Dell Hell Revisited

Plenty of Ammo, only one target, fire away!

2010-12-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

I was down in Vegas a few weeks ago and not being a gambler there isn't much for a guy to do, but I did see a few things that caught my eye. If I had the limitless wallet of the Round Rock gunslingers I would go down to one of those shooting ranges and get myself some automatic weapons and blast away.. at $1 per bullet it probably makes as much sense as the slots!

One place I can find limitless ammo is right here in dellhell... the cowboys in Round Rock went bad many years ago and although I can't report any cattle rustling I can sure as hell find some pretty shady hustling going on just about any day of the week. Seems the bad guys just never learn...

November 19, 2010 - PCMAG reports that Dell knowingly sold faulty computers to customers, computers BTW that had a failure rate in some cases of %100!!! How did dell deal with the issue? Here is a quote for those to lazy to click on the link... "...Dell documents also indicates that the system "mail [sic] fail to boot or experience a thermal shutdown due to failed motherboard with bulged capacitors". The same document urges Dell representatives to "urge uncertainty" in dealing with the issue, not to bring up the issue proactively, and not to promise to exchange any machines that had not failed yet."

November 28, 2010 - PCWORLD released its 2010 Reliability and Service Survey and here is what they have to say about Dell, "...home customers say that Dell's problem-solving skills are mediocre at best." Really? Mediocre? Is that what I expected? Wanted? Paid for?

November 28, 2010 - PCWORLD also reported on this day in an article titled "The Tech Brands You Can Trust" that Dell is the second worst computer manufacturer you can possibly buy from these days... so don't just take our word for it... buyer beware, you will get what you paid for, which in the case of a dell computer is crap service and dodgy computers.

So there is a snapshot of one week in DellHell... I haven't got time to wade through the last few weeks, but you get the idea... I will just leave off with two more quotes.. these from readers of DellHell Revisited...

December 7, 2010 - A DellHell Revisited reader says this about his recent entry to DellHell.... "Just entered Dell Hell. I ordered a computer - lo and behold, it is defective. Over seven hours so far talking to customer service/tech support in India. They have a script. They cannot deviate. It is infuriating. A week later I am still sitting with a defective computer."

December 7, 2010 - Another DellHell Revisited reader had this to say as well... "Right on! I have experienced Dell Hell many times in my 18+ years working with computers, networks, websites, software, I have found Dell to be irresponsible and dishonest. Customer service, HA!"

So if you were thinking of computers or peripherals as christmas gifts this season, you might want to think again if you were thinking Dell... they don't rustle cows in Round Rock but they sure do hustle the public...

Dell Customer Service vs Apple?

2010-09-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

So here I am, still blogging away in a vain and ill disguised attempt to get even with Dell for selling shoddy products and backing that up with infamous customer service... That's right... Infamous... I love that word, it rolls off the tongue quite nicely... Try it!

Well, using silicon valley methodology, (despite Dell's Round Rock roots) my readership is about to double and we are projecting year end readership will have grown 980% over last year!

I like the sound of round rock roots too, that would be a good name for a Texas band!

Anyway, i digress... All four of you have remained loyal these many years in the wilderness, but now I can tell you that your ranks are about to swell!

I told the girl at the Apple store, who had just replaced my broken, out of warranty iPhone with a free replacement, about Dell Hell Revisited. She is sure to read this and so are her friends!!! I'm ready for my IPO!

So Anna @ Apple, her friends and family, I say a big hello and welcome...

To Michael @ Dell I say "bite me"!

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 15

2010-07-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Well, this one is going to be fun, I love doing the "By the Numbers" blogs because they give us a chance to quantify disaster. So let us jump in at the deep end... the deep end being in the cesspool of Round Rock Texas, corporate HQ of Dell and spiritual home of DellHell.

94 - Number of related news stories on Google News regarding Dells dirty dealings as pointed out over the last few days on this blog and many others. And those 94 sites actually have readers, unlike this one! They include PC WORLD, NY TIMES, CNN MONEY, NPR, THE GUARDIAN and a host of other mainstream news outlets... ENGADGET, a well respected tech magazine had my favorite headline of the bunch "Dell responds to latest capacitor-related fallout, ignores the whole lying to consumers part"

50,000 - A random figure representing readers per media outlet above. We have no way of estimating the actual readership of the articles so we are using 50,000 just for the mental exercise here. I mean we ARE talking the NY TIMES and PC WORLD...

4,700,000 - The estimated number of people who have read the articles about Dell delinquency using our figures above.

47,000 - Number of lost customers if only 1% of those people never buy another dell because of this bad publicity.

705,000 - Number of products lost if each person were to have purchased 15 items in their remaining lifetime.

70,500,000 - Dollars lost to dell from those customers.

Now lets have some real fun... remember we are just using figures from the top of my head and I am trying to be fair and simple.

470 - Number of execs with purchasing power at their company who are 1% of the lost customers above

1000 - Computers and accessories purchased every 5 years by each of the execs

2,820,000 - Product sales lost by dell during the career of these execs (30 years)

2,820,000,000 - Dollars of lost sales over 30 years because of this scandal

So we can see from even this simplistic exercise that Dell will take a VERY significant hit from this shoddy behavior, especially if one considers the $300 million in fines they are on target for, and remember that this behavior was encouraged by the top executives, perhaps a shareholder revolt is in order before the fire in the barn in Rim Rock becomes a 5 alarmer and burns down the whole place.

From Frying Pan to Fire or Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?

2010-07-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Two blogs in two days... can only mean two things... Dell is at it again and I am bored.

Reaction to the news of the past few days re: dell shipping faulty computers and scamming customers with B.S. and a bit of smoke and mirrors, has brought out the spin doctors in full force.

Lionel (I have kids to feed) Menchaca and other spin doctors at Dell had this to say on the issue... "Dell did not knowingly ship faulty motherboards, and we worked directly with customers in situations where the issue occurred," and then stuck their collective foot even further into their mouth with this tidbit... "Dell suspended use of Nichicon capacitors after we discovered a problem in its manufacturing process,"

What Lionel fails to tell us is that Dell was aware of the problem in January of 2004 (rival HP stopped shipping computers with these capacitors in March 2004). Dell on the other hand continued to order these faulty capacitors from the supplier and sell computers with them installed until late 2005!! And in fact a review by Dell itself found "that OptiPlex computers affected by the bad capacitors were expected to cause problems up to 97 percent of the time over a three-year period".

In a final and hilarious twist to the story, the law firm defending Dell was itself affected by the computer failures and several emails to that effect are part of the court record! Dell even tried to B.S. their own lawyers!

So can we sum up by saying Dell has been lying to customers for years and continues to do so? Bill Snyder in PC World seems to think so, he had this to say... "Only a rotten company sells defective computers and lies about it." and threw this in as well... "it will always be tainted by the scandal and by its shocking breach of faith with customers" and signed off on the article with this..."Every now and then the company trots out a sincere-sounding exec to announce yet another initiative about improved quality and customer service. I don't believe them any more. This is how companies fade away and die."

So you tell me, is Dell full of good old Texas Bullshit? It would seem the executive offices in Round Rock are knee deep in it and rising at the moment.

Dell's Dirty Dealings and Plummeting Share Value

2010-07-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

So after a brief hiatus while I spent some time at the Olympics and then relocated to a place best left unmentioned due to it's utter lack of charm or other redeeming qualities, I happened to google Dell news today and lo and behold, what do I find?

Here is a quote from Money.CNN

"From 2003 to 2005, Dell sold computers with faulty capacitors that allegedly caused most motherboards on two Dell Optiplex models to break, rendering the computers useless. Dell was aware of the issue, according to recently unsealed court documents from a pending lawsuit, yet continued to sell the computers anyway.

Though the juiciest details are still sealed by the court, several internal company e-mails show that Dell instructed its sales staff to downplay the malfunctions to customers.

"We need to avoid all language indicating the [mother]boards were bad or had 'issues,'" Jeff DilLullo, a Dell sales manager, wrote in a March 2004 e-mail.

One December 2004 e-mail shows that the company was hiding the reason for and severity of the crashes from its customers.

END QUOTE

Hey Lionel Menchacha... if you are still working for these dirtbags I would love to hear from you... how do you spin this on Direct2Dell? (BTW Lionel, You can respond here, I don't follow Direct2Dell anymore, no point.)

Here is a quote for you Lionel, from one of your own bean counters at Dell and it says exactly what I was telling you was the reason you swines wouldn't fix my daughters computer even though you know darn well it was a turkey...

"we open ourselves up to a flood of customers wanting whole system replacements -- which would be disastrous."

Another quote from the same article indicates that this sort of behavior is not unusual at Dell...

QUOTE
"Dell recently set aside $100 million for a settlement it is negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a bundle of fraud charges stemming from years of accounting violations. An internal Dell investigation, completed in 2007, found that company officials improperly manipulated Dell's reserve accounts -- such as those set aside to cover product warranty claims -- to hide earnings shortfalls.
END QUOTE

Not just A fraud charge... a BUNDLE of fraud charges... who would have guessed?

Spokesman David Frink, when asked about the issue of the faulty computers had this to say "old news."

Well maybe so, but did he notice in the last few weeks that Dell's share price has plummeted %26? It has been obvious for years that Dell no longer gives a damn about it's consumer customers, and PC sales to the consumer market have responded by dropping dell down the list of world leaders in PC sales year after year... but now with a bitter taste in their mouths resulting from fraud convictions and a very questionable set of customer service values, will Dell's corporate customers go the same way?

Let's hope so, Dell has earned it!

Straight from the Horses' Mouth

2010-03-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

So what is wrong with Dell? Why shouldn't you purchase dell products? Well, please don't take my word for it, do your research and always respect the warning of "buyer beware"... here are a few recent items straight from the horses' mouth...

Still providing crap service... two key quotes from this link for those too lazy to go look for themselves... "I know it's impossible to find the perfect vendor, however Dell gives many reasons to look at competitors", and for me the most telling of all "I also experienced another recent problem with Dell Latitude e4300 machines where the original motherboard was causing Windows to "lock up" at random. Replacing the motherboard fixed the issue in 5 separate machines. There are also posts all over Google on this very same issue, yet Dell has not acknowledged any problem whatsoever, or offered a recall to the problem".

A comment on the above link is also very clear on what the problem is... "Totally agree with you on this one. Our department (schools services) has now switched over to buying new machines from HP, which work very well. The reason we switched from Dell to HP is due to the lack of support and the hardware in the pc's fail after a year or two. The support helpline was never 'helpful' always talking to someone overseas who would arrange a visit, if needed, from a technician in Glasgow, why they couldnt just give us the number for the Glasgow centre (believe me we constantly asked) is a mystery. I wouldnt recommend to anyone to buy Dell anymore as they dont live up to their own expectations and as soon as they have your money, you might as well take a out a service agreement with someone on the moon, then at least your problem might be solved quicker."

In the market place investors would seem to agree... noting the poor results of Dell compared to HP in the last quarter. Small wonder if one takes into account the two commentators above... Way to go, Michael Dell!

So there are a few more things to think about when you go out to buy a computer.

If you are a masochist I highly recommend DellHell...

119,000 Canadians cannot be wrong

2010-01-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Dell has been facing a number of class action lawsuits during the past few years and today they have recieved word that they will be getting their day in court, despite their best efforts to avoid it.

119,000 Canadians are participating in a class action suit in Toronto, Canada which relates to faulty computers from the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160 Inspiron laptop computer lines. Dell appealed the class action and as usual dell seems to be oblivious to the tens of thousands of complaints, insisting that they have done nothing wrong and the computers in question are a fine product...

Well folks, if one person tells you a dell is crap and so is the customer service, that is one thing. But when 119.000 people are saying it perhaps you should take heed.

I for one am very happy to see this class action finally moving ahead... Dell, and more importantly, the customers they have sold this crap to, are finally going to get their day in court.

In another sign of trouble in Round Rock, Acer founder Stan Shih predicts Dell will disappear entirely within the next 20 years, citing Dells inability to compete in the ever tightening marketplace. Shih should know, Acer overtook Dell last year for the number two spot among computer manufacturers world-wide and is expected to take over #1 spot from HP in the coming year.

Could not come soon enough for me...

Dell loses identity, market share and customers, Way to Go Michael!

2010-01-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've had time to worry about Dell, the ski season is in full swing and I am working for the Olympics preparing the race courses. I also own an Acer notebook now so I don't think of dell so often as I used to!

But not to worry, while I have been away, the oracles at Dell (nice pun, eh?) have continued to drive the company into a catagory somewhere between HP, Acer, Apple and Meaningless.

Have a read of an article which ponders the question "Who is Dell". Even the guys who follow this sort of thing no longer know... yikes!

Here is a quote for those of you too lazy to follow the link...

"Who is Dell? A memory lingers but little else, less because of Dell's relevance in any given market, more because it's difficult to surmise what the company stands for any more. None among our own long-time market observers and CIO advisory board members can articulate Dell's identity. It's amid this haze that several us journey this week to Round Rock, Texas, hopeful but skeptical.

Dell's market share in its traditionally strongest markets--PCs and servers--has declined: Acer has overtaken Dell in worldwide PC shipments, according to some figures , and the company's share continues to slip in the U.S. Dell's server sales are a distant third behind IBM's and HP's. Dell will likely always matter here, shipping server congeries to cloud providers and enterprises for pedestrian processing tasks, or desktops and laptops through retail channels or directly online; but all that it imagined and invented has become banal and mimicked and, worse, less profitable."

So lets find the key words and phrases in those two paragraphs... skeptical, declined, overtaken, distant third, banal, mimicked, less profitable... double yikes!

Keep in mind this is a company who once had a share price, and a market share, that were the envy of the business world... what happened?

Poor product support led the way due to poor products... misguided management helped it along and arrogance finished it off... that would be my guess.

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 14

2009-08-23T09:27:00.002-07:00

Well this is cheap and nasty doing another "By the Numbers" so soon after the last, but then again the whole topic is about cheap and nasty, so why not?

I was showing a friend the anti-dell video "My PC is on Fire" on youtube and that led to wondering about the total views since I began this blog... that led to playing on google and the new microsoft search engine bing using various key words involving dell.. so here we go, and we will kick it off with my favourite!

227,706 - Views of "My PC is on Fire" from May 21, 2007

440,781 - Views of "My PC is on Fire" as of August 23, 2009

213,075 - Views of "My PC is on Fire" since I began this blog (NOTE: I did NOT create the video, I have far too little talent for that masterpiece!).

213 - Number of people who viewed that video if I was responsible for driving .001% of the traffic to it.

2 - Number of lifetime customers lost by Dell if 1% of those .001% choose not to buy dell products.

4407 - Number of lifetime customers lost by dell if 1% of ALL viewers of that video choose not to buy a dell product.

1,950,000 - Number of hits on Google using the keywords "Dell" and "Lawsuit".

12,200,000 - Number of hits on Bing using the keywords "Dell" and "Lawsuit".

52,800,000 - Number of hits on Google using the keywords "Dell" and "Problem".

69,000,600 - Number of hits on Bing using the keywords "Dell" and "Problem".

1,420,000 - Number of hits on Google using the keywords "Dell" and "Hell".

7,790,000 - Number of hits on Bing using the keywords "Dell" and "Hell".

33,600 - Number of hits on Google using the keyword "Dellhell".

107,000,000 - Number of hits on Bing using the keyword "Dellhell".

551,000 - Number of hits on Google using the keywords "Angry", "Dell" and "Customer".

594,000 - Number of hits on Bing using the keywords "Angry", "Dell" and "Customer".

