Dell hell: Seller beware
The age of caveat emptor is over.
Now the time has come when it’s the seller who must beware. Caveat venditor.
A company can no longer get away with consistently offering shoddy products or service or ignoring customers’ concerns and needs.
For now the customers can talk back where they can be heard. Those customers can gang up and share what they know and give their complaints volume. Of course, they can use their reviews and complaints to have a big impact on a company’s reputation and business.
Public relations has to take on a new meaning. It can no longer be about the press and publicity, which just separate companies from the public they are supposed to serve.
Public relations must be about a new relationship with the public, with the public in charge.
: All that is quite obvious to any of us. But it is far from obvious to too many big companies … like Dell.
I tested Dell and they failed. Their customer service mechanism did not recognize a machine and service pattern and customer that were a mess. They didn’t try to fix it.
I could have stayed on the phone for hours and gone up a tier at a time playing the customer having a psycho fit (ask anyone who has heard me go after customer service people who don’t serve: I play the role well).
Instead, I chose to write about the saga here. I chose to elicit the sympathy and conspiracy of fellow pissed-off Dell customers. I chose to see whether Dell is listening.
They are not.
Their media people were not reading the media that matters — media written by their very own customers. This page is already No. 5 in Google under Dell sucks. I gave them time. They failed.
So then I emailed their media department and told them to read this blog. I gave them a cheat sheet. They didn’t. They failed.
Only when I wrote to the Chief Marketing Officer, Michael A. George (michael_george@dell.com) did I get a rise out of the company: A very nice (of course) woman named Linda with an accent (Southern… and I don’t mean Bangalore) called to promise to ready the endless email exchange with Dell.
But as we say on the internet: That doesn’t scale. If every dissatisfied customer had to email the Chief Marketing Officer, Michael A. George (michael_george@dell.com), he’d never have time to market.
: So here’s where things stand right now. Linda offered scripted apologies (in the same breath that she read the standard notice that the call was being recorded). She didn’t hold onto her arguments about Dell policy on at-home service (when I said that her very own employee admitted that the at-home technician would not bring the parts necessary to fix the machine). She didn’t rise to the legal bait of calling the at-home program “fraudulent” and my complaining about lost work (can you say “compensatory damages”?).
She offered to send me a new machine.
I said I had no faith in Dell, in the quality of its products or its service.
I asked for a refund.
She then offered a full refund.
I said I would decide what to do my early next week.
In the meantime, Apple and PC cultists will battle over the dead body of my Dell.
: You know what: If Dell were really smart, they’d hire me (yes, me) to come to them and teach them about blogs, about how their customers now have a voice; about how their customers are a community — a community often in revolt; about how they could find out what their customers really think; about how they could fix their customers’ problems before they become revolts; about how they could become a better company with the help of their customers.
If they’d only listen.
August 30th, 2005 at 5:09 am
My Dell ‘experience’ goes as follows:
Fifteen months ago, I bought a Dell Inspiron 510m. I’d been told that they made reliable machines and that their customer service was above the standard we have come to accept as the norm these days i.e. Some poor person based in Asia getting paid 6 pence per week and with such a poor grasp of English that you spend 15 minutes trying to spell your name and Tag Number out to them at 50p per minute.
Anyway, my machine arrived in reasonable time and I was starting to believe that the reports of their decent service may be true. However…
Within a few months my CD drive had stopped reading CDs, which was somewhat unfortunate, as that was kind of its job. Anyway, I rang Dell, they ran a few diagnostic tests over the phone and agreed to replace it, as it was still under warranty. Inconvenient, but they’d done what they could and it hadn’t cost me anything, so I wasn’t overly concerned.
Eleven months after I’d purchased my machine, the hard drive started giving me problems. Software seemed to be running slowly while the hard drive struggled to work and I would occassionally get that blue screen that is rarely good news.
Within a week or two of the machine showing these initial signs of problems, the hard drive died completely. All information held on it was lost and I was slightly annoyed, as you would be. So, I rang Dell and explained the problem. “Your warranty ran out last week” they said. “Yes, but the problem has been showing itself for a number of weeks now, but has only just become a terminal one.” I replied.
After a lot of debate and disgruntlement on my part, Dell agreed to replace the hard drive. Again, I was reasonably happy with the outcome, but having to re install everything onto a new hard drive and having lost a lot of data from my machine, my satisfaction at getting a replacement part was tainted somewhat and I started to wonder if my laptop was a lemon.
A new CD drive and a new hard drive required within 12 months. Surely this wasn’t what one should expect from a machine which had cost over £1,000 was it?
Anyway, I got my computer working again and put it to the back of my mind. Well, that was until two months later when I switched it on and the screen didn’t work.
