Comments

Outrageous VAL - thanks for the heads up - that kind of "customer service" is so 20th Century!

I recently had a DELL laptop D610 hard drive flake out on me - was able to set it on its side though and capture backup "C" drive data.

Anyway got the new hard drive from DELL but they wanted the old hard drive sent to them "as required" - NOT - am USA government and we destroy/drill old hard drives per security guidelines. Thanks again!

Posted by Sean at April 20, 2006 8:33 AM

Dell used to be known for their customer service - no longer is that the case. They changed the computer industry but are seeping into the old world computer model they once helped destroy...minus the resellers.

I still like them, but I'm no longer excited by their service or their product. That makes them vulnerable.

Posted by Russ at April 20, 2006 8:41 AM

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_17/b3981413.htm

Apple #1 worldwide in innovation - Dell #14 per latest BusinessWeek.

Posted by Sean at April 20, 2006 9:18 AM

Thank for this Val - "We are rapidly moving forward to the past" is how I once heard TP describe something ... sounds like Dell have not learned from IBM experience. And in the words of songwriter Pete Seeger "When will they ever learn. When will they ever learn" Arrogance is alive and well in Dell by the sound of things.

Posted by Trevor at April 20, 2006 9:24 AM

That really is un-believable! But I still bet you could have found one in NYC - I don't think that there was ever anything that I couldn't find there. As a matter of fact, if you went down to Wall Street, you could find one cheap. But beware, just like the 10 dollar Bollex watch that can be bought there, you might end up with a BELL Power Supply!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 20, 2006 9:43 AM

I recently had a pretty bad customer service experience with Dell as well. I had bought three laptops from them in January and one of the three "blue screened" on me within 60 days. WIthout forking over $249 they wouldn't even discuss it with me. What's worse is that the customer service representative took several minutes to understand my problem and could only offer "canned" responses to my inquiries. Every time I asked her a question it was obvious that she was accessing the "best fit" script in front of her and reading it to me - even if it didn't answer my question. She even read me the same one 4 times as if it would majically address my issue on attempt 3 or 4! It was cheaper faster and a much more rewarding experience to call the Geek Squad!! No more Dells for me!

Posted by Ann Michael at April 20, 2006 9:59 AM

In my book, that kind of lack of flexibility will mean no deal.

In no way can I support buying from Dell, if simple interfaces like the power supply isn't standards based.

What's next? A custom monitor plug, so that Dell monitors only fit Dell PCs?

GO WITH STANDARDS BASED DESIGNS !!!

Posted by Lars Olufsen at April 20, 2006 10:01 AM

Being anal retentive (and horribly impulsive) I can't live with the fact that I spelled magic incorrectly in my comment!! Sorry for the additional post - but I get the feeling several of you will understand :-)

Posted by Ann Michael at April 20, 2006 10:02 AM

As the founder member of ARSE (Anal Retentive Society Executive) I can relate to that Ann :-)

Posted by Trevor at April 20, 2006 10:17 AM

lol Ann. I completely understand. I stopped reposting to correct grammar and spelling after several months of intensive therapy. I still have an urge though. My counsellors say that physical detox only takes a few days, but the mental desire to self-correct will be with me alwayz.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 20, 2006 10:53 AM

always!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 20, 2006 10:53 AM

Yes, Dell is too big (in my opinion).

I'm looking for the day when a brand name company intentionally breaks itself into smaller business entities with a loose affiliation to the brand so that the smaller, more flexible enterprises can act like an entrepreneur and experience real growth (or failure as the case may be). How else is a company like Dell (or Intel or whomever) going to see any real growth (and make customers happy)?

Posted by David at April 20, 2006 10:57 AM

You should be glad this didn't happen when you were in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Also there can be problems with cartidges for Dell printers. Seems you can not use standard ones at the major supply stores, need to buy (only) from Dell. They apprently like being "THE source".

Posted by Bruce Schierstedt at April 20, 2006 11:04 AM

This post is almost getting out of hand mainly due to Trevor and Tom O who I thought was on this side of the pond already! :>}

Geek squad - is that a Best Buy deal I read about?

