Posted on by Christopher Carfi

All About DELL – The Social Customer Manifesto Podcast 7JUL2005

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Welcome iTunes subscribers! Today’s conversation topics include thoughts on Dell’s current customer service and support woes, news on the shuttering of a portion of Dell’s online customer community, and (unrelated to Dell) some upcoming conferences where I hope we can get together in person.

Dell “support” stories

The original Jeff Jarvis post: Dell Hell (more here, here, here, here, here, etc.)
Steve Rubel’s post (with the now-infamous “A-lister” comment)
Technorati tracking
Blogpulse tracking
Blog Business Summit is running a Dell ClueWatch
Forbes: Dell Slashing Customer Service [Costs]
Jory puts Dell on the CSL

Motherboard Chronicles (brilliant writing, in 7 parts…highly recommended)

Dell to terminate their Community Forums tomorrow, July 8

Dell Customer Support Forum (link likely to be inactive after 8JUL2005)

SocialCustomer: I may have missed this in another thread, but has Dell given a reason *why* they are shuttering the non-technical customer service boards?

rickmktg: No reason was stated. One can conclude that Dell continues it’s business focus combined with reducing its expenses. The moderators were expenses. The support and help they gave wasn’t measured, and therefore to the big corporation has no value. And with the India support willing to take the calls real cheap and recommend formatting for every solution, all is well in the Dell corporate world…

Why is Dell killing the forums, after being open for years?

Let’s go straight to Dell and ask, shall we?

Welcome to Dell Chat. Please wait for an available agent. You will be notified when your chat is accepted by an agent.

The session has been accepted.

{Pooja 12:29:21 PM} Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care chat. My name is Pooja, how may I assist you today?

{CFC 12:29:58 PM} Hi. I noticed that it appears the Dell Customer Service forums are being retired tomorrow. I was wondering why?

{Pooja 12:30:46 PM} Please give me a moment to review your question.

{Pooja 12:32:54 PM} Christopher, as of now there is no information in this regard.

{CFC 12:33:18 PM} Any idea of who within Dell might have the answer?

{Pooja 12:33:27 PM} May I know from where did you get this information?

{CFC 12:33:53 PM} Sure. Let me find the URL.

{Pooja 12:34:10 PM} All right Christopher.

{CFC 12:34:21 PM} link

{CFC 12:34:38 PM} “The Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum will be retiring at 3:30pm this Friday, July 8th. Customer Service FAQs will still be available to help answer your questions. If you need further assistance, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.
Thank you.”

{Pooja 12:36:08 PM} Christopher, I did go through the URL you provided me. Please allow me 4-5 minutes so that I can provide you with further information in this regard.

{CFC 12:36:39 PM} Thank you. I’ll wait.

{Pooja 12:41:02 PM} Thank you for your time.

{Pooja 12:41:55 PM} Christopher, we are closing the Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum for the time being as there certain updates which needs to be taken care of.

{CFC 12:42:31 PM} I see. When are they expected to be available again?

{Pooja 12:42:41 PM} Once the board starts the function again their would be a notification on the web site.

{CFC 12:42:59 PM} Do you have a list of the updates that are being made?

{Pooja 12:43:25 PM} No Christopher.

{CFC 12:43:38 PM} Ok. Thank you for your help.

{Pooja 12:43:40 PM} Meanwhile, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.

{Pooja 12:43:45 PM} You are welcome.

In Other News: Upcoming Conferences

AlwaysOn (July 19-21, Palo Alto CA)
BlogHer (July 30, Santa Clara CA)
GO! (Sept. 18-20, Leesburg VA)

26 Replies to “All About DELL – The Social Customer Manifesto Podcast 7JUL2005”

  1. Follow up on Dell…

    I am putting this is in a separate posts as my trackbacks for the previous were not accepted and MT keeps sending those when you edit a post. Here is another great post from the Social Customer Manifesto about Dell…

  2. Follow-up: Dell wants you to come to them

    You got a problem with Dell? Better tell it to them directly. The company won’t reach out based on what you say on the Web. After last week’s blogosphere dustup involving Jeff Jarvis, a lemon-like Dell notebook and outrage among…

  3. Dell isn’t listening

    If you’ve been following Jeff Jarvis’ interesting experiences in his dealings with Dell, the PC maker, in trying to get his laptop repaired, Christopher Carfi has a great commentary in his latest podcast that extends this story, looking at what

  4. Buy a vowel get a clue

    Dell terminated their Community forums on July 8th. Why would a compnay shut down something that brings their customers together? Could this be the reason why we are so busy lately? It seems really foolish to me. Via Jeff Jarvis…

  5. Dell and The Business Experiment

    I got an email today from Robert May of Business Pundit. He is creating a new site that is called TheBusinessExperiment.com. As you might expect, it is an experiment. Here’s how he describes it: The Business Experiment is a site meant to explore three …

