An open letter to Michael Dell of Dell Computer

Timothy Daniels wrote:

wrote:
Richard Barrett
1610 E. 1st St.
Bloomington, IN 47401
(812) 219-0286


Expect your spam to increase several fold, and you
might even get crank calls. Make all payments by
credit card so you can cancel the charges if the
purchased item doesn't arrive. Document the non-
arrival with a police report or a letter to the Post
Office. Don't depend on Michael Dell to read this -
his time is too valuable and he makes a profit even
if you never buy another thing from Dell Computer.

A police report?

Notan

"Leythos" wrote:
In fact, in the 20 years I've been on usenet, I've never
seen where the email address in the "BODY" of the
document has made any difference in spam levels.


So? The idiot had it in his headers. I once did that
in a single posting in which I supplied a real email
address that hadn't gotten spam in more than a year.
Within 2 weeks, spam was flooding in.

*TimDaniels*

"Notan" wrote:
A police report?

Yes. It appears that there is a strong possibility
that the $2K laptop was stolen. Unless a customer
has the fortitude to make a report to the authorities,
why should Dell believe that he didn't receive the
laptop?

*TimDaniels*

"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message
...

Best to use a CR card for purchases like this.

Very good advise. We learned it the hard way. Also, with Dell. It took more
than three months to get it straightened out and get our money back.





"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message
...
Jay B wrote:

Call your debit card company and put a stop /trace on it. they have to
work for you. You may get your money back before Dell does it.

DB cards are a problem - the Dell payment may be considered a cash payment
and not reversible (although I hope I'm wrong here). Best to use a CR card
for purchases like this.

Good luck to the OP, BTW.

"RoxRanger" wrote in message
news:gcemf.4666$605.1305@trndny09...

A suggestion: If there's a reputable computer chain in your area
(Microcenter comes to mind), take the money from your Dell fiasco and go
buy a notebook from them. If anything goes wrong, they'll give you
immediate satisfaction - trust me; I know of what I speak!


Also very good advise. We no longer buy from ANY of the direct sale
computer companies, but now purchase from a local dealer.



"RoxRanger" wrote in message
news:gcemf.4666$605.1305@trndny09...
Unfortunately, I'm inclined to agree with Sparky. Debit transactions are
not as clearly "protected" as credit transactions. However, this doesn't
mean you shouldn't push your bank to get the money back (I believe there
are clear rules about non-delivery of merchanise!).

As an aside, I have long since lost any patience for this kind of behavior
on the part of computer companies. This transaction should be no more
complicated than purchasing a toaster from Sears. If Dell, or any other
computer company suggests otherwise, take your business elsewhere forever.
Computers have long since become commoditized items, and you should be
able to get prompt service without BS.

A suggestion: If there's a reputable computer chain in your area
(Microcenter comes to mind), take the money from your Dell fiasco and go
buy a notebook from them. If anything goes wrong, they'll give you
immediate satisfaction - trust me; I know of what I speak!

"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message
...
Jay B wrote:

Call your debit card company and put a stop /trace on it. they have to
work for you. You may get your money back before Dell does it.

DB cards are a problem - the Dell payment may be considered a cash
payment and not reversible (although I hope I'm wrong here). Best to use
a CR card for purchases like this.

Good luck to the OP, BTW.

Sparky Spartacus wrote:
Jay B wrote:

Call your debit card company and put a stop /trace on it. they have to
work for you. You may get your money back before Dell does it.

DB cards are a problem - the Dell payment may be considered a cash
payment and not reversible (although I hope I'm wrong here). Best to use
a CR card for purchases like this.

Alas, not an option. For several and various reasons.

On the other hand, my bank has been very helpful. They've agreed to
investigate, and the woman who helped me said, "We'll tell Dell we're
reversing the charge since you don't have it. I'm guessing they won't
want us to do that, and will come up with your computer pretty
quickly."

Also, the post office is sending me a letter confirming that they don't
have it and never did. I called APX today and asked why they can't
update their system to show that it's lost, since they agree it's lost
and it's because their system shows it as being "accepted" at the post
office that doesn't have it that I have to re-explain my story from
scratch every time I talk to Dell. I was told that "lost" is not a
status that exists in their system--presumably for liability reasons.
They said they would do a warehouse search at the original shipping
location for me, and they also told me to ask the Dell rep to do a
conference call to APX so that I could be on the line as well. On the
other hand, they also said I'd get a call back about the warehouse
search before the close of business today, and that didn't happen.

And the letter went out via FedEx today, and was also sent to the
posted Michael Dell e-mail address.

We shall see how this all turns out.

Richard

Timothy Daniels wrote:
"Leythos" wrote:
In fact, in the 20 years I've been on usenet, I've never
seen where the email address in the "BODY" of the
document has made any difference in spam levels.


So? The idiot had it in his headers.

I'm sorry--I did what to you, exactly?

Timothy Daniels wrote:
wrote:
Richard Barrett
1610 E. 1st St.
Bloomington, IN 47401
(812) 219-0286



Expect your spam to increase several fold, and you
might even get crank calls.

I frankly don't care at this point. If there's some chance that
somebody reading this can actually do something concrete to help me,
then I want them to be able to contact me immediately.

Make all payments by
credit card so you can cancel the charges if the
purchased item doesn't arrive.

Not an option, for a number of reasons. On the other hand, my bank has
been quite helpful regardless in terms of agreeing to be a source of
pressure on Dell to produce the machine I ordered, holding the threat
of *taking* the money back if they don't over their head.

Document the non-
arrival with a police report or a letter to the Post
Office.

The post office is providing me with a letter confirming that they
don't have it and never did. As far as a police report goes--I don't
have a problem doing this, but the question becomes, file a police
report with whom? The city where it should have arrived? The city from
which it was allegedly shipped, which is in another state? I don't know
at what point it was lost, since nobody I've talked to has ever
actually confirmed that it ever existed.

Don't depend on Michael Dell to read this -
his time is too valuable and he makes a profit even
if you never buy another thing from Dell Computer.

Perhaps he won't read it himself. But somebody will. And I'm told by
people in a position to know that he very much cares how his company is
perceived.

Time will tell.

Richard

wrote:
Timothy Daniels wrote:
Document the non-arrival with a police report or a letter
to the Post Office.

The post office is providing me with a letter confirming that they
don't have it and never did. As far as a police report goes--I don't
have a problem doing this, but the question becomes, file a police
report with whom? The city where it should have arrived? The city
from which it was allegedly shipped, which is in another state? I
don't know at what point it was lost, since nobody I've talked to
has ever actually confirmed that it ever existed.


It doesn't matter which authority - none of them will be able
to retrieve your laptop. The purpose is just to reduce Dell's
suspicions that you're lying about the non-arrival. If they feel
that you're not acting like a victim, they won't treat you like one.
Just get as much documentation of the problem from 3rd
parties as you can.

*TimDaniels*

wrote:

Sparky Spartacus wrote:

Jay B wrote:


Call your debit card company and put a stop /trace on it. they have to
work for you. You may get your money back before Dell does it.

DB cards are a problem - the Dell payment may be considered a cash
payment and not reversible (although I hope I'm wrong here). Best to use
a CR card for purchases like this.


Alas, not an option. For several and various reasons.

On the other hand, my bank has been very helpful. They've agreed to
investigate, and the woman who helped me said, "We'll tell Dell we're
reversing the charge since you don't have it. I'm guessing they won't
want us to do that, and will come up with your computer pretty
quickly."

Good, as I said, I hope this works out for you.