You seem to be making some very questionable calculations about who it's important to respond to. You blocked not one, but two, of my critical comments in the "We're listening" thread. I have to wonder what criteria you were using to cherrypick the customer comments that would give you the best appearance of transparency. This is very poor blogging strategy on Dell's part, because I then exercised my option to post about the experience elsewhere. And I'm considering cross-posting on a number of other prominent community blogs.

Laura, you've struck a great chord at just the right moment; I'm finishing up a review of this blog right now. I wish you the best as you strive to apply the lessons you learn about corporate blogging to what you publish here.

Does this mean you'll be moving your callcenters back to a native english-speaking country?

Laura- Big congrats to you guys for coming out with this post. I have high hopes that this blog can help you guys in becoming exactly what you want to be. Very good work... Paul McEnany heehawmarketing.com

I found it interesting that a story that featured this blog and Dell's customer service problems should air on CNBC on the day that it took me 40 minutes to get a change of address made to our account with Dell Financial Services. I chose not to attempt this on the DFS website because it required a login that may have already been created by someone else in our organization. Instead I foolishly thought a simple phone call would take care of it. My first 25 minutes was spent following phone trees that all led to the same point: a prompt that didn't recognize the account number but would only allow you to reenter the same number it didn't recognize. I finally quit exploring the dead end branches and indicated I wanted to make a purchase for our small business. Only then was I connected to a live person. After 7 minutes on hold after reaching him, I was transferred to an off-shore call center where the CSR took my COA information and asked me to wait for another 5 minutes while he "filled out the form." Any first year programmer knows you have to prepare for the response you don't expect- in this case an account number that isn't recognized. Forget the "people" problems, you can't even make your technology work right. You don't need a "magic wand" you just need a commitment to service that, based on my experience today, you haven't yet made. Why is it that with $100MM and a host of "talented people" you can't even take a change of address without blowing 40 minutes of my time? BTW: when I related this experience to our general manager his response was "Oh yeah. The only way you can talk to someone at Dell is to act like you want to buy something."

Laura, Thank you for your comments; I've spent the better part of the last two years studying organizational complexity and innovation and can understand just how difficult it must be to get the constituent parts of a single organization, like Dell, to move in unison. If I might point to one issue that I have raised on this blog in another post - and extensively addressed in the Dell Community Forum- I hope that you can address the issue of multiple avenues of communication between Dell and customers. I placed an order for one of the XPS 700 and have since become dismayed because I get so many different messages from Dell regarding the shipping date. To be more specific, I see at least 6 different ways to get a shipping date: 1. The date provided in the confirmation email 2, and 3. The two different dates provided on the order tracking module on my Account site 4. A Different date from the Customer care rep. 5. A different date from the sales rep. 6. A different date from the moderators at the Dell Community forum. (not to mention your founder, Michael Dell's recent announcement that the XPS 700 would be available with the Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Extreme chips as soon as Intel makes the announcement...) So, please dont take this comment as another gripe about this delay; to be sure, I'm frustrated by the delay and uncertainty about the Core 2 Duo processor availability, but I think the more pressing concern, from your point of view, has to be this disconect in lines of communication, where the customer gets so many different messages. As a customer of 8 or 9 years, and as a customer who is eagerly awaiting the new XPS 700, I think that we're in this together... so, I'd like to get your thoughts as to what Dell might do to streamline the message.

This corporate blog review has three parts: my conclusion, which I'll put first for the impatient readers, and then a quick synopsis of the buzz about the Dell one2one blog and my nitty-gritty review.Conclusion: On a 0-10 scale, I give...

In the realm of tech support, I would suggest that Dell phone technicians be more willing to skip trobleshooting steps if the person is clearly knowledgeable, or has followed reasonable steps already, "Ok, before I called, I unplugged everything, re-plugged, rebooted, etc..." This is preferable to making them do every single step from their troubleshooting playbook - it saves the call center employee and the customer a lot of time. Also, I think Dell is making a big mistake in eliminating "legacy" ports such as PS/2 ports for keyboards and parallel ports for printers. A lot of my clients (I'm an independent freelance support tech) are chagrinned to find out the keyboard and/or printer they liked can't be used on their new Dell PC. Are Dell sales people asking customers if they're planning on holding onto PS/2 style keyboards or parallel port printers? I doubt it. And on top of that, there are only four USB ports in the back of some of the more value-priced Dells - so the keyboard and mouse already consume two of these valuable ports, leaving only two in the back for a printer, digital camers, etc... Yes, there are ports in the front, but most people avoid using them for aesthetic reasons.

I have been a two-time Dell notebook and Axim owner. The customer support inevitably consisted of long waits to speak to someone in a foreign country, whom I could barely understand, for hours-- oh, and did I forget getting disconnected at times. After all of that, I would be told that the only thing I could do was to re-install Windows. The first time I actually did it. What a nghtmare. Several times I was able to solve the problem myself-- for instance, by re-installing some drivers. I am a health professional with a modicum of computer knowledge-- so, what does that tell you. When I bought my second Dell notebook, I laughed when making the choice for in-home or mail-in support. I figured that I would be more likely to be struck by lightening than to have someone come to my home. I'd be thrilled if I could just get some help when I called in. On the positive side, when my CD drive gave me problems, another was mailed to me overnight. I am still using my second laptop, but I will probably be in the market for a new one in the near future. Before reading this blog and finding out that you are working on the problem, I had decided on ABD-- anything but Dell-- this despite the fact that all of your products have given me excellent service. I just couldn't face the prospect of dealing with technical help. I find the outsourcing unbearable. The people are nice enough, and I think that they are trying hard. However, when I can't understand them and they seem to be reading from some script that dictates that they say my name repeatedly while trying to placate me with politeness (ordinarily something I treasure), I want to pull my hair out-- slowly, one by one.... Make me want to buy another Dell, please!

I believe I read the entire blog entry and did not see one part in which you would return the call centers back to the USA? Dell is at the top of the list in terms of being brought up in CSR "hell" stories around the water cooler, specifically, the call center issue. The call center workers typically seem to be nice enough and hard working, but once they are done with your script, that's it. Language makes it difficult to reason and explain the problem, which has to be even worse for people that have less computer knowledge than people like myself. Not to mention that it might give Dell a good name again in the US for returning US jobs. Now off to find the blog entry on when Dell will try to return to their "new kid on the block" days where they were all about quality.

