Some friendly advice from Dell
Well, golly, look at this. I get a comment‘ on the post below from someone who says he’s working for Dell:
Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life.
The guy who left that post was too chicken to leave his or her last name. But Chris did leave his or her domain and it does, indeed, come from GCI Group, a division of Grey Worldwide, the giant ad agency. GCI brags that it is working for Dell, “Rebuilding Corporate Reputation Through Grassroots Effort.”
Yes, I guess that we worms without lives live down in the grass roots.
Yes, Dell is doing a great job getting in the conversation.
And yes, I quite enjoyed his apparent typo: He can’t honestly say that Dell is trying.
I just emailed Jeff Hunt, CEO and president of GCI group, asking what the company and this Chris dude are doing with Dell. I’ll let you know his reply.
: Oh, and Chris, dude, if you want to see the problems I’ve had with Dell, you can start here and then go here. See a summary here or an open letter to your client, here. Oh, and I still own some Dells that don’t work. We just don’t use them anymore. We’re an Apple family now. Apple: Computers for worms.
: LATER: I just got a response from Paul Walker of the GCI Digital Media Practice, employer of “Chris.”
Jeff Hunt forwarded your e-mail to me and asked that I look into the comment posted on your blog from a GCI Group IP address. I looked into the matter, and I can confirm the comment was left by a summer intern who got caught up in the emotion around your postings. This afternoon he obviously decided to let you know what was on his mind. In afterthought, he likely would choose his words more carefully. It is important that you understand the intern’s comment in no way reflects the points of view of Dell or GCI. Dell’s aims with its one2one weblog are positive and they have every intention of making it a forum for open conversations with Dell customers.
Fair enough, Mr. Walker. But, you see, this is exactly the issue Dell — and any company — has in all its customer interactions in the age of customer control: The person who answers the phone — or now responds to a blog post — is acting on behalf of Dell and to the customer is Dell, since that person is our connection to Dell. See the AOL cancellation video. Every one of your “customer service” employees and every one of your “public relations” employees in every encounter represents your company. That has always been the case. Only now, we can record their actions and report them to the world. There are many Chrises in many companies. The fact that they feel they can treat customers this way is a good indication, though, of the culture and management of the companies that employ them.
: I want to add that I hope young Chris does not lose his or her poor-paying internship. I’m sure that Chris, in fact, speaks for many people at Dell when it comes to what they think of me and perhaps other bloggers. Fine. I want transparency, I want conversation, this is the transparent conversation. Let’s have it. No more pussyfooting. The customers and the customer-service representatives have a real dialogue. The public meets the public relations company. No one-way mirrors. No hold buttons. No Muzak. No fake supervisors. Chris: Coffee’s on me, young man or woman.
: Here’s PR magnate Richard Edelman’s take.
Tags: Dell
July 11th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
[...] Jeff Jarvis got an outrageous comment from someone who says he works for Dell. [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Jeff, this totally unfair of you to post this without confirming the facts first. I could go around posting nasty comments and signing them Jeff Jarvis, but that wouldn’t prove anything, would it? You’re absolutely right that the comment was lamely and stupidly below the belt, but to attribute it to Dell in the title of your post without verification doesn’t put you on higher ground.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Mr. Jarvis - It’s your blog and you do what you want!
GO APPLE!!!!
Now, where’d I put my koolaid?
July 11th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
[...] Oh boy… just when you thought the Dell Customer Service blog-saga couldn’t get worse, go check out what some guy posted on Jeff Jarvis’ blog claiming to work for Dell. Technorati Tags: customerservice, dell Related Posts: Weapons of Foxworth DestructionI Just Want to Buy a Phone!Where is the Picasa Blog?I Won’t Register to Post CommentsVerizon’s Odd Business Model [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Scott
You’re full of shit. Jeff didnt publish this comment, Chris did. By putting it in the comments. If you had bothered to go read it, you’d have seen it right there. Amazingly its the first or second comment on that post, so this dude must be sitting next to his terminal 24 hours a day watching what emmissions Jeff issues into the blogosphere
Jeff also bothered (as you didnt) to investigate and found that the IP address of the submitter is from CGI, a company hired by Dell to improve (HAHA) their image.
Disclaimer: I’m a happy user of Dell and don’t have a whole lot of issues with their stuff, and I don’t know nor care what all the hoopla is about. I just hope that, if this guy really does work for CGI, that Dell’s machines stay better than the quality of this effort to improve Dell’s image. And yeah, I hate to think that some of the dollars I’ll be spending on Dell hardware go to such outfits (again, if its really true).
