Some friendly advice from Dell

July 11, 2006 by Jeff Jarvis

Well, golly, look at this. I get a comment‘ on the post below from someone who says he’s working for Dell:

Hey Jarvis. I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life.

The guy who left that post was too chicken to leave his or her last name. But Chris did leave his or her domain and it does, indeed, come from GCI Group, a division of Grey Worldwide, the giant ad agency. GCI brags that it is working for Dell, “Rebuilding Corporate Reputation Through Grassroots Effort.”

Yes, I guess that we worms without lives live down in the grass roots.

Yes, Dell is doing a great job getting in the conversation.

And yes, I quite enjoyed his apparent typo: He can’t honestly say that Dell is trying.

I just emailed Jeff Hunt, CEO and president of GCI group, asking what the company and this Chris dude are doing with Dell. I’ll let you know his reply.

: Oh, and Chris, dude, if you want to see the problems I’ve had with Dell, you can start here and then go here. See a summary here or an open letter to your client, here. Oh, and I still own some Dells that don’t work. We just don’t use them anymore. We’re an Apple family now. Apple: Computers for worms.

: LATER: I just got a response from Paul Walker of the GCI Digital Media Practice, employer of “Chris.”

Jeff Hunt forwarded your e-mail to me and asked that I look into the comment posted on your blog from a GCI Group IP address. I looked into the matter, and I can confirm the comment was left by a summer intern who got caught up in the emotion around your postings. This afternoon he obviously decided to let you know what was on his mind. In afterthought, he likely would choose his words more carefully. It is important that you understand the intern’s comment in no way reflects the points of view of Dell or GCI. Dell’s aims with its one2one weblog are positive and they have every intention of making it a forum for open conversations with Dell customers.

Fair enough, Mr. Walker. But, you see, this is exactly the issue Dell — and any company — has in all its customer interactions in the age of customer control: The person who answers the phone — or now responds to a blog post — is acting on behalf of Dell and to the customer is Dell, since that person is our connection to Dell. See the AOL cancellation video. Every one of your “customer service” employees and every one of your “public relations” employees in every encounter represents your company. That has always been the case. Only now, we can record their actions and report them to the world. There are many Chrises in many companies. The fact that they feel they can treat customers this way is a good indication, though, of the culture and management of the companies that employ them.

: I want to add that I hope young Chris does not lose his or her poor-paying internship. I’m sure that Chris, in fact, speaks for many people at Dell when it comes to what they think of me and perhaps other bloggers. Fine. I want transparency, I want conversation, this is the transparent conversation. Let’s have it. No more pussyfooting. The customers and the customer-service representatives have a real dialogue. The public meets the public relations company. No one-way mirrors. No hold buttons. No Muzak. No fake supervisors. Chris: Coffee’s on me, young man or woman.

: Here’s PR magnate Richard Edelman’s take.

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http://publishing2.com Scott Karp

Jeff, this totally unfair of you to post this without confirming the facts first. I could go around posting nasty comments and signing them Jeff Jarvis, but that wouldn’t prove anything, would it? You’re absolutely right that the comment was lamely and stupidly below the belt, but to attribute it to Dell in the title of your post without verification doesn’t put you on higher ground.
http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/ Gerald Buckley

Mr. Jarvis – It’s your blog and you do what you want!

GO APPLE!!!! :) Now, where’d I put my koolaid?

http://www.gratis-sjove-spil.dk Sjove Spil

If someone is actually doing something for a firm (as opposed to say, following the boss around and taking notes for a business course) then they should be paid. If an “intern” wasn’t doing the job then a real worker would be instead.

http://www.dejlige-katte.dk katte

I could not agree more, but it does not change the fact that you can’t trust any company, nor a blog. :) This whole thing could be made up, but there is no way to be sure.

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Jacob Levy

Scott

You’re full of shit. Jeff didnt publish this comment, Chris did. By putting it in the comments. If you had bothered to go read it, you’d have seen it right there. Amazingly its the first or second comment on that post, so this dude must be sitting next to his terminal 24 hours a day watching what emmissions Jeff issues into the blogosphere :)

Jeff also bothered (as you didnt) to investigate and found that the IP address of the submitter is from CGI, a company hired by Dell to improve (HAHA) their image.

