This is all I need to read. It’s at the end of a Dell company Blog.
Dell does not stand by the product they make! nor do they want comments that are negative about their customer service. The ViPs are all out to lunch and counting the money they suckered off the public. My XPS stands for xtra Piece of ____, crimped cables, a Hitachi 500gb(not covered) crashed drive, the LCD monitor has fingerprints and dirt inside the screen, electrical shorts with the media reader, dvdrw that doesn’t work and not recognized the CD writer is in the same sinking cheap part boat. The machine hasn’t worked properly since day one. Sometimes I think they sent me somebody’s return.
No Way in Hell buy a Dell. There’s a saying about the fool and his money, Don’t be a Victim and don’t buy their advertising. The Dell people could care one ioda about the consumer. I thought I was purchasing a top of the line machine and when the drive crashed 10 days out of warranty the tech found a cut cable, when he went into the machine to replace the drive, he also told me he had six XPS’s sitting on the work bench waiting for their shoddy parts to be sent from the factory. SAVE YOURSELF the TROUBLE and purchase a Sony or Compact anything but Dell and don’t say you haven’t been warned. Call customer service and see how your treated, Ill tell you quickly, anyone on the other side of the world could care less about your computer, and the problems your having, any executive from Dell that reads this I do have pity on you, your company stinks, its a good thing you people don’t make airplanes or cars….. Service Tag 2LYPZ71 Tjelen ……………..
Like Mister ‘T’ says ‘I PITTY THE FOOL’

BTW, happy to see BOF blogging. There aren’t many agencies out there that blog.

To me, Dell’s embracing of blog-land and linking to negative-boo-sayers (and as with any large corpaoration there will be a percentage of these expected) reveals something like this:

> we know we have some issues
> we’re listening to, and conversing about, the good and bad - with customers and constituents alike

(one could even infer DELL’s direct recognition of the first step towards changing any problem - awareness/acceptance).

So, the blog goes towards revealing action on the above in a very DIRECT way - per their brand — their position in the marketplace is about “buying direct”, so “being direct” or at least appearing direct, is crucial.

Perception is king - and still, those that have real beefs aren’t often swayed by conversations and blogs. But someone is surely interested and working on turning the DELL boat. It takes loss and trouble for big companies to consider changing course — and it’s crucial that companies consider their prescriptive changes within a framework of their own value propositions and market positions (which do not always need to be changed but rather re-interpretted). These frameworks have been strategically developed and represent in the minds of their buyers what the companies stand for. They’re like GPS coordinates on a sea of offers.

I spoke in my post on Monday about some current structural challenges that Dell has when it comes to creating emotional connections with customers. Throwing up a blog isn’t a panacea, but I do think its a positive (and non-lazy step in the right direction.

I tend to corporate bash myself but I think you’re totally right on in so many ways. Definitely something for me to think about the next time somebody big tries to join in the coversation that bloggers advocate.

You’re so right about linking to their critics. That’s major. And it was interesting to see Scoble referenced in their last post as giving them that advice. I always felt he got a much harder time than he deserved while blogging at Microsoft and he’s a great example of somebody that opened up a major corporation to reveal the people inside.