Posted by Sean at April 20, 2006 11:26 AM

Hmmm. Seems that behind the curtain of some innovative companies - there may not be any little man, much less a wizard. All marketing speak and PR spending, no substance.

Tough to be "innovative" if customers don't want to do biz with you, now isn't it?

I onced worked with two very, very large "innovative" companies, touted in Biz Week cover story as well as in the WSJ. This glitz was cause for much merriment (and eye-rolling) among the employees. Both companies were highly bureacratic, very political and it was almost impossible to get anything done. (One company, touted for its advanced technology, didn't even have a good idea of who their ultimate end user customers were, since they'd built such a rickety maze of a channel program.)

So, guess we shouldn't believe everything we read? Heh?

Posted by Mary Schmidt at April 20, 2006 11:30 AM

Sean - Geek Squad was purchased by Best Buy. They have independent stores in some places but are also now in Best Buy locations. They have in-home service or you can take your machine to a store. Their prices are steep on some things and reasonable on others.

Posted by Ann Michael at April 20, 2006 12:49 PM

Incredible as it seems, there are still many companies that fail in service. I would ask you, Val: Now, what do you do? You are an insatisfied customer, you have also written a post telling your poor experience with Dell, and what else? Are you going to buy another brand? I think most of us have these kind of experiences but unless they become general rule or someone makes up an innovation brands continue to sell, like Dell.

Posted by Felix Gerena at April 20, 2006 1:05 PM

Sounds like a very common Irishism Felix. We spend much of our time in Ireland complaining about different things, but end up supporting exactly what we spend our time complaining about.

There really is no excuse to continue supporting a tech player with poor customer service, as there is a wonderfully full field of competition waiting to get into the game and run with the ball!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 20, 2006 3:32 PM

I've done business with Dell for many years. Yes, you are correct. Something has gone wrong. All hat, no cattle.

Posted by Kate at April 20, 2006 4:33 PM

How much is it Dell? How much is it the “Flat Earth”, “Just-In-Time”, “Zero Inventory” Business Models that are in fashion? For Dell to be able to tell you where in New York you could find a power supply for your laptop would require them to have an authorized reseller or repair facility that maintained an inventory of these parts. Since Dell prides itself on the fact that it doesn’t exist until someone orders it, this admission would be heresy.

So… Is Dell getting to big? Or, is it just a bad religion?

Posted by Jeff at April 20, 2006 7:22 PM

Val

As a Dell customer you should have known this was going to be their response before you rang - it would have saved you the call and obviously some needless frustration... Dell is just re-telling you what all their literature told you when you bought the computer... I have often looked at the Dell range when I needed a new computer but I have never bought from the company because I always understood it was a dedicated or closed loop... Dedicated systems are fine for some people and for those people Dell provides great customer service but not for you on this occassion... Instead of bad mouthing Dell I suggest you make sure you better understand what you are buying when you are about to buy it... Dell has done nothing wrong by you or by the millions of other customers they sell to everyday... Yet you feel free to try and do them some harm - shame on you.... Disclaimer - I hold no stock in Dell and have no interest in the affairs of the company in any way....

Richard Lipscombe

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at April 20, 2006 9:20 PM

If you had an Apple, you could be up and going with a power supply from any Apple dealer in NYC.

Golly, I think Apple might even have a glorious, gleaming Apple retail store in NYC. If not now, sometime in the near future.

Posted by Cessna Pilot at April 20, 2006 10:24 PM

DELL's decline in customer service may not be due to them getting too big ... but in DELL management trying to cut costs. You see, DELL thrashed all competitors by having the most efficient operations. And it looks for all the world like they continued that operational cost cutting approach into their customer service areas, outsourcing to India, etc.

I've written a summary as to why this is blowing up in DELL's face, from both customer service and profitability viewpoints.