Disclaimer: I’m a happy user of Dell and don’t have a whole lot of issues with their stuff, and I don’t know nor care what all the hoopla is about. I just hope that, if this guy really does work for CGI, that Dell’s machines stay better than the quality of this effort to improve Dell’s image. And yeah, I hate to think that some of the dollars I’ll be spending on Dell hardware go to such outfits (again, if its really true).
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http://www.buzzmachine.com Jeff Jarvis

Scott,
My server logs the IP address of the commenter and it is, indeed, form GCI; that’s how I tracked him. I have asked the president of the company to confirm for me. I’m doing this transparently. I will tell you what, if anything, I hear. Unfair? Hardly. You might want to verify before arguing, eh?

Niall,
I actually think it’s better if this guy posts what he posts and I respond. Best we have it out. I wanted to have it out a year ago but Dell would not engage. Now, they are engaging. Oh, they are engaging.
http://www.scripting.com/ Dave Winer

Scott, I agree with Jacob, but I’ll be more polite about it. :-)

Jeff included all the necessary disclaimers. A reader is armed with enough information to make up his or her own mind.
j

For some fun, perhaps one might google his IP#. heh.
-j
http://publishing2.com Scott Karp

Jeff (and Jacob and Dave),

The title of this post is not “Some friendly advice from GCI, Possibly on Behalf of Dell” — you attributed this comment to Dell.

Do you know whether Dell sanctioned this representative of one of their agencies to make this comment? It seems that you don’t because you’re still waiting to hear back from GCI.

I don’t object to your being miffed about the obnoxious comment — I would be too. And I don’t object to the facts as you laid them out, or any lack of transparency in the post itself.

I objected to your insinuating in the title of the post that Dell should be blamed for what might be one random idiot gone off the reservation. (You also say in the post — “Yes, Dell is doing a great job getting in the conversation.”)
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Jacob Levy

Scott

I apologize for what I said earlier. Back to polite discourse :)

What you’re doing is splitting hairs. Assume all the claims Jeff makes are true, for the sake of the discussion only. Lets say this is an employee of CGI making a comment about Jeff and his ongoing spat with Dell’s way of dealing with customers. The company, CGI, is retained by Dell to improve Dell’s way of dealing with customers. This guy posts from a computer on CGI’s network.

How can you say that

(a) this guy does not represent Dell
(b) this guy does not represent CGI

Whether or not the guy is authorized to make this obnoxious comment on Jeff’s blog is immaterial. He represents himself as such, he posts from CGI’s network, and therefore he represents CGI and Dell. These two companies spoke to Jeff, through him, and Jeff didnt like it. If this guy is not authorized to say these things, they should put forward someone better to represent them (and make Kebabs out of that obnoxious guy and roast him over a slow fire).

Thats my opinion, anyways.
http://publishing2.com Scott Karp

Jacob,

Apology accepted.

Now — “These two companies spoke to Jeff, through him”

Come on, let’s use some common sense here — do you REALLY think Dell is so stupid as to have sanctioned this guy to be so rude and assinine on Dell’s behalf?

As I said to Dave Winer back on my blog, let’s not conflate well justified anger over Dell’s past mistakes with an evaluation of their current actions — or in this case what may not be their action.
http://matt.blogs.it/ Matt

Jeff, I think you got one of the guys from GCI’s other Dell effort: “Re-branding a Market Leader to Appeal to Teens.”

Surly, aggressive, unhelpful, can’t spell. Sounds about right to me ;-)

http://www.gratisspil.eu Gratis Spil

It’s far better for the company themselves to speak. But if you’re going to have a PR firm act on your behalf, try to avoid this example over on Jeff Jarvis’s blog.

LSF

I’m sympathetic to your experience with Dell, Jeff. However, I do think the subject of this post should be amended as the post wasn’t from Dell. The worst you could say is that it came from GCI.
http://rossnotes.com Ross M Karchner

Rude, ill advised, and poorly researched, certainly–

But hey, random interns telling you exaclty how they feel. You can’t really ask for more transparency than that.
http://blogspotting.net steve baker

I’m thinking, given my generation, of Chris’s parents. They’re thrilled that their child gets an internship with a big PR house. But times have changed, and instead of doing research or writing memos that go through layers of vetting, Chris has free rein to publish for the entire world, without any supervision, on behalf (apparently) of the world’s biggest computer company! And now, just a week after 4th of July, he or she may be footloose for the rest of the summer. Here’s hoping that Chris gets to keep the internship and that everyone–Dell, the PR firm, and Chris– can learn from this.
http://blog.glennf.com Glenn Fleishman

What no one has mentioned is that Chris uses a real voice! Hurrah! It’s a break through! It’s not marketing! Oh, well.

http://www.evdenevenakliyatnakliye.org evdeneveJJ

Hi .. I love the site and content.

