Pat Dori, a disgruntled
Dell customer who found no resolution to the issue of a broken laptop after five long months and 19 wasted phone calls, decided to
go legal and sue the company for failing to adequately address the problem. The method by which Mr. Dori initiated the claim is the juicy core of this story: instead of going through the normal process of sending the court papers to Dell's headquarters in Texas, Dori thought to have the papers delivered to a Dell shopping mall kiosk instead. Quite unsurprisingly, no-one from Dell turned up in court on the stipulated date, resulting in Dori winning a $3,000 default judgment and a ruling to allow bailiffs to close the kiosk and seize items if the judgment was not paid. Dell has now settled the case out of court for undisclosed terms, although the company would have appealed the decision -- had it actually turned up to court, that is. Mr. Dori, our latest hero for sticking it to the man in such a crafty manner, says that he thinks "any regular person can do this," as long as you "have the law on your side." Apparently the key is to "get their money" first, which will inevitably be followed by "[getting] their attention." It's gotta beat screaming down the phone, that's for sure.
[Thanks, Mike]
posted Dec 10th 2006 1:31AM
I just got done spending over $1800 on two computers and two monitors and one of the monitors came with the wrong cable.(the replacement cable costs 75 bucks) I cant even get them to do something as simple as sending me the right cable. Igot re routed to so many people who just sent me somewhere else. And now I somehow can't even get the link for live chat from there website. (something I had no problem getting before all this.) What am I supposed to do?
Well I just figured out how to get them to respond to me positively. The trick is to ask how you can send the whole shipment back to them C.O.D. After this statement, my hour and forty-five minute phone tag problem was successfully resolved within five minutes.
The problem is with the customer support, dillhole! Just wait, it will happen to you! They will forget to include something in your order or something just as trivial and you'll have to call "Customer Support?" and then you'll understand where we are all coming from!!!
Stop the fine print and make them to infor the consumer all there rights and not the Company's only. I always thought fine print is a cover up for some crooked business. If they can't put in big print they shouldn't be allowed to sale any product. This is a big problem with seniors and people can't see well.
COMPANY JUST OUT TO SCREW LITTLE AMERICA IF THEY CAN. This happeneds with all products sold.
STOP FINE PRINT.
MAKE NEW LAWS FOR CONSUMER.
My Dell laptop fried a year and half after I bought it. I called tech support and they wanted me to reinstall windows even after I told them I had tried reformatting mutliple times. After calling/emailing Dell for a few months we finally sent the laptop in and paid around
$400 to get it fixed however the problem was of course the one thing they didnt cover for that $400, it was the motherboard. So they told us it'd be $700 more to fix it or they could send it back exactly as they recieved it. I cut my losses and took the broken laptop back.
3000 bucks says he's gonna spend his winnings on another dell laptop.
Woo hoo!! Way to go!!
Wow! Now that IS crafty. : ) Way to go.
After being retarded enough to waste 19 phone calls, he somehow redeemed himself.
Pat Dori is what's wrong with America. I hope he gets ass sued off him -- for what, I don't care, but karma dictates he burn in legal hell for the rest of his life.
ROFL, obviously dell ripped him off, companies do that, that's whats right about america and wrong about iraq, in iraq you would get your toung cut off for that :(
It is wimpy lap dogs like Ralph, that let big biz, operate the way they do! SIC EM Pat
He's doing what any corporation would do to hard working people... every hear the phrase "read the fine print" how much crap do you think goes by un-noticed by the average consumer in "the fine print"? Then when you sign on the dotted line or give them your hard earned money "gotcha!" or how about when the RIAA decides to sue you wrongfully and you end up blowing thousands in lawyers fees to defend yourself? All because "they can"
Ralph must work for Dell! Who else would defend such deceitful business practices!
Ralph, you're an idiot. You'd rather have the big corporation doing nothing to take care of their customers aside from putting him on the phone with someone from India who knows nothing win? As I said, you're an idiot.
Pat Dori is what's right with America: engenuity, creativity, the will and power to seek right where there is wrong, and not to be afraid in doing so. Maybe they won't be so smug and dismissive next time someone calls for technical support. This is assuming he didn't sit on his computer or anything. Way to stereotype ace...
Pizza, who's talking about iRaq around here?
