Industry Eye: Letters to the Editor

On Dell’s Service Woes

Dear Editor,

We read your editorial in the November issue and acknowledge that some of our customers, like you, haven’t received a positive experience when dealing with our customer service group.

We’re making a sincere effort to address these concerns, as well as making a significant investment in our customer service organization to ensure that we consistently provide an excellent experience. In fact, this year alone, we have invested $150 million toward retraining our customer care and technical support teams, establishing additional vehicles for our customers to interact with us, and many more initiatives that are significantly improving our customer service.

Because of our direct model, we are uniquely positioned not only to hear directly from customers about what we can do better or differently, but also to provide levels of service that will significantly improve the customer experience. We’ll continue to make investments in these areas to ensure that our team members have the tools they need to listen to what our customers are saying and to successfully and quickly resolve any problems or complications.

—Ro Parra, senior vice president and GM, Home & Small Business, Dell Inc.

Dear Editor,

Just a note to tell you I had a very similar customer service nightmare with Dell as the one you described in your November Editor’s Take (November 2006, pg. 9). I was appalled at the robo-speak and inability of the reps to move away from their programmed responses.

My situation involved buying a whole new computer system plus digital camera — a big purchase for me. I had a Dell computer that I’d purchased about four years ago and that ran on Windows Millennium Edition. I was very disappointed in its performance and said so to the rep. He replied that yes, Millennium did have a lot of problems and I could only expect to get about three years from the system, anyway — Millennium or not. Halfway steaming at this point, I said that although I was disappointed in the Dell system I owned, I would still consider purchasing another. I shared that I’d also shopped Hewlett Packard (HP), and they were willing to throw in a few extras to get my business. He said he couldn’t do anything.

I asked to speak to a supervisor. I waited. And I waited. Finally, after a good long while, the rep came back and said his supervisor was busy but that
he had said Dell could only sell me the system at the price it was asking — no additional discounts, no, “We’ll honor this coupon even though it expired last week,” no nothing.

There is a happy ending, however. I bought the new HP system, HP honored my expired coupon and threw in an upgraded digital camera — and I love it.

Thanks for sharing your story with all of us.

—Linda Walker, editor, Writer’s Digest Book Club

On Case Study and All Those Tips

Dear Editor,

The case study in the November issue of Catalog Success is great (“Deferred Payment Solution Increases Ross-Simons’ Q4 Conversion,” pg.15). We’ve researched Bill Me Later for a few months. One interesting thing about Bill Me Later not mentioned in your article is that even though you pay a fee for this service, you avoid the Visa and MasterCard fees. So if you negotiate wisely, you can pay less for Bill Me Later than you would for Visa and MC.

Regarding one of the tips in “The 50 Best Tips of 2006” cover story (November 2006, pgs. 16-23):

Using shipping rebates instead of free shipping: I heard about shipping rebates at [a recent conference], and our test results show that it works, so we’ll offer shipping rebates to a larger audience.

I’m not all that convinced about your “New, Lighter Papers” article (November 2006, pg. 25). Yes, you should always test new papers, but you first should consider cutting costs somewhere else. Larger companies have an easier time testing and evaluating different kinds of paper, but smaller companies might not be able to do this type of assessment.

—Francisco Saenz, director of operations, Professional Uniforms

To send your letter to the editor,
write to
Editor in Chief, Catalog Success
1500 Spring Garden St., 12th Fl.
Philadelphia, Pa 19130
or send an e-mail to
pmiller@napco.com