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Recourse For Poor Customer Service?
eleventypie writes "I am in the Army and currently stationed in Afghanistan. Recently I found myself without a laptop so I decided to build a studio 17 from Dell. I designed/customized my laptop on 2008-09-17 and placed my order, which totaled approximately $1,700. The laptop was built and apparently shipped on 2008-09-28. Given my APO address, I know mail can sometimes take a little while to get here, though 7-10 days is normal. Dell said to give my laptop 6-8 business days and occasionally, it might take as much as 4-6 weeks. So on 2008-11-12 I sent another email to Dell informing them I still had not received my laptop. One person said to give it more time, while another person responded to my message telling me to send my address again and they would send me a replacement. So I sent my address immediately and never got a response. It is now the 30th of November and I still have no laptop and Dell seems to have quit responding to my emails. This is very frustrating being out $1,700 and not having a laptop to talk to my friends and family and do school work. Phone calls aren't easy so calling them is pretty much out of the question. Any advice on what I can or should do at this point to get the computer I ordered or get my money back?"
...and dispute the charge. No laptop = no payee.
and have them reverse the charges
call your credit card company and charge back the $1,700
of course you bought this on your credit card right? considering your circumstances and location the extra insurance afforded by purchasing on a Credit card means you wouldn't have through of using any other medium
Otherwise you will have to speak to Dell or any trading standards operated in the USA for proper legal advice
This is my sig, there are many like it but this is mine
It most likely got stolen by a corrupt employee on its way to you. Dell thinks you got it and won't send another one, so the place to take this is your credit card's fraud resolution process, who will most likely eat the loss.
Send in the Marines! Once Dell HQ is surrounded I'm sure they'll find your laptop.
Honestly e-mail CNN with a story about how hard it is to deal with issues like this when you are out of country in the service. You can even file an iReport. If they run with the story I think you'll find your laptop showing up in record time with a heartfelt apology from Dell.
Contact the better business bureau or get on the phone, get to customer support, and ask for a manager. I never put up with trying to talk to someone that speaks broken english and just tells me there deals that they have for that month.
Yeah, everyone knows that jarheads can't read.
Apparently you're at a computer with internet right now, you should try using SkypeOut or another free software VoIP service to call tech support and figure out what's going on.
Get your problem posted to the front page of slashdot?
Choosing Dell was probably the only thing you should have done differently. I haven't heard much praise about them.
There are members of the U.S. Armed Forces who attend college while enlisted and even while stationed overseas. Certainly you've heard of online degree programs offered by schools such as Argosy University or University of Phoenix?
My blog
...I predict that Dell Customer Relations will be acting very quickly to get you a nice laptop. ;]
consumerist.com
If I can not smoke in heaven, then I shall not go. -- Mark Twain
My son is an Army JAG Attorney. He was telling me that helping servicemen with such problems was part of the job that gave them much satisfaction. They can write some very good letters on your behalf. You probably have a few deployed with/near you.
USA USA USA
haha
Presumably, you've paid with a credit card. Call up your CC company and dispute the charges.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Send an email to Michael. That should fix the problem rather quickly.
Go to consumerist.com they have numbers and email addresses for corporate customer service.
Hopefully, you went through the online exchange, AAFES, if you didn't then ASAP contact your Credit Card Co. and file the necessary paper work. Next time using AAFES will give you some additional leverage, as AAFES will go to bat for you on lost orders.
1) Dispute charge with your credit card issuer (as others have recommended)
2) Check out the consumerist blog (consumerist.com) and use their guidelines to get consumer satisfaction.
Don't let them BS you - put the beef out in public and you're more likely to get results. Dell and other large companies don't care about you, an individual consumer - make it public and affect thousands of buying decisions and you'll likely fare better.
Note: If they resolve this to your satisfaction, also post/email/whatever a follow-up showing that they made good on a bad situation. If they do not, of course you should let everyone know that as well.
Good luck!
This is why the west is going to fail in the middle east - no fricking initiative.
you have a dodgy supply chain to your location. bother the supply chain
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Full of that fresh, shiny VISTA goodness.. you'll be deliriously happy!
Be patient, my lad - The WOW starts... soon!
you had me at #!
Looking at Reseller Ratings Dell has a really shitty customer service team.
I would suggest:
Good luck
Actually in the Army you can get a degree from most normal colleges while deployed as well. Theres a college exchange program where you can take classes at any approved college (including some classes taught by the army itself both online and offline) and receive your degree at the participating college of your choice (and they do have a good selection of participating colleges.)
Call the credit card company - dispute the charge. And for the record, I would not have waited 2 months. I'd have given them 10 days at the most. At the very least, those imbeciles at Dell should have tracking information.
If they do - then you can see where it's lost (or if it shipped at all). If they don't, then they get to do it again at their expense. If they give you any static, go see the JAG Atty for your locale...
If it was stolen en route after it got into the APO system, then the JAG will love to see that. If it got stolen PRIOR to getting into the APO, file complaints with the US Postal Inspectors...
I've heard of many great success stories from people employing a new consumer tactical weapon: the EECB, executive email carpet bomb.
But it's only to be used as a last resort, no matter how justified or important you think you are. After you've tried everything else, dig up the email addresses of Dell executives (which are generally not hard to find, surprisingly) and send *all* of them a well-written, rational letter explaining why you are dissatisfied with their service and what they can do to set things straight if they want to keep you as a customer.
For bonus points, mention tactfully that you have a blog. Good luck, soldier.
Of course you can just cancel the credit card charge.
However, I'm not sure really what you do about Dell's customer service. Or, indeed, the CS from any large corporation if you have a problem.
In such companies, the goal is to reduce customer contact (by fobbing customers off with canned answers) and maintain a satisfaction rate of about 80% (usually through fraudulent stats practices). That means that most customers will either be satisfied or simply give up due to inadequate answers.
Most CS is either outsourced or in a contact center far from the head offices. Most CS staff are looked down on by Head Office staff. Communication is one way -- FROM head office. If you have a complaint about CS, the first person you complain to is from CS. If your complaint is serious, or is a good suggestion as to how to improve the business, then CS staff usually have very little opportunity to pass that to Head office, other than through a heavily bureaucratic process. Often it will get thrown out in the 3rd or 4th tier in the process. It's very unlikely that you will be able to contact someone in head office directly to raise issues with CS. CS has a vested interest in hiding any issues from head office.
Which leads me to wonder why any corporation ever bothers to provide any CS at all. It being such a cost center, and one that bosses clearly don't care about -- otherwise it would never be outsourced.
Send a letter to the president of Dell, CCing the vice-president of sales. Lay out the problem. Emphasize your presence in Iraq and service and self-sacrifice. Lay it on thick.
why only sometimes?
Well, I mentioned Argosy University particularly because my wife attends there and there is someone stationed in Afghanistan who is currently taking the same class she is. Their program is actually only partially online -- there is part that is on-campus as well.
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Because it's a story about our boys over there killing terrists for Jesus. Slashdot: the new Fox News.
I can't believe assholes like you still exist.
There are a lot of options for service personnel, most of which are better schools than the ones you mentioned. Pace University had professors aboard my ship while I was in the Marines in the 1990's - unfortunately I couldn't attend because I actually had to go ashore and fight in Somalia while the rest of the Navy floated around and earned college credit.
I think it's great that these options are available to those in the service, it gives them a great head start when they get out.
Call your credit card company and dispute the charges.
I had similar problems with Dell Australia recently, and after a month or so of trying to play nice I looked up the location of their Australian office and contacted the Department of Fair Trading in that state to ask them for assistance. They took over from there and within a week I had the Executive Customer Escalation Manager for Dell Australia ringing and emailing me (and leaving me her direct email/phone number), apologising profusely and trying to get everything sorted out.
I don't know if a similar government regulatory body exists in whichever state Dell US are based in, but do a little research and if one does exist, ask them for help. Make sure you let them know eveything you've tried so far, and include any and all documentation to support your claim.
Good luck!
1. You got a Dell
2. You used APO with Dell
3. You apparently used a non-tracking service
What to do: Reverse charges. Contact Apple (they use non-descript boxes and UPS or FedEx without charging extra). Their laptops are sturdier for that price as well.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Argosy's psychology program is very reputable.
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You can do that online (BBB.org); my experience is that a real person in Texas will respond and help resolve it. That's what happened when an order of my went into Dell's little version of customer service hell. I spoke with a real person in TX who not only solved it but gave me a credit for a future purchase. As a side note - did you checkout the deals on AKO? Soemtimes they are better than those online.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
I'd suggest you first pick up a telephone and have a real-time conversation with somebody.
Excuse me. No. We respect your service, and he has every right to ask for help from people he trusts. That apparently is us. They said they'd send a replacement.. but didn't. So now we are discussing resolutions. You had no right to make those assumptions.
Unless you are buying literally thousands of PCs, the fact that you had to write them multiple emails implies that they have crappy service.
By all means, troll to your heart's content but PLEASE make it intelligible so that our minds can experience the troll as yours did..
Requiem for the American Dream
...everyone else is just trying to get their shit back!
Brother someone stole your shipment without a doubt. I can't believe you would even order something like that while in country. When I was in Opsec, Afghanistan we had our mail stolen all the time. Mostly just cartons of smokes. You should have ordered it through AAFES if you couldn't wait to pick one up on your R&R.
