[DEAD]Dell Home 200GB WD Hard Drive (New Info)

[DUKAT1]

I just got the "Only one rebate is valid" e-mail from Dell.
I sent them off an e-mail describing how I felt:

Dear Dell Notification Team,
I wish to continue with my order for the Western Digital 200GB hard drive. I appreciate your e-mail to me concerning the rebates on the 200GB Western Digital hard drive. However, I think you misunderstand your situation.

Your assertion is that you mistakenly posted two rebates when only one is applicable. But in actuality, you did much more than this. Clearly posted in MORE than one place, was the statement:

"+ Up to $200.00 in mail-in rebates"

This is a direct quote from your product description page.

I then went on to look at BOTH rebates. They are for DIFFERENT time periods, which overlap. One requires the original upc code, and one requires a copy of the upc code.Both are for this hard drive. It seems to me that you have advertised "up to $200.00 in mail-in rebates", you have supplied both forms, and both appear to be valid. And the interpretation of what was on your site was unmistakeable:

Since one rebate was about to expire, and the other had just taken effect, there was a "window" of a short period of time when "up to $200.00 in mail-in rebates" was available. If you had ordered the drive earlier, both rebates would not be in effect. If you waited a couple days, both rebates would not be in effect. It was just that short period of time. You were kind enough to point that out in order to increase your sales figures at the end of the month (or was it the end of your fiscal quarter) and now wish to retract the offer. This is totally unacceptable!



As far as I am concerned, Dell has no choice but to honor what they advertise. Anything less is consumer fraud. If Western Digital fails to honor both rebates, it will be up to Dell to make good on the second one and reimburse the appropriate amount, which in this case would be $100.00.

SO to answer the question once again, YES, I wish to continue with my order for the hard drive, and will expect to receive the full $200 in mail-in rebates as advertised, or that Dell will reimburse for any rebates that are denied.

Thank you
XXXXXXX

The worst that will happen is Dell will send me the drive, and I will return it to them. Or maybe we'll hav a discussion and I'll end up cancelling the order. Then again, maybe I'll get lucky and get both rebates, as we all should.

 

['BARtMAN']

Originally posted by: Henny
Because your purchase date would be changed when the order is re-instated. Therefore you would not qualify for one of the 2 rebates.

You better hope that your drive ships before Dell can put a hold on it.

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'
update direct from dell

What I don't understand if some shipped, and if we wish to contiune with the order after they contact us. What would stop us from sending in both rebates anyway? How would Western Digital know which ones shipped already? For this deal is dell sending order details to WD? I ordered it early the 26th before most of the threads got big, and dell's site still stated both rebates for a savings of $200. I wonder if a call to dell would be worth it?

Ahh, good point. Wasn't thinking... too early :/
I guess I had better call in and fight with them.

 

[AnimEva]

to be honest, i will continue my order and if the rebates are considered not valid, i will require dell to pick up the hard drive, at worst dell loses money sending it over to me, paying the CSR to listen to me bitch and paying the pickup guy to take the hard drive back. at the end that is a good $20-30 lost by Dell due to this problem.

and they also lost my consumer confidence of them.

 

[superfob99]

What they're probably gonna do is tell WD that any drives that have shipped after 10/1/2003, only honor one rebate. Which is probably reasoning behind the delayed shipping on all these drives. But we should all keep the drive and try to fight for both rebates. If we lose we're still costing Dell money and probably overstocking WD's warehouses which in turn might lower the overall costs of these drives.

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'

Originally posted by: Henny
Because your purchase date would be changed when the order is re-instated. Therefore you would not qualify for one of the 2 rebates.

You better hope that your drive ships before Dell can put a hold on it.

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'
update direct from dell

What I don't understand if some shipped, and if we wish to contiune with the order after they contact us. What would stop us from sending in both rebates anyway? How would Western Digital know which ones shipped already? For this deal is dell sending order details to WD? I ordered it early the 26th before most of the threads got big, and dell's site still stated both rebates for a savings of $200. I wonder if a call to dell would be worth it?

Ahh, good point. Wasn't thinking... too early :/
I guess I had better call in and fight with them.

 

[Karaktu]

I think Dell's response is fair...if they have already shipped the drive, they'll honor the $200 MIRs. If they haven't shipped the drive, they are giving you the heads up that only one MIR is valid and you can cancel.

Everyone who hopped on that deal knew something had to be wrong...you don't get a hard drive for $20 shipped (well, not unless you're buying from Officemax and AR/AC! -- LOL). Anyone who is going to get the $200 honored should consider themselves lucky, and everyone else should keep their eyes peeled for the next deal.

Joe

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Karaktu
I think Dell's response is fair...if they have already shipped the drive, they'll honor the $200 MIRs. If they haven't shipped the drive, they are giving you the heads up that only one MIR is valid and you can cancel.

Everyone who hopped on that deal knew something had to be wrong...you don't get a hard drive for $20 shipped (well, not unless you're buying from Officemax and AR/AC! -- LOL). Anyone who is going to get the $200 honored should consider themselves lucky, and everyone else should keep their eyes peeled for the next deal.