Congraulations, Mr. Dorti. Job well done.
Handing summon papers to a temp worker at a kiosk who doesn't give a @#$%....brilliant!
Wow - after years of reading about how companies can basically force you into arbitration wherever *they* like - the shoe is on the other foot.
Have a kiosk in a mall? You must accept service of process there.
Civil Procedure wonks could point out that, most likely, by opening the laptop package & using the computer he agreed to serve process on Dell Inc.'s home office only - but clearly, litigating that would have cost more than $3k.
I feel a little better about America. :)
I bet all the 19 calls were answered in India
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(h)(1) provides that, when serving a corporation, delivery of the summons must be made "to an officer, a managing or general agent, or to any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process."
Somehow I doubt that a mall employee fits into any of these categories.
According to FRCP rule 4, service of process can be given to "an officer, a managing or general agent" of the corporation. Usually this does not include the schmuck that works the cash register and frequently does not include mid to upper level management at an individual store (especially a kiosk!!). Of course, service can also be done by any means that the state's law provides so maybe thats why this was permitted. I doubt it would be permissible solely by the federal requirement.
I've been complaining of Dell's crappy tech support for years. I wish I had thought of something like this before.
I repeat, Pat Dori is what's wrong with America.
Anybody who can't get satisfaction from Dell after five months and 19 phone calls, then serves legal papers to a dipwad at a kiosk, OBVIOUSLY just wanted to sue Dell from the start. Sure, why not, Dell has deep pockets, right? It wouldn't surprise me the least bit if he damaged his computer on purpose, just so he could sue. Some people will do anything for a headline and a little notoriety, plus a little unearned cash.
I personally have never seen a more responsive customer support department than Dell's. Every problem I've ever had with them, I've been blown away by how quickly and professionally they worked to resolve the problem. If some jerk can't get his problem resolved after 5 months and 19 phone calls, I have to, I mean I really have to, assume that the problem is on the customer's end. Like, maybe he was an ***hole to them from call #1? Like, maybe his computer was out of warranty? Who knows. The dipwad.
Reminds me of the ****ing ***hole who had the nerve to tap MY car's rear bumper, then started screaming SOFT TISSUE DAMAGE!!!! I HAVE TO CALL MY LAWYER!!!! GET ME A NECK BRACE!!!!
Friggin' wank, that Pat Dori. I curse him and the computer he rode in on. If it weren't for lawyers and their hell-spawned ilk, our computers would probably cost 1/10 of what they do.
Dude you have anger issues. Are you an Indian Dell Tech Support Rep?
There are shitty people in all walks of life. Lawyers are no better or worse than any other. All they do is work within the laws, which your representatives that you vote for implement. The legal system can be abused much the same as anything else, but please don't be so uninformed. If it were not for suits against corporations on behalf of wronged individuals I guarantee you, most things would be a lot MORE expensive, if they were even available, and you wouldn't even have warranties. Maybe you're a fan of the old feudal days, I don't know. The lawyer is just the means by which two sides try to assert their respective will under the existing law. No more, no less.
But it's the same old story. People think it's cool to hate zealous lawyers.
Until they need one.
Well, I owned a Dell. And had to deal with the tech support. Never in my life have I encountered a tech support so incompetent. NEVER. I had to deal with them twice and every time it was a PITA. The first problem is still only half solved, while the second problem I had to solve myself.
Reason: The tech support does not consist of technicians, but of stupid call center agents. If something goes wrong that's happening all the time - ok, no problem, they got it in their computers. But if a problem occurs that is only a LITTLE out of the ordinary, you're screwed.
They won't let you speak to a technician, they promise to call you back and won't, every time you call they tell you a different story, they are not authorized to make ANY kind of decision, they won't escalate the problem, because they think they are fully capable of dealing with it themselves (and aren't).
Never again will I buy from Dell, and I admire Mr. Dori for his efficient revenge... although I wonder why he waited so long for it.
BTW: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert200612187260.jpg
Ralph: "Reminds me of the ****ing ***hole who had the nerve to tap MY car's rear bumper..."
Ah! So *that's* what it's about. I was really wondering where you were transferring all this from.
From Ralph: "I personally have never seen a more responsive customer support department than Dell's. Every problem I've ever had with them, I've been blown away by how quickly and professionally they worked to resolve the problem."