We also had quite a few CONEX get broke into during shipping. They would simply take the hinges off, take what they wanted, and weld it back shut.
My suggestion to you is to make sure you report it. Maybe one good thing out of it is one of those USSR employees will get fired.
Good luck Sir
I want to be retired when I grow up.
>Seriously. We respect your service in Afghanistan, but this is clearly not a
>question for Slashdot other than you are trying to use Slashdot's fame to draw
>attention to your case to get you preferential treatment. Clearly if what you
>cared about was your money, you'd call your credit card company and the matter
>would be settled in minutes.
And, given that he is risking his life in Afghanistan, why the hell shouldn't he get preferential treatment?
Brett
7-10 days is pretty quick for an APO. I'm waiting about 5 weeks per package on my APO in Antarctica. Same old C-17 delivery, but damn do they take their sweet time.
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
Well, some place full of furriners, anyway.
(Disrespect intended only to nomadic, not the original poster, who I am sure is well aware of the myriad differences between the two countries.)
Is that you Osama?
1. Filing a claim with the Credit Card is the best option, as you'll get your money back quickly and can place an order with a different supplier. Emailing or calling doesn't help as you always end up talking to somebody underpaid overseas that simply doesn't care to make you happy and don't care about the great service you do to the USA.
2. If you really want to escalate with Dell, the best way is to file a complaint with the BBB. I did it twice with Dell and I got an American rep to call me and solve the matter (the 2nd time, they didn't recognize their mistake but took the merchandise back over 90 days later and refunded 100%).
3. Great time to buy now with Holiday season offers, if you call your CC you should know in a matter of minutes if they can reverse the charges (and they'll as you never received the PC). Dell needs to prove it was delivered to you.
Good luck
Purchasing your Dell computer through AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Services), online or off, has 2 benefits:
1) Tax-free.
2) Your Dell helpline service tickets will be assigned to the Small Business department, instead of Joe Public.
PS: You can also buy your Harley-Davidson motorcycle through AAFES while you're deployed.
Recourse For Poor Customer Service?
Homeland Security. I've had the impression long before 9/11 that Al-Qaeda has infiltrated Dell customer service.
And, given that he is risking his life in Afghanistan, why the hell shouldn't he get preferential treatment?
Because, as a non-american, I don't support the war, and i don't support his actions.
Why should he get preferential treatmetn for living in a country that sends him to war for no reason? Why should he get preferential treatment because he was idiotic enough to sign up for the military in the USA?
Another thing to ask is if they ever shipped it and if they did what the tracking number is. At least this way you can try to work out whether the blame is with Dell or the internal courier service used by the military to get it there (I imagine this how it works). Once you can work out where the computer should be you will know who you be dealing with.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I've had nothing but good experiences with Dell (have you checked their online tracking system?) But if you're really really pissed with a company nothing is quite as satisfying as mailing them a fish - wrap it well, make sure you ship it surface, forget about the return address, you wont be wanting it back. Mind you finding a fish in Afghanistan might be problematic, there must be a local equivalent
Here's what I would do: :)
- call or email Dell, tell them that since you didn't get your laptop and didn't get any information from them, you will dispute the charge on your credit card
- give them 24 hours to respond
- if they don't respond, call your credit card, and dispute the charge. Keep your email as a prove that you contacted the merchant
- if your laptop from Dell comes, refuse the delivery
- buy laptop somewhere else
Without folks like him, there would be no Slashdot. As far as I'm concerned, he can ask whatever the fuck he wants.
There's nothing wrong with indiscriminately killing women and children who are Islamic savages.
If you don't drop 'em today, they'll drop your convoy tomorrow after wrapping themselves in duct-tape, ball-bearings, and explosive.
in the first world war, soldiers wrote home about the terrible carnage, the awful conditions, and how they wanted to go home. They wrote poetry and listened to jazz.
in the second world war, soldiers wrote home about the incredible pace of war, the awful conditions, fighting the tyrannical fascism of Germany, Italy and Japan, and how they wanted to go home. they wrote novels, and listened to dance music.
in the vietnam war, soldiers wrote home about the pointlessness of war, the awful conditions, the alienation being in a completely foreign culture where both sides saw you as an invader, and how they wanted to go home. they smoked dope and listened to The Doors.
You're posting on a web site, complaining your recreational toy hasn't turned up after a few weeks.
May i humbly suggest that your time is better spent reading some books, to enlighten you as to why you're in the position you are, and just how the hell you and your countrymen arrived there.
i'd suggest Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden" - well written, and a modern perspective on the afghan condition. And for the longer historical perspective "Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of The Taliban"
by Stephen Tanner. There are many other excellent books out there.
I'd also question your choice of laptop. For challenging conditions, with heat, sand, and a lot of bumps, I'd suggest a panasonic toughbook or other ruggedised solution. Unless of course, you're a REM who's several hundred clicks from any forward operating post, and have ready access to 24x7 electricity with no spikes, aircon and constant net access. Apologies if I've called that one wrong, but you're not exactly giving the impression of being at the sharp end of business out there.
being a premier partner with Dell, when ordering somewhat customized laptops or desktops, I get really late estimated shipping dates due to the amount of CPUs and lithium ion batteries on hand at Dell's factories. one think I will say, is that sometimes Dell likes to discontinue certain models of laptops without telling the customer until it is way too late. or, the particular configuration of your model might have some parts that might be discontinued as well. as much as I like Dell for their excellent warranties (crucial for business customers), their inventory control needs to improve.
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
I can't believe dumbfuck rednecks like you are still allowed to breed.
Your existence is folly.
Contact Clark Howard at clarkhoward.com and I am sure they will get you results. Wouldn't surprise me if Dell didn't push you a laptop and a thank you gift on the next transport after a phone call from them.
if we were meant to network, God would have made all of us BORG!
He doesn't have the laptop so he can't submit the story. Dell knows this so they aren't worried.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
maybe it's god's(buddha's) way punishing you for being involved in the illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign foreign nation
lots of the afgan people don't have adequate food, shelter, and clothing, much less $1700 laptops, thanks to about 20+ years of unending war, currently compliments of the americans, before that the russians and twice before that thank to the british, gee i wonder why they are not to fond of white christians
maybe if you make a $1700 donation to an afgan orphanage you will get your laptop
I've had an APO address for the better part of a decade. In that time, I've had the following articles stolen in the mail:
a monitor
2x laptops
a workstation
3x motherboard/cpu combos
They were all bought with credit cards; so I got my money back, but it's still a major pain in the ass to have to deal with
Overseas military mail is an easy target for criminals. The required customs declaration makes for easy pickings.
Sometimes, they do catch the perps and the penalties are harsh. That's your only consolation.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n15827460
If you insure your mail, they are required to have a positive chain of custody and proof of identity before delivery.
E-mailing the customer service address directly is rarely a winning strategy. The people answering them are simply not empowered to help solve complex problems.
In similar situations, what I do is send a reply involving the entire e-mail chain. I send to the customer service address, but CC one or two relevant VP's of the company in question. In my e-mail, I summarize my understanding of the situation, the result of communication so far, why I am dissatisfied with the results to date, and what I expect to see done to resolve the situation.
The drones in customer service might not be able to resolve your situation. But an appropriately placed vice president certainly can. And, in my experience, if your expectations are reasonable, your problems are significant, and your tone is respectful, you are likely to get their help. They may pawn you off on a regional director with a "Handle this!" e-mail, but that's gold.
The trick, of course, is to find the appropriate e-mail address to CC on your complaint. Google is your friend on this, and consumerist.com has been a good resource in the past. Try to stay focused--sending a complaint to Michael Dell is probably not the most effective path. He gets a lot of e-mail, and customer service is at best a small part of his overall portfolio. What I try to find is either a VP of Customer Service/Experience, or failing that the exec with overall responsibility for the region you're ordering from.
Most companies claim to care deeply about service, and a situation like yours can (and should) leave them feeling embarrased about their company's execution, and will make them want to help you. I've gotten several nasty customer situations resolved to my satisfaction quickly with this technique. (In one case, an airline's VP of customer service had someone personally call me to let me know they took my problem seriously and were working on my problem within 2 hours of the original complaint).
The key is to be respectful, explain what you want, and get the issue in front of someone who can do something about it.
and Bin Laden's typing his myspace profile on it right now. Go get him!
Seriously though, what are we supposed to tell you? Contact somebody higher up the chain, preferably by phone. Yeah it may be hard, but so is delivering a $2k package to a 3rd world shithole.
Wait a minute... I thought asshole behavior was what Slashdot is all about?
Because he's a mercenary that chose to kill for money.
You can be a non supporter of the war *and* support service personnel, who are doing a job that I know I couldn't do. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, and you certainly don't have to be an ass about it.
I would be very happy to follow up with Dell at no charge for a service person serving in Afganistan protecting our freedoms! This is not a joke, I am very serious. Thank you! Rick
...because the world would be a war-torn killing zone without current American foreign policy.
Your hometown TV station probably has a consumer reporter who would love to do a "local hero in Afghanistan abused by big faceless corporation" story, especially during sweeps. Also, even though the election is over, your Congresscritter would love to have his/her name on a press release announcing the resolution of you problem.
I'd agree that you should know your card company's chargeback procedure, and understand how to do this. But don't start with the chargeback.
