Recourse For Poor Customer Service? 593
eleventypie writes "I am in the Army and currently stationed in Afghanistan. Recently I found myself without a laptop so I decided to build a studio 17 from Dell. I designed/customized my laptop on 2008-09-17 and placed my order, which totaled approximately $1,700. The laptop was built and apparently shipped on 2008-09-28. Given my APO address, I know mail can sometimes take a little while to get here, though 7-10 days is normal. Dell said to give my laptop 6-8 business days and occasionally, it might take as much as 4-6 weeks. So on 2008-11-12 I sent another email to Dell informing them I still had not received my laptop. One person said to give it more time, while another person responded to my message telling me to send my address again and they would send me a replacement. So I sent my address immediately and never got a response. It is now the 30th of November and I still have no laptop and Dell seems to have quit responding to my emails. This is very frustrating being out $1,700 and not having a laptop to talk to my friends and family and do school work. Phone calls aren't easy so calling them is pretty much out of the question. Any advice on what I can or should do at this point to get the computer I ordered or get my money back?"
Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
...and dispute the charge. No laptop = no payee.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
Two things that you can do that will work.
If Mad: call dell and threaten a "charge back!" Vendors hate that and will snap them to attention as nothign else.
If Really Mad: call CC company and have a charge back done. It's all dell's problem then - you are out of there.
Don't feel sorry of someone stole said property en route. That is called insurance, doing business for dell. They have processes to find it, the thief or gain restitution.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
The Consumerist offers 3 options that seem to work well:
1) Chargeback on your Credit Card.
2) Launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb [consumerist.com] (EECB) to get their attention and get a response. They even offer information on Michael Dell's email address [consumerist.com].
3) File a suit in small claims court. This probably doesn't work if you're still stationed overseas.
Good luck fighting the evil corporate overlords!
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He can always check with his local JAG officer, see if there are any Operation Lighthouse* lawyers available in Austin who can take his case pro bono and sue Dell in small claims court on his behalf.
*I think that's the name of the program for civilian lawyers to donate time to deployed service members, the JAG office will know for sure.
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Doesn't the Army provide you with help in this department? I cannot imagine they do not have anyone on Dells side of the ocean that can help you deal with issues like this.
He said he's in Iraq...he's already on Dell's side of the ocean.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:4, Funny)
Shhh. We're not supposed to know there's a difference.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
One final note - chargebacks aren't guaranteed. They work a large percentage of the time, mainly because the cost for the vendor to research what happened is much higher than the loss that they take on the product, and they are still likely to lose. When you put together your documentation, keep a copy in case you lose the case with your credit card company and need to take legal action against Dell.
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Mumbai recently had the attacks. He ordered his computer in September. Blaming the attacks for this makes no sense.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
What seems to work wonders with Dell (disclaimer: I deal with them quite a lot, as I support over 150 Dell desktop/laptops at work) is the "unresolved issues" link on the very bottom of the Dell front webpage. Just the other day, my hope system, an Optiplex GX620 decided to start getting weird on shutdown/hibernate, such that it would shut down ok, and power the system off, but then it would immediately power back up again on its own. I did all the obvious troubleshooting, including seeing if it could be a bent windows install by installing a clean copy of XP on another drive, and sure enough, same problem, it also occurred on an install of Ubuntu. This strongly pointed to the motherboard having problems, so I submitted a support ticket, telling the tier one drone the problem AND the steps I'd taken to isolate the issue.. Drone apparently couldn't read plain English, because he told to do all the things I'd already done.. I replied that I'd already done these things, and believe it or not, he wanted me to do them again.. I simply went to the "unresolved issues" link and filed a case there, referencing the case id I'd been given by the drone, and the very next day, I got an email telling me I'd get a replacement motherboard shipped to me... This link seems to connect to clueful people, and more importantly, ones who can take ownership of a problem and get it resolved... Give it a try.. BTW: Thank you for your service to the country, I salute you!!!
LVDave
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This link seems to connect to clueful people, and more importantly, ones who can take ownership of a problem and get it resolved.
Ever since Dell outsourced their customer service they've never been the same company. Every niggling little thing they push back on customers to do, every endless phone menu you have to take time to navigate, takes a little of the value away from their product.
Instead of the endless goat rope of tier I customer service, I'd opt for the charge back angle.
