Dell Australia delivers on customer service

by Lee Hopkins on January 5, 2009 · 22 comments

UPDATE: Trisha from Customer Service in the Philippines just rang me and we confirmed that the mic input problem was resolved, and then proceeded to attempt to fix the ‘missing horizontal sound bar’ issue.

It isn’t a Dell issue, more a Vista one, and we found a website that offered a third-party plugin – but loading it didn’t seem to make any difference; certainly the sound bar didn’t appear. I’ll remove the app later, once I’ve finished configuring/training the speech recognition engine in Vista.

But thanks, again, to Trisha and Dell for doing what they said they would – follow up with me.

Further to my plaintive cry for help of last Friday, I received a call from Yvonne Patze, a Senior Sales Operations Manager at Dell here in Australia.

It seems that the US team had picked up my calls of frustration and for help on the web over the weekend and had forwarded my details to her for further investigation.

As Yvonne says,

As discussed I have escalated your case to the TS Director and his TS Manager and I am expecting confirmation that someone will call you today to discuss the technical difficulties that are still outstanding. If required we will arrange a technician to come to site to address the issue.

Yvonne also apologised for the delay in an Australian response; the Christmas-New Year break was the culprit.

As a former serving member of the armed forces here in God’s Own Country, it has well been a badly-kept secret that if you wanted to invade us all you had to do was wait until late Friday night of a long weekend to begin your incursion, because no one would be around to respond. You could be sitting comfortably in the comfy seats in Parliament House in Canberra, AK47 nestled in your lap, before any one knew anything about it.

The same deal goes with the Christmas-New Year period.

But this whole episode tells me one thing: that despite the Christmas-New Year meltdown of Australian business, someone somewhere in Dell is listening and is prepared to do something to help — even if it means you DO have to stay on the line to the call centre.

The sheer fact that they are listening (ok, technically ‘reading’) to what is being said in the blogosphere is more than enough evidence for me to continue recommending them to friends, family and colleagues.

Now, if I could only win the lottery and pick up one of their faster-than-a-speeding-bullet XPS series notebooks or desktops… [sigh – they are gorgeous!]

Technorati Tags: dell, dell australia, customer service, technical service, xps, desktop, laptop, notebook, Yvonne Patze

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Tagged as: customer service, dell, dell australia, desktop, laptop, notebook, technical service, xps, yvonne patze

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http://ben.hamilton.id.au/ Ben Hamilton

Glad to hear resolution.

I’m toying with the idea of a netbook, either the Dell Mini or the Acer Aspire One. The keyboard on the Acer feels nicer at this point but the follow up support (if I ever need it) is an important consideration for me. Hearing you’ve been heard is heart warming.

Take care, Ben.
http://ben.hamilton.id.au/ Ben Hamilton

Glad to hear resolution.

I’m toying with the idea of a netbook, either the Dell Mini or the Acer Aspire One. The keyboard on the Acer feels nicer at this point but the follow up support (if I ever need it) is an important consideration for me. Hearing you’ve been heard is heart warming.

Take care, Ben.
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http://www.wordymouth.com/ Michael Sommermeyer

I switched over to a Mac for my personal computer a few years ago, but I still have a Dell in the den for the kids. That computer lost its CD-ROM/DVD drive a year ago and I finally got around to contacting Dell. I was told by the online tech to wait for a confirmation number and that they would then contact me to schedule an appointment to fix it. I figured it would be a few days, because isn’t that what usually happens?
I came home the next night to find out that a Dell tech had dropped by that afternoon to fix it! Mind you, this was the very next day! I didn’t even know they had stopped by and wouldn’t have known if my 9-year-old hadn’t said something. Needless to say, the company still is tops in customer service and even beats Apple; they require me to visit the Genius Bar and bring them the computer!
http://www.wordymouth.com Michael Sommermeyer

I switched over to a Mac for my personal computer a few years ago, but I still have a Dell in the den for the kids. That computer lost its CD-ROM/DVD drive a year ago and I finally got around to contacting Dell. I was told by the online tech to wait for a confirmation number and that they would then contact me to schedule an appointment to fix it. I figured it would be a few days, because isn’t that what usually happens?
I came home the next night to find out that a Dell tech had dropped by that afternoon to fix it! Mind you, this was the very next day! I didn’t even know they had stopped by and wouldn’t have known if my 9-year-old hadn’t said something. Needless to say, the company still is tops in customer service and even beats Apple; they require me to visit the Genius Bar and bring them the computer!
http://www.dell.com/community Sean McDonald