So what did we learn from all this? Three things...

Don't buy Dell products least you too wind up in Dell Hell.

If you are going to try out Bing be prepared for a lot of sifting to get what you need.

Social Media is a powerful tool for striking back at corporations who try to run roughshod over their customers.

So, to all three of my readers I say "well done", together we will bring Texas Justice to Round Rock, just like the guy in the white hat used to do in the movies.

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More from Dell Hell, will they never learn?

2009-08-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

One would think that after four years of promises from Dell to fix the sorry state of affairs in the Customer service department that something would have happened... and it did!

Things got worse! Hard to believe? Then consider this... after hundreds of millions of dollars, endless promises from Mr Dell himself and customers are still getting the same old B.S.

Here is yet another Classic story of Dells' customer service, you can decide for yourself if you really want to follow this poor guy down the road to DellHell...

Pete had purchased a three-year, extended replacement warranty from Dell, so on Thursday morning he called technical support. "Between Thursday and Saturday," he says, "I must have spent over 20 hours on hold. While being transferred from technical support to customer service and back again, I began to think the call center was being paid by the number of call transfers. Not until late Saturday afternoon was I connected to anyone who could provide technical support. He diagnosed my problem as a burned out motherboard."

The technician shipped a replacement motherboard to an authorized repair agent in the city where Pete's daughter was attending college and made an appointment for Monday morning to meet Pete and make the fix. "This was getting close to the beginning of my daughter's classes and my plans to depart to make the 800 mile drive home on Tuesday," says Pete.

Pete waited at the appointed location with his cell phone in his pocket. "No one showed," he says. "And no one called." After two hours, he called and fell right back into the technical support vs. customer service loop he'd endured on Saturday. He spent several frustrating hours on the phone looking for someone who could help.

"Finally, with no logical end in sight," he says. "I gave up. I went to a local retailer and purchased another laptop for my daughter to use at school and began the long drive back home with the broken Dell in my car."

Two days after he got home, the repair technician called Pete. Now he was ready to repair the laptop. "He didn't find it particularly funny that I was several states away," says Pete. "And he had no intention of shipping the motherboard to me or a repair technician near my home. He said he would return the motherboard to Dell and that I should start over again in that endless customer service vs. technical support loop again. No thanks! It will be a cold day in you know where before I subject myself to that experience again."

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Brothers in Arms

2009-07-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

Americans like catchy phrases, and if it is a catchy phrase with a military ring to it, so much the better... and seeing as how dellhell revisited is all about firing shots across the bow of the other lumbering dreadnought from texas that is Dell, Brothers in Arms seemed as good a choice as any for a title today.

If we are going to talk about Brothers in Arms in regards to the fight being waged in the trenches of dell hell, we must make mention of the first Colonel of the Regiment, Jeff Jarvis, who unfortunately went over to the enemy after a fierce series of skirmishes in the early part of this century.

After the changing of the guard, Dell Hell wandered about the internet, thousands of angry voices without center. Good news is I've learned just the past few days that Dell Hell has opened another front in the war, the fight being carried to Europe from some unpronounceable place in Sweden. I guess they are making up for sitting out the big one in WWII.

So what do I know about the dell hell team in Sweden? Not a damn thing, the entire website is in swedish (makes sense, I guess), and all I know of sweden is it is skitkallt and the girls are skitsnygg...

Anyway, if you can read swedish you can check it out yourself at www.dellhell.se and if you want to see a skitsnygg swedish girl check out tiger woods wife.

So for you poor souls cast in to dell hell, be comforted to know that our side is winning.

Do you hear that in Round Rock? CAN you hear that in Round Rock? WE are winning... cash your checks man, light your fancy cuban cigars, but be sure to take a moment and kiss my ass.

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 13

2009-07-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time again for that bit of fun known here in dell hell as a "By the Numbers" blog, and they are among my favorites to write. Numbers are easy, as long as they aren't too big...

1 - shareholder who had the cajones to get up and ask why they were paying bonuses to Dell executives who have been presiding over what can best be described as a mess. Here is a quote to get you going... "Shareholders who held stock for 12 months lost half their money. Stock was down 50 percent, thousands of employees were laid off. Yet I see in most cases, executive compensation is up, in some cases significantly. I'm just trying to understand how something like that can be justified, given that shareholders and employees have suffered so much."

1.1 - million dollars, which is the annual cost for security for Michael Dell (security from shareholders??)

1.05 - dollars, which is the amount dell shares fell after the recent analyst meeting at Dell HQ

8.1 - the percentage fall in share price 1.05 represents

2 - Number of stars dell was awarded by the Motley Fool investment community (that ain't good folks) and here is a quote from one of them... "Dell is a pretender and their best days will always be in their rear view mirrors."

2 - Number of times in little more than a week that dell offered deals too good to be true online in Taiwan, much to the displeasure of Taiwanese officials and thousands of citizens who tried to take advantage of the offers.

-18.7 - percentage growth for dell in the last quarter compared to 08

1.2 - percentage growth for HP in the same quarterly comparison

So there it is, small numbers tell a big story...

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Dell Hell - Semi European Edition Pt 2

2009-07-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, investors and consumers in the UK have long marvelled at the unique ways Americans have of doing business, but might be left a bit worried by the latest news from the gang who won't shoot straight.

Dell has been found in contempt of court in the State of Louisiana in a case involving alleged misdeeds in regards security apparatus for the city of New Orleans.

In a case involving security cameras, dell, when ordered to turn over relevant emails from within the company did not even use the word "camera" in the search of dell computers... the Louisiana judge overseeing the case was furious. A new search is ongoing using court ordered search words.

At a time when quite a few American name brands (and Americans for that matter, hello Bernie Madoff, how is the new cell?) are a pariah for less than honest business dealings, Dell seems at risk of joining them.

Dell is sitting on about $11 Billion in cash and there is much speculation on what they might spend it on... bail bonds might be in order.

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OvertheCliff@dell.com

2009-06-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry if you didn't get the title first time around... here is an explanation of sorts.

First quarter results have just been released and it's shaping up to be a worse season for Dell than the 1976 Tampa Bay NFL team had...

ChannelWeb led off with "Q1 PC Shipments Plummet 8.1 Percent As Dell Leads Plunge" which although reflective of Dells' Q1 it isn't entirely true... only Dell and Lenovo failed to post positive growth among the giants HP, Acer and Toshiba, Dell and Lenovo. Worldwide shipments were down, but it is only Dell and Lenovo who are taking the plunge over the cliff, the others are growing marketshare even in these most difficult of times.

I would judge this to be a small victory for consumers. Social networking means that when large corporations treat customers in such a cavalier manner, it quickly becomes common knowledge among the customer base, sales and reputation decline. At the end of the story that discontent becomes evident in the share price and the market share. I'm no stock analyst but I do have a bit of common sense and Round Rock seems to have pockets of town where common sense is AWOL, the fact these problems happened in the first place is shocking enough, that it is still going on four years after they first surfaced is an indictment.

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Dell Hell - Semi European Edition

2009-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Recent figures out of the UK point to a serious setback for Dell in Europe and the UK with computer shipments dropping a whopping %22.1 which is not only a shock to Dell pundits but a shame as well... Acer shipments were up %31.6 in the same period, market leader HP up %1.2, Toshiba and Asus reporting %20.3 and %43.4 respectively.

Yikes.

For a company whose core talent was (and I say was) selling good, cheap computers to the masses they don't seem to be doing so well.

One of the UK's most widely read papers The Telegraph recently published a scathing blog that starts off "Poor, schizophrenic Dell..." and then goes on to relate the familiar story of dell hell and the patronizing nightmare of "DELLA" which is apparently some dell website for women. If it's put up by the same talking heads from direct2dell I can well imagine...

Double Yikes.

In another article outlining the mess@dell.com along with the usual description of said mess there are suggestions on potential fixes. The FIRST on the list of things to fix is... you guessed it CUSTOMER SERVICE... hello Talking Heads? This is a sad state of affairs 4 yrs PJJ (post Jeff Jarvis)

Triple Yikes.

And the New York Times reports on a customer service study that shows Dell with a 58% rating which qualifies as Very Poor... no surprise there. Apple got top billing with 80%... no surprise there either.

Quadruple Yikes

I don't know the word for the 5th yikes (fifthuple???) and I am too busy shaking my head over the sad state of affairs in Round Rock to go on so I will leave it there.

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The Cost of Doing Business@Dell.com

2009-05-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

I was torn over what to call this particular post and what style it should appear in, like Dell itself, we have multiple choices here at Dell Hell Revisited... should I go with a traditional "By the Numbers" or should I go for the more obscure style of "...@dell.com"

Well, it's best served warm so here it is without further debate on style or content... a small example of the cost of doing business with Dell.

North Carolina offered Dell somewhere in the area of $280 million in incentives to set up a plant there. Part of the deal was 1700 jobs by 2010. After two recent rounds of layoffs, the plant now employs about 1140 and Dell isn't saying when or if it will ever employ the 1700 required to justify the incentive. Do the math folks, even if Dell filled the 1700 jobs that is still a VERY generous incentive. Let me save you the trouble of pulling out the calculator, it is $164,705.00 PER JOB. At the current 1140 it is a staggering $245,614.00 per job...

Hands up who COULDN'T create a job for yourself if the Government gave you $245,000.00 to start up... or to buy yourself some job related education... or maybe you are a local farmer who wants to transition from tobacco to edible crops?

If I lived in North Carolina I would be pissed at Dell and just as pissed at my local Government.

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Happy 25th to DellHell

2009-05-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

Thats right folks, 25 yrs of dellhell as of this month... One can only presume that Micheal learned much about computers in those years, and indeed things have come a long way since the days of PC's LTD, the legendary company Dell founded in his college dorm.

Sadly, he seems to have learned nothing in those same years, in regards to customer service. The long line at the gates of DellHell will attest to that.

"...Fortunately, the XT is still under warranty, so all I had to do was call Dell and have them replace the digitizer. That took several phone calls, running diagnostics over the phone, etc. I had one support rep tell me that my Latitude XT was not a real PC. I had another rep tell me that the diagnostics was taking too long to run, so I needed to call them back when it was finished..."

Well, not so bad you think... wait, there is more... dell sends it back untouched and unrepaired, he sends it back to dell a second time, they fix it but keep 2 of the 3 GB of ram he had in the machine... and now he has had enough...

"...Dell, your technical support and repair facility has been an utter fail and has left me being one very disappointed Dell customer. This latest mishap, coupled with my overall experience with the Latitude XT, has me looking at anything but Dell when it comes to buying new systems for myself and my small business clients."

In other news...

Dell gets sued yet again...
"Dell sued by city of New Orleans over crime cameras"

The company tanks in the first quarter of the year...
"Why the Big Dip at Dell in the First Quarter?"

Dell is not getting messages on their mobile phone
“...a non-compelling product with a roadmap that lags competition.”

Dell gets a failing grade...
"Dell basically flunked with a “poor” 58% rating overall and a “very poor” 47% in enjoyability."

And that's just a taste of what it's been like in dell hell lately....enjoy!

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 12

2009-03-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

419,455 - views of the popular youtube video "My PC is on Fire"

31,000 - views since September, 30/2008 of "My PC is on Fire"

190 - views per day of "My PC is on Fire"

2 - number of people per day who will never buy a dell computer again (estimate 1 in 100 who watch the video will be so negatively affected that they will not buy a dell product again)

19,200 - dollars lost over the lifetime of one former or potential loyal customer of dell

38,400 - potential lifetime dollars lost per day by Dell from two unhappy non-returning customers. EVERYDAY.

23 - approximate dollar price per share of dell when Micheal Dell was reinstated as CEO

8.98 - today's share price

-11 - today's temperature in Celsius and the reason for this entry!

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Dell Hell Gets Its Day in Court

2009-02-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

After a good deal of anticipated judicial delay the Class Action suit in Canada against Dell Computers has finally been approved and will proceed in an Ontario court room.

The suit alleges Dell was at fault for shoddy construction of Dell Inspiron models 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160. If you own one and live in Canada contact the lawyers for the class action at their offices in Toronto

The issue with all these models was overheating caused by shoddy wiring apparently... seems that overheating was also an issue with my own entry into DellHell.

Dells' position was that each individual with a problem would have to go through resolution with Dell... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Darn that has to be the best joke I've heard in ages....

In other news Dell continues a downward spiral that confirms what I have long maintained, Micheal Dell is not the saviour people set him up to be, in fact his narrow vision of PC manufacturing and marketing set them up for the fall. He has totally missed the boat in terms of customer service overhaul and corporate overhaul.

Yikes, glad I don't own stock and sad that I still have a $3000 paperweight in my junk somewhere in that closet where my personal Dell Hell resides.

dell
dellhell
dell hell

New Year but Same Old...

2009-01-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

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."

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dellhell
dell hell

Talking Heads Talking Crap@Dell.com

2008-12-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

So how does it feel to be the mouthpiece for a pack of bullshitters?

Ask former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who came out with a book on how he was duped and deceived by the White House into telling all sorts of half truths and outright lies.

If you have ever resided in DellHell, you might wonder what sort of book the talking heads at Dell would come out with once they decide they have had enough of spewing out endless crap about what a great company Dell is...

Hey guys (and girls one presumes) like McClellan, you are either stupid or oblivious to the fact that everyone is pretty much on to you.

A great piece came out today at CNN which busts Dell for the claims they are making in regards to the greening of Dell.

Dell would like you to believe they are making great strides to clean up the mess their products leave in the world. The truth is far removed from the lofty claims we have been hearing out of Round Rock.

Way to go Dell. Proving to the world yet again that not only do you engage in bad business practices, you also distort the truth to the point where no one with any serious mind will take you at your word!

My advice to the talking heads at Dell, Quit! You are embarrassing yourself, your families and your profession.

dell
dellhell
dell hell

News Flash - Dell are still a bunch of Losers

2008-12-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Black Friday, the benchmark sales weekend in the U.S. has confirmed that despite the endless promises coming out of Round Rock that Dell continues to lose ground in the retail battle against rivals HP, being outsold 5 to 1 in retail sales over the 3 day weekend.

Doug Reid, an analyst with Thomas Weisel, who tracked sales at Best Buy stores over the weekend had this to say...

Quote
"The only negative comments in our survey with respect to brand were aimed at Dell, with survey respondents noting potential quality issues."
End Quote

So much for Micheal Dells' plan to aggressively pursue retail partnerships, Micheal, here is the news flash... no one wants your crap any more....

Reports from Bloomberg.com tell the sad tale, which comes as no surprise to anyone residing in Dell Hell. Why would anyone buy crap products from a crap company, I have often said that the business model of US corporations is irrevocably broken and Dell is a classic example. Unrelenting focus on quarterly results rather than long term health, have driven dell downwards, helped along by abysmal customer service and shenanigans which continue to boggle the mind. I don't even bother going to Direct2Dell anymore to hear the blather and B.S. spewing forth from the talking heads. That guy who runs the show there must have no personal shame. "Grandpa, what did you do during the computer wars?" "Well, I wrote propaganda for a manufacturer who couldn't shoot straight"

Way to go talking heads!

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dellhell
dell hell

Things Going to Hell@Dell.com

2008-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

I can almost write these things in my sleep by now, Dell just keeps churning out crap service, crap products and crap excuses, it's getting way to easy to slag these miscreants.

Latest news from Dell is "voluntary" vacations... Dell is hoping that staff will take unpaid leave in the coming months to ease the strain on poor old Micheal Dell and the shareholders who for years have been bleeding Dell dry.

