I had recently revisited some of my experiences with Dell computers in a post entitled “So…Why Blog?”
JohnP@Dell responded. Now I have had a great experience with the Direct2Dell blog. In fact it was the only way I was able to resolve some of my issues when I went through that mess awhile back.
John and I began a discussion about customer service in the comments on that post and then pointed me to a post that is an
interview with Richard “Dick†Hunter, Vice President of Consumer Customer Experience and Support at Dell. Basically, he runs the company’s customer service efforts.
There is a section right at the end of that interview segment:
We’re thinking about offering a premium service to a select group of people. We’d maybe have the option of buying into a service. For example, if you fly American Airlines coach all the time, you can still buy your way into the Admiral’s Club. If you fly First Class, you always get it. The point is we’re thinking about letting you buy your way into exclusively North American support.
That irked me to say the least.
I guess I have a problem with “buying North American support” as an exclusive service from a company that should be giving this anyway. I did the whole cross-cultural experience trying to get my issues resolved. I don’t have a problem talking to someone in India… but if it’s not going to do any good talking to them, why put the customer through the ringer?
Just give good support up front and be done with it. That’s what I thought I was buying when I bought my laptop. As it stands right now, I get better support from posting about it and then I get premium support. Why? Better to have a happy blogger than an unhappy customer who doesn’t have a voice.
I have no doubt that my issue would have been cast aside and lost in the process if I had never written to the Direct2Dell Blog in a comment thread there. If people are willing to pay more for better customer service, then so be it, but I don’t think you’ll be able to justify it as an exclusive service that has an added price. It’s two-faced and spells out that Dell doesn’t care about the customer as much as “saving face” from a mad blogger.
8 Comments
Leave a Reply
Recent Posts
Did you send this email?
I received an email today from someone with the following info: William,Hey I was wondering what are the costs, and all that is involved in setting up a website. I'm looking for a site that we can post pics, newsletters, and videos. I
Spiritual Warfare?
My wife and I have started working through reading the Bible together in a year. It comes down to four chapters each night (we each read two) right now. I am not sure if it doubles up chapters later or
The State of Change
Change is hard. We all know it. We get tied into a persona, a name, an idea and we one day find that it's not us anymore. A friend of mine is contemplating changing his domain name. His old domain
Mr. Deity and the Baptist
I can't resist sharing this. I've been watching this show for awhile now. If you have never heard of it, enjoy (and now you have).
William, your perspective and that of others is important to Dell and its efforts to make our products and services better. We’re listening, assessing and acting relative to the dialogue in the blogosphere and elsewhere. As a heads up, we’ll soon be soliciting input on premium service and other possibilities at our IdeaStorm site, http://www.dellideastorm.com. Should be a lively discourse and hope you can drop by.
Thanks for the heads up. I really do appreciate the work that you guys over at the Direct2Dell blog have been doing. I’ll stop by.
Interesting. My perception is much the same as yours, all the way around. Wonder why?
At least we both can be grateful that Dell is concerned about saving face with bloggers – otherwise we both might still be waiting for our computers. We had to replace a stolen computer a few weeks ago – think we bought a Dell this time? Nope! As you know, I loved Dell – have had many, many Dells, and still have several, but as they die, they will be the last.
What did you buy this time Christina? Macs?
Hi William: I am following your posts and the comments with great interest, having recently begun blogging on this very topic.
I also enjoyed “So, why blog?”, for me the key to both was your statement that you felt you would not have received the help you did were it not for the direct2dell blog. My experience as the owner of an out of warranty Inspiron 9100 was just the opposite, I now think it was a combination of the Lawsuit announced last week by the NY Attorney General and the pending Class Action suits that made them reluctant to deal with me. I can’t imagine the cost of litigation is less than the cost of replacing faulty out of warranty computers, given the ruling on the Inspiron 5150 class action suit.
I am quite interested too, in the strategies companies such as dell will use to combat negative publicity on the social networking sites. It is great and good to reach out to bloggers, but they are being hammered by unhappy customers on the social networking sites.
Good to read your blog,
duffrey sigurdson
Hi Duffrey,
Nice to have you stop by. My original laptop was the Inspiron 5150. Don’t get me wrong, I am still pretty upset with Dell. I’ll never buy a Dell again until something seriously changes. Dell needs to get it out of their heads that certain people matter more than others. Bloggers like myself get great service, but it took blogging about it do make it happen. Till then, I was run the gamut, transferred, lost, reassigned, and manipulated through the system. Only when I finally wrote about it on my blog did I start getting a response (and then from a whole different branch of the company that had been created to make bloggers happy).
by the way, what’s your blog address Duffrey?
http://dellhellrevisited.blogspot.com/
Hi William: Being a new blogger I wasn’t sure of the “etiquette” and so I left if off my last comments, not wanting to sound like I was flogging my blogging, so to speak. But do drop by!
regards, duff sigurdson