Returning Dell laptop

I'm on hold waiting for RMA for a Dell 17 inch Inspiron laptop 64 bit Windows7 PC.

Dell tried to bribe into keeping it.  The guy in India offered $35.  When I turned it down he offered $40.  I rejected that.  Then he offered $45.  I was incredulous.  I insisted that I wanted to return it.

Dell is charging me 15% restocking fee.  The PC cost $750, so it will come to about $112 but Dell pays for shipping.  I asked why it was a percentage because the $500 version of this PC won't cause Dell to do any more work than reloading the image of the $750 PC.  The guy didn't know.

He then told me that there's also a 15% restocking fee for returning my extra the battery, which shipped separately.  I asked why since the battery is dead and merely needs to be placed back on the shelf.  He didn't know.

The PC arrived unable to connect via WiFi.  I spent over an hour on the phone the other day with Dell support getting it to work.  I did not get paid for that.  The next day Windows7, a huge mess, needed to add 32 updates.  In other words I'm returning the PC in better shape than I received it.

Dell also adds tons of its own mess to the Win7 mess.  Next time I'll check Acer, Asus, etc.  At least they won't load up unneeded software.

I'm very disappointed in Dell, although it doesn't compare to the ongoing nonsense with Virgin Mobile.

25 minutes: still waiting for the guy to come back from break.  Maybe these companies hope that the customer will give up.  At the Dell web site I filled out a form to return.  I thought: hey, pretty easy.  A couple of hours later I received e-mail stating that I that I would get another e-mail.  The second e-mail stated that I had to call to return the laptop.  Companies cannot be that incompetent.  It must be a way to get the customer to give up.  I had to provide the order number three times.

I'm still on hold.  It's 30 minutes.

35 minutes: the guy came back to ask for the order number for the extra battery.  Can't he see all that on my account?  I'm back on hold.  I'm not getting paid for this time.

50 minutes: he came back.  I mentioned that dell.com states that the customer should accept the delivery even if he intends to return it because not accepting would delay.  The Dell guy said that dell would charge me a 15% restocking penalty either way.  I expressed my displeasure and he said he would note that.  I told him to tell Dell to read my blog as I was documenting these events.

55 minutes.  The call is over.  That's about two hours of my time dealing with Dell after receiving the PC.