Ben
What did you decide to purchase the Mini or Aspire. Let me know what the deciding factors were on your choice so Dell team can learn your criteria in your product evaluation. Of course hope you select Mini, regardless interested to hear the outcome.
Sean
http://www.dell.com/community Sean McDonald

Ben
What did you decide to purchase the Mini or Aspire. Let me know what the deciding factors were on your choice so Dell team can learn your criteria in your product evaluation. Of course hope you select Mini, regardless interested to hear the outcome.
Sean
http://www.ben.hamilton.id.au/ Ben Hamilton

Sean, it’ll be a few weeks before I make a decision ($$$). But to let you know now what is important for me, the following is my planned usage:

I’m looking for a ‘comms’ machine, one that runs skype, gmail apps (chat/email/docs), IM, twitter. I want to be able to take it to work, sit it on the desk beside my dual screen workstation, run my ‘comms’ from the netbook beside it off the battery. A 9 cell battery is important (battery life more precisely), take it home and plug it in to charge overnight. Wanting to run XP rather than linux as I need occasional access to some reference work software that runs under windows.
http://www.ben.hamilton.id.au Ben Hamilton

Sean, it’ll be a few weeks before I make a decision ($$$). But to let you know now what is important for me, the following is my planned usage:

I’m looking for a ‘comms’ machine, one that runs skype, gmail apps (chat/email/docs), IM, twitter. I want to be able to take it to work, sit it on the desk beside my dual screen workstation, run my ‘comms’ from the netbook beside it off the battery. A 9 cell battery is important (battery life more precisely), take it home and plug it in to charge overnight. Wanting to run XP rather than linux as I need occasional access to some reference work software that runs under windows.
http://www.dell.com/community Sean McDonald

Ben
Here is a post from Larry (works at Dell on my team) but bought a Mini for his personal use. http://en.community.dell.com/groups/gift_rap/blog/archive/2008/12/09/why-i-bought-an-inspiron-mini-9.aspx

The post does not answer all of your questions, but you can follow up with Larry if you want more firsthand knowledge – Larry is a tech support guy that won’t try and sell you. here is his profile/contact on Dell community site
http://en.community.dell.com/members/DELL_2D00_Larry-R/default.aspx
http://www.dell.com/community Sean McDonald

Ben
Here is a post from Larry (works at Dell on my team) but bought a Mini for his personal use. http://en.community.dell.com/groups/gift_rap/blog/archive/2008/12/09/why-i-bought-an-inspiron-mini-9.aspx

The post does not answer all of your questions, but you can follow up with Larry if you want more firsthand knowledge – Larry is a tech support guy that won’t try and sell you. here is his profile/contact on Dell community site
http://en.community.dell.com/members/DELL_2D00_Larry-R/default.aspx
Karen

Hi All,

I’m beginning to lose my faith in Dell, ordered and XPS 430 on Dec 22 2008, it is now 9/01/2009 – I’ve been chasing my order up for the last week or so, apparently Dell Financial services claim to have not recieved my paperwork – i find this quite hard to believe – cos the moment i received the application from Dell financial services – i faxed over the required paperwork. Logged a support call to Sales (email + phone call) (Mon 5th Jan) asking me to send my documents over again!!! (where did my lost documents end up?) …. until now i have not received any response on the status of my order …. this is very frustrating as this computer was suppose to be a birthday present ….. which is now long over due! after many emails and phone calls checking on my order i feel like i should just give up and cancel. Any advice guys?
Karen

Hi All,

I’m beginning to lose my faith in Dell, ordered and XPS 430 on Dec 22 2008, it is now 9/01/2009 – I’ve been chasing my order up for the last week or so, apparently Dell Financial services claim to have not recieved my paperwork – i find this quite hard to believe – cos the moment i received the application from Dell financial services – i faxed over the required paperwork. Logged a support call to Sales (email + phone call) (Mon 5th Jan) asking me to send my documents over again!!! (where did my lost documents end up?) …. until now i have not received any response on the status of my order …. this is very frustrating as this computer was suppose to be a birthday present ….. which is now long over due! after many emails and phone calls checking on my order i feel like i should just give up and cancel. Any advice guys?
http://www.ben.hamilton.id.au/ Ben Hamilton

Sean/Larry, when I click the links in Seans comment above, it asks me to log in to “Dell’s My Account and Community” ??

