My Dell Hell

Open email to Michael Dell, Chairman and founder of Dell Computers inc., from an angry and disgusted Dell Customer



Dear Michael Dell

I have been a fan of Dell computers ever since I bought my first computer from you, more years ago than I care to remember (it was a Pentium 90)

Over the years I have bought from you:

• 4 desktop machines
  
• 5 Laptops
  
• 2 Printers
  

All of them, apart from one printer are still in use, somewhere in my family, a testament to the quality.

I have always recommended your products to my friends and family as reliable and great value for money. Not only that, but if something goes wrong with your machine, your after sales support, in my experience, has been excellent.

However, something has now gone wrong.

I placed an order for the most recent two laptops as Christmas presents - one for my son and another for my step-daughter. One of the things we liked about Dell was the choice of colours for the laptops, so we naturally chose one pink and one blue.

I placed the order on 1st December to ensure delivery in time for the big day and since that point it has been an ongoing nightmare.

• First I had problems actually completing the order – your customer service team seemed unable to receive a fax or read it when it was received.
  
• Then when the order was finally processed – on the last day that would ensure pre Christmas delivery, I received no confirmation so I could not check status other than by calling your customer services phone number.
  
• Worrying that they wouldn’t arrive in time, I wanted to check status. So after several lengthy phone calls and one online chat with one of your sales people, I managed to discover what my order number was.
  
• Unfortunately when I was able to check order status online, I then discovered that the order was wrong I was going to receive two pink laptops.
  
• I called the customer service rep and her response was –oh sorry about that – I can send you a blue carry case if you choose to keep the extra pink laptop. My reply was that I didn’t think my 12 year old son would be happy with that
  
• So at that point I knew that my son would not be getting his main present for Christmas.
  
• I also got the strong impression that she didn’t really care that my son would not have his present on time
  
• I asked when the replacement laptop could be delivered and was promised it would be early January
  
• Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, this has turned out to be untrue. I have made numerous emails and phone calls and I STILL do not know when I will receive the laptop I ordered.
  

As I write this today it has been:

• Seven weeks since I placed the initial order
  
• 26 days since my son didn’t get his present on Christmas day
  
• 11 days since the original customer service rep finally called me, and told me she was resolving this
  
• Four working days since I asked for a senior customer service rep to call me. I’m still waiting
  
• 24 hours since this supervisor emailed me and said that he was really busy but give him 2-3 hours to investigate
  
• 1 hour since I lost my patience and called your office in Bracknell UK but was told that:
  
  • They do not disclose any information about senior management in the UK
    
  • They could email customer service for me
    
• I have made:
  
  • Ten phone calls to Dell Customer service
    
  • Sent two faxes to Dell Financial services
    
  • Sent eight emails to Dell Customer Services
    
  • Chatted online once with Dell Sales Support
    

I should add that making a phone call to dell Customer services goes something like this:

• Welcome to Dell, please choose from one of these options
  
• Select an option
  
• Welcome to Dell, please choose from one of these options (different options)
  
• Select an option
  
• Stay on hold for at least 15 minutes, straining to listen to hold music that is so low, that I actually called back twice because I had thought I was cut off.
  
• An operator answers, asks a couple of questions then “transfers you”
  
• Welcome to Dell, quiet hold music again – couldn’t tell you what was playing it was too low.
  
• Wait at least another 15 minutes – the longest I waited was 42 minutes.
  

As part of this painful process I have searched around on the internet about how best to deal with complaints from Dell and I discovered that I was not alone.

If you search in Google for “How to Complain to Dell”, the response is over 1 million results! In your own community forum there was no easy way to complain – just a referral to Customer support. I also found comments about posts being removed or edited that were critical of your customer service.

I also discovered numerous blog posts with titles such as “My Dell Nightmare”; “Dell Customer Service Sucks”; "I Hate Dell” and “Want to Complain to Dell, Forget It”. There are 179 Facebook groups with names like “I Hate Dell”. #dellsucks on Twitter is always busy with complaints

The most relevant site I found was from Jeff Jarvis at Buzzamchine and his Open Letter to you posted several years ago.

In one of my last emails to the customer service supervisor I told him that I would not stop until I received satisfaction and work my way up the chain of management to you if necessary. My phone call to the Dell Head Office in the UK made it clear that messing around any more at the lower levels was a waste of time – hence I have chosen to emulate Jeff Jarvis and send this email direct to you.

I have been working in the internet industry for over fifteen years including five years at Amazon.com and several years at Yahoo. Everything I have learned shows me that how critical customer service is to building and maintaining a brand and how easy it is to lose customers through poor service.

I am not saying it is easy to do this, but I remember reading an interview once with Warren Buffett when he said:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

Based on my experience in the past seven weeks you need to do things differently.

I would suggest you need to do the following:

• Carry out a high level review of the customer service experience concentrating on:
  
  • Improving your telephone systems especially response times
    
  • Improved email response times
    
  • Review or develop effective complaint escalation procedures
    
  • Improve training in how to deal with complaints, stressing the importance of keeping contact with the customer – they should not have to chase you
    
  • English language lessons for your Indian call centres – I understand the logic of outsourcing, but consistently the standard of English is below average and this adds frustration by the customer when they have to repeat themselves
    
• Review your policy of not disclosing information regarding your senior management – it is just annoying and makes people think you have something to hide.
  
• On your customer forums, provide an area dedicated to people who want to complain about how their complaint is being dealt with – trust me - this will be the most popular area until you resolve the fundamental issues
  
• Perhaps review your extensive marketing budget – your customers I am sure would prefer to receive high quality customer service and not listen to catchy songs about lollipops
  
• Whilst I am emailing you – the other thing I do hate about Dell is your lack of effective CRM. I speak publicly on occasions and have used this as a poor example of online marketing.
  

If I have just bought a PC from you, receiving an email every week with lots of offers to buy another PC is probably not going to be effective – if I am anything to go by, my average time between purchases is at least one year – that makes at least 52 ineffective but annoying emails to me

Overall I am disgusted at the response of your business and you should be ashamed that the business you have built is now so widely regarded as delivering terrible customer service.

I am sure this email will go through several layers of screening and there is not much chance of it actually reaching you, so I am also going to post it on my blog – perhaps you will pick this up if you have a Google news alert for phrases like: “Does Michael Dell care about his customers”; “What has gone wrong at Dell, is Michael Dell still in control?”; “Dell Customer service – the worst on the Internet?”

I will also post references to this in various social media sites as I know Dell has spent time and effort engaging with their customers through these new channels.

The last reason is that I hope my blog will appear highly in Google for lots of these interesting phrases – see my previous experiences dealing with Talk Talk Broadband and Sky Customer Services

Finally, if it’s not too much trouble, I would like to actually receive the laptop I ordered and give my 12 year old son the present he has asked me about almost every day since Christmas – is that too much to ask? If you want the order details email me

Dave Mutton
A former Dell customer who will now look elsewhere to buy my next computer and who will even consider buying an Apple Mac.