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Has Dell Returned to its Roots?
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 12:09:58 AM PDT
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I'm a bit reluctant to raise this topic, but it's gotten to the point where I think I should. In reading reader gripes in recent months, I can't escape the conclusion that there's now a significant difference between Dell and HP when it comes to PC support. The old Dell appears to be back in terms of once again providing good support for good products, but, sadly, the old HP still seems to be ancient history.
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One reason for my hesitation is that the Gripe Line has always been a very blunt instrument even when it comes to making negative comparisons between companies, much less positive ones. There's a certain noise level to be expected with any major vendor, and it's not always clear where spikes that go beyond the expected are coming from. Still, the differences between Dell and HP specifically have become overwhelming of late.
The big change readers have seen is that Dell is responding much more quickly and efficiently to problems. "Dell seems to have turned over a new leaf," wrote one reader recently. "I had a laptop battery that started going bad shortly before its warranty ran out, but I did not call it in until two weeks after the warranty expired. Tech support had me drain it and charge it and try again and it was still bad, and they said they could not help me because the warranty had expired. They told me to try Customer Care. I was prepared for a battle, but the Customer Care person listened to my story, put me on hold, and then came back and said Dell would replace my battery! Sure enough, the new battery showed up a couple of days later and it works great. I'm glad Dell has responded to the criticism of its customer service -- thought you'd like to know."
I've also heard more positive things about Dell than HP from corporate customers and those who have service contracts. "I've had three significant hardware problems with Dell equipment this year and all were fully satisfied with speedy on-site installation of replacement parts and only a modicum of over-the-phone troubleshooting and jumping through hoops after it was established that I knew what I was talking about and had done troubleshooting on my own. Tech support people were responsive and understandable; tech repair guys were efficient and professional. I have paid extra for Gold Tech Support and buy through Dell's small business division -- so maybe my experience is different than standard service/consumer operations -- or I am just lucky."
Of course, I'm still getting some gripes about Dell, but in a way they may actually prove the point as much as the kudos for the company. "I called Dell out on sending me a lemon of a laptop," another reader recently wrote. "The motherboard has been replaced three times - once it came back missing screws and the screen would separate from the keyboard." But shortly after I heard from the reader, he followed up by saying Dell had gone ahead and upgraded him to a better model. "I gotta tell you they followed through. My old computer was an Inspiron 8600, and they replaced it with an Inspiron E1505 and upgraded the hard drive, memory, process, screen, etc. I was impressed ... at least until I had the computer, when it turned off on its own and would not turn back on. So another hour and a half of tech support and pulling out components that apparently weren't installed correctly. But for now it's working."
Certainly not a fun experience for the reader, but it's the end results that count when dealing with a PC lemon. And, in sharp contrast to the support nightmare experiences readers have suffered with HP, lately I don't have to bring these cases to Dell's attention before they're fixed. Both Dell and HP have been good through the years about responding to my stories -- the difference now is that Dell has almost invariably dealt with the serious problems before they hear about it from me.
This is the exact opposite of the way things stood three or four years ago when Dell made its disastrous move to offshore all its support. By the way, I'm sure it wasn't a disaster just because they offshored, but because they offshored badly and wound up with a staff of frontline techs who had neither the technical or language skills to help the customers.
Back then HP's support still had a lofty reputation, one that it's since done its best to fritter away. But there's been a reversal in another sense. What should we make of the fact that Dell is making these strides in improving quality at the same time that all the marketshare numbers have been saying that HP is eating Dell's lunch? To put it in a good light for Dell, we could say that the best way to improve the quality of your support is to improve the quality of your products, and that takes both investment and time for the market to recognize what you've done. On the other hand, it's easier to support products when you're selling fewer of them, so maybe that's what is making Dell's support look good right now.
I think we're just going to have to wait to see whether the differences between Dell and HP -- either in terms of support quality or marketshare -- are temporary blips or not. And at the same time, perhaps we'll find out whether offering better support is still a viable business for PC manufacturers.
Which PC manufacturer do you think provides the best support? Dell, HP, or someone else? Answer my GripeLog poll on that question in the lefthand column here and tell us why you feel that way by posting your comments online or writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com. |
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