The DELL saga continued

Oct 10

No call from the escalation team. So I get nervous, log in and chat with Mr. Kumar. He has no idea, so Supervisor #2 - Ramesh comes along. I go thru’ the whole story again – by now I am nearly breaking down. I try to stay calm. Ramesh promises that he will sort everything out, and send me mail with details of the keyboard dispatch and his phone number with extension in 15 minutes. Two hours pass by, and no mail. So I go on chat again. This time, I am greeted by Kajal. She quickly hands me over to Supervisor #3 – Raveendra. This person finally orders the keyboard, gives me a DHL tracking number, and assures me that a technician will come to fix it. So here I am waiting. I am so mad during all this, I send a mail off to Michael Dell [yes, you can write to michael_dell@dell.com ], and someone does read his mail.

Oct 13, I receive a call from Mamatha [Executive Support Resolver] – ugh, what a mouthful], in the afternoon. My mail to Michael has reached Bangalore! She apologizes, and assures me that the keyboard is on its way. I thank her, and then suggest that Dell ought to compensate me in some way – after all, I have paid for warranty that includes next business day support at site – and I have been waiting for nine days now, not to mention all the aggravation in between. Suddenly, she is not all that friendly. She says – compensation won’t resolve your problem. Hello – my problem is not just the keyboard, it is the hours of chatting, waiting, the emotional anger of a broken keyboard on a brand new machine, and the monumental disappointment of the entire experience. Does she not get it, I wonder. Why, oh why, are these large companies so bereft of a soul? While the work of the experience stager perishes upon its performance, the value of the experience lingers in the memory of the individual who was engaged by the event. This experience will linger for a long time in my mind.

When a service failure occurs, it makes sense to turn it around rapidly. When the turn around is flaky, it is imperative that the customer’s disappointment be dealt with by going that extra mile and doing something to please the poor soul. If you go to a good auto shop and the repair work is shabby, you are likely to receive a free wash, coupon for a free service on your next visit – something to make up for the shortfall. But no, Mamatha [by the way, this word means motherly love in Hindi], had decided that sending me a keyboard ten days later was adequate service. There was no evidence of any emotion in her dealings with me.

Dell just lost the opportunity to turn the situation around and convert an angry customer into an advocate. Because when you recover from a service failure, and go the extra mile, you build an emotional bond with your customer, and cement the relationship. To all those who work at DELL and similar soulless companies – to err is human; to recover is divine.

Well, tomorrow is another day.

Bankruptcy of leadership

In my Central Valley neighborhood, I met a 75 year old single lady the other day, who had her entire savings in Bank of America. Now, BOA has cut its dividend by half. She is devastated. I came across a family of four who have been asked to vacate their rented home in a week's time, because the owners have defaulted. Meanwhile, these people have been religiously paying the rent. These are not isolated stories.


The recent events in the country have got to make everyone think long and hard. We have what may well be the world's greatest fraud perpetrated by powerful and greedy MBAs and PhDs. CNN has just begun showcasing the ten persons most responsible for this unprecedented meltdown. Watching the hearings in Congress was comical - AIG and Lehman bosses were subjected to the most mild mannered and gentle questioning I have witnessed. Hearing the debates was equally painful - neither candidate was asked questions on why they went back on their promise not to allow earmark spending and signed the bailout bill that had plenty of earmarks. Tom Brokaw seemed to be overawed by the candidates. And the commission on presidential debates may well be renamed 'commission on presidential banter'. Don't we wonder why it didn't hurt the consciences of Obama and McCain signing money off for wooden arrow makers? Indeed, why are lawmakers not being subjected to the same kind of questions by a TRUTH COMMISSION made up of ordinary citizens from the legal profession. When will lawmakers be held accountable? According to some estimates, lobbyists have paid lawmakers $5 billion. Why is that not being raised? The fox is in the chicken coop, masquerading as the chicken keeper.


Another vexing matter - why should lawmakers not share the pain of six pack Joe? why should their health care benefits not be cut by half? I understand their cover includes hair transplants and botox jobs. Why do they need such cover? Would John McCain like to apply his health care plan to congressmen and senators as well? Would either candidate be willing to donate a portion of their campaign funds to hurting families?


Anyone who watched Dick Fuld testify would have had to be mad. Mr. Fuld epitomized the Wall Street bandit in every manner. Are there are no leaders left to lead the country out of this mess? Where are the great minds hiding? Isn't it time they came out of their closets and cleaned up this chaos? Is it time we had a president from one party and a vice president from the other?


America has a lot of work to do to regain its respect. As a child, I went to a school run by priests from Boston. They were great minds, who showed great discipline; this in turn inspired the students. They were master teachers, whose teachings contained knowledge laced with passion. As an Indian, I grew up dreaming about America, hoping I would live there one day, and actually witness all this greatness I heard from people, saw in movies, and read in books - great stuff from Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Irving Wallace, Ernst Hemingway, Moby Dick, Donald Duck. Wallah ... I long for that greatness again.

Hell from Dell; Painco from Costco

My experience buying a Dell laptop.

Thanks to our economic woes, Costco and Walmart are going great guns. I had to replace a tired four year old Latitude; I decided on an Inspiron from Costco.com with 2 a year warrranty.

The machine arrived in five daye. I went online at Dell Support; the warranty showed ZERO days. It took me 3 emails, 4 phone calls and 3 hours over 48 hours to get the warranty to appear. Without this, you cannot chat with Dell on line for free; it costs money.

2 days later, the 2 year warranty on site was included.

Costco wouldn’t help with the warranty issue,

Ten days later - Oct 5 – HOME key came off, tried to push it back in place, couldn’t. Costco.com said they couldn’t help. I had to go to Dell, as per their agreement with Dell. I was told that if I had bought an HP, gateway, etc, costco would have helped. But no help was available for Dell products from costco. Of course, they dont tell you that when you are shopping.

So I called Dell on line support – the agent said he would mail new keyboard, and I wd have to replace it myself. I was given a link for instructions.

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1525/en/SM/keyboard.htm#wp1180346

This is not a DIY job. So, I asked to speak to a supervisor. I spoke to SIMRAT agent #102175. She assured me that she would escalate the matter, and that someone would contact me shortly.

So I kept the HOME keytop safely tucked away, and waited.

Oct 9 – no keyboard, no call. The CHAT lines are not working, so I called, and spoke to an agent who was helpless. I asked for a supervisor. His supervisor JAMES came on line. I go thru’ the whole matter again, he informed me that the first agent had not placed an order for the keyboard, probably because I asked for the supervisor! Now, James promises everything SIMRAT promised!

Is this service, I ask. For one thing, the keyboard quality of the Inspiron I received is awful, no wonder one of the keys came off. Then, the support is even more abysmal. The irony is I was at Dell Bangalore last year, giving a presentation on customer service.

This is what we are getting from companies that were once iconic. Small surprise then that the Wall Street magicians have pocketed millions in bonuses, and gone on lavish binges after borrowing taxpayer money. We are now close to becoming the laughing stock of the world.

Come on Mr. Dell, get real.