Too bad it's not a
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
Ever since Dell outsourced their customer service they've never been the same company. Every niggling little thing they push back on customers to do, every endless phone menu you have to take time to navigate, takes a little of the value away from their product.
Don't use the phone to contact Dell. Don't use email either. Use their web-chat interface. You get a written transcript just like email, but unlike email someone actually responds right away. Whatever you do when dealing with Dell tech support you're going to have to jump through all the hoops on their checklist. So just do it. Whenever you talk to a new rep, they'll probably ask you a lot of the same questions. You have a transcript, so just copy-n-paste from it till the new rep is satisfied. You can read your email or cruise Slashdot while you're waiting for responses from the rep. Far far better than waiting on the phone.
That's my 2c. I had some faulty memory. I'm in Japan but it's a US-bought Dell laptop. I tried email first. No response. Then I tried the chat interface. Much better.
Of course, using the chat interface requires you have access to a working computer, which you may not if you're in Afghanistan waiting for them to deliver the blasted thing to you.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be really great if they would send you an e-mail telling you that they were shipping you a replacement motherboard and firing the representative who handled your case initially.
That would probably make you feel better, but a lot of these drones are restricted in what they're allowed to do and they're forced to go through standard scripts and procedures.
I've been through similar trouble with other companies. I had one idiot drone ask me what version of the operating system I was running four or five times in a row, when I was answering him each time. I finally asked for a supervisor and directly asked the supervisor to fire this moron.
I'm sure that the supervisor appreciated some random asshole telling him how to do his job and manage his staff.
Most companies care not even the slightest bit for providing non-terrible customer service.
Bingo. Customer support is expensive, and usually carried out by a third party who have a vested interested in "processing" you as quickly as possible, regardless of whether or not it solves your problem.
There might be some stupid and/or lazy staff, but the fundamental problem is at the top.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:4, Insightful)
There might be some stupid and/or lazy staff, but the fundamental problem is at the top.
The fundamental problem is with people accepting poor customer service. If the average customer will accept the cheapest customer service, it generally works out in the business' favor to go with that lowest-rung option.
You can't blame a businessman for running the most profitable business he can.
Cost of customer service is business damage (Score:3, Interesting)
The customer accepts a low standard because it's prevalent everywhere. People who get hired to do $8-$12 an hour jobs tend to have IQs under 115 and thus be basically glorified bonobos. (There are a few -- a very few -- exceptions.)
I realize that's offensive, but it's also more realistic than what else is said here.
Customer service is expensive. Doing it right is even more expensive. If your competitors don't do it right, your customers are not going to pick you just because of your good customer service --
Re:Cost of customer service is business damage (Score:4, Insightful)
That is the Walmart Effect in a nutshell. That store only delivers what its customers want. They want low low prices, and easy returns. The products don't have to be high quality or made in the USA. The cashiers don't have to be too friendly, or even too quick, just quick enough. The stores don't have to be too clean, just not disgustingly dirty. If the average consumer wanted to spend a little more for service, maybe we'd actually get it
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If the supervisor thought I was wrong in requesting that somebody who asked me for my operating system version four times in a row when replying to an e-mail in which I explicitly stated my operating system version, then he should be fired too.
Once is chance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. If this guy can't figure out that I am telling him my operating system version four times in a row, then he needs to find a new line of work. If there are somehow procedures which require him to ignore
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Funny)
Aw... Don't pick on the poor drone. The only thing they can do once they get to the end of their script is to start it all over again. It's quite a sad existence. For only $1 a day you can help these mindless drones gain a sense of conciousness and individuality. Dontate now to the Mindless Drone Enlightenment Association.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Please, I've already given this information previously. I am using Mac OS (Mac is not an acronym, by the way) 10.4.8, and I am not using [software].
You still sound like an pompous ass.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Interesting)
In a job where you deal with asshats all day, you tend to actually want to help the few who are pleasant toward you.
Bottom line is: they aren't getting paid enough to deal with you being a dick. You can complain to their bosses if you want, but most of the time the boss is going to agree with the employee: you're just being a dick.