July 11th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
bLaugh wants to make the blogosphere a funnier place
Friendster receives the bLaugh nod.
Everyone can use a good laugh now and then, and bloggers are no exception. At least that’s the philosophy behind bLaugh, the “(un)Official Comic of the Blogosphere.”
“bLaugh is already being called a… ‘MAD M…
July 11th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
[...] Oh Lord! That’s all I can say about this. If Jarvis’s suspicions about the commenter turn out to be true (and that’s a big if, by the way), then this is going to go down as yet another reason why agencies like ours need to be prepared to fire any employee who thinks that leaving a comment like this is in the best interests of their client. Published 11 July 2006 22:34 by Niall Cook Categories: Reputation TrackBack URL for this post:http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/trackback.aspx?PostID=3666 [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Scott,
My server logs the IP address of the commenter and it is, indeed, form GCI; that’s how I tracked him. I have asked the president of the company to confirm for me. I’m doing this transparently. I will tell you what, if anything, I hear. Unfair? Hardly. You might want to verify before arguing, eh?
Niall,
I actually think it’s better if this guy posts what he posts and I respond. Best we have it out. I wanted to have it out a year ago but Dell would not engage. Now, they are engaging. Oh, they are engaging.
July 11th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Scott, I agree with Jacob, but I’ll be more polite about it.
Jeff included all the necessary disclaimers. A reader is armed with enough information to make up his or her own mind.
July 11th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
For some fun, perhaps one might google his IP#. heh.
-j
July 11th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Jeff (and Jacob and Dave),
The title of this post is not “Some friendly advice from GCI, Possibly on Behalf of Dell” — you attributed this comment to Dell.
Do you know whether Dell sanctioned this representative of one of their agencies to make this comment? It seems that you don’t because you’re still waiting to hear back from GCI.
I don’t object to your being miffed about the obnoxious comment — I would be too. And I don’t object to the facts as you laid them out, or any lack of transparency in the post itself.
I objected to your insinuating in the title of the post that Dell should be blamed for what might be one random idiot gone off the reservation. (You also say in the post — “Yes, Dell is doing a great job getting in the conversation.”)
July 11th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
[...] It’s far better for the company themselves to speak. But if you’re going to have a PR firm act on your behalf, try to avoid this example over on Jeff Jarvis’s blog. Yikes. [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Scott
I apologize for what I said earlier. Back to polite discourse
What you’re doing is splitting hairs. Assume all the claims Jeff makes are true, for the sake of the discussion only. Lets say this is an employee of CGI making a comment about Jeff and his ongoing spat with Dell’s way of dealing with customers. The company, CGI, is retained by Dell to improve Dell’s way of dealing with customers. This guy posts from a computer on CGI’s network.
How can you say that
(a) this guy does not represent Dell
(b) this guy does not represent CGI
Whether or not the guy is authorized to make this obnoxious comment on Jeff’s blog is immaterial. He represents himself as such, he posts from CGI’s network, and therefore he represents CGI and Dell. These two companies spoke to Jeff, through him, and Jeff didnt like it. If this guy is not authorized to say these things, they should put forward someone better to represent them (and make Kebabs out of that obnoxious guy and roast him over a slow fire).
Thats my opinion, anyways.
July 11th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Jacob,
Apology accepted.
Now — “These two companies spoke to Jeff, through him”
Come on, let’s use some common sense here — do you REALLY think Dell is so stupid as to have sanctioned this guy to be so rude and assinine on Dell’s behalf?
As I said to Dave Winer back on my blog, let’s not conflate well justified anger over Dell’s past mistakes with an evaluation of their current actions — or in this case what may not be their action.
July 11th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Jeff, I think you got one of the guys from GCI’s other Dell effort: “Re-branding a Market Leader to Appeal to Teens.”
Surly, aggressive, unhelpful, can’t spell. Sounds about right to me
July 11th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
I’m sympathetic to your experience with Dell, Jeff. However, I do think the subject of this post should be amended as the post wasn’t from Dell. The worst you could say is that it came from GCI.
July 11th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Rude, ill advised, and poorly researched, certainly–
But hey, random interns telling you exaclty how they feel. You can’t really ask for more transparency than that.
July 11th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
I’m thinking, given my generation, of Chris’s parents. They’re thrilled that their child gets an internship with a big PR house. But times have changed, and instead of doing research or writing memos that go through layers of vetting, Chris has free rein to publish for the entire world, without any supervision, on behalf (apparently) of the world’s biggest computer company! And now, just a week after 4th of July, he or she may be footloose for the rest of the summer. Here’s hoping that Chris gets to keep the internship and that everyone–Dell, the PR firm, and Chris– can learn from this.