Disputing the charges is "the nuclear option" in terms of working with a customer service department. It will generally make all future conversations adversarial. It will rarely help you get your order fulfilled--at best, the company might grudgingly agree to cancel your order. It can also in some circumstances result in getting a collection agency placed on you (and the resultant damage to your credit rating).
Keep this in your back pocket, but if you have other options (see other suggestions about trying to escalate to someone senior in the customer service department), try them first. If you still want your Dell, you need Dell to be willing to work with you. Don't burn any bridges until you're convinced the transaction is beyond saving.
guessing that you're already aware of the "dispute the charges" option, and were here looking to solve the problem differently. People stateside in this situation are most interested in getting their money back and ordering somewhere else etc so that's why so many answers are going that way. You being deployed are probably more interested in any other way to get the laptop you ordered.
Unfortunately you may be downhill of someone that makes a business of lifting computers from the delivery chain there. It won't matter how many times they send it, you won't get it. One poster recommended seeing if you can get special instructions to plain-mark your box. A better option is to get it delivered back home, and have someone ship it to you. Then you are not dealing with Dell as the shipper that has to go after the shipping company. Right now as the receiver you're pretty powerless to get involved. Should save on shipping costs from your friend's stateside base to you of course too as another option.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I was also in the service and know how bad the mail system is. The mail is handled by regular people like you, me and the guy or gal reading this post. Integrity is not a requirement to join the rate that handles mail, and I recall several incidents every deployment where PS's were actually stealing electronics from the mail. There's no way to prove they were actually received, except for documentation kept by the PS's, who if stealing your electronics would not be quick to document it.
You can do it online. The first thing they will ask is if you are in the military. That puts you at the top of the list. When I did it (for the same reason) I got a response from Gateway the same day, and a new laptop sent two days later. Gwee
The general attitude at least two electrical places I've worked at, with some managers there has been that once we've got the customers money, sod it. If something bad happens, they have to do all the waiting around and pissing about till the item gets fixed. They think there's plenty of other fish in the sea. And they used to be right, but now they're losing money hand over fist, they need to realise that customer service matters, or die like the dinosaurs they are. I'm not saying to bend to every customers demand, because the customer sure as heck isn't always right. But just stonewalling/messing them about is no good any more.
https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/outstanding_issues_care?c=us&cs=&l=en&s=gen or this Irene Stewart Dell Inc. Executive Support Representative DHS Executive Support Staff (512) 724-9524 (800) 624-9897 Ext. 7249524 Irene_Stewart@dell.com
If you got a loan to buy it, perhaps a bank working in conjunction with Dell then be wary about this. Contact a JAG if you can and keep hounding Dell and whoever provided the credit/loan to purchase the computer.
I work for a third party debt buyer and a large amount of the accounts we work are computers that people purchased online using a bank-provided loan.
The biggest problem we have with these accounts is hearing that A) they never received the computer, B) they received it and it didn't work or C) someone bought it using their information.
Don't be like group A. Don't let this just slide by. You might find yourself getting debt collection calls a year or two later.
Hound Dell. Hound your CC or bank. Ask a JAG for help.
Like the 100s of Millions of US Dollars 'lost' over there.
The servicemen get abused by being sent to fight for a lie, and the politically connected contractors rub salt in the wounds by getting rich.
The only positive in this whole mess is that US casualties are much much lower than in Vietnam. Other than that, the only honor is being a good soldier and following your orders. :(
Blar.
Why on earth are you ordering a Dell laptop delivered there? Are you that stupid or that arrogant?
I don't know about Afghanistan, but we've send several high-dollar ($2500-3600) notebooks to Iraq without any problems. We were always sure to use USPS Express Mail (did dell use express or priority?) with full insurance and declaration as to what they were. They were always received in pristine condition and within 7 days. We had one get there in 3 days! We thought the guy was pulling our leg, until he sent us the pictures.
Yeah, but basically as I've learned long time ago /. is full of either pathetic loser geeks that won't get any real 3D girl on their lives and hate us the military because girls love men in uniform, or screwed up anti-American Indian, Asian and other utter crap foreign shit, that hate Americans, because they want to leave some crap shit like that Mombay crap-hole of ugly bollywood people, and come to live in the beautiful USA.
So, that is why I will get my M203 today and open some holes on some of those pathetic parasites that are here in Iraq as "allied" forces but look ugly as a freaking asian tard and deserve to die a terrible death. I will show them what we Americans mean for the red, white and blue. Red for their Blood, White for their faces after they are dead, and Blue for the bruises me and my men will get on their pathetic asian bodies...
Have a friend mail it Registered Mail. The military will treat it as classified materials and take very good care of it.
Because, as a non-american, I don't support the war, and i don't support his actions.
Why should he get preferential treatmetn for living in a country that sends him to war for no reason? Why should he get preferential treatment because he was idiotic enough to sign up for the military in the USA?
No reason to wage war on a nation that was harboring and encouraging an organization that carried out several attacks on US soil, killing thousands of US citizens? Exactly why isn't this a reason?
Sometimes you just get nowhere and have to take the loss. But never forget it, and warn other people.
If you buy from http://mini-itx.com/ you will not get your goods.
No we would be speaking German or Japanese and living under a worldwide fascist government that killed you if you disagree.
But you'll believe what you want, so it really doesn't matter.
I used to work for Dell in a call center doing technical support for business and the Army was one segment that I supported quite often. I dealt with many calls from overseas Army bases and it was always a headache. It's called OCONUS or Outside the CONtinental United States and it is a completely different process to send something OCONUS than it is to ship normally. The reason for this is because of export restrictions and other trade regulations. If Dell screws up and sends something where they aren't suppoesto they could loose their ability to ship anything outside the US so they take it very seriously. There is a special department in Round Rock TX that deals with this, all of my shipments went through them. I had to set it up a certain way, or it wouldn't work, nothing would be shipped and I wouldn't know it wasn't shipped unless I remembered to check back a couple of days later and see the status of the shipment. So, the end result is that because most agents don't get many OCONUS calls, possibly 1 or 2 a year, they either don't know that it has to be done a certain way, or they can't remember how to do it the right way so it fails to ship and the agent who set it up is NOT notified unless they take the time to check a few days later on the status which they usually don't have time and would not think to do anyway as 99% of the time it is unnecessary. Now bear in mind, this is in hardware warranty support, not sales and it has been about a year since I last worked for Dell so things could have changed but, I kind of doubt it. This was an ongoing issue for me as I worked the night shift so I got at least 3 or 4 OCONUS calls in a week which is much, much more than the average agent. I became the go to guy for OCONUS (in my department) calls because I did so many of them. Another issue is the APO address. We were told NEVER to ship to an APO if there was any other address available because it could often take 3 to 4 MONTHS, not weeks to get there if it ever did. I ALWAYS had issues shipping to APO's. So that could be the issue as well. You need to realize that the agent could be trying to do their best to give you good service (which may or may not be the case) but they are very limited on what they can do and more likely, do not know all the options they have available to them. As this is a rare case - shipping OCONUS to an APO, most agents would not have ever done this and not know how do do it correctly. I would follow the advice of some other posters and call and talk to a live person, during business hours in EST which probably means you need to call at 2 or 3 am your time. Be prepared with all the information you can possibly get and be ready to spend quite some time on the phone as it is better if you can stay on the phone while the agent goes and talks to someone who knows what to do or looks for someone who knows what to do. Shipping overseas is a pain and is always a hassle. also it's not Dell making the hassle it's the US trade regulations so blaming the Dell agent won't accomplish anything, even though it might be their fault for not sending it correctly in the first ( and second and third...) place. Asking for a supervisor won't work as there are no supervisors for you to talk to. there are managers who do not talk to customers, the best you can do is get another agent but then you will be starting back at square 1 and have to explain everything all over again. Another person posted offering to follow up with Dell for you, this won't work as they are not the person how placed the order or the cardholder so Dell probably will not talk to them, this is the normal customer confidentially policy Dell has. the easiest thing to do would be to have a family member buy a computer for you and then send it to you the way you normally receive mail from family and friends. Any other company (like HP or Apple) will have the same difficulties shipping to you as Dell but they might have better trained agents, or not. I'm not trying to defend Dell here just tell you the realities of shipping from Dell to your APO.
When our son, deployed in Afghanistan, ordered his laptop, we had it delivered to our house, then repacked it in a plain brown box, before shipping it out to him insured. Sure, people can still look at the customs form and see it's a laptop, but that's better than shipping a box with "Dell" in large letters on the side that you can read at twenty paces.
You need to wait. APO takes a while sometimes, especially around the holiday. I had a bike shipped priority that took 3 months to get to me.
When my boyfriend was station in Iraq I ordered a laptop for him and he never received it either. I worked with Dell and with the tracking all we knew was it was somewhere in the middle east but couldn't tell for sure. The timing was right because my boyfriend was coming home for his 2 weeks leave so Dell just sent another laptop to me and he picked it up here.
I'm not defending Dell exactly, my company buys thousands of them and with ANY customer service it is a hit or miss. I hate dealing with outsourced customer service too. Especially when they treat their US employees so crappy (instead of doing layoffs Dell gave the employees a choice of working 1 week without pay). That and I can't frigging understand the outsourced customer service, they can't speak English very well x_x
I was active duty myself stationed in Japan it's risky business sending to APO/FPO's regardless. Many things don't make it.
