Applalling Dell Sales

Smoggy

I often order parts / machines from Dell over the inet and as a rule I will order just the base unit and not the extras as they are vastly over priced ( and I presume this is where they make most of thier money ).

Anyway , my parents machine died, so I got them to order a machine from dell that they had seen in the paper. They didnt have the internet so they did it by phone. Everytime they phoned and went through the order process and the sales person at the other end found out that they didnt want any of the extras , they put the phone down. This just didnt happen once. It happened twice to my dad and threee times to my mum.

Is this now Dells new policy ? I now feel bad that I sent my parents to a company that I thought had good customer service / sales and they turn out to be a shower of s**t. All I can guess is that the sales team are paid based on the extras they sell.

TommyGun

This sounds very strange, not the way to do business.

Would you order over the net for them.

Smoggy

My parents have ordered from over the net now, but over the long weekend they couldn't as the old PC was as much use as an underwater firelighter.

formatman

Unless Policies have changed in there this would affect the Agents close rate

From inside reports though the culture in there has reached an appalling state

Although Dell sometimes run different incentives for their Indian reps just to piss off the Irish reps ( stats look as if India reps sell more ) ...but are paid on differerent targets achievements

Also there was a policy before not to allow matching price t a web price to avoid an kicking from the ASA in the UK anyway


Overall though , Home sales an a major inconvienence to Dell , they just want to sell to Businesses ...I rephrase .Corporates , home sales is just about shipping units ( over the net 1st preference ) to boost stock price

Smoggy

Still doesnt justify putting the phone down. Thats some seriously bad manners .... not to mention damaging to the business. My parents wont be back to Dell anyway. But by the sounds of it Dell wont mind

uberpixie

Sales has always been and will always be about getting their commission to the detriment of the customer!

Thats why you always assume sales are lying, because chances are they are ;-)

They are not there to help a customer, they are there to get the customer's money.

Smoggy

"This computer is fine for work, such as writing documents, but you cant take it on the internet as its not powerful enough"

was a line that Dell told me last month when ordering the inspiron 1300.

i told them I would tale my chances

I know sales are sales and in it for the money, but not taking a sale cos you wont buy the extras is just wrong.

I mailed the ASA on behalf of my parents , as they are in the UK. so we will see what comes of it. No doubt very little.

jor el

Smoggy wrote:

I often order parts / machines from Dell over the inet and as a rule I will order just the base unit and not the extras as they are vastly over priced ( and I presume this is where they make most of thier money ).

That's one of the reasons you shouldn't give Dell any money in the first place. After being hung up on five times, your parents still bought from them? If you went into a shop and the shop keeper told you to fuk off would you ever go there again? Would you even consider giving them your money?

The fact that Dell overcharge at every given opertunity should be enough to keep the majority of people away from them. That you can sometimes get a half decent deal from them is no excuse for what they do on a daily basis.

TerrorFirmer

Smoggy wrote:

"This computer is fine for work, such as writing documents, but you cant take it on the internet as its not powerful enough"

Now that is strange. I have been on the phone to DELL quite alot over the years and, common lack of knowledge aside, they have never tried to push anything on me once - nor have they done anything remotely rude in actions or words, let alone hang up on me! In fact, I remember when I was buying my PC, it came with a crappy x300 - I told them I wanted it replaced with an x800 for the extra fifty quid or whatever it was at the time. The guy actually tried to advise me not to get it, as there was virtually no difference (we all know there is aa huge difference of course, but the point being, he tried to sell me the cheaper option because he thought it best tailored my needs!)

But regardless, if they hung up on you more then once, I'd make sure I got onto the management about it - on occassion in my experience DELL have actually been decent when an error is made on their part and are sometimes willing to offer discounts or free extras. Only sometimes, mind.

chtyrone

The UK consumer forums in recent months are full of complaints about Dell's Indian call centres - especially over orders when you don't sign up for extras.

The general advice running around the forums is NEVER EVER EVER buy over the telephone from Dell. Purchase through the website where you have a hard copy of what you've bought.

Terrible that you have ABSOLUTELY NO TRUST in the retailer you're buying from.
I should imagine there will be a huge amount of companies springing up across Ireland and England offering to take over Dell warranties. People want the value, but not the atrocious service.

Why don't Dell get off their arses and do something about this?

wanabe

priced a dimension 9150 today online, rang up dell just to check a detail on 1 of the specs and the sales guy told me he could beat the online price! he offerd to ring me back on my mobile as not to incur any extra cost on my side!when he emailed me quote he had upgraded the repairs service from 1 to 3 years! threw in a free printer/scanner (i know theyre not worth a lot but free is free) and he still managed to beat the online price by €120! thought it was pretty good service! but then again sales people can differ! bound to be a few ***holes working there!

formatman

the 9150 has gone up in price alot in the last few weeks( although the CPU and graphics card specs have increase too ) and has a higher margin on it than the 5150

it just the Sales person has more to play with on the price

It was all in their favour , and a little in yours

hugh_jass_ie

wanabe wrote:

priced a dimension 9150 today online, rang up dell just to check a detail on 1 of the specs and the sales guy told me he could beat the online price! he offerd to ring me back on my mobile as not to incur any extra cost on my side!when he emailed me quote he had upgraded the repairs service from 1 to 3 years! threw in a free printer/scanner (i know theyre not worth a lot but free is free) and he still managed to beat the online price by €120! thought it was pretty good service! but then again sales people can differ! bound to be a few ***holes working there!

