A tentative resolution with Dell

The problem I had with Dell about a recent order has sort of been resolved, but I don’t think I could say that it was entirely resolved “to my satisfaction”.  I was placing an order for some upgrade parts for our two year old Dell desktop PCs, and wanted to charge the order to my Dell finance account so I could use a particular coupon.  My order was ignored for a few days, and then cancelled, and no one from Dell would communicate with me about the problem until I posted in my blog.  Once I’d blogged about it, suddenly Dell was interested in helping.  It turns out my finance account was “on hold” because my account could not be “verified”.  Dell had my SSN, my credit report, my home address, my mother’s maiden name—what was it they still wanted in order to verify?  They wanted me to have a telephone in my own name.  They didn’t care that my gas bill is in my name, or that I have a driver’s license, or that my shipping and billing addresses were identical—they put my account on hold because the phone number in my account was listed as belonging to Flippy and not to me.  I explained the Flippy was my partner, and that didn’t make an iota of difference—three different Dell employees all separately confirmed for me that they would not approve my purchase until I got my own telephone number.

How many straight couples do you think go through this sort of stuff?  If a man places and order and lists a phone number in his wife’s name, do you really think Dell would force the man to get his own phone number?  I don’t think so.  I think Dell would just accept that the man and the telephone account holder were married.  The first person in Dell Finance to attempt to verify my account even asked me if there was a phone number in my husband’s name that I could give them, so I don’t think husband and wife would be an issue.  Flippy and I sharing a phone number, that was an issue.  Flippy has a Dell account too, so if a search was done on our phone number, it should show two different names, two different SSNs, and two different account numbers, but identical shipping and billing info.  Is that really so peculiar?

I want to make this very clear and straightforward for anyone who stumbles across my blog and finds this entry:  Dell Finance repeatedly refused to approve a purchase on my account because I did not have my own personal telephone number. Period.  If you don’t have your own phone number, say, perhaps you live with a friend and share a phone, don’t bother attempting to buy from them because they will not let you.  You can have a FICO score of 700 and own a mansion and a Maserati, but god forbid you share a phone and don’t have your name on the account.  Oh, they also won’t allow you to have your own toll-free number, either (a popular option for families that travel)—toll free numbers are “unacceptable”.  They’ll want to verify your employer’s phone number, too, but they won’t do that by calling your employer, they’ll do it by looking your employer up in a phone directory.  If the number you’ve given doesn’t show up (say, you’ve given a direct line to a particular person), Dell will deny your account as well.  All these things happened to me today three separate times, with three separate Dell employees, so it was not just one person who was giving me a hard time.  It was an entire department.

As I mentioned earlier, a Dell “peace-keeper” came across my blog after I wrote my earlier Dell rant, and she somehow resolved my problem within a matter of hours, and got the hold removed from my account.  While I appreciate her fast work and her polite emails, it doesn’t change how I feel about Dell.  I feel sick, frankly.  I spent over two hours on the phone today, making multiple calls, and I came away with the absolute sense that I was being discriminated against for being gay.  I don’t even think about that kind of stuff, and the idea of “being gay” is rarely something which crosses my mind, but today I felt belittled and somewhat abused for having a female partner.  Not a nice feeling.  My Dell order might now be available to be shipped, but I no longer think I want it.

Oh, I just thought of one more problem from today—snippets of someone else’s information was in my Dell account.  There was an additional phone number in my account that didn’t belong to me, and an employer listed who I’ve never worked for.  Did the Dell employees care that my account was full of incorrect information?  No, they just treated me like I was lying.  It was a fun, fun day with Dell.  Fun!  If you suffer from a compulsive shopping problem, just trying buying something from the Dell website, and that should cure you pretty darn quickly.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/09 at 03:37 AM

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  1. That will also work against *married heterosexuals* who chose to not take the same name. If my husband tried order from Dell, he’d be screwed- every thing including the credit cards, the house, and the phone bill, are in my name, and it does not match his. That’s just a very bad all round policy, and I am very sorry you had to endure that.

    We build our own computers. Saves a hell of a lot of aggravation. May I suggest Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com?