Here's a thought... Preventative? Quit selling the Inspiron series, would ya? I work at an independant computer store and we have a section of our basement dedicated to dead inspirons. Or if you wanna keep the brand name (that identifies your company as substandard) fine. But quit making junk. And I know its cheaper to just replace the ones that break cause it cost you so little to make in the first place but posting a blog about getting better isn't enough. Sounds more like my buddy saying "This time I'm really gonna quit smoking" And don't pitch it like you've been growing and now your ready to make this step. That is quite frankly insulting. You didn't start up a tiny little mail order company with a call centre based out of India, did ya? You know what? I really hope you do get a handle on your service issues. It would be so good for everyone. But I'll save my congrats for five years later, which is really the shortest timeline you could hope for to fix the mess you've made

First of all, thumbs up to you guys working on the way that a call is handled. As a help desk/network/computer technician for my community college, I realise how important it is to field a call primarly myself so that the right hand knows what the left hand did. Although personally, i really don't want some unbearably cheery fake tech person on the other line. All i want is that they are knowledgeable and not a-holes, they can be as un-empathetic and deadpan as they want to as long as they know their stuff and don't patronise me. To everyone else, we are an all Dell campus and I will say that Optiplex systems while more expensive than the Dimension line, are more rigourously tested and quality assured. Optiplex system's are designed for the enterprise environment and are generally of high reliability. We did have problems with GX260 power supplies and GX270 motherboards but the systems were still within the 3-year warranty. The problem stemmed from poor capacitor chemical formulation which plagued multiple overseas component producers for a time, but this was no fault of Dell's. Computers are complicated, and few other things can have one thing break (or even just change!) and that one thing cascade into other things breaking (especially in an enterprise environment). Windows is a complex mistress to tame when asking that it play nicely and helpfully with third party applications that access its core software components. With malicious stealth malware on the rise, the complexity grows even greater. Please be nice with tech support people, they have to deal with people who can barely turn on a PC and often times people better off sticking to an abacus. While i realise PC's are complicated and confusing, they are becoming essential like having a drivers lisence. Everyone who owns a PC or uses one for financial/work/business use should take a few courses at their community college and spare the help desk from walking someone through getting to the internet when their IE icon isnt on their desktop or finding out what their IP is. Take a course, save your sanity, protect yourself, save an IT persons sanity. -Sir Latency

Matthew, I too feel your pain.... I have gotten fair service from Dell support even with ESL support personell but calls definitely would have been resolved quicker with someone who was better at English.

In the wake of Office Depot OfficeMax kicking the rebate habit, Dell's reducing the number of rebates it offers in an attempt to simplify pricing: Dell Inc. outlined plans Thursday to simplify pricing and reduce the number of mail-in rebates...

Laura,
I am so glad you posted on this new blog. I just today had an interaction with you tech support department and would like to suggest how Dell could save a lot of money and serve there customers better. BTW when I have finally reached a live person their knowledge, demeanor and empathy have been excellent. I don't fault them a bit.

Background: I brought a Inspiron Core Duo notebook this past April. In June the screen developed a defect. I called June 28 and was walked through the diagnosis process and did indeed verify that the screen was defective. It wasn't a work stopper. On July 9 I called back to go over the diagnosis and get the process started for a replacement. I have an onsite agreement so the tech assigned me a case # and a dispatch #. The repair tech would call me when the part arrived and schedule a visit  at my convenience. So far, so good. He said expect Tues or Wed.

So today is Thurs and I started to get concerned. So I thought I would call and check the status. No bid deal;5 minutes. Would you belive 45 minutes.

As your post points out customer support is balkanized. I had to go thru voice mail hell. The voice recognition is not the best so I have to repeat, the option I want is not listed and it is difficult to get to a live person.

I suggest that the branching be reorder. First it should ask new sales, tech support or existing case. that's it. Then people like me could select option three, enter my case number and be routed automatically to the right group. What's the use of a case number if I have to rehash the story each time or navigate voice mail thrown in with other callers who don't have a case number or even purchased yet.

That way your existing customers would get better service, your 800 # bill for people on hold would be reduced greatly and every one wins.

So when I finally spoke with my tech he could not give me an answer why I hadn't been called yet. He promised to look into and send me an email on the status. As of midnight I haven't got an answer.

By the way I did try the web site to see if I could look up my case # or  dispatch # but no luck either.

So what a waste of my time.

What really burns me is that there was no mechanism for speaking to someone who can effect change. Now with this blog I can get this off my chest where it will do some good.

BTW I am very happy so far with the notebook, my first. Very fast, screen is incredibly sharp and bright (my biggest reason I took this long). This is my only PC now, and I am loving the portable lifestyle.

I am a blogger myself, so I welcome you to the blogosphere and the web 2.0 ethic of transparency.

Glad that Dell is finally going to a simplified pricing structure- less rebates / coupons Actually dell is killing off its own brand by - trying to sell on price than quality - the dells lag way behind ibm in sturdiness - not sticking to a simple and cool design-constant changes - wide screens/diff resolutions- keep it simple. - stop those coupons on slickdeals etc... The amount that someone expects to pay for dell has come down with those hefty promotions that people are waiting for ever for coupons and no longer willing to pay even 1000$ for a entry dell laptop anymore. - need a better affiliate program

I think you can make significant inroads into customer satisfaction by moving your customer service call centers back to the USA.  Being the network admin at my office, I call Dell support several times a week, and I have to tell you, I generally find trying to explain the problem to the Indian voice on the other end of the line to be far more irritating than the problem itself.

I think your sales department should also cut prices in general, instead of scalping those people who don't know to look for coupons on techbargains.com.

Sometimes it takes a beating to learn a lesson. Dell took a brutal beating earlier this week when they launched their new blog, one2one, and it looks like they had some sense knocked into them.

where does dell want to start? how about start by compensating the thousands of xps700 customers who have been cheated? what dell has done with the xps700, either intentionally or unintentionally is extremely unethical we have paid top dollar for a premium system and after being forced to endure numerous delays, when dell finally ships it to us, we get processors that are completely outdated and obsolete. on top of that....we were WAY overcharged for the outdated processors because we paid the market prices from months before our systems will actually arrive. dell needs to either 1) give everybody that ordered an xps700 a conroe (at little or no additional cost to dell because we paid high prices for the obsolete pentium D's dell's currently planning to ship us) or.... 2) give everybody that is getting an outdated Pentium D a substantial discount in the form of credit back to our accounts, not concession coupons or free printers or whatever other cheap junk dell is currently overstocked with either one of these options is the only ethical way dell as a company can compensate all of us here who have been cheated and exploited

If Dell really wanted to address the tech and customer support issues, then they should hire an experienced IT Professional, preferably a process control expert. If this individual has previously had bad customer support experiences, then that is a plus. If I were the CEO of Dell, I would hire 2 people with this profile. However, I would make sure that these new hires were energized with the objective of improving Dell's support functions. Both individuals should have access to top level management and to the necessary resources, so that concrete results can be produced. Part of the job requirements should be that they post to this blog on a regular basis. Dell is making a mistake by having a marketing oriented person as its blogger for this blog. Dell's customers will not buy more PR jargon with zero results. Bottom line, not only real dialogue needs to be produced but substantial improvements also need to be produced, if Dell wants to stop the decline of the Dell image and customer base.

