Dell follow-up...

Sent in another blip to Dell:

Hello again, I was wondering if there's any news yet on the transfer of ownership. I've got Dell case number 181292899, the computer where a transfer of ownership has been filled in four separate occasions: the first in late November, the second December 6, and the third and fourth December 27. I know you said transfers can take up to thirty days, but as it's already been a bit more than that, I'm wondering if anything new has happened since the last e-mail I sent (January 2).

They answered. I pondered their answer for a while, and then replied (their stuff in perky blue, mine in pissed-off red.)

I have checked the tag and the information has still not been transferred.
Unfortunately at this time there is no more that we can do.

I will follow-up with you on the 25th of January.

This is absolutely not acceptable. I understand that there is nothing that you can do to expedite the transfer of ownership, but informing me that I can expect to be contacted more than two months after I sent in a transfer of ownership that was supposed to take at maximum 30 days (though in fact I was first told that a transfer could take up to 10 days) is not acceptable at all. I have been waiting for a very simple transfer of ownership so that I can try to get a new power source since late November. I have been in contact with Dell several times, with no appreciable result other than being given widely differing (and consistently wrong) estimates of when I can expect results, and being told several times "there is nothing that we can do."

I apologize for any inconvenience that this is causing.

I appreciate that there is nothing that you, personally, can do, but at this point I think it's fair to say that an apology has no meaning.

Your Dell case number remains, 1010101010.

Should you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact us at www.dell.ca. Please choose Support & Customer Care.

How are we doing? If you would like to provide feedback or feel you have an unresolved issue please feel free to contact our Case Manager, at Ca_OI_CustomerCare@Dell.com. We appreciate your comments.

Please be advised you may receive an email survey from Dell directly related to the service I have provided you today. I thank you in advance for taking the time to submit the survey, as your feedback is very important to us.

Somehow, I very much doubt this.

Please understand that I am not taking issue with your particular conduct during this process. I have worked in customer service before and understand that sometimes things are set up in such a way that the people in contact with customers don't have the power to do the things the customers need them to do, through no fault of their own.

However, whether you are at fault or not, the service I have received from Dell has been completely useless to me.

We have bought several items from Dell in the past, because of Dell's customer service. Your company has now lost our business.

Chuckles in the midst of gloom

Probably nobody but law junkies will appreciate this, but it gave me a chuckle. It's from a case comment (written by my prof) on a case involving negligence (or lack thereof) regarding testing the water quality in foreign-aid-installed wells in Bangladesh:

Think of Donoghue v. Stevenson: one could say that it is because humanity has several thousands of years of experience in mixing beverages, it is simple to recognize that mixing up ginger beer with a dead snail is negligent. Now think of Sutradhar v. Natural Environment Research Council: one could say that it is because humanity has only a few decades of experience dispensing foreign aid, it is hard to recognize that dispensing incomplete scientific advice about drinking water to poor people is negligent. The context of newness can be so exceedingly important that it risks to overpower the decision, and totally eclipse the facts—such as the fact that to imbibe arsenic is much more prejudicial to one's health than to imbibe dead snail.

OK, now it's just funny

The previous letter was forwarded to the "If you would like to provide feedback or feel you have an unresolved issue please feel free to contact our Case Manager, at Ca_OI_CustomerCare@Dell.com." I just heard back from them:


Dear Jimena,

Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care.

I do see that the transfer of ownership has not been completed.

The only thing that I would suggest is that you complete the form again. The link to be completed is below:

<https://support.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ca/shared/support/dellcare/en/tag_transfer?c=ca&l=en&s=gen>.

I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Your Dell case number is 10101010101.

Dell Ping Pong

--- On Thu, 1/10/08, CA_Canadacs <ca_canadacs@dell.com> wrote:
> Dear Jimena,

> Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care.
> I do see that the transfer of ownership has not been completed.
> The only thing that I would suggest is that you complete the form again.
> The link to be completed is below:

Thank you for your suggestion, and for the link. I am very familiar with the link, as I have followed it and filled out the information requested on three separate occasions: late November, December 6, and December 27. I also spoke to a supervisor on the phone (a call which took a considerable amount of time, most of it spent on hold while the agent and then the supervisor searched for my case) and she also filled it out, while on the phone with me, again on December 27.

My husband has suggested that perhaps every time I fill out the form, the process stops and begins anew. Do you know if this could this be why it has taken over a month to accomplish absolutely nothing?