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*DEAD* Western Digital 120GB SE 8MB Cache $58 - Being Honored!

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I hope everyone has learned that this company doesn't give a crap about their customers.
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They give a crap, you're just trolling them even though they've done their best to resolve things. Seriously, the BBB for a drive deal that's by all accounts going to work out?

Step away from your keyboard.

 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
For those who are trashing Dell like they were buy.com with the Toshiba monitors...

Take a breath. This company has an excellent reputation. Unlike the buy.com fiasco, they are stating they will honor each order, and the rebate that goes with it, regardless of when it ships. They're even honoring the rebate for many who bought the OEM version, which shouldn't come with a rebate, and they could always call it a 'mistake' and screw all of you who wanted to save 10 or 12 additional bucks.

The dock owners have locked out the dock workers. It took a US President to get them back to work again. It's likely your drives are sitting on boats as you type. You'll get your drives, you'll get your rebates.

'nuff said
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I don't know if hard drives fly or float from Malaysia.

If they do come in by boat , and the dock strike had an effect; I think that this was old news before the rebate promotion began.

Where is any sign of management and planning?

And were the rebate forms, all SEVEN versions of them also on a boat or dock somewhere?

I think that Dell will do the right thing for the stubborn and intelligent customers....but they will cause lots of people to cancel and lose out on what was advertised as a great deal.

And, Dell will exhaust the patience of all concerned.

Dell is a hugely disorganized company.
 
I think everyone has the right to complain about this one. No matter how hard dell is working to fix this, its still their fault, and still a big mistake.
 
I am just curious... how many people bitching and reporting Dell to the BBB actually own that "small business"? just a thought. I sure don't, yet I still tried to take advantage of the deal, considering this, I am just waiting, it has not yet cost me anything at all. Worst case, I don't get a HD, best case, I get a HD for $70 and some change.

People behave as if they are entitled to something here. I give Dell a lot of credit here. For one they give a credit to the people who ordered the OEM drive even though it clearly stated several times that the rebate is for the retail drive only. Dell and WD even went as far as changing the rebate to be valid 30 days after the actual shipping date.

Get real people, what are you actually bitching about? To me it looks like a win/win for the consumer side. The one's really getting shafted are Dell and WD.
 
Originally posted by: Walliser
I am just curious... how many people bitching and reporting Dell to the BBB actually own that "small business"? just a thought. I sure don't, yet I still tried to take advantage of the deal, considering this, I am just waiting, it has not yet cost me anything at all. Worst case, I don't get a HD, best case, I get a HD for $70 and some change.
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No, maybe worst case you pay $170, get your drive in 2003 (when they cost < $130) and you never get your rebate. 😀
 
Nope Muse, I always have the choice of canceling my order or simply refuse to accept it when it shows up at my doorstep.
Besides, if it drops to $130, I still only pay my $70 after rebate. Still doesn't sound like the better deal? Well, then I don't know what does. I can't see how I loose, either I keep it at the cost of $70 or it goes right back with the friendly UPS person and it did not cost me a cent.

This my opinion, and it is just that, my opinion and it is known to have a mind of it's own at times. ;-)
 
Originally posted by: Walliser
Nope Muse, I always have the choice of canceling my order or simply refuse to accept it when it shows up at my doorstep.
Besides, if it drops to $130, I still only pay my $70 after rebate. Still doesn't sound like the better deal? Well, then I don't know what does. I can't see how I loose, either I keep it at the cost of $70 or it goes right back with the friendly UPS person and it did not cost me a cent.

This my opinion, and it is just that, my opinion and it is known to have a mind of it's own at times. ;-)
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It may come to your door before you get your rebate. Then you have a choice. You return the drive or you keep it thinking your rebate is coming. How do you know the rebate will come? That's the predicament I'm in. I have my OEM drive. I don't really know for sure and certain that I will get my rebate. I'm told I will but the rebate form says it's for the retail version. Get it?

 
Originally posted by: Rocadelpunk
And I doubt a year from now you'd be able to find this hardrive anywhere near this price, unless there's some huge breakthrough in technology.
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Rocadelpunk, stick around hot deals for a few months and you'll learn a lot. A year from now people will think a 120GB hard drive for $58 is a mild ripoff 🙂
 
I wonder what the longest a thread in Hot Deals has gone..... just think first we have this nice start of 500 posts. It'll continue to trickle untill about November when OEM ppl get their drives. Then it'll spark back up a bit as people gloat and let others know that it worked..... it'll trickle off some more and then come December when those who stuck out (like myself for OEM and Retail) will post how it goes AND THEN weeks after THAT the posts will come about THE REBATE!!


this could go on forever
 
Another order canceled. It seems a bit odd to me that Dell did not:

- Stop accepting orders when they ran out of stock
- Stop accepting orders that couldn't be filled even a month later
- Wait until they had VIABLE rebate on the server before posting the availability and link with product.

