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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Calvin who wrote (143613)	10/2/1999 8:43:00 AM
From: Calvin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Here's the content of the famous GIGA report: Alert --- Dell Placed on Vendor Watch 700425-RE99 Author: Rob Enderle Date: 09/27/99 Catalyst: Unacceptable level of complaints from new Dell customers 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 increasingly well on the direct relationship model that likely made Dell interesting to companies in the first place. Since we have not seen improvement from Dell, it is difficult to forecast when this problem will be overcome. We should also point out that this has been a surprisingly wide geographical area (including North America and Europe) that has reported these problems with Dell. The problems do appear unusually concentrated in the Texas area, and therefore, Dell should likely be considered an unreliable partner in this particular area. With Compaq quality improving, it may make more sense if you are an existing Compaq account, to stay with Compaq until Dell's problems are reported solved.