I thought I would give an update to this post. So many times I read posts like this and am left wondering what the rest of the story was, that I feel obligated to let everyone know where things stand.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who offered to help and indeed did help. I was amazed at how many offers of help I got from the community. Someone, and I am not sure who, or perhaps the group effort finally raised some eyebrows at Dell. While I was at HIMSS 10, I got a call from a Dell rep offering to help out. I also got a call from a friend who has the same Dell rep as I, saying that the rep in question’s boss happened to be an hour or so away from our city and wanted to drive down and take the both of us to lunch and talk about things. I couldn’t take him up on the offer since I was three states away.
A little less shocking was that my Dell rep finally followed up on the emails that I had sent weeks before. Also not very shocking, was the fact that the quote he sent did not include a number of the specs that I required. I also received an email and phone call another Dell employee who was one of my rep’s superiors. I was impressed that suddenly Dell wanted my business, and decided to give them another shot. I commented on the specs that were missing from the quote and sent it back to my rep.
Here is where things started getting a little rocky. Two days went by and no response. So I forwarded my email response to my rep to his superior that had contacted me a couple days before. In a couple hours I had an apology from my rep’s boss, and an excuse from my rep saying that he had accidentally sent his response to my predecessor. I also got an accurate quote.
Once I place the order, my rep’s superior noticed that the shipment was going to be delayed and called me about it. After some discussion, the order was broken up to allow certain items to arrive with out having to wait on the back ordered parts. I have to say that I was feeling very happy with the service I had been getting. However, I wish I could say that is where things currently stand.
I had ordered two systems from Dell on the order that got broken up, and had somehow double ordered one of the systems. I called my rep to make sure that the mis-ordered system didn’t get built and shipped. He said that he would take care of it, and did. However, when I started receiving invoices, I noticed that some of the order numbers corresponded to the system that was canceled. When I called to first time to verify that the billing was correct, and that I wouldn’t be getting any surprise bills or systems, my rep was unavailable. I left a voice mail and waited for a call back. A day and a half passed and no call back. I decided to call my rep from my company cell on my way in to work. I figured I would have to leave another voice mail, since I had never been able to get hold of him that early in the morning. To my surprise, he answered. We exchanged greetings, had a little idle chatter, and then I started to explain why I was calling when I got disconnected. I called back, waded through all the voice prompts and got hold of him again. After chatting about how odd it was for my cell to drop a call, I started in to the reason for my call again when I got dropped again. Thinking that my company’s cell provider must be having issue, I checked my personal cell which is with a different provider. It had full signal as well. I called again and again waded through all the voice prompts. He answered again. I explained that I was calling from a different cell phone this time and that we shouldn’t experience the same problem. He started talking about the recent quote he had sent me for another new system. I started to explain that I was actually calling about the invoice issue when I got disconnected again. At this point I was almost to my office and no longer trusting my cell phones. So I called from my landline and waded through all the voice prompts yet again. He answered and started laughing hysterically once I said my name. Then he went into this long monologue about the most recent set of specs I had sent him and about the details of the quote he had sent me. I tried a couple times to interrupt and explain that I was calling about something else. Finally he stopped, and as soon as I said I had a question about the invoices, I got disconnected. Then it occurred to me that there must be an issue with the phone system at Dell. So I sent an email explaining what I needed to know about the invoices and that the other quote still had to get approved by finance.
When I didn’t get a response for a few days, I wasn’t entirely surprised and figured he had checked into it and there was nothing to be concerned about. However, It would have been nice to know for sure. After a week, and no new invoices or unexpected systems, I decided to order another system to replace a machine that was on it’s last leg. I sent my specs and waited for a quote. Two days later I ordered a system from Lenovo, got it in house three days after that, and it has been running like a champ for the last three weeks.
I am so pleased with the system and Lenovo’s responsiveness, that I am going to be ordering at least 15 more systems from then in the next couple months. I know this is probably a bit of a boring read, and that it probably sounds like I am bashing Dell. I not really upset or angry with Dell in general. I am just tired of dealing with that rep and they won’t give me a new one. (Yes I did indicate his superior that I wanted a different rep.)
BTW, I know this might sound odd, just the unboxing experience is so much better with Lenovo, that I think it is worth consideration when ordering any systems in volume.