Why? do I need to create a profile to visit the walled garden?
http://www.ben.hamilton.id.au Ben Hamilton

Sean/Larry, when I click the links in Seans comment above, it asks me to log in to “Dell’s My Account and Community” ??

Why? do I need to create a profile to visit the walled garden?
http://www.dellcommunity.com/ Dell-Robert P

Hi Karen,

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with Dell Financial.

I’m with Dell’s Community Team, and I’d like to try to help you resolve this. Could you send me your Order Number, Customer Number, and a telephone number where you can be reached? My email is: customer_advocate@dell.com and put it to the attention of Robert P, and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks,
Dell-Robert P
http://www.dellcommunity.com Dell-Robert P

Hi Karen,

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with Dell Financial.

I’m with Dell’s Community Team, and I’d like to try to help you resolve this. Could you send me your Order Number, Customer Number, and a telephone number where you can be reached? My email is: customer_advocate@dell.com and put it to the attention of Robert P, and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks,
Dell-Robert P
http://en.community.dell.com/ DELL-LarryR

Ben, I did some checking and while you have to be logged in to view user profiles on the Dell Community site, you should have been able to look at the contents of the Gift Wrap group (such as my blog about the Mini 9). Sean has already contacted the people that can get that group access fixed.

As for the Mini 9, it has an optional built in camera (1.3M pixel) that does pretty well. I haven’t used mine other than to make sure the camera works but it should work the same as other cameras. For capabilities, I would be very surprised if the Mini 9 had trouble with running the applications you list. I have been pleasantly surprised with just how powerful the Atom N270 processor actually is. The one potential drawback for what you are looking for is that the Mini 9 has a three-cell battery. Under heavy load (e.g., running DOS-Box to play an old DOS 6 game) I would get about 90 to 120 minutes of battery life. In more ‘normal’ use, working with spreadsheets and documents while on a wireless network connection I easily get between 2 and 4 hours of battery life before it got down to 10% or lower. When just reading (e.g., an HTML formatted e-book) I got between 5 and 6 hours of continuous use out of the battery one weekend, although I had the LCD brightness at its lowest and the wireless radio disabled at the time.

If you had other questions on the mini I’ll be happy to answer them as best I can for you.

LarryR
Dell Outreach Liaison
http://en.community.dell.com DELL-LarryR

Ben, I did some checking and while you have to be logged in to view user profiles on the Dell Community site, you should have been able to look at the contents of the Gift Wrap group (such as my blog about the Mini 9). Sean has already contacted the people that can get that group access fixed.

As for the Mini 9, it has an optional built in camera (1.3M pixel) that does pretty well. I haven’t used mine other than to make sure the camera works but it should work the same as other cameras. For capabilities, I would be very surprised if the Mini 9 had trouble with running the applications you list. I have been pleasantly surprised with just how powerful the Atom N270 processor actually is. The one potential drawback for what you are looking for is that the Mini 9 has a three-cell battery. Under heavy load (e.g., running DOS-Box to play an old DOS 6 game) I would get about 90 to 120 minutes of battery life. In more ‘normal’ use, working with spreadsheets and documents while on a wireless network connection I easily get between 2 and 4 hours of battery life before it got down to 10% or lower. When just reading (e.g., an HTML formatted e-book) I got between 5 and 6 hours of continuous use out of the battery one weekend, although I had the LCD brightness at its lowest and the wireless radio disabled at the time.

If you had other questions on the mini I’ll be happy to answer them as best I can for you.

LarryR
Dell Outreach Liaison
http://en.community.dell.com/ DELL-LarryR

Karen, I don’t have direct access to the DFS side of things, but I’ll be happy to have someone look into it for you. Let me check with a coworker and find out what the best way to get this taken care of is. If you can email me the order number (to customer_advocate@dell.com with “ATTN: Larry (Karen-DFS)” in the subject to ensure it gets to me) I’ll be happy to see what I can do.

LarryR
Dell Outreach Liaison
http://en.community.dell.com DELL-LarryR

Karen, I don’t have direct access to the DFS side of things, but I’ll be happy to have someone look into it for you. Let me check with a coworker and find out what the best way to get this taken care of is. If you can email me the order number (to customer_advocate@dell.com with “ATTN: Larry (Karen-DFS)” in the subject to ensure it gets to me) I’ll be happy to see what I can do.

LarryR
Dell Outreach Liaison