DELL Hell and Innovation Vectors: http://growstate.com/2006/04/21/dell-hell-and-innovation-vectors/

Posted by Loryn Jenkins at April 20, 2006 11:50 PM

Why should Dell be into innovation? It's not their business. Their business model is based on supply chain management and selling cheap PCs to compare this to Apple is like comparing apples to pears!

Apple charge a lot of money for their technology and for that you get funky design, innovation and customer service (although not always reliable products). If Apple had the same pricing as Dell I suspect the level of service would be different.

You get what you pay for - it really is that simple.

Posted by PaulH at April 21, 2006 2:23 AM

Tom: this is also very, very Spanish. But I wonder if this particular issue is big and annoying enough to make me change my computer brand. If I had some similar problem with my Ibook I would get really angry but I would not think on changing to Dell or IBM.

Posted by Francisco Fernández at April 21, 2006 2:37 AM

Ok - I am going to have a rant!

I am a manager of a help desk team for a hi tech company (Not Dell I should add - I am in software!)

I think there is a general lack of understanding about the realities of Support in general.

1) You really do get what you pay for - if you want a service that will get you a power supply at the drop of a hat then that is possible - but not at that price.

2) Providing even basic support levels is a very expensive business. Customers are unwilling to pay for higher levels of support - guess what, they don't get it.

3) There really is no such thing as free support the customer always pays for it either directly (annual support and maintenance agreements) or indirectly through the cost of the product.

4) Should managers strive for excelence in support? - of course they should but it goes back to one of my key business issues. That management is very poor at working with Tangible costs but Intangible benefits. You can pour money into support and not be able to map that to a discernable improvements in sales, Cust Sat etc.

5) Service parts of a business that are not directly revenue generating are viewed internally as a poor relation to other parts of a business. Until this mindset changes (it also applies to functions such as HR etc) then it will be hard to make progress. I suspect that it is much easier in Apple!

I realise that this is not a coherent argument either way! Apart from the fact that there is a general lack of understanding about how this stuff operates, the costs and ROI involved.

Posted by PaulH at April 21, 2006 2:46 AM

Val

My Dell experience really underlines what PaulH rants on about - you do get what you pay for. I got a great deal - computer and printer package. Certainly can't argue with that! It came quickly and was relatively easy to set up.

But the printer (a Lexmark - a so-called 'partner' of Dell) was a nightmare from the start. Dell would have nothing to do with my difficulties, first with the printer and then with my trouble at getting Lexmark to help. I eventually gave up altogether on this printer 2 years later, and invested in a full price Epson version. So much for a good price deal!!

I only bought the Dell computer for my home use when doing an Open University Masters course. OU do not support Apple which would have been my preferred choice. When I get to the point of re-equipping, I'll remember value rather than cost!

Posted by Madeleine McGrath at April 21, 2006 3:29 AM

PaulH, DELL is on the forefront of innovation. Business process innovation. Do you remember a few years ago DELL sold IBM a deal whereby DELL executives would share with IBM operational IP? IBM fronted up a bunch of money for the deal because DELL's operational innovation is extremely valuable.

You seem to imply that the only innovation is product innovation. To see a broad range of innovation types, go visit http://www.dealingwithdarwin.com/ and click on the box that says, "See these ideas in action." Or click through to my article and follow the pointers from there.

http://growstate.com/2006/04/21/dell-hell-and-innovation-vectors/

Posted by Loryn Jenkins at April 21, 2006 5:51 AM

Dell is not necessarily getting too big. It just don't know how to manage its growth and it's taking on the arrogance of the old world. Over six years, I've had five Dell computers of one form or another. In that time, their service has gone from delightful-I-want-to-tell-everyone-how-great-Dell-is to the point where "You'll need to call Dell customer support," has become the phrase from hell.

Because it's service side is so lousy, I'll never buy a Dell product again given the great competitors out there.

Posted by Jim Shaffer at April 21, 2006 6:21 AM

Interesting to see an influent person like Tom to comment this on his blog.

I do think that he has a point, something is missing at Dell service.

The really funnny thing would be to prove how powerful is the viral / blogging world in order to Dell to answer Tom.