I recently bought a 9150 (received it today) After getting through to 3 different people - 1 told me I couldnt buy a pc without monitor, and the other 2 calls "dropped". I eventally got through to a rep named Garry. He was really great. Extremely helpful, called me back because I was on a mobile. Was very chatty and emailed me the quote exactly as I had given it to him. Explained that the system would be approx 4/5 weeks to be delivered, it was here in less than 3. When ordering he advised which speaker combination/tv tuner works best. As I didnt require a printer, he threw in a free upgrade to cordless mouse/keyboard.

I ended up with a class system, super spec and a really great price. I was extremely satisfied with my purchase (after a dodgy start)! Fair play to Garry

hugh

Sam Vimes

40gb -> 80 gb = €30 on komplett
40gb -> 80 gb = €121 on dell


i think dells add-ons are overpriced

Smoggy

Whats even sillier is €115 will buy you 300gb from many shops. But like I say its where Dell will make thier money , as the base units look to be sold at a very good price, but when you start to upgrade to make the computer usable ( like from 256 to 512mb and from 80gb to 200gb ) you have added another 200 euro onto your machine.

My parents paid £300 all in inc vat and del for a low end desktop machine and 15" tft, I cant see there being large profits in this as near on £100 is going on the VAT and shipping.

I will still order from Dell , just not over the phone and im sticking to my policy of buying the base unit and upgrading the other parts myself at a much lower cost.

uberpixie

Smoggy wrote:

Whats even sillier is €115 will buy you 300gb from many shops. But like I say its where Dell will make thier money , as the base units look to be sold at a very good price, but when you start to upgrade to make the computer usable ( like from 256 to 512mb and from 80gb to 200gb ) you have added another 200 euro onto your machine.

My parents paid £300 all in inc vat and del for a low end desktop machine and 15" tft, I cant see there being large profits in this as near on £100 is going on the VAT and shipping.

I will still order from Dell , just not over the phone and im sticking to my policy of buying the base unit and upgrading the other parts myself at a much lower cost.

Most people usually try getting a really cheap, low end chassis in Dell and then upgrade it, thinking they are saving money.

Of course if you get the pen and paper out and start comparing prices more often than not you are better off going up a chassis than upgrading a cheap one.

Heinrich

If you order online why not go to Komplett, they are fully WYSIWYG compliant?

nick 56

I have also had a bad time with dell but now want a new pc. i am unable to build my own (Arthritis) and a lack of knowledge. i suppose i am in the same situation as yer mans mum and dad.
What would be great would be somebody whom you could talk to and would then build a computer to agreed specs as in made to measure.

Smoggy

I use to and still do from time to time build made to measure machines for people, but I ordered from Dell as I live in Dublin and my parents live in the UK and getting a machine over to them is more hassle and money than its worth.

But I agree , if you can build your own machine then its worth doing as its cheaper and you know what you are getting ....

Smoggy

The story gets worse !!!

Dell said the computer would arrive today , my dad booked the day off work, turns out that Dell forgot to confirm the oder internally and it now wont be delivered for another week. They are a DISASTER

empirix

Yeah i am having probs too, basically bought a nice spec PC from the Dell outlet store, now there saying i never ordered it. I have a refernce number saved en all for this, what can i do here?

di11on

I experienced this misery too.

My mum wanted to buy a PC for my sister living in the UK and I went to sort it out on the internet for her. I wanted to do it through the UK website because there was a £100 discount offer which was only €100 on the Irish site! Trouble was, at the very last step, I couldn't enter an Irish billing address because the delivery address was in the UK.

Anyway, I had to talk to a sales representative. Honest to goodness... what a pain in the a$$. I knew the system I wanted but had to fight over EVERY SINGLE BL00DY OPTION!!!!

No! I don't want the freaking printer cable for €20!!! I'll buy it on ebay for €3 thanks very much.

No! I don't want freaking macaffee security centre that's going to bug me every time I fart when I'm on the internet or I send an email - I'll install AGV antivirus for free thanks.

No! I don't want 3 printer cartridges for the price of 2!!!

In my opinion, one of the greatest achievements of the internet is not having to talk to sales people!!!

Smoggy

empirix, That sounds like the same situation my parents are in, its your word against theres , I think you just have to accept that they have done you wrong ....

My parents are writting a letter of complaint , wether anything will happen about it is another matter.

unklerosco

Dell are getting quite bad... I've had a good few problems with the Indian sales team.. Rang up to get a price on the 2405 a while ago.. For 2 weeks solid i got 2-3 calls a day asking if was gonna buy one.. They then got my GFs number off my account n started ringing her when i didn't answer my phone.. It got to the stage where the drove me to getting abusive over the phone but the still rang back....

Recently ordered a pc for my mates dad n dealt with the Irish sales team, world of difference.. The guy i was talking to was bang on.. I said that i only wanted the base pc, take off everyhting u can inc the warranty n he did.. not only that but he threw in a gig of ram for free!!

formatman

there is a very simple solution to all this problems

If people call to buy a PC and get through to India , state that you refuse to buy from this Sales team to protect Irish and UK jobs and hang up

The call stats will eventually show this up and the recorded calls will have to have an impact to wake up management to do something about the QOS

TommyGun

formatman wrote:

there is a very simple solution to all this problems

If people call to buy a PC and get through to India , state that you refuse to buy from this Sales team to protect Irish and UK jobs and hang up

The call stats will eventually show this up and the recorded calls will have to have an impact to wake up management to do something about the QOS

Sounds like a good idea. I have had to deal with the sales people in India checking the details of orders, its terrible. It is not there fault as there dealing in the second language. Dell should keep there sales people local.