Back on the phone to Dell I went…
“Your warranty is up”, I was told again. “Yes, but this machine has needed a new CD drive, a new hard drive and now a new screen in 15 months. Surely you’re going to accept this isn’t an acceptable level of repair for one of your machines and do something to help me.” I replied.
“The replacement screen will be £600+VAT” came the reply.
“£600+VAT??!!” I retorted. “I could replace the entire machine for that.”
I hung the phone up having registered my dissatisfaction.
A few minutes later some hard selling no mark from Dell rang me. He made the same offer of £600+VAT to replace the screen. I pointed out that this was extortionate and listed the problems I had had with the machine.
“I tell you what.” he said “I give you special price. I will do the repair for £485+VAT but this is a one day ofer only”.
I told him to ring me later in the week when I had had chance to ring round for some comparable quotes. He said he would ring back in half an hour as his ’special price’ was only available for that day. I asked why, but he didn’t answer.
I told him to ring at the end of the week, not in half an hour as I wouldn’t have had chance to ring other repair places.
Anyway, half anhour later he rang back and asked for my credit card details so he could process the repair. I reiterated that I wasn’t giving him the business because I didn’t approve of him trying to rip me off for £600 and because I hadn’t had chance to ring other places for quotes, as I’d told him previously.
Eventually, I found somehwere who relplaced the screen for £300 and sent it off for repair. A day later the man from Dell was back on…
“Can I have your card details so I can action the repair at a special rice of £485+VAT?”
“No. For one, I don’t trust you and for another, that price was a special one day, once in a lifetime price, so your price is now £600+VAT.”
“I can still do it for £485+VAT”.
“Oh, so the one day only thing was a lie? I’m not sure I want to do business with liars, thanks all the same.”
This conversation went on ad nauseum for about an hour, with him trying to get my card details and me telling him he was a rip off merchant. He then tried to offer me an extended warranty as part of the deal, at which point I put the phone down.
Once, I got my repaired computer back, I checked my emails and found I had a ‘customer satisfcation’ email from Dell. I filled it in, giving them the lowest marks possible in all categories and telling them the reasons for my annoyance in the box provided. Needless to say, I never received any response from Dell.
I will never use Dell again. In 15 months, my computer has needed a new CD drive, a new hard drive and a new screen. And Dell’s response? “Laptop components do tend to go worng more quickly than on a PC”.
No, Dell’s laptop components tend to go worng more often than a standard PC manufactured by a reputable firm.
Don’t use Dell, you’ll regret it.
HG
August 31st, 2005 at 10:28 am
Big props to Griffiths and the original blogger. I foolishly purchased a Dell 5 years ago and had nothing but lacklustre customer service from day 1. Without going into the gory details of their numerous failures (both an inability to techincally diagnose my problems and an overwhelming urge to adhere to a fixed script on the phone) I decided to build my own machine 2 years ago.
Of course, I had to do all my own research. This took about 2 weeks of work on the web to choose all the components, from case to p/s to motherboard, etc. Here’s the secret that PC dealers like Dell and Gateway don’t want you to know. ITS NOT THAT HARD TO BUILD YOUR OWN PC! Most if not all PC components are now plug and play, configuring themselves almost automatically. I will never buy a pre-packaged PC again having learned how to do it myself.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:02 am
Okay - Dell have the most irritating customer services people in the world. The Indian branch office are, in fact, useless. But if you’ve got a bit of nouse you can get through to an intelligent human being who can sort problems; or at least, I can - it wasn’t rocket science.
Dell make cheap mass produced computers. You, the consumers, want the cheapest possible piece of kit; then stop whinging when it doesn’t work. Fix it yourselves.
Get, in short, a life of your own.
August 31st, 2005 at 5:02 pm
I bought about 25 Dell computers for a small business, including several laptops, most from 2001-2003. When the renewals started coming up for the extended warrantees after 3 years, the question from my boss was, why? We have never used the warrantees? Except for some software issues on the server, some problems resolved by re-seating the cables, and a zip drive that broke when I dropped the computer during a move, it was basically true - and a heck of a lot better than what happened when we bought 3 HP computers early on (only 1 is still functional, and many, many calls to HP customer service were required).
Now, it happens that on my personal Dell desktop, the floppy and one of the disk drives did fail, and I did have a hard time getting service. The key on service is to get the “gold” service for $50 extra (sometimes my salesman would throw it in). Gold Service = an American answers (the first line of scripted support is skipped for Gold Service customers). But no problems at all with my son’s laptop (other than spyware).