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They're not being very useful to the company as a whole when they waste an enormous amount of my time, cause an unnecessary replacement to be shipped (I discovered that I didn't need the replacement after I had already received it, and eventually discovered the problem myself, with no help from the worthless customer service people), and convince me that their company is not worth buying from in the future. If destroying customer loyalty is their job then whoever came up with that job needs to be fired too.
Re:Call your credit card company.... (Score:5, Informative)
This is why good companies have a many-tiered support staff, and escalate based on technical merits and not how squeaky the wheel is.
If 10% of all support calls get routed to level 2, and 10% of them again get routed to level 3, you still can survive because almost all of your support staff will be script-reading drones, with a few technicians being paid three times as much, and a few professionals being paid six times as much.
The main problem when doing a multi-tier system is if you outsource the lowest tier. They won't have any incentive to figure out just which calls to escalate, and quite often are penalized for escalations, so they will do what they can to get the customer to give up before it gets there.
Customer slams on the receiver in frustration = Log one successful call.
For a multi-tier system to work properly, the level 2 staff should be the supervisors of the level 1 staff, and the level 3 staff should be the supervisors of level 2.
Find out about the shipping status. (Score:3, Insightful)
Another thing to ask is if they ever shipped it and if they did what the tracking number is. At least this way you can try to work out whether the blame is with Dell or the internal courier service used by the military to get it there (I imagine this how it works). Once you can work out where the computer should be you will know who you be dealing with.
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Well, assuming that his bank takes his side (probably will, but you never know) he's still minus a laptop. Kind of a big privation for a soldier in an overseas war zone — such people are always voracious for contact with home, and nowadays that means internet access. He really needs for Dell to provide actual customer service, something they seem to have trouble doing even in the lower 48, never mind The Stan.
(The context-sensitive ad at the top of the page as I type this is for that new Tom Cruise mo
Contact your credit card company (Score:5, Informative)
and have them reverse the charges
DON'T do this first! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd agree that you should know your card company's chargeback procedure, and understand how to do this. But don't start with the chargeback.
Disputing the charges is "the nuclear option" in terms of working with a customer service department. It will generally make all future conversations adversarial. It will rarely help you get your order fulfilled--at best, the company might grudgingly agree to cancel your order. It can also in some circumstances result in getting a collection agency placed on you (an
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Blame the APO (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blame the APO (Score:5, Informative)
The credit card company won't eat the loss - they'll mediate his dispute, and unless Dell can prove that he received the laptop, Dell will be out the one (or two) laptops they claim to have shipped and the OP will have his money refunded by his card company, who will in turn deduct it from Dell's account.
Given that it's an APO address, it will be hard to prove receipt. Better call the card issuer soon; chargeback rights vary by issuer, but typically expire 60-90 days after purchase.
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Eh.. I had a dispute like this once. I wasn't in the military but something I ordered never showed up. I disputed the charges and they claimed it was delivered with a note saying it was left on the porch so the CC company would charge it back.
It turns our that they left it on a neighbors porch who was on vacation so it sat there exposed to rain and mother nature for a month and a half before I got it. I ended up taking them to small claims court and got a judgment on them when they didn't bother showing up.
Don't blame them... yet (Score:3, Insightful)
I had an APO address for three years at Ramstein AB (ie, the place that *all* APO mail headed to Europe and SWA goes first). The OP's representation of the amount of time it takes to receive mail from the US is misleading at best. It takes 7-10 days to receive letters from the US. I have received packages in that little time, but the average was perhaps 4 weeks, and 8 weeks was not unusual. A few times it took up to 10 weeks. The package is being sent to a *war zone*, have a little patience.
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Trust me VISA will not be eating it. The ability to reach in and take it from Dell is 100%.
Visa is never actually even a party to the transaction, they're the only winner in the case of a chargeback.
Every Visa card is issued by a bank.
Every merchant that can accept Visa cards has a merchant account with another bank.
When you pay for a purchase with a CC, the transaction is processed by the retailer's merchant account.
The merchant's bank uses Visa's network to record the transaction.
The amount
It's obvious... (Score:5, Funny)
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Send in the Marines! Once Dell HQ is surrounded I'm sure they'll find your laptop.
Hint: It's in the building next to all the unfound WMDs.
Re:It's obvious... (Score:5, Informative)
"Send in the Marines!"
He's Army. Send Rangers. :P
Re:It's obvious... (Score:4, Funny)
Seeing the tag "Airstrike" got me thinking...