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Will Cate

Not only was the young man rude, but he also spelled the word “friggin’” incorrectly.
Safran

I mean, of all the guys that silly intern picked to attack…

As the occasional recipient of a flame (though nothing compared to poor ol’ Jeff) I’ve always wondered what anonymous attackers think they are accomplishing. The “get a life” gang do nothing, apart from proving they don’t have much of one. Is Jeff really supposed to feel bad because of some twerp? Should he be weeping “I shouldn’t have voiced my opinion about the poor service Dell gave me!” because of a poor-spelling, should-be-fired intern?

Man, the web gives an undeserved sense of power to some serious friggen cowards. Wait – how do you spell that again?

Steve, Scott, Jacob: I think you’re all basically saying the same thing. The kid didn’t have a message from On High at Dell saying “You are the representative of us all. Now go forth and spread the word!” But the web means everyone is the public face now, and they need to know that. And no matter what, it’s just funny that this kid thought he’d somehow hurt Jeff. Come on – it’s just funny.
Jacob Levy

Scott the guy should not have been loosened like that to post whatever the heck electrons connected in his brain… That was my point. What you write will represent you and the company you work for, if you claim to speak for them.
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Jacob Levy

Safran said exactly what I was trying to say, THANKS!
Usual Suspect

Do you want authentic speech Jeff? Actual living, human blood and spittle dialogue or corporate speak? You mock both. I am not sure the goal is to engage or to additionally puff up your already gargantuan head?

It seems to me that rather than display your peacock feathers (yet again, sigh). You should have engaged the intern in actual discourse, heated or no rather than write the company.

Are you a man or mouse?
Mac Jade

Paul Walker’s response is unsatisfactory, but most attempts at damage control are. I’m sure you’re happy you’ve left the dark side.

Welcome to the Apple orchard Jeff,

Best from a fellow worm.
Jacob Levy

Mac Jade that was uncalled for. Apple is the dark side. Usually the dark side is the entity you suspect the least :) Don’t eat the fruit, they’ll enslave you with their I-stuff. The ony I they help is Steve Jobs, his pocketbook I mean.
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http://www.joiningdots.net/blog Joining Dots

This highlights the tough side of Web 2.0 – growing up in public. We’ve all made stupid mistakes from time to time but we can no longer hide (from) them. Business needs to look to sport – competing means failing publicly (you will likely lose more times than you win), improving and trying again if you want to succeed. I hope Dell and GCI learn from this and don’t just fire the intern. I’ve waffled on in more detail over on my own blog: http://www.joiningdots.net/blog/2006/07/nowhere-to-hide.html
David

Poor poor Dell guy you have absolutely no luck.

Just think if a series of bombs had rocked a western european country killing scores of people and injuring hundreds Jarvis would have been commenting on the war against “western” civilization but due to your bad luck the terrorist only killed some dark colored people and so Jeff had to find something else to rail against. If a few white skinned people had died we’d be hearing about 7/11/06 but ohhh well the terrorist chose the wrong people to kill.
David

Which reminds me…

Questioner: Mr. Gandhi, what do you think about western civilization?

Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.
David

Hey Kitty Kat what did you think of the terrorist bombings yesterday? It must have been a real hard day for you trying to decide if you should condemn the muslim terrorists or to cheer them since they most likely killed only hindus and maybe a few other muslims. Killing hindus doesn’t really fit in with the war against western civilization rant does it?
http://www.chinalawblog.com China Law Blog

Dude, I’m getting a new PR agency. I mean, were there no guidelines put in place?
Charles Hill

Guidelines don’t apply to Interns ;) Didn’t you know that?

I’m not sure why everyone is so upset or amazed by this. It makes sense that occasionally you get blips like this – after all a company is made of individuals. This one errant statement doesn’t indicate the overall professionalism of Dell or it’s PR agencies – it is an obviously rash statement by someone… Dwelling on it gives it more credit than it deserves no? It was obviously not an attempt at true conversation.
http://mikeabundo.com Mike Abundo

I hope young Chris has a very, very, very bad day. It’ll serve as a lesson to cowardly anonymous flamers everywhere.
http://robertdfeinman.com/society Robert Feinman

You all realize that the use of “interns” is the latest in a long series of scams practiced against defenseless workers. Most of the time “interns” don’t get paid or get paid so little that they only cover their work expenses.

