Posted on 08/16/2005 1:52:48 PM PDT by Panerai
U.S. consumers lambasted Dell Inc. for poor customer service in a survey conducted last quarter, sending the world’s largest PC vendor into a virtual tie with the rest of the PC market behind the industry-leading efforts of Apple.
For the second year in a row, Apple received the best rating from PC buyers in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), said David Van Amburg, general manager of the ACSI. The University of Michigan compiles the ACSI in numerous product categories by randomly calling U.S. residents and surveying their buying habits, he said.
Apple received a score of 81, compared to an industry average score of 74, in results released Tuesday. The Cupertino, Calif., company’s focus on product innovation and customer service has won it a cadre of famously loyal customers unlike any other PC vendor, Van Amburg said. Apple also received a score of 81 in 2004.
Dell, on the other hand, earned a score of 74, down from a score of 79 the previous year. Survey respondents complained mostly about the quality of Dell’s customer service, not its products, Van Amburg said. The ACSI doesn’t ask specific questions about the type of problems customers are having with a company, but customers were clearly more frustrated with the Round Rock, Texas, company than last year, he said.
A few recurring complaints were the length of time on hold with Dell customer-service representatives, as well as the quality of the help customers eventually received, Van Amburg said. Dell has started to expand its lead over Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) in PC shipments, and sometimes when market leaders increase their product shipments they fail to increase service capabilities at the same rate, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.com ...
its their bangalore tech support people - its a waste of time to even talk to them.
Dude, your customer service rating is going to hell!
Service - before, during, and after the sale. That's (among many reasons) why I buy Jaguars and BMWs, why I shoot Brownings, and that's why I use a Mac.
this is true. that was a ridiculous move. But so far I've only had to call once or twice, and maybe that was before they made the move to India.
Dell Hell: a voyage to exotic India, where the "tech support" is pure torture, incorrect, incompetent, and always just plain bizarre.
this supposed unbiased survey just happens to be in an apple shill book? who's kidding who?
I'm betting you've never had to call Dell service and support.
I have. I tried to get them to swap out the incorrect drive bay they sent me for the correct one. Their solution was to send the new server (with the wrong type bay) back and they'd send me a new one in three weeks. This "solution" took two hours on the phone to arrive at.
Dell's CS has gotten terrible. In the past, I refered friends to them. Now I offer to build computers for free (with them buying the parts of course) to close friends or refer tpeople to local computer stores who may have slightly higher prices than some of the "Dell specials." The 3 people that I know who ordered from Dell in the last 6 months have all regretted it. Apple probably has better CS but I'll stick with building my own computers for now. 95% rating =)
I have no use for name-brand computers. I build my own at a fraction of the price and use the same or better parts than Dell does. Customer service is rarely needed but nonetheless excellent as I am available to myself 24/7. :-)
I've had 3 Dells and found the product to be pretty good but trying to talk to anyone at Dell who can speak English almost impossible. In my last contact with them, I tried to order (via phone, so I could verify it was compatible) a DC adapter for our laptop and ended up talking with someone who sounded like they were in North Vietnam and I could only make out about every 12th word they said. Result: they sent an incompatible adapter. I doubt if I will buy Dell again. I like a company who will employ Americans and whose employees can speak English.
You definitely get what you pay for, the free flat panel being about the only thing interesting in the deal.
My recent experience with Dell Support is horrible. These people say they will do something and don't. No accountability! Dell is starting to lose business. I will never buy another Dell product!
I'm in the market right now, tell me more on how to roll my own.
They probably *were* in Vietnam! The last frontier! Where the secret police snoop on the call centers! Now they've got a file on you too! LOL! ....,
That's where that support guy named "Bob" takes your calls.
"You have been reaching Dell, this is Bob. How can I be helping you today?"
(By the way, I loved Fisher Stevens in "Short Circuit".)
;^)
I had a similar terrible experience with TurboTax customer support in India last year. A supervisor (who gave me a false name I later found out) lied through his teeth to me. A couple of weeks later, I reached a young woman who straightened it all out -- also in India. She did her job exactly the way you'd want a good CS rep to do it: found out what happened and fixed it cheerfully. I wrote two letters to TT on that experience, one absolutely scathing, and the other to praise the woman who did a fine job.
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