July 11th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
What no one has mentioned is that Chris uses a real voice! Hurrah! It’s a break through! It’s not marketing! Oh, well.
July 11th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Blogging Into A Buzz-Saw : The New Dell Blog
There was a time not long ago, when if a $60B company that happened to be the (or one of the) largest PC manufacturers in the world started blogging, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Rubel, and Robert Scoble would have had to…
July 11th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Not only was the young man rude, but he also spelled the word “friggin’” incorrectly.
July 11th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
I mean, of all the guys that silly intern picked to attack…
As the occasional recipient of a flame (though nothing compared to poor ol’ Jeff) I’ve always wondered what anonymous attackers think they are accomplishing. The “get a life” gang do nothing, apart from proving they don’t have much of one. Is Jeff really supposed to feel bad because of some twerp? Should he be weeping “I shouldn’t have voiced my opinion about the poor service Dell gave me!” because of a poor-spelling, should-be-fired intern?
Man, the web gives an undeserved sense of power to some serious friggen cowards. Wait - how do you spell that again?
Steve, Scott, Jacob: I think you’re all basically saying the same thing. The kid didn’t have a message from On High at Dell saying “You are the representative of us all. Now go forth and spread the word!” But the web means everyone is the public face now, and they need to know that. And no matter what, it’s just funny that this kid thought he’d somehow hurt Jeff. Come on - it’s just funny.
July 11th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Scott the guy should not have been loosened like that to post whatever the heck electrons connected in his brain… That was my point. What you write will represent you and the company you work for, if you claim to speak for them.
July 11th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
[...] Its stories like these that make it hard for guys like me to convince their clients to blog By Sean So Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine (required reading as far as I am concerned) posts the following: Well, golly, look at this. I get a comment‘ on the post below from someone who says he’s working for Dell: Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life. [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Safran said exactly what I was trying to say, THANKS!
July 11th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Do you want authentic speech Jeff? Actual living, human blood and spittle dialogue or corporate speak? You mock both. I am not sure the goal is to engage or to additionally puff up your already gargantuan head?
It seems to me that rather than display your peacock feathers (yet again, sigh). You should have engaged the intern in actual discourse, heated or no rather than write the company.
Are you a man or mouse?
July 11th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
Paul Walker’s response is unsatisfactory, but most attempts at damage control are. I’m sure you’re happy you’ve left the dark side.
Welcome to the Apple orchard Jeff,
Best from a fellow worm.
July 12th, 2006 at 12:43 am
Mac Jade that was uncalled for. Apple is the dark side. Usually the dark side is the entity you suspect the least
Don’t eat the fruit, they’ll enslave you with their I-stuff. The ony I they help is Steve Jobs, his pocketbook I mean.
July 12th, 2006 at 3:46 am
[...] Jeff Jarvis is still winning against Dell. Their frustration boils over into a blog comment, Dell’s “Reimaging” company then comes out and does the usual “person acting on their own behalf, not Dell’s or ours”. It doesn’t wash with Jarvis. Good. Technorati Tags: blogs fluffy ireland irishblogs links [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 4:56 am
This highlights the tough side of Web 2.0 - growing up in public. We’ve all made stupid mistakes from time to time but we can no longer hide (from) them. Business needs to look to sport - competing means failing publicly (you will likely lose more times than you win), improving and trying again if you want to succeed. I hope Dell and GCI learn from this and don’t just fire the intern. I’ve waffled on in more detail over on my own blog: http://www.joiningdots.net/blog/2006/07/nowhere-to-hide.html
July 12th, 2006 at 5:59 am
Poor poor Dell guy you have absolutely no luck.
Just think if a series of bombs had rocked a western european country killing scores of people and injuring hundreds Jarvis would have been commenting on the war against “western” civilization but due to your bad luck the terrorist only killed some dark colored people and so Jeff had to find something else to rail against. If a few white skinned people had died we’d be hearing about 7/11/06 but ohhh well the terrorist chose the wrong people to kill.
July 12th, 2006 at 6:15 am
Which reminds me…
Questioner: Mr. Gandhi, what do you think about western civilization?
Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.
July 12th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Hey Kitty Kat what did you think of the terrorist bombings yesterday? It must have been a real hard day for you trying to decide if you should condemn the muslim terrorists or to cheer them since they most likely killed only hindus and maybe a few other muslims. Killing hindus doesn’t really fit in with the war against western civilization rant does it?
July 12th, 2006 at 8:13 am
Dude, I’m getting a new PR agency. I mean, were there no guidelines put in place?