If someone is actually doing something for a firm (as opposed to say, following the boss around and taking notes for a business course) then they should be paid. If an “intern” wasn’t doing the job then a real worker would be instead.

Since these people know they are being exploited is it any wonder that they have a bad attitude.
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pennywit

A point of contrast. Back when I was blogging, I was generally not complimentary about the Iraq war. Still, at one point, I received this e-mail from an Army public affairs staffer at CENTCOM:

I was checking out your blog and wanted to let you know that the US Central Command webpage, http://www.centcom.mil, features news and photos from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. You’re welcome to use any materials you fins on our site. If you’d like me to sign you up for the weekly electronic newsletter and monthly Coalition Bulletin, just ask.

Yes, it’s very generic, but it’s also very courteous and professional.

–|PW|–
http://unbeknownst.net Kirk

Great post. I’m torn about the intern though. His job was to gather information, not disseminate it. One perspective is that this was an attack by an individual who happened to be employed by GCI. Had he waited and gone home before posting would this be a non-issue? If the intern was being paid to communicate with the grassroots public through blogs and he made this mistake it’d be an entirely different story.
Ed Mercado

Amazing. So Dell spends $$ to see what “trashy bloggers” are writing. I believe that spending the money on listening and improving is better.
Blake

Mixed feelings here. First of all, clever detective work … obviously you made some waves within Dell (sorry they don’t seem to have solved your problem). On the other hand, about the poster who said you seem to be mocking both voice/transparency and its lack — I think so too.

What are the options? A), that Chris really & truly speaks for Dell … that they agreed to being represented that way. In that case they seem to have done something laudable — evolved beyond marketspeak into something human (if not very professional). They’d deserve some credit for that, right?

But that seems unlikely, and the alternative’s that Chris took someone’s enthusiasm for tracking down “trash bloggers” a little too much to heart and went off like the 19 year old loose cannon we all were at some point. In which case Dell doesn’t have much to do with this … except to the extent that Chris “plugged” into a real ethos about bloggers or complaining customers. And that’s hard to tell from the facts here.
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Amber Stivers

I just want to know why the 60 billion dollar company’s ink has run dry?I oredered ink onSaturday evening via the phone.Was told it would be delivered on July12.When checking on my order status it showed it would be shipped July 12.When I inquired as to the hold up I was then told it would not be delivered before july 24-26.They keep calling to tell me it will be even later than the previous date given.Their reason,they can not obtain the “product” It is 2 black and 2 color ink cartridges!! Dell can’t handle that? They assure me they are not going bankrupt,but one wonders why this enormous company doesn’t have access to 4 ink cartridges.
http://www.chinalawblog.com China Law Blog

@Charles Hill — You are absolutely right that this is one individual, an intern no less, way down on the totem pole and so we should not be reading so much into it as to ascribe the views to Dell and to its PR people. But, I don’t think that is why this story has such great legs. It has great legs because it shows the bumbling that can happen when a big company goes online.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a big company to blog because they want someone with real authority doing the blogging yet that person is probably considered too important and well paid to “just blog.”
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Kevin

What we have here is a civilian case of a strategic corporal:

“Writing in January, 1999 in the Marine Corps Gazette, then-Commandant, General Charles Krulak, said this about the future of the Marines:

In order to succeed under such demanding conditions they will require unwavering maturity, judgment, and strength of character. Most importantly, these missions will require them to confidently make well-reasoned and independent decisions under extreme stress — decisions that will likely be subject to the harsh scrutiny of both the media and the court of public opinion. In many cases, the individual Marine will be the most conspicuous symbol of American foreign policy and will potentially influence not only the immediate tactical situation, but the operational and strategic levels as well. His actions, therefore, will directly impact the outcome of the larger operation; and he will become, as the title of this article suggests — the Strategic Corporal.

Get used to it. The stakes for how low-level employees interact with the public are much higher now than they were 5 or 10 years ago.
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Robert Ed

The influence of blogging is more evident to me after this post. Thousands of people will see this post on “Chris” and Dell. Personally, I feel that it reflects well on Dell and poorly on the PR company. Regardless it WILL generate buzz toward the one2one (I’m going right after this post). Dell should be happy about this. If they get people to the blog and accomplish the objectives they set for the blog, any press will equal good press. Anyone of sound mind knows that “Chris” telling you off is nothing but a waste of time toward his purpose. Him doing it and getting thousands of people to the new blog is a great side effect for Dell.