Joe

I agree with this, it's not like anyone here lost anything besides a little time. The people that got the drive, good for them, they'll get what was advertised. The ones that didn't get theirs shipped, should have been quicker. I placed an order later in the day around 1 or so, and was stuck in limbo and finally contacted dell asking to cancel, which hasn't happened yet. I'm not mad with Dell. I think they handled the situation as to be expected. Now if the people that received the drive were told that the rebates wouldn't be honored, then I'd have a problem with it.

Just gotta be quick, people.

KK

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: superfob99
What they're probably gonna do is tell WD that any drives that have shipped after 10/1/2003, only honor one rebate. Which is probably reasoning behind the delayed shipping on all these drives. But we should all keep the drive and try to fight for both rebates. If we lose we're still costing Dell money and probably overstocking WD's warehouses which in turn might lower the overall costs of these drives.

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'

Originally posted by: Henny
Because your purchase date would be changed when the order is re-instated. Therefore you would not qualify for one of the 2 rebates.

You better hope that your drive ships before Dell can put a hold on it.

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'
update direct from dell

What I don't understand if some shipped, and if we wish to contiune with the order after they contact us. What would stop us from sending in both rebates anyway? How would Western Digital know which ones shipped already? For this deal is dell sending order details to WD? I ordered it early the 26th before most of the threads got big, and dell's site still stated both rebates for a savings of $200. I wonder if a call to dell would be worth it?

Ahh, good point. Wasn't thinking... too early :/
I guess I had better call in and fight with them.

What about me? i bought the drive like 2 days BEFORE this link appeared. It was AFTER the sept 1 date tho. will i qualify for both? should i send in for BOTH rebates or just one?

 

[DUKAT1]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
What about me? i bought the drive like 2 days BEFORE this link appeared. It was AFTER the sept 1 date tho. will i qualify for both? should i send in for BOTH rebates or just one?

You have nothing to lose by sending in both, do you? You bought it thinking there was only one rebate. They say you'll get that for sure. If you get the other rebate, that's just a bonus! You never expected it in the first place.

 

[simsk]

excellent job with the posting. Obviously as one who bought the drive and has not received it, I am disappointed but thanks for the information and link directly to the discussion.

 

[superfob99]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: Karaktu
I think Dell's response is fair...if they have already shipped the drive, they'll honor the $200 MIRs. If they haven't shipped the drive, they are giving you the heads up that only one MIR is valid and you can cancel.

Everyone who hopped on that deal knew something had to be wrong...you don't get a hard drive for $20 shipped (well, not unless you're buying from Officemax and AR/AC! -- LOL). Anyone who is going to get the $200 honored should consider themselves lucky, and everyone else should keep their eyes peeled for the next deal.

Joe

I agree with this, it's not like anyone here lost anything besides a little time. The people that got the drive, good for them, they'll get what was advertised. The ones that didn't get theirs shipped, should have been quicker. I placed an order later in the day around 1 or so, and was stuck in limbo and finally contacted dell asking to cancel, which hasn't happened yet. I'm not mad with Dell. I think they handled the situation as to be expected. Now if the people that received the drive were told that the rebates wouldn't be honored, then I'd have a problem with it.

Just gotta be quick, people.

KK

Well what I'm mad about is that fact that I was quick to jump on this deal, yet have still not had my order shipped. I have a friend who ordered later than me recieve his drive 3 days ago and others on FW that ordered days later get theirs too. I am very curious to know how dell fulfills these orders.

 

[Darkstar757]

Hey guys contact CNET NEWs and let them know what DELL is doing!

 

[snyderjw]

I still have not recieved anything from dell since the order confirmation, with a ship date of Oct. 1 or before. Has everyone else in this situation recieved a "not gonna do it" e-mail from Dell? What should I expect? Any ideas?

I'd like to go down fighting on this one. All evidence since the beginning says that if this were a mistake it was a pretty big mistake.

An overview of screwups necessary to make this "mistake"

1. make two rebates for the same drive with overlapping dates.

2. require different proofs of purchase for each rebate.

3. write "$200 in rebates" on your site. The "up to" is insignificant, if they meant $100 maximum, then "up to $200" is clearly misleading.

4. post links to both rebates beside the product.

As you can see this is a lot of "mistake"

Looks to me like somebody was trying to boost their end of the month (or quarter) numbers, and then changed their mind (read: reneged) in time to not take a loss.

This is substantial evidence, and I agree with Darkstar757, it may make for a really interesting story. Who has media contacts, anyone?

 

[ftrainwill]

I just checked my status and it said shipping date 1/1/01,....hmm that is strange, did anybody else get that as well?

 

[hkssupra69]

how are they gonna honor the 200 in rebates when its WD who's paying for the rebates??

 

[gsethi]

my drive is still delayed. I ordered mine on 9/26. I hope that it ships before i get that email from dell. fingers crossed.

 

[snyderjw]

For fear that my junk filters may have caused a loss of the magic nasty e-mail of fraud, I e-mailed dell, asking simply:

"I noticed that my recent order had a ship date of yesterday, and yet I still haven't gotten anything confirming shipment, I was just wondering if I missed it.