Please Tom, let us know if they do it.
Cheers
Rodrigo

Posted by Rodrigo Teixeira at April 21, 2006 6:23 AM

Paul H.- completely agree about the misunderstanding about the cost/effort required for customer support. Sure, if you break it down into individual support requests, like Val calling Dell for a power supply; we think "easy. just do it Dell." But when you muliply that simple individual request by 20,000 and then add 30,000 other individual requests for some other small 'help me out' issue and 30 more for another, the response requires a significant strategy if it is to be in any way consistent. I'm sure that there have been instances in Dell where the support person took that extra self-inspired step and called a friend for some other guy stranded in Bellingham in need of a critical part for his presentation.

Who was the car maker (I think Tom blogged about it last year) who had a platinum support contract, costing 10,000 USD a year (or something simiilar) that allowed purchasers of the vehicle to be assigned with a personal support agent, who of course was assigned to 9 others (100k for that one person to support 10 people!)

You do get what you pay for. And it seems that we can expect the world these days for 299 dollars.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 21, 2006 6:32 AM

All that said, it does seem that Dell might consider making their machines compatible with non-proprietary components (like power supplies). That would solve everything - and reduce the number of support calls.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at April 21, 2006 6:35 AM

Happy Friday - hopefully computer hardware and esp software catches up in terms of quality control.

Vehicles now - just change the filters and fluids and drive it to 100,000 miles - top quality performance almost always.

Whereas with computer equipment well into the 21st century - they still are a snarky deal at best - snark snark reboot.

Posted by Sean at April 21, 2006 8:18 AM

Gotta agree. If they do not shape up, customers will leave. They built their business on being faster and easier than anyone in the PC world. They cannot forget what made them grow - customer service.

Back to the basics.

Posted by Nick Rice at April 21, 2006 9:01 AM

As in life arrogance breeds complacency and makes you vulnerable to challenge. If big companies remain aloof and arrogant the little ones biting their ankles will eventually bring them down. That enough poetry for a Friday ...must get back to work. At last it is getting warmer ... spring is approaching :-)

Our beloved Queen is 80 today - see this link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4928116.stm

I am not a Royalist but hey come on she has been a star for 54 years. ‘Anti Royals’ will complain she is in a privileged position but I for one would not want to live my life in a goldfish bowl! This 80 year old woman cannot help that she was ‘born into’ the role and I beleive we should celebrate our heritage rather than knock it down

Posted by Trevor at April 21, 2006 9:27 AM

Didnt someone point you to chinatown ??

U will get every kind of accessory for dell. Of course you gotta do some legwork

Posted by arZan at April 21, 2006 11:25 AM

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We use a Dell printer at home, and I noticed the same thing with their ink cartridges - Dell is the ONLY supplier. But the Dell printer looked to me to be exactly the same as the Lexmark at the local Computer Stuff store. Sure enough, the ink cartridge for that printer works perfectly in the Dell printer. And at about $8 less per cartridge.

Posted by Brian at April 21, 2006 12:00 PM

Dell gets most things right, and so they have grown large.

We are computer service providers and I can document 25 (twenty five) hours spent 'troubleshooting' with Dell reps in one way or another on a newish machine before they finally threw in the towel and decided to swap out the machine. We get new machines in production ASAP and have zero tolerance for failure early on; if it burps within the first 21 days, it goes back to Dell for replacement under their return policy. No more 25 hour unbillable black holes.

The "Next-Business-Day On-Site Service" hardly exists. It is rare that a person shows up to install the spare part. Dell is fabulous marketing company first.

Dell's dirty little secret is that service is lousy. The tech teams are populated by legions of people who have scripts in front of them, but no particular skills with computers. But then, customers want to pay the least possible money for product, and that means not paying for skilled support. Ok. Our company fills that gap, and customers pay good money for our high level of personalized support. You get what you pay for.

All that said, getting back to the original issue of the availability of a power supply in NYC, the writer should not be surprised by this. Dell is a direct marketer and that means JIT overnight.