This leads me to think of a few other things…what about staging intern posts to reflect core value or generate buzz? What about espionage in getting “interns” into other companies in order to generate a similar mishap for competition? Will this ever happen? As the world becomes ever more Net based, the answer is yes.
http://mikeabundo.com Mike Abundo

Kevin: The Strategic Corporal. Now there’s a concept today’s businesses could use.
http://virus.org.ua/unix/keylog/klog.htm anon geek

Is this keylogger normally installed with Dell laptops – or was the follwing just an unlucky shopper ?
http://virus.org.ua/unix/keylog/klog.htm

The owner of the Dell laptop says:
I called Dell tech support about it, and they said, and I quote, “The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information.” He then hung up.

The owner then called the police and was redirected to Department for Homeland Security … Is this for real – and in the US ?
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Alan

Who ever posted that was an embarrassment to GCI and Dell, but Jeff eggs people on. He is a pretty good writer, subtle, but still very cutting. Honestly he makes me upset and all I have to do with Dell is own one and have worked on quite a few. I doubt he realizes or cares about all the Dell employees who would love to help him out but never got the chance. Online communication is ripe for hurt feelings, no visual feedback, and it really can never be two way, half duplex all the way.

I’ve worked on every major PC brand computer and a few minor ones, as well as building my own and no computer is perfect, no matter what the Apple ads say. ;) Offshoring sucks, everyone knows it but no one is willing to step up and PAY the MONEY to stop it.

My wife worked in the last Levi’s plant in the US, it is gone. When was the last TV you bought made in the US? How many of us buy foreign cars? Even our GD elected officials go off shore for the graft now days!! If you want top quality US support, stop buying those $300 computers!!! Stop buying the made in China crap from Wal-mart.

Harley-Davidson almost lost everything, to survive they had to improve the product, but mainly, they had to make owning a Harley, cooler than owning a Honda. They had to convice people that owning a $25,000 motorcycle was better than owning $10,000 one. They did it! But really, is a Harly worth that much extra money, probably not, but by convincing their customers is was, they were able to survive and make money. No computer company, not even Apple will be able to be that cool. Do we want the computer industry to go the way of the rest of the electronics industry has?

Nothing wrong with telling a company it has to improve it’s service, just don’t beat the horse to death.
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http://www.always420forum.com Rob

I dont think the problem is that he has no life, I think he is easily frustrated as are most of us. Good read!
http://www.gimpgames.com/ Gamse

Yeah… Dell is doing some great things these days. Like gobbling up Alienware and then spitting out garbage as a result. Why did they buy them with the XPS line of systems already doing pretty well?

At least they stopped using India for tech support.
http://skin-care.shrubto.be/ skin care

Nice site. Thanks.
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Davide

Chris was stupid. Chris should have used a proxy, hahaha
http://www.help4teensonline.com Help For Troubled Teens

Hey, I’m new here, but this is great stuff! I’m definitely going to bookmark this site!
Help For Troubled Teens
http://www.help4teensonline.com Help For Troubled Teens

Hey, I’m new here, but this is great stuff! I’m definitely going to bookmark this site! I look forward to contributing.
Help For Troubled Teens
SomeHick

All I have to say is this: if there is ANY manager that reads this and DOESNT understand that what you post from your company’s computer, on company time (PAID OR NOT IS IRRELEVANT), while explicitly saying that you work for the company (“Iâ€™ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere”) does not speak for your company, you need to be fired and sent back to PR 001. “Chris” could be just an idiot who spouted off his own opinion, but what he says while he’s at work speaks for the company he works for, and therefore, back to Dell by proxy.
The real issue here seems to be whether “Chris” was speaking for his company, Dell, or just himself. Problem? “Chris” did it on company time, on a company IP connection and directly told Jarvis that he worked for Dell. Intern or no, paid or not, these facts are immaterial to the fact that he spoke as a RESPRESENTATIVE of the PR firm, and therefore, Dell. Like it or not, split hairs all you want, while at work, you speak for your work, if you want to make stupid personal comments, take it off the playground (out of the cubicle?!?!?!?!) and NEVER attribute your personal opinions to your company. “Chris” should be fired immediately just to make a statement. If he didn’t know better, he’s a dumb-ass. If he’s working for one of the top PR firms as an intern, he’s Ivy all the way. Nice to know what they’re teaching the economically elite these days. Must have been a legacy because God knows that he can’t have gotten there with his brains!
SomeHick

