corruptionX

 

If you're too lazy to read, at least take a look at this.

2/11/08
Why DELL are a bunch of assholes:

UPDATE: This has proven to be not 100% accurate, as the $150 more priced machine comes with an upgrade from Vista Premium to Vista Ultimate, but the update is forced on you, and this article is still awesome, so read on...

Wow, what a bold remark! Has anyone ever said this before? Yes. All the time people say this and it just gets laughed away. You figure, "well any large company is bound to have its unsatisfied customers, there's really nothing they can do". Or is there? Look at companies like Newegg and T-Mobile, with legendary customer service. Have you ever been screwed by them? Hell, do you even KNOW someone who was even once unhappy with their service?

But service aside, because after all, this article isn't about service, it's about DELL's policies, and how the fundamentals behind this company are things that could have only been thought up by a complete asshole.

First thing's first. I recently purchased a DELL XPS m1330 laptop (yeah, that really hot one) from the Outlet. They somehow screwed up my purchase and A) Shipped it without half the AC cord (the AC cord comes apart, it is two pieces), and B) They never registered the laptop under my name. DELL outlet is basically where you go to get models cheaper because they are refurbished. I'm willing to discount the fact that they forgot half my AC cord, after all, even the best of us make mistakes. I attempt to sign on to the web support center and am placed in something like position 52 in the queue. Yay, classic DELL. When it finally gets to my turn, we establish the fact that this laptop is still registered to it's last user. It was actually me who figured this out before they did. Again, mistakes happen. But what bothered me was this: The attendant apologized to me for having waited so long. "We have an express queue for XPS customers". Basically they screwed up and dumped me in the wrong queue, but what bothered me more than that is that they have two queues, namely one that clearly doesn't have enough people (queue position 52?), and is ran by our fellows over in India, who cannot seem to understand the simplest of problems, make you confirm your address six or seven times before shipping a part, refuse to take your word that a part is broken or missing, even when you provide sufficient evidence that you know what you are doing and that the part is, in fact, broken; and then a second department with little to no wait time (queue position 2 on average), and when it is your turn, you are greeted by an American, who speaks your language, understands your issues, and can generally solve whatever it is in under five minutes. In other words, DELL doesn't give a crap about 90% of their customers.

But here's the reason you're reading this:
I couldn't help but notice the Super bowl commercial for the (RED) laptops. For those of you who aren't familiar with (RED), it is basically a movement to help fight diseases in Africa. Companies sign onto this thing, and in turn offer some of their products in the color "RED", which signifies that they will donate a certain percentage of their profits to (RED). Some companies I happen to know are already on it, are GAP, and Apple. Great idea, I love it. You buy your iPod nano in an ugly color, but are okay with it because you know that you did a good deed. Everyone wins. The first thing that pissed me off about the commercial was that DELL didn't even bother to manufacture a product for (RED). They just took their XPS m1330 and m1550 models, which already came in the color RED, and marked the RED ones as (PRODUCT) RED. So big deal... DELL is little lazy, they already had the laptops in red, why design new ones, why am I bitching? Good question. Go to DELL's site and check out the XPS laptop models. I'd link you but the link would eventually die and that would make this article look crappy because it's pointing to a dead link. The (PRODUCT) RED model now costs $150 more than the others -- all for the same laptop in a different color. Configure the basic model, and you can choose from "Tuxedo Black", "Alpine White", and "Midnight Blue". Hey, didn't "Crimson Red" used to be there too? I thought so too.. They basically took the "Crimson Red" one out, made it into it's own model, and are charging $150 more for it. But if you compare the specs up against each other they are exactly the same. In other words, while other companies are actually sacrificing a percentage of their profits to benefit people in Africa, DELL is simply passing the buck over to their consumers. When I dug further, I found that DELL is only giving $50 of the purchase to Africa.

HMMMMM......So where is the other $100 going?

Not only is DELL creating a cover-up to make themselves look charitable when they are in-fact taking the money right from the consumer, but they have the nerve to try to pocket some off the deal as well. And you've got all these people going on about DELL being so great because they've decided to jump on (PRODUCT) RED bandwagon...I think DELL is no better than Christopher Reeve.

If you want some sources, they are here.