The DOBlog

Category: Customer Service

  • How not to handle a customer…

    So, I’ve been having problems with my broadband. Problems significant enough that I would suggest that the Dept of Comms actually think through the potential reliance on Fixed Wireless solutions for Ireland’s broadband deficit. More on that another time.

    What annoys me in the immediate sense is the level of customer service that people seem to think is OK. I had my FWA antenna removed from my house today. I found out about it when I looked out the window and saw the van from my provider in the drive way and the legs of a ladder going up the side of the house. I expected a binglybong on the door bell to let me know what was happening, but nowt. I was working so I couldn’t rush out to talk to the man. By the time I’d finished the work stuff he’d vanned away again.

    I’d complained to my provider in writing back in May about some issues. I got a nice email addressing part of my complaint and bugger all else. After this morning’s visitation I emailed them to find out what was going on.

    Apparently they’ve tried to contact me “numberous” [sic] times over the past month to talk to me about the problems I was having.

    Checked email… nowt.
    Checked spam filter… nowt.
    Checked missed calls on phone… nowt.
    Checked the drawer in the kitchen where all the things that look like bills get hidden… nowt.

    I know I had no voicemails from them on the phone as I would have remembered it (and I would have downloaded the voicemail from the webmail service provided by my mobile service provider -betcha didn’t know you could do that did you, unified messaging almost – and put it in the folder of documents/evidence I am compiling to go with my inevitable ComReg complaint).

    Apparently the only contact information they have for me is my mobile number. Apart from the fact they’ve sent me emails to my email address and a man-in-a-van could find my house, where letters also go. And I included all of that information again on my complaint letter.

    So the lack of a follow up email, or a letter responding to my complaint or a friendly binglybong on the doorbell from the man in the van to fill me in on things were all beyond them, because they didn’t have the information. Which they, errmmmm, had, for the reasons mentioned above.

    So that thing about only having a mobile number to contact me is a… [mistake] [lie] [cop out] [failure of internal processes to properly manage customer information]… (select one or more options as appropriate).

    It would seem it’s all my fault I didn’t know what was going on. I should have felt the disturbance in The Force, as if a small call centre of people suddenly cried out as one and then suddenly felll silent. Curse my failing and fading Jedi skills.

    At least that’s how I’d feel if I wasn’t so peeved at the whole thing. I think that once I’ve updated ComReg with the nonsense I’m dealing with I’ll send my ex-provider a request for all personal information they hold about me (electronic and paper file, and ip and traffic logs etc. ) under the terms of the Data Protection Act. ‘Coz I am fond of my regulatory frameworks and codes of practice etc.

    Notice that I’ve not named the service provider or discussed the specific issues here. That would be unfair to my (it would seem former – at their initiative) Broadband Provider. However, they are exactly the type of organisation that DCENR seems to be pinning the Great Broadband Hope on.

    The good news is that the Vodafone broadband dongle I have for using while commuting and which has been my main tool for getting on line at home recently – even though it is just 2G around these parts, picked up a 3 3G network last night. Couldn’t connect to it but knew it was there. So that’s got me thinking….

  • The test results….

    Earlier this week I wrote about some inconsistencies in Amazon.co.uk’s apparent policy not to ship electrical goods, software or Xbox games to the Irish Republic.

    At that point, I’d only identified that the Amazon check out was flagging some Xbox games I had in my basket as being unshippable but notall of them. As I had other things on the order that I wanted, I proceeded with it, expecting to get an email or something from Amazon explaining that they couldn’t ship the Xbox game (Ratatouille as it happens) to me because it was a class of software.

    Imagine my surprise this morning when the postman delivered a package containing the game to me. Sheesh. I did notice, however, that the item description seems to categorise the Xbox game as ‘video’.

    Either Amazon have miscategorised the product (an Information Quality problem which Amazon never suffer from) or their policy on shipments to the Republic of Ireland is a nonsense.

    Electrical goods like toasters and blenders and TVs I’d understand, but software or games makes no sense at all unless there is some form of market carve up taking place. And if there is, then miscategorising products so they sneak through the net can only result in problems down the line.

