Trying to apply for Dell Preferred Account

bluuz · 06-29-05, 12:19 PM

It's amazing how much of my time I had to spend just to buy my Axim from Dell.

On June 15th, I applied online for a Dell Preferred Account and was immediately approved. Good, all I needed to do was put in my Social Security Number and mother's maiden name to use it. The approval screen told me I would receive a package containing my card and account information in 7-10 day. Never did I receive the package. Yesterday, I went to place my order, but when I put in my SSN and mom's name to use the DPA, the screen said "cannot locate account." So I called Dell Financial to check on the account status and the rep could not seem to figure out what happend. He placed me on hold for a long time and finally said the people I needed to speak with "were in a meeting" and to call back in 24 hours. (Why can't people just say "I DON'T KNOW" when they don't know the answer to something?) I called Dell Financial back last night and waited on hold for 10 minutes without getting anyone. Hung up and called sales. A very polite sales rep said she could see my account on her screen but that it had some "discreptancy," and said I needed to call Dell Financial again. She gave me a special extension to use to reach someone who could help. I called Dell Financial again, putting in the extension number, and reached a woman who rather rudely told me that the line was private for the training of sales reps, but she would transfer me "directly" to someone who could help. She apparently dumped me in a phone que and I waited ten minutes for someone to answer. I again explained the problem I was having. This rep put me on hold for another ten minutes. Finally he came back and said that he found the problem with my DPA account -- he needed to read the terms and conditions to me. (Huh??) So he read a few sentences and said my account was active.

Went to place my order today and voila! my Preferred Account is active, and the order went through no problems.

I figure I spent at least and hour and a half messing with this issue. I run a business myself, and while I appreciate that snafus like this happen from time to time, I haven't experienced this level of cluelessness and buck passing in quite while, especially given that I'm a new customer who is only trying to buy something!

Fortunately for Dell, they have such desirable products that I was willing to go through all the trouble.

currahee2100 · 07-05-05, 07:34 AM

How much are they paid again? so much for award winning support