So, Christmas coming, stock markets in disarray and tough times on the homefront and Dell wants people to give up a week of pay??? Way to go Dell!

Word on the street is Dell is only making $33,000 per employee, as compared to HP which employees twice as many people as Dell can get $42,000 net per employee and Apple a staggering $160,000 per employee despite being a quarter the size of Dell.

Does anyone see a disconnect between those figures and Micheal Dells' endless promises to turn Dell around... seems it is truly "Freedom from Business as Usual" at Dell. There is no freedom from Dell Hell on the horizon.

There WAS an unusual turn around at Dell however, it would seem that the personal music player Dell was supposedly interested in launching is now back on the shelf, you may recall the original announcements were met with derision, as reported in one of my earlier blogs.

Dell stock was at a very low $11 and change today, and it will be interesting to hear how the Round Rock cowboys round up the numbers on THAT!

And before I can even publish this blog, Dells' woes continue, the stock is dropping like an anvil on a malfunctioning parachute... how does $10.30 sound? Tech Trader Daily ran this report on their blog..

QUOTE
Merrill Lynch analyst Jeff Fidacaro this morning lowered his rating on Dell (DELL) to Neutral from Buy, slicing his target on the stock to $13 from $22.

“While Dell’s shares have been under pressure and valuation looks attractive…we are downgrading Dell…given our view of a sharp downturn in the PC market (especially in desktops), and a lack of catalysts to either reignite growth or gain share in the next few quarters,”
END QUOTE

And if that isn't enough to convince you to steer clear of Dell, consider that the Cheif Technology Officer has resigned and the overseas market has also figured out that Dell is on its' inevitable slide in to oblivion... as observed at the stalwart UK newspaper "The Guardian".

"This is a businesss model that is going nowhere..." is probably the key phrase in a damning article.

So what have we learned today? It is simply this "Things are STILL going to hell@Dell.com" and anyone who buys a Dell product, with all the info out there saying they should do otherwise, is going straight to Dell Hell. No amount of blather from the talking heads at Direct2Dell or from Micheal Dell himself is changing anything anytime soon!

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dellhell
dell hell

Mini Dell Hell, a Touchy Feely Thing, and Customer Service at it's Worst!

2008-10-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, seems every time Dell comes out with something lately, it is followed by an announcement on the dell company website, telling purchasers exactly why their product is faulty.

Batteries burning, video cards melting, products not available until hell freezes over (dellhell one would presume), or some version of all of the above.

Latest case in point is the new Dell Inspiron Mini9 computers, Dell was late getting to market with these new machines, after the appearance of similar machines from their main rivals, and now it turns out that if you ordered the Ubuntu version they are improperly formatted, leaving you with only 4 gb instead of the 8 or 16 you should have!

Of course Dell provides a solution, but that is kind of like Ford selling you a car, it is broken when you take delivery, and then they tell you to fix it yourself! Makes you wonder doesn't it?

On the Minis running XP the problem is similar to many other launches of dell brands, they state on the website that the computer is ready to be built and neglect to tell you that although it might be ready to be built today, it won't be... computers ordered as recently as Oct 15 are not going to get built until at least November 12.

Way to go Dell!

In a departure from the norm, the notorious Inspiron line, full of turkeys like the Mini9, and subject to numerous lawsuits, is having to share the limelight, this time with the Latitude line of tablet pc's. Seven months after launch the tablets "multi touch screen" still doesn't perform as advertised. Seems the wireless card also quits working at random moments.... Imagine trying to wade through customer support for this one! Dell Hell indeed!

Double Way to go Dell!

And last but not least, this nightmare from a Dell Customer which I reprint here in it's entirety simply because
a.) It is typical of Dell
and
B.) A summary of this horror show doesn't do it justice

QUOTE

Dell renegs on promised discount, customer charges
By
George Gombossy
on October 19, 2008 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I would like your help resolving an issue that I'm having with Dell computers.

Back in November, 2006, I contacted Dell Tech Support for assistance in installing more memory on my Dell computer.

The tech sounded confused at as I was following his instructions, my computer started smoking and making flashing lights. He bounced me around for 14 hours (I'm serious) to various people all over the world.

When I asked if I could speak to Dell HQ in Texas, I was told that Dell didn't have anyone in the US. I finally got someone who admitted that I was given incorrect instructions and it fried my motherboard. I had a Dell warranty at the time, but was told it would take a week for service. Luckily my brother-in-law is a Dell-certified technician for his company and Dell authorized him to service it and would send me $100 to pay him.
After a few months of no check, I contacted Dell, who had no record of my call. I looked up their HQ's phone number online and called Michael Dell himself (actually his secretary). I was told the Mr. Dell doesn't take calls. I was able to get his personal fax and faxed him my complaint.

I received a call from Dell Customer Care immediately, got my check overnighted, and was promised 15% off my next purchase (at the bottom is a copy of that email). Well, I placed an order online today, emailed the Dell Customer Care person, and got my email returned undeliverable.

Phone calls to Dell today keep getting me bounced around to Tech Support and Sales. No one can assist me because they said that they can't look up employees in the US.

I'm at a loss. The only reason I went with Dell again is for this discount.

Yours truly,
Tony Cane

----- Original Message -----
From: Connie_Muegge@Dell.com
To: bigtcane@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:22 AM
Subject: Cust # 58097209

Good Morning again: Here is my promised e-mail. I will honor a 15% discount on a new system should you decided to go with Dell again. Once you have your order set up contact me with an order number and once it ships I will write the credit. I am about to set up the MCR to send out you r 100.00 check. Again I am very sorry for your experience. Connie

Connie Muegge
Dell Inc.
Executive Support
Care Resolution Center
Americas HSB Care
1-800-624-9897
ext 72-68324
connie_muegge@dell.com

END QUOTE

Triple Way to Go Dell!

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dellhell
dell hell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 11

2008-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

20 - approx $ cost of the of the 4.9 million shares Michael Dell bought in early September

15 - approx $ cost of dell shares today

5 - The number of Dumbest stock moves of the week according to Motley Fool, of which Dell is No. 1, and while not technically a "stock move" a dell marketing scheme was silly enough to be called "corporate buffoonery". Oh, well, good to be number one at something! Way to Go Dell Marketing!

388436 - Number of views of the youtube parody "My PC is on Fire" (September 30)

230 - approx number of views per day of youtube parody "My PC is on Fire" since May

2 - Number of my favorite quotes I will end with

Michael Dell speaking to Business Week in July
"We are going to have a big second half..."

Michael Dell speaking to Business Week in July
“These large financial institutions, generally speaking, they’re not going away...”

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dell hell

Dell Dives, Poor Decisions, Poor Results

2008-09-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

So the quarterlies are out and Michael Dell will have to do some fast talking in coming months if he hopes to pull Dell out of the ever thickening quagmire he found it in a few short years ago, when he retook the reigns.

The ever excellent Times of London lead with "Dell shares dive to seven-year low after warning of softening demand"

A ten percent share drop, and a SEVEN YEAR record low share price promptly followed the release of the news that Dell was coping poorly in a faltering economy... Shares have fallen at Dell by over %40 this year, DESPITE a $3 Billion set of cutbacks, including the loss of over 8000 jobs and the closure of factories across the globe... Way to go Michael Dell!

Michaels wizardry lead to Dell slashing prices to increase market share, eyes fixated on #1 HP. Trouble was that the slashing lead to so little profit per machine sold as to make the whole project pointless.

Forbes came close to calling Dell a pack of liars when they ran an article on September 16 which quoted Dell as saying further softening in technology spending was behind the loss, while pointing out that investors seem to think the problem lies with Dell itself! Certainly Dells competitors didn't suffer from any softening.

In a report today, bloggers at CNBC were having a laugh over Hewlett Packards timely series of ads aimed squarly at and hijacking the "Dude" ads from Dell itself... the catch phrase of the ad is "Dude your dell died 5 hours ago". The CNBC bloggers even went so far as to ask if Dell is one foot in the grave already. Ouch indeed!

Anyway, serves the bastards at Dell right... as we have seen on Wall St. the American business model is well and truly broken and the generation of "best and brightest" who brought us to this point are among the friends and peers of Michael Dell. To be the "best and brightest" it is not enough to have good ideas which make tons of money, you also need integrity. Dell has not been honest with its customers for some time judging by the continuing howl from Dell Hell, now nicely echoed by the howls of the shareholders!

dell
dellhell
dell hell

My Nomination for Useless Blog of the Year

2008-08-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I had it sewn up in the catagory of "Useless Blog of the Year" until I went along to good old Direct2Dell.com to check out the latest from Dells' Talking Heads.

Perhaps inspired by the recent Olympic Games, Dell has recently been putting on a display of customer service that is astounding observers and customers alike. Last year at this time the crisis was selling laptops to students, knowing they were needed for the school year and also knowing they couldn't possibly deliver them on time. This year it is melting graphics hardware.

Check out the Dell company blog site dealing with the Nvidia meltdowns and for a laugh wade through the thousands of comments from unhappy, angry customers. Dells' resident talking head makes his contribution to the discussion in two ways 1. Announcing the Party Line 2. Responding to comments to his blog posting. And for those two reasons I think Dell wins the useless blog award hands down.

These aren't blogs, they are the party line, and the concept of Dell communicating with customers is a laugh. The chief blogger, in both the blog and his responses to comments, simply states the party line and recycles techie info. He does not respond ONCE to a unhappy customers comments. So what is the point?

Now that is what dell does so well in regards customer service, chart a new course and then ignore the fact that the ship isn't turning and continue full steam ahead on to the rocks...

dell
dellhell
dell hell

The Crux of the Biscuit...

2008-08-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

A great analysis of the current crisis facing Nvidia, maker of a faulty GPU found in many Dell Inspiron computers (and a host of other laptops from other computer manufacturers) can be found in a great article by Charlie Demerjian.

QUOTE
In any case, since Dell came out with a BIOS that 'fixes' the non-existent problem almost two weeks before the disclosure in the Nvidia 8-K on July 2. They knew HP laptops were bad, they knew Dells were bad, and we know the chips are all bad, but NV keeps stonewalling and spinning very different stories to analysts. They haven't mentioned Apple and Asus yet, but if you look at their forums, they both seem to have a high rate of early Nvidia GPU related failures.

That brings us to the next problem, namely full and fair disclosure. Dell and HP know the extent of this, as presumably do other OEMs. Is it collusion when they do not disclose an event likely to be material to both them and Nvidia? Not a peep from Apple and the others yet though. Apple never admits to even crippling failures of its products, it might damage its halo. When the first lawsuit hits, the documentation of who knew what, when is going to be REALLY interesting.
END QUOTE

So my point of blogging this is simple... is this further proof of Dell (and the American Business Model) being broken and corrupt? Is it more "Freedom From Business as Usual"?

Presumably Dell was aware of the problem some time prior to the bios fix they announced and if they continued to sell computers with this chipset after that date, when they knew it was faulty, it would be a sad indictment of Dells' business practices.

Even the "fix" of the bios is a joke, it doesn't fix anything it just makes the fan run more... Way to Go Dell!

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Another Class Action Lawsuit - Dell Hell Payback

2008-08-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

I missed this one a few weeks ago, but it seems that Dell has been caught up in yet another Class Action, this time in the State of Illinois

Seems Dell was offering rebates to consumers and then refusing to pay them! Dell insisted it was immune from legal recourse because of a clause in the customer contract that expressly forbids the consumer from pursuing legal action!

Judges rightly held that this clause was unacceptable in Business in the State of Illinois. A point also upheld in New Mexico in a similar case and reported on in the Wall Steet Journal.

Hey, suits in Round Rock, here is some free advice... if you want your children to grow in to productive, HONEST citizens, you might try setting a better example. Do what is right and stop selling off your integrity in return for share price.

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Freedom from Business as Usual??

2008-08-15T11:55:00.001-07:00

I saw a youtube still while looking over the latest Dell news and the image behind the speaker was a slogan "Freedom from Business as Usual" which is totally ironic... way to go Dell.

As far as most consumers can see, it is "business as usual" at Dell, in other words, good luck with your computer should it fail... "Freedom from Business as Usual" would be a relief but is highly unlikely given that it has been a few years now since Michael Dell retook the helm and set about steadying the sinking ship... Perhaps he should focus on Dell instead of Newcastle.

The real issue this week though is harder to find... it involves the new line of laptops which promise 19 hours of use for the chronically connected or "digital nomads" as Dell refers to them. Problem is the battery only lasts 10 hrs... to get the full 19 hours you need an add on that attaches to the laptop! Dell doesn't even tell you that in the press release except in the "fine print" which never seems to make it in to the consumer conscience. something most companies already understand!

A reasoned explanation of battery life as it applies to Dell products can be found here, now when it comes to truth, who should I believe? Dell, who are on record for fraud and many other serious examples of consumer abuse, or the guy who wrote the battery article, who as far as I know is just a nerd with no axe to grind?

Real busy? Always using your laptop on the go? Need 19 hours of battery life?

Buy a spare battery.

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Teacher, Leave Those Dells Alone...

2008-08-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Dell continues to lose ground in sales to its rivals, this time it is those rebels in Cupertino, the Apple gang, that have stolen a slice of Dells' pie.

Investors.com ran a great article on the shift in purchasing by Teachers at institutions across America. The results of the study will be depressing news in the boardroom in Round Rock.

Now why would teachers shift to other brands, particularly to a Mac? Dell will likely say privately that it is a reflection of customer dis-satisfaction with Vista in particular and Windows in general... and that might well be part of the problem, but more likely it is the case that Dell has been feeling the "effect" part of Cause and Effect.

Further effect may be felt in the very near future if Apple goes ahead with its expected plan to lower prices on some notebooks in coming weeks. This would be a declaration of war on the PC makers who have been somewhat insulated by the higher pricing of Apple products until now.

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dellhell
dell hell

Dubious Decisions@dell.com

2008-07-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

The folks with the inside track on how these things work are scratching their heads this morning over a bizarre announcement from Dell that they are re-entering the personal music player business.

Wired had this to say, "...Three cheers for cockeyed optimism".

Motley Fool lead off with "That's Just Dumb, Dell".

Tech Digest had this to say "So what will it be? An iTunes for the common man? Or an even lower-profile repeat of Zune? My farm is currently riding on the latter".

According to Michael Dell they are looking to expand in to a "broad range of consumer markets".

Good luck with that, after the fiasco with colored notebooks, burning notebooks, melting notebooks, along with several lawsuits and class action suits, and both a financial and managerial crisis to boot, it would seem that Dell is burning every possible bridge to the broader consumer market there is.

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dellhell
dell hell

Same Sh*# Different Day@dell.com

2008-07-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

A new report today is telling a very familiar story... yet more Dell meltdowns, and it's customers and overheated computers again, rather than the boardroom or the stock.

My own (or rather, my daughters') problem with her Inspiron 9100 was a failed motherboard from overheating, caused no doubt by a faulty design which called for a 3.2 ghz desktop chip in a notebook! Now, I am no expert on the exact problem and am only going on what Dell told me, if I understand them right! They were very kind to offer me 10% off on a refurbished motherboard! Only about $700 installed... on top of the nearly $3000 dollars for the less than 3 year old computer!

And now it appears that a similar problem has cropped up with many dell notebooks and it is traced to an overheating video card... Dell wants to fix it by a new bios which instructs the fan to run at a lower speed, but more often, to assist in cooling. Customers rightly want a replacement card that does not have the current issues with heat! Anyone whose computer has already melted and out of warranty is out of luck.

