Dell's new focus: Don't look back

(continued from previous page)

The current approach, experimenting with the inventory-free stores, allows Dell to gain experience in retail environments without diving in head first, Bhavnani said. But it runs the risk of turning out like Gateway's experiment with its own retail stores, which also didn't carry inventory and did not end well.

If that's not enough, Dell could follow Apple's lead and open company stores that carry inventory. Not necessarily a lot of inventory, but perhaps products that don't age as quickly as PCs, which tend to turn over every three months in the retail industry, Bhavnani said. This could include digital televisions and smaller items like printer cartridges.

Or Dell could jump into the commercial retail business, fighting for shelf space with Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Acer and others. This would be a tough way to go, given Dell's lack of experience in this area, but two or three executives from the right PC company might make all the difference. Of course, acquiring the right PC company itself might also make the job easier, an idea that was floated by Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi this week in a research note discussing a potential Dell purchase of Acer.

If it decides to go this route, Dell might find it easier to strike up an exclusive partnership with a retailer like Costco or Radio Shack. This would prevent it from having to slug it out with its competitors, but still give it a prominent place to showcase its products. Dell already has a relationship with Costco dating back to 2005, when it used certain Costco stores to rid itself of outdated components, Bhavnani said.

A retail strategy would also give Dell a local place for customers to go with support problems or questions. Dell has taken many steps to improve its customer service operation after finally realizing that customers were fed up with poor support, but some people find it easier to seek help in person or just drop off their PC for repairs, Bhavnani said.

In the midst of all the turmoil at the company, Dell has shown a willingness to listen to new ideas. It launched a new Web site called IdeaStorm that is taking suggestions from customers, and has at least paid lip service to one of the most popular suggestions--Dell PCs running Linux--by announcing plans to work with Novell to certify Linux on Dell PCs.

Still, don't expect Dell to radically change overnight. The company has invested a lot of time and money in its direct model and manufacturing strategy, and can't abandon either just yet. But mixing in the right combination of changes could breathe life back into a company that, despite all its problems, is still expected to post a healthy profit for 2006.

"The point is that there are no sacred cows," Kay said. "(They're) not just going to insist that the model is great. The model should be a living, breathing thing."

[fred dunn]

Michael Dell, Are you listening? Better start...

In years past I have been a guest at Dell's headquarters for presentations on this and that because we buy essentially all Dells for our standard systems.
BUT, we are a different customer base than most since we have our own in-house Dell certified Techs and don't have to go through the "Support call to hell" channel that I have also been through to support personal use customers and that I do not want to repeat.

If Dell honestly wants to gain more market share then they need to take a more radical approach to their "Listening to the customer". Currently their mainstay is business customers and they have regular meetings with Fortune 500 company reps to discuss their want and needs and tailor the systems to that crowd for the Dell OptiPlex line.

I propose that Dell have the same regular meetings but with a diverse end-user base including:
1. White box builders - A potential base for their XPS line. These people would represent a more tech saavy group and bring that to the table.

2. Past Dell customers that have not gone back to Dell for repurchase because of bad experiences. This would could include tech saavy users but also a focus group of non-technical users should be included since Techies don't rely on Dell's tech support as much and can bring that to the table.

3. People that have never bought a Dell because of their perceived repuation. This would be a diverse audience and would probably bring the most to the table since they will have reasons either passed to them or perceptions that can be changed in ALL aspects of Dell's operations.

This group should comprise a wide demographic as well since preferences sometime lay with loyalties to more local companies.
The group should be kept together for as long as possible and used as testers for potential new products as well as been made aware of customer feedback about support.

This would be a "Slam Dunk" for Dell both in getting real world data and as a Marketing tool once the feedback starts to pay off.

Michael, you are in between a rock and a hard place and this is one of your few options to get a real foothold back into the end-user personal computer market. Am I betting that you will do this, 'NO' since History has shown the only people you listen to are Intel and Microsoft on the business side and fortuen 500 companies on the sales side.
I too am a white box builder and I know the "quality" (or lack thereof) of Dell's personal line but if I knew that I could buy a system that would be of the same quality that I could build then I would probably be buying Dell's personally.

