I thought that I would buy a laptop from Dell PC. I have two already,
but the experience has been so horrific that I have had to back out.

Yesterday I placed an order through their internet site for a laptop.
That night my credit card company rang up, and said that they had
decided to block the payment as it 'looked fraudulent'. I reassured
them, and they told me to ring up Dell and get them to attempt the
charge again.

Today I rang Dell customer service. I get a robot. I follow the
options and end up in a dead end. I try again. I get an Indian woman
who asks for the details, so I tell her that I ordered it through the
website yesterday. She then asks if the laptop has arrived!
(Obviously she didn't understand anything that I told her). I query
this, and she starts demanding aggressively that I tell her if it has
arrived. At that point I put the phone down and ring again.

This time I get another Indian, who asks for the details. She then
transfers me to another Indian who asks for the details and transfers
me to another one who does the same!

By now I am getting rather frustrated, but -- I have played before --
I remain calm and state my queries calmly and clearly.

I'm then put onto someone who clearly isn't an Indian, but tells me
that the order will have died and that I will have to reorder the
laptop again. At this point my survival instincts kick in -- these
people are so disorganised that I could easily end up with two! She
passes me to a saleswoman -- another Indian -- who tells me that I
want to make an order. Of course I don't, so she passes me back to
'customer service' -- the same gang as before.

The next one to come up asks once again for all the details of my
order. This time I refuse, and say that I want to make a complaint. I
am transferred to yet another Indian, who tells me that she is placing
a complaint for me, but refuses to allow me to say what my complaint
is -- she clearly doesn't understand what the word means.

At this point I snap. I've been in this nightmare for almost an hour
now. I want out. I can't even determine what the state of play is.
So I ask, calmly and clearly, for the order to be cancelled. This does
seem to be understood, and I am told that I will get an email in 24-48
hours confirming the cancellation (this never arrived).

Paranoia now in full operation, I use the form on their website and
request a cancellation, and write a letter which I send by special
delivery with 'cease and desist'.

Of all these, only the website form produces a result -- an email of
cancellation.

It seems that Dell are good, so long as nothing goes wrong. If you
need customer service, you'll be thrown in the snake-pit.

(At least they didn't sink to the level of British Gas and start
trying to bait me into a rage so they could slam the phone down)