Dell Finance Reviews

I have never paid anything late. The only blemish on my credit report is Dell Computers where, although I paid them for my computer, they still threw the illegal interests to a collection agency and messed up my credit.

I received a regular monthly statement from Dell Financial Services (DFS). In that statement I was billed for a purchase I would not receive until the subsequent billing period. If this limited experience is any indication, Dell prematurely recognizes sales and is overstating income. If this is a widespread policy, Dell’s quarterly filings to regulators and shareholders are inaccurate. I am certain that Dell’s accounting and audit departments are familiar with GAAP revenue recognition principles (SFAC 5, Recognition and measurement of in Financial Statements of Business Enterprises) and a disregard for such basic rules is alarming. In my particular case, the effect was to overstate my balance, overstate my payment due and, as I have an automatic payment in place, which did not take into account the premature charge, an underpayment penalty assessed to my account. Since the penalty is based on a policy that violates GAAP rules, the assessment and booking of penalties additionally overstates income and receivables. This prompted me to look closer at my subsequent statements.

I next noted that even though I paid more than my minimum balance, the excess over the minimum was not applied to the earliest purchase, or FIFO, as set forth under IRC Sec. 453 regulating Installment Sales. Each statement reads, “payments are applied first to minimum required payments with excess to credit plans in order of promotion expiration date.” I called DFS and was assured that FIFO was applied but I made the calculations and in fact I could see this representation was inaccurate.

The same statement also reads: “To avoid deferred finance charges, pay the new plan balance by the promotion expiration date. The promotion date may differ from your payment due date.” I received my earliest purchase in the billing cycle ended 05/13/08 and a first payment is due on or around 06/13/08.

Since Dell did not apply FIFO to my two balances as requested, and did not provide an accurate statement which showed the correct remaining balances, a balance of approximately $75.19 remained on my earliest account as of 05/13/09. Since this was deemed not paid within the 12-month interest free period, the entire deferred interest charge was applied. I immediately paid the entire balance of $1,211.39; less $90.83 of deferred interest, and closed my account.

I spoke with a Dell Financial Services representative who explained that interest free for 12 months means that if the balance is not paid off within 12 months, the entire deferred interest is charged. I assured Dell that this was not my understanding of the term, and while I am certain that Dell can direct my attention to the fine print, the plan was represented as interest free for 12 months and every monthly statement still labels the purchase plan as No Int 12MOS.

It appears at every level Dell, Inc. is engaged in questionable accounting practices; improper revenue recognition, assessment and billing of fees not supported by the underlying transactions, improper allocation of excess payments in contradiction to the plain language on the billing notice, and finally, deceptive names used to describe finance programs.

If in the public market Dell, Inc. seeks me as either a customer or investor, I expect transparent accounting and fair business practices.

I spoke to Dell on numerous occasions, many of which were due to harassing phone calls for bill payment. When I spoke of my situation over a year ago, no offer of any hardship program was given to me, no matter how much I pleaded. I paid my bills but late every month. Even though I kept in touch, they sent me to collections. My account went through several collection agencies. By that time, Dell's lack of understanding with me and my attempts to make payment arrangements ruined my credit. All of my other creditors were able to work with me. I don't know why they are so different.

Finally, after the collections agency began harassing me on a regular basis and many attempts to contact Dell about this, I was able to reach their hardship department with Dell Financial. They apologized profusely about the situation with the credit agency and took my account back with a hardship program. This still doesn't fix the problems with my credit all of this has caused. If they had done this for me a year ago when I told them there was a problem, I wouldn't be in such a horrible situation.

Now, I have a computer that the hard drive has crashed on, and that is less than 3 years old. I purchased it for $1,424.20 and have paid $1,344.75 on the account to date. I owe only $129.45 on the original price of the computer. My account balance, because of Dell Financial's way of doing business and the very high interest rates, is now $2,766.39. Not to mention, this balance is on a computer that is dead! Because I couldn't afford a warranty to extend after the first year, Dell stated they couldn't help me with the crashed hard drive without paying for technical support.

I am having a hard enough time as it is! The fact that the computer is dead is not even an issue for me anymore, as there is nothing I can do about it. The fact that I still owe $2766.39 on a computer that I purchased less than three years ago for $1,474.20 and have already been close to paid as much as the original purchase price makes me absolutely livid!

