Dell Customer Service: "Bitcoin - is that some sort of wire transfer?"

[Bonobo]

Dell may be accepting bitcoin they have a way to go before before bitcoin acceptance filters down to their customer service agents, never mind going mainstream.  I tried to order a computer at Dell.com and pay by bitcoin.  For some reason the order process got stuck in a loop when I clicked 'Submit Order' and it never presented me with a bitcoin address for my payment.  I spent a long time on the phone in a merry-go-round between Dell Customer Support, Dell Order Modification and Dell Credit Card Payments departments (possibly among other departments which I was too confused to comprehend).  Having been passed around from one to the next and back to the start several times one thing became abundantly clear.  None of the  people I spoke to were even aware that Dell take bitcoin payments and had no idea what I was talking about.  In the end, after 95 minutes, with my patience rapidly diminishing, one seriously said: "Bitcoin - is that some sort of wire transfer?".  Then when she offered to send me back to Dell Credit Card Payments (yet again) I pleaded with  her "Don't you have a Bitcoin Department?".  "Yes Sir" she said "I will put you through to the Bitcoin Department right now". 

My elation was short-lived when I found myself straight to the back at the main menu.  Thanks Dell

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Yeah this doesn't sound good. Like you say we have a long way to go until we gain widespread, mainstream adoption & by that I also mean the education of dumb ass average joe.

We'll get there eventually but I'm thinking possibly even 10 years before bitcoin is used by even 3/4 out of 10 people in the western world.

[BitcoiNaked]

People are so fucking dumb it's painful.

[Swordsoffreedom]

That sucks it looks like Dell still has a way to go to streamline their services so that all their divisions are at least familiar with bitcoin guess only time will help

[dukeneptun]

I've just tried it and it went well (Of course I faked the details, I'm not gonna buy sth right now).
And it redirected me to Coinbase payment page.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/LdmcSKu.png

I didn't get any troubles.

[unamis76]

Typical client service. They don't even instruct their employees on how to help clients... And when Bitcoin comes on, it's seems to be to hard to teach people.

This is really unfortunate. I hope they change this soon.

[randy8777]

it's not just bitcoin related. customer services of so many large companies here have very bad instructed/educated employees. 90% of the time you're explaining your situation to an employee that doesn't understand anything. it's beyond sad.

[newb4now]

I am glad that Dell accepts BTC.

Yet somehow I am not surprised by this experience. Hopefully as more customers attempt to use BTC, their people will become better trained

[unamis76]

it's not just bitcoin related. customer services of so many large companies here have very bad instructed/educated employees. 90% of the time you're explaining your situation to an employee that doesn't understand anything. it's beyond sad.

Exactly... they lack formation in almost all areas! Especially when they introduce new services. Which is just wrong, as new services are prone to doubts, questions and errors!

[subSTRATA]

People are so fucking dumb it's painful.

its customer service, i wouldnt expect them to be too knowledgeable about technical stuff, half the stuff they do and say is scripted anyways. i would expect that dell started accepting bitcoin recently, and have not had the chance to thoroughly train their support staff on it.

[CEG5952]

People are so fucking dumb it's painful.

its customer service, i wouldnt expect them to be too knowledgeable about technical stuff, half the stuff they do and say is scripted anyways. i would expect that dell started accepting bitcoin recently, and have not had the chance to thoroughly train their support staff on it.

True. Although they should be by the least, get briefed about their payment processors or have a dialogue for concerns like this OR the bitcoin department which was stated above.

[bitedge]

This is surprising to me because I met 4 staff members of Dells US facing customer service call centre in a social setting here in the Philippines and they all knew about Dell accepting bitcoin.

They also advised me never to buy a Dell product, believe me I did not need to be told, unlike OP. What are you thinking buying from the worst brand in the industry? Thanks for using bitcoin though I guess.

[coinpr0n]

I recently bought a Dell computer - how did I not think to check if they accepted Bitcoin? I didn't see the option anywhere though or else I would have considered it. Perhaps it's only in the US? I bought it from my country's local Dell website.

[LiteCoinGuy]

"Yes Sir" she said "I will put you through to the Bitcoin Department right now".  

LoL - that would have been amazing


you can see that we are very early in the game.

[PenguinFire]

I actually just bought a 950 gaming computer on NewEgg by Asus tonight.     Screw dell and their new venture of Alienware.  Their business goings are just stupid in my opinion.  I honestly believe I could give them better marketing advice than they are getting now.

[Amph]

I recently bought a Dell computer - how did I not think to check if they accepted Bitcoin? I didn't see the option anywhere though or else I would have considered it. Perhaps it's only in the US? I bought it from my country's local Dell website.

maybe this is the reason why their employees don't know about bitcoin, the reason why they obscure too much the payments in bitcoin when they add it, is still beyond me, it's like they are ashamed of the fact that they have accepted bitcoin

[Bonobo]

I've just tried it and it went well (Of course I faked the details, I'm not gonna buy sth right now).
And it redirected me to Coinbase payment page.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/LdmcSKu.png

I didn't get any troubles.

Yeah, thanks for checking.  I placed the order and paid with my Payoneer debit card.  I received an order confirmation, then nothing. I called Dell and it turns out they would not accept the card because although it is denominated in USD it was issued by a UK company and they would not accept it for payment in the USA - which was the sort of crap that I wanted to avoid by paying with bitcoin in the first place.  Dell never contacted me in any way to inform me that there was a problem - it was up to me to check the order status and question why it was not being shipped.

So I went back and placed a new order, but this time using a different browser and this time the bitcoin payment worked beautifully.  For the record I had the problem using Chrome and I later placed the successful order using IE.

In brief:  bitcoin great, Dell customer service crap!

[Kakmakr]

Since Dell accepted Bitcoin payment, we have not seen any sales figures or a indication of how successful it was. I hope it was not just a publicity stunt. How many other people paid with Bitcoin, since they accepted it?
It might just be a training issue or a communication issue. I know in the beginning, some people said only certain branches accepted Bitcoin payments. I hope this gets sorted out quickly. It's embarrassing to tell people that Dell accepts Bitcoin and you find this type of scenario.  

[LiteCoinGuy]

their website looks good:

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/campaigns/bitcoin-marketing


@Kakmakr

how many people have sent an email in 1996 ?

[Herbert2020]

i remember hearing about Dell accepting bitcoin a year ago in fact i found the coindesk article about it too:

http://www.coindesk.com/computer-giant-dell-now-accepts-bitcoin/

it is for July 18, 2014 , and they have announced that they were accepting bitcoin through a partnership with Coinbase.