U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

bonnettm — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:20:35 GMT

For those seeking accurate information on Dell's responsibilities via the FTC mail order rule never take the work of someone from Dell or someone who advocates for Dell.

"One of the laws that the FTC enforces is the Mail Order Rule, which requires us to obtain your permission to proceed with processing your order when it has been delayed more than once."

I will kindly take the above statment as a mistake and not something else...........

This is from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/adv/bus02.shtm

What is the Mail or Telephone Order Rule?

The Rule requires that when you advertise merchandise, you must have a reasonable basis for stating or implying that you can ship within a certain time. If you make no shipment statement, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days. That is why direct marketers sometimes call this the "30-day Rule."

If, after taking the customer’s order, you learn that you cannot ship within the time you stated or within 30 days, you must seek the customer’s consent to the delayed shipment. If you cannot obtain the customer’s consent to the delay -- either because it is not a situation in which you are permitted to treat the customer’s silence as consent and the customer has not expressly consented to the delay, or because the customer has expressly refused to consent -- you must, without being asked, promptly refund all the money the customer paid you for the unshipped merchandise.

Note within the time you stated or..... Nothing about being delayed more than once..

Deeellluuussseeerrr — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:33:41 GMT

I feel that Dell needs to get back to having local customer service reps for the markets they serve.

USA should have local customer support in USA

France should have local customer support in France

UK should have local customer support in UK

India should have local customer support in India

Germany should have local customer support in Germany

Costa Rica should have local customer support in Costa Rica

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Loststar — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:07:59 GMT

Yes the delays are still going on! I ordered my XPS 1530 on December 25th. I had initial problems placing the order, by having it split on my dell card and on my personal card. I selected the right option and it still tries to charge the whole order to my bank. So I call on the 26th and spend a good 40 minutes on hold, and 3 transfers later before I actually can talk to the right department. I have been told in the process that we have to cancel my order and resubmit it. That is fine, I get transfered again yp the the person who can help me with this. When he answer the phone and I tell him the situation, he tells me I can ahead and re order it on the website... UHM I guess I was wrong to believe that I might get some help from the CUSTOMER SERVICE REP? I had to ask him to replace my order and thats why I had called because we wanted to keep it exactly the same and not have any changes. So at this point most of my morning is gone, sitting on the phone with so called customer service. Then today is supposed to be my estimatef shipping date, I joyfully log onto my account to see if the status has been updated to shipped yet. It hasnt, so I call to see if it might ship today or tomorrow. To my surprise I am notified that there has been a delay and that my estimate ship date is now the 28th of January! So I am upset because I didnt rcv any notification and there is nothing they can do to help me out. NOT EVEN TO UPGRADE MY SHIPPING??? I guess I just dont understand how upgrading shipping isnt ok due to security purposes? I am not asking to have it shipped somewhere else. I am asking a company that has now postponed my order for 3 weeks to maybe over night or 2 day ship it. But no, there is nothing ANYONE can do for me. It just doesnt seem like a great way to treat your customers. I understand if something is on back order that is not the fault of the company, but it should be their responsibility to let us know in a timely manner that it is out of stock, but not being helpful or being able to do anything isnt ok. AND I really dont appreciate not being able to get straight answers from anyone I talked to. None of my questions were answered clearly because they were all scripted. So Its good to know that if I have a problem I cant even count on the company that I bought my product from. Ok... so I finally receive my email stating that it has been delayed that everyone at customer service says I should rcv. Well thats nice to get it on the day Im expecting it to ship. I wouldnt think with all the technology today that there wasnt some sort of notification a few days ago that this part was not available. I probably wouldnt have been upset if I had been notified just a few days earlier... I dont have any faith in the customer service after these incidents unfortunately. I decided to not cancel my order at this point because I usually have great experiences with Dell... but this will probably be the last time I ever purchase.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

jseery — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:01:14 GMT

This is pretty sad really. It looks like the delays are still going on. I ordered my Studio 1537 on 12-10-08. The original ship date was 12-24-08 but like every one else here Dell changed it on the day it was suppose to ship. The new ship date was 1-7-09. Well that day is here and Dell called today to let me know that they are now pushing it back to the 23rd of January. I called CS to see why it was delayed and all they could tell me is that it's backordered and they can't tell me why. To top it off the CS rep that I was talking to just hung up on me when I told him that he wasn't much help. This is ridiculous. I've been a Dell costumer for over 10 years now and I just can't believe that this was once a company that I bragged about. I understand that there are things that happen that Dell cannot control but they really need better CS. I mean I'd rather have a reason as to why it's delayed instead of just being told that it is.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

bluetooner — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:01:10 GMT

Well, it seems i am now caught up in these delays. I wonder if i will get it shipped overnight for free because of all this :( (all i want for Christmas is my 2 laptops)

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Jimmy — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:11:27 GMT

i want the resonable rate of dell latitude d630.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Salman Ahmed — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:48:39 GMT

I thought the delyas were limited to notebooks but I just got an email that the ship date for my two desktops has been extended by a week.