  • Some inanity from Amazon… but in a good way

    Courtesy of Damien Mulley, a tale of Amazon support with a sense of humour.

    Apparently Amazon UK have a more ‘Kafka-esque’ sense of humour about things…

  • Amazon-inania again…

    So, Christmas is coming, the Goose is getting fat. I thought I’d put some euros in Jeff Bezo’s hat..

    So I decided to try to order some Xbox games as part of my Christmas shopping. I fully expected to get big “DANGER WILL ROBINSON” warnings for all the purchases given Amazon’s decision NOT to sell software or electrical goods into the Irish market for no apparent reason (which I’ve written about before here and here and here and which featured on other blogs last year… here…. and which I brought to the attention of the relevant Government Minister here). I haven’t actually received a response on this yet, over a year later. Shame on me for not chasing it up.

    Imagine my fricking surprise when I got this…Amazon Inania

    Apparently the XBox game Ratatouille is not the same class of thing as the XBox games “Cars Mater-national” or “the Simpsons”. Now, this puts Amazon across two of my pet bugbears…

    1. Nonsensical and unexplained restrictions on shipping of goods within the EU (which, in the absence of a REALLY good explanation is probably a breach of EU law)
    2. Buggered up information quality

    If all of the game titles had been restricted I’d have simply shrugged my shoulders and moved on. But they weren’t. This suggests that either:

    • The information which Amazon use to classify their games and software is inaccurate or incomplete and allows exceptions through the net (boo hiss)
    • OR (worryingly) The restriction on shipping electrical goods, games and software has less to do with the WEEE regulations in Ireland (Amazon’s nonsense excuse) but have more to do with producers seeking to create and maintain artificial market segregation. In the context of a web site selling into Ireland, that could raise issues of EU law and, if it is the case that a number of different manufacturers have made similar requests to Amazon to restrict the Irish Market, then that could be viewed as a cartel-like operation, which is apparently a bad thing.

    Not that Amazon would pander to that kind of thing. Gosh no. This has to relate to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations because they define Electrical and Electronic Equipment as:

    “electrical and electronic equipment” means equipment which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement of such currents and fields falling under the categories set out in Annex IA of European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment and designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,000 volt for alternating current and 1,500 volt for direct current;

    Yes. That definitely includes inert plastic with encrypted digital information on it (aka a dvd or cd with MS Office or Halo3 on it – take yer pick). Although, if you were particularly pedantic an Xbox game does rely on “electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly”. But only if you are being RIDICULOUSLY pedantic. I am pedantic. I’m renowned for it. Even I wouldn’t stretch things that far…

    Either way it is an avoidable and undesirable process outcome, and as it is happening inconsistently it is embarrasing. . It is particularly irksome given that Amazon are basing a Customer Service Call Centre in Cork and have a Service and Operations centre in Dublin and have been applauded by our Government for their investments.. Amazon’s relocation from Slough to Ireland was caught by the BEEB…

    I’ve posted on this previously and these posts can be found under the Amazon-Inania category on this blog.

  • Amazon Prime

    Amazon. The f*ckers. Yet again they decide to clumsily shaft the residents of the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. Their Amazon Prime service has been launched and I was all clicky-fingered ready to sign up and pay my stg£49 to get this useful service.

    However, I forgot just how crap Amazon are at geography and how they seem to be incapable of recognising that

    • ‘Northern Ireland’ is just one part of a larger island
    • Ireland is a large, literate country with reasonably high disposable incomes
    • ..and a lot of their business is actually based here (customer services in Cork, a data centre in Dublin
    • Deliveries shipped to Belfast or Derry often are transited through Dublin airport

    So, I trundled through the terms and conditions of their service. Deliver to ‘Mainland UK’, delivery to ‘Other United Kingdom Locations’ which includes the Channel Isles and British Forces Posted Overseas, but not a whit of delivery to the Republic of Ireland.

    So, I decided to see if they have any logic that prevents people in the Ould Sod from signing up, much like they have checks and balances to stop us buying software or computer games or electrical goods.

