Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Damn Dell

On JS I have complained, bitterly, several times about the totally crap customer service afforded to those of us who elected to purchase their Dell laptop extended warranty in-home service contract.

Hold times of over an hour were not uncommon. Finding a tech who was fluent in English was.

Imagine the brainstorming session recently. "Hey guys, we are getting thousands of complaints about our customer service being crap. How should we improve it?"

"Well, how about we turn it into a marketing tool, and we now sell "premium" customer service with guaranteed answering in two minutes and service center in North America"?

12 comments:

Fijufic said...

Its all absolute crap...

old solider said...

now that would work

Anonymous said...

Scott's Dell is so slow some days - I have been known to curse at it

Fin said...

The idea of selling a plan that doesn't work well and then trying to sell a premium version that will work better sounds like a typical recent American business invention. The sad thing is, I'm not even surprised any more!

Verizon mobile seems bent on doing the same thing.

BenB said...

Yah, with someone who actually knows how to help you fix your computer over the phone and doesn't sound like they are speaking inside of a cave, and whose accent isn't so friggin' thick their English is lost in the cavernacity of it.

John0 Juanderlust said...

Provided you are in a town with a MAC store, this is one area in which life with Apple is easier. I've never bothered calling so I don't know. I'm a big fan of the service in the store.

Anonymous said...

Keep dreamin', friend. Now about my ocean front property in Kansas.... ;)

S

Anonymous said...

Hi Scott. If my post was not clear, the selling of 'premium' tech support with the quick answering English speakers is a fact, not a proposal. I did not care to investigate the additional cost of getting what I thought I had already paid for.

Fin [whose own blog doesn't let him post half the time]

Xanadu said...

You mean it's not just MY Dell? Talking to these people on the phone (or trying to) is a nightmare. Hugs.

Labetine said...

Hi Fin, yes you left a nice, supportive comment in my journal. Thank you. :)
As far as Dell, my daughter gave me a Dell for Christmas 4 years ago and it works fine now after a mild crash (crossing fingers it doesn't happen again). I know what you mean about the customer service, though. I remember talking to them. One time I said pleeeease let me talk to someone who speaks English!

Anonymous said...

I routinely ask where I am talking to. On rare occassions it was either British COlumbia or the Maritimes, and the results were pretty good.

Usually, however. it is India, Phillipines and Central America in that order, plus occassional wildcard shots that I don't remember.

Sunny said...

I have a Dell, but it's not a Laptop. I bought my current one 'slightly used' and also the Dell I had before this one, used also.

Mike is my "customer service," as he redoes used computers and sells them for a hobby. :)

My Dell's are souped up and the speed is great.

But: I hear ya on that *&$%#@*( language in India, Asia, etc.

I have had to call customer service for other various products. It's so frustrating!

I learned to hang up on them, then keep calling till I got someone who could speak clear English.