So the talking heads at direct2dell are no doubt putting a serious spin on this and if you need a good laugh, head on over there and see what they have to say... but then do yourself a favor and follow up with real consumers like us, who are in dellhell... as sad as it all seems folks, we are NOT making this stuff up!!

dell
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dell hell

Dell beaten by Acer in Europe, about to get beat up in Court.

2008-07-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

Dell has just been hit with another blow, it's sales are static in Europe while its competitors keep getting bigger. With overall sales of PC's in Europe up 24% and a staggering 53% for notebooks, the Dell boardroom is likely to be a lively place in the next little while... wonder if it has anything to do with customers who have heard the news of Dell knowingly selling laptops in Europe with US keyboards?

Woes in the boardroom continue with a new class action lawsuit just certified by the courts and laid by Dell employees who claim they were underpaid by Dell. Way to go, Dell!

This is like watching a slow train wreck while the Conductor tells everyone to relax, that everything is fine!

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 10

2008-07-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

In my last post I stated that if just %1 of the people we tell about our time in Dell Hell never purchased a dell product as a result, I would feel we had gotten our money out of Dell...

But exactly how much is that %1 going to cost Dell in the end?

I tried this once before and didn't get too far... but if I stick to a simple scenario we can get a fair idea. Simple means if we don't know the figure we can just make a fair estimate...

Lets' start with how many people I actually tell our story to, and then figure out what the average person might purchase in their lifetime.

I am going to use a nice round figure of 10,000 people who will have heard our story before we are done. One percent of 10,000 is 100.

So we now have 100 people who will not buy a Dell product because of our efforts.

Now, if the average person replaces a computer every 3 years and assigning a average age of 30 to each person, then they would buy 3 products per decade for the next 4 decades which is 12 products. Lets throw in one peripheral product per decade too, Dell is big on selling you other things besides a computer.

So we have 16 products per person x 100 persons = 1600 products

So lets assign an average of $1200 per product and now we are getting somewhere...

Total cost to Dell for ripping off my daughter is about $1,900,000.00

BUT for each of those persons who don't buy a Dell, let's be fair and figure that they too will divert at least one other customer from Dell... so now the figure doubles itself...

Total cost to Dell for ripping of my daughter is now $3,800,000.00

Makes me feel better now that I have an idea of what my efforts here are worth!!

Dell have behaved atrociously in their dealings with my daughter and it was all so simple to begin with... Do the right thing, replace the faulty computer and win your customer over... or, lie, stonewall, and give them the run around and it will cost you... Now we know how much!

10,000 - Number of people I will reach with my efforts to alert the public to Dells' business practices.

1 - Percent of people we reach who will not buy Dell products.

1600 - Number of product sales lost by Dell as a result of our efforts as described above

1200 - Average cost of individual product sales lost.

1,900,000 - Approximate Dollars lost by Dell as a direct result of our efforts.

3,800,000 - Dollars it cost Dell if you accept that each of the 100 lost customers also tells a friend.

dell
dellhell
dell hell

Off to Australia, Mac in Hand!

2008-06-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

The raison d'etre of this blog is now on her way to a years' worth of adventure in Fiji and Australia... Bon Voyage kiddo! The day before she left she completed her private pilots license flight exam and is now a pilot.

Several years ago she saved all her money working part time while attending school so that she could buy herself a laptop. But she didn't want just any laptop, she wanted "the best". And sadly for her, with my encouragement, she choose a Dell Inspiron 9100. More horsepower than a Ferrari, the size of a Kenworth truck, and the cooling system of a 1963 Volkswagen...

Shortly after the warranty expired it suffered a meltdown and being out of warranty Dell offered to sell her a $700 refurbished motherboard! You can trawl up the rest of the sad story elsewhere in cyberspace...

Anyway, my daughter is off to Australia, newly minted pilot wings on her coat and a Mac in her computer bag. And between her and I, we are still kicking Dell in the balls every chance we get, and it feels good! If you are stuck in Dell Hell, I highly recommend it... Let the world know what sort of company Dell really is!

Of the thousands of people we have now told our story to, and the thousands more to come, if even 1% never buy a dell as a result, I will feel we have gotten our monies worth out of Dell.

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dellhell
dell hell

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty... FraudandFalseAdvertising@dell.com

2008-05-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, no big surprise to most of us who reside here in dellhell.

Dell was found guilty of Fraud and False Advertisingin New York yesterday and it will have major repercussions for Dell. The loss of credibility among consumers and the potential damages and fines which they are facing are not going to be easy to explain on the direct2dell site or in the shareholder meetings to come.

Just to repeat the obvious, here is a quote from the Judge.

"Dell has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates."

Dell claims it is only a small percentage of consumers who complained! Oh, well I guess that makes it okay then, silly me.

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dellhell
dell hell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 9

2008-05-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

700 - Number of complaints by NY State consumers who were part of a lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General in May, 2007.

1000 - Additional complaints after May, 2007 related to the lawsuit.

7 - Percentage of Dell customers who actually qualified for discounts and freebies which led to the lawsuit in New York State.

16 to 30 - percent interest rate actually paid by most Dell customers who were misled by Dells' offer of "no interest financing" in the New York lawsuit.

18,509 - Number of views of a consumerist.com article titled "Drunk Dell Tech Repairs Laptop With Hammer"

3 in 18 - Number of Chief Financial Officers at Dell in the past 18 months. Although the latest departure of the CFO was planned from the beginning of his tenure so that he could sort out the mess of Dells flawed quarterly reports, it makes one wonder how you run a company like that? The incoming CFO is facing a daunting task at a time when Dell could use a little more longevity on the board!

356,244 - Views of "My PC is on Fire" parody at Youtube
17,698 - Approx. number of views since March 26, 2008
10,000 - Approx. number of views per month

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How much is a 5 Year Next Day Warranty worth at Dell?

2008-05-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

CNET, long a leading site for software and hardware reviews and news, published a sad, but familiar story yesterday, I read it with a huge smile on my face.

Each time I see something like this article, I feel vindicated in my belief that Dell is hopelessly broken and the current crop of talking heads and management should retire in shame. Lionel, what on earth is going on? I haven't checked lately but last I heard of him Lionel was the guy over at Direct2Dell who has been telling everyone who will listen that Dell is fixing it's problem with customer service, fixing its problems with timely delivery, fixing its problems with... you get the idea.

One day after publication the article at CNET has already garnered 78 comments, mostly negative, many angry. How do you fix that, Lionel? Obviously you (and I mean Dell) haven't a clue or the will, or something, "cause it ain't gettin' done" as we say outside of Round Rock.

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Customer Service? Not in Ireland or Canada or Texas!

2008-04-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Dell was accused this past week of "taking the money and running" in Ottawa, Canada as a result of closures at yet another call center. A similar center was closed in Edmonton, Canada recently in seemingly similar sweetheart deals.

Another 250 jobs were lost in Ireland.

These loses and others were announced in the plans by Dell to shed over 8,000 jobs worldwide. A plant in Texas, home state to the company, will see the loss of some 900 jobs and was announced earlier this month.

Most of the loses are in the customer service sector of Dell and much of the work is going to India to the great distress of many frustrated Dell customers.

I posted comments on the Direct2Dell blog on that topic and stated that I never had a problem understanding anyone, and if I did Texans can talk pretty funny too, eh? So who cares, as long as they HELP....

The shocking thing to me about it all is that Customer Service is the biggest source of woe for Dell and it seems a desperate move to axe jobs in the english speaking world. Do executives have no ability to look at the long term?

Dell should suck it up, keep moving ahead with good products and good service at competitive prices and build for the long term future... that will mean taking loses, quarter after quarter till things get better both within Dell and globally, but they still make buckets of money every year and that is what they seem to be focused on, the old mantra of "share price and investors first, customers last" which drives much of American industry.

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Dell in Competition for "Worst Company in America"

2008-04-08T10:37:00.001-07:00

Way to go Dell! Yet again we dredge up more evidence of the continuing failure of Dell to make inroads with the consumer... the endless drivel served up on the Direct2Dell website somehow manages to ignore the reality on the ground. Kind of like watching President Bush when he talks about the situation in Iraq, lots of truth in there but a pretty fair amount of dis-connect, propaganda and half truths as well. (And keep in mind please that I support the war in Iraq and have always done so!)

So this week we bring you a bit of fun... over at http://consumerist.com Dell is featured in Round 19 of "Worst Company in America" and in this fantasy league styled series of articles they have Dell squaring off against Home Depot, no slouches themselves at crap customer service and shoddy products!

Here is the summary of Dell... Quote: "Formerly the king of direct to customer PC sales, Dell now has a well-deserved reputation for abysmal bad customer service ever since they outsourced their Home and Home Office customer service departments (secret trick: always order from Small Business, it's US based and the reps and techs still know what they're doing). Horror stories of botched warranty repairs abound. Just Google "Dell Hell" and you'll know what the company is so reviled." End Quote.

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 8

2008-03-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

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!

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

2008-03-25T10:40:00.001-07:00

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?

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Dellhell Twice in One Day!

2008-03-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

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...

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Go Away

2008-03-11T13:56:00.001-07:00

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...

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Come on Dell, this is wearing a bit thin now!

2008-02-12T12:52:00.001-08:00

The ski season is in full swing and I am very busy this season, being at a new resort here in Canada and trying to come to grips with all that entails...

It has been awhile since I payed any attention to this blog and just as long since I bothered with Dell and the train wreck they are.

So what is new? Nothing apparently, and that is glaringly obvious by a quick browse of google news.

Here is just one item making the rounds and it is a case of "same shit different day"... and the comments from Don Tennants' readers are quite telling as well. I like the bit "You were robbed or ripped off, you just got unlucky"...

BEGIN QUOTED ITEM

Don Tennant

Stirring IT Up
February 7, 2008 - 11:14 A.M.
Dear Michael Dell
9 comments

I heard from a very unhappy Dell customer last night. It's not exactly uncommon for me to hear from very unhappy Dell customers, but I found this case interesting because the customer copied me on a letter she sent to Michael Dell.

At issue is an Inspiron 9300 notebook that developed major problems just a few days after the warranty expired. Here's the letter:

Dear Mr. Dell:

About two years ago, I purchased an Inspiron 9300. At the time of purchase, I invested in a two-year warranty.

I have had no problems with my machine. In fact, I have enjoyed using it. I am an IT Solutions Architect for AT&T and frequently work from home. Our work laptops are also from Dell, and I've had a good experience with your products - until now.

A few days after my warranty expired, my screen developed some ugly vertical lines that are visible when in the desktop mode and online. I have never dropped my machine. I don't travel with it; use my work laptop for that purpose. Naturally, I was surprised and troubled.

So I went to a local Dell repair service and showed my computer screen to them. They told me that there would be a charge because it was out of warranty. I could hardly believe it. I contacted Customer Service at Dell (Case #172854100). I received the same response from them and the case was considered closed (08/23/07). I was an unhappy customer.

Now the vertical line damage has inched across about 1/3 of my machine since August. At first I was so mad that the company would not honor the warranty that I vowed never to buy another Dell. I was just going to wait until this machine crashed completely and purchase a new one from your competitors, but then something happened that changed my mind.

A dear friend of mind came to visit. It just so happens she is from Houston and her daughters attend your alma mater, Memorial High School, where I understand you are their most famous alumnus.

I showed her my computer and told her about my unhappy experience. She said, "What? Just write Mr. Dell a letter, and he'll get someone to help you. He wants to keep his customers."

So, here I am. I thought I would try her advice. On December 10, I spoke to a Cristina, and she reopened a new case (18188127). I hope that you will be able to help me. It doesn't seem right that a machine develops a serious problem scarcely out of warranty and the company doesn't want to take care of its good customers.

Thanks very much. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Name, address, phone number and e-mail address supplied]

cc: Don Tennant, Vice President/Editorial Director, Computerworld & InfoWorld

It will be interesting to see whether Michael Dell responds. In the meantime, what do you think? Clearly, Dell has no legal obligation to honor an expired warranty. But should a reputable company be expected to take care of a customer when serious problems develop just a few days after the expiration date? Does good business sense dictate that you demonstrate you really care by helping the customer out, or that you avoid setting a precedent that could backfire on you when a few days stretch into a few weeks or longer?

What People Are Saying

Man....can we say get a
Submitted by Anonymous on February 8, 2008 - 2:27 P.M.

Man....can we say get a life. The system was out of warranty, get over it. If they had only gotten a one year warranty, would there be a complaint that the system was only a year out of warranty? Whatever warranty you had gotten, the system was going to fail at that point no matter what. It would have been either in warranty, or out of warranty, nothing in the middle. There is also an option to get a 3 year warranty from Dell (and knowing ATT thats is probably what they get). So why wouldnt an IT Solutions whatever at ATT follow the guidelines of their own company if you did put that much faith into Dell? Sounds to me like you are just complaining to complain. You were robbed or ripped off, you just got unlucky. Its life, it happens. Of course, your probably the same person who argues over a ten cent price difference at a grocery store too.

How is Dell going to stay in business?
Submitted by sdevlin on February 8, 2008 - 1:49 P.M.

The frontline financing and customer support people most customers are dealing with are either unreachable or unhelpful.

I was trying to remember how long I have been a Dell customer, and I can only guess at 10 years. I can say I've purchased over 50 Dell computers between my family and small business, and intended to purchase a Latitude XT and another Latitude notebook this year. However, Dell Financial utterly destroyed my customer loyalty in one long phone call Feb. 7th 6pm est.

In January, I contacted Dell immediately after I discovered an $83 charge from late December. I was certain it was just an error, and would be handled quickly. Instead, they set the account on hold until the dispute could be handled and transferred me to the fraud department.

I was informed that I would need to fill out an affidavit and return it. This is more personal effort than I've experienced with other companies, but ok. When I receive the forms in the mail, there was not a postage paid return envelope (how rude), AND the form requires notary! FOR 83 Dollars?

I call 1.800.283.2210 where a service rep I can hardly understands tells me nothing can be done, and by the way they are adding late charges on my account. I ask to speak to his manger. The manager, (Andrew, employee #592647) tells me again nothing can be done unless I pay the money and then they will remove the late fees and correct my credit report. I calmly explain to him there are 2 options, he can take care of this error and I will continue to be a happy and loyal Dell customer, or I will pay the money cancel the account and not buy anything from Dell again. He says, sorry you feel that way, give me your bank account and routing number to pay the $83 and I'll drop the late fess assessed.

I can not express how angry and disappointed I am with Dell.
Greiving Ex-Dell Customer

END QUOTED ITEM

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Dell ranked 25th out of 36 in Canadian Customer Service

2007-11-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

Way to go Dell, despite the best efforts of Michael Dell and all the propoganda pouring out of Round Rock touting the supposed "turn around", Dell managed to place a lowly 25th (out of 36 companies reviewed) in a recent survey of customer service in Canada.

So much for all the bullshit coming from Lionel Menchacha and Richard@dell and the propoganda machine known as Direct2Dell.

The survey, titled "How may I help you?" was conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and here is a summary of the survey as quoted from the CBC website.

QUOTE

Working with the CBC Research Department, we developed a unique set of standards that evaluate everything from the interactive voice response system that answers most calls these days, to the time you're left waiting on hold. We also measured the effectiveness of the operator - how well they understood the caller, how well the caller could understand the operator, and their demeanour.

We called each company three times: once during a weekday, once at night and once on the weekend. Our call researchers kept detailed notes of each call and then scored the company's performance out of 100. You can see how each company performed by clicking their name in the chart below.