    Ehhh… nope, I’m allowed to right through to the bit where I’d have to part with cash irrespective of what address I use.

    So, Amazon will take money off me for a service that they can’t/won’t deliver (no pun intended), because they are not using information they have about me (my address) to prevent me parting with cash, or they can deliver it (ie Prime deliveries to Irish Republic) but they have bungled their Terms & Conditions because they’re idiots, like those people who claim Oscar Wilde was British.

    I’m fricking angry now. Must go have a coffee to cool off.

    Mulley – if you’re reading a Nintendo Wii will calm me down nicely.

  • Things that peeve me on the web

    A few things peeve me on the web. One of them is website form validators that do not recognise tlds other than .com, .org or a country tld. These validators seem oblivious to the fact that since 2000 ICANN has been rolling out ‘new’ tlds to take the ‘pressure’ off the .com and .org domains and .info has been active as a tld since 2001.

    I chose .info for my domain name partly because my old obriend.com domain was hijacked and partly because that problem manifested an opportunity for me to rebrand myself on-line with a domain name that related to me and my interests. Obriend.info is a website dedicated to information about OBrienD (me) and where OBrienD can discuss topics relating to Information Quality and Information Management (Info).

    However I find myself having to fall back on other email addresses such as my gmail or IAIDQ email address when filling out web forms as many validators (often on very reputable and high-profile sites) reject .info as part of an email address, in blissful ignorance of the fact that up to March 2007 there were 4 million .info domains registered with 1.6 million .info websites active (this being one of them).

    This is a small but significant information quality problem. The ‘master data’ that is being used to support the validation processes on these sites is incomplete, out of date and inaccurate. Web developers should take the time to verify if the snippets of code they are using to validate email addresses contain all valid TLDs and if not they should update their code. Not doing so results in lost traffic to your site, and in the case of registration forms for e-commerce sites it costs you a sale (or three).

    Another thing that peeves me is the use of (or not) of apostrophes in email addresses. Names like O’Donnell and the usual spelling of O’Brien have apostrophes. Some organisations allow them as part of their email addresses (joe.o’connor@thisisnotarealdomain.lie). For some reason however, many CMS platforms, website validators etc. don’t handle this construct particularly well. Indeed I’ve seen some chat forums where ‘experts’ advise people to leave out the apostrophe to avoid problems, even though the apostrophe is perfectly permissable under the relevant RFC standards.

    I’ve experienced the problem with Joomla and Community Builder on the IQ Network website which required me to manually work around the issue as I am not a good enough php developer to hack either application to fix the problem in a way that doesn’t cause other problems (such as the apostrophe being displayed back with an escaping backslash – ” \’ “.

    On the web you are in a global community. Just because your country/culture doesn’t use apostrophes or accenting characters doesn’t mean that they are not valid. Your code should be built to handle these occurences and to avoid corrupting data. Joe O’Connor’s name (to return to our fictional example) is not Joe O\’Connor. He should not see his name displayed as such on a form. Furthermore it should not be exported as such from a database into other processes.

    Likewise, if Joe.O’Connor@fictionaldomain.info decides he wants to register at your site you should make sure you can correctly identify his tld as valid and get his name right.

  • Dell hell comes to an end…

    My Dell Hell has come to an end. The outcome is not entirely what I had hoped for, but at least the issue has been resolved and I understand what has beeng going on.

    Thanks to John who took the time to follow through and look at the information that I had posted on this blog about the graphics card that was installed in my laptop. I had ‘spoken with data’ by presenting a screen shot of the diagnositics utility for the graphics card. John took this information and responded in kind – he provided information to me that explained that what I was seeing in the graphics card diagnostics confirmed that the graphics card that was installed in my laptop now is the graphics card that I ordered.

    5 months of frustration on my part, half a dozen graphics cards sent to me by Dell and the root cause of the problem was a failure of the information provided about the graphics card to properly meet – or perhaps more accurately to properly set- my expectations as to the performance and capability of the graphics card.

    5 months of costs that could easily have been avoided if the information provided about the graphics card had been complete and timely.