Worth a try.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly e-mail CNN with a story about how hard it is to deal with issues like this when you are out of country in the service. You can even file an iReport. If they run with the story I think you'll find your laptop showing up in record time with a heartfelt apology from Dell.
He can't submit the story... (Score:5, Funny)
He doesn't have the laptop so he can't submit the story. Dell knows this so they aren't worried.
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He doesn't have the laptop so he can't submit the story. Dell knows this so they aren't worried.
What?
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Right. But I have to wonder how he submitted a story to Slashdot...
Can't use a regular phone? (Score:2, Informative)
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Mod parent up Informative please. Simple common sense solution to lack of being able to call directly.
No, mod parent "never had to get internet connectivity from the Army". It may be better now, but when I was there email was about all you could manage through that high latency, low bandwidth, "here now for 1 minute but then gone for 10 minutes" connection.
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Not to mention the difficulty of scheduling a possibly several hour phone conversation during business hours PST when you're in Iraq.
One of the companies we work with is in Israel, and getting tech support through anything but email is a real pain. Business hours in Israel are 1 am to 9 am our time...
How to get your laptop... (Score:4, Funny)
Get your problem posted to the front page of slashdot?
Sounds like you need to submit this to (Score:4, Interesting)
See your local JAG attorney (Score:5, Informative)
Re:See your local JAG attorney (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, well my son flies Apaches. Not as impressive as being a fancy pants Army attorney, but he too says helping servicemen with problems such as this gives him much satisfaction.
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Yeah, well my son flies Apaches. Not as impressive as being a fancy pants Army attorney, but he too says helping servicemen with problems such as this gives him much satisfaction.
Apaches, eh? Well, I'm sure he can poke a few holes in Dell's case. Maybe even bring this to an explosive conclusion.
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Is your son offering to fly an attack on Dell HQ? If not, the JAG attorney probably has more potential for resolving this problem.
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Presumably, you paid with credit card (Score:2)
Presumably, you've paid with a credit card. Call up your CC company and dispute the charges.
Two must-do moves (Score:5, Informative)
1) Dispute charge with your credit card issuer (as others have recommended)
2) Check out the consumerist blog (consumerist.com) and use their guidelines to get consumer satisfaction.
Don't let them BS you - put the beef out in public and you're more likely to get results. Dell and other large companies don't care about you, an individual consumer - make it public and affect thousands of buying decisions and you'll likely fare better.
Note: If they resolve this to your satisfaction, also post/email/whatever a follow-up showing that they made good on a bad situation. If they do not, of course you should let everyone know that as well.
Good luck!
But when it finally arrives (Score:2, Offtopic)
Full of that fresh, shiny VISTA goodness.. you'll be deliriously happy!
Be patient, my lad - The WOW starts... soon!
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Yeah, I'm totally not impressed with Vista. I'm going to wait for this 'Mojave' that everyone's talking about.\
*ducks*
In case Credit Card fails (Score:2, Informative)
Looking at Reseller Ratings [resellerratings.com] Dell has a really shitty customer service team.
I would suggest:
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Chargebacks vary, based on the transaction type, from 45 to 180 days. Trust me, a chargeback, or even threat of a chargeback will escalate this within the customer service department.
It's a MOTO transaction (card not present) where you didn't receive the goods. Unless the association rules have changed dramatically in the past 3 years since I used to deal with them, it's pretty much a slam dunk you'll get your money back.
If they continue to give you grief, then explain to them when they say they will disput
EECB (Score:2)
I've heard of many great success stories from people employing a new consumer tactical weapon: the EECB, executive email carpet bomb [consumerist.com].
But it's only to be used as a last resort, no matter how justified or important you think you are. After you've tried everything else, dig up the email addresses of Dell executives (which are generally not hard to find, surprisingly) and send *all* of them a well-written, rational letter explaining why you are dissatisfied with their service and what they can do to set things
interesting question... (Score:2)
However, I'm not sure really what you do about Dell's customer service. Or, indeed, the CS from any large corporation if you have a problem.
In such companies, the goal is to reduce customer contact (by fobbing customers off with canned answers) and maintain a satisfaction rate of about 80% (usually through fraudulent stats practices). That means that most customers will either be satisfied or simply give up due to inadequate answers.