Posted by Rick Read at April 21, 2006 1:20 PM

Can we all get off our Hate Dell high horse and think a moment? Putting aside the toys that Apple makes, what PC laptop manufacturer DOESN'T use a proprietary AC Adapter? They're all proprietary! The story would have been the same if Tom had an HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Sony, etc. At least for Dell, their C and D series Latitude laptops use the same peripherals respectively.

Posted by Jim M at April 21, 2006 2:41 PM

This mirrors my expereince only a few months ago with Dell. I have a Dell Inspiron 510m, 1 year old, standard model, which is my lifeline.

I am studying an MBA and live in Norway - when I phoned Dell in Norway they told me to ring London because it was only THERE I could a power adaptor (I purchased the computer in the UK, where I am from). So I did - and, unbelievably enough, Dell told me to ring Norway if I wanted one in less than TWO WEEKS. I asked them if they could ship it to my parents house in the UK in 24 hours (thinking my parents could Fed-Ex it next day) and they told me still, it would be two weeks as the part had to come from Ireland.

I explained I needed it for the MBA - that it was pretty much impossible to work without one. The assistant to my horror then told me: "Well, i can put you through to our sales department and you can buy a new laptop if you like!"

By this time I was almost at break point, but I kept my cool as Dell took down my e-mail address and telephone number and told me they would see what they could do (I ordered the charger for the two week delivery and resigned myself to having to borrow a friend's, only just possible). They never called back, and two days later I received an e-mail telling me all about their brand new customer services department and how awesome it was.

Incidentally, I tried to find a Universal charger but as this is a US model and only EU-friendly chargers were available in Norway I couldn't find one that was compatible.

Dell is now on my spam list and I have advised three other people purchasing laptops not to go to Dell as a result: two were intending to purchase a Dell and instead have bought great HP's and Toshiba's as a result.

Dell's customer service department is non-existent to my experience, and I strongly advise all those even contemplating buying a computer from them to reconsider. It's not that the computers don't work: it's that the parts that help it to work at all are just too cumbersome to source in foreign countries and Dell is plain unfriendly and unhelpful if you're stuck.

Posted by Daniel M. Harrison at April 21, 2006 2:46 PM

Richard,

Thanks for your comments. Yes, I knew what I was buying. My point it that even if you are proprietary, you should have products available in ways other than shipping. Dell has kiosks in some malls to sell their computers, so why not some basic parts?

You are right, I have other choices and in the future I will exercise them.

Thanks

Valarie

Posted by Val Willis at April 21, 2006 5:11 PM

Interesting thread. And big! I have a theory that if a blogger wants to start a huge thread full of emotional responses and debate a one-word post is all that is required--as long as the one word is "Dell," "Apple," or "Microsoft."

Posted by Mike at April 21, 2006 5:30 PM

I am a new fan of Dell, esp for its online buying things.
I am a Chinese, but, I will listen to you guys.
Big cannot make you great, surely not excellent!

Zhang

Posted by peter at April 22, 2006 4:29 AM

Amazing response to this post - it obviously touched a nerve!

It so happens I have had a lousy experience with a Sony Vaio I bought 18 months ago that has a (frequent) intermittent fault i.e. it keeps crashing, so I had to send it back to Sony (in Germany) , via communication with a call centre (in Ireland) and when I received it back still with the fault I asked them to loan me a machine while mine went back in for repair. No deal!

Despite being half promised that this could happen, by a 'supervisor' whom I got to speak to after much ranting, the offer was later withdrawn by another 'supervisor' who claimed that my case had been 'reviewed' and the decision made to uphold company policy, i.e. no loan machhine would be provided. brand viagra without prescription

So, I agree to send my laptop back to Sony while I am on holiday, to minimise the disruption to me, and they promise to deal with it as a priority, i.e. within 5-10 days.

15 (working) days later still no laptop and still no indication as to when I'll receive it. If I want to complain to higher authority, I'm told it will have to be a Head Office in Brussels.