    It transpires that the hypermemory technology used in the ATI graphics cards means that the card ships with 128mb dedicated video ram but it ‘borrows’ from the system memory as required, up to a maximum of 256MB. Unfortunately there is nothing in the laptop that shows this, leading to confusion. The bios registers 128mb, and the graphics card’s own diagnositics display 128MB with no mention of the ‘reserve tank’ that can be dipped into. There is no indication that the card has a greater capability in reserve.

    John found only one specific reference to this in the on-line documentation for the model of laptop. This was in a footnote. This is important information… it should perhaps have been put in a more prominent position in the documentation?

    In my email discussions with John on this topic we discussed various options that might be explored to improve the presentation of information about these types of graphics card technologies. He assured me he would bring them forward as suggestions to improve the customer experience for Dell customers. I hope he does so and some changes are implemented. The business case for doing this is simple.. it avoids support costs and increases customer satisfaction.

    My suggestions to John included:

    1. Information about how the cards work should be presented at point of sale. In particular information about what customers should expect to see in any diagnostics tools should be provided.
    2. The information about how ‘hypermemory’ type graphics technologies work should be promoted from a footnote to a more prominent position in on-line and print documentation.
    3. Dell should request (or even require) the manufacturers of these graphics cards to modify their diagnostic tools to display the on-board video RAM and the maximum capacity of the ‘reserve tank’ in system memory that can be utilised. I’ll discuss this last suggestion in a bit more detail in a moment.

    My suggestion regarding the change to the manufacturer’s own utilities would more accurately reflect the capabilities of the card and align what the utilities show and what the manufacturer (and by extension Dell) advertise the capacity of the card to be. This information could be displayed as follows:

    Dedicated Video Ram = 128MB
    Maximum Available System RAM = 128MB
    Maximum Graphics Memory Available= 256MB

    The maximum available system ram value could be hard-coded value based on the model of the card. This would allow a single software fix to address all models of graphics cards. The amended diagnostic control panels could be pushed to Dell customers as a software update. This is not a difficult fix and would quickly address the root cause of the issues at hand. If the diagnostic utility currently installed had shown a ‘memory audit’ like the one above I wouldn’t have raised the support issue in the first place and my blog would have been a quieter place for the last few months.

    By increasing the completeness of the information, the accuracy of it improves and the risk of consumers such as myself from raising support cases and pursuing issues which, ultimately, are a result of poor quality information leading to a failure in clear communication as to what the capability of the card is and what the purchaser’s expectation should be.

    Personally, I feel that this technology is a fudge and the way the information about the capability of the cards is presented by the manufacturers is misleading. I hope that Dell take this opportunity to implement simple changes to improve the quality of information.

    The business case for these changes can be determined easily by Dell based on the number of support cases raised, the length of time/amount of resources expended on investigating and dealing with these cases and the costs of any replacement cards shipped to customers. This is the cost of non-quality.

    The benefit to Dell of reducing the risk of confusion is the savings that would result through a reduction in these types of support calls. The return on investment would be straightforward to calculate from there, however based on my experience in information quality management I would suggest that the costs to Dell of the three remediation actions I have suggested would be far less than the costs of service issues arising simply from poor quality information.

    The Information Quality lessons that I would suggest people take from this saga:

    1. Poor Information Quality can impact all processes
    2. The actions that can be taken to prevent Information Quality problems are often simple, straightforward and easy to implement. The key factor is to focus on the customer and determine what steps need to be taken to ensure your processes and information are meeting or exceeding their expectations
    3. Speak with Data– when I posted the screen shot from the graphic card utility I provided information to Dell (and to the world) about what I was seeing and the basis on which I felt there was a problem. This then allowed John to validate what I was saying, and he responded in kind with detailed information (including links to wikipedia and the footnote in the on-line Dell documentation). This enabled clear, accurate and effective communication based the facts, not anecdote or hearsay and lead to me being happy to close the issue.

    I promised John I would eat some humble pie. I was wrong in my belief that the graphics card that was installed in my laptop was not the spec that was ordered. I am grateful to John and those in Dell who tried to resolve the issue.