Most CS is ei
Complain to the Better Business Bureau (Score:2)
Might I suggest you try to call them? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd suggest you first pick up a telephone and have a real-time conversation with somebody.
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There is only one theif in the army.... (Score:2, Informative)
Brother someone stole your shipment without a doubt. I can't believe you would even order something like that while in country. When I was in Opsec, Afghanistan we had our mail stolen all the time. Mostly just cartons of smokes. You should have ordered it through AAFES if you couldn't wait to pick one up on your R&R.
We also had quite a few CONEX get broke into during shipping. They would simply take the hinges off, take what they wanted, and
7-10 days? (Score:2)
Pains me to say it (AAFES) (Score:2, Informative)
Purchasing your Dell computer through AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Services), online or off, has 2 benefits:
1) Tax-free.
2) Your Dell helpline service tickets will be assigned to the Small Business department, instead of Joe Public.
PS: You can also buy your Harley-Davidson motorcycle through AAFES while you're deployed.
Homeland Security (Score:5, Funny)
Recourse For Poor Customer Service?
Homeland Security. I've had the impression long before 9/11 that Al-Qaeda has infiltrated Dell customer service.
lithium ion battery/cpu shortages? (Score:2)
Insure Your Mail! (Score:2)
a monitor
2x laptops
a workstation
3x motherboard/cpu combos
They were all bought with credit cards; so I got my money back, but it's still a major pain in the ass to have to deal with
Overseas military mail is an easy target for criminals. The required customs declaration makes for easy pickings.
Sometimes, they do catch the perps and the penalties are harsh. That's your only c
Ship it stateside first (Score:3, Interesting)
It was intercepted by a warlord (Score:2, Insightful)
and Bin Laden's typing his myspace profile on it right now. Go get him!
Seriously though, what are we supposed to tell you? Contact somebody higher up the chain, preferably by phone. Yeah it may be hard, but so is delivering a $2k package to a 3rd world shithole.
not getting the answer you're looking for (Score:2)
guessing that you're already aware of the "dispute the charges" option, and were here looking to solve the problem differently. People stateside in this situation are most interested in getting their money back and ordering somewhere else etc so that's why so many answers are going that way. You being deployed are probably more interested in any other way to get the laptop you ordered.
Unfortunately you may be downhill of someone that makes a business of lifting computers from the delivery chain there. It
Might not be Dell's fault... (Score:2, Interesting)
This crap is what's costing companies customers.. (Score:2)
I used to work for Dell (Score:5, Informative)
First, you get a lawyer... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds to me like an open-and-shut case of breach of contract. They took your money. They failed to fulfill their side of the bargain. Unless they refund your money (perhaps with interest, perhaps not) or give you the laptop you paid for, they're guilty as hell. Maybe I'm naive, but I'd bet a lot of judges, juries and predatory, razor-toothed lawyers would take a pretty dim view of a corporation ripping off somebody risking his life in service of his country.
I imagine a letter from the aforementioned predator (maybe accompanied by a warning that the media would be involved soon) would generate some kind of response.
Call a media spokesmouth in your home town (Score:4, Interesting)
or pretend to be one and ask them if there is some problem shipping laptops to asscrackistan
Contact Media Relations
Working media members may contact Dell's Media Relations team by calling our press line at (512) 728-4100 , or by using the form below.
The press line is staffed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. A recording at that number provides emergency and weekend contact information.
Dude! You're military! (Score:3, Funny)
Call in an air strike on Dell!
Do it!
Please?
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There are members of the U.S. Armed Forces who attend college while enlisted and even while stationed overseas. Certainly you've heard of online degree programs offered by schools such as Argosy University or University of Phoenix?
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Re:Dissapointed with Dell (Score:5, Informative)
meh, i would have had the laptop shipped to a relative and asked *them* to ship it in a plain box (not one marked DELL DELL DELL) with insurance, delivery confirmation or whatever option they could get from USPS or whoever.
as others mentioned, do a chargeback. :)
then buy a thinkpad
Re:Dissapointed with Dell (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't. Insurance by the postal service is worth almost as much as no insurance at all. It takes literally years of fighting past insane bureaucracy to get reimbursed, and even then they will try to weasel out of every single penny they can.