Let me update that to be grammatically correct: He COULDN’T have gotten there with his brains!
http://everydayspace.blogspot.com Linu

Dell is doing some great things these days. Like gobbling up Alienware and then spitting out garbage as a result.
http://www.noiseputty.com Bizarre News

All I can say about the “quality” moans about Dell is simply this–what do you EXPECT when you buy a computer for $499? Gimme a break.
http://lite.rcjes.com Rich S

They should be using their interns to answer the phone calls and politely helping their customers instead of patrolling the blogs. P.S. I ran this through a spell checker before I hit post.
http://www.channeluexposed.co.uk Maffia Recordz

I agree with Rich. What are they doing patrolling blogs anyway?!
http://www.ituloyangsulong.org ituloy angsulong

I did not realize that such a position exist “researching trashy blogs”
What a waste!
http://download-smallville.blogspot.com smallville

i dont like dell..
http://www.carllys.com carllys

that Dell guy was very rude..
i also don’t like dell product!
http://www.9nine.co.uk Simon

Well, firstly I have to agree that the title should really have been ‘GCI’ not Dell, and as for some of the posts I personally think its a GOOD thing that they are reading blogs regarding how customers think about Dell. I mean, how else are they supposed to know what we really think, unless we all send them our thoughts on their service, which to be fair a lot of people don’t, but would happily post them on a blog. However, I’ve not had great dealings with Dell over the years, however recently family members have and the support they gave was refreshingly helpful. Although I’m not a great fan of their products. PC’s with no AGP or PCIexpress in 2006/7??
http://www.air-conditioning-hire.co.uk aircon

dell are a well respected company and only idiots play about like you
http://www.affiliateschool.co.uk David

Personally I think Dell are trying their hardest to regain consumer confidence, looking at how people see them in blogs should surely be applauded?
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http://www.air-conditioning-hire.co.uk bob gardener

the rude boy needs to learn how to spell
http://www.richorbeautiful.com theone

thats telling them :-)
http://www.flaunt-it.com.au Paul Francis

he needs to go back to school!
http://www.shushhh.co.uk Jerome Black

We’ve got Dell computers here and they rock. Build ‘em from scratch or whatever and they look damn good too.
http://www.cleverd.com mittmoo

hey ,
all my mates call me delboy(get it) been using ,building and upgrading dells for years.By far the easiest simplistic things to work on.
Childs Play ! long may they live!
http://www.ausmusterung.biz Martin

I think Chris was a little bit stupidâ€¦ but he can learnâ€¦ :o) greetings
http://lucrative-opps.com Anita Johnson

dude——you’re gettin’ a pile!
http://www.ejat.net ejat

what a rude person he is..

Mr. Jarvis, keep on blogging!!
http://ntfa-dallas.home.att.net Erik

you’d think Dell would have better things to do
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http://www.eco2you.co.uk Eco2you

That’s absolutely insane, and quite funny that they probably lied about it being a “summer intern”.

I’ve never bought into dell, now I know why!
http://www.work-at-home-shop.com Samantha

Iv’e heard nothing but good reports about dell..so interesting to read this
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We have just bought Dell products, so we will see how we get on, fingers crossed.
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I use dell often – I am on one now !! did not expect that reaction – does the CEO know?
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I have a rather new HP compact, Windows Vista.. don’t recommend at all, should have stuck with dell…..
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Friendly Indeed!
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The whole thing is screwy. The “intern” should have been let go immediately. No company needs a smart alec to leave smart alec responses, no matter what the company is up to. Makes real bad waves, such as what is happening here.
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its good to see that they don’t think they are accountable for his actions. he was there employee after all.
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I like his comment: “trashy blogs” Oh dear. Makes me wonder if he had Dell approval to post such a comment.
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Oh yes I reather prefer linux to Vista
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I’ve always found Dell computers to be great, but then I suppose there’s always some that slip the net
Chris

Haha…I can’t believe people are still talking about this! I mean it’s been what…two years! Must be a pretty sore subject for some people.