    However the fact that the issue arose in the first place has at its root the quality of information about the graphics card and its capability. The fact that the issue dragged on for 5 months is, in part, due to the fact that it seemed that there was a lack of information within some areas of Dell about what the capability of the card was and what the situation actually was and a failure to effectively communicate this.

    And John’s explanation doesn’t address why the first replacement card that was shipped to me for my laptop was a graphics card for a desktop…

    ….that still makes me chuckle in bemusement.

  • Dell Quality Happy path

    Good news

    Keyboard arrived today (July 30th) just before 13:00. Spent lunch swapping out keyboard. Can now type Quality again without pausing….

    ….received phone call at 14:00 from Dell tech support to confirm that I’d received the keyboard and that I’d been able to swap it over without difficulty.

    Excellent ‘within-warranty’ customer service – my only issue is with their on-line form and the processes that support it which changed my name and required me to re-enter a lot of information Dell would (should?) already have about me.

    Bad news

    The question I’m left with now is why has it taken Dell 5 months to address the other more substantive issue, the one where the laptop wasn’t built to specification and they have not yet remedied that situation?

    The time and cost clock on this instance of non-quality is still ticking. The number of Dell staffers I’ve dealt with is still growing. The root cause of this whole issue is an information quality problem which could easily be avoided. Ergo, the costs involved and time-hassles involved could have been avoided if the relevant information process had functioned correctly and, failing that, if the corrective processes had operated efficiently.

    On the subject of Information Quality, I’ve attached a copy of the article Common Law and IQ Governance. It’s a break from a series I’m writing based on my experiences with Dell with regard to my graphics card. I’ll be presenting on this and related legal topics in Information Quality (or should that be related information quality topics in law?) at both the IDQ Conference and the IRM UK Conference and will most likely be using this whole issue as a case study, highlighting the various legal issues that it raises (compliance with EU Distance Selling Regulations, Data Protection, Contract Law, Negligence etc.). To read the rest of the articles in this Quarter’s IAIDQ newsletter go to http://www.iaidq.org and join the IAIDQ (if you aren’t already a member).

    As I have had no further substantive contact from Dell (John was well meaning but nothing seems to have come of it) and as it is over a month since graphics card number 5 was supposed to have been sent to me I’ll be meeting my legal advisors this week to discuss next steps.

  • Dell Hell Ireland (and other flavours) on Google

    So for shits and giggles I decided to google Dell Hell and Ireland. (The wife is out for the night, I’m bored, it seemed like a good idea at the time).

    http://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLF_en-GBIE226IE228&q=dell+hell+ireland

    To increase the sample size, I removed the reference to “Ireland” and instead googled for “Dell Hell Information Quality”… frack me, there I am again – the top 2 (tonight, 27 July 07).

    http://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLF_en-GBIE226IE228&q=dell+hell+information+quality

    So to be fair to Dell I removed the reference to “hell” to see how the DoBlog might fare with the Great Search Algorithm in the sky. This was a ‘positive control’. Wasn’t I pleasantly surprised when I was again the top 2 listed links on this day…

    http://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLF_en-GBIE226IE228&q=dell+information+quality

    Not yet in Damien Mulley/SkyHandling Partners/”the server cannae take it Captain, she’s goin’ te blow” territory one can always dream…

    I googled a few other combinations… for “Dell quality Information” I was results 3 and 4 out of 16,800,000. That was a very neutral query. Still other combinations were picked but I can’t be bothered typing them … the screenshots below will show you the story.

    What I learned is that I am missing a very important tag from these posts… “Dell Quality”. That will be fixed tonight.

    Also by googling for Dell Quality and Ireland I found this pdf of a Dell presentation. I was interested to read this quote from Michael Hammer (Business Process Re-engineering guru) towards the end of the slides… I’ve highlighted a few words that leapt out at me.

    “ The 21st Century Belongs to the
    Process Organization Centered on
    Customers     and…Operates With
    High Quality    , Enormous Flexibility,
    Low Cost, and Extraordinary Speed.”

