An urgent announcement to interupt you from our usual schedule of catching up with past holidays, a live update!
This morning, the morning before I left for Rome*, the morning I was supposed to spend packing, my laptop arrived.
Let me be the first to say WOOT, no more having to use other people’s PCs which have viruses on them.
Well I some how managed to split packing with starting to setup my laptop but it may have something to do with how badly I packed, in that I ended up with almost everything but the kitchen sink.
Now for some history:
Dell sucks. Okay that’s not exactly history but let me explain. The process I went through to obtain this fairly sexy laptop is as follows:
September 22ish (Update dates later): Ordered a laptop online from Dell’s website.
September 23rd: Received a call about the company name I had entered. When I ordered the laptop online, I’m presuming since I chose a Vista Business as my OS, there was a company name field in the personal details section and it was manditory so I entered “Not a Company”. They called to confirm that my company name really was “Not a Company” and I had to explain to them…anyway.
September 25th: Was called by Dell advising that since the billing address on my credit card was different to the delivery address and they were cancelling my order. I of course explained the situation but they were like screw you and, oh, btw here is another customer service number you can call about it.
September sometime: I called the provided customer service number about it and after a few back and forth calls they said, you have to change the billing address on you credit card to buy from us.
So I call Lloyds TSB offshore and ask to change my billing address, I got told that the person who can do that had left for the day and to call back tomorrow. I called ‘tomorrow’ and was told it can’t be done over the phone, so I had to go into the bank and fill out a form. Rather I had to print the form, go into the bank with the form filled out, plus my passport and change the address. Cool, I get that all done.
Now, back to Dell. I advised Monica B, the Dell Rep, that I had changed my billing address and that I wanted her to put though my order (By this stage I was on holiday in Egypt (blog posts of that will come at some time), she emailed back that she needed to speak to me on the phone, I emailed back that my cellphone was flat and if she REALLY needed to speak to me then I could call her from a hotel in Egypt, she emailed back ‘I’ll check’.
Some time goes by while I’m in Egypt and I’m starting to get rather pissed so I email Monica, her supervisor and Dell customer service about the issue. I got nothing from Monica and her supervisor, and customer service tells me I’ll need to forget about the original order and put through a new one.
Once I got back from Egypt I put through another order using my offshore lloyds card, 12 hours later I get an email from them saying payment didn’t go through and that they’d try in 24 hours. I phoned up Lloyds and they said that there had been no errors, I check the balance and crap, not enough in that account, so I transfer money over. Guess what happens 24 hours later? Order cancelled, could not make payment.
By this stage I had created a local Lloyds account because there was no reason to have an offshore one, and due to a Lloyds quirk it is easier to set up internet banking with a local account, so I tried ordering the laptop AGAIN with my new credit card…
Sigh, you know it’s coming. I got a call from Dell saying there was a problem with my credit card billing address. I know this is utter bollocks because I set up the account a few days prior and everything is kosher. The Dell rep didn’t believe I lived there and started asking for the names of people living there saying something about matching them with a list he had, after giving him the names of basically everying living there present, and a few past, he said none matched and I needed to find out the land lords name and he’d call me back.
Later that evening he called me back and asked for the landlords name, I proceeded to become a very agitated customer saying:
- I was dossing there and didn’t know.
- That I had been trying to order a laptop for over 6 weeks
- Asking if there was a store in London where I could go and was there and hand my passport and credit card over to prove it was me – He checked, there wasn’t.
I started ranting at him saying was there some way I could pay by direct debit or something because I wanted to buy the damn laptop and had been trying to for over 6 weeks and did they not want me as a customer.
At this point he interupted my rant and said he’d go check with his manager, when he got back he said ‘Thank you for waiting Mr X, we will process your credit card payment and get your laptop out to you.
*By Rome I ment, my flight got diverted to Napels because of bad weather and I am currently on a bus heading to Rome and it’s raining on the windows, quite relaxing actually, I might get some sleep.