“Purolator surprised us”

When I last wrote about Dell, I was wondering whether my computer would be shipped out on time. After all of the runaround I went through with Alexis the sales rep, I was willing to bet good money that the machine would not be shipping out on the promised date of October 14th. During my last telephone conversation with Alexis, she assured me that I would be getting an automated e-mail from Dell and one from her letting me know that the machine was shipped.

Imagine my surprise when I received an automated phone call from Purolator letting me know the tracking number for my Dell package on the 13th. Curious, I went online and entered the tracking number to find out where the package was at. I immediately noticed that Purolator picked up the package from Dell on the 12th, two days before it was supposed to go out. This was good news. The problem? Where were the two e-mails I was supposed to have gotten from Dell and Alexis? Considering that the tracking information showed the package was due in Toronto in the next few days, I let it slide. As long as it was delivered to my office, as I was promised, everything else would be gravy.

Guess where the computer was delivered to? If you answered my office, you’d be wrong.

Last Thursday, I checked the Purolator web site and saw that the last update read that there had been an attempt to deliver the package but the customer was closed. I knew something was up as the doors to both my office building and the mail room are open to the public for the purpose of couriers. A call to Purolator’s customer service line confirmed what I already knew, the package was delivered to my house.

“Dell often uses the same address as the billing information, ma’am,” the woman on the other line tried to explain to me.

“I know, and I went through this with them several times,” I replied.

“Well, I, -”

“Don’t worry,” I cut her off. “I’m not going to yell at you, but I am going to call them up and yell at them!”

“Uhm, okay,” the woman said. She probably thought I was crazy and I likely sounded the part too. I was just so agitated at that moment, I felt like cancelling the order altogether. Why couldn’t I get a straight, honest answer from Alexis? Why did I have to call and e-mail at every step of the purchase? I was buying a computer, not H1N1 vaccines.

I waited a few minutes to calm down before calling Alexis. I wrote S to let her know what was going on and she was just as baffled and pissed off as I was. She suggested checking out Future Shop or Best Buy to see what they were offering. If it weren’t for the Adobe software I bought last year, I would have gone with a Mac. But I didn’t want to shell out another $500 for the software just for a Mac version of it.

When I called Alexis, I got her voicemail and I said something like:

Just calling to let you know that Purolator just tried to deliver my computer to my house which surprised me because 1) I was never notified it had shipped out like you said I would be and 2) you had assured me it would be coming to my office. I would appreciate a call back as I am not happy about this.

While I waited for Alexis to call me back, I wrote a lengthy (and angry) e-mail to her manager. In it, I explained how frustrating it had been dealing with Alexis and her ineptitude. I ended it by asking that he provide me information on sending the computer back.

Later on that afternoon, I received an e-mail from Alexis letting me know she had spoken with Purolator and the computer would be arriving at my office the next day. I think it was wise of her not to call me back because I would have likely used a few too many four-letter words. I was however, expecting a call from her manager.

First thing Friday morning, I came into work to find a voice mail from yet another Dell employee. He was the team lead of some division or other, but he wasn’t Alexis’ boss. He called back mid-morning and began explaining that the shipping information had to match the billing.

“I understand that,” I began, “but why did Alexis tell me she’d put a note on my account and was watching the order to ensure it would be coming to my office?”

“Well, we can’t really do that,” he blabbered on. “We have to wait for Purolator to deliver the package and then we ask for a re-direct.”

So I asked him again why Alexis had promised me otherwise. If the package couldn’t come directly to my office, why was I made to believe it could? Then he started getting defensive.

“You know, she was trying to accommodate you by having it delivered to your office!”

“I realize that, but why did she keep misrepresenting how things would be done? Why was I never told a re-direct would have to be put in place?” I shot back.

“Purolator surprised us!” he spit out.

“Oh, I see,” I replied, really at a loss at what he just said. “So it’s Purolator’s fault, then?”

“Yes, they picked up the package before we knew about it,” he said. I couldn’t believe he was trying to tell me that they had absolutely no control over when their packages get sent out. Do they just let courier companies pull up at their depots and take whatever boxes they feel like?

By then, he and I were both raising our voices and I was out of patience and energy. I ended the call and sat and thoughtt about the situation. What had supposed to be a simple thing (ordering a computer) turned in to two weeks of misinformation, lies and constant follow-ups.

Even now, a week later, I have yet to hear back from Alexis’ manager. He obviously forwarded my e-mail to the guy that I spoke to on the Friday which was probably why he was so defensive about it.

I am amazed at how bad the customer service was. It couldn’t even be called customer service, I had to call and triple check that my requests were being looked after, I may as well have been earning the commission myself.

I will be sending this story in to a few places online and the President of Dell Canada. I sincerely hope the computer doesn’t turn out to be a lemon. If buying it was this hard, I can only imagine what repairs would involve.

As for the machine itself, it’s growing on me. It’s a glossy black material so you can see all of the fingerprints. It runs pretty fast with programs like PhotoShop starting within seconds. The folder structure and icons taking me awhile to get used to. Speaking of PhotoShop, I was concerned that my CS3 wouldn’t install on the machine since it’s a 64bit, but it installed and is working just fine. It’s only been a week, but I think I’ll make the switch to Windows 7; just as soon as the Dell site is capable of handling the traffic.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with my old clunker.

Related posts:

1. “And you’re the computer people”
2. Brown Stinks