i had to order a computer accessory for my boss, so i went to pricegrabber and looked it up. of the 10-15 merchants that had the item, i chose dell b/c they were one of the least expensive and i figured they are reputable.
this was wednesday afternoon, and she needed the item monday. so i got 2nd day shipping, assuming that if the order went in thursday, then monday is the second business day. got a confirmation email saying the thing was shipped on thursday.
it didn't show up until tuesday (3rd day), so i called dell to complain and the guy tells me that dell sent it TO THE SHIPPER on thursday, so it arrived at the shipper friday. 2nd day shipping at dell apparently means 2nd day after the shipper gets it, not after dell ships it. he says that i did indeed recieve the 2nd day service.
anyway, point is that dell doesn't explain this anywhere on their website and it totally does not make any sense. no one else operates like this. after 45 minutes (mostly spent on hold), he decided to credit us for the shipping.
they suck and i will not buy anything else from them.
That sucks! Especially since it was for your boss. If I ordered something on a Wednesday, I would expect it to go out on Thursday (give them some time to process it) and arrive on Monday as well. Doesn't Dell have a mailroom that does their shipping or at least a shipping company that picks up several times a day? I mean, they are a big company.
Things worked out for me when I ordered my computer from them, but they did send it UPS Ground instead of UPS 2-day.
However, because of a deal, I only paid $10 extra to get 2-day so I didn't feel my time was well-spent calling and complaining about it (I just knew it would take 30+ minutes to actually get someone on the phone and convince them they did something wrong). And I did get it in 2-days regardless. I guess I was just a little annoyed that they sent it ground when I chose to have it shipped 2-day.
yes, i think they bank on it not being worth your time to complain about the shipping. i'm pretty convinced that they kept putting me on hold thinking that i would end up hanging up. it was kind of like one of those road rules challenges where i held out long enough to be reimbursed my $10.