[Update at end of post] I love Dell servers. In fact I even love their network hardware. I’ve spent 0000’s (yeah that’s four zeros) with them during the last 2 years and Mick my old sales guy rocked! As did his hardware team.
I’m ready to spend more money. Yup, I’m going to take my hard earned dollars and hand it over for more of that great hardware they have. Unfortunately Mick got laid off. So now I’m dealing with a team of 5 people.
I get almost daily emails from someone called Loree Brown reminding me of how much Dell rocks and telling me about the great deals they have. I even have this cute guy with his cute chin fluff, silk tie and his cutsie pie little smile appearing in my emails. He’s really been a huge influence on my buying decision. He looks like he just got laid and I’d like to look like that right after I buy my servers.
But I’ve been emailing “Loree Brown” @ Dell with requests for quotes and I get nada response. Nothing. Hell I even put the $4000 server that I want to buy in my shopping cart ready for him or her or it to turn into a quote.
I’ve sent reminder emails. Follow up emails. To multiple addresses. Nothing.
So really what’s happened is that they fired Mick and “streamlined” operations and I’m going to end up buying my machines somewhere else. Which means getting rid of Mick cost them probably several 0000’s (four zero’s again) over the next 2 years from me alone.
Get your shit together guys, I want my quote!!
Update: Got a call from Loree’s manager Reed West apologizing profusely for the confusion. Apparently the problem is that Dell’s marketing emails come from username@midmarket.dell.com and the reps don’t actually receive emails at those addresses. I had sent several emails to Lori at the ‘midmarket’ address instead of her real address. Their real email addresses are username@dell.com. So Reed has undertaken to fix that issue – their marketing emails will now come from real email addresses. Nice to know Dell reads the blogosphere and twittersphere and responds – they got back to me less than 3 hours after I posted this. As I mentioned in the original post, their servers are unbeatable – looking forward to a better relationship with the new sales team.
Well aren’t we pushy! You’ll get your quote when I have time to get it for you. Not before.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 11:34 am
We have had a similar experience with Dell in New Zealand. Over the last ten years we had spent 0,000,000s with Dell on Servers (yes, seven zeros – at around .75c USD for each NZD). We switched to HP late last year. The Dell boxes we have still run great and the support provision was always top notch, but we ran into issues with actually trying to *get* stuff from them, and just pre-sales in general. The company has jumped the shark. It is hard to pinpoint anything about Dell that makes them special anymore. Sad 🙁
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 11:49 am
Same with HP. Think there is a big opportunity for a competitor to come in and take these sales opportunities that never get followed up on.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 11:50 am
I’ve had a similar experience in the past year. My old guy Bryan was awesome.
Then, I don’t know what happened to him, but I was also moved to a team of 5 people (one of their “SMB Gold Teams”) and haven’t had nearly the same level of service.
I used to be able to add an item to my cart, email it to Bryan, and have a quote back within an hour. Now, I get no quote back without a phone call or two. Very aggravating.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 11:50 am
That soul patch is an insult to real soul patches.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 11:50 am
My original sales guy also went away (though he was promoted – not laid off) but the new guy I have had for the last year or so is very solid. Very quick quotes, stays in touch, is very competitive on pricing, and is easily reached by phone or email.
Wonder if they just have fewer good account guys left and it’s luck of the draw.
I’ve been very happy with Dell hardware, price, and support.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Simple they got too big, same problem with HP. It is hard to handle that many orders.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Wow, we have nothing but great service from our sales team, always fast, been able to help us with more than just Dell hardware, liebert UPSes, infiniband interconnect, generators, etc. It has honestly been a pleasure to work with Dell. They have been able to get us in contact with tech support from numerous other companies, at TS levels that would have taken us hours to get to otherwise. Go team 54!
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 2:19 pm
You will get your servers. As soon as you tell your wife about me! No more games – I want babies!
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 2:30 pm
@ryan: Try a little harder next time to be more discrete.
I can clearly tell that you work for dell.
That pitch you made came off very insincere.
Customers aren’t going to use lingo like TS levels.
That is patently internal speak.
Please make a note in the dell wiki to be less obvious. It is annoying.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 2:32 pm
All’s well that ends well… I guess. Though maybe they shuda held onto your man Mick.
Anyhoo the reason I post is because this blog lacks something visually. Minimal is good. I like minimal. But I don’t like the visuals of this blog. Too bland. Great content would be augmented by something more appealing.
Maybe its just that dufus in the marketing pic up there which is putting me off 🙁
Coming atcha via Hacker News.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Our new Dell “Team” is terrible. It takes about 8 business hours to get a quote back. They absolutely never answer their phone. If I need to talk to one of them I can e-mail them to call me and then get a call back in 5-6 hours.
Commented on November 5, 2009 at 8:07 pm
That funny I found your url at Hackers News and now your bookmarked by me hahaha. Interesting post by the way.
Commented on November 6, 2009 at 2:37 am
My 1st intro to SMB Gold Teams was also LB. The email was full of misspellings and bad formatting I thought it was spam. Soon more arrived trying to fix the errors. I just delete them will buy from HP or DELL without a “team” never really rec’d bargins or service from being a preferred customer.
Commented on November 7, 2009 at 4:01 am