Thanks!"

I got this back from dell, not necessarily a giveaway either way, but it seems that at the very least Dell's CSRs aren't passing out the "dude, you're gettin a-screwed" message.

"Dear Mr. Snyder,

Thank you for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have
caused you. I personally check your records. The order has not
shipped yet. The item is currently unavailable. Every effort
is being made to fill the order.

If there is anything additional that you need, please feel free
to visit our online Customer Care Center at http://www.DellCustomerCare.com.

Again, thank you for choosing Dell Online Customer Care.

Respectfully yours,


Dell CSR XXXXXX"

 

[mikeford]

Deal is dead, only slight window is if Dell were to ship even after sending the email requiring you to reply if you want the drive with just one rebate, and you don't reply and they ship anyway.

Dead Dead Dead

No way will the rebate people do anything but send you a notice that only one rebate is allowed.

Waste of time, end of story for me.

 

[Oxides]

I placed an order fort this item, with normal shipping on 9/26 and received an acknowledgement on 9/27. They finally confirmed my order on 10/1 and totally resolved the rebate issues.

The order date was changed to 10/1 making it impossible to claim one of the rebates!

 

[DerProfi]

Originally posted by: snyderjw
I still have not recieved anything from dell since the order confirmation, with a ship date of Oct. 1 or before. Has everyone else in this situation recieved a "not gonna do it" e-mail from Dell? What should I expect? Any ideas?

I'd like to go down fighting on this one. All evidence since the beginning says that if this were a mistake it was a pretty big mistake.

An overview of screwups necessary to make this "mistake"

1. make two rebates for the same drive with overlapping dates.

2. require different proofs of purchase for each rebate.

3. write "$200 in rebates" on your site. The "up to" is insignificant, if they meant $100 maximum, then "up to $200" is clearly misleading.

4. post links to both rebates beside the product.

As you can see this is a lot of "mistake"

Looks to me like somebody was trying to boost their end of the month (or quarter) numbers, and then changed their mind (read: reneged) in time to not take a loss.

This is substantial evidence, and I agree with Darkstar757, it may make for a really interesting story. Who has media contacts, anyone?

I seriously doubt that Dell or WD made this mistake on purpose. Most of Dell's e-biz site is generated automatically out of a database somewhere. The number of "holy cow" deals that pop up (e.g. Home coupons that magically work in the SB store) and disappear in short order is pretty good proof of that. IMHO, there's a time to fight and a time to walk away. The time to fight is when you get double-charged for something, or order a P4 and get shipped a Celeron, or suffer some other real damages because of a screw-up. But when someone knows from the get-go that a deal was questionable, and it's obvoius that Dell is making an effort to fess us and be fair about it to a select group of people, I think it's time to walk away.

 

[s0ssos]

have you guys seen it? it's valid now, if you already got your hd. if not, too bad (valid as in you get $200 in rebates)

 

[ahsia]

I honestly think Dell should have just took the loss and fork out the rebates. There are people filing complaints with the BBB, and Dell is going to look horrible coming out of this. I understand it is stupid to expect to sell this hard drive w/ a $200 rebate, but that is what they advertised, and that is what they have to live with.

What I think is even more ridiculous is that they are going to honor the $200 rebate for those drives that have been shipped, and not the ones that haven't. That is just unfair. It is unfair to state in the e-mail that only of the rebate is valid, yet honor both of them for those customers who place the order before they caught their mistake. Imagine if you went to CompUSA, found this deal, stood in line, and just as they got to you, they said, sorry, we can't give you the same deal because we found out that we screwed up. That wouldn't feel too good, would it?

Dell needs to be accountable for these things.... just my two cents....

 

[smf96822]

It is indeed a double standard to honor their advertised rebates selectively. My order confirmation says purchase date 9/26/03 though Dell is playing around and not shipping it.

The rebates were indeed distinct ones and not "duplicate" as Dell alleges. The purchase date is applicable to the rebates


I urge everyone that was induced to buy this drive prepare letters to the applicable State Attorney Generals, Department of Consumer Affairs, BBB.

 

[ElGuache]

they will not ship it unless you respond to their letter, I cancelled my order

 

[smf96822]

right from the horses mouth


CHAPTER 17. DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES



SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/bc/bc0001700.html#top






(9) advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised;




(10) advertising goods or services with intent not to supply a reasonable expectable public demand, unless the advertisements disclosed a limitation of quantity;



(11) making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of price reductions;



(12) representing that an agreement confers or involves rights, remedies, or obligations which it does not have or involve, or which are prohibited by law;

 

[Overzeetop]

You've only shown provisions 9-12. Is there any language stating that typographical or other errors, if identified prior to the sale(defined as exchange of funds for merhandise), are exempt?


I ordered the drive, but the letter was polite, the mistake was obvious (if it's too good to be true, it probably is), and I don't really need the drive that badly. Those who got the drive shipped - good for you, you got the pick 4 prize in the rebate lottery this time. Let it go, folks, there'll be another chance.