Dell Closes U.S. Call Center In Texas - 500 English Speaking Folks Bite The Dust!
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In what is being reported as a cost cutting measure, Dell has closed a call center in Texas on Friday October 5, 2007. Though the loss of jobs is sad for those who it effects, the loss to those who own Dell system is even deeper. This may mean that there will be some 400 to 500 fewer English speaking people to answer your questions. It may mean you will be saddled with a person from another country like India, where English is a second language and where you may encounter more problems when trying to solve an issue.
As an example. My buddy Charlie in CA. owns a Dell laptop system. He was trying to make a backup of his stuff using the Sonic software that came with the system. He had done this before and thought it was no big problem. But it wasn’t working so he called Dell technical support and naturally was routed to India. After some 1.5 hours of them messing with his system, having him remove the drive, having them take over his computer to try a repair, he lost his drive entirely. I won’t say some of the unkind words he mentioned, but he finally was able to get it working again on his own and said ’screw Dell’. Though he said he has had few problems with the Dell system, he stated he would not buy another because of the lousy technical support.
If this was an isolated incident, than one would say his opinion is in the minority. But lets face it, more and more folks have become disgusted with poor service from Dell. What was once the company who was known for great service, now is being ridiculed on the forums and blogs.
How does one regain customer trust?
Cutting prices which are already at a minimum? Installing Linux on Dell boxes? Coming out with new $5k gaming machines? Painting your laptop systems with vibrant colors? Removing crapware from the systems?
Those these may help some I believe Dell needs to get back to their roots which was service, service and more service.
Instead of firing the folks at the Texas call center, maybe dropping some of the lead asses on the top would of been a more prudent decision.
I won’t be buying a Dell anytime soon. Neither will my friend Charlie. Nor his friend Denny. Nor any other friends or neighbors that they speak with.
Heh Dell. Think of all the money you are saving. If you keep losing customers you won’t need any call centers. 
What do you think? Does service matter to you when buying a new PC?
Comments welcome.
[tags]dell, cusomer, service, texas, call center, closing, [/tags]
12 Comments
Denny
October 6th, 2007
at 8:54am
Good One Ron……..
I have an Idea….!
May be Dell should INSTALL……….
How To Speak the INDIA LANGUAGE……FREE
In all there Box’s….!
A New Advertizing,,,Idea FOR-UM,,,
You can contact me for Residuals…Michael.
Denny
Ron Schenone
October 6th, 2007
at 9:17am
Hi Denny,
I’m having lunch with him in Honolulu on Friday. I’ll mention your thoughts to him.
Ron
Goose
October 6th, 2007
at 3:39pm
Good one Ron,
Please give my best wishes to Michael and also tell him where to go…..
Ron Schenone
October 6th, 2007
at 7:18pm
Will do. LOL
RichardatDELL
October 9th, 2007
at 10:26am
Hi Ron,
I am very sorry about Charlie and Denny’s experience. Those are not situations we can take pride in, nor are acceptable or representative of where we want to get to — our roots as you point out so well.
However, a call center closure in Texas does not simply equate to reduced North American technical support. This was a sales call center, and as you know, we are currently number 2, not number 1 in sales….as a result, we announced plans to reduce staff several months ago.
As we have discussed before, we are just at the beginnings a significant transformation of our business, which includes numerous initiatives to change and improve customer support. Obviously, we are not perfect…nor are we where we want to be. Your friends’ experience makes that clear that we have more work to do
RichardatDELL
October 9th, 2007
at 10:29am
Ron,
if you want to email me your friend’s email, I will have a special team that we work with on issues of this kind (based here in Round Rock) follow up directly with your friends to a) see what went wrong b) see if there is anything further we can do
Dell Rep !!
October 11th, 2007
at 4:24pm
Hey Buddy !! Seems thats a nice Idea about installing “How To Speak the INDIA LANGUAGE” howeva i believe thats Nutral English is what u mean
i guess thats something all of u should know to call English ur 1st lingo !! yuck yuck …
Ron Schenone
October 16th, 2007
at 3:23pm
Hello Richard at Dell,
Sorry it took so lone to get back to you. I just returned from vacation. I’ll pass on your message. Thanks, Ron
DellRep
March 8th, 2009
at 6:47am
Hey Ron,
I stumbled upon this post accidentally, I’m one of those “Non-English speaking” Dell Technical support based in India serving the “great American clients” . I’ve been working with Dell for 6 years now and in my 6 years long career I’ve encountered countless, complete assholes for customers.
Customers who are utterly dishonest, trying to dupe Dell. Customers who are racists and make such mean comments, all that while we are trying to help them with issues. Customers who are way too much abusive and need some serious anger management. We deal with them all the time with a fake smile and politeness.
Dell has a warranty that ensures that your all tech support calls will be routed only to north American region where you will talk to “real English speaking” dudes.
if you or Charlie or Denny or Frank or Jack or whoever doesn’t wish to get routed to India, buy that warranty man, you’ll all be good.
Why so fuss about it? Buy that warranty and help your country and your people. Please do that, I request you, and please ask all Charlies, Dennies, Jacks and Farnks to buy it.
And sire, it takes so LONG to get back to someone, not LONE.
That’s your free English lesson for the day, from a “Non-English speaking” pal.
Denny
March 8th, 2009
at 2:37pm
DellRep
March 8th, 2009
at 6:47am
Hey Ron,
I stumbled upon this post accidentally, I’m one of those “Non-English speaking” Dell Technical support based in India serving the “great American clients” . I’ve been working with Dell for 6 years now and in my 6 years long career I’ve encountered countless, complete assholes for customers
_______________________________________
THANK-YOU…….
But I wont Need Yur warranty . NO . MOE
I Don’t buy Dell anymore . BUT - I - STILL - FIXE-UM
GOOSE
March 8th, 2009
at 5:16pm
Geez Ron…..It took six years for this guy (Dellrep) to feel like this. It takes less than a minute for him to turn us “great American clients” into assholes when we call for support. In fact, I think I may have spoken to him on the phone…….speaking of assholes, he doesn’t know his from a hole in the ground! Last time I called Dell it took me at least 10 minutes for him to figure out that I was talking about my new Dell battery and not my computer.
As for having to pay extra to speak to someone in English, I do not even press 1 for English! What a great idea from Dell. That pretty much put the last nail in the coffin for my friends and I to even think about buying another Dell. As for this so called “Dellrep”, if Dell finds out who it is, he will be lucky to get promoted to McDonald’s………..
Dell Rep. From India Responds To U.S. ‘Assholes’ ~ The Blade by Ron Schenone, MVP
March 9th, 2009
at 3:33am
[...] 2007 I wrote a piece about Dell closing a U.S. call center in which 500 folks lost their jobs. [Original post here] Some people responded to the article in a negative tone citing their unfortunate experiences with [...]