I need assistance. I don't feel I should pay any more money for this computer other than what is left on the original purchase price. Dell did not work with me when I tried to tell them there were payment problems until it was too late. I also asked them to mail me an itemized statement of my account nearly two weeks ago that they said they were putting in the mail, and it still has not arrived. I have also tried to call Dell Financial numerous times over the past week with very long hold times, resulting in disconnection of my calls. And now this morning, I got to the department I need and I got a message stating "The department you are trying to reach is in a meeting. Please call back in 2 hours!" with no ability to leave anyone a message. This is frustrating, and I can't take any more of it.

I feel I was scammed by the salesperson. I called to resolve this issue to pay the balance I owed on the computer and for them to drop the additional $400 due to false information I was told. I specifically said I wanted to purchase the computer. First of all, I was given false information about my computer purchase. Second of all, who really determines the fair market value of the computer? I asked Dell if they were willing to lose a client over this scam and they were. They would not correct this problem. I am appalled. I am only willing to pay for the balance I agreed upon to pay for my computer.

Then last week, I got a bill from a credit agency stating the account was being turned over to them for collection. I was furious and called the collection agency immediately. They do not know what the bill is for. I explained our luck with phone calls to India to agents who do not speak English in trying to straighten this all out. This is so difficult to deal with and if I could afford it, a lawyer would be the one to contact the credit agency so this phony bill of $650 would not go against my credit. Buying from what I always thought was one of the best companies has been nothing but a nightmare and it isn't over yet. I will never buy one thing from anyone again who is associated with Dell.

I then purchased a Sony laptop paying cash. There were some extra charges on my account that were finally credited back to me after a month of hassles and phone disconnections from their international customer service (India). I started receiving monthly charges from Dell's credit card protection services. I had no idea that I had a credit card protection account. After many frustrating calls, they finally canceled my protection plan account but refused to credit back the previous late fees and monthly charges on a balance that was finally credited back to me by Dell.

I regularly update my 2 household laptops every 2-3 years. What a good customer they have lost. Just purchased my wife a Sony, I hope their laptops are okay and I hope I get a service that makes me want to stay with them. I am just frustrated with the lack of correspondence, also the feeling that I was intentionally misled and the fact that I so wanted to buy their Alienware Laptop next but alas, we live and learn.

Eventually they just cancelled the order without notifying me. They have been sending me invoices for the amount due for the past 6 months. I have contacted them (by phone and e-mail) at least 10 times to explain that I never got the order. The Financial Services people say they can't do anything - I need to call customer service. The Customer Service people say they can't do anything - I need to call Financial Services. Needless to say, I have paid and now they have filed a claim with a credit bureau (for $26). I have all the records and have to explain to them each time what's going on because they don't have a clue. I'm not paying for their mistake. Next step for me is the Better Business Bureau and a lawyer. I now believe that incompetency is the foundation of Dell's business model. I can't believe they can afford to lose customers like me with such poor performance on their part.

I looked into it and that was when I noticed they had raised my interest rate from 24% to $29% and I also noticed the attached late fees when payments were not late. Each time I ask to speak to someone from billing, they don't deal with that and it's always a different department. They give me a number to call and lo and behold, I can never get a live voice. All I get is an automated line stating press 1 for account balance, etc. I have attempted to press "0" for a live person, but it will never connect. Heed my warning, everyone: never buy anything from Dell.

I have been receiving collection calls from Dell, sometimes 6 times a day. I just talked with Dell and it is not their department... that they can only see the purchase in April and that I am overdue, and why am I not paying them, they asked. After 10 minutes, the phone disconnected and they didn't even return my call. They have all contact info for me. I have had all the fun I can stand here. Although I like the computer, I doubt I will ever deal with Dell again.

I wish you would indicate this in your reports. I have been a CU member since about 1938 or so.

Meanwhile, I changed my address and updated my address with them (which they never did - so I stopped getting any more statements from them- see below for their promptness in updating info) Suddenly, I think almost after 3 years, I got a call from a collection agency saying that I owe DFS over $200. Only then I found out what had happened to my account, the amount they had told me over the phone was falling short of the total value of the laptop by something like $55 or $60. I paid a portion of the remaining amount which was left over for the laptop (the Dell guys do amazing Math). Additionally, the time was not 2 years as they had told me and calculated the monthly payments for -- it was 1 1/2 years and so interest and penalties were levied at that time totaling over $200.