I'm quite happy to hear you do admit some faults and take ownership of your customer service. ::applause::. However, I see a few unexplained components - the mechanics on how you will change it, and more details. I foresee that this will be answered in future blog postings. We all know whats on consumer's minds. They want someone they can easily talk to. Regardless of prejudice, they need someone without accents or has a barrier in communication. One already mentioned here about your call centers, and how they want them in the United States. I know your other call centers offshore are well educated and talented, the only thing holding that back is the communication barrier (or tolerance of customers to adapt). You stated you are investing over a hundred million... is that for domestic call centers or offshore. I believe the ROI with domestic call centers is far higher than offshore simply due to first-call-resolution. I'd rather speak to someone once for 20 minutes rather like four 20 minute calls - and thereby costing Dell even more money. I personally do not own a dell nor do I recommend one, due to this reputation your company has - poor customer service. However, with an avenue like this blog - you have an opportunity to change that, rather a receipt of change - once your CSR's change. What do I know about call centers and Tech support? I am tech support, domestically here for AOL, and we too have offshore call centers. I see all the problems and obstacles first hand that customers must hop through to get their answers. Hands down, customers find it disrespectful a company would make them call several times to get an answer. They hate complex IVR's - which you have as well. It took me 8 minutes to traverse your IVR to the RMA queue to replace someone's hard drive. This is unacceptable. Anyhow, I do look forward to your followup and future blog postings. Thanks, Joseph Manna

I think your headlines says it all, and it's brutally honest: "No Magic Wands for Customer Service."

Re-engineering customer service is one of the most difficult challenges for large brands, and I frankly think at this moment in time you are making very good progress relative the "industry standard."  Despite the consumer-generated "media impressions" that emanate from  customer service operations, the reality is that customer service/consumer affairs rarely commands the attention and respect (or resources) of marketing or media planning.  I say this with the frame of reference of having attended and presented to over a dozen conferences of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, and it's very clear that these departments are rewarded for two core behaviors: reducing contacts, and reducing time-spent per contact.  Even the PR industry, which is so focused on blog creation and conversations, is largely divorced from core strategies and business processes around customer service, call-support, contact-us.  So against that backdrop, I think you are doing fine.  My one important piece of advice that  I'll elaborate on my blog later is to keep opening up the direct  online feedback pipe to Dell....not just to the online community, or the FAQ, or this blog comment page.  Your email "contact us" has (to borrow from P&G parlance) "opportunities."  Sometimes consumers just want to "break through" and the perception of the "open door" or "welcome mat" is haff the game in making consumers feel emotionally connected to the brand.  This is something I learned after collecting over a million lettes and comments through PlanetFeedback.com.   Consumer expression divers to "external" expression vehicle because brands fail to absorb and welcome those instinctual "feedback moments."   I think Dell is doing an impressive  job on promoting the welcome mat through very targeted 800 numbers, and WAY better than industry standard.  But some of the real simple stuff like "send an email with your opinion" is very difficult.  I encourage you to look into this.  (Full disclosure: my current and previous firm has done work for Dell, but I have no connection to this project)

It's good to see that Dell is finally getting it. There is nothing more frustrating to someone than to go out and drop 1-10% of their annual salary on a computer and have the company seem to fall apart at the seams the first time you contact them for support. I have been a systems admin and software developer for nearly 10 years and here are some of the most basic tips I can share with you. Create an auto update app thats not full of spyware, similar to IBM/Lenovo's software update, it updates all software/drivers/bios on a given machine/laptop. Provide easy and convenient contact!! If I have a low priority problem or a question I don't want to wait on hold! I want to drop someone an email and wait for them to get back to me. This should be priority #1! The support should also speak English clearly, and be able to actually troubleshoot a problem not just follow scripts. Drop the marketing gimmicks, I know salespeople everywhere are saying oh blah! Seriously though I understand that the best way to make a profit is to confuse and obfuscate to trick the consumer into thinking they are making a killer deal when they really aren't. Here is an example for you. I bought my wife a new Dell E510 desktop in May. The reason I did this is because I was very happy with the Dimension 8400 my work purchased for me over a year ago. I am a bargain hunter so i dug for coupon codes and deals. I wound up getting my wifes machine for a reasonable price of $733.85 before tax and shipping. While typing this missive I rebuilt the same machine, using the best coupon code I could find. Todays cost for the EXACT same machine, is $809.90 before shipping and tax. Come on, identically configured systems should go down in price. Dump the phony coupons, take away the phone reps ability to be able to flex on prices and just lower the bloody prices to you bottom dollar or the median of your bottom dollar. I know companies make money by people not using coupons, not turning in rebates etc, maybe its time for a large company to show they aren't looking to make a small profit off those few people that don't get their rebate in on time. Dump the junk! Make a option on EVERY machine to come with JUST the software I choose and don't make me call and speak to a sales rep to do it. If want to order the machine with just windows on it then just put that on there, provide me a CD with your promotional crud and I may look at it. Give me OPTIONS! I know its easier to have only two graphics cards available and supported but you know what, it drives customers away. I will be in the market for a new machine by the end of the year myself, but I don't want an x300 or x600 card, since I cant order it with the card I want from you then likely i will go to someone who will let me order what I want. The saddest part is because of how open the hardware channel is to people of the world now, we all see that OEM cards are cheaper than retail yet companies like yours charge MORE than a retail card would cost.

Dell announced on Late Thursday that it plans to institute a series of pricing changes over the next 12 to 18 months that will result in fewer promotions and rebates for its consumer and small-business products.  The company stated that the moves should result in a 70% cut in promotions for individual product lines, and an 80% reduction in price promotions for individual products.  Dell VP Rosendo Parra said these moves were being made in order to create "a simple pricing and sales structure" for the customer.  A primary target of these reductions are mail in rebates - which tend to have a messy process for both company and customer.

This change in promotions strategy comes on the heels of two other huge moves by Dell.  First, the company stated it plans to invest $100 million into its customer service operations.  In addition, Dell took its first steps into the new media world of blogging with their one2one site.  It is this second move that has many people in the bloggosphere in a tizzy fit....(see www.montysbox.typepad.com for full post)

I stand corrected the base machine I started with had additional service on it that wasn't included in the order for my wifes machine. The correct configuration is indeed cheaper coming in at $694.20. See what I mean about confusing though?

I might believe you when you prove your CSRs can understand and speak ENGLISH. Then we can talk about wait time and try another department.

While: "Last quarter, there were more than 400 million visits to dell.com.  On a daily basis, we take more than 150,000 calls, process thousands of e-mails and engage in thousands of chat sessions.  It all adds up to millions of customers per week.", Dell has made many millions of dollars.  