It is quite possible within my experience that Dell could be facing a dropoff in their laptop quality. Frankly, I resisted Dell laptops for a while because PC Magazine didn’t rate them as high consistently. But all of the Dell laptops still work fine, while the Viao’s are all junk now.
I used IBMs at an Aerospace client recently, and now am at another Aerospace client that uses Dells. I still have to give the edge to Dell.
Get a USB2 flash drive (I think I’ve seen 1GB for $70 or $80) and back up your data (download the security software first - be sure it comes with free security software available before you buy). Back up periodicly, and if you recover from a blue screen of death, be sure to update your backup. That goes for laptops and desktops, but laptops inherently are more likely to fail due to movement, dropping, or theft.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:44 pm
Okay, so I understand that you are upset that your computer had some problems…
But, I find it funny that you vaguely describe the situation as “their customer service mechanism did not recognize a machine and service pattern and customer that were a mess. They didn’t try to fix it.” What was the problem? What specifically didn’t they do?
I also find it funny that you say that you “could have stayed on the phone for hours” but instead “chose to write about the saga here.” What does that mean? Were you at least on the phone long enough to give them a fair opportunity to solve your problem? Or did you hang up after 5 minutes when they couldn’t magically wave a wand to make it all better?
I’m not sure what you realistically expected to happen when you created this blog. Do you really expect Dell to have people on staff to comb the internet for any possible mention of their company and respond to you instantaneously?! Likewise, I’m not sure what you realistically expected to happen when you emailed “the media department”. Do you really expect Dell to instantaneously respond to every email they receive?
I read the part of your entry where you reiterate the conversation you had with “Linda.” It seems to me that she offered to fix your problem: She offered you a new computer. But that wasn’t good enough. She then offered you a full refund. Despite the fact that you ASKED for a full refund, THAT then wasn’t good enough. Are you seriously looking for compensatory damages?!
When I first read the article on Slate that mentioned this blog, I sincerely bought your story about Dell having bad customer service and lackluster products. After reading your blog, though, I JUST DON’T GET IT.
Perhaps you allude to the real issue when you say “customer that was a mess.” Perhaps you were just trying to make some money off all the press that your “psycho fit” gets.
I’ve had a Dell for years. It works great.
Customer Service has always been really helpful.
I’d buy another in a heartbeat.
September 6th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
I do not understand why you had to blow this entire thing out of proportion. I have owned a Dell for many years and the few problems I’ve had were taken care of quickly and efficiently. Maybe when you called Dell and started off by being a di** they decided they didn’t want to give the best service..because as far as I’m concerned di**s don’t deserve good service. My lease on my laptop is about to expire and I’m sure as he** going to buy another laptop for myself and more 80+ employees because I’m convinced that Dell’s are top of the line and their customer service is outstanding.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:19 am
I have had 2 Dell Hell experiences.
1. Several years ago I purchased a Dell PC via their website. Several months later I experienced some problems and called their customer dis-service number and gave them the serial numbers, purchase order numbers etc. They refused to help me because they could not find those numbers in their system. Nice.
2. My mother purchased a Dell a year ago and recently experienced some problems. Despite having the extra “home service” package where a technician goes to her home, Dell refuse to do that. Instead, a rep from India tried to walk my 68 year old mother through a number of highly technical fixes. When that didnt work, they sent her a new part that they requested she install. Nice.
The long and short is that Dell has good PC’s but rotten customer service. The service you get is from someone in India who speaks limited English and is incentivized to end the call ASAP.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
I have always been amazed when I’ve heard in the media that Dell has great customer service, because anyone that I have talked to personally that did have a problem had a very tough time getting it resolved - if at all.
My experience was what I would call similar to a bait and switch. I bought a computer on a special no interest and no payments for 6 months if I opened an account with their credit service. Nothing during the process told me that I wouldn’t get this plan - and besides my credit score is near the best you can possibly get so there would be no reason to not accept me.
When I got the first bill I assumed it was just like my Lowes account - they still send you a bill but you don’t need to pay anything until the promotional time is over.
The next thing I knew I was getting a call from Dell wondering where my payment was. They said that I must not have qualified for the credit deal. This was ridiculous and no matter who I talked or wrote to wouldn’t even come close to attempt to resolving it. They demanded payment now or would report to credit agencies. I paid all minus the interest they tacked on and then got threatening calls for that. They would not even compromise one bit - and most of their service people were far from professional.
I would have never opened that credit account with Dell if they had not promised the special plan - I would have paid in full. Since they would not accept me with my very good credit score they probably accepted no one - that’s the bait and switch. But then their customer service would not even begin to work with a customer to resolove a problem that should have been very simple to resolve.
If anyone asks me, I say never buy from Dell.
