transfer you to someone who can help you.
Me: [didn't we just do this?] OK
Dell: [new person, my third one now] Hello, how can I help you.
Me: Hi. I have this thing that I forgot to return within your policy. Any chance I can still return it?
Dell: What’s your order number?
Me: You want that order number that I’ve given out three times now?
Dell: Yes.
Me: Here you go.
Dell: [A really long, long wait]. It appears that this is outside our 21 day return policy.
Me: I know. That’s what I said. I was hoping I could still return it. It doesn’t work the way I thought it would. I only discovered today that it wasn’t returned.
Dell: We can’t take this back.
Me: But I ordered a really expensive monitor from you at the same time. I’m about to order two more monitors from you. There’s nothing you can do?
Dell: No.
Me: OK, transfer me to your sales people. Maybe they can help me.
Dell: They can’t.
Me: Well, you clearly can’t, so I’ll take my chances with them.
Dell: [after a transfer] Dell Sales, how can I help you?
Me: I want to buy two of your high end 20″ monitors.
Dell: I’d be happy to help.
Me: By the way, I also have this thing I’m trying to return worth about $200 that’s outside your returns policy. The return department was no help. Maybe you can do something?
Dell: We’ll see if I can get you a discount.
Me: Awesome [imagining a $200 discount]
Dell: Unfortunately, we don’t offer discounts on those high end monitors.
Me: That really sucks. Returns couldn’t help me, and I was hoping maybe sales could make it up some way.
Dell: Let me have my supervisor talk to you.
Me: OK
Dell: [Sales supervisor] I understand you want a discount, but we have no ability in our system to actually discount those monitors. But I could give you a credit after the fact for $30.
Me: That seems kind of small given I’m stuck with this other thing that I can’t use.
Dell: Did you talk with a supervisor in returns?
Me: No
Dell: You should try that and be really insistent.
Me: OK
Dell: How about $40, and I’ll set up a conference call with the returns people.
Me: OK, let’s do that.
Dell: [takes my order, transfers me over to returns. really long, long wait] Dell returns, how can I help you.
Me: Hi. I have this thing that I forgot to return within your policy. Any chance I can still return it?
Dell: What’s your order number?
Me: [pondering if I should have my order number tattooed on my arm]. Here you go
Dell: [after a long wait]. That’s outside our return policy. We can’t take it back.
Me: OK, can I talk with a supervisor?
Dell: The supervisor will only tell you what I told you.
Me: OK, can I talk to a supervisor so the supervisor themselves can tell me what you’re telling me they’ll tell me.
Dell: The supervisor will only tell you what I told you.
Me: I’m sorry, are you a supervisor?
Dell: No, but the supervisor will only tell you…
Me: Transfer me to a supervisor
Dell: [after transfer] Hello, I’m the supervisor, how can I help you.
Me: Well, about an hour ago I called to see if I could return something outside your returns policy. I was transferred and transferred and eventually told no, because it was outside your policy, something I said from the beginning. Then I tried to see if sales could help, and they said to call back to returns and ask for a supervisor and be really insistent. Then I was sent back to returns, where the last person didn’t even want me to talk to you. But now that I am, I know this is outside your policy. But I was hoping Dell might give some consideration here. It doesn’t do what I needed. I can’t use it at all. I’ve bought an expensive monitor from you with it, and I’ve just bought two more. And by the way, I bought a laptop from you earlier this year that died after two months, leaving me stranded. So I was kind of thinking Dell might be flexible.
Dell: It’s outside our policy. We can’t help you. Sales shouldn’t have told you that. We have different departments. Support is the department to talk to if something doesn’t work right.
Me: It’s not a support problem. It technically cannot do what I want, because my monitors are of different resolutions. I simply can’t use it. That’s all. But since you’re mentioning different departments, do you have a customer service department at Dell?
Dell: Yes.
Me: Good. Tell them this. If I call Returns and say that something is outside your policy from the beginning, and you can’t break that policy, then just say that immediately. Don’t send someone to three different people and waste their time. At this point, I’m more upset that you just didn’t say no at the beginning than that you won’t take back something that’s past your policy.
Bottom line? I’m outside the policy. It’s my fault. Dell’s totally within its rights not to take back the product. I completely get that. What I don’t get is how much time they wasted with me on the issue. How much better to either have said (1) no from the beginning or (2) yes and kept a current customer happy.
