To quickly set the scene, I was looking at an Alienware laptop with Dell (just looking for a relatively decent gaming laptop, but nothing too over the top as it'll be more for running Steam games comfortably but not really AAA titles).
On Wednesday, it was for sale at £1429 - £200 off the marked price. As a Dell "VIP" (e.g. my company uses Dell, so I get a discount), I get a further 10% off. The catch is - you HAVE to go through the Dell VIP landing page.
The Dell VIP Landing Page: http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukepp1/campaigns/dell-vip-home-page
From this page, the clear path is to click on the green "Shop VIP" button. Go on, give it a try.
Does it work for you? Because it doesn't work for me. The URL is www-wip.dell.com - for those in the know, this would suggest an INTERNAL staging/testing server, inaccessible to anyone outside the Dell network.
As I couldn't proceed through this link on Wednesday night, I couldn't get the deal I wanted. So I got in touch with Dell VIP support by phone and explained my problem. I pointed out that the link did not work for anyone in the UK. He tried it, and it worked fine. I pointed out that, being on the Dell network, I imagine it probably was. He told me that there's nothing he could do about the price - the deal had gone, and the problem must be with my computer settings. I asked to escalate it as it was affecting the entire UK population who might be trying to buy laptops at that very moment.
So I got another email address - and sent screenshots of the whole process, and how it did not work, and I explained the issues with the link only being available internally. I got a call back shortly after, promising to investigate and get back to me within 24 hours. I checked that she was aware of this website issue and the point I was making, and she assured me that she was.
So, today, I get a call offering me the £200 that I would've got on Wednesday had the website worked. I pointed out that I'd now spent about 3 hours trying to convince them that their website was broken, and that people could not apply any VIP discount as they could not proceed from that landing page - and that they clearly weren't understanding the problem, and I didn't want to buy anything until they believed me and fixed the website.
Well, the lady could not understand why I wanted to use the website now as they would make the sale over the phone - but I pointed out that I just wanted them to recognise the fault and fix their website. They (from India) had an online conversation with the web team who suggested there was no fault, and I asked to be conferenced in - which I was. I pointed out the problem, but she (being internal) could not see the problem as the link worked for her.
In the end, they offered me the price I would've had on Wednesday, plus 5% off the discounted price (£65 discount). I felt so frustrated by this point that, for over 48 hours, they've been unable to recognise this fairly large fault on their own website. So I ended up leaving it and not going ahead with the purchase, as they clearly failed, repeatedly, to understand the fault. They suggested no-one else had reported it - despite the fact I sent screenshots of my facebook post in which I'd asked dozens of others to test it and all confirmed it did not work.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant - and to see if anyone here could actually access the "Shop VIP" button on that website? I have run out of ways to make Dell see that it is broken - I've tried phoning, emailing and tweeting. More to the point - the link (even if it did work) is wrong, as it points to their 'deals' page (accessible by a tab an inch above it) rather than the Dell online store.
Before anyone points it out - the web lady did point out that you can access the store at the very bottom of that page, which is something I didn't see on Wednesday - since the most obvious path to proceed is the big green "Shop VIP" link that is instantly available on hitting the landing page. Anyway! Done!
On Wednesday, it was for sale at £1429 - £200 off the marked price. As a Dell "VIP" (e.g. my company uses Dell, so I get a discount), I get a further 10% off. The catch is - you HAVE to go through the Dell VIP landing page.
The Dell VIP Landing Page: http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukepp1/campaigns/dell-vip-home-page
From this page, the clear path is to click on the green "Shop VIP" button. Go on, give it a try.
Does it work for you? Because it doesn't work for me. The URL is www-wip.dell.com - for those in the know, this would suggest an INTERNAL staging/testing server, inaccessible to anyone outside the Dell network.
As I couldn't proceed through this link on Wednesday night, I couldn't get the deal I wanted. So I got in touch with Dell VIP support by phone and explained my problem. I pointed out that the link did not work for anyone in the UK. He tried it, and it worked fine. I pointed out that, being on the Dell network, I imagine it probably was. He told me that there's nothing he could do about the price - the deal had gone, and the problem must be with my computer settings. I asked to escalate it as it was affecting the entire UK population who might be trying to buy laptops at that very moment.
So I got another email address - and sent screenshots of the whole process, and how it did not work, and I explained the issues with the link only being available internally. I got a call back shortly after, promising to investigate and get back to me within 24 hours. I checked that she was aware of this website issue and the point I was making, and she assured me that she was.
So, today, I get a call offering me the £200 that I would've got on Wednesday had the website worked. I pointed out that I'd now spent about 3 hours trying to convince them that their website was broken, and that people could not apply any VIP discount as they could not proceed from that landing page - and that they clearly weren't understanding the problem, and I didn't want to buy anything until they believed me and fixed the website.
Well, the lady could not understand why I wanted to use the website now as they would make the sale over the phone - but I pointed out that I just wanted them to recognise the fault and fix their website. They (from India) had an online conversation with the web team who suggested there was no fault, and I asked to be conferenced in - which I was. I pointed out the problem, but she (being internal) could not see the problem as the link worked for her.
In the end, they offered me the price I would've had on Wednesday, plus 5% off the discounted price (£65 discount). I felt so frustrated by this point that, for over 48 hours, they've been unable to recognise this fairly large fault on their own website. So I ended up leaving it and not going ahead with the purchase, as they clearly failed, repeatedly, to understand the fault. They suggested no-one else had reported it - despite the fact I sent screenshots of my facebook post in which I'd asked dozens of others to test it and all confirmed it did not work.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant - and to see if anyone here could actually access the "Shop VIP" button on that website? I have run out of ways to make Dell see that it is broken - I've tried phoning, emailing and tweeting. More to the point - the link (even if it did work) is wrong, as it points to their 'deals' page (accessible by a tab an inch above it) rather than the Dell online store.
Before anyone points it out - the web lady did point out that you can access the store at the very bottom of that page, which is something I didn't see on Wednesday - since the most obvious path to proceed is the big green "Shop VIP" link that is instantly available on hitting the landing page. Anyway! Done!
i feel your pain with shoody websites, ive sent many a rant to the admins or PR of companies behind poor interfaces (and fscking carp flash ads 
) but they dont care either.