So you play in the big leagues.  Glad you've decided to play to win the whole game, not just with the big hitters.  My company is doing a desktop refresh moving from all Compaq/HP to Dell.  Surely we got a good deal - and we buy desktops by the thousands and laptops by the hundreds.  Have not been able to recommend Dell to others due to infamous support issues, so if you can reform you'll win the game.  No one expects overnight course correction but tangible progress will earn you goodwill that will translate into more of those billions.  Good luck - really!  Hope Dell can show the industry how to do it.

With regard to customer service improvement, please be careful when emphasizing "friendly, patient, empathetic", and make sure that it doesn't become an artificial thing that just gets in the way.

One of your competitors, still probably dealing with it's major merger, has reps that are trying so hard to be empathetic that they sprinkle and interrupt the conversation with obviously canned statements like "I understand why you are so upset", which is said even if you are not upset! Between the language barrier and the unending "false empathy" statements, it can eventually get pretty frustrating when you just want some answers.

I suspect that those reps have been given a list of empathetic statements that they are told to use, and I wouldn't be surprised if they even are measured against an empathy goal for it. That's really pushing it too far, and defeats the whole purpose of a good customer service experience.

It's also amazing that I can't pay my corporate account with Dell Financial online. I actually have to mail a check, 3 actually, since purchases are not bundled together. Paying online for a MAJOR computer manufacturer should be expected. Just my frustrated opinion.

I enjoy this lip service. Customer support has been terrible for YEARS now. And I complained for YEARS about the quality of support and of the product. Dell has done it's damage in my life. I also can't believe this: "And you want the dell dude (or dudette) that you talk/chat with to be friendly, patient, empathetic and, above all else, knowledgeable about you and your problem. " No, the fact is I really don't care if they are friendly, patient, or empathetic. I want two things out of my customer service rep, I want 1) to be able to understand what they are saying, and 2) I want them to fix the problem the first time. The fact is, my household has worked with over 10 dell machines which were provided to my family members for business purposes from employers. Four of those ten machines, were attempts to replace for one defective machine. Each subsequent replacement also had a defect of some kind. None of those ten machines lasted longer than 2 years in working order. And as a household built on computer use, we take good care of them. Talking to customer support, many of them did not understand simple technical terms I was using to describe the problem. Then, when they were reading their script from the screen, or talking in general, their accent make it impossible for me to understand. Tech support knows less than I do about the problems facing the laptops, and they are resistant to taking the whole machine back and replacing it. Replacing a whole machine part by part is inefficient, but that seems to be the dell plan. Especially when on occasion Dell wants to replace the hard drive because the monitor is not displaying a signal (who's bright idea was that?). Maybe if I could understand asian languages I could get better service. As far as I'm conserned dell laptops are throw-aways. I will never buy one again, and now recomend other brands to customers and friends. It is nice that I am an active member of the IT community and can actually reduce Dell's marketshare in my own small way. Throw away your dell, because it's only a matter of time until it will give up.

Laura- great post. at some point someone must combat all the negetivity with a "yeah, we know, we're working on it" post. As to where to start - Small business. I don't know what you are doing in SB that is different from say Home customers, but SB support is great. Call wait times are low, and problems get fixed - fast. CSR reps are native english speakers. Use what you are doing here as a model for the others. Cheers and thanks for your post.

Laura, I was surprised to see you offer up excuses to basic business operating challenges. You even mentioned complexity when discussing order fullfillment. You know, I seem to remember a time not too long ago that order fulfillment and logistical excellence were the hallmark of Dell's business model. I am glad to see Dell working on its issues. But shouldn't customers expect that? Remember, business is simple... complexity comes through the interactions and performance of the people in the process. While I respect large corporate hierachies, they are also the root of a lot of problems or the failure to take advantage of real opportunities. Vice-presidents and process engineers? Hmmm.... My experience with Dell goes back a little while, I chose an ABD solution when I was looking for a PC to serve as a low-volume server for some software development work I was doing... your representatives refused to answer any questions about components that had drivers for any other O/S than what was in your offering. I had no problem finding a competitor of yours that stepped up to the plate, saved me thousands of dollars and gained my business. You may want to check out our web site and our My-Leverage product. While it is designed to help employees, if you substitute 'Dell' for 'you' you may come to some critical insights of benefit to Dell and your customers. Matt Thevenot E2KITS, inc.

wow - so the problem with Dells customer service is that your customers expectations are too high - nice - am I the only reader who finds this post extremely patronizing? I guess the only solution here is no more customers - that will fix your problems for sure. My recommendation: redesign the products around how we actually use them, invest in training and empowering your service agents and impliment a voice-of-the-customer process in your service organization that garuantees that the (whole) company starts to actually listen to customers and stops placating them (with OS-support etc.). I switched to mac after my last Dell broke - best decision I ever made - Im forced to deal with dell at work - hey, my job eats the costs of the downtime - but at the end of each day, I just cant wait to get home to my powerbook. Dells days of valuing investors ove customers are numbered.

I believe that it would help if the service agents had additional flexibility during the support process. It is obvious that they work off scripts and are instructed not to deviate from them. There also needs to be differentiation between complex and simple problems such as a clear hardware failure. My last Dell experience: Upon booting my Dimension, I got a command line window with an error message indicating that my CPU fan had failed. I verified that this was indeed the case and called Dell. "Mary" took my call. From her accent, I can assure you her real name isn't Mary. I explained the situation and Mary insisted that we go through a long and complicated troubleshooting process that lasted in excess of 40 minutes. It included removing and re-installing the fan, re-booting several times, etc. Mary finally came to the end of her script and concluded that the fan was indeed broken and asked what time I would like a technician to arrive to replace the fan. I told Mary that I did not have the time to wait for a technician and to simply send the new fan. She told me that this couldn't be done as it was against policy, posed potential warranty issues, etc. I reminded Mary that I had already removed and re-installed the fan and that as an IT professional I thought this was within the scope of my capabilities. She finally relented and sent the part. It arrived the next morning and I was shocked to see Fedex return shipping documents for the failed fan. Some questions from this incident: Why couldn't we simply send the $4 fan without the 40 minute troubleshooting exercise? This fell into the category of an uncomplicated, clear cut hardware failure, but Mary's instructions required that we do the dance. Why does Dell wnat a dead $4 fan back? Failure analysis? There aren't many ways for a fan to break... Finally and most importantly, how much did it cost Dell in dollars and customer loyalty to replace a $4 fan? Some observations: Dell says its developing more and better tools for its service technicians. I hope that these aren't simply additional scripts, or hoops that your customers must jump through. The focus needs to be on the customer experience, not cost savings. It was aparent that Mary had little or no technical knowledge and was simply reading a script. She was very polite, but clueless. If Dell is serious about improving the customer experience, it needs to not only listen to its customers, but take action to address their concerns. I've seen several posts on this blog and elsewhere asking for call centers staffed with prople that speak english as their native language and that have at lease a passing famaliarity with the technology. Dell's current approach is to adopt the least cost model and off-shore its call centers. This is clearly not what your customers want. I said it before and I'll repeat it here. Service has become the key differentiator between PC manufacturers. The critical question is what is Dell going to do about it?

