Item received, but have yet to be billed?

[kendon19]

Okay, curious question. Please; if you're going to answer this, have some solid "source" material. I could ask anyone what their "opinion" is, but I'm looking for facts here.

I recently dropped nearly 2 grand on an Alienware laptop from Dell. (Yes I know, Dell sucks, yadayada. We all know this.) However, here's what went a little weird in the process. First of all, when I ordered the laptop, I waited a couple of days and received no confirmation of my order. I decided to try my first time at their "Live Online Chat" assistance. As always, I'm stuck with a foreigner (No offense, I just have a strong belief that if they're going to work in America, they should know more proper English and what they're working with... Dell's employees are 99.9% NOT educated in either subject.) who doesn't seem to know what he's doing. Big surprise. This guy tells me there's been a processing error, but he would place the order for me to ensure that it went through.

I proceed to tell the guy my credit card information, he places the order, I receive a legitimate receipt. All is well in the world, things are fixed and it went mostly swimmingly. Two days later I receive two emails. First one tells me that my credit card was denied. The second tells me "Thank you for shopping with Dell! Your order has been shipped." ... Clearly a mistake in the automated email system, yes? I suppose so. I pay no mind, and chalk it up to technical difficulties on Dell's behalf. After all, that's not unusual. But to be on the safe side, I give Discover a call. They say that all is well, and they're waiting on Dell to bill me. Originally they called (the first time I tried to order) to make sure that it was me placing the order, at which point I said yes and they authorized it. I'm assuming they were blocked, and didn't attempt to re-bill me or something. I'm not sure what happened. Discover said everything was fine on their end... So.. End of story for that side at least.

So... I'm left at this conclusion of sorts. I decided I'm going to let things sit as they are, and not alert Dell at the moment. After all, they have until the end of this week to bill me before their authorization with Discover expires. My question is this:

If they fail to bill me before the authorization with Discover expires, do they have the right to repo (take back) the laptop and/or attempt to bill me again? And if they DO attempt to bill me again, do I have the right to say no?

I have received my laptop as of two days ago, and still no contact with dell... And I can't seem to find any of my state laws or even laws in general that might help me out in this situation. In case it's necessary to answer my question with; I live in Maryland.

Sorry for the long winded question. I just wanted to make sure all details were included.

[andor25]

Basically, it is possible they might not bill you.
Do they have the right to send you a bill? absolutely.