by all means skip to the last paragraph, cos that's where the question really is...
i ordered a new laptop a while ago, waited in for it to be delivered (9-5, grrrr) and when it arrived it was frighteningly noisy, as if a component wasn't fitted properly. also the dvd player took ages to load.
so i emailed them to ask for a replacement. heard nothing back. emailed again. got a message saying that they could send an engineer out.
i told them i didn't want an engineer, but they insisted. i insisted right back, of course, that i get a replacement.
then i heard nothing, so i phoned. had a long conversation about the engineer again. explained again that i didn't want it.
then, (about a fortnight after i'd got the laptop) i phoned again and had another convo about the engineer, but the girl finally understood that i didn't want a fix, i wanted a new computer. she told me that i would have to wait another fortnight for a new computer to come out (i told her that was bad practice on the part of Dell, and hardly insurmountable but that i was nevertheless prepared to wait.
a fortnight later i wait in for a whole day, get my new computer but the bloke refuses to take the old one away. so i now have two computers.
a month after that i got an email asking me to phone a number to return the broken laptop. i didn't phone, too busy, plus i thought it was a bit of a cheek really. the next day they phoned me, telling me that i'ld have to wait in a whole day for the courier to pick it up.
i told them this was unnacceptable, and said that i had already been inconvenienced enough and that i would need to have a conversation with someone about some compensation or goodwill gesture before i was prepared to wait in another day.
she said this would be impossible and that Dell would just charge me for the computer if they didn't get it back. i told her i wanted to give it back, of course, but after someone had taken responsibility for all the inconvenience.
she asked me to write an email detailing my inconveniences, but i said that Dell should have a record of all my calls so it shouldn't be necessary, and that it seemed unfair to waste more of my time. then she hung up, but to be honest i got the feeling it was an inadvertent thing cos there wasn't any 'heat' in the conversation really and the line kinda clunked out...
anyway... i've emailed dell a few times since to tell them that i don't want their computer, but they still haven't got back to me.
SO, my question. i have given Dell permission to take money off my account for one computer. the second one came with an invoice that said 'no charge' all over it. so are they in a position to charge my card for a piece of equipment that they themselves acknowledge is not fit for purpose and that i have indicated i wish to return to them?