Draft Official Refund Request letter

Should I send it now? Or wait the 48 hours. At 11am a customer service supervisor told is that billing would call us within 48 hours to discuss the refund. But...billing isn't open on the weekends, which Jason calmly (cough) pointed out.

Plus I fully intend to CC every Alienware e-mail address I can find PLUS the CEO of Dell, which Andree was awesome enough to find for me.

Here's the draft. Comments welcome.

Last week you sent me a brand new $3000 computer. (It arrived January 30, 2009) Unfortunately, my husband was on the phone with your tech support after having the computer out of the box for TEN MINUTES. My husband, a computer tech himself (CCNA, Etc.) has spent at least $1000 of his OWN TIME on the phone with your technicians trying to fix a BRAND-NEW OUT OF THE BOX computer. Now does that seem reasonable? I mean really, shouldn't we be demanding that you not only refund us the full amount of the purchase but also throw in something for pain, suffering, and anxiety? Should we have to spend our own time "FIXING" a brand new item?

On Sunday, I sent an e-mail to your company asking for a phone call from customer support when they opened Monday morning. Did I get that call? Well NO, I did not!

Therefore, at 10:37am, I called them. That customer service person talked me into sending the computer in for repair. I had taken some cold medicine since I had the plague and was obviously not in my right mind. The more I thought about it, though, the more anxious and upset it made me. I SHOULD have been able to just return the faulty machine and have you ship me a working one. Then the story would be - Everybody's happy! I am a little befuddled that the first machine was a lemon, but you guys handled it so professionally and expediently that it’s no biggie! I sing the praises of Alienware to any game nerd within my vicinity! I post pictures of how cool it is on my blog, which is, as I have said before in previous correspondence, read by TENS of people!

Instead, my BRAND NEW MACHINE, with which I did not even really have a chance to get acquainted, is IN THE SHOP.

IN THE SHOP? That still boggles my mind. I can't think! I haven't gotten ANY work done this week because I'm so DISTRACTED when I think that I'm going to have to wait SIX WEEKS for something I bought new, but is now going to be used/rebuilt/whatever. Who buys something new and has to take it to the shop after 10 minutes? That is not normal! And your techs can't get it straight. One tells me 1-2 days for repairs, the next says 2-6 WEEKS (that one just about made me lose my lunch!)

I can’t take it. I’m not cut out for this kind of high-anxiety, high-risk, high-dollar-amount capitalistic transaction. All I wanted to do was be able sit in my hotel room or at a coffee shop when I’m out of town for work, play Wow, talk to my friends on the Facebook, and surf the interwebs for things that make me want to “LOL out loud”. Is that so much to ask?

So I am pleading with you, Alienware. Do the right thing. Just end the insanity. Refund our money. Don't even think about uttering the words "restocking fee" again or seriously, my head will explode.

Your computer is already back at your warehouse. We will gladly ship back the accessory equipment as soon as you send us a shipping label.

All of the details should, of course, be in your own tech. support notes, but just IN CASE one of the 50 support people we talked to forgot something, here is the play by play:

www.thecolloquialtimes.blogspot.com

Sincerely disappointed that I will not be using your snazzy light-up uber computer and showing it off to all my friends,


Sonya Pickens
RMA# 1114724