I just spent a marathon day at Dell, meeting with dozens of key people working on their word of mouth, web 2.0, and social media projects (disclosure: they are a client).There are a ton of things wonderful things happening there…

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/02/25/social-media-saga-continues-as-company-advances-towards-dell-swell/

I have posted a couple of comments on earlier Dell topics that you have shared and I wanted to let you know that I would enjoy providing you with some good and positive input regarding changes that I have seen in Dell over the past 18 months. Let me know and I would be happy to send you and email with more than I am sure you would want posted here. I will share briefly here.

After experiencing several months of difficulties with my own purchase, I began a thread on the Dell Community Forum last July regarding a gaming machine that had some “issues” surrounding it. I then began to develop relationships with hundreds of Dell customers via Private Messaging, email, and phone, hoping to generate a “voice” that Dell would listen to. To date nearly 15,000 responses have been shared on Dell’s forum, and I am in regular contact with some 250 customers. Although I have made a considerable investment both financially and time-wise, I believe that it has been worth it, as I have had the privilege of not only helping fellow customers, but have also gotten to observe first hand, Dell providing customers with assistance.

Dell has done some amazing things in response and it has been very encouraging to see so many customers have their loyalty to Dell rekindled. As I shared with you before, I have met with a number of Dell leaders and have witnessed genuine humility, with a desire to not only “listen” to its customers but to “fix” things as well. I am so convinced that Dell desires to be responsive to criticism, and is moving in the right direction, that often, when I see a disgruntled customer, I will contact them, and share a positive experience and try to get them pointed to a place where I know that resolution can be found.

As a customer, I have shared a number of ideas with Dell, and then have witnessed how customer-generated suggestions have become a reality in how Dell relates to and cares for its customers. It really is not an easy task for any large corporation to effectively listen to all that customers are sharing, but guys like Dell’s media manager, Lionel Menchaca, are burning the midnight oil trying to make it happen.

Obviously a corporation needs to concern itself with profit, but what I have observed is that Michael Dell personally, and his leadership, aren’t just saying the words, “We care”; they really do care about the folks that buy Dell products. What I have seen Dell do for customers has literally stopped people in their tracks with the comment, “That is amazing!” upon hearing the story of how Dell took care of its XPS customers.

I continue to hear criticism and get requests for help, but that is a necessary ingredient for healthy growth, but not a day goes by anymore where I don’t see or hear a customer share something positive about their Dell experience.

You asked if anyone has seen a change of heart. I have. In fact, about 10 months ago, I had a good blogging friend contact you with my story, because back then I was not so positive!! Dell was wrong and I thought I was going to make your episode look like “Dell Heaven”. Thankfully you declined to run with my story, and I am glad you did. I can honestly say that I am now proud to be a Dell customer! The change that I have seen at Dell has changed my heart as well. Just ask my wife!

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/outstanding_issues?c=us&l=en&s=gen

Activities with Tech Support:
Uninstalled McAfee
Reinstalled Vista (was not told I’d lose all installed programs btw)
Ran full diagnosis 7 times with both US and UK tech support

I have various other emails and contacts but the meat of the story is below:

Finally escalated to customer support after Tech Support gave up. Ms Vinishaa Parthipan promised to email me to get an address to which she’d be sending the new system. This was Thursday May 31. By noon the next day, I’d still not heard from her. Tried to call customer support and was told I was absolutely not allowed to speak to a customer support manager by some rude switchboard employee. Explained to him how upset I was and how his behavior was making the situation much worse. He replied, “I really don’t care. You’re not going to speak to a customer service manager. You can speak to Tech support.” I explained to him that i’d already spoken to tech support a dozen times and they could no longer help me. Their words. Not mine. And they’d transferred me to customer service. I finally got Tony’s supervisor on the phone who said he’d transfer me since I’d already spoken to them once. Then I got disconnected.
Finally contacted by Vinishaa Parthipan Customer Relations UKIRE late on the 1st and asked for an address for a new system to be sent to. I emailed back immediately asking for an estimated delivery date.

I was told that it’d be 10-15 working days before I could get a new system with XP instead of Vista. Informed her that I was losing business daily and really needed it sooner. She committed to 7-8 working days and would confirm a delivery date soon. On the following Monday, she’d still not put the order in and said she’d get to it on Tuesday. As of today (6-13-07) I’ve not received the PC or even a delivery date. Ms Parthipan has no business in customer service and in my opinion should be fired. She’s ignored every email I’ve sent in days. Has NOT followed through on her promises. Has not delivered what she said she would and I’m convinced she didn’t even put through the order like she said. I informed her that I approve the purchase orders for the worlds 3rd largest engineering firm’s computers and up until this point all of them were purchased through Dell. I’ve now cancelled many of them and directed them to be purchased through HP. She apparently didn’t care that her attitude and rudeness is losing business now for Dell like Dell has for me. I’ve lost over 20 customers for my photography/graphics business because I couldn’t deliver on my contracts without a working machine. I can’t take this anymore. All I wanted was a working machine. She promised to get me the same laptop with Windows XP instead of Vista. All I asked was to get it in a timely manner. I’ve done everything I was asked to do and am now being ignored and I don’t understand. This was the 2nd machine I’d bought from dell and after this will probably be the last for me and for the corporation I work my day job for.

I will also be posting this to several blogs and to my website along with Shaw’s intranet and a global email throughout the companies 35,000 or so employees if this isn’t resolved within the next 48 hours. I’ve been poorly treated, lied to, jerked around, hung up on and am thoroughly disgusted by this entire experience. I literally cannot take anymore. I was even getting late charges because I’d financed through Dell and hadn’t made a payment yet because I didn’t have a working machine. Fortunately they were the one group willing to work with me and understand. Please ya’ll I need help. I just want this resolved one way or the other and it MUST be resolved immediately or I’m finished. This business was to be my retirement and if I lose the customers I have left…well I’ll have no choice but to join the NY State Attorney General because it’s all I have left. Don’t let them ruin me.

Which led to me throwing the paper across the room with shouts of, “They just don’t get it!”

I received in the comments a very quick reaction from… a Dell representative, who tried to help us out the HP maze.

The post (and the comment from Dell) is here: http://badideaindeed.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/hp-hell/

My conclusion is that Dell understood that everyone is a customer and my colleague ordered a brand new Dell.