A couple of days ago I posted the following to my Google+ account:
Dell nonsense: My computer has been shipped, there is a problem with the invoice they cannot fix (my company VAT is missing, the order was done "by a Dell representative" under my company name and company account -- but as a private order), so I'll have to return the computer, ask for a reimbursement, and place a new identical order.
In the process, they'll have to manufacture another computer, and get rid of mine (it was a very peculiar configuration). Are they crazy or what? Might seriously look around for alternatives at this point..
You can read the post and the 35+ comments in the thread at https://plus.google.com/109099686252303180605/posts/WVtto4Qisqx. Needless to say my opinion of Dell was very low at this point.
After that, since the computer actually arrived, I called again and they told me I had to return it and place a new order. What a mess. I decided it was well worth to complain with the boss, so I wrote to Michael Dell, given I had seen posts claiming you could actually use his email:
from Marco Cantu'
to Michael@dell.com
date Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 4:31 PM
subject Great computers, messed up management
Know you're busy, guess you'd never see this email anyway I'm keeping
this short.
Live in Italy. Ordered a computer through a Dell representative, as I
needed a non standard configuration.
After 2 weeks, got my PC. But they mismanaged my company data, invoice
is wrong. Seems an easy issue.
Instead, I'll have to send the computer back, get a refund, place a
new order... and you'll have to build another computer to my specs. I
think this is total nonsense, I'm loosing time on the process... but
you're loosing money... and might also loose a customer, if I can find
a similar computer from HP or Lenovo.
Sorry to have bothered, I bought Dell computers in the past, this is
very upsetting.
--
-Marco Cantù, Wintech Italia Srl
www.marcocantu.com, www.wintech-italia.it
Now les than 24 hours after that email, I received a reply. Not from Micheal in person, no, but from a Dell representative in France with the title of "CSMB EMEA Executive Escalation". She wrote me (in a quite correct Italian, here I'm translating back to English):
Mr Cantu,
I'm following up your email to Michael Dell.
If you can leave me a phone number where I can call you, since I'm getting no reply.
I replied to the email, and she called me minutes later, telling me she had looked to the situation (finding the original order, given my email, I guess), she would cancel my request to return the computer, and add my company VAT ID to the invoice, emailing the PDF of the invoice early next week. In fact, she told me, the invoice is already under your company name, so it cannot be considered to a sale to a private person. Exactly what I had told them before.
Well, so do I unpack the computer and try it out or do I wait for the correct invoice? It's Friday, have a busy week end, will probably do it on Monday anyway... and I also got a Mac Mini to play with today, but that's another story!