    Posted by Georg  on  12/09  at  05:11 AM

  2. Funny… I was just working at one of my part-time jobs, writing reviews of computers for TigerDirect and NewEgg.  Great prices!  I like Geeks.com, too.  My problem is that I mostly want upgrade parts, RAM, to be specific.  I’ve checked around and it’s cheapest at Dell because I have a discount coupon and free shipping.  Still, I realize I’ve ‘paid a price’ to save, even if it isn’t a monetary one.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  12/09  at  05:32 AM

  3. I, too, have had nightmarish issues with Dell of a similar circular variety. Trying not to make this too long, it had to do with me ordering a processor and before they started building my machine, they quit making that one in lieu of faster processors which were a whopping $30 and $50 more expensive. Did anyone bother to tell me this and ask if I’d like to spend a wee bit of additional dough on a faster processor? Why, NO! They just cancelled the order without bothering to tell me anything, a fact I learned when I called several weeks later to ask if they planned on shipping my new PC before I retired.  Much hilarity, circular conversations, interminable waits on hold (and the occasional disconnect) ensued. 

    I was NOT happy.

    I understand that you’re ordering to upgrade an existing Dell, which makes sense, but the punch line of my story is: we own an IBM Thinkpad, a Mac Mini, a G-3 Powerbook, a Monarch PC, an Acer PC, a Linux box, a Unix server...well, there’s more actually - I married a computer geek - but of all the long list, there’s not ONE Dell. Nor will there be. Evah.

    Posted by Helly  on  12/09  at  05:52 AM

  4. Oh, Leigh-Ann, that’s just awful. I’ve had to pretend to be my husband on-line because I handle our finances, but I think I’ve only once had to have him confirm that I was allowed to do something.

    My work orders Dells, and once I spec’d and ordered my PC, then updated the order to ensure Win 2000-SP2, not Win 2000-SP1. Guess what? We received two PCs, identical except for the OS. Rather than swallow the shipping fees to return the extra, Dell offered it to us at a discount. Our highly educated VPs chose to send it back even though their staff were in dire need of new PCs.

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat's Mom  on  12/09  at  11:15 AM

  5. I also kept my maiden name they usually ask for him and then assume I am Mrs. HisLastName and I say “Nope, not me, bye.” I do really hate the fact that the telephone or cable companies call and would like to recommend a plan that would save me money. I inform them that those accounts are under my husband’s name and they should call back and speak with him. They tell me that I can change them to whatever I want, since we are married and can make decisions for each other.

    But I had to get on the phone in order for him to order the Center Ice package from Dish Network as it is in my name.

    I don’t think that I had a problem ordering my Dell machine, but this was back about 4 years. But customer service in general has been on a downward slide for a few years now, IMO.

    Posted by Cheryl  on  12/09  at  03:48 PM

  6. The problem I had with Dell seemed to be that my phone number belonged to someone who didn’t share my last name, *and* who was female.  The first rep I spoke to wanted to confirm that my telephone was listed in my husband’s name, so I don’t think they’d give a lot of trouble to a male/female couple, even if the names were different.  I think they’d just assume the parties were married.  With Flippy and I, they were confronted with two people of the same sex sharing a phone number, and they didn’t seem to know how to deal with it. 

    I know not a lot of thought went into it on Dell’s end, but on my end, I felt Dell made it very clear that my relationship with Flippy was not at all like a standard “marriage” relationship, and it therefore wasn’t granted the same conveniences and acknowledgements.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  12/10  at  02:02 AM

  7. Helly, you made me feel a lot better with your tale of Dell just cancelling your order and failing to tell you.  I guess it’s just common practice?  What an odd way for them to do business.  Shareholders must love to read this kind of stuff rasberry

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  12/10  at  02:04 AM

  8. Aw, it’s reassuring to find out that they treat everyone poorly. smile

    Posted by Flippy  on  12/10  at  03:02 AM

  9. My name really is Georg. If a male called to order and the phone number is under Georg and his name isn’t Georg… We’d have the same problem.

    His nickname is Jazz. When seeing our names in writing, folks assume Jazz is short for Jazmine and he’s the woman. We get this a lot. He gets mail to Ms. Jazz, and I get mail for Mr. Georg. Jazz came out of his initials.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Any reason ever given against gay marriage invalidates my own.

    Posted by Georg  on  12/10  at  05:42 AM

  10. My blog entries about Dell have been really popular—one of the earlier posts steadily has new folks drop by to add their horror stories.  I bet many businesses rue the day the average person got access to the Internet!

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  12/28  at  01:29 AM
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