I was told twice my hard drive would cost $35, yet I was billed $183.26!!??!?!?!?!?!!!! It sells at fry's Electronics for $30.

Dell customer service is terrible after the order is first made. They are habitually slow with orders, and do not provide a realistic delivery date when placing an order. I recommend not ordering any custom system if you have a true need for a computer within a timeframe of less than several months!  
 
I placed an order with Dell for an Inspiron 15 laptop in mid-October and was told that the laptop would be shipped by Nov 2, probably arriving earlier. About 2 weeks later, I received an email that the order was delayed, with a new shipping date of Nov 9. A week after this, I received both a call and another email from Dell stating that there was an additional delay, with a new shipping date of Nov 16. For this message, I was required to call or email to confirm that I still wanted the order delivered. The email stated that this was required by the Federal Trade Commission. I confirmed that I wanted the laptop delivered, although I was getting pretty irritated that Dell cannot provide a reasonable estimate of the shipping date for orders. It seems like they should be able to know the time required to produce orders, total order capacity and number of orders, and provide an estimate that is correct within a couple days. My strong suspicion is that they could, but choose not to since many customers might cancel if they knew the true shipping date up front.  
 
In any case, there was a third delay about a week later. This time, I was not at home when the email (and telephone call) came, and I was not able to respond for over a day. I called within 48 hours of receiving the message, however, and told the woman I spoke to that I wanted to keep the order active. I asked her if Dell would do anything for the inconvenience that they caused me with the long delays. She said there was nothing she could do, and did I want to just cancel the order? I was upset when speaking with her, but told her to keep the order active and I would call and cancel if I found another computer elsewhere for similar price. After speaking with her, I also sent an email response to Dell saying that I wanted to keep the order active. Later that same day, I received an email stating that the order was cancelled!  
 
I was furious, and tried to get them to reinstate the order. I was told by several people at Dell that they can only start the order process over again from the beginning, and that the delivery date will be later, especially with people now placing orders for Xmas.  
 
I really just feel that Dell's customer service is lousy. It seems borderline illegal that they could cancel my order this way. I have been a loyal Dell customer in the past (I currently own two Dell laptops and also had a Dell desktop in the past), but I will never order from Dell again.  
 
I don't have any complaints with the Dell products, but they really need to change the ordering process and the way they treat their customers.

Worst computer buying experience of my life. I purchased this system (several invoice numbers) and the pieces all came at different times and much more slowly that promised. I also purchased a 150.00 in home installation. The sales agent advised me that if I purchased the fax/printer it would also be set up.  
 
When the system arrived we were never contacted about the installation we paid for. After spending more than three hours calling around and getting treated badly by support agents we were advised that there was no "in home installation" but that they'd figure out something. Eventually it turned out there actually was in home installation and we ended up dealing with two different people -- one of which eventually came out and sort of installed the computer. The fax/printer never worked properly and was not set up correctly nor does it work to this day.  
 
Dell sent out a customer satisfaction survey but the pin they provided did not work so I was never able to inform them of the time they wasted.  
 
They are supposed to provide telephone support for issues that arise. They outsource their support to other countries -- which is not inherently bad -- but most of the people assisting us could care less about helping us and mostly wanted to argue with us and inflame the problem.  
 
I'd love to tell the whole story but frankly the reason I recommended dell for my 78 year old mother was due to the 24 hour telephone support. That has proven to be a disaster. Not only was the in home setup a waste of money -- the telephone support has been also useless. Frankly I should have recorded the calls and placed the recordings on the internet. That would tell the whole story.  
 
In short after having purchased (over the last 25 years) more than a three million dollars worth of computers from various computer suppliers -- this is the absolute worst buying/support experiences of my life. I wasted more than 7 hours (total) of my time trying to assist my mother to buy from Dell and get support from them. It was a disaster and her fax is still not working properly. Unfortunately I don't live in the same city or I'd be helping myself. In the end she had to hire a professional at 90.00 an hour to come out and resolve her issues. She could have just bought locally from an independent dealer and paid them for in home service. It would have been cheaper, wasted none of my time, and she'd be satisfied.

