Dell Financial Services did not honor 6 month same as cash, charged late fees, poor customer service and on and on.... Austin Texas

In November 2002, we purchased a Dell computer and networking hardware. An Advertisement on the website stated that we could apply for a Dell Charge Account and if we qualified, we would receive six months deferred billing. We were granted the credit account and expected to pay the account off over six months.
We received the statement for the purchases in mid December 2002. There werent any notations on the statement for deferred billing.
I called dell financial services customer service to discuss the incorrect billing. A representative tried to help, however it was difficult to communicate since the representative spoke broken English. She gave me a phone number to call which I thought would straighten out the situation. Unfortunately, the phone number was for the Experion company ( a credit reporting company)and they couldnt help me.
I went onto the Dell website and found an e-mail address for customer service. The first e-mail was sent to verify that we had deferred billing. I supposedly didnt qualify for the deferred billing, however no one ever answered my question about how I got credit in the first place without qualifying. Several e-mails went back and forth. I had to beg each time for a reply at least twice.
I finally gave up and sent payment. It was sent in an envelope, from Dell, with a payment stub that was pre-printed with their address. After a month in the mail, the U.S. Postal Service returned it, as the address (pre-printed by Dell Financial Services) was undeliverable.
At this time, I started receiving collection calls. I explained the situation to the collection representative who gave me a phone number to call to try to straighten out the accumulating late fees and interest. The collection representative also gave me an address to re-send the returned payment.
I called the phone number that the collection representative gave me. The woman I spoke with was hard to understand as she also spoke broken English (this is customer service?). The woman told me she could not talk to me about the account, she would need to talk directly with my husband. I explained that all the other conversations were with me, but she refused. She gave me a different address (than the collection agent) to send payment and correspondence to. Thenhung up on me!
The entire envelope, that was returned as undeliverable, was mailed to the new address including payment in full.
Another bill arrived in the mail with out any payments posted. Several e-mails were sent in an attempt to find where the payment was and if it was going to be posted to my account. Whoever was replying was beating around the bush and not answering my direct questions. "Did you receive my check and correspondence?" It doesn't seem like a difficult question to answere to me.
After I received a response from Dell stating that payment was never received, I realized trying to find out where the correspondence and payment were was a lost cause. I transferred the original Dell balance to our American Express account. At least this way we had a record and recourse if the lost payment was ever found and an attempt was made to deposit it.
We received a statement from Dell dated April 6, 2003 showing the American Express transfer payment, however they are still charging interest and have not yet reversed any late charges from the account. They say I owe them over $140 and I'm sure they will continue to add charges since I'm not paying that. I sent a letter certified mail with a return receipt outlining what has happened over the past 5 months. I'll keep you updated on the outcome.

Please advise EVERYONE you know NOT to use Dell Financial Services! They'll promise you deferred billing to suck you in and charges you HUGE fees!

Karen
Bethel, Connecticut
U.S.A.

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