    With regards to my broken keyboard Dell are hitting the marks on this one. Quickly dealt with, within the agreed time period – the failure of the delivery is down to me… (sorry Dell, I’ll sort it out as soon as I can).

    My Graphics card issue however is a result of a failed process (assembly) as a result of poor quality information (either the assembler didn’t know to put in a 256mb card or couldn’t tell a 128mb card from a 256mb card) which has dragged on now for five months (which is extraordinary speed, just not in a good way). The fact that the issue still isn’t resolved and I’ve got a second ‘Customer Advocate’ from Round Rock Texas on the case now is indicative of how wide of their goals Dell are.

    (A big shout out to Rick and John… hope you guys are reading this as you reached out and I believe you have done your best to help with my situation. Elizabeth in Dublin… if you are back in the office could you PLEASE respond to the last few emails I’ve sent you as they are quite important… the email address you gave for the person who was covering for you kept bouncing back.)

    Joseph Juran, the Quality Management guru put it very well:

    “They thought they could make the right speeches, establish broad goals, and leave everything else to subordinates… They didn’t realize that fixing quality meant fixing whole companies, a task that cannot be delegated.”

    Joseph M. Juran, “Made in the USA: A Renaissance in Quality”, Harvard Business Review, July 1, 1993

    Deming’s Point 10 tells us “Eliminate slogans, exhortations and numerical targets for the workforce since they are divisory. The difficulties belong to the whole system”.

    Firefighting does not improve quality, especially when the fire is let smoulder on for nearly half a year (and a whole new product launch).

    Dell Information Quality search results

    Dell quality Ireland

    Dell quality information

    Dell Hell Ireland

    I have others but I can’t be bothered to put them up… I think my point is made.

    Perhaps Dell should consider getting in contact with the knowledgable practitioners in the International Association for Information and Data Quality (www.iaidq.org) who might be able to share some pointers on how to address the root causes of this problem.

  • Dell Hell… but not mine, but perhaps a different circle of the same techno hell

    The other guy’s story

    Came across this on Tom Raftery’s blog. Looks like Tom’s guest writer Frank P had ‘issues’ with Dell when trying to buy some kit off them. A barrier had been created that prevented him from buying a machine from the UK Dell outlet store simply (it would seem) because the UK uses sterling and the Irish Republic uses the Euro.

    This does not seem to be a problem for Marks and Spencer, who will happily charge my credit card in Euros or Sterling when I am buying bits and bobs when on trips to London. Nor do the people in the UK I’ve bought stuff from (including a laptop and spares for my guitar) on ebay have any problems selling to the Republic of Ireland just because we use Euros… they let paypal sort the currency conversion for them and whammo the wifey has a new toy and I can get back to trying to hammer a few tunes out of my much abused fender strat.

    Quality is about meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Deming advises us in his 14 Points to ‘break down barriers between departments’. To meet FrankP’s request, Dell could have simply charged him a slightly higher fee to cover currency conversion costs and transport from the UK (chances are the machine is in a warehouse in Ireland though…). Bingo- one sale, one happy customer. The barrier might have more to do with internal accounting for products by the market they are sold to… but that is a supposition on my part.

    The economics of this ‘non-quality’

    If I’m right, that is just crazy and is an excellent example of how ‘stovepiped’ management of ‘battling business units’ is a fricking recipe for disaster in most businesses and how such artificial barriers to delivery of quality products or service should be torn down.

    It’s like having a football team with defenders who won’t pass the ball to their strikers who are in the box with a clear shot on goal and the keeper off his line just because the strikers are paid in Euros while the defenders get their cheques in sterling. (Jaysus, I think that was a football metaphor.. not sure what it means or if it makes sense but it reads well).

    If you have ‘seconds’ stock or ‘returns’ you have inventory on hand. That costs money to store and if not sold costs money to dispose of. The longer it is stock on hand (in a warehouse gathering dust) the faster the resale price is dropping (due to obsolescence and the entry of newer/better products into the market at the original price point) and the less likely you are to recoup the cost of production, cost of storage and other related costs. Eventually the inventory becomes ‘below-zero’ in that it will have cost you more than you’ll make by selling it… resulting in declining profit margins.