Then you sir, must not know a damn thing about computers. When I was 11 years old (literally) my family spent countless hours on the phone with Dell tech support trying to fix a problem that a dell technician CAUSED when they came into our house for an under warranty replacement. Dell had no idea what the problem was. I finally got fed up enough that I decided to give it a shot and I was able to fix the problem just by thinking logically (because at that time I was starting to learn a bit about computers, unlike my family) and acting upon that. An hour later our computer was up and running again with everything working.
Dell tech support is crap, and not to be a bigot or anything, but half the time you're dealing with the tech support you're talking to the call center that's been outsourced to India and can barely understand what the tech is saying a lot. I am not racist and have nothing against people of different races or ethnicies, but for Christ's sake, doesn't it make sense to have customers talking with people they can understand clearly when dealing with a matter most people don't understand to begin with (fixing computers)?
And one final word to Ralph: you have some kind of anger built up against the legal system because you are making serious accusations that you have no grounds to make. Besides, I don't think that the price of replacing a laptop ($3000) that Dell owed him anyway is going to hike the prices of computers. It's one thing if he purposely caused the problem, which you are saying he probably did, but you have no proof or reason to think that, so keep quiet.
You are what is wrong with America!
Pat Dori shows what's RIGHT with America's legal system. I guess Ralph thinks Pat should either continue making phone calls to Dell until he's dead or just eat the $3000. Pat's choice to sue Dell in order to get his money back for a defective laptop was obviously his only recourse. Dell didn't want to help him. Ralph must be a great customer: the product I bought from you doesn't work and you refuse to fix it--well, OK, I'll just keep calling the same phone number.
Wow Ralph, I think you need to be a little less critical and not quite so anal. Maybe get laid or something. I see that someone got screwed by corporate america, and he devised a crafty method to get them back. Dell was given 19 oportunities to satisfy a customer and did nothing. It "serves" them right for not upholding their own policies in customer support. Having first hand experience with Dells inability to back up its product all I can say is Kudos for this man standing up for his rights. As for you, Have some coke and a smile and get on with your useless measly hacking life. You Hater.
@ RalphRalph
You at making upsurd generalizations about subjects you just don't fully understand--- mainly the lawyer comment. Without lawyers, laymen (like you obviously) would just get bent over a screwed by any company that wronged you rather than that company compensating deserving parties for damages incurred. I could go on an on tearing your arguments apart, but one example will suffice because you are not any more of my time. Coming from a family of lawyers, I know very well that most lawyers are very good people and sincerely help those in need.
Ralph: You are not Mr. "know-it-all" and are not even close, so just stop.
sounds like u work for the MAN!
Dude, They DO cost 1/10 of what you pay for... Just shop somewhere else.
Calm down fanboy.
I remember a time where a Dell salesman took a prepared spec for a server, and decided to substitute a piece of shit Travan drive for the useful DAT drive.
THEN There was the go-round with Dell about the shitty Travan drive not working.
About 3 months in, I got everyone who was trying to dick me around in a conference call, and they figured out that replacing the shitty drive with what we ASKED THEM FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE was a hell of a lot cheaper.
So... They suck about as much as anyone else at the end of the day. What the poster did was PERFECTLY LAWFUL, so if you have a problem with it, take it up with your legislature.
Large companies have terrible service in general and also have distain for people who want what they paid for.
I have had the same problem with a Rio karma.Instead of posting on the website that they no longer repair them you have to buy a $20 service ticket for them to tell you that over the phone.
So I basically had a lawyer friend shoot off a letter and presto a refund.
ralph you will need a lawyer most likely one day and I hope you get screwed becuase there arent many avenues to get satisfaction other wise.
5 months and 19 phone calls says that he kept hoping he'd just get his laptop fixed.
Just because someone dinged your bumper and made a big deal out of it threatening to sue, doesn't mean that EVERY person filing a lawsuit is only out to leech money.
People out to leech money act a lot quicker on the legal action than 5 months.
Pat showed a tremendous amount of patience before resorting to legal means.
What's "right" with America is that Pat came up with a clever, and legal, recourse to the sort of treatment he'd been recieving.... Sort of a "turn about is fair play" the legal way...
