Friday, January 23, 2009

New Year but Same Old...

Dell Hell continues to haunt the rarified heights of Round Rock, Texas.. Marketing Week in the UK ran an article this week on the phenomenon of Dell Hell and reaffirms the problems outlined in this blog over the last two years.

Dell has not only failed to turn around an abysmal history of poor customer service, they are failing to connect to the market place.

Dell takes a stance with shareholders which is very similar to what they did with my own computer problems (in reality, my daughters problems) which launched me into dell hell. That stance is simply "not our fault, go away...".

With shares hovering at $10 and sales in freefall, Dell continues to ignore legitimate complaints like mine, thus loosing millions of dollars (see an earlier blog on the cost of doing business with an unhappy customer) and further alienating valuable customers. What was the original solution to my problem? Simple, replace the faulty computer with a comparable model.

Instead Dell chose to hide behind lies, stonewalling and denial. GREAT plan Michael! You could have BOUGHT me a computer out of your own pocket at a cost to you personally of about 2 minutes of your work day... instead you passed the grief on to your shareholders and they are stuck with about $3 million in lost customer sales. Way to go Michael Dell.

You promised to turn it around, instead you are plowing it into the ground. Don't you think it is time to get real, get honest? I suggest you start with me, send me a computer and I will change my mind about the real path you have chosen and will begin to support you again.

Continue to ignore your customers and you will get more of the same, falling share price, falling market share and unsustainable pressure from the shareholders. You can choose to ignore me but you can't ignore them.

Which way will you play it Michael?

Oh, yeah... here is a quote for those too lazy to click on the link above to Marketing Week.

"Dell Hell

Senior executives, including chief marketing officer Erin Nelson, must tackle Dell’s fading reputation after a series of fiascos, particularly in the US. Earlier this month, US consumers sued Dell for false advertising and, after much legal wrangling, it agreed to pay $3.35m (£2.25m) to settle claims by 34 state attorneys general that it used deceptive financing and warranty practices in its US ads."




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are certainly not alone down here in DELL HELL. It is in fact getting quite crowded here in HELL. We tought your story was interesting so we took the liberty of posting it on our site www.dellhell.se (We are in a swedish DELL HELL).

Thank you for telling the world about DELL HELL!

Unknown said...

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