END-USER FOCUS GROUP MICHAEL!

[Too Old For IT]

The Problem with Dell's White Box Efforts

The Problem with Dell's White Box Efforts is their own direct sales channel.

We had signed up for the white box, too the little online quizzes, and never sold a one. Perhaps our customer base were the cheapest on the planet, perhaps they were just more savvy. But in every case the question was "Why should we buy from you when we can buy from Dell for $200 less?"

Now granted, we made money from re-imaging the Dells for their environment (even if a SOHO 1-user environment), but at the end of the day to be competitive we had to take a loss on each Dell white box in order to get the deal away from Dell.

During a phone survey, I told the Dell channel rep that what we needed were competitive machines that couldn?t be had for $200 less from the 1-800 order takers. He laughed. Said if the reseller channel dried up tomorrow it wouldn't hurt Dell a nickel.

Dell's recent efforts to shore up their tech support are noteworthy, primarily as they are offering $12 - $17 an hour in a $35- $40 an hour market for phone support techs. I have been contacted by no less than 3 recruiting firms who want me to bring 18+ years of experience to the phone for $12 an hour. Get real!

[fred dunn]

Michael Dell, Are you listening? Better start...

In years past I have been a guest at Dell's headquarters for presentations on this and that because we buy essentially all Dells for our standard systems.
BUT, we are a different customer base than most since we have our own in-house Dell certified Techs and don't have to go through the "Support call to hell" channel that I have also been through to support personal use customers and that I do not want to repeat.

If Dell honestly wants to gain more market share then they need to take a more radical approach to their "Listening to the customer". Currently their mainstay is business customers and they have regular meetings with Fortune 500 company reps to discuss their want and needs and tailor the systems to that crowd for the Dell OptiPlex line.

I propose that Dell have the same regular meetings but with a diverse end-user base including:
1. White box builders - A potential base for their XPS line. These people would represent a more tech saavy group and bring that to the table.

2. Past Dell customers that have not gone back to Dell for repurchase because of bad experiences. This would could include tech saavy users but also a focus group of non-technical users should be included since Techies don't rely on Dell's tech support as much and can bring that to the table.

3. People that have never bought a Dell because of their perceived repuation. This would be a diverse audience and would probably bring the most to the table since they will have reasons either passed to them or perceptions that can be changed in ALL aspects of Dell's operations.

This group should comprise a wide demographic as well since preferences sometime lay with loyalties to more local companies.
The group should be kept together for as long as possible and used as testers for potential new products as well as been made aware of customer feedback about support.

This would be a "Slam Dunk" for Dell both in getting real world data and as a Marketing tool once the feedback starts to pay off.

Michael, you are in between a rock and a hard place and this is one of your few options to get a real foothold back into the end-user personal computer market. Am I betting that you will do this, 'NO' since History has shown the only people you listen to are Intel and Microsoft on the business side and fortuen 500 companies on the sales side.
I too am a white box builder and I know the "quality" (or lack thereof) of Dell's personal line but if I knew that I could buy a system that would be of the same quality that I could build then I would probably be buying Dell's personally.

END-USER FOCUS GROUP MICHAEL!

[Too Old For IT]

The Problem with Dell's White Box Efforts

The Problem with Dell's White Box Efforts is their own direct sales channel.

We had signed up for the white box, too the little online quizzes, and never sold a one. Perhaps our customer base were the cheapest on the planet, perhaps they were just more savvy. But in every case the question was "Why should we buy from you when we can buy from Dell for $200 less?"

Now granted, we made money from re-imaging the Dells for their environment (even if a SOHO 1-user environment), but at the end of the day to be competitive we had to take a loss on each Dell white box in order to get the deal away from Dell.

During a phone survey, I told the Dell channel rep that what we needed were competitive machines that couldn?t be had for $200 less from the 1-800 order takers. He laughed. Said if the reseller channel dried up tomorrow it wouldn't hurt Dell a nickel.

Dell's recent efforts to shore up their tech support are noteworthy, primarily as they are offering $12 - $17 an hour in a $35- $40 an hour market for phone support techs. I have been contacted by no less than 3 recruiting firms who want me to bring 18+ years of experience to the phone for $12 an hour. Get real!