Take notes, and stop letting your own anger cloud your vision... Pat's action is a lesson for us all on how to bring America back to the "common man".
You must be drinking some cool aid from Dell. Look at Dell's stock. Look at Dell's market share. Obviously you must be employed by Dell. Dell does not care for its customers. Their customer service stinks. Customers are deserting dell in droves. There must be a reason. Ass holes like you blame everyone else but their own faults. Dell has a problem. Go fix that first.
Maybe Ralph is pushing for a promotion at his job at Dell! Maybe he's the dork at the kiosk who failed to show up in court and got fired by Dell?!!
Ralph, do you also defend the the oil companies for helping us cut back on our gas usage by their outrageous profits from spiking gas prices?
Ralph... Dude, you have an anger problem. Are you a moonlighting Dell Tech Support Rep from India?
"Well, I owned a Dell. And had to deal with the tech support. Never in my life have I encountered a tech support so incompetent. NEVER."
Obviously you've never had to deal with Verizon.
http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/clips/verizon-doesnt-know-difference-between-dollars-and-cents-220362.php
You've obviously never had problems with Sprint PCS if Dell is the worst you've ever seen.
Freakin genious!!! Absolute genious!!! That really got Dell's attention and that's all Mr.Dori wanted (I presume). Why Dell would not help its customers? I don't know. Well, they just got pwnd. $3000 is pretty nice too...
hey, thats enough for him to buy a brand new 17inch 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with a 160GB HDD and 2GB of RAM, horray for him...
Sorry, Ralph, but simply because you happened to have a good experience means nothing. There are entire websites devoted to Dell's shenanigans. Incompetent tech support, rebate scams, stonewalling customers who are having documented problems etc. Its obvious you've never dealt with a large impersonal company who has screwed you. I bought a H-P PC back in '98 only to find out the combination modem/sound card was screwing up the entire system. H-P knew about yet chose to delete every post on their support forums that brought it up. A tech support guy had told me off the record what the issue was and stated they weren't supposed to talk about it but he told me anyhow because he took pity on my situation. They quietly changed the offending hardware and left those who still had to deal with it hanging out to dry. This is just an example of what can happen when you buy off these companies that look at issues strictly as a bottom line thing. Would it cost more to admit the issue and fix it or just stonewall? Never is the customer their #1 priority. The shareholders are. Remember that.
I like how he tries to confuse the verizon rep by .002 of a dollar rather than 2 cents.
"Well, I owned a Dell. And had to deal with the tech support. Never in my life have I encountered a tech support so incompetent. NEVER."
Obviously you've never had to deal with Verizon.
http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/clips/verizon-doesnt-know-difference-between-dollars-and-cents-220362.php
Or You've never had to deal with Sprint/Embarq. I wish I had the gumption to sue a Sprint Kiosk like Mr. Dori did. Sprint's customer service system is organized to divert, avoid, delay, and pretend they care, so customers will just give up. Looks like Dell has the same intentions.
Way to go Dori.
In my experience, I have to say that Dell's customer service slash tech support overall sucks a big one. I called in to request a Windows cd and I kept on being referred to another line, be disconnected, only to be referred to anohter line only to be disconnected again. And one call I even heard snickering in teh background and some dude was shouting "death to Americans." Anyway, there is something to be desired with Dell.
CHT11 wrote:
"And one call I even heard snickering in teh background and some dude was shouting "death to Americans."
I don't think the people you talk to hate Americans. What we call shitty wages here for call center work (starting salary is like $12USD an hour) makes them upper middle class. They probably love you guys. All they have to do is randomly answer you and transfer the call to someone else. Cha ching!
Good news though. They are building a call center near where I live in Ottawa Canada. So when you call in and get fucked over it will at least be done by a friendly and polite person... with a french accent.
The glory of it all: you don't have to buy a Dell. It's capitalism! Start your own company, or stop buying Dell. I've personally never had a problem with Dell, but then I don't need to phone tech support to learn how to reformat my hard drive.
A shareholder holds shares because the company is profitable. A company is profitable because they sell their product. They sell their product because people buy it. People buy it because they think it's better than all of the other options. You people are asking for charity, which you're not going to find in a corporation. Go back to high school.
I agree with Ralph. But then, it was a pretty good idea by this dude. I woulda done it too.
