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by Doug Thews.
Original Post: Dell Needs Serious Help
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First off, let me say that I really like Dell equipment. I have a couple of their laptops, desktops, and my local D&D Consulting server farm here is Dell-based. Next, let me say that I am totally put-off Dell's outsourcing of their entire Sales & Support divisions (at best it makes calling Dell seem like talking to a robot).
So, I called in to purchase an extra AC adapter for my new Insiron XPS. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find an AC adapter in any of the parts categories for the Inspiron XPS (another problem with ordering from Dell - I should be able to reference ALL parts that are compatible with my specific machine). The first thing I'm asked for is my name, address and phone number. Name and address I'm OK with (they'll have to ship it to somewhere), but I don't give out my phone number. When I say I don't give it out, I'm told they can't help me. In other words, if you don't give a phone number DELL WON'T SELL YOU ANYTHING!!!
It takes AN HOUR, but I finally get my part ordered without a phone number. So, going through all of this crap, I've decided to give my recommendations to Dell to shore up their completely defective Sales & Support phone "attendants".
#1. Don't force someone to give you a phone number to order or look something up. If they're an existing customer, then if they give you a name and address and customer number, then it's them. Relying on a phone number for more verification is plain stupid. When I go to Radio Shack and they ask for stuff like that, but I don't give it, they move on. DO THE SAME!
#2. Update your parts catalog web site so that I can purchase every part compatible with my system when I enter my service tag. This means AC adapters, hard drives, memory, screws, etc. If I can add it to my system, I want to see it in the catalog and buy it online (because I sure don't want to call into your Sales department anymore!).
#3. Re-train your Sales & Support "attendees" that they need to talk about what CAN be done instead of what CANNOT be done. If I don't want to give out my phone number, what CAN be done?
#4. Stop with the scripting when not necessary. If I know the EXACT part (maybe even part number) that I want to buy, stop insisting that I answer questions like "How many hours a day I use Word" and "What is the primary use of my machine". I'm buying a friggin' AC adapter!! What the heck does that have to do with these questions? If the customer knows what they want, throw away your stupid script and let them buy what they want, OK!!!
#5. Move your Sales & Support back to the US. In about 1/2 of the conversations I had, I had a hard time understanding the person on the other end. They gave names like "Joe" and "Jane", but they were clearly not their real names (given for a false sense of security I guess). I find that outsourcing & scripting go hand and hand. They won't go outside the bounds of the script to tell me what CAN be done. Only what's on the script - big mistake.
So, there are my suggestions. I really want to continue with Dell because I like their systems and I like being able to get 3 year 24x7 on-site support for any failure on my critical business systems. BUT, Dell has made it MUCH TOO HARD to contact them. In fact, if it requires a phone call, then I'll probably not use Dell in the future ... and I still might not use Dell if they don't fix their outsourced "attendees" on Support.
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