::: Sigh:::
So I get this consulting job. To do this job I need a laptop. To be compatible with some of the programs I need XP as the operating system. You can’t buy an XP laptop at Adequate Purchase of any of the other big box stores, so I head off to Dell.
I order a business laptop with all the bells and whistles and the hardware to be VISTA compatible at some point in the future.
I picked the model I picked due to the ship date, they gave me a promised ship date of today as I will be traveling on this job, so it is kind of very important that I get the damn unit before I leave the country. I also paid for 2 day shipping to make damn sure the unit was here in time. Three days ago (9/17) I get an e mail that my unit has shipped.
WOOT! Dell rocks!
Wait what is this? When I go to track the order, it says under carrier and tracking number " information is temporarily not available". At that time I did not sweat it as they could have the unit ready for pickup after the carrier had done their last pu for the day.
Yesterday, I go to track the package and get the same information is temporarily not available message. I call Dell and find out they shipped via DHL Fucking wonderful, they shipped my laptop via Delivered Horribly Late. But I was able to ascertain that the unit was not being delivered yesterday, and I could in fact leave my house to go shopping. I got a DHL tracking number from the Dell dude so I could track it later.
This morning (the expected delivery date) I go to Delivered Horribly Late’s website and put in my tracking number. I get a no such number exists, maybe we don’t have your package yet.
WTF?
So I call Dell again. This Dell dude puts me on hold and then tells me he will call me back in 10 minutes. He calls back, but can’t tell me shit about where my laptop is.
He says he has e mailed the production facility to find out more info and he will call me tomorrow. He tells me he will refund my $39.00 two day shipping charge. Swell, how about you keep the $39 and get me a fucking computer instead?
So the questions facing me are:
Dude, will I get a Dell?
If so will it arrive at my house before I leave the country?
How can a company the size of Dell lose a $1500 piece of inventory?
Why would any company with more than 3 brain cells use DHL for anything?
So just how fucked am I?
If anybody needs me, I will be under my desk whimpering.
Oh, I feel your pain. I hate DHL more than anything. Nothing ever gets delivered on time and they never show the least bit of interest or remorse when they screw up.
I hope your computer arrives. And I hope it arrives in one piece.
I have it on good authority that DHL actually stands for Delivery by Hurling and Lobbing. If this august authority is to be believed, your laptop will not only arrive late, but also battered, beaten and waterlogged.
I’m in the sticks, but I wouldn’t call it the deep sticks. We’re on a pretty big highway, we have a Super Wal-Mart, we’re more or less what you’d call civilization. UPS and FedEx get here just fine every single day.
But the last two times I’ve had something shipped by DHL the packages have languished in a sorting facility for a couple of days before finally being delivered to the post office in Lexington (two hours away). Where they were mailed to me.
If the companies in question had just mailed the goddamn things in the first place, it would have been much cheaper and they would have gotten here a hell of a lot sooner.
I’m going to start including a note with my online purchases asking the seller to please use any carrier but DHL.
To Dell’s credit, though, everything I have ever ordered from them arrived a few days ahead of their projected delivery date. I’m sure they pad their projections on purpose, but I can’t complain.
How weird that everyone has had such horrible experiences with Dell shipping through DHL.
Most importantly: dude, don’t pay for shipping with Dell. Just call and say, “Hey, can I have free overnight shipping?” and they will say of course, usually without any kind of protest. I think it’s just a standard thing with them, as I literally have never paid for shipping and my stuff is always sent next day (and it really is next day, one time I ordered something at 3 PM one afternoon and the next morning at 9 it was here).
Dell has always been insanely fast with getting me anything. My keyboard on my laptop was acting funny, so I got online to chat with one of their customer service reps and within one day, my new keyboard was here with instructions on how to install it. To ship my old one back, I just called DHL who picked it up at my door and shipped it off.
Speaking of DHL, I’ve only ever had one problem. My shipping information didn’t show up on their site, so I wasn’t able to track my package. That said, my package still arrived a day earlier than scheduled.
Does Dell use DHL exclusively? IIRC the last 3 times I bought from them, which was this year, I got my stuff via UPS within a day or two.
Is it because of location or something? What state are you in, Rick?
Or maybe because I got my stuff from dfsdirect.com (their off-lease computers)?
Strange that they use more than one shipper. You’d think they’d be big enough to partner with one shipper and get it done. It would make shipping better, I’d think, because if the shipper fucks up Dell can take their business elsewhere.
I live in Los Angeles, not zactly what I would call the middle of nowhere. It is now 8pm west coast time and both Dell and DHL disavow all knowledge of my package.
:smack: Diosa Now you tell me. I’ll know for next time.
Update
On Saturday morning a tracking number appeared when I accessed Dell’s website about my order.
It shows it was received by DHL on Friday the 21st. :rolleyes:
Where the fuck it was between the 17th and the 21st it not stated.
Now here is the kicker. The unit was shipped ground. :smack:
It seems that when the CSR refunded my 2 day air shipping, the system defaulted to ground shipping. Nice.
I spoke with a manager today and expressed my frustrations with their system, and ragged on them over the ground shipping. He is supposed to be sending me a coupon good for money off my next system.
I stayed home from work the day of the delivery in order to sign for it. At the end of the day, the website tracking info changed from “out for delivery” to “delivery attempted.” There had been no knock/doorbell, no delivery notice on the door, no phone call from the gate call box.
I called to tell them (in the politest terms I could muster) “horseshit,” and was told I could come pick up the package if I wanted it.
So I did. So the one time I used DHL, they failed to deliver.
Is it possible they’re just a phony subsidiary of/front for FedEx, created just to make FedEx appear to suck less by comparison?
I’ll know for next time.