I think that if the guy REALLY wanted to sue, he would have went for a larger amount than 3K. That should be enough for a new computer and time spent/aggravation. I think that he just found an easy way to get restitution without being tied up in court forever and huge legal bills. 3K is a drop in the bucket for a corporation like Dell. Shoot, I'm sure the execs' x-mas bonuses are bigger than that.
Pat - what a hero! Time to get a Toshiba or an Asus me thinks.
I work at a dell kiosk, and a customer threatening legal action should be directed by the rep to a specific phone number and in this case, if the rep was diligent enough, should have called himself, especially if the customer served papers. If the customer had called that number or the rep, the situation could have been resolved much quicker and without him having to pay legal fees or even wait for a court date. They could have fixed his computer.
Plus it isn't stated whether or not he was in or out of warranty, or if he had a mail-in or an at-home warranty. if it was a desktop he definitely had at-home. Usually a few phone calls where the customer has the same problem without resolution. will result in a service ticket in warranty, and if out of warranty it would require that he agree to paying a fee after he gets his computer back or DST fixes it at his house.
Dell is very reasonable believe it or not, and if you're having so many problems without resolution and you went to a kiosk, there are channels that pretty much will get you the service you need.
Of course this isn't to say that customers should always at least try to get through tech support. And frankly if this is just all how the tech support reps don't really know what they're doing, well the explanation is simple: the job sucks so utterly bad, that in the us, they have to be paid much much more than anywhere else, so dell's us call center is only open during the day and fields about a 10th of the calls. And people should also understand that if they must have that $500 laptop, part of what enables that price is outsourced tech.
Once you get a trouble ticket, you'll have a local DST or you'll mail it to austin, and it usually next day for the DST and a week to mail it out.
ultimately his solution was creative but tenuous, if that rep had been on the ball he would have seen even better results.
"if that rep had been on the ball he would have seen even better results."
And isn't that really the whole point here? If _anyone_ he dealt with at Dell had been on the ball he would have seen better results.
how can you see better results than $3000 in your pocket and your boot in Dell's nuts??
Dell is the absolute worse when I was considering buying a Dell computer, they were like a bumbling bunch of idiots. They pissed me off so bad that I told them I will never spend my money with them and instead went with a MAC and I am too happy with them. :)
ya know, you really should RTFA (read the fuc*** article, if ur as stupid as you sound). The guy called 19 times!!! Do you really think he should have called some more? Hell no. If your company is THAT RETARDED to totally screw over their customers, they deserve to be sued.I really think they deserve a class action lawsuit, where everyone that got dicked over gets their money back. Now, if you still think he was wrong, I suggest you try to subscribe to AOL 19 times, and cancel it 19 times. Maby then you will know how this guy felt..
Would have been cheaper and more efficient to buy a new computer. $500 and done.
Never had a problem with my Dell. At work however, the first time we bought a small business server with them, motherboard went out two weeks after it went online. They had tech support there by the end of the business day replacing it in office and it was done without any 'extra' warranty or cost to us. No problems since... and the thing is 4-5 years old now.
Now ask me about the server we bought last year that was 'made' for us by a local company that has been around for 15 years and used by the local airport and other large businesses. Yep, 4 Hard drive failures--both drives failed twice at nearly the same time, motherboard failure, and most recently failed power supply. Which I suspect was the root of all the other problems. But instead of just replacing it all we had to lose over $15,000 because of their crappy job.
And I won't even get into the 'fight' about providing this under warranty service as they blamed it all on brownouts despite it being plugged into an APC backup. After they said that I handed them the APC warranty claim form and the bill from drivesavers for data recovery and told them to have at it. APC stands behind their product so if you REALLY think its them go right ahead and submit the claim.
Dell is definatley a different sort of company. I worked there in operations for a year. Then one day they call me into the HR manager's office and tell me they've linked me to a Jewish terrorist cell.
Absurd. Absurd. Absurd.
One month later I left the company with a medium sized check in hand. Maybe I should have gotten more but I was happy to not work for such a foolish company.
How foolish? The head of operations had an email signature announcing to the world that he was the "Oregon Stallion" and no one seemed to think this unprofessional.
