Digital Home Thoughts: Dell's Money Wasting Policies

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much money big companies can waste. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, I returned my Dell Studio Hybrid because it was defective. It kept beeping three times when I booted it up, which is apparently a sign of a chipset failure of some sort. It also crashed Windows Vista with a blue screen of death whenever I tried to boot directly off the HDMI port. These two things together made me return the unit to Dell for a refund under their 30 day customer service policy. Sure, I could have gotten it repaired/replaced, but I took the opportunity to upgrade: I re-ordered a Studio Hybrid, same colour, hard drive space, and RAM, but I upgraded the CPU from 1.86 Ghz to 2.5 Ghz. I also added on the 802.11n mini-card, just in case I plan to use it in the future in a location where I don't have wired Ethernet.

These changes, mostly the CPU, resulted in this new Studio Hybrid costing me $1129. That's a fair jump up from the $700 configuration I first had, but I believe that much faster CPU will give me the performance boost I'm looking for in Media Center (that, and turning off Aero Glass). This new Studio Hybrid shipped a few days ago, and I'm expecting it around September the 8th. This past Saturday I was checking on the status of my order, to see if the courier tracking number would show me anything new, and I saw that Dell was having a Labour Day weekend sale. Sure enough, when I checked the Studio Hybrid page, not only are they offering a $50 Labour Day weekend discount, they're also offering $120 off any Studio Hybrid more expensive than $799. So that's $170 in discounts - enough for me to jump through a few hoops.

Today I called Dell Customer Service, expecting that they'd simply refund $170 onto my credit card (making the purchase price $949), and instead they told me that I should order the new Studio Hybrid online with the discount, then arrange to return the one that's on it's way to me when it arrives. That seems rather ludicrous to me - why go through the expense of building another computer for me, shipping it out to me, that's going to be identical to the one that's already on its way here? Why waste money on the courier sending back an un-opened computer? The whole thing seems like a waste, but since that's the only option that Dell wanted to give me, that's what I did. Today I ordered my third Studio Hybrid, this one identical to the last one, and when the second Studio Hybrid arrives, I'll have to return it to Dell. Seems pretty silly, no?

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Dell today, September 3rd, and it seems the Dell person I spoke with who told me they couldn't give me a credit was incorrect. The Dell agent I spoke with today credited my VISA card $170, and cancelled the order I placed this last weekend. He gave me the option of a $285 Dell coupon, but with an expiration date of only three months, that wasn't a very practical offer. So the Studio Hybrid that showed up here today is the one that I can keep - cool!