An Impatient consumer should never – never – come away feeling exploited
So, I had the temerity to buy a new computer from Dell, anxious to get a faster, better, hotter machine that also had all the wonderful new features of Vista. The experience has been horrible from beginning to end. First, the laptop was delayed in production, so that I had to wait three weeks for Dell’s vaunted production capability to perform. I suppose I should have expected such delays, since much has been written in the business press lately about production snafus at Dell. In any event, I refused to cancel the order; I’ve tried to be loyal to Dell since the early days of our firm, MCAworks, when we were quite IMPATIENT to get set up and wanted a bunch of computers right now. In those days, Dell delivered.
For the preceding several months, after all, I had been a classic PAINSTAKING consumer, spending a lot of time researching exactly which model of laptop I would want, focusing on the electronics, the software performance, the ergonomics (having just written a book on the last laptop, I was quite sensitive to keyboard and screen size) and, of course size and weight – I’m on an airplane every week.
It was after I received the laptop, however, that the real nightmare began. I won’t bore you with all the details, let’s just say that many of the promises of faster, better, and most importantly, ease of transferring data from the old computer were – how to put this? – over-promises. I called Dell’s 24-hour warranty service 800# and they, of course, could not help. My problem was “escalated,” as they say, several times and I was finally turned over to something called “Dell On Call.” Dell On Call, of course, wouldn’t let me explain my problem – again – until they had charged me $230 to work with this supposedly PREMIUM service. After two weeks – yes weeks – of escalation and unsolved yes unsolved problems, Dell On Call convinced me to block off an entire Saturday (SATURDAY!) when their top person would call me at precisely 9:00 AM and work with me all day if necessary to get this all fixed.
You guessed it; he did NOT call at 9:00. By 9:19, I had given up and was playing with my children when his call came in. Obviously quite skilled at this maneuver, he managed to leave a very quick “sorry I’m late, call my voicemail and leave a number” message before I could get to the phone.
For the record, all I was – am – trying to accomplish is to get Outlook to perform as promised. Or, as I finally screamed at one of the many many service reps, “I am just trying to send an email on my $3000 computer for which I have had to pay an additional $230 just to get you to tell me you don’t think you can solve this!!!!!”
This personal experience shows how a misunderstanding of consumer needs can be exploited by a company to achieve short-term gains at the expense of long-term business strength. No one was more IMPATIENT that I when faced the need to send an email on my new computer and found that I was unable to do so. In true IMPATIENT fashion, I was willing to pay even more than the $230 to get the $3000 PC working. Dell, desperate, apparently for short-term revenue gains, exploited this unmercifully and pocketed the $230. What they missed, of course, was that I felt forced by Dell and Dell alone into the IMPATIENT quadrant. Having already purchased the PC, I should have been in the Recreational quadrant – “Oh, let me see some more new gizmos and thingees in Vista and the new PC. That looks like fun, I’ll buy that add-on!”
To summarize, Dell capitalized on my impatience to pocket some short-term revenue. Long-term, their forcing of me into that quadrant has lost them a customer – whose company has purchased multiple Dells over the years – for life. This was a profound misreading of the consumer. When I should have treated RECREATIONALLY, happy to part with money for a new functionality, I was treated…badly.
So, having PAINSTAKINGLY researched and committed to the purchase over the summer, I am willing – forced – to remain patient while Dell fails to help me optimize this current laptop. When the time for the next purchase rolls around in a couple of years, I will again PAINSTAKINGLY research alternatives from a range of manufacturers, but my stopwatch for Dell will have precisely zero ticks. I look forward to revisiting this blog two years from now and comparing my experience with Sony or HP in 2009 with my experience with Dell way back in ‘07.