September 13th, 2005 at 4:23 pm
Dell took $250 from my girl friends credit card WITHOUT PROVIDING ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE WHATSOEVER.
Is this not fraud?
We have been trying to get someone within Dell to investigate. All we have been receiving from Dell so far is Dell Hell.
It has been ten months now….
H. J.
Toronto Canada
September 28th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
I’m just sorry I didn’t think to research “Dell sucks” before our recent purchase. We had the exact same experience as David H with the “no payments” lie/misrepresentation/bait-and-switch. It’s just sleazy.
When I complained, all I got was an email stating “We apologize for any confusion you believe you may have experienced in regards to this matter.” I’m pretty sure that translates as “too bad, sucker, bwahahahaa!”
They’re very sorry that I’m an idiot who fell for their scam. What jerks. As our president said, “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you, Dell.” Well, I can’t get fooled again.
Here’s the email I just sent in response. I don’t expect another reply and really don’t care, but it was fun to write. I look forward to my Dell-free future, though it may take a couple years to purge them completely.
—
Dear Mr. Gray, Mr. George, “Linda”, whomever,
I don’t expect an actual human to ever read all of this, because from previous exchanges with Dell I suspect most email is handled initially by a bot, and I doubt this one will pass that filter to reach a human.
But, if by chance you are a human, please know that Dell’s apology is not accepted, and this is the last transaction I will ever have with Dell.
I now find, too late, that I should have entered “Dell sucks” into google before our recent $2700 purchase with Dell. It would have saved me a lot of trouble had I simply read this blog a few months ago:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/07/01/dell-hell-seller-beware/
My bad. You see, I just had the very same experience as Mr. Jarvis, and he’s right: The days of corporate lies passing for PR are over. Similar stories may be found in your own forum, here:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=cc_dpa&message.id=6220
It is abundandly clear and undeniable that you are not paying attention and simply do not care.
To Mr. Michael George: You are either incompetent or a bad person, or possibly both. I am quite sure there is no other option to consider.
For the record, as with Mr. Jarvis, both my wife and I are quite sure there was an offer that included NO PAYMENTS until 2007, not simply no interest. And as she said, “We’re not retarded.” C’mon, your company has either deliberately lied to us, or deliberately misled us, and it makes little difference which. I hold Dell marketing 100% responsible for this royal waste of time and money.
I have had other unsatisfactory experiences with Dell, but this tops them all. I gave you the opportunity to set things right and keep me as a happy customer, but instead you chose to earn an extra $75 or so. How disappointing that you have such contempt for customer satisfaction, particularly for a customer who has spent upwards of $20,000 with your company over the years, both for personal use and for business.
Fortunately, the $75 is not a significant financial burden for me, it’s just an insult. I’ll be making the payments as requested, so “You win, congratulations.” Apparently my only recourse is to join the rising chorus of dissatisfied former Dell customers. I look forward to the day when there is no longer anything Dell in my life. As a Director of Software Development I am often asked for advice on Dell purchases. My new reply will be simply that “I will always cherish the false image I had of Dell.” (With apologies to Ashley Brilliant.)
Good day,
Richard Minner
P.S. If you are an actual human and not a bot, please don’t take my disgust personally, unless you are in fact Michael George or someone else responsible for the sleaze. For anyone else, I suggest you look seriously into the sort of company you work for and start looking for another job in your spare time. You are responsible for Dell’s sleaze in the sense that your willingness to work for a sleazy company allows that company to be sleazy. You should let your management know that you take it personally when people feel burned by Dell, and they should fix their policies to avoid that. If stating such an opinion would put your job at risk, well, all the more reason to start looking for a better one, and I do wish you, personally, good luck in that. If more people would quit their jobs over bad corporate policy, corporate policies would improve eventually.
October 23rd, 2005 at 1:09 am
We too are not happy with Dell. Three months after we purchased our computer, our hard drive crashed. We lost all our photos and other important information. Had to reinstall our software again. Had a very hard time understanding the people from Dell (I think they were based out of India). On October 12th of this year our harddrive broke down. We called Dell. Our warranty was up and we would have to buy a new harddrive. We were not happy, because we knew we lost all our photos again. They shipped us a new part. When we got the part we tried installing it in the computer. The harddrive did not go in easily like the old one. The computer would not boot up. Tried putting CD’s in, and nothing happened. I struggled to take out the new part. I put in the old harddrive, which went in easily and a dos screen came up. I knew they sent the wrong harddrive or it was a bad part. I had to call Dell again. They said we would have to send back the part and then they would send us out a new one. We would also have to pay to have it shipped back. That was stupid, since it was their fault for sending us a defective part. We decided we were going to send it back, but not buy another harddrive from them. We were going to Best Buy to see if we could buy another harddrive. At the store we talked to a computer salesman. The harddrive we looked at on the box gave us some ideas. Told the guy about it, and he suggested removing the harddrive from the casing they sent us. I did noticd the day before the part looked funny compared to the old one. To make a long story short. The part Dell built was put together wrong. We were able to fix it and get it going. We told Dell about it, but they did not appologize. We will never buy a Dell again. We will help anyone else who has bought a Dell to get their computers running. People who work for Dell do not know anything about computers.