If this is how they now do business, they won't do any more business with me.
 
If Dell can do this to us with a hard drive I can only imagine what fun they can put their customers through with a complete system order!!!!
 
Originally posted by: neomits
I wonder what the longest a thread in Hot Deals has gone..... just think first we have this nice start of 500 posts. It'll continue to trickle untill about November when OEM ppl get their drives. Then it'll spark back up a bit as people gloat and let others know that it worked..... it'll trickle off some more and then come December when those who stuck out (like myself for OEM and Retail) will post how it goes AND THEN weeks after THAT the posts will come about THE REBATE!!


this could go on forever
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Take a look at the Cyberwings thread. ONe could become a PLatinum member after all those posts.
 
Originally posted by: KL123
I thought if you purchase a OEM, they will credit you so you don't have to do the rebate.
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That's what I've read in a LOT of posts. However, my drive was at my door Tuesday and I've tried myriad ways and still haven't been credited. I called Dell at least 1/2 dozen times, tried the Dell Forums, posting a new thread, tried PMing DELL-Cathy. By the time I got around Dell's screwy system of registration (it showed I was a recognized member but it still wouldn't let me PM for NOT being registered... duh!), and it allowed me to PM, Cathy had turned off her PMing. A very cool dude furnished me with her email address and I sent her an email last night. We'll see. To me it looks rather iffy, the OEM rebate. A guy can tell you it will be honored on the phone but when you read the rebate form it looks like they could think that they have ammunition enough to say, "no, read the form, it says 'retail'... sorry!" See what I mean?
 
Originally posted by: hunter1
If Dell can do this to us with a hard drive I can only imagine what fun they can put their customers through with a complete system order!!!!
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My impression was that Dell had a great reputation say 5 years ago. Very good tech support for a pretty good product compared to the competition. I presume that's why the company grew so fantastically. They are just now neck and neck with HP as the biggest computer company in the world, beat them out actually. This bruhaha has me wondering if they are REALLY past their prime and going downhill fast. Is it true? I've never ordered anything from Dell before, but I don't think I'm going to be as confident doing so as a lot of the earlier posters in this thread seem to _have_been_.

 
Dearest FTC,
This letter is a complaint about Dell Computer.

They recently promoted a 120G hard drive with an erroneous $100 rebate. Instead of cancelling our orders they decided to make good and provide both the rebate and the drives. Unfortunately they didn't have 70ku excess drives on their shelves and now they need WD to make them.

I am so upset because my order will be delayed approx. 2 months since WD needs to schedule in the production, build the drives, test them, and ship them from Malaysia.

Even though I'm getting a $200 drive for $60, I want you to punish Dell for all the mental anguish they put me thru.

Baa, baa, baa!!

Love,
The whining consumer



Originally posted by: MaDHaVoK
FTC
https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

BBB
http://www.bbb.org/bbbcomplaints/Welcome.asp

Rip Off Report
http://www.ripoffreport.com/

National Association of Attorneys General
http://www.naag.org/

Reseller Ratings
http://www.resellerratings.com/

Planet Feedback
http://www.planetfeedback.com/

Also contact your states Consumer Affairs Dept.
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First off I know for a fact that there were a lot less than 70 thousand orders. Secondly I know dell currently has hundreds of drives in stock.... Finall I know Dell, the biggest name in computers at the moment.. doesn't have to wait over 2 months for a couple of thousand hard drives at most. So if you want to act like Dell is real innocent thats cool... believe want you want.
 
Take a look at the Cyberwings thread. ONe could become a PLatinum member after all those posts
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Bah...I think the shops.com thread(s) 3 years ago hasn't been topped yet, if any of you remember the free p3 rigs we all got 🙂
 
First off I know for a fact that there were a lot less than 70 thousand orders. Secondly I know dell currently has hundreds of drives in stock.... Finall I know Dell, the biggest name in computers at the moment.. doesn't have to wait over 2 months for a couple of thousand hard drives at most. So if you want to act like Dell is real innocent thats cool... believe want you want.
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Okay, a lot of people have not worked in jobs that rely on inventory and distribution.