This review was modified by its author, ate8888, on 11/13/09 5:34 PM.

Very disappointed!!! I highly discourage from shopping at Dell. Ordered product (PS3) and it was processing 2 months before Dell canceled my order stating that they don't have it in stock. At the same time you could buy PS3, but at higher price. So, I don't get how you can advertise something and then claim that you can't sell it at that price. Stay away from Dell!!!

Dell's customer service and e-commerce site are horrible. I placed an order with Dell last night. I recently applied for their Dell Preferred Credit Account and wished to make a purchase that would be partly on this new line of credit and my debit card. It was all set up fine on the screen. It showed that a portion would be charged to my preferred account and the remainder would be deducted from my own debit card. I clicked sumbit and nothing happened, so I thought perhaps I hadn't clicked on the button, I clicked again and this time I was directed to the "Thank You for this purchase" screen. Next day I notice a holding on my bank account for the full amount. I call Dell immediately where I am given several menu options that lead to more menu options that prompt me for my last for of my social where I am given more menu options again prompted for my zip code, following more menu options and finally I get directed to a real person, except I sit on hold for about 5-10 minutes. Finally I get representative who I explain my situation regarding how I split the payment method, but only my debit card was charged and for the full amount. He tells me he has no record of a purchase made on my preferred Dell credit line. I explain again, that I just started the account and tried to make a purchase and that their website screwed up. He puts me on hold, comes back to get the invoice number, comes back again to get another number and then tells me that my debit card had been charged the full amount. I tell him to rectify the situation because that was not what I requested. He puts me on hold again and then comes back to tell me there is nothing he can do and that I can return the product after I receive it. I tell him this is unacceptable, and I would like to speak to his supervisor. I am again placed on hold for 5-10 minutes and finally the supervisor comes on and says the representative has explained the situation to him and that they can do a balance transfer from my debit card to my preferred account and it will be taken care in one billing cycle. I again say this unacceptable, that I can not wait nearly a month for the funds to be transferred . He tells me there is nothing he can do about that, so I tell him I would like to cancel the order. He places me on hold, speaks to internal accounting and comes back to say the funds will be in my account within 7-10 days and that the transfer will show on my preferred account in one billing cycle. I ask if that is 7-10 business days, and he says it'll be 3-5 business days.. Not entirely sure if I will actually get my funds returned to me within the 3-5 business days or 7-10 days, but I felt like this was horrible customer service and no one seemed to know what they were doing or understand the situation. I was placed on hold frequently and I am still unclear on how this transaction will work out. I am certainly not impressed with the quality of service I received from the website or their customer service for mistake that was obviously Dell's. I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone, considering I am ordering this Dell to replace a Dell that is only two years old and the screen just quit working, but fell outside their limited warranty. And if I don't see my credit within the time period the supervisor gave me, I will certainly cancel the order and never order form Dell again.

told me when I bought it they would give me windows 7 upgrade free because they expected it in june. when it wasn't said too bad so sad. now I was not eligable. they will lIE to you to ell you a computer.

I ordered some hard drives, and they didn't want to honor the price they sold them at so they just cancelled the order. Do not trust getting anything that you order. Customer Service, after being on the phone for 40 minutes, didn't care.

Mostly wanted to put a review on here regarding Dell sales and customer service.  
I own my own PC repair and sales business and have sold over a dozen of their machines in their past without me being a reseller. Now I am interested in being a reseller and nobody in their company wishes to discuss ANYTHING about their resellers program on the phone, a phone call to them simply generates a "just go to this page and read about it" if I wanted to read about it, I would not have called you on the phone.  
I rank the customer service and sales as poorly as I can.

I called up to cancel a hard drive that I had ordered earlier in the day (I found it at a store nearby for the same price) and it took me nearly 4 hours of calls to get it done. Very frustrating.  
 
Dell can be extremely hit or miss. If you ever need to contact customer support, you will inevitably run into trouble. They will transfer you to several different departments who will ask you the same questions over and over again. You WILL get disconnected at least once. And there is apparently no direct number to the team you need to talk to, so you have to go through their time-wasting phone system and go through the entire process more than once. Save the hassle and order from a different vendor.