  7. Hi, my name is Timothy White and recently purchased a Dell laptop Inspiron 9300 with the optional tv tuner usb connecter. When I received the laptop, I found out that Dell had not included any cables to attach the tuner to the laptop, no s-video cables or component cables, after I was assured by Dell over the phone I would recieve everything needed to get the tv tuner card working. I called Dell sales support and they informed me that those items are an additional order and I would need to supply a credit card to get them. I find this very unsatisfactory, how can they get away with doing this to consumers. Oh yes, they did include the infrared receiver and remote control along with the tuner card, but that was it.
    Thank you
    Tim White
    67 Larkey Road
    Oxford CT 06478
    203-888-305

  8. You know what my favourite topic to read about on blogs is????? LOL… Its Dell’s customer service. started of with Jeff Jarvis’ Dell Hell, its spread like forest fire. Not one blog have I yet come across which says something good about the Dell Customer Service. Its entertainng to read about all this. It makes me wanna buy their product just to use their custoemr service once.
    http://callcenter.ramshyam.com

  9. You think it’s a problem being a Dell customer, what do you think it’s like being a Dell customer service agent – when you want to help, and you know the customer deserves help, and you know that any other company would bust a gut to help, but you can’t help because you’re bound by policies and procedures that only offer limited help, and you’re on the phone being screamed at by customers who have a legitimate right to be screaming, and for this privilege you get paid a few pennies over the minimum wage and have to constantly compete to keep your job against Indians who will work for a tenth of your salary.

  10. Isnt it the same with all big companies. Their customer service cell woes never weem to end.

    Tulip

  13. I just got off the phone with Dell “Customer Support” (a loose term)spending about 3 hours trying to get my 16 year old daughter’s 2005 Christmas present (an Inspiron 6000) fixed. I was busy moving, so she took it upon herself to call in and try to get our “under warranty” laptop repaired. She said the word “dropped” and we are totally hosed now. The laptop’s audio never worked right, the keys started to fall off randomly and then the LCD screen went (which I think is the vertical line problem with the screens). She’s 16, she knocked it once harder than she thought she should and felt responsible and was honest with them. Now they say the motherboard needs to be repaired and we have to pay $798. I flipped at that and guess what … the price changed to $490 plus taxes. I gave them a choice since I knew we were doomed because she said “dropped” … I offered $200 to fix the LCD since I knew her words couldn’t be erased off their work order AND we would buy the 3 year, $209 accident insurance OR years of my badmouthing Dell and never being a customer again. They wouldn’t budge. So you know, I feel much more comfortable giving the probably $400 repair money to a local businessman and making sure I tell everyone that Dell products aren’t worth the hassle of the guaranteed repair needs.
    They need to tell the customer service people not to say, “Thank you for chosing Dell” at the end of an angry, unsatisfying call! I said,”You are kidding right?”

  15. Dell is the worst. I have had issues with my laptop since its purchase..each time on the phone for hours trying to fix it. I have lost my hardrive and settings twice. Customer support..they do not care. They will not provide a number to call someone in corporate! I offered an easy solution..extend my warranty for free so if I have issues, they can resolve without it costing me the money..time is enough. They flat out refused and said no..a supervisor did not call me back and I was on hold for over an hour..being shifted between departments and people..still with no resolution. Trust me..they do not care but are so polite, offering no solutions! I WANT SOLUTIONS!!!! I am not recommending this company to anyone! I rather pay more and save my time from all the calls I have made! I am still having the same issues over and over. Even with thier printer now! Go HP, Apple, IBM, anyone else..you will have my next purchase! For anyone out there..I finally got an address to write your complaints to in AMERICA! Dell Inc, Executive Support, 1 Dell Way, MS 8210, Round Rock TXX 78682. I AM WRITING with all my case numbers, times and suggestions. With the money they make..they could not even extend my warranty after looking at all of my cases from the get go! That is bad customer service!!!!!!!!!

  18. @ fred
    This is really unfortunate that big companies do not really value their customers. Being from a company that provides live chat support i can see from the reply of the support staff that they really just don’t care or maybe they are restricted by the company’s policies, this is really not the way support should be given

  19. I ordered a Dell Inspiron 1521 on 8/5, and the delivery date was 8/20. Since then, my order has been delayed 4 times.As of this writing, I still have not received it.

    I have called customer service each time. Answers vary from, “we don’t know anything you don’t know” to “it’s still in production” to “you should understand that a company like ours has no control over when an product gets made.” I was refused “escalation” to a supervisor 3x, with excuses like “he/she is not here” or I was simply hung up on. When I finally got through to 1 manager, he also told me he didn’t know when production would be completed and without listening to me further, hung up as well.

    See my blog for all the details:

    http://dell-inspiron-1521-laptop.blogspot.com/

  20. It is unfortunate that large companies do not really attach importance to their customers. From a company that provides online support I can see from the reply to the support staff, they really do not care or they are subject to the company’s policy, which is really the way should not be supported

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