First establish last known location, do give a leeway in time. Dell doesn't control mail service. Contact customer service, establish a case # so you can reference it if you have to call back in. Take notes of everything. Ask to speak to a supervisor. Inform them of the steps you have taken and that there is no resolution and that either they send you another one or give you your money back for the one you bought.
Still call the credit card company and tell them the situation so you'll have a record of contacting them and that you're trying to find a solution and if that doesn't work you want to dispute the charges.
For those yes, I'm sad for their losses ... now for the losses of some army boy ... give me a break!
This post is probably the most informative and relevant to the situation at hand.
Someone mod parent up please.
If I can not smoke in heaven, then I shall not go. -- Mark Twain
Dell's philosophy is trust the customer, if you say you never got and they can't prove you did then they'll just send you another. This happens, just talk to customer care (emails are useless, phone them) and explain what's up, make sure to get a case number if it doesn't get resolved on first call. /Ex dell employee
I'm not sad for their losses. They shouldn't have been living there anyway.
Katrina was natures way of saying "keep the fuck out of new orleans."
No we would be speaking German or Japanese ...
Assuming that "we" is the USA then, no, "we" wouldn't; but parts of Europe might be speaking Russian and Japan might be speaking Mandarin Chinese.
That is, once Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, it was clear that Nazi Germany was going to be defeated. The only question was who was going to get to occupy it.
Also, there was no way Japan was going to maintain control of China in the long term - either the USA occupied Japan in the short term or communist China made Japan an extra province in the long term.
Sounds to me like an open-and-shut case of breach of contract. They took your money. They failed to fulfill their side of the bargain. Unless they refund your money (perhaps with interest, perhaps not) or give you the laptop you paid for, they're guilty as hell. Maybe I'm naive, but I'd bet a lot of judges, juries and predatory, razor-toothed lawyers would take a pretty dim view of a corporation ripping off somebody risking his life in service of his country.
I imagine a letter from the aforementioned predator (maybe accompanied by a warning that the media would be involved soon) would generate some kind of response.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Many have advocated contacting the BBB but few understand how the BBB actually works. The BBB does indeed attempt to serve as a complaint resolution service. The problem is that a business needs to be a member of the BBB for the BBB to bother processing complaints against them or attempting resolution.
Membership isn't free and the BBB is fragmented into multiple local and regional chapters with their own rules. In some local BBB chapters, the BBB does not even extend membership to certain categories of businesses at all - no matter how upstanding or shady they are.
I wouldn't imagine that a very large corporation such as Dell would be a member of the BBB or that the BBB would offer membership to such a large organization. Dell's brand name is so large that they don't need to bother influencing purchasing decisions with a BBB membership - knowing some small % of their customers are completely unreasonable (not this particular person, but there are customers who have expectations and demands that are impossible to satisfy) and would only cause misery on their BBB report. On the other hand the BBB is probably unwilling to process 10,000s of complaints per year from a large corporation for only a small membership fee.
Searching BBB Online for Dell in Texas does not list them as a member: http://www.bbb.org/online/consumer/default.aspx
My point is that in this particular case (and in many similar cases) the BBB option could be a waste of effort. Before attempting to contact the BBB, first check and make sure that the company is a member.
Seek therapy. Please.
Nowhere does the poster say he's in the US Army. He could be British, Canadian, French, German, or even perhaps he's a new member of the Afghan National Army. I know Dell doesn't sell just to people in the USA, so you can't make those kinds of assumptions.
As others have said, contact your credit card company and block the charge. Don't be shy about telling them you're in the military and in Afghanstan. Remember, the credit card company has a reason to be on you side.
Then, contact Dell and tell then what you've done. Tell them you asked for advice on Slashdot and the you've blocked the charge.
My guess is that this will get you a new laptop.
Frankly, as someone who served at a few APO addresses, my guess is that someone on the Afghan side made off with your purchase. I once ordered a pair of replacement contacts lenses from my D.C. optometrist to be sent APO only to have them arrive, weeks late, in the local mail. Never figured that out.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I cannot fix your problem with Dell.
I will recommend, to others I know, that we not buy as many Dell products as in the past years. With this economy ... I am not sure of the impact ... many are cutting back. Anyway... it can cost Dell more than $1* over the next few years, but my colleagues always get good price deals from all the technology OEMs and big distributors like Arrow, CDW... (no real need for dell).
MercysVictim's reply sound like a marketeer lurker on /. providing spin and cleans services for Dell. He is right about export laws on technology, scopes, sensors..., but APO is USA Government mail/parcel delivery ..., best I remember same rules apply for all US Mail delivery in/out of the USA, but maybe the laws changed with 911/Chaney.
Dell should answer their mail, or file for bankruptcy and a Government bailout.
Anyway, THANKS MUCH for helping US.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
jbssm a big fuck you too, you weaselly petty preppy fuck-buddy.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Redneck? That's a leap if I've ever heard one. Crawl back to your basement, fucker.
Yeah, what I said above applies to you too.
Yeah, my post said nothing about Bush or Vietnam. When you're done with your little tantrum, please point out to me when it became appropriate to accuse anonymous soldiers of shooting at random civilians just because you disagree with Bush. It's not their fault that they're in this situation.
No reason to wage war on a nation that was harboring and encouraging an organization that carried out several attacks on US soil, killing thousands of US citizens? Exactly why isn't this a reason?
Exactly why would it be a reason?
Presumably, the answer would be that going to war was the only way to neutralize the organization and also the only to deter other countries from harboring the organization.
But, has it worked?
Has Bin Laden been captured? Has Pakistan stopped harboring Al Qaeda? Have wealthy Saudis stopped funding Al Qaeda?
You might say that there hasn't been another 9/11 but, in that case, I've got a rock to sell you that prevents tiger attacks.
Jarheads are Marines, and they don't refer to themselves as "soldiers".
Your attempt at humour fails miserably.
But he's not in Saudi Arabia. He's in Afghanistan.
or pretend to be one and ask them if there is some problem shipping laptops to asscrackistan
Contact Media Relations
Working media members may contact Dell's Media Relations team by calling our press line at (512) 728-4100 , or by using the form below.
The press line is staffed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. A recording at that number provides emergency and weekend contact information.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
k,i'll bite,
you have to be a complete blivet F,or just a plain moron.
the other choice is your jerking us off.
no one orders things and has them shipped to there apo,npo,mpo,
or there tent city,especialy in a combat zone.
perhaps maybe your cunducting a scam of sorts.
members vote this out.
it does'nt make sense.
military personel recieve training concerning what and what
not will get through the mail in combat zones.
regards
usmc mike
I say if you can't resolve your customer service issue in the first call, ask for the supervisor, or the next level of service. In my experience, it usually gets you connected with somebody with a) knowledge and b) ability to make decisions on behalf of the company, much faster. In some cases that may get you speaking with a native english speaking person for the first time.
It is in the same place as the weapons of mass destruction are in Iraq.
Shouldn't you be in school doing school work? Do they have army teachers and things shipped out to Afghanistan as well? What happens if you are in a lesson and you get attacked? Do you take a pencil, eraser, workbook AND a machine gun to class?
wow!
Without folks like him, there would be no Slashdot.
Computer types love absolutes - but in the nuanced reality of the real world it's unclear whether that's true.
As even you seem to recognize, there would most likely be a Slashdot without him specifically. So, then the question is which "folks" are "like" him.
If "folks like him" are people who resort to violence to achieve their objectives then a world without people who resorted to violence would certainly be vastly different from the world we live in - but there doesn't seem to be an inherent reason that there couldn't be a Slashdot.
If "folks like him" means "people willing to join the US military in the present circumstances", then the outcome for Slashdot is also uncertain. If nobody was joining the military then the military would have to start changing it's policies. One possible change would be to add guarantees that members of the military could exercise greater discretion as to which conflicts they participated in. In such a world, the US invasion of Iraq would probably never have happened but it is unlikely that the USA would have been invaded and occupied or anything like that. To put it another way, there are plenty of Americans willing to defend against actual threats to the USA but far fewer willing to fight whatever war happens to be turning on the conservative Christians.
There are, of course, other hypothetical outcomes; but figuring out what would happen to Slashdot without "folks like him" is pretty much an exercise in pointless speculation.
The claim that there would be no Slashdot without "folks like him" is, as they say in the sciences, not even wrong.
Do they do the good work of maintaining a list of companies that provide good customer service?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
American dollars, or real money?
(I voted for Obama, but I can't resist egging you on, and I bet that comment eggs you on, even with this explanation.)
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
That is one fucking retarded statement you have there and this is coming from somewhat is against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Just because they are civilians doesn't mean they are innocent. If you have 500 civilians in front you with guns, threatening to kill, would you stand back and let them run over you, or would you rather a military take care of it.
Sorry, the military is there to protect. Granted, that can be debated whether or not that is what they are doing in the middle east, but to say we can't do anything because they are civilians is dumb. Just because they haven't organized doesn't mean they aren't a threat that should be dealt with.
You know what, maybe I'll start a group of say 5000 people or so. We'll arm ourselves, train, etc., but we won't join a military so we keep or civilian status. Still no longer a threat?
Sorry, war is being redefined. Get real dumbass.
Of course, I wrote polite but firm emails at all time.
After reading your post, I don't think you're capable of writing anything in a "polite" tone.