[macyf]

Warranty Woes

I have a Dimension 9100 with all the perks. It now will not reboot with the message BOOTMGR is missing. I have contacted dell for the past week on this issue. Still they will not send someone to check it. My warranty is still in effect. If you buy a Dell don't take the extended warranty. Just cross your fingers and hope it lasts for a while.

[Jonathan]

That's an OS problem. Not a hardware prob

Dell isn't going to send someone out to repair your OS. Hit ctrl-F11 on boot to restore your OS. Note though that doing a restore will delete all your data files, but will restore the system to its original factory condition.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

[macyf]

Warranty Woes

I have a Dimension 9100 with all the perks. It now will not reboot with the message BOOTMGR is missing. I have contacted dell for the past week on this issue. Still they will not send someone to check it. My warranty is still in effect. If you buy a Dell don't take the extended warranty. Just cross your fingers and hope it lasts for a while.

[Jonathan]

That's an OS problem. Not a hardware prob

Dell isn't going to send someone out to repair your OS. Hit ctrl-F11 on boot to restore your OS. Note though that doing a restore will delete all your data files, but will restore the system to its original factory condition.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

[thedreaming]

Good Laptops, OK Desktops

Dell's desktop systems are ok, they aren't great. They have to be cleaned up before you can actually do anything with them, but that's the same with all OEMs.

I've seen dell desktops accumilate so much dust that they catch fire or blow out their power supply.

I just love telling customers that their 230W power supply will cost over $120 to replace because it's a dell power supply and it's the only one that will fit in the case!

I also love their samsung memory, which keeps shorting out.

Their laptops, however, seem to be very solid. I have an old inspiron 7000 which I still use to surf the net and diagnose network problems and a friend of mime recently got herself a new laptop with a very nice widescreen.

[Jonathan]

I've found it to be the other way around.

Dell's desktops are OK, if you don't take into consideration the failure rate of their power supplies and mobos, but their laptops have turned into the cheapest POS on the market IMHO.
I can NOT stand their Latitude series. They turned into **** around 2003 or so. Esp their touchpad. Moving from Synaptics to Alps was the worst decision they could make. I have to bring an external mouse with me when I'm setting up a new Latitude. The mouse drives me completely NUTS.
The biggest deal prior to the pentium M and the Core series was the rate at which Dell laptops overheat.
Consistently we are replacing motherboards due to heat issues. Again this is on older hardware and such issues have diminished with the Core series of CPU's but still.
PS- The 5150 series of Inspirons are a joke.

[thedreaming]

Good Laptops, OK Desktops

Dell's desktop systems are ok, they aren't great. They have to be cleaned up before you can actually do anything with them, but that's the same with all OEMs.

I've seen dell desktops accumilate so much dust that they catch fire or blow out their power supply.

I just love telling customers that their 230W power supply will cost over $120 to replace because it's a dell power supply and it's the only one that will fit in the case!

I also love their samsung memory, which keeps shorting out.

Their laptops, however, seem to be very solid. I have an old inspiron 7000 which I still use to surf the net and diagnose network problems and a friend of mime recently got herself a new laptop with a very nice widescreen.

[Jonathan]

I've found it to be the other way around.

Dell's desktops are OK, if you don't take into consideration the failure rate of their power supplies and mobos, but their laptops have turned into the cheapest POS on the market IMHO.
I can NOT stand their Latitude series. They turned into **** around 2003 or so. Esp their touchpad. Moving from Synaptics to Alps was the worst decision they could make. I have to bring an external mouse with me when I'm setting up a new Latitude. The mouse drives me completely NUTS.
The biggest deal prior to the pentium M and the Core series was the rate at which Dell laptops overheat.
Consistently we are replacing motherboards due to heat issues. Again this is on older hardware and such issues have diminished with the Core series of CPU's but still.
PS- The 5150 series of Inspirons are a joke.

[tattridge]

Dell to offer Linux ?

