A friend of mine ordered a Dell computer online from Dell in Malaysia. The price was to be paid by 12 instalments interest free, a good gimmick by Dell Malaysia. But caveat emptor!! (buyers beware!)

There is a catch! Buyers who are not awared will be caught by a nasty surprise as my friend did.

You provide the credit card info to be charged 1/12th of the price. My friend was shocked to be charged the full price on the first month's statement. Upon complaints and enquireies, they said a mistake was made when a salesman who took the ordser was replaced by another salesman, but the new salesman was not briefed by the previous salesman about the agreed charge by 12 instalments.

My friend was in a dilemma as he didn't have so much money to pay in 1 go. Eventually he tried to borrow from his parents to make the payment on his credit card statement, but his parents thought him irresponsible and refused. Eventually I had to lend him part of the purchase price to help a friend out.

He knew he could easily pay that off by 1/12 of the price every month out of his salaries. The full price was 3 times his monthly salary, so he was caught in a jam.

What do you people think? I think it's a sly business trick to say the least, if calling it a scam is too harsh. I did advise legal or other action for ,isleading marketing, but the lawyer we consulted said it's not worth fighting such a large corporation; that they woukld surely be able to dig out some fine print to show that the 12 months interest free option is completely at their discretion.

Should we allow Dell Malaysia to get away with such tactics? I say we boycott Dell Malaysia products. What say you, please?

Adbul Damit
Brunei

Hi all,

Thanks for all the response. Sorry for the delay, but I have been travelling.

Of course my friend called the salesman many times, over and over again, arguing and arguing, until my friend was close to tears. The first salesman is no longer there, and the second salesman said he knew nothing of the 12 instalments request. Shouldn't the employee taking over a job from a previous employee get the full facts right?

He told my friend that the charge has already been made and there is NOTHING that can be done. You people are right, of course that's not true - they can simply reverse the 1 lump sum charge and charge another 1 by 12 instalments. Why wouldn't they go that extra bit to resolve the problem caused by Dell's changing of salesman to handle an order in the middle?

If Dell was genuine in wanting to give the 12 instalments interest free deal, and a mistake has been made to charge 1 go, they should be happy to help out. You people are right again, many people must have taken the offer of 12 instaments. I personally know a couple of others who have taken the same offer.

What I am so shocked about was that after introducing my friend to Dell's offer, they wouldn't do this deal just 1 more time as they do thousands of other times, even after I personally also tried to coax them to be lenient! Their answer has been a consistent "too bad, nothing we can do about it now, company policy".

I hate these employees using "Company Policy" to end all arguments. It cannot be Dell's policy to and cause anguish and antagonise customers. After some of my friends and myself called them and said that if they don't re-instate the 12 instalments charge instead, none of us would ever buy a Dell again, and we would tell everyone we ever come across never to buy Dell either, and you know what the simpleton said? "Up to you. Company Policy"

The Credit Card used was Maybank MasterCard, so that's not an issue. There was nothing to tick on the order form, just had to inform them at a phone call that 12 instalments was required. Trouble in this case was the salesman who took that order then passed it to another new moron, who is a block-head as well, refusing to have anything to do with the good vibe Dell obviously was trying to create about thmeselves.