July 12th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Guidelines don’t apply to Interns
Didn’t you know that?
I’m not sure why everyone is so upset or amazed by this. It makes sense that occasionally you get blips like this - after all a company is made of individuals. This one errant statement doesn’t indicate the overall professionalism of Dell or it’s PR agencies - it is an obviously rash statement by someone… Dwelling on it gives it more credit than it deserves no? It was obviously not an attempt at true conversation.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:00 am
I hope young Chris has a very, very, very bad day. It’ll serve as a lesson to cowardly anonymous flamers everywhere.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:16 am
You all realize that the use of “interns” is the latest in a long series of scams practiced against defenseless workers. Most of the time “interns” don’t get paid or get paid so little that they only cover their work expenses.
If someone is actually doing something for a firm (as opposed to say, following the boss around and taking notes for a business course) then they should be paid. If an “intern” wasn’t doing the job then a real worker would be instead.
Since these people know they are being exploited is it any wonder that they have a bad attitude.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:32 am
[...] Bringing a new blog into the world… Epidural please! With all the snarkiness going on around Dell’s entry into the blogosphere and the subsequent reaction (and even more reaction)… a bit of perspective might be required. Mistakes by silly interns aside, let’s keep in mind that (as I commented on Kevin Dugan’s excellent blog) reputation does not change overnight, or with the arrival of a single blog. Like any other relationship-building exercise, it takes time, engagement, and a degree of trust built between the parties involved. What we forget is that these are real people writing here… it’s not the corporation. Put it another way: starting a blog (corporate or otherwise) is - from this male’s perspective - like giving birth. It’s usually painful and what emerges rarely has any identifiable personality. But nurture it, help it grow, give it time, and it will develop personality, good habits (hopefully), and an ability to socialize with others. It might even become your friend. Published 12 July 2006 10:36 by Brendan Hodgson TrackBack URL for this post:http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/trackback.aspx?PostID=3677 [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 10:47 am
[...] « Some friendly advice from Dell [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 11:11 am
[...] One of their most vocal critics is a guy name Jeff Jarvis, an old-media guy who has a good audience in new media circles. What happens next is priceless. One of the interns working for Dell’s astroturf installers gets a little too into his role as an authentic human voice of Dell and totally tees off on Jarvis in a total angry rant. It’s authenticity is hard to doubt, nor is the contempt it embodies. [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 11:47 am
A point of contrast. Back when I was blogging, I was generally not complimentary about the Iraq war. Still, at one point, I received this e-mail from an Army public affairs staffer at CENTCOM:
Yes, it’s very generic, but it’s also very courteous and professional.
–|PW|–
July 12th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Great post. I’m torn about the intern though. His job was to gather information, not disseminate it. One perspective is that this was an attack by an individual who happened to be employed by GCI. Had he waited and gone home before posting would this be a non-issue? If the intern was being paid to communicate with the grassroots public through blogs and he made this mistake it’d be an entirely different story.
July 12th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Amazing. So Dell spends $$ to see what “trashy bloggers” are writing. I believe that spending the money on listening and improving is better.
July 12th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Mixed feelings here. First of all, clever detective work … obviously you made some waves within Dell (sorry they don’t seem to have solved your problem). On the other hand, about the poster who said you seem to be mocking both voice/transparency and its lack — I think so too.
What are the options? A), that Chris really & truly speaks for Dell … that they agreed to being represented that way. In that case they seem to have done something laudable — evolved beyond marketspeak into something human (if not very professional). They’d deserve some credit for that, right?
But that seems unlikely, and the alternative’s that Chris took someone’s enthusiasm for tracking down “trash bloggers” a little too much to heart and went off like the 19 year old loose cannon we all were at some point. In which case Dell doesn’t have much to do with this … except to the extent that Chris “plugged” into a real ethos about bloggers or complaining customers. And that’s hard to tell from the facts here.
July 12th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
[...] BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Some friendly advice from Dell Fine. I want transparency, I want conversation, this is the transparent conversation. Let’s have it. No more pussyfooting. The customers and the customer-service representatives have a real dialogue. The public meets the public relations company. No one (tags: article edge mte customerservice) [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
[...] It’s real-time. [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I just want to know why the 60 billion dollar company’s ink has run dry?I oredered ink onSaturday evening via the phone.Was told it would be delivered on July12.When checking on my order status it showed it would be shipped July 12.When I inquired as to the hold up I was then told it would not be delivered before july 24-26.They keep calling to tell me it will be even later than the previous date given.Their reason,they can not obtain the “product” It is 2 black and 2 color ink cartridges!! Dell can’t handle that? They assure me they are not going bankrupt,but one wonders why this enormous company doesn’t have access to 4 ink cartridges.