I have had issues as well while deployed to Iraq with Dell equipment. We had come across a server that we wanted to get back online and needed a few pointers so we decided to call them up. Mind you, we pulled 24 hour operations and had the luxury of international phone lines so we could call during the "normal" work hours for them.
To our surprise we found ourselves transferred to tech support located in India. Personally, I couldn't care less where the person is from so long as the issue is fixed. But they could not speak English and you could hear them flipping through their troubleshooting manual only to suggest doing the same things we had done before.
I have much better things to do than stay on hold for Dell tech support. Its a hit to my ego already being a computer guy and calling for computer help. You better believe I exhausted every solution I could think of before even looking for your number..
Long story short... sometimes if you want something done, you have to do it yourself!
But the people they outsource to are hideously lacking in knowledge of their role so anything out of the ordinary, such as your case is likely to make them crosseyed.
Don't worry - you've already got their attention.
I record my sleeptalking
As I said. The military is there in a police capacity. That is wrong. The debate is over and has been since Vietnam. You don't send troops to police civilians. It's not only ineffectual, it's also morally inexcusable.
Think about it. Just for a second, open your mind and think about how you would feel if troops from a super power came into your country and started policing you. For fuck sake, if you wouldn't pick up a gun and drive these bastards from your homeland then you're just a coward.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Yeah assuming things can be crazy but I am indeed in the US Army so his assumptions were/are correct.
love is like a mouthful of broken glass
Charge Back.
Airstrike.
Invoie cost of airstrike.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
I had a friend who couldn't get through to Dell customer service, either, until she tried contacting Business Sales. Problem magically resolved within a few days.
Since you're serving our country, I'd also send a note to an editor or reporter from your hometown newspaper. Dell would NOT like to have the negative publicity that would result from callously ignoring the requests (and keeping the money) of a serviceman or servicewoman.
If the time comes where you have to email executives or go to the news, then that company's support has failed you, and quite epicly.
Rather than leaving it in the hands of the company, as they have already shown you that they don't care about your satisfaction by half-assing their support/service budget, I think that you should go directly to a lawyer. Get the proof they need, sue Dell in whatever court you can, and then make them pay your legal fees and for your wasted time. The benefit to this method is that they HAVE to respond or the judge will go ahead and grant you whatever you asked for, regardless of how retarded it is.
99.99% chance that they'll give you everything you ask for without going to court, unless you're one of those douchebags that wants seven million because you were inconvenienced.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
I will say this one last time.
Being a civilian doesn't mean you're innocent. It doesn't make you any less of threat and it definitely doesn't mean whatever you are doing is simply in the name of protecting yourself.
Civilians can most definitely be the aggressor. I ask again, how should they be dealt with?
The debate is NOT over, otherwise we wouldn't having this one. There wasn't and will never be a consensus.
Oh yea, Afghanistan had the Taliban and still do.
I had an APO address for three years at Ramstein AB (ie, the place that *all* APO mail headed to Europe and SWA goes first). The OP's representation of the amount of time it takes to receive mail from the US is misleading at best. It takes 7-10 days to receive letters from the US. I have received packages in that little time, but the average was perhaps 4 weeks, and 8 weeks was not unusual. A few times it took up to 10 weeks. The package is being sent to a *war zone*, have a little patience.
It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
You are a sick fuck, and a disgrace to this nation. Turn that M203 on yourself and do us all a favor. You disgust me.
I had this same problem a long time ago.
I put in the order, paid up and waited. Now, at the time I was in college and life was pretty busy. So a similar amount of time passed.
I logged in to note my order had been still in the pending state and was fairly curious as to why.
SO I picked up the phone and made the call. For whatever reason, the rep said that sometimes orders get stuck and have to be manually corrected and pushed on.
The rep was going to have to cancel and re-enter my order to correct the issue. (It's automatically canceled after X number of days anyway or at least it was.)
The problem with this approach was I was going to lose my sale offers and jump the cost of the laptop. Some parts were no longer offered (such as the standard cd-rom).
I was very strong about not paying more then I had originally intended and wanted the model I picked out. They wanted to try and bump the price to fit the new parts, but I wouldn't budge on it. I simply said, if I'm going to pay more I might as well pick up the Toshiba Techra line since the only reasoning with going Dell was the price difference.
The rep discounted, dropped shipping charges, added bonuses and pretty much anything he could do. He only asked I meet him half way on the difference between the CDROM and better CD RW that I had to purchase. (25$ more oh noes).
I ended up with a better deal and a better laptop configuration simply because I stuck to my guns.
Just keep that in mind, you're loss in time can be your gain!
On a side note, you would probably get a better deal from a Dell re-seller. You can goto e-Bay and find them. Usually things like warranties are discounted and the re-seller price drop really helps. I picked up a drop shipped 9300 a few years ago for about 500$ less then I could build on Dell's site and the unit still shipped from Dell. (I'm still running on my 4 year dell complete care warranty as well.) Also, check the option for second chance offers since they normally employ price jacking bids. ;)
Now, if you can't call you are going to have to arrange for a friend to give them the one on one.
Optionally, you can post to slashdot and I suspect a Dell rep will have read this by now.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
You do realize he is not in Iraq right?
It's true. You are in the army. Army guys have guns, like in that movie.
Now wash your hands.
I strongly believe anyone in the world that would insult a Warrior (Arab/Russian/American/Israeli ...) will support leaders/terrorist like POTUS Chaney and puppet-POTUS Bush in their own country/religion, but they'll never blame their leaders or petition the international court to prosecute (out of office) for war crimes.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=unresolved+dell+support+problems
Exactly. Hate the Commander in Chief if you want, but don't hate on the men and women who, for right or wrong, end up putting their lives on the line out there because of the Commander in Chief's actions.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
He is not in Iraq, fighting an unjust war. He is fighting the people who are ACTUALLY responsible for 9/11. Yes of course Bush fucked up Katrina but that doesn't excuse the Taliban.
He is NOT in Iraq, get it through that thick skull. Afghanistan is certainly a just war, unlike the other one.
This is a good start. If you want a really fast response see if you can get your hometown radio/TV news to do a segment on businesses scamming/letting down our troops.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
Umm.. what part of this is hard to understand? Do you debate that the US military in Afghanistan are being used as a police force? Do you actually believe it is ever acceptable to declare martial law? I say the debate is over, but of course, irrational people can debate anything. The lesson of Vietnam was that sending a foreign military to act as a police force is doomed to failure and morally unacceptable. Maybe after another 20 years in the middle east the US people will learn that lesson again and maybe they won't forget it this time.. but I'm not going to get my hopes up.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Nowhere does the poster say he's in the US Army.
Yes he does. "APO" means "(United States) Army Post Office". If he was British Army his mail would be addressed with a "BFPO" address, Canadian "CFPO", and German "Feldpost". Afghan Army doesn't need to use a "field post office" system because they live there, and there aren't enough Frenchies there for me to have seen how they get their mail, but I'm pretty sure they're all French Special Forces guys, so they aren't likely sitting around barracks working on their degrees in the evenings.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
there's always shock and awe!
Call the CC company, cancel payment and then do yourself a HUGE favor, buy a Mac...
Dude just do a chargeback and re-place your order.
Chuck
I was charged for a battery, canceled the order two months later after a lot of phone calls and even being sent all the contact details for another person that ordered the same part (I rang them thinking they were from Dell and they thought I was from Dell - stupid situation). It then took another six weeks and a lot of phone calls to get the money back. I ordered a compatable battery from a local supplier - up front they apologised that they couldn't deliver it within 24 hours but I still had it in less than two days!
Replacing a missing screw was a similar three month experience but did actually result in recieving the part. I suspect once you step outside of the USA the support from Dell is almost non-existant.
You were convicted of being a redneck by your own words. Get it?
Well, actually you forgot Poland.
to reprogram the missile guidance systems with GPS coordinates of Dell headquarters. Do it. DO IT NAO!
Dell is usually pretty good, I was in Iraq and got my replacement for a failed hard drive within 2 weeks. I don't know exactly how hard you've been trying to push them on the issue but I'd call and force the phone biscuit to pass me to higher management, and then tell the management biscuit I wanted his boss, -then- start complaining. Usually when you get to the level where people can start firing those below them, the ones below start doing something. I've run into this problem with other companies though, especially though (cough)iPod(cough) who don't seem to value customers overseas and will only ship to US and require some f'ed up methods of shipping to them. As someone who just came from overseas I feel you, and all I can tell you is goodluck.
Last note: as others said, you can always go hardline and call the BBB, credit card companies, etc. Though I've noticed a lot of times going outside the company (Dell) will many times make things take longer as files are sorted through to find out who's right and wrong. It may help if you have someone in the US (my parents help me out a lot) that are able to spend hours on the phone dealing with it. Again, goodluck to you.
Whoosh.
Um... when someone takes your $1700 and then never sends you the item you purchased that is is not "poor customer service." It is, in fact, a violation of the law.
Here's two important links for you:
Texas Attorney General Consumer Complaints
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/complain.shtml
Texas State Statutes:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/
Look under "statutes" for 'Business and Commerce Code".
Find some relevant section of the law and quote it via email to every contact you have at Dell. Tell them that you are reporting the situation to the Texas AG IMMEDIATELY and that you expect them to get your computer into your hands within X days or face the full penalty of the law.
