Dell Financial Services (DFS) repeatedly and falsely accused me of failing to return a leased printer at the end of a business lease. Not only had I returned every piece of leased equipment by the deadline, but I had paid DFS more than $150(!) to come to my home office to pick up and ship my leased laptop and peripherals (including the printer in question), hoping this would ensure proper handling of the equipment and make the end of the lease go smoothly.

DFS should have arrived at my home office with a complete list of items to be returned, and they should have checked their list against what they picked up on March 15, 2007. They neglected to follow these simple and common-sense procedures, and in their unpreparedness and lack of attention to detail, they failed to properly account for the printer that they loaded onto their very own truck that day.

Although the situation has apparently finally been resolved in my favor, the entire fiasco – which resulted in DFS’s collections department hounding me with phone calls, something I've never experienced before and hope to never experience again – has left me with extremely low regard for DFS and Dell. (The collections department even called me on Memorial Day, a national holiday!) Despite my longtime (about 10 years) status as a Dell customer in good standing, DFS took it upon themselves to assume, before doing a thorough check of their records regarding their own handling of the return of my equipment, that I was intentionally violating my lease agreement. They treated me in an insulting, undignified and unfair manner.

I will never do business with DFS or Dell again, and neither, I believe, will any of the friends, family members, clients, and business associates with whom I will share this horror story.

Jeff Hirst