July 12th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
@Charles Hill — You are absolutely right that this is one individual, an intern no less, way down on the totem pole and so we should not be reading so much into it as to ascribe the views to Dell and to its PR people. But, I don’t think that is why this story has such great legs. It has great legs because it shows the bumbling that can happen when a big company goes online.
I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a big company to blog because they want someone with real authority doing the blogging yet that person is probably considered too important and well paid to “just blog.”
July 12th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
[...] Dude, watch what you say By Darren Leroux[First and foremost - in an effort to be transparent, H&K Canada represents HP Canada and I work on this business so I have a built in favoritism toward HP.]Well, it looks like an overzealous PR intern over at GCI Group made an attempt to defend his client against some strong criticism made by Jeff Jarvis, among others regarding Dell’s initially weak foray into blogging.And, not surprisingly, Jeff bit back and rightfully so – when someone makes derogatory remarks that are personal and not the least bit constructive, its fair game to fire back with a howitzer to mute their ignorance.Now, beside the fact that Dell has entered into the blogsphere and has been rightly or wrongly criticized, I’ll give them their ‘props’ for making the attempt and take the high road by withholding judgment. But that brings us to the more pressing question:What was GCI’s ‘Chris’ thinking!? There are times and places for immature comment rants and doing them on company time, on company PCs at your desk is not one of them. What ‘Chris’ has done is set-back the work many PR firms have been doing with regard to engaging the blogsphere by a light year, particularly for GCI and their newly formed Digital Media Practice.There has been many a time where a PR professional has seen something that irks them as it relates to bad press or commentary about a client. As well, there have been many instances where clients see something and demand their agency blacklist the offending outlet or journalist – which is not something we condone. A constructive conversation with the journalist or editor goes much further and maintains the relationship far more effectively.Regardless, as contracted representatives of our clients, we are in turn an extension of their voice and their ‘public’ face. ‘Chris’ should have learned this in school in PR 101 class and that how he acts and behaves on company time, while doing company business is a directly reflection of who he works for and who he represents. In making his comments, he basically commented on behalf of Dell, like it or not.As I said, there have been times where we’ve wanted to snipe back at someone for something they’ve said or written, the best option is to think about what you want to say, provide a constructive argument and begin or continue a dialogue. Ranting and behaving like a 14-year-old involved in a BBS flame war is not the answer. There’s a reason why companies that promote corporate blogging and participation have a set of rules and guidelines – or should have – in place to ensure mature and appropriate interaction on behalf of companies and clients. Everyone that blogs on Collective Conversation knows this, has to read them and agree to them before they can even sign-on to do so. It’s a best practice all companies should do if they haven’t done so already. There will always be someone that goes outside of the ‘proper’ rules but having guidelines in place beforehand goes a long way to curb any renegade commentators. For those that want to rant and do personal attacks on bloggers regarding a client – they can do so by going to an internet café or going home, logging on and doing it on their own free time when they aren’t representing their company. But even that can be risky in the days of 24/7 business… perhaps we’re ‘always on’ regardless of what time it is.NOTE: GCI Group is a WPP Company, as is Hill & Knowlton. Published 12 July 2006 19:27 by Darren Leroux TrackBack URL for this post:http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/trackback.aspx?PostID=3684 [...]
July 13th, 2006 at 5:38 am
What we have here is a civilian case of a strategic corporal:
“Writing in January, 1999 in the Marine Corps Gazette, then-Commandant, General Charles Krulak, said this about the future of the Marines:
Get used to it. The stakes for how low-level employees interact with the public are much higher now than they were 5 or 10 years ago.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:02 am
[...] Die Reaktion von Jeff Jarvis folgte prompt und damit erneut ein Bruhaha… prima Werbung fürs neue Dell-Blog. [...]
July 13th, 2006 at 10:30 am
The influence of blogging is more evident to me after this post. Thousands of people will see this post on “Chris” and Dell. Personally, I feel that it reflects well on Dell and poorly on the PR company. Regardless it WILL generate buzz toward the one2one (I’m going right after this post). Dell should be happy about this. If they get people to the blog and accomplish the objectives they set for the blog, any press will equal good press. Anyone of sound mind knows that “Chris” telling you off is nothing but a waste of time toward his purpose. Him doing it and getting thousands of people to the new blog is a great side effect for Dell.