Dell's IdeaStorm is a place where customers ( potential and present ) can blog about what features and services they would like, trouble is, no-one wants Microsoft anyone :

http://www.onehandshake.blogspot.com/

[Too Old For IT]

Dell will never offer Linux

Dell will never offer Linux because (a) they don't have the engineering to test each and every distro flavor-of-the-month; (b) they don't have the engineering to configure a virtual space to run the few hundred Windows-only apps the average enterprise requires. (Where I am currently this number runs to the thousands for 8,500 users.); (c) no Linux distro is going to pay them on a per unit basis to install the aforesaid distro flavor-of-the-month.

[richto]

No way - no one wants it.

No dell customers want it. Other than as an excuse to not pay for Windows and then install a pirate copy.

Dont take any notice of the online vote fiasco - it was gate crashed by open source fanatics and cross posted on virtually every Linux / legacy software mailing list and blog in existence.

Real Dell customers want an OS that just works.

Lol at trying to tell them they have to compile software before they can run it on Linux. And that they have to patch their PCs 3 times more often than with Windows. Linux is making zero impact of Windows sales for those and many other reasons.

And in the server market, the pace of migrations from Linux / UNIX to Windows is increasing. Apache just dropped below 60% market share for the first time in years as a direct result of cumulative Linux to Windows migrations.

Companies are fed up with being constantly hacked and having servers defaced and having to install zillions of patches with resulting compatability issues in the Linux / LAMP world.

[tattridge]

Dell to offer Linux ?

Dell's IdeaStorm is a place where customers ( potential and present ) can blog about what features and services they would like, trouble is, no-one wants Microsoft anyone :

http://www.onehandshake.blogspot.com/

[Too Old For IT]

Dell will never offer Linux

Dell will never offer Linux because (a) they don't have the engineering to test each and every distro flavor-of-the-month; (b) they don't have the engineering to configure a virtual space to run the few hundred Windows-only apps the average enterprise requires. (Where I am currently this number runs to the thousands for 8,500 users.); (c) no Linux distro is going to pay them on a per unit basis to install the aforesaid distro flavor-of-the-month.

[richto]

No way - no one wants it.

No dell customers want it. Other than as an excuse to not pay for Windows and then install a pirate copy.

Dont take any notice of the online vote fiasco - it was gate crashed by open source fanatics and cross posted on virtually every Linux / legacy software mailing list and blog in existence.

Real Dell customers want an OS that just works.

Lol at trying to tell them they have to compile software before they can run it on Linux. And that they have to patch their PCs 3 times more often than with Windows. Linux is making zero impact of Windows sales for those and many other reasons.

And in the server market, the pace of migrations from Linux / UNIX to Windows is increasing. Apache just dropped below 60% market share for the first time in years as a direct result of cumulative Linux to Windows migrations.

Companies are fed up with being constantly hacked and having servers defaced and having to install zillions of patches with resulting compatability issues in the Linux / LAMP world.

[wahoomurf]

BUT DO LOOK AT THE SERVICE !

I was once again "DEL'ED" and survived a 22 day service call.......it took DELL 8 days alone to get replacement installation discs (which DELL promised would be "delivered overnight") because "they were not sure of my correct address".I GAVE MY NEW ADDRESS WHEN I CALLED IN INITIALLY......I thought my 21 day service call last year would be an alltime record.At least I got a new replacement PC after they gave up trying to fix my Domension 8300.

[BeamerMT]

Same Here

But try an entire year. After my dimension 4700 overheated in both replacements, i had to get forcefull and demand they replace the unit with something else. The one thing i never liked about dell is the fact that they have everything i've ever done with Tech support on thier computer screens, yet it seems to me that they always had me go through the same steps over and over and over again. And when they had to 'call me back' they never did.

[wahoomurf]

BUT DO LOOK AT THE SERVICE !

I was once again "DEL'ED" and survived a 22 day service call.......it took DELL 8 days alone to get replacement installation discs (which DELL promised would be "delivered overnight") because "they were not sure of my correct address".I GAVE MY NEW ADDRESS WHEN I CALLED IN INITIALLY......I thought my 21 day service call last year would be an alltime record.At least I got a new replacement PC after they gave up trying to fix my Domension 8300.