END QUOTE

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Think Dell is Back on Track?

2007-11-17T21:14:00.001-08:00

Don't let the successes on the business side of Dell con you into thinking that things are better at Dell for the average guy... this exchange today on the Miami Herald website is clear evidence that without friends in high places, your chances of getting A) A machine that works, and B) Customer service that works, are Buckley's as my Australian friends would say... and imagine if they didn't have the extended warranty with "next day service".

BEGIN

A formula to mess up computer: two video cards
Posted on Sat, Nov. 17, 2007

• Q: About two years ago, we bought a top-of-the-line Dell computer for our small business. We also purchased a three-year extended warranty; it's supposed to give us next- day service if there's a problem.

Everything was fine until Oct. 10 when the computer crashed.

We called Dell. After going through extensive troubleshooting, it decided to order a new power supply and motherboard. A few days later, a tech arrived to install them; it still didn't work.

Dell sent out a tech and parts twice more. Once, we got the computer running, but it crashed again the next day.

Dell sent us a refurbished replacement. After five days, it wouldn't power up. Dell said it would send us our third motherboard and power supply. The tech still couldn't get it to turn on.

Spending so much time on this isn't exactly helping our business. Perhaps Action Line can persuade Dell to fix it once and for all?

Jane Firebaugh,

Miami

• A: We can. It's working now; this time, we hope it's a permanent fix.

We forwarded your e-mail to Dell, which responded promptly. Another tech was dispatched, and, for a while, he couldn't get it to work, either. Then, he had an idea: Maybe the problem was caused by having two video cards. He took one out, and the computer worked. He tried with the other one; the computer still worked. It seemed that having two working cards installed was at the root of the trouble.

Dell followed up and gave you a better number to call if it happens again. We all hope you won't need it.

END

So... to sum up, DEll sold a flawed design to a customer and then proceeded to offer "refurbished motherboards" among other repair solutions to them on an ad nauseum basis... seems awfully familiar!

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Dude, Dell has a Headache too!

2007-10-29T17:42:00.001-07:00

Well, just like in real life, the folks living in the rarified heights of Round Rock have found out that your past deeds have a way of catching up to you.

Yet another lawsuit is in the making, this time in New Mexico and Dell is once again being called to the dock for it's shoddy (illegal??) business practices! Can anyone say "Weasels".

GREAT NEWS, and I can't wait to hear the spin Lionel Menchacha puts on this one for his damage control department otherwise known as Direct2Dell... maybe it should be called "direct2dock" in honor of their many appearances in courts around the country.

BEGIN QUOTED ARTICLE

AG King wants NM lawyer to launch class action v. Dell
by Rob Luke

SANTA FE -- New Mexico Attorney General Gary King is supporting a lawsuit brought against an online computer retailer by an Albuquerque lawyer claiming unfair trading practices.

Customer Robert Fiser brought a class action suit against Dell Computer Corp. in 2004 for anti-consumer violations over disputes about data-storage capacity on a computer he purchased. The Court of Appeals dismissed, saying he was bound by arbitration agreements, and he appealed to the NM Supreme Court.

King filed an amicus curiae brief last Thursday with the NM Supreme Court supporting Fiser's appeal. "Merchants cannot, in a contract of adhesion, unilaterally set terms that will allow them to skim a few dollars from a large number of consumers with impunity," the brief concluded.

In an accompanying release, King said the Appeals Court wrongly applied Texas law, not New Mexico law, when dismissing Fiser's original appeal. The appellate court ruled that Fiser was bound to arbitrate his dispute with Dell because of a provision on the shipped computer's packaging slip.

"We want to make sure that consumers are clearly and fairly informed about what policies and terms they agree to when they order a product over the internet," King's release stated. "In this case, disclosure to the consumer is an important issue."

END

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Dude, I Already Have a Headache

2007-10-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

George Gombossy of Consumer Watchdog posted a great article today on courant.com titled "Dude, You Might Be Getting A Headache With That Dell" and it is worth passing on, and my only comment is "Dude, I already have a headache"....

BEGIN
Dell has become one of the most well-known computer companies in the country. Unfortunately it's also establishing a reputation as the most troublesome among the top brands.

Purchasers of Dell computers from Connecticut and throughout the country are increasingly complaining about misleading advertising, equipment failures and, most serious of all, unreliable customer and technical services.

Rescuecom, a national computer repair franchise, analyzed its tens of thousands of records and reported this week that among the five top brands, Dell computers had the greatest likelihood of needing service.

The survey, based on each brand's market share, showed that Apple computers - by a huge margin - were the least prone to problems.

Computers by Lenovo and IBM came in second, followed by HP, Gateway and then Dell. Last year, the first time Rescuecom provided its analysis, Dell was in fourth place with Gateway in fifth.

"Results of the report - based on 46,000 service calls to RESCUECOM - provide computer users with unique insight about the likelihood that they will require support beyond what is provided by the PC maker's warranty," the company said.

Complaints that I have received this year back up the report's findings on Dell. Of the six complaints I have received about computer reliability and marketing issues, all involved Dell computers.

But all these complaints, said Rescuecom owner David Milman, don't mean that consumers and businesses should stop buying Dell products.

Milman said Dells are still relatively cheap and well built compared to lesser-known brands. He said customers just need to know that advertised prices, financing, warranties, at-home repairs and technical help will probably not live up to Dell's promises.

For their part, Dell officials concede there have been problems as the company continues to grow, but they insist customer service is important.

"The customer experience is Dell's No. 1 priority," said Jodi Zweifler of Dell's global communications, as she promised to look into the complaints from Connecticut residents I sent her. A future Watchdog column will update how the complaints from these customers were resolved:

Gus Vaughan of Cromwell said he bought his computer in May, and within a few days it developed severe problems, including locking up. He and his wife, Joanne, spent more than 12 hours on the phone working with technicians, trying to solve the problem. Those efforts ultimately included taking apart the computer.

When the telephone consultations didn't work, Dell sent a repairman to their home, who discovered the computer had serious hardware problems. After more phone calls, Dell decided to send the couple a new computer, which took almost two months to arrive.

Frances Wilson of Bristol paid full price for a computer by check three years ago. Nevertheless, Wilson, 88, started receiving bills from Dell. She wrote to the president of Dell, as well as to several other officials at the company without getting any results.

She said she finally had to hire her accountant to write several more letters to Dell before it stopped demanding that she pay $300, which she did not owe to the company.

Marion Bradley of North Branford, another senior, said she had a "Dell from Hell" right out of the box. Her son set up the computer for her, but several programs would not work. She called Dell in March and was told she had to hire an "expert" for $138 to help her.

Bradley, the retired head of the English department at North Branford High School, said the calls to those experts were worthless. Her daughter-in-law finally was able to fix the computer after spending several hours with it.

When she bought her computer she was told there would be no interest charges if she made all payments on time. She said she made timely payments but still got billed for interest, which she is disputing.

Gregory Burr of Westbrook tried to be a nice guy when he bought his Dell last year. He wanted to pay by credit card, but the Dell salesman asked that Burr instead sign up for a Dell loan so the company would not have to pay the credit card company a fee. Burr agreed.

That act of kindness turned into a nightmare as Burr's name got mixed up with another customer's account and he spent months trying to clear his credit.

These types of problems resulted in a lawsuit by the New York attorney general's office against Dell and Dell Financial Services, which is jointly owned by Dell and consumer financing company CIT.

The suit accuses Dell of luring customers with zero percent financing and then charging them high rates. It also accuses the company and Dell Financial Services of fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices.

"While even one dissatisfied customer is too many, the allegations in the AG's filing are based upon a small fraction of Dell's consumer transactions in New York," Dell said in response to the suit.

Well actually, there were 700 complaints in New York and, as we're learning, several in Connecticut.

END

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"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

2007-10-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

No, that isn't me whining about Dell...

That is Micheal Dell talking about Apple way back in 1997. Read on courtesy of Rob Mead at Tech.co.uk

BEGIN

In 1997 Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, told IT executives what he would do to Apple to save the company from financial ruin. "What would I do?" he said. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

Ten years on and that quote is coming back to haunt Michael Dell.

Apple has gone from strength to strength and now has a range of world-beating products from the iPod to the iPhone and the iMac.

Apple shares are now at their highest ever level at $167.91 (£82.32), with analysts predicting Apple's strongest quarter ever.

Dell, meanwhile, is in the doldrums. It's been squeezed by a growing number of strong, low-cost competitors and has been tainted with poor customer service rankings and a range of unremarkable products.

Its shares currently stand at $27.95 (£13.70) apiece.

Maybe it's time that Michael Dell gave his shareholders their money back.

END QUOTED ARTICLE

And here is a link to a parent article that also has some very telling and entertaining comments from readers...

dell dellhell

Incompetent or just Crooked?

2007-09-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well, in case you are thinking that Micheal Dell is bringing dell customer service up to at least an acceptable standard... think again!

Despite the hundreds of millions spent by Dell to turn around customer service they are , if anything, going backwards... have a read of this story on Consumerist.com

BEGIN
Nobody at Dell can help Kevin return two broken hard drives. Kevin's Seagate 320GB FreeAgent drive refuses to power on, and his 160GB Western Digital won't boot. Kevin sent Dell a note after wrangling with eleven CSRs over five hours:

I called tonight due to 2 harddrives I purchased 26 days ago. Both drives have completely failed. One is knocking and the other won't power on at all. I called Dell and have been transferred to 11 people and 3 different calls:

1st Call - 48 Minutes (Disconnected during transfer)
2nd Call - 91 Minutes (Disconnected trying to transfer me)
3rd Call: 138 Minutes - Disconnected during transfer.

I am fed up and it is absolutely ridiculous. They have no idea what department to send me to. So far I have talked to:
"Customer Care"
"Dell Care"
"Business Sales"
"Hardware support"
"Desktop Support"
"Technical Support"

I have 4 different case numbers they have assigned me and still nothing to show for it. They can't even tell me who I need to talk to or what I need to do to get the parts replaced. I have spent close to $240.00 and wasted hours of my time away from my family trying to repair this issue.

The original hard drive I ordered is an external drive that I was able to connect and move all of my data to... Then it just wouldn't power on. Tried multiple power outlets, will not power up. I have lost all of my data there.

Then I purchased an internal drive, I have had it less than a month and it is knocking and won't boot. I am very dissatisfied and the award winning customer care has to be the farthest from the truth.

Case #: 1734xxx82
Order Numbers:
718xxx24 - 160GB
710xxx785 - 320GB

The note didn't get Dell's attention, but a complaint to the Better Business Bureau did. A Dell representative called Kevin to arrange the returns:

BUT!!!! 30 minutes into the call as she is taking my address info and giving her apologetic speech...Oh wait! I'm sorry Mr. Hatfield but we can't replace these. Have a nice day.

Hopefully one of Dell's damage control ninjas can explain exactly which Dell department, if any, is responsible for handling busted hard drives.
END

So all I can say is way to go Dell! You make my job of trashing your company so much easier.. and you are so deserving of it that it is a pleasure!

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 7

2007-09-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well, lets get September rolling with a look at the numbers...

7 - Number of times Dell contacted us this summer

0 - Number of new solutions offered by Dell to our problems

20 - Percentage drop in sales of notebooks this year at Dell

3-1 - Amount HP is outselling Dell in notebook computers

1058 - Number of comments (mostly negative) on direct2dell re: delays on shipping. A record even for the sorry state of Dell...

5 - responses by Dell to the 1058 comments

0 - responses by Dell to the 1058 that might be useful

887,000 - Number of notebooks Dell sold in the quarter (-20%)

1,100,000 - Number of notebooks Apple sold in the quarter (+42%)

2,400,000 - Number of notebooks HP sold in the quarter

?? - If I put a number here I'd just be guessing at how many days delay there is for Dell's new colored laptops but have a read of the direct2dell blog and see what you come up with... many are waiting over two months at the moment by my understanding.

Not only do they sell Edsels they also borrow from Henry Ford too... "you can have any color you want, as long as its black"!

No wonder Mac sales are up 42%, Customer Service, despite $150 Million spent this year on revamping, is still in the toilet and then to make matters worse they start targeting students with offers for colored laptops they know they can't reasonably supply.

Apple, Lenovo, HP et al are picking off Dell's market share as a result...

dell dellhell

Apple shows the way, Dell lost in the woods.

2007-09-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

A very interesting lesson in Customer Service and core values was highlighted yesterday by the announcement by Apple that they would be refunding customers who purchased iphones from Apple in the last two months.

The phones were originally priced at $200 above current prices and the thousands of customers who bought phones at the inflated price will now receive a $100 rebate on the phones purchased at the higher price.

Wait a minute... a company sells a product, then decides to lower prices and in order not to loose customers who previously bought products at the higher price, are VOLUNTEERING to rebate customers???????

Who would have thought.

Now, is there anything to be learned by all this? Well, Apple sold 42% more laptops this quarter than they did last year, so obviously something is being done right...

Dell on the other hand? Well, stay tuned tomorrow when we do our monthly review of the numbers...

dell dellhell

The Sounds of Silence or is it One Hand Clapping

2007-09-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I would hold off on my next blog until I heard back from the two Escalation team members from Dell who recently contacted me. Oddly, after contacting me, they never did reply back. So, instead I will share with you the email I sent to them and let you decide if a response was warranted. Ronak who is the recipient of the following letter is a member of the Escalation team at Dell... and for the record I did eventually hear from Robin Chacko's supervisor... he offered me a %10 discount on a refurbished motherboard!

EMAIL TO "Ronak" who has never been heard from since....

Hi Ronak: I have been in touch with your colleague Robin_Chacko@dell.com on 08/16/07 about this issue and it seems more than one person from Dell has responded to our contacts. Here (below) is the email I sent to Robin Chacko...

I have yet to hear back from her on the email sent, so I am not sure if you were intending to take over from her? If so, I am available at this return email or by phone xxx xxx-xxxx

regards, duff sigurdson

BEGIN

Hello Robin: We are pleased but most puzzled to hear from Dell again. I trust you are up to speed on our file so I won't repeat it all here, except in summary FYI with my suggestions for a solution below that....

After speaking at length and over a period of months with as diverse a crowd as Lionel Menchaca at direct2dell, another on-line bigwig known as Richard@dell, the Better Business Bureau, and a number of senior staff at Dell Canada, we had reached the conclusion that Dell was not willing to do more to solve our problem other than to sell us a refurbished motherboard for our problematic 9100.

This was unsatisfactory to us as we feel that the problem is directly related to the design and manufacture of the model and a replacement mob (at $700 installed), was not a solution, i.e. replacing a known faulty part with another faulty part that has been "remanufactured" is not a workable fix!

The computer was approximately 2 1/2 years old when it failed and it was a top of the line Inspiron 9100. Hardly the typical life span one would expect from a flagship model from the world's (then) leading computer manufacturer.

Dell has taken old, loyal customers (my wife and I who have been with your company since the early days), and potential new customers (my daughter and her network of friends who follow this saga), and turned them in to a customer relations nightmare... (see www.dellhellrevisited.blogspot.com)

Our position is you have sold us an "EDSEL" and although we understand the tightrope you are walking what with all the class action suits surrounding the inspiron line, we believe Dell should replace the faulty computer with a model which you are confident will not die a premature death.

No need for a "mea culpa" or anything else... just a "hey, your computer sucked, we are sorry you got stuck in dell hell, and we DO want you all as future customers..."

I will mention here that many similar cases to ours have been resolved (usually by members of the Executive Escalation Team) by replacing faulty computers EVEN when out of warranty, You can read examples in the dell forums.