I used a similar tactic recently on a cellphone provider and received a prompt and personal resolution.
Good luck.
Why would anyone spend more than $400 for a complete computer or $450 for a laptop? Even Dell has these prices.
So are you a Canadian? You are deploying generals to the frontlines in Iraq and have been continuously operating in Afghanistan. You're allowed to not support the war, but nationality has little to do with it.
Convicted? What is this, some sort of crazy bizarro reversed Nazi Germany?
For the record, I am not the AC, and I agree with you that maintaining a police force in another country is wrong. But if you honestly think the soldiers deserve scorn for not refusing their orders, I would say you're the one acting irrationaly. The problem is with the people at the top, not the bottom.
Ignore the people who are over reacting here. A lawyer is not needed, and your CC company is also probably not needed. You just need to work this out with an real person, in real time, over the phone.
Email is a tough medium to use to try to resolve things like this.
You need to call them and get a straight answer, or get the contact information for people within the company who can give you a straight answer. Should take no more than 1 call.
I deal with Dell on a weekly basis and while misunderstandings and accidents happen, I rarely have problems.
If you are unable to call them from your location, have a friend or family member do it for you. I am more than confident that Dell will resolve something like this.
No possibility to regain the money or the laptop.
Sorry.
This is the George Walker Bushe's economy; so as along as there is a +60 Trillion Dollar expense for the failed "Wars of Terror" in a banal attempt to prop up the failed human being George Walker Bush, there will be no refunds, and no merchandise dellevered.
George Walker Bush does not give a rats ass about you .. so don"t even bother compaining.
George Walker Bush is too busy planning his last day in office, where he will pardon himself and all Cabinet Officials and Political Appointiees, who lives matter (i.e. not yours), at least in the twisted mind of George Walker Bush.
Huh? They're required to refuse illegal orders. "I was just following orders" is not an excuse for immoral behaviour either.
How we know is more important than what we know.
While I was at KAF a colleague went through the exact same thing with Dell after waiting and arguing with Dell for Two months he purchased a laptop at the px. About one month later he received his Dell so he packed it up and sent it to his daughter for Christmas.
Mana,
I agree.
Then eleventypie will need to get another...better laptop, Damn the delay... the Dell is now old shit... paid for new... get new.
Start, What is new/available:
AMD: http://wheretobuy.amd.com/notebooks.html
Intel: http://www.intel.com/Consumer/Shop/core2x_62.htm
Then use PriceGrabber, Yahoo/Google shopping, TigerDirect, NewEgg, Amazon, to find the best deal that will deliver to APO.
For the latest MB&Processors scale to affordable cost with Brand OEM-URLinks.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
I'm sure that the supervisor appreciated some random asshole telling him how to do his job and manage his staff.
That 'random asshole' has another name. CUSTOMER.
If you're providing shitty service to your customers then yeah, he probably does want to know about it. Review the tape with the level 1 drone, see if he was on his script or not. That's his job. Managing people who are supposed to help. No help = no reason to keep someone on the payroll.
Big things are often times a collection of lots of little things. Anyone remember AOL's famous customer support? And how are they doing these days?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
corporate managers may not be too bright, but customer service horror stories generally get their attention.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Make sure you talk about this with your CO. Don't go to the media or any place that make make this and your name / rank location public without prior approval. afaik you need to have prior approval before even making so much as a message board post.
I'm poor. Please donate. http://albanypcs.com
You should submit an iReport to CNN. In the mean time, dispute the charges and order an HP from one of the business models, its a better laptop anyway.
I've bought three mail-order laptops through AAFES. No hassle, you can use your Military Star card, and you have recourse through AAFES if the vendor screws up. I highly recommend ordering through AAFES to all military folks.
More than 60,000 Windows programs won't run on Linux.
https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/
Regards;
I'm deployed somewhere in Afghanistan, as well. The last time I was here, a couple of years ago, I seem to recall a couple of mail handlers located at the main mail processing hub(at some big air base) stealing mail items, opening packages up and taking stuff, mostly. I also know that Dell computers are shipped in cartons with "Dell" written quite prominently on the packaging. I've heard stories of people never getting their Dell order, and I hate to jump to conclusions, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to discover that your system was intercepted after it got in-country. I hate to say it, but there are a-holes in all sectors of life. I hope you somehow get satisfaction on this.
Afghanistan is certainly a just war, unlike the other one.
Justification is a matter of degree. The USA was probably justified in some sort of military action against Afghanistan but what the US has actually done has been horrible.
If the US just wanted Bin Laden then they should have sent in some covert teams and got Bin Laden. If the USA wanted to take over the whole country then they should have taken responsibility for reconstructing the country.
As it is, the USA did some things that are way, way, way at the "not justified" end of the scale. Let me give one example.
It has been known for hundred's of years that if you're going to avoid torturing innocent people to death then you need a process and you need an advocate for the accused. You don't just round up random people and torture them until someone confesses.
But that is exactly the system that the USA set up. It would pay unsavory characters to kidnap people in Afghanistan (or wherever, it didn't really matter) and turn them over to the US military. The US military would then torture these random kidnap victims until they confessed to something and then the US military would ship them off for indefinite detention at Guantanamo. No process. No advocate for the accused.
Well, surprise, surprise, the USA shipped a lot of innocent people to Guantanamo and, surprise, surprise the US military tortured a number of innocent people to death.
One of the more famous incidents was an Afghan taxi driver with a wife and young daughter who, despite being totally innocent, was kidnapped by a local warlord while on his way to pick up relatives for the Afghanistan equivalent of Thanksgiving and was savagely beaten to death by the US military over the course of a number of days. The commander that presided over his torture was subsequently transferred to Abu Ghraib where she presided over the mess there and now she teaches interrogation tactics back in the USA. It's all out on video now (documentary) if you care to watch it: "Taxi to the Dark Side".
There's plenty of other stuff to complain about, too. Basically, when the USA gets hit by a roadside bomb they just gun down whoever happens to be nearby innocent farm worker, etc.
But anyway, Afghanistan had the potential to be a "just" war but it certainly hasn't been under the Republican leadership.
People get into the military for various reasons. Probably a few get in because of "idiotic" reasons, but many do so due to a lack of other economic means. Don't judge before you know anything about that guy.
And I'm a "non-American" who utterly despises the US Administration's foreign policy, and disgusted about the wars they've initiated. That shouldn't mean we shouldn't treat their soldiers with respect and human dignity. In fact, quite the opposite. The US's foreign policy, its failure on the wars, are precisely due to unfettered arrogance, apathy and disrespect to other people's cultures, hardships and circumstances. If you're really against that, there's no reason not to give the guy a more sympathetic treatment.
Don't quote me on this.
YOU did the best thing--- Tell the world about those abstinent bastards. NEXT BEST THING::::
KEEP THIS THREAD GOING.
ALso, call your credit card company,,, tell them what happened. They SHOULD SIDE with you.
\MGS
I worked for AAFES for about a year. We were strictly prohibited from sending anything of value to an APO. If we had computer equipment to ship we'd have to get a physical mailing address.
First, since you, being overseas, will have limited ability to call Dell, give the relevant information to a family member that you can trust. Basically send them an e-mail telling them what has occurred. Remember, be as detailed as possible (dates, people talked to, etc.) Then, have them make the long grueling call to Dell. In the interim, contact Dell with your account information regarding your purchase and let met know that you are letting so-and-so friend/family member handle the account on your behalf as you are deployed overseas. Put together a nice business letter. Have someone in your unit give you some advice when you compose this letter (preferrably a SNCO or officer with some brains). Keep the letter simple and to the point. Let them know that you have not received the laptop as of current date. You have been charged for this. You will have your credit reverse the charges. In order to rectify the situation and to prevent any thefts, unless Dell can prove that it has been received by you, then they will need to send a unit to the following address . After that, the family member can then send it to you - definitely not wrapped in a laptop box. Just remember, depending on your deployment area,a laptop my be "inspected" or "held" to insure that it does not contain "contraband", even if new. You can also contact your local military PO folks and ask them how to proceed on that side. Also, if you do find yourself wanting to make a phone call, get someone from Dell on the phone. If they start giving you crap, go with asking for the supervisor. I say this because Dell started moving their call centers back to the US a couple of years ago. When you got through to them, you would deal with a level 1 who would bust their ass to try and help. It may have been tedious, but they could be bypassed by being firm and asking for a manager and they will pass you on to someone who can actually do something. If you wind up with someone with a difficult accent to understand, ask to be transferred to either someone else or another call center.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
The proper procedure is to call you credit card company (the financial institution that issued the card to you) and have them start a chargeback for "goods not recieved". That will take the money away from Dell and most likely get their attention and more than likely to have them contact you.
Well the support center that handled your call was most likely in India. And you are in Afghanistan, pretty close right ? And you have ammos... lots ! I'd say, launch an offensive. Send in your platoon. 30-50 men should be ample sufficient for a small support center. M16's, grenades, everything. Pretty sure the support script the guy was reading is not going to provide him the "next step to follow" in this situation. He'll have no choice but to find you a laptop on the spot.
Go through your chain of command and utilize your unit's legal council. I'm sure a well written letter sent to Dell from the Army will get the ball rolling.
Where's my sock? There it is...
Can you find out where my english vegetarian boot polish went?