I think you guys are doing great. Don't listen to these jealous people who dont understand how hard it is to run company. They claim they have problems, but there most likely the people who have problems, because they don't know how to operate a computer. I think you guys are doing a great job in general and also with this blog. GREATEST IDEA EVER. I currently own a Dimension 9100 that rivals your new XPS ( tons of upgrades mind you) and an Alienware m5500 laptop, both of which I enjoy. I am glad that you guys own Alienware now, and hopefully some of your strategies can be displaced to them.

Though some problems you do have is tech support, that I will not lie about. You have to understand if someone calls and says my laptop or my computer isnt booting, there are NO ERROR codes to be read. Stop making these people read scripts when they have no idea what they are doing. Other than that GREAT JOB!!

Fine -- you've made a statement of committment. Where does the commitment now lie? Who has the accountability? Has this filtered down the the person on the other end of my call or email? Not to divert from the strategic initiative, but how is my current prblem going to getr solved ... still wating, still see "promises to follow up" by multiple sources - but no action. I feel as though I am in an endless loop - HELP!!

Does the new strategy include an ombudsman to intervene when support stalls?  

I appreciate the statement of "we will do better" - but this needs action.

So let me get this straight: You're saying that developing good support takes time. Considering you're not exactly a start-up, you may understand why people are highly skeptical. In fact, I'll go a little further: it took you the entire history of Dell to get HERE. What do you think happened over all those years to get things this messed up?

My experience thus far with Customer service and sales has been positive and have made a posting of my experince to date. http://geekswithblogs.net/cweeks/archive/2006/07/14/85231.aspx

I know you all are working hard to improve tech support and your public image. That said, are trying to excuse your poor track record of customer support with your growth and the many demands of being a successful enterprise. This is absolutely the worst message you could be sending to your customers. It's basically a veiled way of saying "We were so successful at selling our products that we forgot to care about the customer." And to be quite honest, even that isn't even a fair explanation. You didn't "forget", and it wasn't some kind of accident. You didn't accidently trip and drop your customers like you did with grandma's antique vase when you were 12. You knowingly neglected the customer in your period of growth. You outsourced all (not some) tech support to a foreign country for the sake of "growth". (Which, by the way, is also neglecting those in this country who are now out of work.) When things got really bad last year, you removed your tech support number from your website to discourage customers from calling. It's good to see you are admitting there is a problem, but pushing this off as a necessary consequence of growth is unacceptable.

Is this a press statement on a blog or a blog post? ;^)

I just thought I would mention that I have decided to go with a different computer manufacturer for my next system after the fiasco I had with attempting to re-install Windows. Windows Explorer had somehow got corrupted and was acting strange, so I decided it was time to re-install Windows. I inserted the Windows Reinstall disk that comes with my Dell Dimension 8400 and rebooted the system. I started the install process only to find that Windows Setup couldn't find any hard drives. I found that surprising since I have 2 SATA drives working just fine. After a few more reboots to make sure it wasn't anything I was doing, I called Dell. After about 35 minutes of waiting on hold, I got a hardware "technician". I could barely understand him due to his thick Indian accent. We spent about 30 minutes working on this problem. He decided that this was a software issue and forwarded me to the software group. He warned me that this would cost $99. I wasn't very thrilled with the idea of paying $99 to get help installing Windows when I know exactly how to install Windows, but if it got me up and running again, fine. So, now I'm on hold again for about 45 minutes. I get a lead in person that verifies that I am willing to pay the $99. I expressed my concern about this since I didn't consider the problem to be a software related problem, but reluctantly accepted the charge and got passed to a software technician. This person knew what was going on and had me up and installing in a matter of minutes. The problem was that the BIOS RAID setting were set to some obscure setting that was blocking Windows from recognising the hard drives and, according to the technician, allowing the hard drives to operate a little faster. So almost 2 hours to re-install Windows due to a bad BIOS setting. I made my case about the $99 to Dell's online support chat service and talked to two folks (Rocky and Uma, really, you need to get these guys to come up with better American names) and was able to convince them to refund my $99. I really don't understand the reason the BIOS was set the way it was. I am not seeing any speed reduction due to not returning the BIOS to the setting it was when I got it from the factory. So I guess my suggestion to you folks to better help us customers is to make sure that if you are going to charge people for "software" incidents, make sure that they are indeed software related. The first technician should have been able to get me up and running without the need to get involved with the Software group. Anyway, the point is kind of moot since I am not buying another Dell in the future. I just thought I would relate my story.

Dell's got one thing right - they have HUGE customer service issues and shoud address them. Jon Couch: 40 minutes to get your billing address changed? That IS a huge improvement!!!! In May it took me an hour and five with the final call being a three way between Honduras, India and me, so I'm thinking "Whoa Dell Dude - you are really making progress!"

I have two suggestions that could accelerate Dell solving its enormous problems and poor repuation regarding support: (1) Re-allocate 25% of your ad budget into support, and (2) structure support into your marketing department. Support is about customer relationships. Marketing should be about customer relationships..

Laura... Over the past three months I have helped three people buy Dell Inspirons (6000/6400s), but have honestly begun to have second thoughts about recommending Dell because of bad service. In one of the cases, the built-in wireless mini-card could not connect to the person's router. She made multiple calls to Dell (Small Biz) support, spending hours on the phone with people she could hardly understand, and ultimately was sent a reconditioned card of the same model # to install herself. (This replacement made no sense given the many postings on Dell's messageboards suggested that this card had compatibility problems, and in fact had just been dropped as standard equipment on new 6400s and E1505s.) As mother of two small babies, with no technical expertise, it was unreasonable to expect a person such as this to do internal surgery on her laptop, let alone not providing her any written instructions to do so. She paid for onsite service, but could not get it. Her first two months with Dell may have poisoned her taste for the brand forever. How can I as a consumer advocate in good faith recommend Dell to anyone who might suffer similarly if they have a problem.

Ohhh Dell. It's nice Dell is finally addressing customer support issues, but it's a shame it took a couple quarters of lackluster growth for Dell to step back and try to fix things. To throw in my two cents, to me, a PC is a PC, what sets a PC manufacturer apart is how good their support is when something breaks. The PC part of any manufactuers business seems to be now pretty commoditized, you are all selling the same stuff for similar prices. What sets one company apart from another is the coustomer support, therefore the last few years it should not have been treated as an afterthought, it should have been a number one priority for your business. I was a happy Dell customer until something broke and I had to call coustomer support, which was probably one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Never (and I mean NEVER) again.

