The quest for an AC Adapter for my Dell laptop (Part II)

The UPS delivery person left an InfoNotice(SM) at our door step on Friday the 10th July. The InfoNotice contained a tracking number which could be used at the UPS web-site to change the parameters of delivery. One of the proposed options was to return the package to the sender, which I quickly selected. By returning the erroneous package, Dell would get their merchandise back, proceed to reimburse me and the matter would be settled.

I was quite surprised to find a second InfoNotice in my mailbox on Monday the 13th. I called up UPS to learn why my cancellation request had no impact. The UPS customer service representative explained that UPS had a special deal with Dell. Only Dell could cancel a delivery; the recipient, the end-customer in this case, was not authorized to cancel a delivery. I called Dell to ask them to cancel but was told that canceling policy was an internal UPS matter. When I explained that UPS had told me to call them (Dell) because they were the only party which was able to act on the matter, the answer was invariably: "it is an internal UPS matter, call UPS".

So I called UPS again to explain the situation. The UPS representative told me that Dell was purposefully denying their capability to resolve the matter because they did not wish to cancel the order.

Since I am at the office during the day, I asked UPS if I could change the delivery address to my office, which is one of the options explicitly mentioned on the InfoNotice. The UPS representative told me that only Dell could change the final delivery address.

To be continued...

The quest for an AC Adapter for my Dell laptop (Part I)

The AC adapter for my laptop from Dell recently had its cable severely twisted so as to stop charging the laptop. The adapter is marked as belonging to the PA-9 family. I called Dell technical support and explained the problem to a technician. I gave him the serial number of my laptop which identified both my laptop and the buyer (me). He said that they could ship a replacement adapter forthwith. I asked the technician several times to confirm that item he was sending me was a PA-9. He said that it was indeed, and that I had nothing to worry about.

A few hours later, I received a written confirmation for my order. Lo and behold, the order was for a Kensington 450-11303 an adapter for the cigarette lighter of a car. I immediately wrote back to cancel the order. When Dell support wrote back, they claimed that the order had already shipped and could not be canceled. Moreover, Dell was not willing to take any further action, such as recognizing their error, before the shipment arrived. I am afraid that their strategy for dealing with this issue will be to drag it on until I give up. Anyway, time will tell.