Dude, I got Dell-ed...
Since I have been developing primarily off my notebook for a while, I decided to get a little more power in my 'life' and bought a fully kitted out Dell 8400 desktop. The hardware really smokes with blah, blah (RAID 0 drives, 2gb mem, and a 3.4 processor).... and the choice of Dell was fairly simple, they have put out well-valued hardware and my brand loyalty drew me back. I know other brands out their may have various advantages but this is something like Dell #8 for me so I stayed with them.
When I bought my first Dell in the early 90's, it was simply the easiest, best way to confidently get equipment. The service was really good even though you barely needed it. But I have heard both publicly and from others how their customer service has slipped and now I know it firsthand.
Starting with the Purchase Process: The first thing that really irks me are those Dell “dancing prices” on Dell.com. What I mean by that is every week Dell has something different for free, something discounted, something else on rebate. Its seems they are out to confuse you into thinking that you are getting something special that will be gone if you don't act now. So I played along.... for three weeks I configured the exact same box and each time with completely different “deals” of freebies, the price was identical. Look guys... if I am dropping $3k on a box, just price it out. If I want to haggle or feel like I am getting a deal, I will go buy a car - I expect that on an auto lot, or from some unknown competitor trying to break into the market, not from a high-tech industry leader. Don't try to confuse me into a sale, just sell me.
Still in the purchase process, I decided to call Dell to get some real clarity on what the few hundred extra dollars on the XPS bought me over the 8400. So I called up a live person and the first thing I was told was that he could save me $50 over the web price. This kinda confused me because I thought having customers use automated systems was advantageous to companies and entice them to pass incentives on to use them (e.g. Airlines, Banks) but apparently Dell preferred that I talked with “Matt”. I guess that “Matt” had a better shot at making sure I was “landed“ then another abandoned shopping cart on Dell.com. Ok... I played along again... I was going to buy it either way but I will accept the $50. I sensed a commissioned sale theme and I may be wrong, but does Dell push a little in$entive to these guys? Not that I see anything wrong with that.... but I kept getting “So which one should I sign you up for?“... kinda felt I was back on a car lot.
So remember, I had just called to get a technical comparison on XPS vs. 8400, which brings me to my next point (and if you are w/ Dell or a competitor right this one down) -- Wouldn't it be nice if the person selling you a product either knew more about the product or spent more time than you trying to understand it? Don't get me wrong..... I liked “Matt” but he really didn't know his product well and never really tried to understand what I wanted or needed to do with my purchase. It was at this point it really sank in to me on how comoditized this industry has become. Dell has gotten huge and deservedly so but they weren't the same company I first bought from many years back.
Delivery: Dell rocks here...the production line seems truly efficient as everything came as ordered ahead of the anticipated date. Kudos. One problem in shipping though, no biggie but the subwoofer of the speakers looked to be dropped on its corner somewhere along the line. Then when I set the whole thing up, the flat panel had a dead pixel in the center of the screen. I could live with both of these things but I figured, for the $3k, I know Dell would want to get that right. So I called...
Customer Support: I was going to use the live chat feature on support.dell.com but I would have had to enter a ton of info to get there so I figured I could just call. I was hoping that I could find the call center option for “If you just received your Dell order and have issues, press 4“... no.... I was lumped into the queue with those who needed to reconfigure their AOL or wanted to know if their computer had a virus would it be contagious? I was told ten minutes by the automated system, which I was ok with... and when it turned out to be 22, I was still ok, the hold music on the speaker phone was good stuff.
First Round: So my first new Dell friend came on and I told him my complaints about the monitor and the subwoofer. He said I would have to talk to technical support to make sure that they were not items that they could repair over the phone. Ok... I may be no genius, but how is computer tech support going to fix the damaged case of the subwoofer over the phone? I get they have polices and procedures and of course I have no choice but to follow along. Before we part, I ask him what I thought to be an easy question about the recycle option for returning your old PC to Dell. I still can’t get over the answer…. “You should log onto Dell.com and search for recycle because you can get a better answer there then talking to me”… uh… ok… really? (Then what exactly is your job?)
Round Two: New friend in (real) Tech Support after a transfer including several more really good holding phone songs (Dell does have good hold music thank God!). He wants me to prove that the monitor's dead pixel (you know what I mean, a pixel burns red all the time on the screen and can't redraw) is not something that I have done wrong. Now don't you think that before spending the 47 minutes to this point on the phone, I would have tried things like rebooting and reconnecting wires? Of course I would have (and did) but the process really seems aimed at the lowest common denominator of customer and I get that but is it is so damn demeaning to (ok I will say it) someone like me who does have a little clue - “Remove the power supply cable from the unit... wait... reinsert.... press the power button... wait...“ . So we putzed around proving that the dead pixel was in fact dead and I will get a new monitor as well as subwoofer. Settled.
Round Three: More music that rocks as we pass the hour mark… (would love to hear back this quality control tape… could be a rockin’ CD). My next friend is the guy who is gonna make it all right. And I really do appreciate his effort. But I was wondering as I had to ask him to repeat nearly everything he said as to where all of “my Dell friends” where from because, just like friends one and two, three and I had a strong language barrier. Yeah I know service is outsourced and frankly it’s a tough job but I was really losing my patience. I imagined the series of conversations could have been 1/3 shorter if we could have understood each other. Companies can send these jobs overseas but they gotta look at all the costs too... how much faster could they perform? ... how much better could customer satisfaction be? (really, customer satifaction... that's dead everywhere right? This ain't only a Dell thing)
Finality: So I got my answers (kinda) and arranged my replacments which although expectable, still shows Dell's willingness to get it right. I still like Dell products and will continue to be a customer, but Michael, you have got to fix your support.... an hour and a half with three dialects shouldn't be the treatment for a lifelong customer... others may not (and should not) be as loyal - maybe that's why “Steve“ stopped pushing them ;-o
... good thing this box rocks.