    In order to reduce the costs to your business you should really be trying to sell that fecker to anyone (within the bounds of the law) who comes knocking/calling/writing as soon as possible without putting seemingly petty administrative barriers in the way. Doing so results in a business process that does not meet the expectation of the customer and as such is not a process that delivers ‘quality’. Furthermore it creates a risk of negative profit margins in the business.

    Instead Dell got a blog post on a highly trafficked blog (Tom Raferty’s)written by a respected professional pundit on the IT industry and Web2.0 trends (not an amateur by any stretch) where through various comments the customer service issue is discussed at length. And then that post is in turn linked to by me, with my particular perpsective on the issue.

    And for all we know the laptop still sits unsold in its cold warehouse shelf, unloved and spurned by the new Vostros and Inspirons that swank by with their swish coloured lids and ‘more bang for your buck’ specifications. Stick a red nose on that laptop and call it Rudolph. It won’t be let join in any laptop games I can tell you.

    My saga continues

    I have had and continue to have my issues with Dell. Currently I’ve been dealing with John, one of their Customer Advocates, Elizabeth (a Dell Ireland person) and half a dozen others over the past 5 months. At this rate I’ll probably have spoken to more Dell employees than Michael Dell himself by the end of the year.

    To cap things off (no pun intended), the ‘Q’ key on my keyboard broke off on Tuesday (too much angry typing of ‘Quality’ I fear and the end of my career as a ghost-writer for James Bond novels unless I do some business re-organisation of MI6 or cut back on the gadgets).

    HAPPY NEWS

    I contacted Dell support and was dealt with promptly. I was informed I’d have the keyboard today. I arranged to work from home to be available to take delivery here. Unfortunately I missed the call from the courier and will need to try to rearrange delivery (hopefully I can get it tomorrow rather than having to work from home Monday as well).

    Crappy News

    This is the GOOD NEWS. The BAD news is that some strange things happened to my information as it bounced around Dell Customer Support. For one, they changed my name.

    Here is the email I received yesterday informing me of delivery:

    Dear Mr. Brien,

    Thank you for your reply.

    Your call has been logged, and your reference number is [edited out by me]. Keyboard will be with you on next business day, between 09.00 and 17.30 (or other local working hours). If you are office based then please advises your reception of the expected Courier visit. You will be contacted in the event of any unforeseen delays.

    Thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist you. Your case number for this interaction is [edited out by me].

    Thank you again for contacting Dell Hardware E-Support.

    “BRIEN” That’s not my name. That annoys me. That’s not good information quality. Why not?

    Well, Dell’s on-line Tech Support form looks like this (once you key in the asset tag that identifies your machine)

    Dell’s Support Site

    I’ve blocked out the asset tag for my machine (for privacy) and you’ll need to click on the thumnail to see the full image but you’ll need to for the rest of this to make sense…
    Note the first two mandatory fields:

    • First Name
    • Last Name

    I won’t go into why this is a bad labelling convention that is Anglo-centric (Given Name/Family Name are better)… for now it is enought that Dell’s form has distinct fields for my Firstname (given name): DARAGH and my Lastname (Family Name): O Brien. That’s what got typed in there. So why/how did Dell decide that the “O” in my name was surplus to requirements?

    Attention to the little details (like getting my name right or ensuring that my laptop ships with the correct graphics card installed) are evidence of a coherent and congruent quality culture. Soundbites, slogans and self-contratulatory marketing materials don’t build such a culture. The IAIDQ is a professional organisation that exists to support the development of ‘Information/Data Quality’ as a management discipline. Their website is www.iaidq.org and Dell employees (or anyone for that matter) will find some useful information there about the root causes and real impacts of these types of problems

    But back to the happy path

    That said… the tech support guy Guaran was great in sorting out the replacement keyboard and I am kicking myself I missed the couriers call when it came bang on schedule.. when you’re good you’re good.