This review was modified by its author, whacked17, on 10/6/09 10:53 AM.

Absolutely horrible! I tried to buy an HDTV from Dell, but they changed my ship date three different times, pushing it out from the original 3-5 day estimate to over three weeks. Further, they did not provide an updated date after the first delay, causing me to have to check with them for updates. I finally ordered a similar unit from JR Music, it shipped the next day, FOR FREE! Dell, never again.

terrible company to order from. I bought a nintendo wii from them for $237. then the wii had a price drop approx. 22 days after i bought it. i requested a refund for the difference from the price drop and they refused it because they offer no price guarantee. any other retailer would have given me the difference, but not dell. apparently refunding $50 was too much work to keep a customer.

Dell sells USED CAMERAS! Would never buy again from Dell. I’ve been waiting for this camera for 3 weeks since I’ve placed my order for digital camera Sony DSC - W290 and I’ve got is USED. It has dirty sports on LCD screen, full charged battery and attached wrist strap to it, which is never apply for a new cameras. The new one has uncharged battery and wrist strap sitting by itself in the box. (I have tried several Sony cameras before, so I know how the new ones look like.  
Plus to that my order was delayed. I placed my order on 09/03/09 with the estimate delivery date 9/17/09, on 09/ 15/09 got letter from Dell that my order will be delayed and new estimate delivery date was 10/01/09. On 09/18/09 I got another letter from Dell that my order has been shipped, got it 09/23/09, which is almost 3 weeks since my order have been placed.  
I just wrote to the customer service, but didn’t get the answer yet.  

I have purchased from Dell in the past with no problems. However, I never had to deal with Dell Customer Service before. I purchased a laptop that arrived defective, then came the problem. I have been trying to contact Dell Customer Service for the last 2 weeks to get this resolved. Initially I was requesting a replacement product, now I just want to return it and take my business elsewhere.  
 
Dell Customer Service is the worst I have ever seen. It's amazing how they continuously transfer your phone call. When I write emails, they respond with an automated email informing me that I have to contact Dell Customer Service through phone, but I have tried twice now to speak to someone. I get transferred from one person to another, and sometimes without any notice, I just get transferred.  
 
At this point, I think I am just going to return the laptop to the return address on the package and then contest the charge through my credit card company. I will contact my credit card company first to inquire how I should go about this process, but I am returning it and getting my money back. I will NEVER purchase through Dell again. If you are reading this, I suggest you save yourself a headache and go through another company also, there are plenty of businesses out there that do provide excellent customer service; Dell is not one of them.

This review was modified by its author, siledrmr, on 9/12/09 11:35 PM.

Dell has the worst service ever. Many price mistakes, cancels, orders delay. Honestly, Dell shouldn't even be in business if it doesn't plan to keep inventory.... then let the customers wait... Won't buy anything from dell again unless things change.

To join the ranks of dispirtied customers of Dell computing, I was suprised at the level I was treated by dell after being a long standing customer. I've had 4 computers through them previously, one desktop and 3 laptops including an xps gen 2. Now looking to upgrade to a small business of my own I needed a solid computer for a good price and did some fair research around the internet, but decided to go with them nonetheless.  
 
In summation, the computer was delayed for 2 months, a week at a time, then cancelled out of the blue. Offering no compensation or reason for it (we were told it was delayed due to back order of parts), we were then told that it must have been a clerical error because the parts have not been on delay or backorder at any time during the summer. We then recieved the reorder less than 5 days later.  
stage 2 problems: random shutdowns, freezes and hardware failure messages. OS was reinsalled, I lost work, Motherboard fried as we were told and it was replaced.  
stage 3 problems. Same problems, diagnosed as a faulty optical drive. right... that makes total sense and in no way is a stall tactic to have a solution.  
 
So we contested it through american express and computer was shipped back. Time will tell how dell responds to this but I've lost all faith in the company to which I seemed one of the few ready to stand by its side. Bad move Dell, bad move.