DELL Computer: Customer (Dis)Satisfaction

OK – time for my first blog rant. Dell Computer has used up all of the good well that they had built over the past 10 years. I have been a faithful customer for my personal and business computer purchases however NEVER AGAIN!


Having dealt with numerous customer service and repair issues over the past 9 months, several themes are consistent in my dealings with Dell:

1. You NEVER get the person that you need to speak with on the phone the first time. On average it takes three phone transfers to get to someone that can actually help. It seems to be a game of attrition with Dell where they hope that a certain percentage of people just cry “UNCLE” and hang up.


2. Much is promised but little is documented…on two separate occasions I was promised refunds and credits for the trouble that I was experiencing. I took down the name of the person that I was speaking with however they were impossible to locate later on. Emails that were promised to be forwarded documenting the phone calls never arrived.


3. It is all outsourced…and in the great majority of cases the communication skills of these off-shore workers is poor at best. The corporate executives at Dell must know this but are clearly committed to something other than satisfying their customers (HINT: $$$).


4. Dell’s out-sourced customer service reps all possess names that cannot be understood. I have come to appreciate the off-shore customer service reps that answer the phone, “Thank you for calling Dell. My name is undecipherable but you can call me Thomas.”


5. I defy you to try and get the name of someone based in the US to help in the Customer Service department. The off-shore staff will not provide this info and after a half-hour trying to find the name of someone to call I gave up (see attrition comment above).


6. A percentage of Dell’s profits are expected to come from dissatisfied customers that get lazy, sloppy or just plain tired. I was overcharged on two occasions for service repairs and it took considerable effort to track down the people that needed to correct the problem. (Additional information on Item 1 above: It takes 5 phone transfers to get a refund at Dell).

As an aside…I am very happy with the HP desktop that I recently purchased and the service that I have received from their Customer Service department. A good portion of their operations appear to be off-shored as well but they just seem much nicer and committed to helping.


I invite you to join my one-man crusade to bring down the Dell Empire…