I totally agree that the Afghan conflict is hardly a sign of success socially or militarily (Read: we biffed it). But to conflate it to Iraq, a war with zero justification is morally incorrect. The parent was calling this soldier a mercenary, insinuating that he is ethically bankrupt- that is simply unfair and frankly a shame considering the many valid arguments about our ongoing conflict. Statements like yours are far more likely to open real dialogue. When a pacifist who has protested many wars like myself is fired up you know the parent is a jerk. Thanks for the info.
Are we speaking to Filipino or Indian call center agents when we call Dell customer support nowadays?
Learn About Outsourcing. http://www.pioutsource.com
Ok, if you're going to ask for help on Slashdot, how about you leave your contact info so that if someone at Dell does read this, they can get a hold of you?
Personally, I work at a computer company, and most of the people I work with read /. Most of use would try to get your case# escalated, but we would need your contact info to do that.
Hopefully someone at Dell has enough of sense to read slashdot on a regular basis, if for no other reason than to search for bad press like this article and to fix silly/stupid mistakes made by Tier I or the USPS or whomever.
Estimated UPS/Fedex to Afganistan is $300 to $400,and as tough as times are with Christmas around the corner, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?
How do you buy any better PR?
or not.......
I guess this is test to see how "American" Dell really is.
granted I know there are some real hole in the walls out there, but why didn't you get you laptop from Aafes? No shipping required. Don't forget, there's a lot between you and Dell, foreign customs, contractors handling mail... KBR... There are no garentees for mail out there. I picked up a Toshia while I was in Bahgdad. Works great. If your in one of those hole in the ground spots, try and pick on up next time you go in for a resupply. Or talk to you manager at the troop store for a special order.
Vendors pay the credit card company a certain percentage when you order an item in the first place. If you do a product return (like you can at Costco or Wal-Mart or whatever), then the vendor gets charged *again* by the credit card company. I assume this repeat charge happens when you have the CC company reverse the charges, too.
The CC company sends you a piece of paper you have to physically sign and send back, so I suppose that piece of paper will take several weeks getting to you, and then several weeks getting back to the CC company.
Call in an air strike on Dell!
Do it!
Please?
Doesn't change the fact that "jarhead" is a nickname for Marines, and Marines do not refer to themselves as soldiers.
Your attempt at humour still fails, since you can't get basic facts correct.
$1700 is no problem and $2800 is fine when the laptop has quality to it; $400 as a new laptop is asking for trouble. Now if $800-1000 can still get you a T60p that has Flexview, that's as low as one should (used, but for a higher quality than a Dell/HP/Sony laptop) go.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Why not complain to Slashdot? The effect should be immediate.
I live in Canada, and I ordered a Dell laptop around this July. The order went through, and I got confirmation. For the next five days, each day, I got a call in the morning saying that there was a problem with the credit card information, and the order couldn't go through. Each day I corrected the information, getting a confirmation later that day that everything was OK.
After the fifth day, I had to cancel the order and place a brand new identical order. This went through no problem, but now my deliver date was 1 month later (was originally 2 weeks). Even after I received the laptop, I realized they gave me 4 GB of RAM, but only Windows Vista 32-bit, wasting 1 GB. When I called about that, they said there was no way they could send me a copy of 64-bit, and that I would have to send the whole laptop back to get the correct version.
I didn't send it back, but I got a XPS M 1530 which is a really decent laptop. So like every other company, the service was shit, but the product made it worthwhile.
If you can get ahold of Dell customer support by the phone ( or maybe even chat?) ask to be transferred to the 'reparations department'. The one goal of this group is 'customer satisfaction' and the can give you just about anything u want as a 'please forgive us' gesture. I found out my freshmen year as a poor college student about them and ended up with a gratis $200 Linksys wifi router, and that was just b.c. of a comparatively minor laptop repair shipping issue! At least you can get a little extra since you have waited so long - good luck!
What the dell!!!
I ordered two sets of Dell-recommended DIMM memory modules for an aging Dell Optiplex, and my system wouldn't boot with either set installed. After agreeing that they could not satisfy my replacement memory requirements, they said to ship back the latest set (the first had gone back earlier) and they would refund the purchase price.
Two months and many phone calls later, no refund, only promises that the refund would be processed in five business days, maximum. Never happened.
A letter to the Austin, TX Better Business Bureau took a couple of weeks to wend its way into the Dell organization, but once it did, I was contacted by a Dell person who assured me that the refund would happen the following day, and that she would call the day after to confirm.
Indeed, he refund was credited the following day, and she did call the day after to confirm. Case closed. Three cheers for the BBB!
That shouldn't mean we shouldn't treat their soldiers with respect and human dignity.
Yes, but he should be treated the same ... not better.
Pretty creepy, even for an AC.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
For what you're suggesting to be even remotely possible, every soldier would have to refuse simultaneously. As it is, every single soldier who refuses has to deal with the backlash from both his comrades and his leaders. Some of these soldiers are getting their education through military funding, and some of them are supporting families. How can you say that they are supposed to refuse orders and damn the consequences, and still consider yourself human?
"Hi, I'm the Army and my laptop is now 4 weeks late, can you please write down my customer reference and then give me your GPS coordinates?"
"Um, huh? We're at {address}, does that help?"
"Yeah, no proble, wait a sec.. {click}".
THUMP ........ zzzzzssssSSSSSSSHHH *BLAM*
"OK, you have two options: I see this laptop in one week, or we'll start zeroing in. If you don't know what that is, imagine the crater that was your car park slowly moving towards your building. Have a nice day, and don't fall over bits of cars on the way out."
Sometimes you just wish ..
Having said that, it can't be a fun job being on the phone to customers who are angry, especially since you can't do anything about it..
Insert
I hate to go all Godwin here, but can you please put your stupid prejudices aside for one minute and think about what you would expect an honest German soldier in WWII to do? If they had all refused to fight, there would have been no war. That's the reason why the US (and other countries) adopted the "question orders" policy. A soldier that follows orders blindly is just immoral.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Idiot,
Afghanistan was attacked for harboring admitted mass murders. And BTW, that wasn't just for the 9/11 attacks.
Now, if you were talking about Iraq...
1) Ask for the tracking number. No tracking number == cancel the order, contact your credit card company and dispute the charge (if any).
2) If tracking number exists and it hasn't moved if 48 hours, see #1.
3) If you would prefer to work with Dell, tell them you want an upgraded unit at no charge shipped to you express with tracking number and if it hasn't arrived in 2 weeks you will cancel the order and purchase from someone else.
4) Finally, $1700.00 for a laptop? Are you nuts? First check the Dell refurb website (google "Dell refurb") and get something close and upgrade it to your preferences and purchase the extended warranty. Pocket several hundred dollars in savings.
Thanks for protecting us! God Bless and Merry Christmas!
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
As another poster point out, I didn't make any assumptions. You specifically said 'APO'. There's only one kind of post office called an 'APO' and that is a U.S. Army Post Office. ;)
Thank you for your fine service to our great nation.
My blog
It is quit common for staff of mail sorting at colleges and I would imagine even military stations to open private mail and even steal valuable packages. ... Now this is just a thought but, could it be likely that your package did arrive, was examined by staff, determined to be a valuable laptop and then stolen?
If you purchased your computer from Dell retail sales (if you bought a Studio, you did), I would recommend contacting your credit card company and reporting that the item has not shipped and you would like to dispute the charge. Once you have done that, go to the small/medium business/government area and purchase through there. Dell's retail sales group does not have the ability to ship to APO/FPO addresses - only the large business/government sections have that ability. This is an ongoing issue and has been so for many years. I used to work at Dell supervising the last group of tech support representatives in the retail division at the corporate offices and encountered this issue on a regular basis. One last possible chance - contact either the government support group by phone/email/chat and give them your order number and request they ship to an APO/FPO address. I doubt this will help, though. Again, your best bet is to cancel your order with Dell (or your bank) and reorder through the proper division there. Since Dell has outsourced their entire retail support division, only their government/large business support is still domestic and they will be the only group likely able to help you. Best of luck to you and thank you for your service! Although I am not supportive of our troops being put where they currently are, I am very proud that you are serving and hope you stay safe.
I'm on Dell's Homeland Security Team. Send an email with your Dell order number. I will contact the Dell OCONUS Army Team. I'm sure we can help you out. michael_watkins@dell.com NO SPAM PLEASE
They had 3500 of our companies money. I dealt with every single level of their 'support'. I finally got ticked off after 5 months and phoned the better business beareau and I was on the phone with some 'lead accountant' I had our money back within the afternoon.
Dell and other companies hate public embarrassment.
If you paid on a credit card, then technically the laptop belongs to THEM until you've paid them back. If you purchase anything on credit card you have protection against this kind of thing. Speak to your CC company and ask them to intervene - they have huge financial and legal muscle and WILL resolve the issue very quickly on your behalf, either issuing a chargeback against the payment or ensuring Dell bend over backwards to get you your laptop.
I'll bet just getting this posted on Slashdot, where it will be discussed by a large number of people, and then probably linked to on numerous blogs and message boards, might do the trick on it's own. To all those saying he should email consumerist: Give /. some credit.
Why did you have an expensive laptop shipped to Afghanistan through the military mail system? It is notorious for lost,stolen, and misdirected mail. If they didn't get stolen on the way then you can bet both of your laptops are in some random firebase in country. For future reference, all major bases have DHL and/or FedEx locations. Bagram has one. If your not at Bagram, have a buddy pick it up for you when he travels through.