Here's a suggestion that would save customers time and save you time and money: You probably already track the most commonly asked questions. Among the 50 most commonly asked questions, some of them could theoretically be resolved in a couple of minutes. Two examples are: Address Change Ordering backup discs with O/S, drivers (many Dells ship without) It would be great if EVERY sales agent and tech support person had a list of the 5 or 10 most commonly asked questions and a one-click way for them to nearly instantly resolve these things. Don't transfer to the department that is supposed to do this simple task - just do it. I ordered backup discs with the O/S and drivers a few weeks ago and it literally took a total of 50 minutes - I started with chat, which, after a painfully slow dialog eventually transferred me to sales, which eventually transferred me to tech support, which then took over 20 minutes to actually order the discs (I then received two sets, and they weren't precisely the same - this indicates to me that the disc set was not automatically configured based on the Dell system I own - which is stored in your system obviously since I ordered it from Dell). Very little of this 50 minutes was spent waiting for initial contact. Many years ago, I worked briefly doing tech support for Microsoft Windows 3.1 We had a one click way to very quickly send off replacements for corrupt O/S discs. Those calls always took less than 5 minutes. Maybe you can strive to get certain types of simple calls such as address changes and disc replacements in 5 minutes or less - with the person who first receives the call - no matter what their department.

Long Comment, two sections.

First:

I have a suggestion for ALL computer companies to improve their offshore CSA.

Good or Bad Customer Service often is due to communication problems or the lack there of.  In my experience with Dell's (and other companies) offshore customer service agents, the difference between Good or Bad will be determined when the CSA answers two or three (or four) of my basic questions while I complete the tasks assigned to me by the CSA.

1)  What country is the CSA located?

2)  What time of day is where the CSA is located?

3)  When is the next lunch or meal break for the CSA?

4)  When in the end of your workday?

What intrusive questions !!!!

Actually, I am trying to establish two way converstations with the CSA.  CSA's often refuse to answer the first question, inpart, I am sure, due to corporate requirements as well as problems due to racial, social and other geopolitical garbage.  Personally, I really don't care whether the CSA is located in India, Philipines, Ireland or where ever, I am just trying to relate to the person, and better understand the CSA's accent, vocabulary limitations, speech patterns, as well as the person's willingness to relate to me.

Good Customer Service happens when both parties can communicate with each other.

Bad Customer Service happens when one party refuses to communicate with the other party.

So why all of my "intrusive questions"?  Well, let's see, I have had to reformate the HD of my Dell a total of 4 times in the 55 months that I owned the computer.

No, no, not due problems related to Dell.  The first reformat was due to corrupted APC's UPS (Universal Power Supply) software that shutdown the computer after a power failure and then refused allow the computer to restart (even in safe modes).  The nice Dell technicians worked with me in trying to isolate and correct the software problem (even though the APC software was user installed).

And that reformat was a major chore for me as I had never done a reformat, and needed to get the businsess computer up and running by morning the next day.

In the midst of the reformatting that I discovered the true need to communicate with offshore CSA.  A very patient CSA and then an even more patient second level technician worked with me trying to get the computer restarted.  When they failed to get the computer to properly restart, the second level technician determined that a reformat was appropriate, and passed me back to the first level technicians for the reformatting process.

And suddendly, what had been a smooth going process (smooth going if you consider about 2+ hours of hair pulling frustration on my part being smooth going) turned into an ugly process.....

.... I had reached the end of day at the call center..... people wanted to go home.

Thus, from that point forward, whenever a potentially complex issue has arisen I start asking intrusive questions of the CSA..... basically I want to know if the person is going to be able to complete the troubleshooting tasks at hand without having to run into end of shift or lunch break issues.  One nice CSA agent for Microsoft actually truthfully answered my question  "I just back from my meal break and you can have me for the next 5 hours if you need me" .... and about two hours into the problem solving, the CSA actually asked me if I would allow him to take a quick restroom break (of course I would, gosh darn, I use a portable telephone just so I can walk, talk and take care of other matters).

I had a dead HP all in one printer.  15 minutes with the nice offshore CSA person I declared my printer to be "toast".  I guess "toast" does not translate well into what ever native language she spoke.  But a minute of laughter ensued as we discussed the various ways the Americans can describe a bad/dead object.  The CSA person actually said she could be fired for laughing with a customer.... her bosses could think she was laughing AT the customer.

The nice overseas Microsoft CSA guy said the same kind of thing.  Not allowed to discuss personal business or engage in meaniless chatter.

Had a problem with my MSN account after a software update that would not allow attachments to be received, but I could send attachments if the size was between certain values jpegs, but Excel files were restricted.  One big screwy thing.  Some way, I got passed to 11th to the exponential level technican located in good ole USA.  I was only the second person in the world that had discovered this little problem  (which turned out to be problem between the MSN software and their antivirus software which was corrected 3 days later after the next antivirus software update).  In the midst of trying to trouble shoot the problem, we are passing jpegs of various sizes in attachments.  I send a picture of my dog, and one of my wife.  I ask if the tech received the pictures.  Yes.  "What do you think?"   The tech's response was puzzling.... "we are not allowed to comment on what we see".  Gosh darn, this guy is 11th to the exponential level technician and he can't tell me that I have a good looking dog?

Anybody catching a pattern here?  We stupid Americans like to talk, and we like for people to relate to US.  So lighten up on the CSA's.  Let them talk about their families and admit that they will be taking a required meal break in 30 minutes.  If I tell a joke, let them laugh.  If my wife is ugly in the picture that I just sent, then say so, I am a man, I can take it.

Good converstations start with people being relaxed and relating to each other.  If I am calling your CSA's, I am going to be tense, don't make the situation worse by not communicating with me.



Second:

As stated previously, I have had to reformat my hard drive 4 times (THAT IS FOUR TIMES).

The first time was clearly the fault of APC, and the nice people at Dell customer service took care of the problem even though the problem involved user installed software (TWO THUMBS UP TO DELL).

The second time for the reformat was due to a virus that loaded during the install of my new printer.  Basically I suspect that I said yes to install new printer drivers, and most likely opened the computer to accept the virus that was pinging my computer at that very moment (the load time of the virus was right in the middle of the load time of printer drivers).  One of them UGLY viruses.  Beagle something or another was his name.  One of them viruses, trogans whatever that causes your nose to turn green, your toes to fall off, your wife to take your dog and move to her mothers, and your computer to send your bank account to Russia.... bottom line, Norton said it usually requires reformating HD.

The third time was the very same day!!!

After I re-installed XP (this was pre SP2 and the built in firewall), I allowed XP to call home to activate itself.  Well gosh darn, look what slipped into the computer, something named Beagle and three of his friends.

My own fault.  Stupid.  You are suppose to load Norton, THEN let XP call home.  Norton's suggestion was reformat.  Duh, my fault.


Fourth time?  It wasn't a virus.  Task manger is my favorite program.  I personally know every file in System32.  Regedit is my middle name.  And in case I missed something, Norton and one of those highly recommended free antivirus packages could not find a virus.  But don't tell all of this to the Dell CSA's.  It MUST BE a virus.  A virus that got past Norton Firewall and can not be detected by Norton Antivirus is the only thing that could cause your problem.