So - the 'Vaio experience' ha been destroyed for me, and no-one in Sony seems to give a damn.

Ironically I was going to buy a Dell next time, but now... I'm not so sure. Why on earth can't most big companies remember that all their customers (and their staff, for that matter!) are individuals...?!

Posted by Stephen Spencer at April 23, 2006 10:12 AM

P.S. as a loyal British Subject I meant to endorse Trevor's comments re. H.M Queen Elizabeth - an amazing track record, and, whilst in a very constrained constitutional role as Head of State, still a study in leadership, almost a servant leader/coach, if you listen to the current Prime Minister and previous ones who have testified that, in their weekly meetings with her, they have been able to discuss - literally - anything. The Queen's counsel has invariably been sage, shrewd, and yet utterly without hint of party political bias. For 54 years! Awesome!! Long may she reign.

Posted by Stephen Spencer at April 23, 2006 10:20 AM

Thank you Stephen.

I did try to post a comment today about St George's Day but the meoderators at TP obviously did not think it was worthy of publishing which is a shame but there you go ...can't win 'em all I guess :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 23, 2006 2:10 PM

What does, "too big" really mean? Does it really follow that small = good and big = bad? If you'd had the same problem with a laptop from a small supplier, would the assumption be that they're too small to offer the kind of service you're looking for?

And just to be really provocative: if you buy equipment from a company that only sells via the internet, is it such a surprise that you can't walk into a PC store and buy off-the-shelf replacement parts?

And to be really, really provocative: if your laptop is that essential, shouldn't you carry some form of backup with you?

And to be really, really, really provocative: how good was the original buying decision if you've ended up in this predicament?
Did it factor in service, backup, tele-help? Or was it just a commodity purchase...?

Posted by Mark JF at April 24, 2006 7:03 AM

Valarie:

We apologize for your recent inconvenience. If you would like to talk directly about this issue, feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Lionel Menchaca Jr.
Dell Corporate Media Relations
ph: (512) 728-8685
email: lionel_menchaca@dell.com

Posted by Lionel Menchaca at April 27, 2006 10:54 AM

Very interesting to note that roughly a year ago the same thing happened to me in lower Manhattan. After numerous searches at the many electronics/computer stores and a bit of time on the phone to Dell, the same results.

The response was if I wished to place an order, they could have a part to me overnight. For the usual overnight charges and such. I chose the universal adapter as well.

DELL has reached the point of not realizing that the line between business users and personal consumers was blurred a long time ago. How many business computers have been brought out of the office and onto the street. Laptops are as common as the now more common Blackberry.

How much longer before laptops are deemed irrelevant and handheld devices such as the Blackberry make DELL irrelevant as well.

Posted by Joseph Primm at April 28, 2006 5:59 AM

Thanks to Lionel from Dell who called and chatted with me today about all the blogging he has read and about service improvement. Hats off to Lionel for taking the time to pursue this issue further and he has listened to your comments and mine!

Valarie

Posted by Val Willis at April 28, 2006 2:36 PM

I can totally relate to this dilemma with your Dell computer, as I have two laptops from the speedy manufacturer. l really love Dell, they make a reliable, fast running product that is delivered very quickly, but the worst part about them is the fact that that’s all they are capable of: delivery. They can deliver internet service, laptops, desktops and many other electronic devices, but you as a consumer cannot pick-up anything, anywhere. For example, if you are writing a story for a magazine on your Dell and your power cable suddenly stops working, there’s nothing you can do. Sure, you can wait until morning to ship the dell out and have it repaired, which in some cases can take longer than 6 months, but if you’ve gotta deadline, you’d better have a spare. If you buy a printer from Dell, that’s another problem, as they only sell their ink re-fill packets through the mail, not at office or computer stores. So I can definitely agree with this and give the advice that Dell better get on the ball, because if they don’t become more hospitable, next laptop “I’m gettin’ a Compaq.”
Alissa Pepe
1to1 Magazine

Posted by Alissa Pepe at May 8, 2006 1:01 PM