On May 19, I contacted Dell customer support and requested for an exchange. In the afternoon, I found that the exchange has been treated as a new order and posted on my page of the Dell website. What caught my attention was the new order was about $130 cheaper than my first order. I contacted the support again and asked them to refund the $130 difference. The supervisor said the company would pay for the difference by drawing on a strange analogy: Dell would not charge $500 if the price of the same product went up by that amount.

The analogy did not make sense to me because I know by experience that any retailer would pay me the rebate if there is a difference in price between the initial purchase and the exchange. I also spoke with someone from what Dell calls the customer retention center. He offered a complete different explanation. He said the new order is more expensive than the first one, and Dell was doing me a favor. Of course, there is no favor made by the company. And it is impossible for an outsider to see if that is true since Dell’s order sheets do not disclose the price of individual components.

Is it outlandish for a PC buyer to seek a rebate in a situation like this? Or does its refusal to pay me represent yet anther sign of deteriorating customer-service quality at Dell? I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.