Dell Finds My Blog and Makes Amends

There is nothing more frustrating than writing a perfectly good slam of a corporation and they turn around and play makeup. What am I talking about? Well let me explain.

Last week I wrote a post called Why Dell Rhymes With Hell in which I chronicle my frustration with that company’s ordering system and foreign-based service centers. As you read that post, you will see I was quite justified in my “pissyness.” After all, I spent numerous hours on the phone with polite folk in India and the Philippines instead of my kids.

The NEXT DAY, I get this e-mail from Dell’s “Customer Advocate,” a nice gentleman who gave me the okay to post his letter:

“... I’m a customer advocate here at Dell’s corporate headquarters. We saw your blog post regarding your problems with your order. First, I want to apologize for the problems you had with canceling the tray and getting duplicate orders canceled. What you experienced with that order is not at all how we want our customer’s experiences with our support group to go.

“If you can send me either the order number where you purchased the system, or the service tag of that system (located on a sticker attached to the bottom of the notebook) I’ll be glad to take a look at the entire situation. From what you posted in your blog, I don’t believe that you should have been charged any shipping or restocking fees for returning that expansion tray.

“I know you had stated that you were going to eat those fees, but that’s not what we want. I’ll arrange for those fees to be credited back to you. Please send me that order information and I’ll make sure we get this straightened out on our end. Again, I do apologize. What you had to go through to get this resolved should not have taken place.”

Isn’t that amazing? And after a few more e-mails we determined that I wasn’t actually billed for the return. The e-mail Dell sent me just made it SOUND that way.

Here is the e-mail Dell sent me in August: “Dell has returned the purchase price of the product (minus additional charges which may include the original shipping fee and a 15% restocking fee), and the credit has been sent to your financial institution.” Apparently my brain translated “may” into “will.”

The Customer Advocate had already won me over by this point, but wait, the whole thing gets better. In my post, I went on to complain about another Dell experience a couple years ago when I tried to buy my wife a PDA. After the order languished, Dell told me “sorry,” we don’t have the item your ordered, now go away.

Here’s what my Customer Advocate wrote after asking me a few questions via e-mail:

“Glad to have been of help. As another way of apology, I’ve requested a $100 coupon be sent to your email address. Those coupons are good for use on our www.Dell.com website and are normally good for either 60 or 90 days. There should be complete details included in the e-mail that you receive with the coupon.

“You’re welcome to use that coupon yourself, or if you know someone else planning on making a purchase you can pass it along to them if you prefer. Just our way of saying we’re sorry.”

I haven’t seen the coupon yet, but I feel so warm and fuzzy inside, I just know it will show up any day now. Seriously, no sarcasm. Getting acknowledged that their system twice tortured me for weeks is better than the coupon, though I’m not sure my wife would agree. (I told her I would use the coupon to buy her a new camera.) If nothing else, I got a second post out of the whole thing.

So now that I don’t have Dell to pick on anymore, I’m thinking about turning my sites – boo, hiss, bad play on words – on Typepad, which FROZE our account last week after billing problems caused by our move. Oh, and we’re pissed at them for all the outages and for failing to make Bookbuds “Featured Typepad Blog.” (Seth Godin doesn’t need any plugging, we do.) Are you listening Typepad Customer Advocate? I’m coming for you next!

Comments

[Jonathon]

Dude, I'm with ya.

It makes it a lot harder to hate big corporations when you're reminded that normal people who also probably hate big corporations work there so their kids have health insurance.

How cool that they found your blog and actually DID something!

[Autumn]

Many companies have someone in customer service scanning the internets for post about them. Helps them make up, then wins them good media - like this.

I'm happy for it because I think a lot of people, like you did, want to complain but it's hard as hell sometimes to get a complaint lodged. The companies that really care about their image will come to you.

Also, thanks for the link. I was tempted the other day to pick on you about that. :P

[Jared]

Lifehacker recently featured an article on getting satisfaction from customer service.

Generally, a well-written, level-headed complaint letter can do the trick. My wife once wrote Mars, Inc. about a less-than-perfect bag of M&Ms, and received a box full of candy and gift certificates.

[brettdl]

Jonathon: Considering I worked for big corporations all my life, it is hard to love/hate them. I can't make up my mind.

Autumn: Yeah, the service reps I talked to were clearing reading from a script and did not feel empowered enough to take matters into their own hands. Kind of sad, but that's how corps. manage their people.

I used to have a link for you, but at some point it disappeared. I noticed it today and put it in this morning. Sorry about that.

Jared: What a good point. I'm usually just to busy to deal with it, but I should send more stuff back.

Besides, a lot of stuff that breaks IS still on warranty. It's often just faster to buy another one.

[Phil]

You should make this a regular feature... Complain about products that bother you, then just sit back and watch all the free stuff roll in.

:)

[AJ]

I don't want to knock your getting the situation resolved, but what kind of lesson is this for Dell? Sure, the company should be watching for blog complaints and fixing the situations it sees. But how about Dell publishing its Advocate contact information for everyone with a beef who doesn't happen to have their own blog? It shouldn't take this much to get a wrong righted.

I won't buy Dell for the simple reason that I fear what would happen if my hardware fails and I have to call tech support. I'm on a six-year-old Dell right now, so it's an issue I've given considerable recent thought. I've read too many personal stories.

As for Typepad, I'm tired of the outages too. Whatcha gonna do, manually move hundreds of blog postings to a new location? [rock] [you] [hard place]

[brettdl]

Phil: It's a great idea, but it's too tiring.

AJ: Don't worry, I haven't fallen in love with Dell, but I'll take the apology.

As for Typepad: Yeah, moving everything would be a nightmare, though I suppose I could download Movable Type and export my site to another hosting service.

My bigger problem is that they spend too much time on Widgets and not enough time giving us more design tools.