S: Camera Stolen

[zippyjuan]

This is a trifle compared to Yoss. Hang in there buddy! I wanted a waterproof camera to take on a rafting trip this summer and ordered a Pentax from Dell. It got delivered last night. Or the box did. Somebody stole it during shipment. It was sent via DHL ground who left it at my door since I was not home. When I picked it up, I noticed that the tape on the bottom of the box had been retaped with a different kind. Nervous, but maybe they forgot to put something inside. When I opened the box, the camera box was in there, but no camera. The camera box was not completely reclosed. Whoever had done it had taken the camera out of its box and put it back into the mailing box and taped it back shut. If it had been someone taking it from in front of my door, the entire thing would have been gone. They would not have gone to all that effort. The old tape goes under the shipping label and the new one goes over so it was after it was picked up. It is clear and has the letters "FTY" printed on it at regular intervals- not likely someone's private tape, but probably at some company.

The good news is that I called Dell right away and after going through the hoops of "press 1 now" "press 3 now" I finally got to talk with somebody who said that they would send me a replacement. Chalk one up for Dell customer service. I will have to wait longer, but the trip is not until the end of July and I will have a camera. So could have been no good, but things were taken care of.

[Houdini]

This is a trifle compared to Yoss. Hang in there buddy! I wanted a waterproof camera to take on a rafting trip this summer and ordered a Pentax from Dell. It got delivered last night. Or the box did. Somebody stole it during shipment. It was sent via DHL ground who left it at my door since I was not home. When I picked it up, I noticed that the tape on the bottom of the box had been retaped with a different kind. Nervous, but maybe they forgot to put something inside. When I opened the box, the camera box was in there, but no camera. The camera box was not completely reclosed. Whoever had done it had taken the camera out of its box and put it back into the mailing box and taped it back shut. If it had been someone taking it from in front of my door, the entire thing would have been gone. They would not have gone to all that effort. The old tape goes under the shipping label and the new one goes over so it was after it was picked up. It is clear and has the letters "FTY" printed on it at regular intervals- not likely someone's private tape, but probably at some company.

The good news is that I called Dell right away and after going through the hoops of "press 1 now" "press 3 now" I finally got to talk with somebody who said that they would send me a replacement. Chalk one up for Dell customer service. I will have to wait longer, but the trip is not until the end of July and I will have a camera. So could have been no good, but things were taken care of.


Sorry to hear about that. I was worried from you subject line that your beloved digicam was stolen. At least this one was stolen before you used it. :) Nice to hear Dell's CS has gotten better. The only way I've ever had any luck with them over the years is by filing complaints with the BBB.

[Jenny]

Very sucky that it was stolen but very cool that Dell is replacing it. Good luck & let us know when you get it! lol

[ray]

Sorry to hear your camera is a bit delayed, but I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with Dell CS! I hear those Pentax waterproof cameras are pretty darned good. Can't wait to see yer photos of chicks in bikinis!

[zero2dash]

Man, that sucks but at least Dell is sending you a replacement; that's really cool 'cause there's some sheist companies out there that would say "too bad, not our fault, call DHL".

Wow...first time I've seen someone mention a DHL experience and it's this bad? No reminder necessary for me to never use them to ship anything. :rolleyes:

[Cubsfan]

Wow...first time I've seen someone mention a DHL experience and it's this bad? No reminder necessary for me to never use them to ship anything. :rolleyes:
I had a DHL shipment from Amazon.... sort of. Amazon gave me a DHL tracking number. On DHL's site one day, it said "out for delivery". I never got it. Checked the site again, and it said "Delivered to USPS". Apparently Amazon has a deal with DHL and USPS where DHL takes it to USPS, and then USPS delivers it with your mail. I don't really care, other than I was excited to get my order when it was "Out for delivery", since they never told me it was going to USPS.

[zippyjuan]

The lady I spoke to on the phone yesterday said she would send me an email about this, but I haven't seen anything yet. I did get a case number and another number (forgot to note what it was for!) maybe my reorder number. She said the replacement would come with a bill enclosed but to ignore it. Dell usually does not keep inventory of things like camers and orders them from the manufacturer after they get a customer order so it may be a couple of weeks or so.

[Houdini]

The lady I spoke to on the phone yesterday said she would send me an email about this, but I haven't seen anything yet. I did get a case number and another number (forgot to note what it was for!) maybe my reorder number. She said the replacement would come with a bill enclosed but to ignore it. Dell usually does not keep inventory of things like camers and orders them from the manufacturer after they get a customer order so it may be a couple of weeks or so.

That sucks. I can see why they do that, as it doesn't make sense to carry 3rd party stuff in their warehouse if they can order it easily from the manufacturer. In fact, it likely saves them a lot of $$ with minimal markup, and the manufacturer is happy b/c he doesn't have to advertise as much. At least you'll get a new one, even if you have to wait a while.

All in all, it's better than any customer service I've EVER gotten from Dell, without talking to everyone up to Michael Dell's secretary and filing complaints with the BBB (which prompted Michael's secretary to call me.) Issue resolved? Nope. And that was a few years ago. Will I buy Dell again? Likely, even though their customer service, in my experience, has always sucked. But for the money, it's hard to beat their prices, especially with name-brand components. A very good friend of mine is an Apple devotee and is trying to convert me, but hasn't yet succeeded, though I know they are inherently more stable, etc.

H <---jumped topics again...damn...gotta watch that...sorry all!

[Butch]

Man, that sucks but at least Dell is sending you a replacement; that's really cool 'cause there's some sheist companies out there that would say "too bad, not our fault, call DHL".

Wow...first time I've seen someone mention a DHL experience and it's this bad? No reminder necessary for me to never use them to ship anything. :rolleyes:

DHL has been fine for me - it's basically the German parcel carrier. In fact, when I was shipping all my stuff over here from the US, I really didn't secure my boxes well enough - could have ended up being a mess, but they took the time in-transit to retape all my boxes and make sure they held until they got to me. Quite nice.

[zippyjuan]

Just to update where I am. The original estimate for shipping was June 14th. Nothing has happened yet since the replacement was promised on June 8th. I talked to someone who called himself Andrew but had an Indian accent (no surprise) who appoligizes every sentence and takled to his manager for a while. All they could say was that they would get back to me in 72 more hours. He said the delay may be because of flooding in Houston, which I looked up and occured on the 19th- five days after my replacement should have gone out. So I still don't know. I need it in a month or don't need it at all- I want it for a rafting trip in July.

[cadetevon]

Hey Zip, any update on this?

[zippyjuan]

Thanks for asking. The camera came the next day following my last conversation with Dell. Today, about five days later, I got an email from Dell telling me that my order had shipped on the 22nd. That message said it had been shipped "Next Day" so seems that somebody tracked down the camera and made sure it went out that day. So they seem to have made a mistake in not sending it in the first place, but once they were made aware of it, they took care of things right away. I have to credit them for fixing it. I would say that except for not shipping it in the first place, they did a good job of resolving the problem of the camera getting stolen during shipping in the first place. I figured I was going to have to buy another one myself. Some of my POD's this week were taken using the camera at the OB Street Fair.