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- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!emory!rsiatl!jgd
- From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
- Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
- Subject: Re: >>An example of Dell's product support (Esix here I come...)
- Message-ID: <+mfm04=@dixie.com>
- Date: 22 Jul 92 09:23:28 GMT
- References: <z5-mfvq@dixie.com> <1992Jul18.002830.9207@dellunix.dell.com> <fluet.711428210@ee.ualberta.ca> <1992Jul21.075346.26610@dellunix.dell.com>
- Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access. The Mouth of the South.
- Lines: 116
-
- donn@dellunix.dell.com (Donn Baumgartner) writes:
-
- >I have taken a lot of heat here for expressing my personal opinion of
- >various people's use of the net. So be it. But it's my *personal* opinion
- >only, not Dell's (as if that wasn't clear already). Dell does not approve.
-
- Riiight. What Dell needs to do right now is to fire your ass,
- make that fact publicly known and appologize to Stan for the
- corporate attitude expressed. That would certainly satisfy me.
- If Stan had been told "We don't know what the problem is but
- we're working on it and will keep you aprised of the progress" -
- and done so -, I can bet he would have been satisfied. I KNOW
- I would have. You're attitude, which I interpret to be an
- expression of the Dell culture toward non-expert users, says basically
- "F*ck the user. It's not our problem when popular hardware does
- not work. Let him figure it out. After all, we've already been
- paid."
-
- Here's an example of how it should be done. I publish my magazine
- using Windows-based software. I'd never trust the revenue stream
- to an OS whose vendors express the attitudes I've seen in public
- from Dell and in policy from ISC. One of the tools we use a lot
- is "The Writer's Toolkit", a collection of spelling checkers, grammar
- checkers, thesaurus, style guide and a few other goodies. Sold
- by Systems Compatability Corp. I recently built a 50 mhz 486 (yep,
- clone parts. Was watching Stan have his problems with Dell) to run
- the graphics intensive stuff and the color separation on. The distributor
- was out of Adaptec SCSI controllers so I accepted a DTC unit.
- Built the machine, installed the software and WTK would not run.
- I called SCC and spoke to a very nice tech support lady. We ran down
- the hardware and when I got to the DTC controller, she stopped me and
- asked me to use debug to dump a rom location (after my assuring her
- that I could do such a task :-) This indicated the revision number.
- Turns out their TSR manager conflicts somehow with DTC's bios and
- neither company has yet figured out why. This information
- was freely volunteered. She suggested I get another controller (which
- I ultimately did) but told me that if I wanted to stick with
- the current setup, she'd keep me posted at least daily on the status.
- I suggested she do it via FAX so as to not take up so much time.
- That she did.
-
- I mentioned in passing that I was now doing much more of my writing
- in Windows. She suggested I swap my DOS version for the Windows
- version. Normally a $30 price difference. She said that if I'd mail
- back the DOS distribution disks and not to bother with sending the docs,
- she'd send me the Windows version no charge. That she again did.
- I should point out that the package cost about $50 at the local
- retain store. SCC probably got $15 of that. They obviously went in
- the hole on that sale to me. Big loss, right?
-
- Hmm, let's see. I spend $50 on a DOS software package and get unlimited
- support. I spend a couple of grand on ISC Unix and even become an ISV
- and can't even get past the electronic phone attendant unless I pay
- a support extortion. I watch a friend and colleague spend close
- to $10k on a turnkey Unix system only to have the vendor ridicule him
- in public. Can we draw some conclusions from this? I think so.
-
- First, we can figure out why PC Unix is below the noise compared to
- DOS sales. Then we can figure out why Windows, a collection of almost
- random bytes not much better than what a chimp on a keyboard would
- produce, dominates the GUI market. And we can figure out why
- it will stay that way. Finally we can understand why the no-name
- clone makers are doing so well. At least when THEY give zero
- support, they do it after only taking a few hundred dollars.
-
- Let's jump back to the particulars and think about what the practical
- business aspects are. I've told the WTK tale to just about every fellow
- writer I meet. Good support deserves to be talked about. I've written a
- short section in my magazine's editorial about WTK being the example
- automotive service suppliers should strive to emulate - we are,
- after all, a car magazine. I've mentioned WTK in an article I've written
- for another business magazine. Finally I've talked about them here.
-
- Now to the Dell side. Even though I no longer actively pursue consulting
- work, I still take care of a few old clients. I dropped by a client
- this morning on the way to another appointment. I handed him a
- printout of Donn's remarks. You see, he is opening another store and
- was considering buying Dell turnkey Unix systems - at my suggestion -
- instead of more clones and ISC as we'd done in the past. I had suggested
- Dell primarily because I no longer had the time to fight ISC wars
- to make things work so factory support would have been useful. My new
- advice was to call both HP and Sun and see what they have to say.
-
- I've chatted for the last few days on our local ham radio repeater
- about this incident. Our repeater was built so that several
- dozen of us PC Unix whizzards who are also hams would have a place
- to swap notes and generally talk geek things. From the response
- another merchant friend of mine has had at the mere mention of
- a good deal, I suspect there are as many as 50 additional
- people who either lurk and don't talk or listen in on scanners.
- Several of us had contemplated Dell as an alternative to ISC in order
- to get some support. I think that issue is resolved. At least with
- ISC, a posting here or some carefully addressed Email will usually
- result in the answer.
-
- Finally I've been sitting for a couple of months on an invitation to write
- a guest editorial on customer service in another magazine. I plan to
- contrast good and bad support. Every time I thought I had the worst
- possible example of customer support, something else has come up to
- superceed it. Unless I see something from Dell to refute what Donn
- has said here, I think I've found my bad example.
-
- Donn, even though you're a developer and thus assumed to have no social
- graces, you should consider a little trueism from the sales side. (gasp)
- It goes something like this: "A satisfied customer will tell an average
- of 2 people. A pissed customer will tell an average of 7."
- It may not kill you immediately but those odds do stack against you in
- the long run.
-
- John
- --
- John De Armond, WD4OQC |Interested in high performance mobility?
- Rapid Deployment System, Inc. |Interested in high technology and computers?
- Marietta, Ga |Write me about "Performance Engineering" (TM)
- jgd@dixie.com |Magazine.
- Need Usenet public Access in Atlanta? Write Me for info on Dixie.com.
-