1.) Okay, 70k drives is really high. I don't know where that number came from, but I have to guess the amount of orders is closer to 10k. And dwindling as people cancel their order. That's still a lot of hard drives, especially "special edition" hard drives that are not produced in as great of numbers as the regular drives. Ten thousand units is still a lot of items to move. Go check your local Best Buy or Circuit City. How many of these do they have in stock? Even during promotions, they only have about ten or fifteen per store.

2.) Dell has hundreds of drives in stock. Yes, they do. Dell branded OEM versions of this drive with one year warranties that will, FOR SURE, not be valid on the rebate. If you are happy with one of them, go nuts. Tell them to ship it to you. You won't get your rebate, you won't get your credit. The inventory system that the CSR's use is probably just as unrealiable as the inventory system that we use to order.

I don't understand what people expect Dell to do in this situation. For all intents and purposes, they posted the wrong rebate to the wrong item. There was never MEANT to be a $100 rebate on this drive. Someone (who is probably collecting unemployment as we speak) got their signals crossed and wrote up the rebate for this item. It was a common mistake, and we all jumped on that mistake. Dell had EVERY right within their TOS to CANCEL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR ORDERS. They did not. They admitted their mistake and worked with the vendor and rebate clearing house to make this deal work for those of us who ordered it. They went above and beyond for us.

What do you want them to do? Tell all of their employees to go and pick up all the 120JB's they can find at any Best Buy/Circuit City/Microcenter/Frys that they pass on the way to work? So they can sell those drives to us at a loss, and clear out the inventory at other establishments? Western Digital is doing what they can to replenish Dell's stock on this drive, but they are NOT going to go out of their way to send EVERY SINGLE drive they produce to Dell to cover for a rebate that was made in error. That they are losing $100 a pop on. Western Digital is NOT going to short any of their other retailers just to cover Dell's ass. Dell may be "the biggest name in computers" but Western Digital is NOT going to fray their relations with other customers just because Dell needs a larger supply than normal for the next three months. It doesn't work that way.

I see everyone screaming to call the BBB and FTC and such. Dell has done everything within their power to make an error work out for the customer. They (along with Western Digital) are selling these drives at a loss. I find it especially disheartening that people have flooded Cathy with e-mail and phone messages and such (probably a good deal of nasty ones amongst them) when she was the ONLY one who was trying to get the information that we requested out to us. She got us the rebate form, and a correct one at that. She explained the unusual terms to the rebate (that makes it 100% that we WILL get the rebate, no matter if the drives ship tomorrow or March). Lighten up people. She has answered everything she can, as promptly as she can. She doesn't have any other information (for the OEM folks or those of us waiting for the Retail to ship) and I am SURE that she will post any information that she gets immediately.

I can only understand people complaining about this deal for a couple of reasons. The people who ordered OEM drives are left in limbo. And partially that is their own mistake. Most savvy shoppers going into this deal new that the rebate would be invalid for OEM drives, and ordered the retail. But the difference between OEM and Retail was vague and misleading on the Dell website. Now, Dell did have the right to cancel all the orders, no questions asked. But someone wrote up that Rebate announcement and stuck it on BOTH the OEM and Retail. The announcement made it clear that it was for the Retail boxed, but it's presence along with the vaguely worded OEM item made for confusion that should be remedied by Dell. Those folks have a right to complain.

Second, if the drive (and by drive, I mean RETAIL box 120JB) shows up on the Dell Periph. website (either Home or Small Business) at any time before our orders ship, then we all can scream bloody murder.

Third, if the rebate form comes back as invalid after we have gone through all of this.

Those last two are neither here nor there right now, so we will see...

Thanks for your time. Lighten up people... The rebate was in error, most of us know that. Dell stood up and said they would cover the rebate, but now are trying their best to cover the surplus of orders that was received due to the low price. I'm content to wait. I've got 300 gigs of storage in the home here. The extra 120 gigs for MP3s, Video, Pron is nice but not life or death.

--Christopher
 
I am sticking with my order, the drive is just for storing video on anyway, I really don't need it that badly. My current 120GB video storage drive is about 1/2 full. If something better comes up down the road I'll just cancel.

How hard would it be for Dell to have a real time inventory tracking system, or have something that sets off an "alarm" after so many orders in a certain period of time to set the web page to show out of stock? It can't be that tough can it?
 
I agree that they should work on a real time inventory. But neither does Best Buy or CompUSA have one of these (to name competitors). I don't know how many times I've went to a CompUSA to get an item that the website says was in stock at my location, only to find it not so. Same with Best Buy.

--Christopher
 
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