[BeamerMT]

Same Here

But try an entire year. After my dimension 4700 overheated in both replacements, i had to get forcefull and demand they replace the unit with something else. The one thing i never liked about dell is the fact that they have everything i've ever done with Tech support on thier computer screens, yet it seems to me that they always had me go through the same steps over and over and over again. And when they had to 'call me back' they never did.

[jd1023948]

SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE!!!

"Dell has taken many steps to improve its customer service operation"? What, exactly, have they done? Dell customer service is as bad as ever.

Dell used to have great customer service before they offshored it. Now it's absolute hell dealing with them. Rude, ignorant staff who don't speak English, transfer you endlessly, won't take responsibility for your problem, and don't live up to their commitments. The only way to get service for a Dell now is to take it to a local service shop and pay for the repairs.

[jd1023948]

SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE!!!

"Dell has taken many steps to improve its customer service operation"? What, exactly, have they done? Dell customer service is as bad as ever.

Dell used to have great customer service before they offshored it. Now it's absolute hell dealing with them. Rude, ignorant staff who don't speak English, transfer you endlessly, won't take responsibility for your problem, and don't live up to their commitments. The only way to get service for a Dell now is to take it to a local service shop and pay for the repairs.

[BillPStudios]

Let customers still get XP

I was very disappointed to find out I couldn't order a laptop with XP.

I've posted some of the conversation with Rep_Jeremy who told me to download Microsoft Virtual PC and then install XP under Vista.

http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2007/02/dell-say-no-to-xp-recommends-virtual.html

[georgie11]

Latitudes still have XP option

If you want XP, you can still get it if you buy a Latitude laptop or Optiplex desktop. Order through the small business section of Dell.

[BillPStudios]

Let customers still get XP

I was very disappointed to find out I couldn't order a laptop with XP.

I've posted some of the conversation with Rep_Jeremy who told me to download Microsoft Virtual PC and then install XP under Vista.

http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2007/02/dell-say-no-to-xp-recommends-virtual.html

[georgie11]

Latitudes still have XP option

If you want XP, you can still get it if you buy a Latitude laptop or Optiplex desktop. Order through the small business section of Dell.

[rla310]

Service sucks bad

I own 3 Dell computers but I can tell you I won't own a fourth--ever. A short time ago I was online chatting with an online sales rep. She kept me waiting what I thought was an inappropriate amoubt of time. In kdding I wrote--you are going to lose me to Gateway.. He rresponse was "go ahead see if they can help you" and knocked me off line. I was going to purchase 2 laptops. I wrote to Dell twice and after a month I have still not received a response...
I understand their customer service is outsourced to India and as far as Im concened Dell can move to India and sell to that market...theur service sucks....

[fred dunn]

And you won't hear back from them either...

Why, because once you have handed over your money unless you buy 1000's of systems a year from them they could give a damn about you or your system.
I work at a University and we have a contract for our standardized imaged systems with Dell and the ONLY reason it is working out is because we have in-house Dell trained techs that can get what we need in either hours or within a day at most and don't have to go to India to get it.
But one of our components even with that had enough and DID go to Gateway so consider your comments as not just a joke but reality with a smile.
I am a white box builder for my personal systems only because I want quality reliable components and not what some company can get for the lowest bid.
But if I had to buy an online built system it would probably be from HP at this point because they do seem to care now. Gateway may have changed but at one point they were not much better than Dell in their end-user support.

Write Michael Dell an email at [e-mail] but unless your email domain is coming from a large company you will never hear anything back. If you do write him from a large buyer of their products then you will hear from your sales rep within a day or so.

So goes to prove that they don't care about what end-users think, rather only large buyers.

Fred Dunn

[rla310]

Service sucks bad

I own 3 Dell computers but I can tell you I won't own a fourth--ever. A short time ago I was online chatting with an online sales rep. She kept me waiting what I thought was an inappropriate amoubt of time. In kdding I wrote--you are going to lose me to Gateway.. He rresponse was "go ahead see if they can help you" and knocked me off line. I was going to purchase 2 laptops. I wrote to Dell twice and after a month I have still not received a response...
I understand their customer service is outsourced to India and as far as Im concened Dell can move to India and sell to that market...theur service sucks....