The symptom was weird.  Page file was being consumed at a horrific rate.  After each restart, the amount of consumed page file was increasing.  And page file was being consumed at a rate of 10% per hour, thus causing even more restarts of the computer (which then lost a bit more page file with the subsequent restart).  At the point I called Dell CSA  the computer was loosing half of page file memory with reach restart.  Dell CSA's answer to the problem..... MUST BE a virus.  Could not be anything else.

This MUST BE a virus is a common theme for Dell CSA's.  Yes, two of my reformat's were clearly viral.  Norton was giving me flashing Red screens of warnings in both instances.

BUT...... MUST BE a virus?  Always MUST BE?

IF the virus got passed Norton, and could not be detected by another antivirus software, AND nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could be found in Windows, or System32, or Program Files, or Task Manager that should not be running, then why is the conclusion for virus a MUST BE?


Yep, I reformated the HD.  Solved the problem.  Best conclusion of others was that I suffered from a corrupted driver or dll.  Eventually I might have been able to track the culprit down (if I did not loose all of my page file in the mean time), but reformating the HD was most likely the easiest and fastest solution.  For Dell CSA MUST BE a virus was an easy conclusion to a difficult problem.  Not the right answer, just an easy answer.

And those easy answers (and incorrect answers) are the usual answer that many of us receive to our more complex problems.  Instead of blaming a virus, how about admitting that "I don't know the source of your problem"?

I also have had the call center circles of hell experience.  I own a company and for several years, the lean and mean years, I built my own computers (often Frankenputers from canabalized components).  At the end of last year it was time to upgrade my order desk and decided it would save me time, since I have almost none, to customize a box online.  After some surfing I decided Dell had the best bang for the buck, I bought an XPS.

Right out of the box there was software - read Microsoft - Peanut Butter.  I called customer service to clean-up the gooey, sticky, mess.  The first problem was that the guy in India that I spoke was adament that his name was "David".  Please!  I live in the Bay Area.  The accent is recognizable.  Its always bad to begin a relationship with a lie.  After being bounced through various tiers of "expertise" I was told to reload Windows.  I lost my cool and unkindly said that such a request implys that: 1. Dell is using the wrong operating system. 2. Dell's burn-in and preship qualification process s**ks; or 3. Dell assumes that those buying its systems are tech challanged.  After four hours of wasted script reading I said I'd had enough and would call again the following day.

To Dell's credit my previous call was logged and I was immediately routed to Ottawa.  Where they couldn't help.  Finally I was sent to a tech center in New York.  They were able to help!  Total time: 7.5 hours of phone time.

I was wrong!  I can build a box, burn it in and put it into service in about the same amount of time I spent going through the circles of "customer service"; Despair, all who pass through these gates.

Customer service is what brings customers back.  I have no reason to purchase another Dell.

adeziner

When a customer has a problem and they repeatedly try to get it resolved through customer - tech support, then if it is not satisfactorily resolved, the customer may eventually give up. Dell doesn't honor it premium next business day support, so the next step is to take the issue to management. When I was having my BSOD problems and talking to India and getting nowhere, I decided to call Dell in Round Rock. I explained that I had a problem and I was getting nowhere in their normal channel, even though I had paid $500 extra for premium next business day support. I was informed that there was no one that I could talk to. So, I asked for Michael Dell's email address and was told that he "DID NOT HAVE AN EMAIL Address". This was the final straw for me and this is when I wrote off Dell. I can send an email to Bill Gates and I can get a response. I did this in attempting to resolve my BSOD issue, except that I was making some suggestions for the next version of Windows. My email got routed to a senior executive and I received a follow-up email. Microsoft employees and executives will respond to substantive constructive email messages. Because of the way Dell has deliberately redesigned its customer - technical support, once you have your customers money, you tell your customers that it doesn't matter what your problem is, you have no recourse. Then Dell's executives why so many people are so unhappy with Dell and are posting about it on the internet. When a company tells its customers in effect "up yours", is it any wonder that there are a lot of mad people out there, who feel that they have been ripped off. Fixing customer - technical support is not rocket science. So long as Dell is only giving lip service to improving in improving its customer and technical support by putting a marketing - PR person in charge of this blog. Where is the meaningful dialog with Dell? Where are the tangible results? What is Dell's plan? What is Dell thinking. When a customer buys a new computer and one of its parts is defective, whose bright idea is it to send a refurbished replacement? Maybe top level management needs to be replaced at Dell starting with Michael Dell. In the 90's, Dell was an excellent company with excellent customer - technical support, so it not as though, Dell doesn't know what it takes. Dell's management wants their customers money, so they can post another record-making increase in net profits but you don't see any need to honor your commitments to your customers. Even the EU is fining Dell for its deceptive business practices.

I remember when I got my last Dell, an 8400, last year and the slideshow part of Windows XP wasn't working. I called Dell service to ask what to do and got the answer: reinstall Windows. Now in my view that is not an answer. And it is even more not an answer after the customer service rep took almost 40 minutes asking me the serial number of my computer, my monitor, etc etc only to tell me to reinstall Windows. I realize this was a problem with Window -- a Microsoft and not a Dell product -- but Dell would sure win me over by telling me exactly what to do quickly and helping me fix the problem as opposed to giving me the feeling the service rep had no knowledge of computers, or even Dell itself, and no real interest in helping me.

My one and only problem with Dell, has to do with it's next day, on site service plan. When my Dell computer 'died' one day (really, smoke coming out of it and everything!) I expected a service tech to show up and fix it the next day. No way Dell was going to make that happen. They wouldn't replace it, or even give me a loaner while I sent it away to be fixed. Customer expectaions aren't too high, Laura. Customers simply expect Dell to live up to their contractual obligations. Dell, by having no intention to do so is defrauding it's customers. Don't even get me started on the Dell guy who called to sell me an extention on my 'next day, on site' service contract.....

Okay, so where do I begin? I have more than a score of Dell systems & notebooks ranging from lowly Dimension 2300s all the way up to two PE2800s (one with dual 3.6GHz Xeons and my latest pride & joy, which sports two hot yet really cool Paxvilles). What I like most about your service is I rarely ever need it. That speaks volumes as to the quality of your build. When I did need service on my Inspiron 600m, honestly, it was like a game to me. I knew exactly what was wrong (the custom faux-wood cover panel was placing pressure in a specific spot on the rear of the LCD and causing a discolored/distorted area) and I knew exactly how to fix it (the cover panel needed to be removed). Unfortunately, I didn't know how to remove the cover myself and I didn't want to risk damaging the LCD. So I called up your tech support. Here's how it went: Dell: Let's try changing the resolution Me [1.2 seconds later]: Okay I changed the resolution and the problem still there now what? Dell: Let's boot into safe mode and try it. Me: [.5 seconds later]: Okay I'm in safe mode it's still there Dell: You rebooted already? Me: Yeah, the computer is fast now what? Dell: Let's go into the bios Me: [.1 second later]: I'm in the BIOS now the problem is still there Dell: [getting the hang of it]: Okay we'll send someone to replace the LCD Me: The whole LCD doesn't need to be replaced but if that's how you guys want to handle it fine. The bottom line is, your tech agent was cooperative and respectful of my time and I got the next day service I paid for. Good job. THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID of your newly acquired company, Alienware. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say Alienware's tech support call center is incompetent, full of people who have no issue outright lying to my face, and I have no expectation of having my dead Alienware ever being repaired in my lifetime.