I must say, my own dealing with Dell have been simularly horrid. I had a laptop which I was constantly experiencing problems with, and of course, Dell wasn't doing anything other than keeping it in service for weeks at a time. After over 20 emails and even more phone calls; I had enough. Although my solution wasn't quite as harsh, a simple letter to the Better Buisness Bearu cleared up the matter quite quickly, and I returned my laptop for full credit. Good luck to anyone else having problems with Dell, or any other computer company for that matter!
Sorry to spoil everyone's fun at the expense of Dell but the premise of this whole story is false. In Texas as in most every other state in the U.S.A., in order to obtain service on a corporation the Plaintiff must obtain service on the registered service agent. Texas specifically requires that a corporation not only have a registered agent but a registered office where the agent can be served. So though it sounds great, serving the guy in the mall just wouldn't work. It is set up this way just so things like this do not happen. Otherwise Microsoft and its ilk would be getting million dollar judgments against them everyday.
yourlaw:
You're right. What a Dell employee commented on earlier was that there IS a number to call, an agent to contact. What should have happened is that the Dell rap at that kiosk should have either given the customer (or his lawyer) the number, or the rep should have called the agent himself.
The employee either didn't forward the customer to the agent due to negligence or laziness. Either way, Dell still dropped the ball, from its lowest ranks up.
this guys from jersey idiot.
maybe he'll take that 3000 over to the apple store and get him a decent computer with a company that actually backs up their product like a big boy should...
Yeah, I call BS -- if this worked, you could surprise the copy-room guy on his vacation in Canada or something and hand him a summons, and it would carry legal weight. Don't think so. That said, on the Dell debate -- I have gotten fair service from them most of the time, determining the problem with the hardware in one or two calls.
My beef is that just after the warranty ran out, *two* different Dell products (100% of the Dell products in my home) went bad. My Axim PDA had the SD slot crap out, which apparently was a common problem. I was just barely outside the warranty, so they "flexed" and sent me a new one. Fine. The bigger problem was when my Inspiron 8200 motherboard crapped out. Some Googling revealed this to be a common problem, caused by a bad case design that lets the motherboard flex more than it's supposed to, leading to busted traces. It was a bit further out of warranty than the Axim, so they said $400+ for the motherboard, not counting shipping and labor. I shelved the unit for a year or two, but finally broke down and bought a board from Ebay for $150 and replaced it myself.
Bottom line: tech support OK, product quality less so.
Good thing he didn't have to go to india to get this resolved, dell CS is a piece of work (and not in a good way), i rather be taking calls from a redneck in Georgia than those morons.
Mike: Uh, better listen to it again! $0.002 (point zero zero two dollars) is 0.2 cents, (two tenths of a cent), not two cents.
He's not trying to confuse them, they're doing a good enough job of that on their own! Hold on a second and I'll get you a Verizon CSR application ;)
He needs to stop being cheap and pay his bill. I would think this would be a waste of most peoples time, I mean come on.. it was only $72 or something in that ballpark.
dell has pretty good support besides not speaking english the best but thats what u get when they are located in india.
except when i was trying to get my dell fixed they said they would call back in 40 minutes when the installation was done and the never did. THEN THEY CALLED BACK 2:00AM IN THE FICKEN MORNING AND SAID IS YOUR COMPUTER BACK TO NORMAL
i mean come on
@Ralph:
Pat Dori is not what is wrong with this country. Companies like Dell, who screw over the little guy and don't care are what is wrong with America. Kudos to Pat Dori for showing Dell that every once in a while, there's a little guy who will stick it to them. I'm quite familiar with this situation because I've been screwed by Dell myself. I won't purchase from Dell again. If you honestly believe that Dell's technical support is any good, you clearly can't possibly have much experience with them. Either that or your problems are in the range of: "I can't get my computer to turn on." "Did you try plugging in the power cord?" "No. I have to plug something in?" Any real problems are quickly and efficiently ignored by their 'technical support'.
My problem is whether the service was proper... If this were federal court, his suit would be dismissed on the grounds of improper service .
This is a great hypo for First-Year law students.
People like Ralph is what's wrong with America.
Ralph, you remind me of a myopic Dell employee.
I had a Dell laptop years ago that needed repair. I sent it in, and they didn't fix the problem. I sent it in again, and they ended up shoving older parts into it without telling me. Big mistake.
