Dell Financial Services incompetent employees, shady practices, apparent inability to close an account Austin Texas

I opened a Dell Financial Preferred Account in 2006 to pay for a camera. While I could not afford to pay them off, I made regular monthly installments of $100. Oh yes, they have made a LOT of money out of me. Does that make me a preferred customer worthy of excellent service? Does it hell.

Recently, I paid off the balance on my credit loan from DFS and wanted to close my account, and indeed to stop those monthly payments - something they won't do for you, incidentally, unless you take action. When I tried to close my account on-line, I was informed that my account was blocked and that I would have to call the company. Perceiving this merely as a ruse to give them the opportunity to try to keep me as a customer, I nevertheless called them. In fact, I received a letter from DFS instructing me to do precisely this, complete with an 800 number. I called the 800 number five times and spoke to five different people, none of whom had the authority to stop my monthly payments (even though I owe them nothing) or to close my account. Moreover, no one spoke clear English, and I suspect none of them were even on the North American continent.

Each person I spoke to knew nothing (naturally) and routed me to another department, or simply cut me off, and one even sent me back to the main menu to start all over again. By the way, their phone menu is in itself completely useless since it does not offer any helpful options at all. I wasted a morning trying to get through to these inept bozos, and eventually had to give it up before I smashed my own telephone in frustration.

I have now written a stiff letter to NFS, and taken the precaution of emptying my bank account, as well as asking my bank to stop all payments to DFS, because I just know they are going to keep taking the payments if I let them, and that this will almost certainly turn into a major drama culminating in some damaging credit reports filed by DFS against me, all because of their own blind incompetence.

My suggestion to anyone who is considering opening an account with DFS is DON'T. It's like willingly attaching a leach to your genitalia, and removing it will be a painful and protracted process. If you think you need their credit, trust me, you don't. Save yourself from a great deal of wasted time and frustration.

I will never purchase anything from Dell again. The company and its financial step-child are both a disaster with completely indifferent management. The only way to deal with such outrageously poor service is to boycott companies that practice it.

Steve Reid
Lehighton, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.