October 28th, 2005 at 2:33 am
See below
October 28th, 2005 at 2:36 am
The computer salesman who nearly conned the world
This is the storey of the computer salesman from HELL
Whose name by the way was Michael ZELL.
He tried to corner the computer world
But his empire fell and died cold
He was a nasty old kook
And he hated his own look
He took Inspiration from his piles
His people wrote virus into customer BIOS files
He infested all of his PCs with the Impel processor
And choked other makers ‘cause he was an evil aggressor
His company spawned branches around the world every few miles
He made computers whose components fell out like loose tiles
He dictated to his customers what they could and couldn’t buy
In the mirror he saluted himself like Hitler, this little guy
Tried to create a Monopoly and forced the PC prices sky high
He financed at extortion those people who could not buy
He was rude to his customers and didn’t care about their needs
He liked to shove blades of grass up his ass and retain their seeds
He was chronically anally retentive
To his clients he was wholly inattentive
He kept the computer prices artificially high
Sucked the soul out of the competition and bled them dry
He bribed the officials and sold the government agencies trash
And laughing all the way to the bank he counted his ill-gotten cash
He charged extortionate sums for his upgrade
He didn’t care much for fair trade.
He conspired with Impel and tried to corner the PC world
Bet he never dreamt his empire could so easily fold
See his PCs were short of Dimension and depth
He pissed off his customers with his foul breath
He left his clients no Latitude
Demanded from employees total servitude
He exaggerated trade but cooked his books
His wife didn’t liked his constipated looks
The corollary of this story
You’ll be told, don’t worry
With unreliable poxy PCs and accessories like his
Go find viable alternatives and get good service
If you don’t think it’s a good thing to have a hole in your head
Don’t throw your money at this guy; go buy from another “Tedâ€
As to what happened to the little guy
You may ask me, don’t have to be shy
He urinated in his BMW racer
Went crazy before he died of prostate cancer
He tied his wife to the back of his boat
And dragged her several times around the moat
He took all of his assets out of the bank
Like Bill Gates, he thought his dollars had shrank
Then he set fire to his house
And blamed it on a wireless mouse
Before he could claim the insurance money for the fire
He reached the end and his time finally came to expire
December 5th, 2007 at 8:37 am
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February 26th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
[...] online enthusiasts know the online advocate Jeff Jarvis’s Dell Hell story. Powerful blogger has hellish customer service experience and tells his story online. The world [...]
February 26th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
[...] on the internet enthusiasts know the on the internet suggest Jeff Jarvis’s Dell Hell story. Powerful blogger has hellish customer service experience and tells his story on the web. The world [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Glad to know I’m not the only one! I paid a tech $157 to come out and get a Dell password removed from my computer. After climbing up the ladder as you did he eventually had to wipe the drive clean. The next day I turned on the computer and again they had put a password on it and insist on charging me $39.95 to get rid of it. I didn’t want this password and didn’t know that they do it and now I should pay more money out of my pocket to get rid of it! What kind of crap service is this? I’m so mad I won’t fix this machine. I will never, never, never buy another Dell product as long as I live. This is the second machine I’ve had this problem with. From now on call me Ms. Hewlett Packard. They give wonderful service.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I do not know whether to buy a new Dell or not?
Also heard items:
1. Dell had a customer service center here at Huntingon, WV for some years. The local company name was Client Logic. I heard that while receiving service calls for Dell that their ‘Client Logic’ satisfaction, problem solved rate was almost 95% and one of the very highest customer satisfaction rates in the business. This office was moved to India
#2. My brother works as a data warehousing manager and operator for a large computer data company. He bought a new Dell and had trouble with getting service on his computer.
#3. My neighbors cousin bought a Dell in western Virginia and she had trouble with her hard drive and could not get any help or service from Dell.
I do not know whether to buy a Dell or not?
Hummm! John Konieczny jmk1950@aol.com
March 17th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
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May 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
It looks to me that when all is said and done the author of the blog was trying to SELL HIS service to Dell. Life is too short to spend so much time complaining AND what looks like setting someone up.