Dell Outsourcing!!!

[gonefishing]

I just spent the last 45 minutes on the phone with DELL tying to get a part shipped to a hotel I will be staying at next week. It took at least 8 minutes to get the woman in India to understand that I was say Bally's not Vally's. When I gave her the city (Las Vegas) she asked what state. After I said Nevada she asked me what abbreviation (NV). I can't tell you how long we spent on my email address. That was very painful.

[Catch22Dem]

1. They've been doing it for a couple of years now (I think)

I share your pain. Microsoft does the same thing, and when I had a problem with my MSFT router, it was such a goat rope!

[Kierkegaard]

4. Actually, they tried outsourcing service

a little over a year ago and it was a miserable failure(just like someone we all know.) There were so many complaints that they migrated the service back to the states. The margins are so small on computer equipment that every penny counts, so when much of their competition outsourced their service centers, Dell was forced to follow suit in order to remain competitive. That pretty much leveled the playing field in the industry as Dell lost their only real advantage: excellent customer service.

[otohara]

2. Dell Is Huge Supporter of Bush

guess what computers are in Iraq?

[Catch22Dem]

6. Yes, Michael Dell is

But as with anything, I know there are thousands of people working for Dell who aren't. However, I doubt my next one will be a Dell.

[nikatnyte]

3. Don't get me started

on my experience with Dell tech support people in India. I had a problem getting my USB port to work. I phoned seven times before I finally gave up. The tech guys in India were very nice, very polite, but they simply couldn't understand what I was trying to explain to them in very clear, measured English. Similarly, I often had trouble understanding them. To Dell's credit, they sent me an e-mail survey asking about my service experience. I rated them a "1" (lowest rating) to the question: Would I ever buy a Dell product again? That triggered a call from a U.S. Dell tech support guy who was (surprise!) able to understand me and give me a solution to the problem.

I'm not a complete opponent to outsourcing, but when it clearly results in poorer quality or service, something is wrong.

[otohara]

8. Earthlink Phoned Me Yesterday - I Canceled EL Due To

many problems with service after two years and only being able to talk with folks from India - Nice but hard to understand - the problem went way beyond what the kids in India were able to do, so I canceled.

So this woman calls yesterday and I told her why I canceled EL and said if possible I won't support a company who outsources service calls to India and the CEO of EL is a huge Bush supporter.

She was nice and said, Wow I didn't know that - I completely understand.

[Deja Q]

5. Don't get me started regarding corporate america!

:wow:

[franmarz]

7. Dell-outsourceing

Get used to it, we will give so many jobs away that one day we will find out that there are none left for us in the USA.

[Fleshdancer]

9. I'm not a fan of Dell

Then again, I don't know too many Austinites who like the company. Fortunately we also have Whole Foods HQ down here to offset the evil. :)

[Bongo Prophet]

12. Yes, the Barton Springs polluter!

I have friends who protested MDell when he was building his DellMcMansion.
Cons never think of community.
Downstream? SHUT UP!
I got MINE and YOUare just jealous.

Bah. Spit. Ptui.

[GOPisEvil]

13. I have to confess I own two Dells, BUT...

...I bought them refurbished at least, and NOT from Dell. I bought each of them from a local re-seller. :-)

[GiovanniC]

10. I Too, Have a Dell Horror Story

About two weeks after I got my Dell, it started effing up. I called Dell Technical Support after spending some time trying to fix the problem myself. I was on hold for 45 minutes before I finally got a live person. His name was "David". I somehow really, really doubt that -- he was definitely from India.

David asked me for my name. I told him my name. He asked me to spell my name. "G-I-O-V-A-N-N-I".

"Giovanni with a 'Y'?"

"No, not Giovanni with a 'Y'. G-I-O-V-A-N-N-I. 'I' as in, 'I' don't know anyone who spells Giovanni with a 'Y'."

"What is your home phone number?"

"Five-one-seven, nine-nine..."

"I am sorry, is that nine-one-four, five-five...?"

"Not even close. Five-one-SEVEN, NINER, NINER..."

"I am sorry, I don't know 'niner'."

"NINE."

Proceed like this for literally ten minutes, getting my service tag and all that jazz until he has all my information. Then...

"What is the problem you are having?"

"I'm getting an error message whenever I boot up. It comes up like it's going into Windows XP, then it gives me an error message. Then if I click 'OK', it restarts and does the whole thing all over again."

"Okay, well I don't do anything with that. I'll have to transfer you to our tech support department."

"This isn't tech support?"

"No."

"I dialed the tech support number!"

"Yes, I know."

"Why isn't this tech support? Who the hell have I been talking to for twenty minutes?"

"I'll transfer you now."

Then I wait on hold another 20 to 30 minutes, and I get "Emily". I ask if she works for "Tech Support". She says yes and asks for my name.

"Giovanni."

"Spell that?"

"G-I-O-V-A-N-N-I."

"Okay, let me repeat that back to you. G-E-O..."

"No, G-I-O... 'I' as in, 'I' already went through this shit once with someone else. Can't I just give you my service tag number and you can pull all this stuff up from the last person I talked to?"

"I'm sorry, I have to get all your information for our computers."

"I understand that, but I just gave all my information to someone. I can only assume that he already put it in the computer."

"Yes, but that's his computer, not my computer."

"Have you ever heard of NETWORKS!?"

"What is your phone number with area code?"

(ten minutes later...)

"What is the problem you are having?"

"Okay, when I boot up, I get an error message. The only thing I can do is click 'OKAY', and then it just reboots and gives me the error message again. It's in some sort of loop."

"I'm sorry, I don't handle that sort of thing. I'll have to transfer you to tech support."

"You said you WERE tech support!"

"Yes, but I handle software and this sounds like a hardware problem."

"Based on WHAT!?"

"I don't know anything about it."

"I'm trying to imagine a world where it's possible that you don't know anything about something."

I got off the phone and the next day at work I looked it up. It was a known Microsoft Windows XP bug, and the only easy way to fix it was to just reload XP. Which I did, and the problem hasn't recurred.

[Bongo Prophet]

11. Trade Michael Dell for Steve Jobs/Al Gore

Not trying to be "one of those raving Apple worshippers" but I run a whole network of apples for graphics and EVERYTHING, (old amigas and one SGI for audio/midi) and one PC laptop for testing, which I KEEP off the net most of time to avoid hassle. My last virus was an amiga virus in '89! And they ALL still run fine.

Our 3 modern macs runninng OsX are the lowest upkeep I have ever experienced.
Best user experience as well.
Cost is low these days, and last years longer, so a better deal by far!
Think about it next time you upgrade....
Plus supporting a relatively progressive company is good, yes?
O8)