Postscript: I tweeted out about this to @dellcares, which promptly followed-up and cut through the madness. Dell agreed I should have had the situation dealt with on the first call and had decided to make an exception for the trouble. Thanks!
{ 15 comments }
So you asked to speak to sales and they grudgingly put you through, but you say they are at fault for passing you around? They seem to have done nothing wrong. Their only mistake was doing what you asked.
No, I didn’t ask to be transferred three times. I called Returns as instructed on the web site. I told the first human I was transferred to that I wanted to return something outside the policy period, if that was possible. Rather than give me an answer, I was transferred to someone else. I had to explain things again to the second person and again, I was transferred. It was the third person who finally said no, there was nothing that could be done.
The first person could have said this. I didn’t ask the first person to send me to a second, or the second to send me to a third.
I ended up with the fourth person in returns because sales sent me back there. I ended up with the fifth person because sales told me specifically to talk to a manager.
The entire thing started on Dell’s site, where it said that if you’re trying to return something outside the 21 day period, to call them. If that page has said outside 21 days, there’s nothing that can be done, we’d have all saved a lot of time.
Hey Danny,
I thought it was just me:-)
Honestly this has been about my experience with all call centered supported technology for at least the several years.
Speaking just for myself of course, I’m quite sure it is my fault for something unspeakable I must have done in another life.
All the best and a Merry Christmas.
Just tried to order a notebook from Dell and had a horrible experience trying to cancel the order and returning the software that got past the cancelation. Spent hours on the phone being handed to different department talking to people I could barely understand. I will never buy from them again.
Suggest you get a Starwood AMEX card. Not only is it an awesome card with great travel benefits, you can return almost anything (up to $300) for 90 days and AMEX will give you your money back.
Glad Dell made an exception for you – though you certainly had to earn it. I’ve been through a very similar experience with Master Card. Why do they ask you to punch in your card number and then immediately ask you what your number is when they get you on the phone, and why does the person who “can’t help” always pass you on without explaining to the next person or at least checking with them first?
That absolutely drives me nuts when you have continually tell people the number you just punched into the automated system! I just keep hitting ZERO until the automated system connects me to a “live” person.
Awesome solution…just Tweet the problem…the power of social media at work!!
The thing that pisses me off most about Dell is that they stopped making professional grade laptops with a 1920 x 1200 res monitor (of which I have bought three since 2005). Now they only offer 1920 x 1080 consumer-grade entertainment notebooks optimized for watching DVDs with shitty keyboard feel. Seriously, I would just like to reorder my same old Dell, slap an Apple sticker on it, and save over a thousand bucks.
I’m walking around with duct tape on the corners of my broken notebook and nobody wants to sell me a replacement that doesn’t weigh more than 12lbs or cost more than $4,000. Is this progress?
Ooh — Dell has a same on the M6500 with the specs I want…must buy one.
Unfortunately this is not just a Dell problem, I’ve had the same kind of issues over here in the Netherlands with phone companies, cable companies and others. Service just isn’t their thing I guess.
The thing is, you WERE 20 days late and a line has to be drawn somewhere off course. I think the problem lies in how they then transfer you multiple times, keep saying no, asking the same questions plus ignore that you are a really good client spending a lot of money with them. Especially that last part is hard to understand it seems.
The same thing happened with me. I had bought a laptop, and a better version was release only a few days after my return period. I called to see if I could return the one I had and purchase the considerably more expensive one. They said no.
Seems odd considering they would have made more money, even after processing.
I have never had any dealing’s with dell……..they are notorious for bad customer service/products ect….FYI alienware is owned by dell too,overpriced junk.
Stuff like this drives me nuts. Why do dell have this knee-jerk reaction to you publicly outing them as being awful. To me your whole anecdote just says that Dell don’t give a rats ass how they actually look after their average punter, but a bit of negative PR and they’re crapping themselves. Word of mouth has long been the most powerful form of marketing there is; don’t look after it on a case-by-case basis when somebody happens to go public to tell loads of people how crap they’ve been.
I tried returning a product to Dell, I had been in the hospital so I missed
the deadline by 3 days and they still would not return it. What do I do, help?
You could try becoming one of the most respected search writers in the world, create a blog with a huge worldwide audience. Then just expose them as being awful; it seems that’s what they respond to best.
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