I ended up getting to keep the laptop along with receiving a brand new $6000 system on top of that, because of what they did. Then I sold the $6000 laptop system and went out and bought another brand, and gave the original laptop I had to someone else.
All this after spending a month making phone calls, getting every stupid idiot Dell had, on the phone.
Horrible, HORRIBLE customer service. The worst I've ever experienced.
I swore I'd never buy another Dell laptop... and I never did. And neither has anyone else among my family and friends because of it.
Sales 101: "When you lose a customer, you never just lose that customer; you lose that one and everybody else he or she knows. When you lose one, you lose twenty." That's the golden rule behind business that every single sales, customer service, and technical person should know.
I would NEVER buy Dell, and won't for the rest of my life. When you lose my business, you lose it for life.
So when I hear of stories like this, where the Davids give a good knock out punch to the Goliaths (who aren't doing what they should to begin with) - I am more than happy to hear it!!!
Ralph--When you get Michael Dell's junk out of your mouth would you say hi to him for me. thx...
"The employee either didn't forward the customer to the agent due to negligence or laziness. Either way, Dell still dropped the ball, from its lowest ranks up."
Preghz:
You missed the point of my response, which is it doesn't matter whether he dropped the ball or not. Service on someone other than the registered service agent is not good service. In other words the Judge would not have entered judgment because there was no service on Dell. In order to get a default judgment the Plaintiff in this case would have to give proof in court that the registered service agent for Dell had been served. Service on the kiosk would certainly not count. If no evidence of good service was put on the Judge would likely give the Plaintiff more time to get good service or dismiss the case. That's why this story is patently false.
You, sir, make a good point.
However, I still feel that even though it wasn't served to the correct person, there seemingly was no try to contact the correct person by the rep.
When I was working at a cell kiosk a little while back, I was told who to contact in such a case. So sure, you're right, the correct person didn't get the papers. But the customer could complain that he had served the papers and was not told that the rep wasn't a person that could be served. Nor was he forwarded to the correct person. Understandably, your argument does have a great deal of ground, but I feel that mine does also.
It could happen. Our legal system isn't perfect.
@PreGHz:
"...the customer could complain that he had served the papers..."
Having done small claims work, I can tell you that the sheriff was (likely) the one who served the papers. That's part of your filing fee - & the kiosk employee probably crapped himself & accepted it - then it got lost in the pipe.
"...your argument does have a great deal of ground, but I feel that mine does also."
Enough to get a settlement - As I said earlier, getting this $3k judg't set aside arguing defective service would have been very doable, but it would cost more than $3k in legal fees... So Dell just settled.
Would like to know what they settled for...
Actually Ralph, The Dell employees are a major part of what is wrong with things in America. Did the kid at the kiosk foward this up the chain to Dell? or did just say "whats this asshats problem?" and through the papers away? People have no pride in themselve, thier jobs, or anything else. I pray for Zombie like armageddon. I will watch from upon high and only lend help to those deserving.
I've been a Dell customer for 10 years and have never recieved bad customer service or tech support. Anytime there has been a hardware problem, the part or the computer has been replaced overnight. Does Apple even do that? I had one computer that developed a video card problem after two years of use. When the first replacement card did not fix the problem, they overnighted me a new laptop, except it was like my two year old laptop, it was the latest model.
Sorry to those who have problems with Dell, but I just wanted to sing their praises to show they do have satisfied customers.
DUGG OVER 1600 TIMES - PWN!
OOPS - 4got the digg link
http://digg.com/hardware/Disgruntled_Dell_customer_finds_crafty_path_to_lawsuit_settlement_2
Acutally, I have! I was on the phone with Sprint PCS for 35 minutes on behalf of a friend, after they upped his monthly plan on accident. The "manager" was incredibly rude, essentially ending the call with, "Our records show you were notified, and that you accepted the change. I consider this matter closed."
They suck indeed, but you went off on a bit of a tangent. We were discussing "incompetence" here, which the VerizonMath link exemplifies like nothing else. Your comment is about rudeness, which is a bit different :)
Good for Dori, but there's only one reason that this worked: $3000.
You can't serve a corporation by giving papers to just anybody who works for it. It just doesn't work that way.