What we don't want is for Dell to tell us they are cutting off the topic and consider the case closed as unresolved (Richard@Dell online back in early June), AND THEN contact us again to follow up (Early July), fail to follow up THAT call (mid July), and then wind up here in another email to someone at your end (Mid August).

BTW, A tech called two nights ago (see my latest posts at direct2dell in the "Real People are here and they are Listening" section). I almost cried when he wanted to "review" my problem but I stayed polite, answered his questions and listened to his offer to sell me a refurbished motherboard. It all seemed a bit pointless and so it was.

In any case, I noted yesterday that despite the $150 million invested in customer service in the last while, Dells' ratings dropped this year to the same levels as during the Customer Service crisis at Dell in 2005. Somehow this doesn't surprise me.

When you compare the cost to dell of replacing our faulty 9100 with that money and those figures, and you add in the bonus that you would be "doing the right thing", it is a no brainer... Dell won't recognize that the computer is an "edsel" and that is fine by us, but Dell should recognize that the computer should have lasted longer than it did, that we are valued customers and that it is worth keeping us. Selling us a top of the line model at top of the line prices, and after it dies 2.5 years later saying "so sad, too bad" is not on the list of "Tips for Good Customer Relations".

I look forward to hearing your solutions to this issue, a fresh set of eyes and ears is often the way out of the woods.

regards, duff sigurdson

dell dellhell

News... not really, but dishonest, Yes

2007-08-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Two interesting things crossed my desk today, one was the Saturday edition of the fine Canadian newspaper the National Post. On page FW3 of the Financial Post Weekend section was a header article titled "Buy that shiny, new laptop, but avoid extended warranties, consumer groups caution".

The other was the Dell advertising flyer which came with one of the many papers I like to read on Saturdays.

The first of the two, the article on extended warranties, wasn't news to me, but is worth passing on to less savvy consumers! We don't need extended warranties regarding computers, we need lemon laws similar to those in place in the auto industry!

The second was the flyer out today in the Canadian papers and front and center on the first page is a pitch to students for Dell laptops with 8 color choices prominently displayed... this despite the fact that Dell admits on the company blog Direct2Dell that they are running so far behind on these painted accessories that they cannot predict when you might recieve an order placed today. Never mind "back to school" perhaps they will be ready to ship by "graduation"...

Offering something for sale that you know you can't really deliver on, is dishonest behavior where I come from, not sure how they would treat people like that in most of Texas, but I expect it wouldn't be politely.

dell dellhell

Escalating Frustration

2007-08-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, I should get an "abused customer of the month" award from Dell. Acting on behalf of my daughter, I have been a BUSY boy.

After Lionel sent of his query, the calls and emails from Dell are coming fast and furious of late!

Three from the escalation team alone in the past two days, two agents and one manager, so far they have offered to sell me a refurbished motherboard! But they have thrown the 10% discount on the table AGAIN. We already said thanks but no thanks to that one a few months ago... you can buy a NEW motherboard on ebay or from half a dozen companies for LESS than the refurbished unit from DELL.

And why would you replace a faulty part with another faulty part that has been "refurbished"? That is NOT a solution.

I suspect their legal woes, what with Class Action suits underway or pending on several Inspiron laptops, may frighten them away from acknowledging any fault in a model by replacing it out of warranty...although they have done so in some cases.

As it is Dell can hardly afford more bad publicity, Dell shares were down today 3% on news of supply woes at Dell. Coming on top of several other issues clouding the Dell situation, such as the paint fiasco of recent days, a massive battery recall and computers spontaneously combusting last year and most serious of all, the ongoing SEC investigation, things are tough in Texas.

I suspect each of the people from Dell that I have spoken to recently would privately agree that Dell should do something here to correct our problem, no one in their right mind would say it is okay for a top of the line, flagship model to expire after 2.5 years .

I also suspect any competent technician could have (and by reports some did) tell Dell that putting that chip in that board in a laptop was trouble in the first place. I took the trouble to read up on putting 3.2 Pentium 4 chips intended for desktops into notebooks. It was and is trouble and a bit of reading also shows it is not confined to my computer, a quick read of Dell forums, the direct2dell website and many other sites using keywords such as "Dell 9100 motherboard problem" or "9100 overheating" will make the point.

Stay tuned, I always ask them to respond to my last when I am contacted by them so I expect to hear from someone again in the next few days.

dell dellhell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 6

2007-08-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

I have been trolling the news in the last few days, knowing I should dig up some ammo and these numbers caught my eye...

-5.1% - Percentage Dell is down in Customer Service ratings this year. Similar figures were seen at the height of Dells Customer Service woes in 2005.

$150,000,000 - Dollars spent by Dell this year to turn around Customer Service

$150,000,000 - Money apparently wasted by Dell this year on Customer Service

48.5 million - Dollars owed to ex Dell CEO Rollins by Dell for Stock Options currently being held up by the late filings due at the SEC

7.9 million - Last month's similar, but separate agreement on dollars to be paid to Rollins for a similar reason

3 - Number of years Mr Rollins was at the helm at Dell

3 - Number of months between SEC filings for listed companies. (each quarter or every ninety days)

14 - Number of months since Dell last filed (June 2006)

%11.9 to %15.2 - Jump in share market for HP in Latin America

%8.5 to %6.8 - Decline in share market for Dell in Latin America

and last but no least, my personal favorite...

273,622 - Number of hits on Youtube for My PC is on Fire video

32,041 - Number of views on Youtube for My PC is on Fire video since June 14/07

dell dellhell

Hold the Press - Dell Finally Calls!

2007-08-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Great excitement today, Dell calls and speaks with my daughter. She asks them to call me in her stead.

Early this evening PST, I get a call from a Technical Support guy in India, he starts by saying that he has spoken to my daughter and is now phoning me in accordance with that conversation and then his next question is "what can I do for you?" and I replied "I don't know, you called me".

That threw him...

So then he reviews the file with me for a half hour or so, offers to sell me a refurbished hard drive and then to his credit, listens to my side of things.

Well, now he is out of his depth and he says he wants to speak with his manager and would I hold the line? He came back on pretty quick with a solution that still has me laughing... "I will put a note on your file that Dell will not contact you unless they have a solution to the problem".

Can it get any sillier? Stay Tuned....

dell dellhell

Lionel Must Hate Me

2007-08-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

So, I am back in the Northern Hemisphere! I cut short the season in NZ... not much snow and not much prospect of it either... and just when I was starting to get on a roll with the Kiwis' in regards putting out the word on CS issues at Dell and the problems with computers from the Inspiron Line. There are only 4 million people in NZ so I figured 500 this year would be a good start, but more likely it was only a couple of hundred. I plan to go back next season...

Anyway, poor old Lionel over at Direct2Dell, I had been posting there prior to starting this blog in the hope that the powers that be in the Great State of Texas would be straight shooters, they weren't... And Lionel, due to his job as the go to guy (or whipping post as may be on occasion) at Direct2dell, was getting frustrated towards the end cause I am pig headed, yet articulate and tactful, for the most part.

So my last two posts to Direct2Dell in the previous week have finally gotten a response from Lionel and he too is puzzled by the contact, believing as we did, that the issue was dead between Dell and three customers. I count my daughter and wife in this, as two of three customers BTW , just so we know how the math is working. (Come to think of it, my wife works for a huge multinational as a technical writer and presenter of teaching materials to the workforce, I wonder how many of her colleagues she has spoken to about our problems with Dell? I'll have to ask her one day and add them to the tally of people we are potentially turning away from purchasing Dell products. SCORE!)

Lionel has said he will look into it and hopefully we may move on from all this! I can always find something else to blog about now that I have the basics of blogging down... but tell the truth, I don't think they will do anything other than re-agree to disagree.

It's good to be home!

dell dellhell

Real People are Listening? Tommy, the Pinball Wizard Hired by Dell

2007-08-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, despite Dell's claim on the direct2dell blog that "Real People are Here and they are Listening" they don't mention they hired the Pinball Wizard himself... although he is Deaf, Dumb and Blind he does play mean pinball.

Sadly, he is unable to respond to even the simplest requests for information. Which seems to suit Dell just fine.

Dell contacted us on July 9th, they wanted to do a follow up because our complaint is listed as "unresolved". The technician wanted to arrange a time to call and see if he could find a solution. Wait a minute, didn't we already do this with technicians months ago? We already know what the problem is, they sold us an Edsel.

The dead motherboard will not be resurrected by a phone call, the refurbished motherboard they offered us for $700 is not a cure either... we know all this already. So why call in the first place you might ask?

Well, there is more! After struggling to find an appropriate time to call, the technician says he will "call back" and we haven't heard from his since!

Way to go Dell!

Well, how does the Pinball Wizard fit in to all this? I posted to dell's website direct2dell and asked Lionel what was going on? Haven't heard from him either so I can only assume he has been fired and replaced by "Tommy".

Perhaps the slogan should be "Real people are here, and we are listening, but we are deaf, dumb and blind and what's more, we don't give a shit!"

How can people screw up so badly? Customer Service is in it's infancy at Dell but this is ridiculous...

dell dellhell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 5

2007-07-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

Well, you can buy the numbers too and Tarp.com can tell you what it will cost you! Thanks to my friends here at KiwiHost I got to hear about Tarp and the great work they do in the USA to show us the problems and solutions to customer service in a way we can understand. Good old numbers....

I have been waiting for a way to quantify what I am doing and now with the data from Tarp it has only gotten worse! Or better I suppose, from my point of view. All this adds up to....? Damned if I know, I am more confused than ever, but I am more certain than ever that my efforts are not misguided nor in vain.

5 to 6 - Number of times greater the cost to win a new customer than to keep an old one.

1 in 26 - Number of Kiwis that complain.

1 in 12 - Number of Americans who complain.

8 to 22 - Number of People an unhappy customer tells.

8 - Number of People a "happy" customer will tell about a big ticket purchase experience.

16 - Number of people an "unhappy" customer will tell about a big ticket purchase experience.

19 - Percent of customers with unresolved complaints who will no longer purchase products from that company.

9 - Percent of customers who are lost to a company, who do not even complain about the faulty product.

1 to 5 - Percent who complain to management or HQ in regards a faulty product.

8 - Percent more loyal after a customer complaint is resolved than if there had been no problem at all!

So what does this all tell me? Well, a few things stick out. According to these numbers had Dell fixed my daughters computer I would have been even more loyal to Dell than I was before (True, and I have been a customer going back to the early days!). Another thing is that Dell is only hearing 5% of the problem on the direct2dell site or on the community forums. The true numbers must be staggering!

Another thing is I am way out front on the unhappy customer tells 16 issue... I am way over 100 now, hell, two people have read this blog!

Sweet As.... as they say here in NZ... though they never do say sweet as what...

dell dellhell

Dellhell DownUnder

2007-07-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Well, in case those living at the rarified heights of Round Rock, TX are chuckling to themselves, thinking this blog was a flash in the pan, I wanted to assure them and you, dear reader, that I have not disappeared, nor have I tired of my assault on Dellhell.

In fact, I am on a working holiday in New Zealand, and while downunder, I am doing my utmost to convince my Kiwi brethern to buy anything but Dell when they consider a purchase of computers or peripherals.

Now, with a population of some 3 million people and 40 million sheep, it isn't much of a market to worry about in the grand scheme of things, but it isn't about NZ per se, just like Dell, I am focused on overall numbers.

Dell ripped me (my daughter) off for $2600 and I am out for blood, every lost customer counts, Canadian, Kiwi, Aussie, makes no difference to me! Do you hear me in Texas? I am not going away, your problem with me gets worse by the day... not better and all because you place a buck before a customer, Assholes! It is easy to see why America is going down the tubes... Ford, Chrysler, Dell, just to name a few, with Corporate leaders like you guys who needs Dick Cheney or Bill Clinton to shoot friends or screw things?

I recently spoke at a customer service course for Ski Field employees (KiwiHost) and guess who I used as the posterchild for bad customer relations? No prize for guessing it was Dell.

My audience was a bunch of Kiwi's (the people, not the bird) and a small group of international ski pro's. I spoke of the appalling track record at Dell in regards customer service and thier refusal to deal with the results. Forget the lip service of Direct2Dell or Ideastorm, these are only relevant to the geeks and bloggers, Joe Kiwi is not impressed by this stuff anymore than Joe Average in America, all they want is a product that works from a company they can trust. They may have more sheep than cows in New Zealand but they know bullshit when they see it!

So, to sum up, I have not "gone away" I have only gone "downunder". I will be back, on the attack as and when I am able. Meanwhile be assured, I am spreading the word.

dell dellhell

Feelings of Inadequacy

2007-06-17T22:22:00.001-07:00

All I ever wanted from this blog was to kick Dell in the balls until I feel I have gotten my daughters money's worth. To know the whole story you will have to go back and read the blog from the beginning, but to sum up quickly, Dell sold my daughter an expensive paperweight, to wit a 9100 Insipiron notebook, and like MANY other notebooks in the Inspiron line, it died a premature death due to motherboard failure.

This computer is an Edsel and were it a car, legislation would force Dell to recall the lemon they have produced, even those out of warranty! But this is not the auto industry...

So, being a father, when someone rips off your daughter what do you do?

Me, I just wanted my pound of flesh. But Dell being in Texas, I want some punitive damages too.

Now a more reasonable man might wait for the inevitable class action, but I am not holding my breath here in Canada.

So, why do I currently have feelings of inadequacy? Well, despite all the effort to blog each day, seeking out the latest news on Dell (who btw are very helpful in providing fuel for the fire), finding fun links and generally thinking things through, I remain a voice in the wilderness, although I seem to be getting a lock on the dellhell links at technorati.

And along comes Tracy Holland, well educated, great job, lots of money, and she writes a couple of emails and gets more bad publicity for Dell than I can generate in a year!

I hate you Tracy!

dell dellhell

Dell Hell - By the Numbers 4

2007-06-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

125,197 - Number of Views on June 16, 2007 of "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager" at Consumerist.com (after they publish threatening emails by Dell attorneys. Way to go Tracy Holland!)

191,422 - Number of Views on June 17, 2007 of "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager" at Consumerist.com

99,702 - Number of Views of the emails from Dell Attorneys to Consumerist.Com on June 16, 2007 ONE DAY after being published on Consumerist.com

115,751 - Number of Views of the emails from Dell Attorneys to Consumerist.com, 24 hours later.

880,001 - Likely revision to layoffs from previously announced figures of 880,000.

dell dellhell

Dell attempts to Censor Consumer Site

2007-06-16T17:32:00.001-07:00

Well, this is hilarious and a bit disturbing, so I am reposting it here, least Dell's threats cause someone to remove the post, which so offends the hierarchy at Round Rock.

All the following are found (or maybe not if dell has their way) at Consumerist.com.

The first exchange is between Consumerist.com and Dell, following that is the offending article.

I am pleased to say I was among the first to report the original story on my blog!

Quote

from Tracy Holland
to ben@consumerist.com
date Jun 14, 2007 4:39 PM
subject Posting by former Dell employee

Dear Ben,

Please remove the posting located at the following link:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/insiders/22
-confessions-of-a-former-dell-sales-manager-268831.php

It contains information that is confidential and proprietary to Dell.

While not all aspects of the entry are accurate, ostensibly an ex-employee posted Dell's confidential information in violation of his or her employment agreement and confidentiality obligations (which prohibit the disclosure of such information both during and after the period of employment).

We would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter. Please confirm that the posting has been removed by the end of the day tomorrow.

Thank you, and please give me a call if you would like to discuss further.

