Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 8

It's been a long time since I rounded up the numbers on Dell Hell... this was always one of my favourite ones to write just because numbers often tell a story of their own..

First lets have a look at the good old "My PC is on Fire" parody of the Numa Numa song on Youtube...

338,546 - Number of views of this parody on Youtube
64,924 - Number of views since August 2007
8,000 - Approx. number of views per month

So this old, dated video parody is still turning out (and turning away) about 8,000 customers per month! Well done to whoever created it, the social networking sites are more than able to kick a company in the balls long after the fact, something the nobs at Dell should try to keep in mind!

2- Number of lawsuits or subpeonas issued/expanded involving Dell in the last month, details are here and here.

+900 - Jobs lost in Edmonton Canada after Dell closed a "top performing" call centre there.

$1 - Per year lease negotiated by Dell with the City of Edmonton for Dell setting up shop there.

$1.1 million - 5 year tax rebate given to Dell to operate in Edmonton.

6.4 % - Percentage of profit Dell fell short on in the fourth quarter 2007 filings.

336,000 - Hits on Google for the words Dell Hell.

3,480 - Hits on Google for the word DellHell (obviously I should change my site name and keywords!).

283,000 - Hits on Google for the words I Hate Dell.

717 - Number of articles at Ripoffreport.com about Dell ripping off customers.

This site is well worth reading for anyone considering buying a Dell computer or other product! Just the sort of complaints you can find in the hundreds at Dells' own website Direct2Dell but without the useless blather from Lionel and company about how sorry they are and how they intend to fix it... yeah, right, like we haven't been hearing that for the last year or so.

2,483 - Links at Technorati to blogs with the words Dell Hell in them.

And that just about wraps it up today, it is the closing days of the ski season and I want to get in as much skiing as I can!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Dellhell Twice in One Day? Try every day for 8 months!!!

Sometimes you have to laugh just to keep from crying... it is hard to understand how, after spending tens of millions of dollars to "turn around" customer service at Dell, they can still provide us with such shocking examples of how not to run a business....

The following article is taken from good old consumerist.com and once again provides us with a sterling example of what it is like to try to do business (or not) with Dell. Buyer Beware!

A woman who inherited a phone number from a previous employee at her workplace has been plagued for 8 months by daily phone calls from Dell debt collectors, despite her MANY efforts to clear the fog from the heads of the morons who are running the show on the other end of the phone.

No word yet from Dell mouthpiece Lionel Menchacha but that is not surprising, what could you possibly say about it that might make her feel better?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Dellhell Twice in One Day!

Wow, great day to decide to google the Dell news! This article was just posted this afternoon on Consumerist.com and speaks directly to the nightmare known as Dellhell!

Also getting some healthy readership numbers in the first hours of publication, this article which is 45 minutes old has had 4500 views and 47 comments!

I blogged some months back on the power of social networking sites and others to share news, good and bad, and the potential effect of that information spreading... so hats off to consumerist.com... a modern day Samizdat of the consumer world...

And so it is...

Go Away

A new strategy at Dell in Customer Service? With direct2dell and other customer points of contact such as the forums, overflowing with complaints from angry customers, has the old "write to the ceo" (EECB's as they are known) friendly corporate image had an overhaul?

This article published online at one of my favorite sites consumerist.com highlights the change in the relationship between Dell and its customer base.

While I can understand that the sheer volume of complaints alone would prohibit even the most diligent CEO from answering personally, it highlights the ongoing problem of customer service and the deteriorating attitude at Dell towards the consumer market.

My own experiences with the Executive Escalation team is one of deny, deny, deny... from fear of the many pending or active civil suits against the Inspiron line is my best guess.

Dellhell is not a thing of the past and the many people who responded to the consumerist.com article are testimony to that! To this time point there have been over 3800 views and 35 comments on an article that is hours old.

Yikes...