After calling and spending more than 3 hours on the phone, I got one decent guy from DFS who was willing to look into the problem. Brad gave me his personal extension number and told me he will get back to me after reviewing the old documents since there was clearly an error somewhere. By this time I had changed my address with DFS 3 times and still Brad told me they were sending the details to my older address - he finally managed to change the address at this time. Unfortunately, when I tried to contact Brad at his extension again, after some time had elapsed (and I got no call), the name in the voice mail went to someone else. I left a message - but no response.

At this point I called some more to try get some info and finally gave up, since I wasn't getting any call back/info from them. Now I get a call from another collection agency/attorneys saying that I owe them $575 for breach of contract, etc., and willing to settle for $475. I am outraged by their attitude and ethics. This guy from the collection agency/attorney said it was probably their fault and was willing to reduce $100 and settle for $475 instead. I have no idea why I should pay for the collective mistakes of DFS. First, their employee set up a wrong monthly payment for me and they never updated my address even after repeatedly calling them so I never got any idea of my account till last January.

They refused to stop escalating charges/get back with any reasonable information about what was going on to resolve the issue. Whenever I talked to them, they kept saying that I owe that money and I have to pay it! I even offered to buy a new laptop from them that will cover the money I owe them (I do like their hardware, unfortunately). There is nil after-service, or customer service after getting the money. I pay monthly bills larger than the laptop and I find it outrageous that I should pay them for their mistake. I now know how this country is in such deep problems - thanks to unethical business practices aimed at making money through devious means.

If someone from Dell was/is willing to listen to the customer and do something about it, this could have been avoided and they might not have lost not just one customer. But I am going to petition my friends and former corporate (university) employer to stop buying from Dell. Incidentally, I was instrumental in getting them to get computers from Dell for the past 6 years I was with them. Their business ethics are extremely devious and fraudulent.

I really did feel that my history with Dell was great. I definitely feel that it was unfair for Dell to check my credit report. I was disappointed and crushed to know that because of my recent credit, they no longer want to do business with me. Yes, I have some credit issues, but I never wanted to end up on the negative side of Dell. They've put a bad taste in my mouth and I will never do business with them again. My credit situation is only temporary.

In having a conversation with many of the folks, who, for some reason, don't know what they are talking about. I was still receiving the run-around with the company. Finally giving up after 6-8-09 and knowing that the company would still give me the run-around with the unit. Forking out $1400 for the unit and it is still not working. And have wanted to return the unit back to Dell for a replacement or the charges taken off the account. Right now, I'm at a loss as what to do at this time. Here are the following express codes, as the many times that I have dealt with these folks at Dell.

It is in my understanding that the company uses refurbished parts, which is the most of the cause with many of their defected products, and with the many unqualified person who are underpaid, with no training when it comes with computers or any other products that is made or supposed to be made. I would consider this action of theirs as a violation and a breach of their contract with their customers.

The computer has slow processor, a broken GGA/HDMI adapter, a damaged mother board, still not replace and other damages. When the unit starts to boot, it makes a 5-second high pitch noise.

Since this has occurred, my wife has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and we know have mounting medical bills. We have a car payment. All in all I will be debt free from the car and all the other credit card bills in about 2 more years at the current plan. Dell however, has turned a $1491.46 computer purchase on 02-12-07 into $2476.95. So, after 3 years I still owed them $1,000 more than the initial purchase amount. I need help badly! Is there anything I can do to stop them? I talked to them on 6/21 and after 3 years the best I can get them to do is lower the interest for 6 months to 9.9 %. But all this will do is enable me to lower the amount by around $250.00, after which the interest will again go up to the 22% it's at now and the same problem is likely to occur?

Please help, it's killing me. I believe I have already paid the worth of the computer back to them. I don't have all that info right now but I'm working on putting that together as well. Please help! I want to be contacted by an attorney! Please help!