The reason that this has bee "settled" is that Dell knew it could challenge the judgment. Otherwise there is nothing to settle, Dori won. No, Dell definitely could have appealed the judgment, and would have won. Process has to be served on someone who's job it is to receive process.
Undoubtedly Dell has "settled" to prevent 1) having to appeal (takes a LONG time), 2) having its kiosk assets threatened pending appeal, and 3) WASTING MONEY ON LAWYERS FOR A $3000 JUDGMENT.
For any would-be replicators out there, be warned: with the right sum of money at stake, this kind of tactic won't work, because the corporation WILL appeal -- and will win.
For the love of god.
50 comments a page please.
This is Engadget not Gizmodo.
"For the love of god.
50 comments a page please.
This is Engadget not Gizmodo."
I agree!!!! times 10
I love it! Very creative! I'm not litigation happy but I car even less for companies stiff-arming their customers... so I'd like to see more actions like this. And "Ralph" is an obvious shill. Get over it, Dell-boy. Your company used to be great but is now hard on the road to suckage. Your mindless dismissal of Dori's situation and pathetic pumping of your company isn't enough to alter reality, sorry. Dell's support blows.
Lol. Yeah, almost exactly $72.
So I guess next time you go into McDonalds and they charge your credit card $70 behind your back for an order of small frys, you're just going to "stop being cheap" and pay it without complaining, right?
Corporate America could use more citizens like that!
Maybe if Dell stopped making such shitty computers they wouldn't have to worry quite so much about people being unhappy with their shitty support.
Good job, Pat Dori!
where do i sign up... they've had my laptop for 3 months also...
Ralph- you're what's wrong with America. Can't even crack a smile when the little guy takes it to the man after getting screwed. $3k is a lot of cash and his integrity was being spat on. So, he gets his money back legally and he's what's wrong with America? No, you are. And this crafty guy is my new American Hero.
I know it is partly their fault, but what about the people that worked at that Keosk. There certainly lost their jobs. I would have trouble sleeping at night with that on my mind.
Being a business customer of Dell, I can say that at least their business support is reasonable. I have also called their end user tech and it is terrible. I have nothing against India.. I mean NOTHING.. But those tech support folks over there have no technical ability at all, they just read from a flow chart. Can't an IVR read from a flow chart too? Just a though.
Bottom line, tricky yes, did he deserve it, sure. Do I agree that it was OK for him to take advantage of a in mall kiosk, probably resulting in the people that worked there loosing their jobs, NO.
- K
brilliant, mad props to that guy.
BTW, Dell hates the word Laptop, they much perfer the Portable.
First of all the plaintiff in a case does not stipulate anything about where to serve the paperwork, the court does that. There are rules about where paperwork has to be served. It has to be a primary place of business or primary residence.
He doesn't have some brilliant scheme he simply got lucky because the court was stupid. And if Dell appealed the judgment would easily be overturned. And personally I think they should have.
He's a whiner. Fine yes the computer was lost very probably in the mail (if he sent it at all). It isn't coming back. Dell offered a replacement and he refused. The 19 calls were probably him saying over and over "I don't want a replacement I want mine."
All he's done is enforce the corporate belief that complaining customers just want something for nothing.
The key to getting good tech support from companies like dell, is when something goes wrong with your laptop/desktop etc. call corporate sales...tell them you are considering purchasing 50, 100, 500, whatever amount of pc's from them for your new startup company "smith hydroponic consulting" but you're having a real problem with the few you already own and tech support on the consumer end has been bad...you'll be amazed at how fast you DONT get transfered to Patel in kashmir but to an actual useful tech. It's worked twice for me :-)
I have owned a Dell before and I'm telling you Dell came out good on this deal the guy probably deserved 5k because of hassle and pure crap and incompetence you have do deal with to get issues resolved with their tech support. After months of random shut-offs and kinds of craziness with the compuer I owned I just ripped the motherboard out of that desktop and threw it in the trash. Put in a replacement on my own.
Thank you Dori. I bought a Dell 2 years ago and kaput, a few days after the 1 year limited warrenty expires i get 2 massive white lines in the middle of my shitty 15" screen.
God i need to get rid of this slow peice of junk.
@Jackson:
Wow - you come on & say "you guys are all wrong," & then "I'm leaving! I'm not listening!"
What an ass.