Dell's shocking customer service

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I'm hoping there is a Dell representative on here who can help out as i'm having the worst customer experience i've had for a long time.

Long story short(ish)
I bought an Alienware r3 15 (i7 and 1060) from the outlet which had terrible performance. I was getting a similar score to amd integrated graphics in Firestrike.

Support thought it was the motherboard so arranged a repair for the 29/06. On the day i didn't receive a call saying what time they were going to arrive, so i called the repair company who told me Dell had cancelled the appointment without even bothering to tell me.

I was going away the following Tuesday and needed a laptop, but they couldn't guarantee they could repair it on the Monday so offered a refund which i accepted.

I get back the following week and email them asking for an update as i'd not heard anything. They emailed me back saying they would update me in a few minutes. They didn't email. I email them again the next day and that got ignored. I called a few days later and they said a manager would call me the next day, nobody called.

It's now coming up to a month and nobody has attempted to process this or contact me, they're just keeping hold of my money.

They are tempting prices on the outlet but I would steer very clear. I vowed never to buy anything from Dell about 10 years ago after I experienced terrible support, so it's partially my own fault for thinking they may have upped their game. Lesson definitely learnt this time.
 
Soldato
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Sorry you had a bad experience. I have bought quite a few Alienware and other systems from the outlet and the service has been fantastic for on-site repairs. Did they ask you to run a system check?
 
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Yeah the guy spent about an hour going through various tests. It seemed to me like it was using the integrated graphics but it couldn't due to the G-sync screen. Valley benchmark was showing the 1060 working too, in fact everything looked like it was working except the performance.

I'm glad you've had a good experience but for me it has been absolutely awful. Dell is by far the worst company i've dealt with for a long time, simple communication would have pacified me for a bit but they can't even manage that.

Considering i keep getting ignored, i've sent them a final email asking them to resolve the issue and then i'll be seeing what my legal options are. I've wasted far too much time as it is and i've been down a grand for nearly a month.
 
Soldato
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I haven't had to ask for a refund from them so maybe it would be a different story. A month is way too long to wait for a refund. That's very poor.
 
Man of Honour
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Make sure you have any performance mode settings set for performance not sure what settings that laptop has (think fn+f7 might cycle them) my (non-Dell) laptop has a library mode I rarely use that severely throttles it.
 
Associate
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sadly its just bad luck, for hundreds of happy customers and great customer service they'll be one person who they just totally drop the ball with and mess up big time. I've only had good experiences over the last 10 years of buying dell/alienware stuff.

Sorry to hear about your experiences, just bare in mind though every laptop manufacturer will do the same and worse at some point. You will get your money back, it might take a bit more chasing.
 
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They have got back to me now after filling in a unresolved issue form. They say they are going to arrange pick up and then the refund, so hopefully it'll be sorted soon!

I accept it's luck of the draw, if it had worked ok i would probably have no concerns (it's a nice looking machine!), in fact I wasn't unhappy until they cancelled the repair without telling me and the bad communication snowballed.
I went with Asus in the end and i've read horror stories about their support as well so i'll probably have another rant soon! I did quite a bit of research first and there doesn't seem to be any solid choices as far as gaming laptops are concerned which is a shame.
 
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They have got back to me now after filling in a unresolved issue form. They say they are going to arrange pick up and then the refund, so hopefully it'll be sorted soon!

I accept it's luck of the draw, if it had worked ok i would probably have no concerns (it's a nice looking machine!), in fact I wasn't unhappy until they cancelled the repair without telling me and the bad communication snowballed.
I went with Asus in the end and i've read horror stories about their support as well so i'll probably have another rant soon! I did quite a bit of research first and there doesn't seem to be any solid choices as far as gaming laptops are concerned which is a shame.

From what I could find when I was looking for a gaming laptop the dell outlet deals seem to be the best by miles not just in terms of performance vs price but their warranty is the best in the business. It's strange you had such a bad experience though, I've used the next business day warranty over the years and it's always been good. Had to use it a couple of months ago and no issues.
 
Soldato
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Awful for me too so far. Ordered an outlet system and it's been despatched but the tracking does not work so I emailed Dell 3 times but no response. I called them and had some rude very thick Indian accent guy basically say that it will get there when it gets there and I should just wait for another week or so.

Told them to shove it and will refuse delivery if it ever arrives. Will just buy local instead far less hassle. It's been 2 weeks since ordering today and no sign of anything....
 
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Update! they collected it yesterday so will hopefully refund me soon.
The unresolved issues department have been good so far. Get back to me promptly and do what they say. It's a shame their customer service isn't on the same level.

Awful for me too so far. Ordered an outlet system and it's been despatched but the tracking does not work so I emailed Dell 3 times but no response. I called them and had some rude very thick Indian accent guy basically say that it will get there when it gets there and I should just wait for another week or so.

Told them to shove it and will refuse delivery if it ever arrives. Will just buy local instead far less hassle. It's been 2 weeks since ordering today and no sign of anything....

Mine took around a week to arrive from the outlet, nothing was updated on their tracking systems though until a couple of days before it arrived. Even after i had registered it, their system never updated with my details so i couldn't even see the order. I think they must be having some issues with it.
Buying local does have its advantages, Overclockers is only down the road so i've no excuse! I've only had to return one thing and they swapped it straight away, no messing.
 
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