If Loving Dell is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right

I can never say it enough that in life that if you want something, you have to ask for it. So many people just figure the time and effort to get things taken care of isn’t worth it. I’m here to tell you that it is.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about Dell and my dissatisfaction with the company’s customer service when I had an issue with my laptop palm rest. It had cracked in multiple places. I went through a couple of weeks dealing with CSRs in India, with whom I found difficulty communicating in an effective way to get the problem resolved. I had pretty much given up hope of finding a resolution to a problem that I saw as unacceptable.

Enter Bob Pearson, Senior Vice President of Conversations and Communities. He had come onto my radar back in the fall during a Webinar about marketing, the power of word of mouth and the blogosphere. I sent my blog link directly to Mr. Pearson. It took a while to get a response ( a spam blocker problem), but when we finally connected on the phone, he put me in touch with another executive in Texas who was able to help me. He carefully diagnosed the problem over the phone and then had me send the unit overnight to him at no cost to me to confirm his suspicions. He kindly replaced the entire palm rest and cleaned out the unit itself, which appeared to have about three pounds of dust inside (at least that’s how it seemed from the photo he emailed me documenting the process!). About four days later, I received the laptop back in better working order than before. Dell could have said I should buy a new laptop, but luckily they had the integrity to stand by their product and restore the casing of a perfectly good one.

This was a great customer service story. Considering all the Starbucks rants I have made in the last year and never heard a thing from anyone in Seattle, I’m glad to know that Dell is interested in making things right. Thanks Richard!