Bill--- Thought you may find this interesting and relative to your statement,,,
Alert --- Dell Placed on Vendor Watch
Unacceptable level of complaints from new Dell customers
post.messages.yahoo.com.
Question: Have the problems with Dell that Giga has reported reached a level customers should be concerned
about?
Answer: It depends --- currently, existing long-term Dell accounts are not reporting problems out of line with other
vendors. However, new Dell accounts, particularly those that have reported activity during the last three months,
have reported configuration, support and relationship problems with the firm. Because the problems largely appear
to be new accounts, this does not reflect a broad quality problem with Dell, but does reflect a risk for accounts that
are choosing to move to Dell from another vendor --- a move that we believe is unreasonable. Reported problems
have included misconfigured hardware, product delivery delays that surprised the related IT staff, a tendency to
make commitments in order to get a signed contract that are not met once the contract is signed, and actions that
showed an arrogant disregard for the customer and questionable business practices.
This problem is exacerbated by what appears to be a growing tendency at Dell to cover up problems and not
correct them. This last issue is not uncommon with companies that are growing very quickly, and we have seen
similar behavior from firms like Netscape, Apple, IBM, 3Com's Palm Computing unit and even Microsoft.
Regardless of the cause, this behavior represents an unacceptable risk for companies, particularly large companies
looking for Dell as a replacement for an existing vendor, largely because it can embarrass the decision-maker and
put them at significant career risk.
In the instances where the problems with Dell have been pronounced, we have found Micron and IBM both willing
and generally able to quickly fill the gap that the struggling Dell sales and support have opened up, and these
companies continue to execute increasing well on the direct relationship model that likely made Dell interesting to
companies in the first place. |