Well when it arrived, it was a totally different computer altogether but it has worked good for now! That was not the end of screw ups. It had been about a month and I noticed that 2 payments were coming out of my account for two different computers, so I tried getting answers from both Dell and Dell Financial. They both kept pointing the finger at each other so for about 6 months, I was forced to pay for a computer I no longer had. I finally had to stop all payments to get the right answers, which it did! Instead of getting all my money back for the other computer, they took it off the principal of the computer I had and told me that this would not affect my credit, which was flawless. But I just found out it did affect my credit and still, no one will answer my questions through Dell or Dell Financial. I'm still waiting.

In June 2009, I checked my annual credit report and so that I was$ 22 behind my payments at Dell. Immediately, I sent the payment via bill pay. I then called Dell to find out why I was never advised of the late payment. This is where my nightmare begun. The sales rep did not update my info as requested and Dell still had my old info. I then told them that I had moved. I told Dell that I had sent the payment even though they did not contact me as required by law and all I wanted was for them to remove that late payment from my credit report. They refused and said that it was not their job to contact me nor update my info.

Dell is ridiculous. When you call, they take you through all these prompts. I got hanged up on 3 times by the reps in India. And after holding for one hour when I requested to speak to a manager, this rep by the name of Priya told me that none was available and hanged up on me. Putting this adverse info on my credit is going to result in higher interest rate.

When I recently (6/12/09) purchased an accessory from Dell, I was asked if I wanted to place it on my DFS account. Before I agreed, I asked the sales agent why I had not yet received a statement as yet. She again assured me that it could take a while. She asked me for my DFS account number so she could check my credit in my DFS account in order to charge the new purchase to the account. I told her I did not have a DFS account number as yet, and again repeated that I had not received any correspondence from DFS. "Not to worry," I was told it should arrive any day now. So in order to access my account, she needed my full Social Security Number and my mother's maiden name.

I reluctantly obliged (not wanting to give my whole SS number over the phone to a sales agent), but I also wanted information on my DFS account. The agent told me that giving that information was the only way they could access the account to give me that information and place the new charges on my account. She placed the new charges on my account and again told me that a statement should arrive soon. I was told nothing about late charges, but was told the accurate amount that my charges were--and only the charges. Unknown to me, there were also late fees and finance charges already accrued.

The very next day (a Saturday), I received an automated call informing me I was overdue on my DFS account and that I owed $67.14 in overdue fees and finance charges. This was my first notice of this and my very first communication of any kind from Dell Financial Services. I have disputed these charges and paid off my full balance for the purchases only (less the finance and late fee charges). I am awaiting resolution form DFS. I still have not received any monthly statements from DFS and was told I should check with my post office about missing mail.

I responded that it would be an incredible coincidence, with all the hundreds of pieces of official mail and bills each month that my husband and I have successfully received in the last 2 months via the US Postal Service for the 3 businesses we own and manage (we do not have online billing for our credit accounts), that the all 3 pieces of correspondence DFS says they send (a welcome package with my account information and 2 monthly bills) were the only bills the US Postal Service supposedly did not deliver. I am very eager to close my DFS account, but must wait for the resolution of these charges. I have no idea what this has done to my credit score as I have already been sent to collections by DFS. I do not know what effect closing this account will have on my credit score, but from what I have learned from others on the web, DFS does not resolve these issues easily. But I will take my consequences and close my DFS account ASAP.

I am beginning to feel that I will be paying for these stupid computers forever. I don't know where to turn. Someone please help. After 3 or 4 years, I am still making payments. I am making 100 dollar payments and it really doesn't appear to be going down. I will never go through this company again for anything.

By the time the repair info and credit account material arrived, I had already bought a replacement laptop on eBay, which I am still using now. The broken laptop (8500) still sits on my shelf in the garage. So, I shredded the Dell information, and forgot about it. Two months later, I get dunning messages from Dell to pay $498. I called Dell many times, trying to straighten it out, and only got runaround.

Then the calls started coming, averaging 6 calls per day, for a year. I bought a phone line logger, and recorded many of them. One of the recordings was from Michael ** from Dell Financial Services, who agreed that I had a case, and they will close me out and not bother me, but the corporate office kept on hitting me with other bill collectors to this day, and my credit rating is tarnished by this one and only negative report on it. They are saying I now owe them $782.93.