Tracy Holland

Tracy J. Holland
Counsel
Dell Inc.

from Ben Popken to Tracy Holland
cc Gaby
date Jun 15, 2007
12:58 AM
subject Re: Posting by former Dell employee

Tracy,

I am forwarding your request to our legal counsel, who will communicate with you from here on.

- Ben

---

from Tracy Holland
to ben@consumerist.com
cc Gaby
date Jun 15, 2007 1:50 AM
subject RE: Posting by former Dell employee

Thank you. Note, though, it has been almost nine hours since we made the request, yet the posting is still up, with the number of hits growing logarithmically.

Also note, we do not make these requests often (as I'm sure you know, there are thousands of blogs and other online postings that relate to Dell and its products), and we do not make them without good cause. Therefore, while we wait to discuss this request with counsel (despite the source and the clearly confidential and proprietary nature of the information), we ask that you act in good faith to minimize the potential damage caused by this disclosure, and take down the posting immediately. Dell will not regard any such immediate action as an agreement regarding the merits of the request, or as an admission of any liability on the part of consumerist.com or any related person or entity.

If after any necessary discussion between counsel we cannot agree that this was indeed the appropriate course of action, you can always re-post the item.

Thank you,

Tracy Holland

---

from Gaby
to Tracy Holland
cc Ben Popken
date Jun 15, 2007 7:33 AM
subject Re: Posting by former Dell employee

Dear Ms. Holland,

Despite some suggestions to the contrary among some of our fellow beings, most humans need to sleep. Some of us also receive hundreds of emails a day and have to deal with every one of them. I received this email at 12am last night. It is 7am now. That's a pretty good turnaround.

Nonetheless, that's immaterial to the matter in hand. I've reviewed the post, and it appears to me that it is valid, useful and apparently overwhelmingly accurate. It's not bitter, angry or destructive. It is quite simply good and useful information for consumers. And it appears that a Dell rep has already provided updates to various sections, which we have published, which, since they have only corrected certain parts of this report, implies that the uncorrected parts must be true. If that's not the case, please feel free to send us more clarifications and we will update the post further with your additional notes.

We came by this material entirely legally: we were provided it by a third party voluntarily, we did not use any improper means to solicit any Dell employee to breach any agreement he may have had with you. Therefore, we do not believe we are in breach of any law in reporting on this material and, as such, cannot comply with your demands.

In addition, as I am sure you must realise - and there is certainly a history of this with Dell already - consumers tend to react far better when a company responds collaboratively to criticism, than when they act heavy-handedly or dismissively. Removing this story would be far far more damaging to Dell, I assure you, than responding to it on the Dell blog or elsewhere, since in telling our readers that Dell shut down our reporting, we would unleash a chaos of fury and acres of criticism in the press. Forget any legal position you may want to take, meritorious or not, I am deadly serious when I say that I simply cannot recommend this as a course of action. I've seen it happen before and it is really not pretty and I have no doubt that you will regret it.

Of course, it is your decision whether you want to pursue this matter, but I advise you to talk to the team that had to deal with the falllout from the Jeff Jarvis affair before you decide to try and silence your critics. Work for the customer, not against them.

Best regards,

Gaby

"22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager"

A former Dell kiosk manager writes us to share helpful tips about doing business with Dell. He has no particular problems with Dell, he just wanted to share some helpful tips for consumers looking to get the best deal. He includes info on getting the best deal from the website, different kinds of promotions the Dell offers, insider details on how the kiosk sales reps are compensated, what coupons and deals they have to offer you to close the deal, the email format for Dell in case you're thinking of launching an EECB, where to take your Dell credit card complaints, which extended warranties to avoid, how to get a domestic tech support rep... and more. It's very comprehensive. Enjoy!

I am a former Spherion rep that later became a Dell Branded Rep (manager) of a Dell kiosk in the Philadelphia, PA region. To work at one is to work at all, and I worked at four different kiosks in the region. I worked from July 2005 until October 2006, but keep regular contact with some of the guys I trained and brought up. Other than the usual complaints, I have no problem with the company.

Things most people know already:

1. Small business is better than home and home office - Small business typically runs a few dollars more than the home office, but you stand a better chance of getting domestic tech support rather than non-native English speakers. As an added perk, small business promotions are occasionally better than home.

2. Play with the web site - There are many different pricing packages for the same product throughout the various sections, typically three or more per segment. If you're buying a Dell soon, configure a unit from a link off the main page, from the product listing on the drop down and from the "As Advertised-Newspaper" drop down. Configure the same system each way at the home, small business and the Direct (kiosk) site (http://www.dell.com/directstore). It is very likely you will end up with nine different prices.

3. Extended warranty for laptops - Do it for as long as you feasibly see using your laptop, and include accidental. Two years is typically the lifecycle from "new product" to "no longer produced/no more refurbs" though YMMV. Once your model is off the refurb site, drop it. Voila! New laptop. The standard warranty will not cover any screen defects.

UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: If a system is no longer shipping a used/refurbished is always sent, though the refurb should be equal or better as far as hardware is concerned. As of this writing if a system is exchanged, via either Complete Care warranty or concession, and the system is still a currently shipping model a new system is to be sent.

4. Extended warranty for desktops - There is nothing in a low end desktop (non XPS) that is worth the price of the warranty should you have to replace it. Only pick it up if you have absolutely no clue what you're doing once the case is open.

5. Tech support phone - If you do go with the home/home office/direct route, tech support is outsourced (duh!). The tech support instant messenger typically provides a calmer, more understandable conversation due to the fact that accents are taken out of the equation. Think back to high school Spanish. It was always easier to translate the foreign language you were reading than if you heard it. Same concept applies here.

6. Tech support web site - If you're having a common problem, hit the product forums (however crippled they may be now). It is very likely your question/problem has been resolved before, and usually a domestic tech rep posted a solution there.

7. Warranty Repairs - On all but the two lowest warranties (90 day and 1 year limited), warranty repairs will be done in the home. The repair techs are only required to replace the broken part. They are not required to do anything else. If they replace your hard drive, they are not required to reinstall your OS or drivers. Most will do it if you're nice, but don't expect it. If you're clueless, there are tutorials all over http://support.dell.com that tell you how to do it yourself.

UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: Also with desktop machines at home service is the only option. Notebooks on the other hand may have a return to depot or an at home service contract.

8. OS Backup Disk - For over a year now, Dell has required you to purchase your Backup/Reinstall Disk. Order this with your machine. Once your Dell is delivered, it is a pain to get the disk at all, much less at a sensible price. If you do not have this disk and your hard drive dies, at home warranty repair will not be able to get your PC running once the drive is swapped without selling you a new copy of your OS.

UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: Dell no longer requires the purchase of the backup disk. They are included with every computer that ships with a Windows OS. On the subject of hard drives, if your drive fails within the first year of purchase you should be sent an imaged drive that will contain everything except for your royalty applications (Office etc). If for some reason you lose the media, you can request the OS, Resource/Drivers disk, and the applications disk at no cost to you. (Even if you are no longer under warranty Dell will send you an OS disk) Note that the Resource/Drivers and Applications disk is only available for currently shipping systems. Should you need to reinstall you'll need to download the drivers from support.dell.com from another computer and copy them over. Last, within the first year of purchase, if you need to reinstall the OS and you can't access the recovery image, or if it was deleted for some reason, you can request an System Recovery CD that does pretty much the same thing. (Not available on notebooks due to the Media Direct partition.)

9. DPA/Dell Preferred - This is the Dell credit card, like a Sears, Macy's or Radio Shack credit card. Typically a high rate, low limit card. The lowest APR is still around 18-20%, and that comes with a $5,000 limit. The $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000 limits have rates in the mid to high 20s. The lowest limt, $1,500, has an APR of 29.99%. NEVER USE THIS UNLESS THERE IS A KILLER NO INTEREST PROMOTION.

a. Interesting Note: In the Back-To-School season of 2005, DFS (Dell Financial Service) was issuing cards to 18 year olds with a $7,000 limit and a 29.99% interest rate.

Stuff you may not know:

1. Promotion cycle dates - Thursday is the first day of new promotions. If you go to the web site at 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday night and again on 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, the promotions are different. The catalog promotions run from the start of the month to the end. Additionally, on holiday weekends (Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc.) there may be special sales/coupons for the three-day weekend.

2. Promotion styles - Typically, one week will be cash off while the next will be percentage off. If you liked cash off but the current promotion is percentage off, check the "As Advertised-Newspaper" section. These typically have a remnant of the prior week's promotion as well as better versions of the current week's promotions. Cash off helps for cheap systems, percentage off helps with high-end.

3. Dell Customer Care can price match within 24 hours from the time of order. Combining #1 and #2 from this section, if you are unsure of the value of the week's promotion but need to order something, order it Wednesday night. Check the promotions for the new week on Thursday. If its better, call and price match. If its not, sit back and feel smug for no reason

4. Dell corporate email - As of December 2006, everybody (save Michael Dell) working for Dell U.S. has the same form of email address: firstname_lastname@dell.com. Michael Dell's does not follow this pattern and is changed immediately whenever the current one is discovered by lower-level employees or the public.

5. Dell's internal fiscal calendar is different from other corporations. As their fiscal year ends in January or February (I honestly don't remember), the best deals will typically be found in late January and all of February. Also, buying during the last week of any quarter typically means free or deeply-discounted 2nd day or overnight shipping, and the quickest order turnaround. There are no steep discounts for the holidays, though they will run a few weeks of consecutive percentage off promotions during the back to school season in August.

6. The DFS servers are notoriously flimsy. If you apply for DPA (why would you?) and it is unable to complete, it means the server is overloaded but your credit rating has already been pinged. Reapplying will not fix the issue but it will repeatedly ping your credit. The system is unable to verify cell phone numbers and will automatically reject based on the use of one.

Fun facts about the Kiosks:

1. Why should I shop at a kiosk? I can order from home. - A very valid point, but the majority of kiosk customers are morons who think computers are magic boxes that let you see pictures of cats in funny poses while someone steals your AOL password. There's a few reasons why an educated person aka Consumerist reader should hit the kiosk up:

a. Discounts - There are several ways the Dell Direct kiosks can attempt to match or beat an online deal.

i. Closing tools - Dollar off coupons that depend on how much you spend. Spend $600=$25 off; $1200=$50 off; $1,600=$75 off; $2,000=$100 off.

ii. Refuse to Lose - 10% coupons meant to allow a sales rep to seal a large deal. These can only be used when the computer price alone is $1,600 or more. It can not be used on accessories, TVs or multiple computers whose aggregate value is above $1,600. This must be requested from the Manager on Duty (MOD) through an email request, and will generally be credited before the computer is shipped.

iii. DPA coupon - Dell will already give you 2% off your order if, at the payment screen you click the link that offers 2% off when you pay with DPA. The kiosks have a 3% DPA closing tool that can be used also, giving a discount of slightly over 5%. This works for all DPA purchases including TV's, monitors and cameras.

iv. The closing tools are nothing but individual-use coupons entered at the shopping cart. They are invalid on the home and small business site. Reps are supposed to use them as a last-ditch effort, but as long as you're not buying a sub-$600 system, they should offer them without your having to ask.

b. Printer cartridges - No you can't buy them there...officially. They are non-inventoried items that many kiosks have a heady supply of due to inexplicably random deliveries from corporate. If you're in a pinch and need one that day, go (don't call), get a feel for the employees, and if you think they're cool with it, offer cash.

2. There are two levels of kiosk employees. There are those hired by Spherion, creatively known as "Spherion reps," and then there are Dell Branded Reps, or DBRs. DBRs are effectively the management of the individual kiosk, and are the only ones able to work uncompensated overtime. Deal with them if possible, because they are very likely to be there the next time if you have a question. They've also been there much longer than any other kiosk staff, so they likely have a much better skill set for finding bargains.

3. If you have a problem with DPA, the kiosk has a specific email contact for Dell Financial. Problems can be resolved much much faster.

4. The Dell Direct kiosk website is configured differently than the others. There are "bundles" (linked from the main page under the "start shopping" graphics) and there are "non-bundles". Bundles, so called because...you guessed it...accessories and service are already bundled in, have a higher profit margin. They are also the most customizable system on the website. Non-bundles carry lower profit margins but may be limited. The salesman will always start from a bundle. Let them finish, then make them search the non-bundles for an equal system with a better price.

5. Kiosk reps are judged on the following:

a. Unit price: The average sale price of each reps transactions. $1,200 was the goal as of March, 2007 but $1,600 was preferred.

b. Bundle percentage: Dell varies on what percentage of all sales it wants to be from the "bundle" page depending on the month and who you're talking to. It is typically between 40% and 60%.

c. Service: Each PC/Notebook sale is expected to have a 3 year warranty attached. Typically, the number is between $160 and $200.

d. E&A: This is the percentage of the sale that was spent on accessories. Each transaction should have between 5% and 10%, or one printer and cable per PC or one bag, lock and travel mouse per Notebook.

e. DPA: Dell Preferred Account purchases. The expected percentage of DPA sales has climbed in the past years. It currently hovers between 40% and 60%, and they want a 1 to 1 customer to submitted application ratio.

6. Secret shoppers - The kiosks are secret shopped constantly, and they're playing of a 20-question scorecard. Don't be surprised if the salesman asks really base/borderline-insulting questions if you act interested. They think you're a secret shopper.

7. Communication - Complaints made about Dell to the kiosk reps go unheard. There is no place for the rep to turn around and report the complaint to. Communication between reps and even district management is limited, and reps are discouraged from calling the regional management. Store, district and regional management are all run from email and cell phones. It is not uncommon for the kiosks to receive three answers from three departments, with the end result being all three statements retracted without a solution in place.

End Quote

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Sun Tzu meets Thomas Jefferson, meets Michael Dell

2007-06-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

The quote below graces the welcome page of my personal website and it rings true when examined under many different circumstances... just as it has become fashionable for business schools and business leaders to use the work of the great Chinese scholar and military strategist Sun Tzu to illustrate common business principals, so it should become fashionable for business schools and business leaders to use the writing and examples of Thomas Jefferson to teach integrity.

History, by appraising them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future;
it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations;
it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men.

Thomas Jefferson

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 3

2007-06-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's that time of the week again when we round up the numbers...

168 - Number of hits on Youtube for the Jeff Jarvis "Dell Hug" video

241,581 - Number of hits on Youtube for the "My PC is on Fire" video

22 - Number of confessions of a Dell Sales Manager.

3 - Number of weeks so far if you are waiting for your Dell to ship with Ubuntu/Linux.

2400 - approximate number of posts by Richardatdell on individual blogs in the past year.

0 - ways to contact Richardatdell.

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Dell Hell DownUnder

2007-06-13T10:56:00.001-07:00

The problems at Dell are not confined to North America, and with a tiny market share, our friends down under would appear to have even less leverage than us poor fools here in North America when it comes to doing business at Dell. Consider the story of this poor fellow from Tasmania... sounds awfully familiar doesn't it?

Quote

Order from hell, courtesy of Dell

Opinion from AustralianIT.com.au's readers | June 12, 2007

IT IS no wonder Dell is losing customers. I have two Dells and ordered another in May (Jobs shake-up, June 5).

The ordering went round and round, but eventually went through, and then my problems started.

I got calls from India, at meal times in the evening. First they said that I didn't live where I live, and would I choose another address.

I said Dell had delivered two computers to my address already, and surely it kept customer records.

Then we had payment address problems.

I said: "Just cancel the order", which caused a reaction: the order was confirmed by email, delivery in a week was promised.