Perhaps if we got rid of the foreign workers calling themselves "Bob" and "Alice" who take forever to turn pages while they look through canned answers? This is a highly ridiculed practice that even Dell makes use of. Have you figured out yet whether this has finally cost you more regarding company image (harder to recoup in the long term) than the short term benefits you are realizing through "Bob" and "Alice"? And fielding questions about equipment that wasn't even purchased from Dell is wasteful of the obviously limited company resources. As a stockholder I consider that negligent waste.

My biggest problem with the dell support has been with using the phone support. You will get transferred countless times even after going through a menu that is supposed to take you to the right place.Hiring another 5000 people for a call center in India is going to solve your support issues! Reconstruct your contact centers in the US please. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11100758/ What is the point of hiring another 5000 people who I will have a hard time hearing/listening to and will just reconnect me with someone else? Why cant you just hire a smaller number of people who actually speak english as their native language and will deal with your problem personally? Just last week I called dell and was redirected to another department which wasnt even open(dead ends indeed). I called back specifically asking when I could reach this department and the guy said they should be open even though they werent and he could not even tell me when they would be available. Long story short I still need to replace my video card and you would have better sales if you had a competent system. When I call to fix a problem with my computer I want to speak to one person who can handle everything. So for example they could give me tech support and then afterwards I could directly purchase replacement parts from them. No more nonsense. The one support service I was happy with was the online chat. I had received help on two occasions using this and was satisfied quickly both times but using this assumes that you have another computer in the house that is working so a decent phone support system is still needed. Im purchasing a new desktop soon. Possibly the 700xps if you can get it out in time. At this point im not sure though because the main reason I originally purchased from a manufacturer is your system's dependability.

I was surprised reading the replies since so many business customers complained about Indian tech support. Except for a brief stint, we alway get support from US call center. Our call usually last about 10 minutes. Usually we told them what is broken and yes we did test this and done that diagnostic and they'll say wait a minute while they document it and that's it. The part usually arrive the next day. We usually only call tech support for replacement part. We use Google and Dell forums for diagnosing problems. I am sure that Dell will find using the remote control software, blogged a couple of days ago, will help alot with tech support. I found it invaluable at work and at home I used Logmein to help family members. Just remember to talk to the user at every step and telling them what you are doing and why.

Not too big on history, I'm guessing? Where does Dell quantify the brand value or goodwill value? Ford saved $11 per Pinto, but didn't actually come out ahead you may recall (and yes, the "recall" pun is intended). Dell needs to focus on quality hardware and quality support (the latter being lightyears away). Put the people from Round Rock back on the phones. Spend a lot on your support crew. Don't hire a guy named Rajneesh for $3.50 a day and make him tell me his name is "Joey". That's a crappy thing to do to him and to me. I don't buy Dell these days for the same reason i don't buy Lenovo- I don't approve of what the company stands for or how it conducts itself. Put a price on that point of view if you can. It may only be $0.11 per Inspiron (the Pinto of laptops, now literally thanks to the battery-fire thing). And perhaps beyond the scope of this particular post, there's also the irony of the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation committing $300 for "global childrens issues" and "central Texas community issues" as the benefactors profit by moving jobs out of Texas. Maybe central Texas wouldn't have so many community "issues" if the folks there still had jobs?

There is no magic wand, but there are some customer service things that would make CS better. A simple one would be to move the call centers back to the U.S. I know it is much cheaper in India, but is the loss of customers worth the savings? I don't know - maybe it is. My XPS 600 is not worth the $3000 I paid for it, and when I had a problem I spent over an hour on the phone with a guy that didn't pick up on common phrases, pauses, etc. in our conversation. It was very difficult to communicate with him. He was polite and tried to help, but he just wasn't efficient and a lot of time was wasted. Put your call centers near technical colleges where you can get lots of cheap American college student labor. They know just as much and are cheaper.

Laura, reading through your post, I think I saw two things; -Workforce Management was not being handled correctly, but has since been corrected. Nothing but good :) -Processes are being unifed/corrected, also yay! -As mentioned numerous times by other commenters here, out-sourced tech support jobs to India aren't hitting it. I don't care where the centre is located, but the agent has to be able toconnect with me on a human level and a technical level as well. And yeah, "Bob"... right. Just be honest about the name.

I'll quote the first line of your post: "So… you wanna talk about service? Let’s do it. " The problem is that we're not talking - your post is an admirable effort at opening dialogue with the readers of this blog, but then if you don't respond at all to any of the comments that are raised, then its just as if you hadn't posted anything at all. Talking, after all, does imply an exchange between conversing parties...and thats what's missing here.

Laura, I hate to say this but your post, while long on copy, was pretty short on any real, substantial information. Other than reiterating what Dell has been saying that you are going to be spending $100 million to “fix” customer service problems, you haven’t given much concrete evidence of what steps you are taking. When you say you are radically restructuring the contact centers can you be more specific? Are they coming back stateside? What exactly is a holistic look? Sounds kind of squishy What kind of tools will these service agents have – a better script to follow or more independence to really fix the problems? Lots of clichés, but not a lot of substance as far as I can tell, but maybe it’s just me. And then in conclusion you say “We have a plan we believe in, and we’re ready to share it and get your feedback. Okay, what exactly is the plan?

At this moment I'm on hold with Gold support. Any particular reason why I must be subjected to the same three or four snippets of information ("blah, blah, blah. Just visit us at dell.com/goldsupport dot com ...") over and over again? Say it once and then give me something useful like an estimated wait time. To tell the truth, I would rather listen to Vogon poetry than to hear that woman tell me "... Just visit us at dell.com/goldsupport dot com" one more time. Even elevator music would be preferable. The long hold times are a problem, made excrutiating by these repeated messages. Do you really think I will change my mind after listening to the same message 74 times and hang up and use the web site? My mind is numb by then. I'm for sure not listening. Besides, I use the web site when it makes sense to use it. If I just have a question or the need of clarification, I use the web site. If my system is dead in the water because the memory is bad, like it is right now, then I call.

Just throwing in my two cents. You've lost me as a customer. I bought a desktop and the Dell Axim about 2 years ago and the customer service was so horrible that I will not go "Dell" again. I've resolved to work with local resellers - at least that way I can call som