Since I refused to pay even a token payment (because to make such a payment, in my words to him, was tantamount to agreeing that I owed the money). I was not economically damaged, except for the 3 phone recording devices that I bought. My real damage is personal stress, sleepless nights, and work time lost over this deal. Also, my perfect credit rating was damaged.

On June 3, 2009, when calling 888-257-6372, I spoke with a Patrick who told me there was no record of the March 28 credit, but he was finally able to give me an Internet Confirmation Number authorizing the credit for the original amount of $129.00 as of June 3, but could do nothing about the subsequent late and finance charges and directed me to Dell Financial. I have also had multiple email correspondences to Customer Resolution with a Saranya, Senior Support Resolver from Dell Resolution Expert Team and Anton, also a Senior Support Resolver from Dell Resolution Expert Team with limited or no success. Finally, my daughter was able to get the finance charge and late fee for one month credited, but was duped into paying the June 2 charges with another credit card. We have been dealing with this issue far too long. It is a disgrace!

When I asked the Dell customer service why, I was informed that my account had been paid late from 2006 to date, only being paid on time when I made an additional payment to Dell separate from my ACCC payment. Despite my efforts to make sure you were paid, I have been charged an abundant amount for late fees, which in turn has caused my account balance to be more than what it was in 2006. I have paid my Dell account each month on time by the statement I had in December of 2006. My payment was dispersed to Dell from ACCC in check form the third day of each month by ACCC and credited to my Dell account on the 10th or 11th day of each month. I never knew the billing cycle of Dell, therefore I could have never known the correct due dates. Even if I had known, I could not change the dates that the money would be theirs to pay Dell. I am requesting that Dell remove all late fees and finance charges from my account from December 2006 to date. I could understand if my payments for the past two years were more than a month, but this was only days and I had never missed a payment.

Dell would not work with me anyway and continued to add interest from that time on. I felt I was fair to pay the balance in the same month that it had expired, but they would not agree. They sent the account to collections and I was harassed on a daily basis but no kind of agreement could be reached. I advised them that if they went to my credit report with this balance, I would not pay anymore. They did do this. I advised them that I would return the computer to them and they did not want that. Since this time, the computer has not worked and I cannot seem to get anyone who can repair it. I was told that we had at least a two-year warranty on the computer and it still won't work.

I called the number they gave me, and an automatic service asked me to enter my Customer No ID. So I did, and I was told (for 3 times) that they couldn't find it. So they put me with a live person. I gave them all the information (name, name of business, address, account no., telephone no, etc). I told them that I was required to confirm a purchase I just made and gave them the order number. They put me on hold for a period of 10 mins, and after that, the person came back and told me, in resume, that she was sorry but my account was on hold for verification purposes and that she could transfer to customer service so I can make other payments arrangements to buy the camera and that at the moment she couldn't give me any more information.

I insisted and asked her why if I made all my payments on time, etc. But I couldn't get an answer. I checked my e-mail and I even received a confirmation for my order, but when I logged into my account, there was no pending order. So I went and placed the order online and everything went through. I received the acknowledge e-mail and the confirmation e-mail, but that was it.

made another call to try to get more information, and they put me through 6 different departments and couldn't get any information. I believe I have the right to know the reason why my account has been blocked, since when and when it will be unblocked.

Then I lost my job and I got into a credit counseling agency so I could consolidate my debts. Suddenly, I received a bill from Dell for $900! They told me they don't recognize consolidation programs and that the amount they were paying was always late! Totally ridiculous. Needless to say, I now owe more money than when I got into the program. My credit is destroyed. Wall Street and politicians are blaming the American people for America's credit status, but it is these greedy financial institutions robbing us blind! I don't know what to do. I will probably end up going bankrupt along with everyone else I know.

Before the end of the month (August 2008) when my final payment was due, I had received a bill saying I owed them almost $600. No explanation! I called them and offered to pay a $25 late fee for being 3 days late, but I was informed that I now had to pay all of the deferred finance charges. I have refused to pay for 7 months. They have called me every day since last September. Some days they have called as many as 8 times a day. They have told me that my credit will be ruined, and they have now turned it over to a collection agency that has started calling me multiple times a day. I, who once held Dell in such high esteem, now despise them!