Contact: eleanor@volcano.net
Located at 30 Main St. in Jackson, CA

On January 9th I called Dell to order a hard drive. I waiting a lengthy time on hold which was expected then a man cam eon the phone that I had a hard time understanding but he was very nice and we joked as we discussed which hard drive would be the correct one for my Dimension 8300. When I came time to order, I had to spell my name 6 times as well as my street name of Clinton Rd. 3 times. I was still fine. I asked him if he was sure this would work in my computer. He AT FIRST said "oh actually ma'am, I don't think it is. Oh yes it is ma'am yes it is he said. A red flag went up. But I gave him my credit card number and he said I should have my HD in 2-3 business days.

I hung up and patiently waited 3 days, then 4 and 5 and 7 days. I finally called Dell back and again a lengthy hold time and I ask them where my hard drive is. VERY NICELY and he asks me for my order number and he puts me on hold for a few minutes and comes back to tell me that they canceled that order.

I said what do you mean you canceled my order. I never received an email telling me it was canceled nor did I get a phone call. Why was it canceled? He informs me there is something wrong with the billing address. Remember not even a phone call to ask me if I made a mistake or anything 7 days no contact. So the guy places a new order and tells me there still seems to be a problem with the address and that I would have to wait until tomorrow to speak the Dell Verification center at 866-447-3355. so I am not thrilled about this as now another day has passed and my computer can hardly run a program it needs a hard drive so bad. So I called my partner/mother and found out she changed the billing address on OUR credit card to a PO box so I called Dell back - another lengthy hold time and tried to give him the correct address but he wasn't able to input it so he canceled that order too and we placed the final order. I ask, how long before I get this. He says another 2-3 business days. that was Thursday Jan. 17. So I waited from Thursday - Friday and the weekend of course until today. when DHL pulled up I was so happy I got my new hard drive.

I rush into my office it is 4:00 pm PT. I open my computer and the plugs do not match. I look and look and look to make sure I am seeing this correctly. So i call Dell at 4:30 I get a man with an accent named Rohit on the phone. I am a bit angry but not as angry as I got later. I tell him the entire above story. He puts me on hold and I wait and I wait and I wait. And finally 15 minutes later, I hear. "if you would like to make a call please hang up and try your call again" Well now I am very pissed off. BUT still not as mad as I got a short time later when i called back. ANOTHER 10 minutes waiting for someone to answer. I get a nice kid named Chester he spoke english and as soon as I calmed down a little I apologized for being upset. I ask him PLEASE do not put me on hold. He swears he will stay on the line with me while he gets Customer Care on the phone and we would 3 party. Maybe I miss understood him but I thought he was going to help me tell them what was wrong. So now Chester is gone and I have to tell a third person in an hour what is going on. I am very mad. I am so mad if I could reach through the phone and slap her I would have. I am now feeling very much like a number that no one gives a darn about. I ask her to PLEASE do not put me on hold and tell her I do not want to talk to anyone but a supervisor at this point. so I wait and wait and wait and wait until I am steaming mad and I scream at her to get some one on this f-ing line right now. so she puts me on hold and a supervisor doesn't come on for about 5 minutes and I am yelling at her that I am not waiting anymore. this is B--S--- and I want someone on this phone right F---ing now. I have been now on the phone for an 1.5 hours and have been disconnected twice. and have had to repeat this story 3 times. And it is getting worse and worse. A supervisor finally gets on the phone but because of my attitude she puts me on hold so I get on my other line and call a sales man knowing they would answer right away. After all I am going to give him money right? God forbid they put a paying customer on hold as long as they do with customer care!!! so Matt answers the phone. it is now 6:30 pm (2hrs) I again tell him my whole story but this time I am trying very hard to be calm and be nice to this man because after all it isn't his fault and I don't want to get put on hold. Which by the way the other phone was still on hold. Matt got another sales girl Christina(?) on the phone to help me because she actually worked in tech support before. so she walks me through some stuff and tells me that this HD actually would be compatible had it had the cord that it need to work right. it plugs into the SATA0 slot under the battery on the MB. I say well I don't have that cable. she tells me it is sold separately . Well why didn't the sales man sell it to me then?? She said he should have. I say OK then I will go get one tomorrow, she says that is all you need and then you put it in the box that holds the HD's and plug it into the SATA0 slot and plug the power supply in and you should be good.

So I tell her I think this is a self powered HD because there is no place to plug a power source. So she sends me a picture of the HD that I am supposed to have and I tell her NOPE that is not what it looks like. It looks like this----- and I emailed her a pic of the HD. It was made and shipped without a power source soldered to the mother board. It got past quality control and everything and of course got shipped to ME. After all I have been through already - there is no power source.

I can not tell you how distressed this entire ordeal has been. I spent 2 hours and 45 minutes on the phone. I was hung up on or disconnected 3 times and now find out this thing is damaged goods or actually just faulty. I want to know what Dell is going to do about this.

I will tell you what Dell is going to do. They are going to package up a HD first thing Tuesday morning and they are going to include the cables I need for FREE and then they are shipping it OVER NIGHT EXPRESS at nor charge to me and then they are going to walk me through every step without putting me on hold.

I am going to call Channel 13 news the Call Curtis when you feel like you have been treated badly or taken advantage of and I am going to report and send this entire letter to them and I am going to lodge a formal complaint. The way I was treated was beyond reprehensible. what I have been put through for three weeks is inexcusable for a company this size. I am a small business owner that struggles to pay my bills and is struggling to keep enough work under my belt to even eat every day. I spent all the money I had on this HD and I needed it so badly that it was almost impossible to run PhotoShop without it taking 5 minutes to save a file. I am an honest hard working person that falls through every crack with every major company like PG&E, AT&T Dell and who ever. And I am not going to stand for it anymore. I have had it being the little guy that gets walked all over. I am not a number. I am a hard working American trying to survive in this recession. I go without food for days sometimes. this is America and I should not have to live like this. I want this made right and I want it made right tomorrow!

this is a link to the HD on my site. http://eleanor18.multiply.com/photos/album/38#507

As you can see there is no power source on this HD. I have posted this letter in its entirety on my site and I will post it on all my sites that I am a member of as well as talk about it on my local cable aired television talk show on TSPNTV. Dell WILL make this right.