What We’ve Got Here Is a Failure to Communicate
ADOTAS – In this season of being naughty or nice, I must have been naughty.
What other explanation could there be for a company which generated $6.5 million dollars in sales using Twitter to completely ignore my call for help?
As the sole proprietor of my boutique PR agency, I rely on my Dell Inspiron 1520 for all my computing needs. So when my wireless card stopped operating, I needed Dell to replace it ASAP. But according to my service contract with Dell, they could take up to five business days to replace the wireless card of my laptop.
Because my PR agency can’t really operate five days without my laptop, and knowing that Dell was active on Twitter, I decided to take matters into my own hands and run the following campaign on Twitter on Thursday, Nov. 19, before dropping my laptop at Dell’s service center on Sunday, Nov. 22nd at 8:00 am (I live in Israel where our business week is Sunday through Thursday):
Tweet 1: The Dell SMB Service Challenge: Dell promises 2 repair laptops within 5 bus. days, but what SMB can go 5 days without a laptop? Not mine.
Tweet 2: Cause Dell is active on Twitter, thought I’d tweet about my experience. So far, Dell service has been gr8, but now I need new wireless card.
Tweet 3: I’m dropping off the laptop Sunday, 11/22 @ 8:00 am. If I get it back on Sun. OR Mon., Dell is great. Tues., OK. Wed., not good.
Tweet 4: Putting my $ where my mouth is – If I can get my computer back by EOB Monday, I’ll make a donation in their name to a relevant charity.
Tweet 5: Oh, and my service tag is 11F1B3J. Sunday @ 8:00 am GMT +2, the Dell SMB Challenge begins.
Tweet 6: Next Tweet after I drop off my laptop (or if something else happens).
And what was Dell’s response to my efforts?
Dell service called on the fifth day – Thursday afternoon – to say that my laptop was fixed and ready to be picked up.
Like all publicists, I ran my own personal post-campaign analysis to try and figure out why my efforts didn’t result in me getting my laptop back earlier.
- Not enough followers: – With 83 followers on Twitter, I am no social media Jeff Jarvis — the blogger who posted about his poor experience with Dell in a post entitled “Dell Hell,” which caught the attention of the Dell corporation.
- Dell Israel doesn’t follow people and Twitter and Dell corporate doesn’t care about Israel: It’s certainly possible that Dell corporate is focused on the U.S., and therefore didn’t bother responding to my comments on Twitter. And I doubt that Dell Israel monitors Twitter.
So… will I ever buy another Dell laptop? I guess it will depend on the price/value of the laptops available on the market when I next go to purchase a laptop in about 12 months. I certainly won’t look for a Dell.
What do you think? What, if anything, could I have done to get Dell to encourage them to fix my laptop faster? Is five days a reasonable turn-around time for a laptop? Or am I just a whiny publicist who wrongly thinks that he deserves preferential treatment?
Reader Comments.
I would never buy a Dell, price or not. As a small business owner, you NEED your tools. Toshiba Tecra is the only way to.
You paid for a warranty with a 5 day turn around and that is what you received.
If you need to have a working laptop at all times, buy a second one.
Nota, JWW,
Thanks for your comments. JWW — so you believe people who need their computers on a daily basis should have two computers? If my cell phone breaks, my cell phone provider will give me a loaner.
Uriah
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