You'll recall that Dell's customer service problems first came properly to the notice of the blogerati when Jeff Jarvis started having trouble with them (and they with him.) [I myself wrote a couple of pieces for The Register, when freelance, about how Dell had zapped forums on its own site where customers could help each other, in the absence or frustratingly bad existence, of customer service.]
And now we may have reached some sort of tipping point. Paul Thurrott, if you haven't heard of him, is a longtime user and tester of Windows systems (and more latterly Apple stuff too). He runs the Winsupersite um, site, and also Connected Home. He's bought a lot of Dell machines in his time. So the other day he tried to buy a new Dell. And descended into Dell hell
The shipping details were wrong, and when he tried to change them, they didn't change, and then the order got cancelled.
Here's the thing, and I asked Dell about this: If the credit card wasn't working, why didn't they contact me? Didn't they want the sale? And why did I have to do so much legwork during this entire thing? As my wife noted, if this is the level of support they supply during a sale, imagine how bad it gets after you get the system.
So what did he do instead? He ordered an HP Pavilion. No surprise that HP has overtaken Dell in PC sales for the first time in ages.
One point: in the post, Thurrott says
All the stories you've heard about Indian outsourcing are true, by the way.
Here's the thing about "Indian outsourcing": if the systems they've been given can't cope with the task, that is not their fault. The implicit racism in so many pieces about outsourcing is both exhausting and infuriating. Dealing with people who are often angry for no fault of your own, trying to make out words said over a VOIP line whose quality is limited by how much the outsourcing company wants to pay, and trying to procure useful answers and actions from a system that's not been properly written... is not the fault of the person answering the phone. Don't take out your bile on them. Pour it on the company that's chosen to downgrade your service. It's not "Indian outsourcing" that's the problem; it's low-cost outsourcing, done with an ever-falling budget in mind.
Quite probably the people answering the phones are smarter than those calling on them. But without the tools for the job, they're as stymied as you to get anything done.