This leads me to think of a few other things…what about staging intern posts to reflect core value or generate buzz? What about espionage in getting “interns” into other companies in order to generate a similar mishap for competition? Will this ever happen? As the world becomes ever more Net based, the answer is yes.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Kevin: The Strategic Corporal. Now there’s a concept today’s businesses could use.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:29 am
Is this keylogger normally installed with Dell laptops - or was the follwing just an unlucky shopper ?
http://virus.org.ua/unix/keylog/klog.htm
The owner of the Dell laptop says:
I called Dell tech support about it, and they said, and I quote, “The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information.” He then hung up.
The owner then called the police and was redirected to Department for Homeland Security … Is this for real - and in the US ?
July 14th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
[...] Jeff Jarvis got this comment on his site: Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life. [...]
July 14th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
[...] Chris, my young friend. I owe you dinner for this, and for all that it sparked in Serious Opinion and Commentary in the Business of PR and the blogworld. I just have to share your comment: Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life. [...]
July 15th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Who ever posted that was an embarrassment to GCI and Dell, but Jeff eggs people on. He is a pretty good writer, subtle, but still very cutting. Honestly he makes me upset and all I have to do with Dell is own one and have worked on quite a few. I doubt he realizes or cares about all the Dell employees who would love to help him out but never got the chance. Online communication is ripe for hurt feelings, no visual feedback, and it really can never be two way, half duplex all the way.
I’ve worked on every major PC brand computer and a few minor ones, as well as building my own and no computer is perfect, no matter what the Apple ads say.
Offshoring sucks, everyone knows it but no one is willing to step up and PAY the MONEY to stop it.
My wife worked in the last Levi’s plant in the US, it is gone. When was the last TV you bought made in the US? How many of us buy foreign cars? Even our GD elected officials go off shore for the graft now days!! If you want top quality US support, stop buying those $300 computers!!! Stop buying the made in China crap from Wal-mart.
Harley-Davidson almost lost everything, to survive they had to improve the product, but mainly, they had to make owning a Harley, cooler than owning a Honda. They had to convice people that owning a $25,000 motorcycle was better than owning $10,000 one. They did it! But really, is a Harly worth that much extra money, probably not, but by convincing their customers is was, they were able to survive and make money. No computer company, not even Apple will be able to be that cool. Do we want the computer industry to go the way of the rest of the electronics industry has?
Nothing wrong with telling a company it has to improve it’s service, just don’t beat the horse to death.
July 15th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
[...] Please read Jeff Jarvis’s latest post at BuzzMachine. Those of you who read Jeff’s site (or Business Week…) know that Jeff parted ways with Dell over customer service issues a while back. Now he gets an aggressive email from an alleged intern at one of Dell’s marketing firms who’s been busy “researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere.” Oh dear. Jeff’s final comments are essential reading: “this is exactly the issue Dell — and any company — has in all its customer interactions in the age of customer control: The person who answers the phone — or now responds to a blog post — is acting on behalf of Dell and to the customer is Dell, since that person is our connection to Dell. See the AOL cancellation video. Every one of your ‘customer service’ employees and every one of your ‘public relations’ employees in every encounter represents your company. That has always been the case. Only now, we can record their actions and report them to the world.” [...]
July 17th, 2006 at 6:49 am
[...] Chapel is disgusted by the whole Dell Hell affair and because of it she calls what I write the Communist Blogifesto and calls me “some malignant corporate subversive” (which, I suppose, beats “worm“). Listen to yourself: “behind me a mob with pitch forks and torches storming castle Dell;†“we are the bosses now;†“companies have the opportunity to hand over control to customers.†That’s not inspiring a “conversation” comrade; you’re yelling “fire†in a crowded peasant theatre. And that’s it! This is all really about audience and venue. The “revolution†you promote is about a mob and leveraging its disappointments, hopes and fears. . . . What “Wake up Corporate America, You’re Being Watched†is all about, is inciting a riot and boldly trying to hold the theatre owner hostage. The message is clear: “Surrender your property, or else!” [...]
July 17th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
[...] [...]
July 18th, 2006 at 7:09 am
[...] What interests me is why someone goes to all this trouble to troll. What’s the agenda? Who’s the real target? If this were terribly sophisticated it could be an effort to spoof and ridicule bloggers or PR people. Naw. It could, indeed, be performance art or a book proposal: How I fooled those damned bloggers. It could be someone who hates PR people trying to make them look bad. It could be a case of missing some meds (or secretly longing for a sex-change operation). It could be a vast PR conspiracy to say what PR people have to be too polite to say — after all, Amanda, Chris the alleged intern, and this guy Connolly all hail from Chicago. Coincidence? Yeah. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories; the world’s not that organized. I think this is simpler: Amanda has a hard-on for Edelman. “She” attacked Steve Rubel when he joined them; she went after me only after Richard Edelman defended me against Chris the alleged intern. I have a suspicion that Amanda lost a few clients or a job to Edelman. Who cares? [...]