Dell would probably treat you better than the USPS.
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actually now that you mention it, youre right. i once bought postal insurance and they refused to pay, because i couldnt produce receipts for the items, and the one i *did* produce a reciept for they bitched about.
but still, i had delivery confirmation and the *box* got to me, at least, so there!
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Thank you for your service.. and sorry. (Score:5, Insightful)
Excuse me. No. We respect your service, and he has every right to ask for help from people he trusts. That apparently is us. They said they'd send a replacement.. but didn't. So now we are discussing resolutions. You had no right to make those assumptions.
Re:Thank you for your service.. and sorry. (Score:5, Funny)
he has every right to ask for help from people he trusts. That apparently is us.
And this is how he ended up in the military.
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Re:How about a little less /. asshole behavior (Score:2, Troll)
>Seriously. We respect your service in Afghanistan, but this is clearly not a
>question for Slashdot other than you are trying to use Slashdot's fame to draw
>attention to your case to get you preferential treatment. Clearly if what you
>cared about was your money, you'd call your credit card company and the matter
>would be settled in minutes.
And, given that he is risking his life in Afghanistan, why the hell shouldn't he get preferential treatment?
Re:How about a little less /. asshole behavior (Score:4, Insightful)
And, given that he is risking his life in Afghanistan, why the hell shouldn't he get preferential treatment?
Because, as a non-american, I don't support the war, and i don't support his actions.
Why should he get preferential treatmetn for living in a country that sends him to war for no reason? Why should he get preferential treatment because he was idiotic enough to sign up for the military in the USA?
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Because, as a non-american, I don't support the war, and i don't support his actions.
Why should he get preferential treatmetn for living in a country that sends him to war for no reason? Why should he get preferential treatment because he was idiotic enough to sign up for the military in the USA?
No reason to wage war on a nation that was harboring and encouraging an organization that carried out several attacks on US soil, killing thousands of US citizens? Exactly why isn't this a reason?
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you have a dodgy supply chain to your location. bother the supply chain
uh... no. The supply chain is Dell's responsibility. The ability to purchase a machine over the Internet and have it sent to you is THEIR BUSINESS MODEL. Thats what they're promising for your cash - if they aren't able to reliably deliver the machine to your location, they shouldn't be taking your cash.
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maybe it's god's(buddha's) way punishing you for being involved in the illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign foreign nation
Uh ... what? Your vitriol is not appreciated and serves no purpose. You may leave.
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In all wars BOREDOM is a factor.
Computers are important to morale and communication, because snail mail is painfully slow and government web and email access is often limited.
"I'd also question your choice of laptop. For challenging conditions, with heat, sand, and a lot of bumps, I'd suggest a panasonic toughbook or other ruggedised solution. Unless of course, you're a REM who's several hundred clicks from any forward operating post, and have ready access to 24x7 electricity with no spikes, aircon and cons
Re:how times have changed (Score:5, Insightful)
You're a special kind of asshole, you know that?
Re:how times have changed (Score:5, Insightful)
He needs a laptop so he can stay in contact with loved ones and to be able to STUDY, you know, better himself as a human being while doing this horrible thing that the rest of us don't want to do.
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Unless of course, you're a REM who's several hundred clicks from any forward operating post, and have ready access to 24x7 electricity with no spikes, aircon and constant net access. Apologies if I've called that one wrong, but you're not exactly giving the impression of being at the sharp end of business out there.
You start by outlining what soldiers on the front lines have done in past wars, then chastise him for not acting like a front line soldier when he's obviously not? Do you think guys processing paperwork in the finance office in London or Saigon were writing home about the horrors of war?
And it's "REMF", not "REM".
i'd suggest Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden"... and... "Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of The Taliban" by Stephen Tanner.
Pffff. Maybe if you want to read hundreds of boring pages about the Washington bureaucracy and the ineptitude of the CIA and the State Department, and then a copy-paste of 20 other history books w
No-bid contractors probably took the laptop. (Score:2)
Like the 100s of Millions of US Dollars 'lost' over there.
The servicemen get abused by being sent to fight for a lie, and the politically connected contractors rub salt in the wounds by getting rich.
The only positive in this whole mess is that US casualties are much much lower than in Vietnam. Other than that, the only honor is being a good soldier and following your orders. :(