You can't contact anyone when an order doesn't arrive, only an answering machine. The website doesn't recognise Dell's own order number, and goes round and round. Eventually, I emailed and cancelled, and asked for my money back.

It is always strange that, when you pay, it takes a nanosecond, but when you want your money, it takes a minimum of a week.

So now I don't have a new Dell. I am travelling at the moment and I don't know if I've received my money back.
- Fred Cotter, Huonville, Tasmania

End Quote

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For What it is Worth

2007-06-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

The influential website Advertising Age ran an article today outlining the successes at Dell with recent initiatives to address well known concerns. Below is my response as submitted to the website comments section. It seems a bit "cheap" to get such pleasure out of seeing them published but not too cheap to share them again here!

I enjoy the mental excercise of trying to estimate what that paragraph will cost them... I have no idea what it is worth, but it must be more than their cost to replace my daughters computer, like they should have done in the first place!

QUOTE

As the article rightly points out, Dell have made inroads in the past year in dealing with declining marketshare. However, there are still some 13 models being considered for class action suits in the US and abroad and the owners of these models (all from the inspiron line) have not benefited from the renewed efforts under Michael Dell. On the contrary, they are stonewalled by Dell at every turn. It would appear Dell is more interested in litigation than ethics and it will be a costly lesson if the suits succede. Direct2Dell and Ideastorm are fine efforts, but catering to folks who want Ubuntu, while ignoring good customers who have purchased what is essentially an expensive paperweight, is not a good way to build a business.

ENDQUOTE

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Former Dell Employee Speaks Out

2007-06-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

At times it seems that the latest "news" about Dell is just rehashing old material. SEC investigations, customer service issues, poorly designed products, mis-management, allegations of fraud etc etc... this stuff has been going on for years now and it is often a struggle to come up with something more interesting than the usual woes. Well, the following was just too good to ignore... what makes it interesting is that it is a current response to an old problem, and it comes from a former Dell employee!

Quote
As an ex-Dell employee I feel sorry for anyone that owns a Dell computer. I often had friends or family ask if they should buy a Dell; I told them NO. Unless you get the "complete care package" it's just not worth it. Too many times there were known issues with the systems but we were not supposed to tell the customers anything, just smile and lie. That's not customer service if you ask me. However, a lot of the problems come from the customers too. Like being under the mistaken impression that sales knows more about your system than tech does. Sales knows how to pad their wallets, and that's it. In my career at Dell I tried to be as professional as possible but it only goes so far when you are accused of breaking a customer's system because they won't listen. All-in-all I would never buy a manufactured PC, and if I needed a laptop it would be an Apple.
End Quote

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 2

2007-06-07T12:42:00.001-07:00

Just to update the latest figures from DellHell Revisited..

237,498 - The number of hits on youtube for the popular video parody "My PC is on Fire".

9792 - Number of hits since last report on May, 21/07.

576 - Potential lost customers per day from this video parody.

6 - Number of years for which the US Attorney for the Southern district of NY has subpoened documents regarding Dell's financial reporting.

8,800 - Approximate number of jobs disappearing at Dell.

8 - Senior Managers reporting to Michael Dell who have lost thier positions.

25 - Number of companies ahead of Dell on the Top 25 list of Supply Chain companies.

-1.2 - Percentage Dell is down today on the Nasdaq.

Well, that is enough numbers to make my head hurt so I will leave it there for now.

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Dell Profits, Employees Lose, Customer Service... Who Knows?

2007-05-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

Just within the last hour Dell has released it's latest bombshell, 8.800 jobs are being cut from the Dell workforce.

Shareholders have cause to rejoice the losses, in after hours trading shares rose 7% when news of the cuts spread. Employees on the firing line, not so much joy....

After a minor housecleaning at the top, it appears that Michael Dell is not finished with revamping Dell. The only question remains is who is going to be left to pick up the pieces and if 8,800 jobs are lost, what impact that will have on recent customer service initiatives.

I can't wait for the disgruntled employees to begin telling their tales! This sad saga is going to get a whole lot more fun before it gets better. And I mean fun to observe from the point of view of those of us who already managed to safely jump off the train wreck that is Dell. Once I quit dealing with Dell and began to focus on revenge, I must say I have been enjoying myself! And to think I owe it all to Michael Dell... hell, maybe he is worth 165,000,000 a year!

On the other hand, for you poor folk around the globe who get the pink slip, I am truly sorry. The only time I would enjoy seeing people being laid off is if they work for Satan.

dell

Two paragraphs say it all...

2007-05-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Dell is shouting from the rooftops that the 9100 is a quality machine with no "pervasive issues" and of course, are denying that there is any problem with them for which Dell might be responsible... I thought I would have a look at the Complaint that lead to the successful class action suit against Dell and the 5150 notebook.

At least two of the three issues involving the 5150 are identical to the problems with the 9100 and so Dell must be horrified at the thought of the impending class actions involving a further 13 notebooks. I offer up the relevant paragraphs below so that you can read for yourself the similarities to customers experience with the 9100 machines... As you read the last bit, keep in mind the only solution Dell is offering for the 9100 is to replace the motherboard with a REFURBISHED mob at a cost of something around $700 with installation!

In other words, "Oh the piece of crap we sold you broke? Well, we can sell you another one just like it!"

Now that is great customer service Lionel! It would seem to me that if you are part of the charade you are also guilty, have you ever thought of that? And how much of an idiot does one have to be to try the same stunt twice when it already failed so badly for you the first time? I for one will certainly be pushing for punitive damages as this is clearly a deliberate and habitual behavior at Dell.

QUOTE FROM THE LUNDELL SETTLEMENT DOCUMENTS

The Affected Computers are designed and manufactured with three uniform and inherent defects (collectively, the “Defects”). First, the Affected Computers’ cooling systems are inadequate to dissipate the heat generated through normal use. Second, the power supply system prematurely fails when used as intended. Third, the motherboards on the Affected Computers prematurely fail. Among other problems, the Defects cause the Affected Computers to shut down unexpectedly or fail to boot up and/or the batteries will fail to hold a charge, or will hold a charge for only a short time, well before the expected end of the battery’s life.

Dell also regularly recommends that owners of the Affected Computers replace the motherboard; however, for some period of time presently unknown to Plaintiffs, Dell replaced failed motherboards with motherboards sharing the same defective design, such that the replacement does not correct the problem. In addition, Dell profits by charging consumers for the parts and labor involved in such replacements.

END QUOTE

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A Marriage Made in a Trailer Park - Dell and WalMart get Hitched

2007-05-28T12:15:00.001-07:00

Dell's first big foray into Retail partnerships has been announced and the lucky bride to be is Wal-Mart. The offspring is the Dell Dimension E521 and early reports are not favorable to the firstborn.

A note in the PCWorld review says about the machine "The system simply isn't up to running games: In Doom 3, it managed a skimpy (and unplayable) 6 frames per second at a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. It also choked when we tried to play a DVD movie and convert an MP3 file simultaneously; the video became jerky and unwatchable." and yet on the Dell website we have an anonymous reviewer telling us the following... "This system screams - as a gaming computer it has totally changed my gaming experience - as a computer for projects and papers it has drastically improved my productivity." Well, this guy is playing pacman or somebody is pulling our leg on this one, and I don't think it is PCWorld!

I will say Bravo though, to Michael Dell for trying to bring computing to the great unwashed.

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Dell Inspiron, Meet Ford Edsel

2007-05-25T15:50:00.001-07:00

Sounds like some story line from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... I made mention of the Edsel/Dell connection in my first blog post and wanted to expand on that theme a bit...

I had laughed (prior to crying) when I first went to the Dell Forums and found a topic titled "Edsel 9100, oops I mean Inspiron 9100", then to refresh my memory I searched out the story behind the Edsel and it's sorry niche in automotive history.

Turns out the comparison is fairly sound, except for the part where Ford was smart enough to withdraw the car from the marketplace. Dell on the other hand, kept selling their Edsels and to this day are denying there is a pervasive set of problems with the Inspiron line of notebooks.

Ironically, Ford was able to post profits in the few years that the Edsel was on the Market, so Ford executives, other than being a bit embarrassed perhaps, were not unduly pressured by Stockholders despite the loss of some 2.25 Billion in todays dollars. Dell on the other hand, saw it's shares fall almost $9 in less than four months in 2006, it plummeted further in the year to a low of $18 and change, before clawing back to it's current price which is still well below the high at the beginning of 2006. When a company reports second quarter profits down 51% that has to hurt!

Despite an earnings per share of $1.33 reported last year, one cannot get optimistic until the fallout of the investigations into Dell's accounting practices is complete.

Well, any way the wind blows, Michael Dell will be okay... he made somewhere around $165,000,000 last year to add to the $15 Billion he has already.

Michael, if our roles were reversed and my company ripped off your daughter and I had $15 Billion, I would buy her the nicest computer I could find and send it to her with a box of flowers and an apology. But that is just me, so Michael, have a nice time in Monaco or where ever it is Billionaires are hanging out this weekend. And don't let your conscience bother you, it gets in the way of business.

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Blogs; the New Samizdats

2007-05-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

I was contemplating the awesome power of blogs today, partially inspired by the attention lavished on blogs recently by Michael Dell, Dick Hunter, and Direct2Dell Guru Lionel Menchaca et al in an effort to plug the leaks popping up everywhere in the hull of the good ship Dell.

Then it occurred to me that I had seen this exact thing before, it was deja vu all over again.

Many people are unaware that one of the most valuable tools of dissent in the former Soviet empire was the SAMIZDAT. The word itself was coined in the 1940's and it means "self published". Faxed, photocopied, hand printed or pressed, they were passed around from person to person. It was a way to get the news out to the people, despite the efforts of the Government at propaganda and suppression.

One of the last great Soviet dissidents still active in Moscow and Russian Politics is Vladimir Bukovsky. He described the Samizdat in this way "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it".

Well, except for that last bit, he is describing a blog... and sadly in some countries where blogging can induce flogging, it is an EXACT description of a blog.

But here in Canada, I can, within reason, say pretty much what I like. No Gulag for me if I say Michael Dell is full of shit and his mom wears Army boots. Not that I would say that, it isn't my style to be crude or un-necessarily rude, and everyone knows you don't bring someones mom into the tussle.

The power which is contained in the blogosphere (that is a lousy word, can we come up with something better??) has yet to be unleashed, we are just learning the strengths and weaknesses of this new tool , but I have a suspicion that if a Samizdat could help bring down the Iron Curtain, then a modern day Samizdat can bring down a curtain too, the curtain on this sorry mess at Dell.

Tonight I realized how powerful the tool at my fingertips is, it will be fun to see where it goes in the future, not just in the battle with Dell, I will be interested to see how this tool is used in the hands of other people, in other countries, with all sorts of political or Consumer issues.

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Blogging Bloggers, which is NOT a Scottish Cuss Word, Despite What it Sounds Like.

2007-05-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

As I learn my way around in terms of the blogging world, I am seeking out those people who are writing on similar issues to this blog. In doing so, I hope to learn from them and if I am lucky, to be entertained and educated in a single blow!

Decloned is an example of a blogger who has posted a very good bit of work recently and it also has some interesting interchange between the author and Dell staff who are involved in the outreach program in the blogging world.

On the personal front, I have now given our daughter our new Dell notebook (purchased just prior to the problems beginning with her 9100 machine), we took the old hp out of mothballs and my wife now uses it for her mail and a bit of online card playing (Spades thankfully, I think online poker is just a way of training/addicting a future customer base to gambling). Needless to say, the machine we lent my daughter is the last we will ever buy from Dell.

They just don't get it, we have been customers since the early days and would have remained loyal customers if they had done the right thing.

More links to good writers and bloggers as I find them...

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers

2007-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I always liked this kind of list, says nothing but says it all...

56,000,000 - Number of hits on google using the keywords Dell and Problem

89,000,000 - Number of dollars Dell spent last year investigating it's own accounting practices

227,706 - Number of hits on Youtube for the Dell "My PC is on Fire" Numa Numa Parody as of this morning.

227,864 - Oops, the new number for views of the Dell "My PC is on Fire" Numa Numa Parody, this baby is flying off the shelf!

4 out of 15 - Number of Dell computers that failed in the first month at a high school in the USA.

12 - Number of pages, mostly bitching about the 9100, in a laptop review in the UK

0 - Number of machines, peripherals and other products from Dell that will be purchased by me or my family in the next year.

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Why bother?

2007-05-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

Why bother? Now that is a good question, and when I was asked I didn't really have a satisfactory answer. Satisfactory in the sense that I am not satisfied, and that is because the ugly truth of the matter is I am doing it for revenge. How petty of me.

No noble sentiment here, I don't give a shit about your computer or your problem with it other than the fact we share the same fate. It isn't about you my friend, it is about me. Me getting revenge on Dell for taking my daughter's hard earned money and selling her a turkey. You don't fuck with my girls...

My first impulse was to use the Revenge Lady but this is a bit more serious than that, I mean not serious like I need to bring in Blackwater, but serious enough, so this is a kind of a compromise.

Now revenge doesn't mean I want to see Michael Dell in chains, or some fellow in India lose his job. I can understand the fellow in Bangalore as easily as someone from Atlanta or even some Texans. I don't have an issue with outsourcing call centers.

I want the continual pressure from dis-satisfied customers and the bad publicity surrounding these issues to drive down share price and hit them where they hit my daughter, in the wallet.

So, there is the unsatisfactory, ugly truth, I am no Canadian Ralph Nader, Not even a facsimile of Jeff Jarvis, I am just some pissed of father with a cheap blog and a cheap lust for revenge. If this were a film it would be in Black and White and it would be narrated by a guy like Rod Serling.

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NY Attorney General accuses Dell of Fraud!

2007-05-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

WOW! How did this slip by me the other day... CNET News reported on a Wall Street Journal article by Christopher Lawton, wherein NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accuses Dell of Fraud for making false promises to customers to drive sales. You can view a pdf of the law suit here.

Well, it is about time someone called a spade a spade. Bravo, Mr. Cuomo! I am beginning to understand why Dell has been so reluctant to deal with my case.

duff

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Driven to the point of Madness in Dell Hell

2007-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been driven to the point of madness these past few weeks, I offered to contact Dell Computers to trace some problems with my daughter's computer and man oh man, has that opened up a can of worms.

Her computer is an out of warranty Inspiron 9100, turns out it is referred to as an Edsel and it is one of many turkeys in the Inspiron Line, many of which are the target of class action law suits in both Canada and the USA. Among them are the Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160 and under consideration are actions including the Inspiron 500M, 600M, 2200, 5000, 8000, 8500, 8600, 9100, and XPS.

If you currently own any of the models involved in the proposed or actual suits, you should be contacting the law firms involved. In Canada you should contact Rochon Genova LLP.

I can really only speak on the 9100 from personal experience but I am so pissed at Dell that I am prepared to be the next Jeff Jarvis type thorn in Dell's side! I am not sure if Jeff has retired from his crusade entirely or what, I am, as you will see below, new to all this! Jeff, if I am ever so widely read that you see this stuff, sorry for stealing the "dellhell" thing, but nothing says it better!

I will just hang this out there in blog land and see what happens, although I am a published author and journalist, I tend to ponder over my work for months and years, rather than try to come up with stuff "on the spot" so to speak.

As I warm to the subject I will try to find my "voice" in this new world! And for the Dell supporters out there, I know Dell is making huge efforts but it is still so far from what needs to be done as to be sad. My own experiences and those of others as recent as this past week, bear this out. I will post some of them here in coming days.

regards, duff

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