Dell's Sleazy Shipping Policies

[Big Booger]

I have just come across a very sleazy practice from Dell. A coworker had a need for a cheap bare bones PC without a monitor or speakers. I looked at a Dimension 2400 for her and was able to price out a PC for $399.00 before a $100.00 mail-in rebate. After the mail-in rebate, that would bring the end cost of the PC to $299.00 plus shipping and handling. Cool, this should be exactly what was needed. After trying to order it, the cost was going to be approx $505 before the mail-in rebate.

Their shipping and handling was going to be $99.00 (for the cheapest shipping option available). Since I am very familiar with the approx. cost of what it takes to ship one of these computers, UPS I thought it had to be a Web site error. Calling to find out she was told that the $99.00 for shipping and handling was correct. If she wanted a better shipping rate she had to order a PC that cost more than $500.00.

To me this behavior is reprehensible and inexcusable. I feel they are misrepresenting the cost of their computers by hiding the cost in the shipping and handling.

http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/20050124_shipping_and_manhandling.phtml


Interesting. I think it is a bit much to charge more for a system for shipping just because the system itself is cheaper.. is a cheaper system heavier? Is the handling procedure more involved than a more expensive unit? What a farce.

[Zak8022]

hrm.. very interesting indeed. i bet some people would just say to wait for the free shipping deals... except those are usually limited to certain pc's as well.

that does suck.. but i still prefer Dell computers over anything else (except ones i build myself ;) )

[cash_site]

It does sound dodgy, but sometimes big companies can subsidise shipping with expensive goods as profit margins are bigger ;)

Delivery fee, just an extra cost for PC, and really should be taken into account when making purchase... i agree with zak in that there are usually some free shipping deals going round ;)

[zipp51]

I think it is shady and a lot of companies including E-Machine that had come a long way in quality and price, are doing today.Now you see the ads say $499 and for 256mb ram, intergrated graphics and no monitor.Shipping and handling extra and around $100.Then there is the 100 plus dollars for an extended warranty.I know a woman that ordered a Dell laptop and it came with a dvd player/cdrom and no floppy.She had been used to saving her text files and putting them on floppy.Nice enough notebook but, come on,standard equipment on any computer today should be a cdrw. :(

[Zak8022]

zipp, i am very surprised that it didnt have a cd burner. almost every pc i have seen in the past couple months has had one on it. i can understand not having a floppy drive... those are pretty much useless (shit i didnt put one in my pc i built last year) but u have to have something to save files to externally.

i'm a big fan of Zip drives for everyday use. tho, i havent used mine since i got out of school. my office doesnt have one, and i really dont feel like moving my drive back and forth with me between home and office.