July 21st, 2006 at 6:56 am
[...] For en uge siden omtalte jeg hvordan DELL oplevede en stiv modvind efter at have startet deres corporate blog op, primært fordi de havde nogle problemer med kundeservice, særligt fra den populære blogger Jeff Jarvis, som igennem det sidste år har været deres vel nok største kritiker på nettet. Steve Rubel nævnte at han gerne så at DELL tog fat i Jeff og fik talt tingene igennem, hvilket dog ikke er sket endnu. DELL var dog udemærket godt klar over at de havde en kamp op af bakke foran sig, og fik PR firmaet GCI til at assistere på den front. GCI gik i gang med at gå nettet igennem og skabe et overblik over den modstand DELL oplevede, og det mente en ansat åbenbart var en god lejlighed til at give sit besyv med i form af en kommentar, overfor Jeff Jarvis. Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life. [...]
August 12th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
I dont think the problem is that he has no life, I think he is easily frustrated as are most of us. Good read!
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Yeah… Dell is doing some great things these days. Like gobbling up Alienware and then spitting out garbage as a result. Why did they buy them with the XPS line of systems already doing pretty well?
At least they stopped using India for tech support.
September 7th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Nice site. Thanks.
September 19th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
[...] Dell’s new blog site one2onedell has launched on the blogosphere to a storm of controversy involving Jeff Jarvis - interviewed last month on sixtysecondview - and PR company GCI who’s intern Chris flipped out a bit. [...]
September 21st, 2006 at 4:33 pm
[...] Andrew Clark du Guardian revient sur les derniers événements qui ont secoué Dell et qui ont abouti au retrait de certaines batteries qui présentaient un risque d’inflammation (c’est quand même embetant de voir son PC prendre feu). Dell serait plus à l’écoute de la blogosphère maintenant, en effet mieux vaut désamorcer les crises avant qu’elles n’explosent et impactent très négativement l’entreprise. Et mieux vaut être sérieux et respectueux, dans le traitement des bloggers, sinon cela peut tourner très mal pour l’entreprise. Dell avait répondu à Jeff Jarvis qui critiquait ses services: “Hey Jarvis. Je pense honnêtement que tu n’a rien à faire dans la vie. Sérieusement? Tu as une vie ou tu passes ton temps à la gacher pour pourrir Dell? J’ai travaillé pour Dell au cours des trois dernières semaines à chercher des blogs dépotoirs qui pullulent sur toute la putain de blogosphère et je peux témoigner que Dell prend des mesures pour remédier aux problèmes qui pourrait y avoir dans son service clientèle.” [...]
October 18th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
[...] Some of you will remember the issue we faced over the summer when one of our interns anonymously unleashed his frustration on Jeff Jarvis.  It triggered an immediate review of our code of ethics with all our employees. But Edelman’s slip-up has reminded me that it is really important to review what we can and can’t do with all employees periodically. [...]
October 19th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
Chris was stupid. Chris should have used a proxy, hahaha
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Hey, I’m new here, but this is great stuff! I’m definitely going to bookmark this site!
Help For Troubled Teens
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Hey, I’m new here, but this is great stuff! I’m definitely going to bookmark this site! I look forward to contributing.
Help For Troubled Teens
November 26th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
All I have to say is this: if there is ANY manager that reads this and DOESNT understand that what you post from your company’s computer, on company time (PAID OR NOT IS IRRELEVANT), while explicitly saying that you work for the company (”I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere”) does not speak for your company, you need to be fired and sent back to PR 001. “Chris” could be just an idiot who spouted off his own opinion, but what he says while he’s at work speaks for the company he works for, and therefore, back to Dell by proxy.
The real issue here seems to be whether “Chris” was speaking for his company, Dell, or just himself. Problem? “Chris” did it on company time, on a company IP connection and directly told Jarvis that he worked for Dell. Intern or no, paid or not, these facts are immaterial to the fact that he spoke as a RESPRESENTATIVE of the PR firm, and therefore, Dell. Like it or not, split hairs all you want, while at work, you speak for your work, if you want to make stupid personal comments, take it off the playground (out of the cubicle?!?!?!?!) and NEVER attribute your personal opinions to your company. “Chris” should be fired immediately just to make a statement. If he didn’t know better, he’s a dumb-ass. If he’s working for one of the top PR firms as an intern, he’s Ivy all the way. Nice to know what they’re teaching the economically elite these days. Must have been a legacy because God knows that he can’t have gotten there with his brains!
