Industry Eye: Letters to the Editor

On Dell’s Service Woes

Dear Editor,

We read your editorial in the November issue and acknowledge that some of our customers, like you, haven’t received a positive experience when dealing with our customer service group.

We’re making a sincere effort to address these concerns, as well as making a significant investment in our customer service organization to ensure that we consistently provide an excellent experience. In fact, this year alone, we have invested $150 million toward retraining our customer care and technical support teams, establishing additional vehicles for our customers to interact with us, and many more initiatives that are significantly improving our customer service.

Because of our direct model, we are uniquely positioned not only to hear directly from customers about what we can do better or differently, but also to provide levels of service that will significantly improve the customer experience. We’ll continue to make investments in these areas to ensure that our team members have the tools they need to listen to what our customers are saying and to successfully and quickly resolve any problems or complications.

—Ro Parra, senior vice president and GM, Home & Small Business, Dell Inc.

Dear Editor,

Just a note to tell you I had a very similar customer service nightmare with Dell as the one you described in your November Editor’s Take (November 2006, pg. 9). I was appalled at the robo-speak and inability of the reps to move away from their programmed responses.

My situation involved buying a whole new computer system plus digital camera — a big purchase for me. I had a Dell computer that I’d purchased about four years ago and that ran on Windows Millennium Edition. I was very disappointed in its performance and said so to the rep. He replied that yes, Millennium did have a lot of problems and I could only expect to get about three years from the system, anyway — Millennium or not. Halfway steaming at this point, I said that although I was disappointed in the Dell system I owned, I would still consider purchasing another. I shared that I’d also shopped Hewlett Packard (HP), and they were willing to throw in a few extras to get my business. He said he couldn’t do anything.