Dell Sees No Problem.....
by: skeptically 02/05/02 08:51 am
Msg: 272261 of 272262
....it's just some customers that do.
newsalert.com -search-&StoryTitle=compaq
The Dallas Morning News
February 04, 2002 19:50
Complaints have risen with sales, but Dell sees no problem By Crayton Harrison
Brian Clair bought his Dell laptop computer in November, but it's been in the shop getting fixed longer than it's actually been in his possession.
Clair is among consumers who say Dell Computer Corp.'s service is deteriorating.
The Austin, Texas, company has credited its recent growth to a rise in consumer sales and has received many awards for its service record.
But Dell's once-solid reputation for taking care of customers is showing some dents, said Clair, publisher of Adrenaline Vault, a video game review site in Glenville, N.Y. After he published a commentary about his problems with Dell, he said, he was flooded with responses from sympathetic Dell customers.
"I heard from well over 100 people who were having similar problems," said Clair, whose computer was fixed weeks after he posted the commentary.
"This is my last Dell. I'll never buy another one."
Any increase in the number of complaints about customer service is simply due to the huge growth in consumer sales, said Mike Jackson, director of consumer customer support for Dell.
Just last month, Dell said it would earn more than it originally expected in the fourth quarter because consumers were buying 50 percent more PCs than in the third quarter.
An increase in consumers is likely to lead to an increase in individual complaints, Jackson said. But the overall percentage of complaints per consumer hasn't changed, he said.
"With our consumer market growing, retention and repeat business and loyalty are more important than ever for us," Jackson said. "I don't know that we're ever satisfied with our service, but we have not seen an overall degradation of customer service, technical support or customer satisfaction."
However, in a survey of 27,000 readers published in November, PC World magazine found that Dell's service had slipped to a rating of "good" from its old rating of "outstanding" for consumers who bought PCs for home use.
Dell customers complained about longer wait times on the phone with service representatives and lower success rates in actually fixing their problems, said Aoife McEvoy, senior associate editor at the magazine. ......more at link............. |