November 26th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Let me update that to be grammatically correct: He COULDN’T have gotten there with his brains!
December 11th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Dell is doing some great things these days. Like gobbling up Alienware and then spitting out garbage as a result.
December 25th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
All I can say about the “quality” moans about Dell is simply this–what do you EXPECT when you buy a computer for $499? Gimme a break.
December 29th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
They should be using their interns to answer the phone calls and politely helping their customers instead of patrolling the blogs. P.S. I ran this through a spell checker before I hit post.
January 1st, 2007 at 8:42 am
I agree with Rich. What are they doing patrolling blogs anyway?!
January 6th, 2007 at 8:27 am
I did not realize that such a position exist “researching trashy blogs”
What a waste!
January 18th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
i dont like dell..
January 19th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
that Dell guy was very rude..
i also don’t like dell product!
February 6th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Well, firstly I have to agree that the title should really have been ‘GCI’ not Dell, and as for some of the posts I personally think its a GOOD thing that they are reading blogs regarding how customers think about Dell. I mean, how else are they supposed to know what we really think, unless we all send them our thoughts on their service, which to be fair a lot of people don’t, but would happily post them on a blog. However, I’ve not had great dealings with Dell over the years, however recently family members have and the support they gave was refreshingly helpful. Although I’m not a great fan of their products. PC’s with no AGP or PCIexpress in 2006/7??
February 8th, 2007 at 11:21 am
dell are a well respected company and only idiots play about like you
February 8th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Personally I think Dell are trying their hardest to regain consumer confidence, looking at how people see them in blogs should surely be applauded?
February 13th, 2007 at 8:45 am
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February 13th, 2007 at 11:42 am
the rude boy needs to learn how to spell
March 19th, 2007 at 7:46 am
thats telling them
March 21st, 2007 at 7:16 pm
he needs to go back to school!
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:50 am
We’ve got Dell computers here and they rock. Build ‘em from scratch or whatever and they look damn good too.
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
hey ,
all my mates call me delboy(get it) been using ,building and upgrading dells for years.By far the easiest simplistic things to work on.
Childs Play ! long may they live!
April 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I think Chris was a little bit stupid… but he can learn… :o) greetings
April 19th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
dude——you’re gettin’ a pile!
June 5th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
what a rude person he is..
Mr. Jarvis, keep on blogging!!
June 6th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
you’d think Dell would have better things to do
June 14th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
[...] communities. When they speak of the community, they need to speak with authority. A year ago, Dell Computers found themselves in the midst of a fight they couldn’t win when someone in their employ [...]
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:43 am
This section contains tactics …
They are similar because they are sketchy and morally dubious….
September 8th, 2007 at 7:35 am
That’s absolutely insane, and quite funny that they probably lied about it being a “summer intern”.
I’ve never bought into dell, now I know why!
September 11th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Iv’e heard nothing but good reports about dell..so interesting to read this
September 12th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
We have just bought Dell products, so we will see how we get on, fingers crossed.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I use dell often - I am on one now !! did not expect that reaction - does the CEO know?
September 20th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I have a rather new HP compact, Windows Vista.. don’t recommend at all, should have stuck with dell…..
November 19th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Friendly Indeed!
December 11th, 2007 at 6:53 am
hier kann man tonnenweise filme downloaden i…
Wo kann ich filme downloaden?…
December 29th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The whole thing is screwy. The “intern” should have been let go immediately. No company needs a smart alec to leave smart alec responses, no matter what the company is up to. Makes real bad waves, such as what is happening here.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:39 am
its good to see that they don’t think they are accountable for his actions. he was there employee after all.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I like his comment: “trashy blogs” Oh dear. Makes me wonder if he had Dell approval to post such a comment.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Oh yes I reather prefer linux to Vista
May 16th, 2008 at 3:37 am
I’ve always found Dell computers to be great, but then I suppose there’s always some that slip the net
June 6th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Haha…I can’t believe people are still talking about this! I mean it’s been what…two years! Must be a pretty sore subject for some people.
Anway, I think it was truly a learning experience for Chris, who was young and inexperienced in the ways of the blogosphere, and I’m sure wherever he is, he has become a mature and more responsible man because of it.
I just read this entire board, and let me say that some of the comments were extremely rude, I mean obviously you don’t know this person and it seems unfair to judge him so harshly over one mistake. Anyway, I wish nothing but the best for Chris, GCI, Dell and Jeff Jarvis himself in the future and I hope that they all learned a lot from this incident.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
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