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- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!news.dell.com!locutus.dell.com!edward
- From: edward@locutus.dell.com (Edward Godwin)
- Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
- Subject: DELL CORPORATE CONTRIBUTION
- Message-ID: <1992Jul24.202150.4329@raid.dell.com>
- Date: 24 Jul 92 20:21:50 GMT
- Sender: news@raid.dell.com (Net News Admin)
- Organization: Dell Computer Corporation
- Lines: 100
- Nntp-Posting-Host: locutus.dell.com
-
-
- This posting is submitted by a Dell employee empowered by Dell to deal
- with the 'net in an official support position. This posting is a departmental
- response to this issue, and has been reviewed by management. This posting is
- intended to clearly state the official Dell support policies which are at
- issue. It does not attempt to apologize for, nor ameliorate Donn Baumgartner's
- original post in any way.
-
- Donn has stated that he was expressing his personal opinion, as is normal
- on the net for individuals from other companies; without any permission or
- authority to act for Dell Computer Corporation. Donn is a programmer in the
- UNIX Development team and has no influence on the policies or practices of
- Dell support. His opinions were certainly based on privileged information,
- but he is not in a position to implement them. Several posters have
- asserted that Mr. Baumgartner's mailings suggest something about Dell's
- commitment to quality support. This is not the case. His initial postings
- were obviously intended to be helpful, but have recently degenerated.
- We believe, from discussions with him, that he will be less active on the
- net in the future.
-
- UNIX is an open system. Without the input, interaction, and work
- of the people who populate USENETr; UNIX would soon stagnate. UNIX owes its
- present form to intense individual pressures exerted by anyone who works
- extensively in the area. To call for the dismissal of someone based on
- his personal stated opinions seems vindictive and counterproductive.
- This would seem to conflict with the "open systems" philosophy in which
- we all enjoy participating.
-
- Two things happened that affected the time involved in solving Mr.
- Brown's problem. First, one of the UNIX Technicians volunteered to write a
- program to solve the problem. This delayed his escalation of the problem to
- Second Line Support. This was a noble gesture on the part of the First Line
- Tech, but a little beyond his duties. Steps have been taken to clarify the
- scope of the First Line group to help alleviate this. Second, there was a
- breakdown in communications between First and Second Lines, causing Mr. Brown
- to receive no status calls on his problem. This issue has already been solved.
-
- To those of you who still doubt Dell's commitment to superior
- support for it's customers, please note these facts:
-
-
- 1. The call logs indicate that Dell loaned an entire
- tape subsystem to Mr. Brown to help him solve a problem.
- We routinely take similar actions for other customers, also.
-
- 2. Upon the original report of the printer problem,
- A patch was sent via overnight mail in an attempt
- to correct. This type of effort is typical.
-
- 3. Due to a misunderstanding with sales, Mr. Brown did not get
- the exact hardware solution he needed for his application.
- Dell is building a new machine with greater video
- capabilities, at LESS COST, to solve the problem.
- Mr. Brown still gets the use of the original machine while
- the new one is being built.
-
- 4. Many of the problems of escalation from first to second
- line stem from the recent doubling of UNIX support staff,
- and the consequent confusion as their new skills are integrated
- with our support and service environment.
-
-
- Dell expends a tremendous amount of effort to support its UNIX
- product via several media. Most support contact is via telephone. Support
- is also provided via fax, email, and sometimes USENET. The main emphasis on
- support is to the telephone, and email media. We provide "800" numbers,
- and dedicated email addresses specifically for this reason.
-
- Dell is committed to superior service and support. We are proud of
- our record of service and support in the PC industry and have no intention
- of letting this record be eclipsed. Operating system software is complex;
- when combined with huge aftermarket of products, it is almost impossible to
- keep track of all the combinations of product offerings. Where the problem
- involves equipment purchased from Dell, we can provide very rapid responses.
- When third party products are involved, even if the issue is immediately
- escalated to second line for investigation, the delay may be considerable
- as equipment or accessories needed to replicate the problem may not be
- readily available within the organization.
-
- Internal discussion at Dell is resulting in a decision that we
- must be less active on the 'net, though we will continue to monitor
- news groups and may make individual mail responses. We believe that
- this is, on the balance, detrimental to UNIX and the 'net; but can find no
- acceptable compromise in the current climate. We also predict that
- we will now be castigated for our "creeping corporatitis" :-).
- Eventually, 'net pressure will decide; should Dell participate on the 'net
- as individual contributors, or as corporate automatons whose every word is
- intended as official corporate policy?
-
- If anyone would like to discuss this, or any other subject further,
- I can be contacted at the email addresses and phone number listed below.
- Any mail specifically for me should have my name in the subject line. I
- hope that this will help everyone draw more complete conclusions from this
- thread.
-
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- Edward Godwin Dell Computer Corporation
- support@dell.com UNIX Product Support
- 1-800-624-9896 x.6915 FAX (512)338-8780
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-