The purpose of language is communication, If the idea is clear the grammar ain't important
I had an issue with Lenovo sending a Thinkpad to a client. After a month (shipping said 1 to 2 weeks) I called Lenovo and they issued a $100.00 refund to the credit card. He was happy, but I never saw any of the refund for my time.
Customer service at Handango? Not possible. It's run by by computer, sort of like a satellite radio station. If you keep on trying, good luck. A month is the norm to get a response, but that is always to the effect, "huh?", and you have to start all over again.
The customer accepts a low standard because it's prevalent everywhere. People who get hired to do $8-$12 an hour jobs tend to have IQs under 115 and thus be basically glorified bonobos. (There are a few -- a very few -- exceptions.)
I realize that's offensive, but it's also more realistic than what else is said here.
Customer service is expensive. Doing it right is even more expensive. If your competitors don't do it right, your customers are not going to pick you just because of your good customer service -- they're going to go with the cheaper option.
Your problem, in a nutshell, is uninformed, lazy customers, and a lack of intelligent, dedicated people to hire for really cheap.
Futurist Traditionalism
No, if a German soldier in WW2 had refused to fight, they would have been arrested or possibly worse by the other soldiers, and the Nazi civilian population would have cast them out. That's reality, above any pretentious idealistic sense of morality that you can throw out.
I could write a book of all the terrible tech support stories I've heard about Dell. As mentioned above, you should probably just call your credit card company and get a charge back. It's unlikely that your going to get the laptop now and even if you did, I don't think you'd want to deal with Dell anymore anyways.
In the 1980s, I ran a mail-order operation. I shipped everything USPS "media rate" and bought insurance (about $1.50.)
One day, a customer called to complain that his package had not arrived. I immediately shipped a replacement and filed the insurance claim.
It was denied with proof of delivery. But the proven delivery was the replacement package, not the original.
From then on, I was self-insured. As apparently I had been from the beginning.
As a non-American, I see a reason. How about seeking out the group of people that masterminded the 9/11 attacks? Or have you forgotten about that?
You're confusing Iraq with Afghanistan. And all this time I though it was just Americans that were bad at geography.
That way I hedge it. :p
+++ATH0
Step 1) Try everything reasonable you can with the company. Document it. Send them the document, directly to the appropriate manager. Step 2) Send the same to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of the state where they do business. This worked for me against Gateway's horrifically bad support.
If you're not American... then maybe your opinion doesn't count much in a debate over whether an American company should give special support to an American soldier, who is serving America.
Wow, I'll bet that will piss you off.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I fail to see how their act of taking your word you have not received your computer, and going so far as sending you a replacement is poor customer service... I would say that's exceptional service. You also seem to be blaming Dell for the fact that the postal system is either taking their time with the shipments (or lost them), or they were stolen in between, or at the APO by whomever handles the mail. Neither of which is any result of Dell's customer service, nor anything they did that was wrong. Of course, their error may lie in the fact that they actually ship to APOs and FPOs. Most companies do not mess around shipping to them because of issues exactly like this one. The fact that they ship to servicemen tells me they're going above and beyond as a mail order company. Ask for a refund and if that doesn't work, call your credit card company and ask for a chargeback. But there is no need to go around claiming their service is bad. They've not only ate the loss of two laptops, plus the shipping costs involved. Their time looking into the matter for you. They'll never see those again, and you probably will given enough time. They have done everything they can for you, and more than they needed to.
First, thank you for your service in the Army. AF vetran myself.
Second, Call your credit card company and tell them you did not receive the product.
Thrid, contact the legal office on your post and file a complaint about Dell.
I was in the USN and served overseas. One important point I would like to make pertains to military mail.
If you have something sent to you at a FPO/FPO mailing address, the mail gets sent to a centralized location in the US and then is routed to your duty station using the military mail system.
When it is received at that location it is as if you (service member) received it and at that point all insurance and culpability by the USPO, UPS, FedEx or other mail company and the company that you ordered it from stops there. You then are taking your chances with the military mail system.
The military mail system (as far as I know) accepts no responsibility for those packages because it is a wartime at will agreement (military mail is not a business). This means that if the ship with your mom's cookies on it gets sunk they do not have to reimburse you for the cookies.
While I was overseas they lost a pallet of packages over the side and recovered it, those peoples stuff was sea wet and ruined.
Myself, once I discovered this system out, I stopped paying for insurance on my packages since that insurance did not cover the package all the way to me. I figured I would just be taking my chances.
I'm not saying is what happened to you, but it is something for you to think about and investigate.
loose: not fitting closely or tightly != lose: to suffer the deprivation of
My experience with Dell is that e-mails are hopeless and the frontline CSRs are clueless. I've discovered that if you demand a supervisor what you end up with is a senior CSR who actually has a clue. Gets things resolved much quicker.
If all else fails, call your credit card company and start a dispute. They have a way of magically fixing these kind of issues.
Thank you for your service in Afghanistan, it's a nasty job and I applaud those willing to perform it. Stay safe out there and come back soon.
Then the reason would be - He shouldn't get preferential treatment because he's just a person, and not "because I don't like the war".
Besides, it's not like the OP was asking about *normal* crappy customer service. It was a freaking warzone in a third world country.
I do get your point though, but I don't really see it as preferential treatment. I think it's a genuine question asked by a guy who's in a tight situation. Relatively speaking there are lots of other "ask slashdot" articles without merit. Stupid [XXX] tricks? How to speak with your manager? And while strictly speaking not an "ask slashdot" item, the story where of the 60 line knights tour solution in python is magnitudes more lame.
Of course, people bitch anyways, I'm not exactly new here :-)
Don't quote me on this.
As someone else mentioned, use the Outstanding Issues link and you should get service (at least return emails) soon.
https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/outstanding_issues_care?c=us&l=en&s=gen
It makes sense if you are Dell.
He ordered September 17th.
October 17th: 30 days
November 16th: 60 days
December 16th: 90 days.
Thank you for the free money.
-- Terry
You have no concept of history do you?
How we know is more important than what we know.
There's a good chance this has nothing at all to do with Dell. Laptops are extremely notorious for going "missing" in the APO system and since that same system uses quite a few local nationals there's really no recourse. The problem is so wide spread that some downrange units were forbidding military members from having laptops shipped to them. There's nothing Dell can do about it since the product leaves their hands when it's shipped. The Post Office just hands it off to the APO center in New York and all tracking stops at that point. Because of the way APO is set up, anyone at anytime in any point between New York and Afghanistan can essentially pick up your laptop and walk off with it. When that happens the best you can hope for is that you had the laptop insured and the Post Office isn't going to squirm around too much in getting the insurance back to you.
USPS is the only carrier that can ship to APO/FPO. Have you ever been to a post office? Yeah... Imagine calling them to ask about an insurance claim. I lost $6,000 worth of electronics into a black hole thanks to USPS. The package was INSURED and I still cannot get my money back.
I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say, I gave up after 6 months of red-tape, run around BS. Honestly, no one there gives a shit about you or your problem. Screw it - it's a right off eh? Dell needs to man up and give the money back or something. But this is why I only ship orders under 1k with USPS.
You're an idiot. There is neither cost nor hassle involved in dealing with the BBB. It takes two minutes to file online, for free.
I did once when Verizon sent me to collections for a DSL account they never got working and stopped responding to my calls over, yet continued to bill me anyways. I didn't pay since they never completed their end of the transaction and had been duly notified several times. I never got around to officially canceling the nonexistent service so they figured I should give them money for nothing. When they sent me to collections, Verizon refused to deal with me on the issue and referred me to the collections company. That company just wants their commission so they don't listen to you, just tell you you owe money, give it now. They're really good at infuriating people by ignoring arguments and talking down to people, so I hung up on them. I spent two minutes at bbb.org and never heard from Verizon or their collection agency again.
They may not be able to get this guy his laptop but they are still a very useful organization and it costs no money to file a complaint.
"...taking into account all the victims in New Orleans there were the exclusive fault of your government ..."
Yeah, that huge storm had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Oh, and barring forced evacuations those people there were individually responsible for thier lives. The day my government is responsible for whether I live or die in a huricane is the day I DO kill myself because I will have nothing to live for.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
The moron content of slashdot is unbelievable. Afganistan is no longer a place where Al-Qaeda can operate without hindrance. Mission accomplished.
Remaining issues are being worked on; nobody said every problem was going to be solved immediately.
Well I just got an email from a Coporate Executive this morning who said he would expedite a replacement to me. I of course just asked for my money back and will be taking my business elsewhere.
Thanks for everyones great ideas and help.
-The Anyday
[close your eyes, pray for plagues]
love is like a mouthful of broken glass
uh, since when is dell an american company? I'm pretty sure it went public and is accountable to the shareholders, not to the government...
Damn, common sense. I bet that'll piss you off.
Again, whoosh. Not to mention that the OP wasn't mine, but hey, whatever does it for you.
http://consumerist.com/search/EECB
it works, really!
http://consumerist.com/consumer/executive-customer-service/email-addresses-for-19-dell-executives-321353.php
eleventypie - I am the account manager for all Federal Gov't EPP programs. I would love the opportunity to work with you on this order. Could you please reach out to me? federal_epp_programs@dell.com I need your order number so I can take a look at things.