[fred dunn]

And you won't hear back from them either...

Why, because once you have handed over your money unless you buy 1000's of systems a year from them they could give a damn about you or your system.
I work at a University and we have a contract for our standardized imaged systems with Dell and the ONLY reason it is working out is because we have in-house Dell trained techs that can get what we need in either hours or within a day at most and don't have to go to India to get it.
But one of our components even with that had enough and DID go to Gateway so consider your comments as not just a joke but reality with a smile.
I am a white box builder for my personal systems only because I want quality reliable components and not what some company can get for the lowest bid.
But if I had to buy an online built system it would probably be from HP at this point because they do seem to care now. Gateway may have changed but at one point they were not much better than Dell in their end-user support.

Write Michael Dell an email at [e-mail] but unless your email domain is coming from a large company you will never hear anything back. If you do write him from a large buyer of their products then you will hear from your sales rep within a day or so.

So goes to prove that they don't care about what end-users think, rather only large buyers.

Fred Dunn

[Gerry S]

Dell has a long standing culture of arrogance

Yes, Dell has a long standing culture of arrogance. I am sure if comes from the very top at the very beginning...Michael Dell himself. Today so many large successful companies continue to live off their past successes as if they were a monopoly like the old phone company or electric or water company or the local newspaper. I don't think Dell should be allowed to just bounce back...they should pay for all the arrogance of their past and present as well as all the money, time and frustrations imposed on unsuspecting customers. There are many other companies out their just like Dell, many retailers and online retailers that have the same arrogance and attitude...they could care less about losing a handful of nasty, disgruntled customers....a good example is the continued on-going fraudulent rip offs like mail in rebates and other non-disclosed issues. They should all pay for their conduct and attitude toward consumers. Let's just hope more and more people will read forums like this and get the message and more importantly, take a stand. Demand change or find someone that will honestly sell and stand behind their products with reasonable support and no arrogance at any level. I would rather pay extra for a good reliable product from a caring company that does not trade off quality and service for the bottom line...including off shore customer service with hard to understand third world people that do nothing but half ass listen and can do nothing about it. Even Wal-Mart is arrogant and today it is certainly nothing like Sam Walton intended. Price should not be the only consideration. Unfortunately, it usually is and therefore we have the kind of products and services we all hate from less than competent companies like Dell.

[Gerry S]

Dell has a long standing culture of arrogance

Yes, Dell has a long standing culture of arrogance. I am sure if comes from the very top at the very beginning...Michael Dell himself. Today so many large successful companies continue to live off their past successes as if they were a monopoly like the old phone company or electric or water company or the local newspaper. I don't think Dell should be allowed to just bounce back...they should pay for all the arrogance of their past and present as well as all the money, time and frustrations imposed on unsuspecting customers. There are many other companies out their just like Dell, many retailers and online retailers that have the same arrogance and attitude...they could care less about losing a handful of nasty, disgruntled customers....a good example is the continued on-going fraudulent rip offs like mail in rebates and other non-disclosed issues. They should all pay for their conduct and attitude toward consumers. Let's just hope more and more people will read forums like this and get the message and more importantly, take a stand. Demand change or find someone that will honestly sell and stand behind their products with reasonable support and no arrogance at any level. I would rather pay extra for a good reliable product from a caring company that does not trade off quality and service for the bottom line...including off shore customer service with hard to understand third world people that do nothing but half ass listen and can do nothing about it. Even Wal-Mart is arrogant and today it is certainly nothing like Sam Walton intended. Price should not be the only consideration. Unfortunately, it usually is and therefore we have the kind of products and services we all hate from less than competent companies like Dell.

[Hans131]

Too bad

Too bad that companies like Dell do not see fit to change course until they are hurt in the pocketbook. For me the change come far too late as rotten customer service has made Dell a no no forever. Arrogance and stupidity seem to grow on the same tree. Hans H mueller

[Hans131]

Too bad

Too bad that companies like Dell do not see fit to change course until they are hurt in the pocketbook. For me the change come far too late as rotten customer service has made Dell a no no forever. Arrogance and stupidity seem to grow on the same tree. Hans H mueller