Dell supposedly has improved their customer service. I’ve seen countless blogs mentioning their new and improved customer service infrastructure and fawning articles in business magazines about how Michael Dell is getting back to the basics. Well, for this gal, that’s just lip service as far as I can tell.
My husband ordered a massively expensive laptop for a new engineer in his firm. This machine was built to be so powerful that it could probably easily run small countries. It had more computing ability than 15 Big Blue machines. All in all, an incredibly complex, expensive machine and a powerful tool to use.
As the day quickly approached that the new engineer was to start work, my husband phoned Dell to ask where the computer was. It was 4 days overdue at that point. It turns out that Dell had canceled the order. Why had they canceled the order? Because there was a part out of stock. When my husband asked who they had notified about the cancellation, Dell told him that no one had been notified. The order for this $10,000plus machine had simply been canceled.
The sheer idiocy of canceling a custom order with high profit margins is beyond ludicrous for a company struggling to regain the title of number one PC seller in the world. Not informing the customer that they canceled the order is criminally bad customer service.
Needing the machine, my husband put in the entire order again. He was promised he would have the machine 3 days before the new engineer was due to arrive. The date the new computer was due came and went. My husband called Dell. They promised to overnight it to him. The next day came and went with no computer. Again, a phone call to Dell but this time, he got only an answering machine. Multiple calls and emails later, he had extracted a new verbal promise of overnight shipping and Dell would throw in a 15″ monitor for free. The next day, no machine. When Chris finally got a hold of a real person, he found out that whoops, the new order had been put on the “slow track” rather than receiving the priority service he had been promised.
The new engineer started without a computer. He was not able to work any billable hours without the computer and thus sat, as an expensive highly paid asset, underutilized. The Dell laptop finally came almost a month after it was ordered and four days into the new engineer’s tenure. Dell paid for overnight shipping, the free monitor and a few other minor goodies, undoubtedly negating all the profit on the custom built laptop.
To add insult to injury, Chris didn’t even get an apology on the Seth Godin Scale of better than 1. He got a slightly mumbled half apology from “Ygnacio” at Dell after the first delay and nothing after that. It was beyond disapointing – it was downright pathetic. If I were an investor in this company (and thank goodness I’m not!), I would pull all my money out. And, I’d pull it out fast.
It is inevitable for things of this sort to happen, especially in today's time. Whether you have a large company or not, I think product managers should really take a look into their Product Opportunity Gap (POG) and really see if they can make a difference or not. Many calculations have to be taken into consideration when looking at the company at an All-Around perspective. Judgment's cannot necessarily be made upon feelings rather logic. Being a business man and reading this, I sincerely think a better alternative could be formed. But, if not, then instead of worrying about losing money, unravel some sort of 'secret plan' to your organization to help boost confidence and productivity rate. That's my personal opinion.
Great! Thanks for your response.
Debbie
Dell Customer Advocate
Email: [email protected]
Hi Debbie –
Thanks for your note. It’s amazing that Dell has someone on staff to check out internet buzz and respond to it.
As I mentioned in my post, Dell did all that they promised for Chris with overnight shipping and a free monitor and a couple other assorted perks.
Thank you for your concern though. It’s good to have an email to get through to Dell quickly and easily.
Anne-Marie
Dear Dell Customer,
My name is Debbie and I am located at Dell Headquarters in Texas. I definitely want to apologize for the experience you have had with Dell up to this point. Please let me know if you have not received the offers made to you by Dell. You can email me directly at the email address below if there is anything more I can do for you.
Thank you,
Debbie
Dell Customer Advocate
Email: [email protected]
Attn: Debbie
Hi Andy86 –
Thanks for your note. I’m a little less bitter at Dell now that a few days have passed but you’re right, next time, we should definitely look for a better high end vendor that specializes in sophisticated machines.
As for your question about soapmaking in Singapore, you are correct that it is difficult to get soapmaking supplies there. http://www.brambleberry.com ships supplies overseas on a regular basis or, there are a few hobby stores in Singapore. I found a list here: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Singapore-204/crafts-toy-stores.htm
Your question about melting down store bought soap has a few different answers. Depending on the soap, you might be able to melt it down though not without the addition of water, oils or some other medium to help soften the soap. My first bar of soap was “made” by grating ivory soap, adding water and then heating it over low heat on the stove. I still have that bar today, actually!
Something like 1 bar of grated ivory and 3 ounces of water, heated slowly on low with minimal stirring, will produce a new bar that you can add things like oatmeal, lavender and fragrance to. The entire process will probably take 45 minutes or so. It’s not very effective because Ivory and other synthetic detergent bars have very little to no excess moisture in them and are designed to resist water and last a long time in your shower.
Your best option is to find a craft store in Singapore and hope that they sell melt and pour soap base, or order some soap supplies from the U.S. Shipping for a 5 pound package to Singapore is about $37USD.
I hope this helps. If it doesn’t, or you have more questions, feel free to post again or email me.
Anne-Marie
Dell used specialise in High end computers but these few years they outsourced a lot and now it presents itself more for the middle and lower budget group so the standard definitely dropped.
I am lookin through your blog and webpages and got realli interested in soap making. However, i live in Singapore where it is exceptionally hard to get soap making ingredients 🙁 I was thinking whether isit possible to melt normal ( the most natural ) soap i can find on the market and add my own touch to it using M&P method? or are there any better ways to do it…A reply would be realli cool 😛
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[email protected]