No Customer Service at Dell

All I seem to hear these days is, "when you think of customer service, you think of Dell."

Well, Dell's customer service is vastly overrated.

Let me explain.

I decide to make an investment in a new computer system and don't hold back. We're talking the Dell Precision Workstation 370 with 3.20 GHz, 2GB, dual 74 GB hard drives, dual 19-inch flat-panel monitors.  And so on.

Serious stuff for the digital video editor in me.

When I go to make the purchase, I'm offered a 2 percent discount if I open up a Dell account. Hmm. No-brainer here, considering the bill I've run up. OK, I say.

So the bill comes, but there's no 2 percent discount. No problem, I say. I'll just call Dell's "crack" customer service department and get this straightened out. Should just be a few minutes of my time.

Wrong.

My contact, Joe Landry, has yet to return my call. Three times I've left him a message, and three times he's ignored me. And his voice mail politely says, "I usually return calls within the hour." Meanwhile, my bill is due and I have no choice but to pay the wrong amount since the balance is now on a credit card -- a Dell credit card.

So Joe Landry at Dell, if you're out there, you need some serious training. You're in the business to return phone calls and resolve customer issues. Now I'll have to be creative to try to get an answer.

Dell, a customer service benchmark?

Hardly.

Comments

Dell is no different than any other major corporation out there when it comes to customer service. It all depends on who your contact is, whether they have the knowledge/training/authority to assist you with your situation and, if so, whether they are up to the task. When I purchased a new computer from Dell almost one year ago, I was provided promises and guarantees, including a rebate. Only some of the promises and guarantees came through. I just received notification, after 10 months, that I do not qualify for the rebate I was assured when I purchased the computer. I won't even go into the other assurances I was provided w/ respect to internet service and hook up which turned into a 4 week ordeal and discussions w/ no less than 2 dozen service people trying to get what I was promised.

[Tim]

The last comment was from me Dano! I failed to post my name.

[Dan]

I agree with your comments, Tim. One bad customer service rep can damage the image of an entire company in the eyes of the person seeking help.

[Liz]

If customer service reps are so important, they should be paid A LOT more than they are and they should be hired as full-time permanent employees with all the benefits. Instead, outside vendors are hired; development, marketing, and sales could care less about the impact of projects on customer service because they're outside vendors. So what would anybody expect except bad service and if you get good service, you got lucky.

[Sassy]

It seems like service is not a priority to any company in today's ecommerce world. They have great sales reps who can understand our accents, she said with a straight face, but in the event that you need service the service reps can't understand our accents and many of them have an 'I don't care' attitude.

I own multiple computers and I've owned other brands beside DELL and their service reps seem to be the same. One thing I've learned. Right now, a DELL is the only brand I would buy because it cuts down on the need for service rep contact, but I'm talking a service rep for possible repair or replacement or trouble shooting and you're talking customer service in the billing department.

I have a suggestion for you from the perspective of a professional buyer. When you call back, ask for the name of the Supervisor of the person who has failed to call you back. Don't believe them if they try and tell you there isn't one or if that one is on the phone or in a meeting ask for their Supervisor. Somebody is in charge. Keep asking for a Supervisor and take names and write them down so that you can read them back to anyone along the way. They find that intimidating, as well they should. Don't raise your voice and don't use profanity. You'll get further.

One last thing, if you wanna burn these folks who have irritated you in the event that you don't get satisfaction, go back into your post and hyperlink their name to a site on the web that is not complimentary or hyperlink words in your post that are not complimentary to DELL if you're really down on DELL.

You probably know this, but if you go to google and type in:

miserable failure

the number one match is Biography of President George W. Bush

However, DELL makes a great PC and given time I think you'll get this worked out so you may wanna hold up on hyperlinking them in a bad way...for now.

[Dan]

Thanks, Sassy. I still haven't been able to speak with a human being at Dell about this, but I'll make another effort this week. Not the best use of my time, but bad customer service forces these kind of aggravations.

[Jim]

jack johnson horror show john 5 angelique kidjo the assailant