I have been away from Dell for two years and now I remember why I moved away from it.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Michelle Powers — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:34:32 GMT

This problem isn't just limited to full systems. I have been trying to order a replacement modem for my in-laws' computer which is only 6 months old. They first told me they didn't have any over chat and then when I called to get the specs so I could order somewhere else, they told me they had one for $40.40- -- outragous pricing. It was due to be delivered yesterday 8/7/2008. Last night I got a "courtsey call" saying my order was cancelled and that I had ordered a refurbished modem (I didn't) but that he could sell me a new model for $29.99 if I would only give my credit card number again. I ranted a while about why they tried to sell me a refurbished modem and then cancelled the order without my request and he hung up on me. I called back and was told that my credit card had been declined (lies) so I called my bank to confirm it was a lie and the charge had been approved and was pending. I called Dell back and talked to another agent, and told them they had lied to me about the credit card charges. She told me she would take my concerns down and forward them (yeah right).

Then she would still not give me the specs for the modem so I can buy it somewhere else at a reasonable price. One of the agents actually tried to sell me the story that the modem was proprietary to Dell. They changed that story when I asked where the factory was that built each little component -- come on -- I know better than that. Dell just assembles parts made by other companies and puts their name on it.

Just give me the specs for the modem!!!!

My suggestion -- by HP -- their customer service is AWESOME. I'm an IT Administrator -- I should know -- I deal with tech support all the time and Dell has cancelled orders on me before for my company -- and that was working through a US Dell Business Account Exec!!! NO MORE. All the Dell junk mail will hit the trash before it even gets put in my mail box. I've already talked to the mail room about it.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Jenn — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:28:35 GMT

I ordered a Dell laptop on 5/19/08. My order has been delayed 3 times. I've called a few times and they just read from the script and refuse to give any compensation for my computer being delayed for over a month. I'm very frustrated at this point. The last customer service eprson I spoke with said that they can't delay an order more than 3 times. I'm hoping that she's right.

re: U.S. Mail Order Rule & My Order Status

Chuck Smith — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:39:30 GMT

I ordered a Dell Inspiron 530 approximately 5 weeks ago and now I am stuck in Dell backorder purgatory. Each of the past 3 weeks, I received an e-mail on Friday informing me that my expected ship date has been delayed until the following Friday. From my vantage point, it appears that Dell has no clue when my computer will ship and just keeps kicking the shipping date back one week. However, someone in Dell must know the reason for the delay (e.g. Dell will not receive xx part until xx date; production on 530s is delayed xx days etc.). But, instead, Dell has built a process that gives its new customers bad information on expected ship dates (your Dell will ship next Friday!) presumably because Dell decided that it is either: (a) easier to give customers incorrect information; or (b) Dell thinks it will reduce cancellations if it strings customers along with misleading ship dates.

It seems to me Dell is coming perilously close to violating the FTC mail order rule by knowingly providing incorrect shipping information, or, in the words of the FTC, by taking orders "when it had no reasonable basis to expect to be able to ship some or all of the merchandise within the time stated." http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/04/dell.shtm

One positive note - the customer service rep with whom I spoke this morning (Anupama) was extremely courteous and professional. She promised to escalate the order, investigate and determine the source of the delay and call me back with a real expected ship date. If she delivers, she will be the lone bright spot in what otherwise appears to be a poorly designed and implemented sales process.

Dell – some customers may be understanding that unexpected surges in orders or unexpected delays from a parts vendor could lead to delays in shipping computers. However, you are a computer company, so customers expect that you can electronically track the reason for delays and provide customers reasonably accurate information. The lengthy train in this e-mail shows that your ineptness in fulfilling customer orders is driving away scores of potential customers (and, most likely, the friends and co-workers of potential customers). A response indicating that someone at Dell has a grasp of this problem and is doing something to fix it would be appropriate and much appreciated.