Anway, I think it was truly a learning experience for Chris, who was young and inexperienced in the ways of the blogosphere, and I’m sure wherever he is, he has become a mature and more responsible man because of it.

I just read this entire board, and let me say that some of the comments were extremely rude, I mean obviously you don’t know this person and it seems unfair to judge him so harshly over one mistake. Anyway, I wish nothing but the best for Chris, GCI, Dell and Jeff Jarvis himself in the future and I hope that they all learned a lot from this incident.
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Still confuse. BTW Dell was fine.
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I hate dell customer service, i hate dell computers, i hate all the dell crap ware that comes with dell computers. I had to totally rework the one i bought pre-built from them becuase of all the junk ware. I ended up downgrading to xp from the the vista they shoved on it. I will never do anything other than build my own again
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I promised myself never to buy a Dell until I saw the Studio XPS line of Laptops which were irristable. And after comparing them to the MacBook and MacBook Pro, I went with the XPS 13.

Its an awesome little machine.
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My mother inlaw recently purchased a dell and have to agree great computers but awful customer support/service, if they fix this problem I can see the company exploding. Good Customer service is most important, top of the list in my view
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Ironically enough, my work just switched from Toshiba to Dell and we had this discussion..
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Haha. they are the DELL patrolers :)
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Haha. That guy seems really mad. Keep trashing if the product or services are trash. That’s my opinion.
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I guess he is just some fool who doesnt have a life himself and goes on talking trash.
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hate all the dell crap ware that comes with dell computers. I had to totally rework the one i bought pre-built from them becuase of all the junk ware. I ended up downgrading to xp from the the vista they shoved
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I like his comment: “trashy blogs” Oh dear. Makes me wonder if he had Dell approval to post such a comment.
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is this true? Dell’s hiring people to search for a “trashy blogs”?
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aaaand … breeeeaaaathe …
elprodigio

But in WWGD you actually wrote that Dell had changed their customer service policy, and that they were in the right path to improve their customer service, didn’t you? So, why doesn’t Dell realize that this kind of feedback (blogs about their flaws, etc.) is PRICELESS? I am an old Dell’s customer, never had troubles with them, but they should realize that times had changed and they should take adavantage of that change. By the way, my Dell laptop battery sucks! Great move by Richard Edelman.
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Jeff,

I think it’s absolutely remarkable that people are still finding and commenting on a post that’s now three years old. So much has changed since you first posted this, but one unavoidable truth lives on: if it’s in Google, it’s there forever. Lots of implications for any brand’s visbility and content strategies, but this is proof positive.

Hope all’s well.

RWM
elprodigio

Oh no, I didn’t read the date this was posted. Anyways, my next laptop will be a Mac. And the battery of my Dell laptop still sucks!
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I just read this entire board, and let me say that some of the comments were extremely rude, I mean obviously you don’t know this person and it seems unfair to judge him so harshly over one mistake. Anyway, I wish nothing but the best for Chris, GCI, Dell and Jeff Jarvis himself in the future and I hope that they all learned a lot from this incident.
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i didnt understand that (Flogging the PRogs says: honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life. )
can u pls help me what u means?
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I agree with “China Law Blog ” comments. thanks for your comments and in the same time i want to say that i always found Dell computers to be great.
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is this true? Dell’s hiring people to search for a “trashy blogs”?

thanks
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very thanks matt..
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It’s far better for the company themselves to speak. But if you’re going to have a PR firm act on your behalf, try to avoid this example over on Jeff Jarvis’s blog. Yikes. [...]
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Interesting to hear what really goes on in such big corporate giants like Dell. I’ve bought 3 Dell PC’s from there online site and they hardsell the upsell believe me but employing people to review trashy blogs. Weird man.
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haven’t had the chance to try Dell, I’m too attached to other brand..
BTW. very interesting post.. :)
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One nice article,Dell is one of my favorites,it seems that they don’t go down
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hohoho, old article, wrong enter, sorry.
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Here in the above article is a conversation of DELL employee sharing his experience and providing some friendly advice about DELL and how they work.
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Hi Admin ,do you working at Dell Corp ?, I have adream to work at there…thanks
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yes in my office still many DELL computer here.
Dell never die
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Scott, I am also agree with Jacob. One more thing i want to ask that what should i have to prefer. 9-cell battery or 6-cell? As you know 9-cell is the latest what is the market report of 9-cell battery?

Please tell me as soon possible because i am going to buy a dell laptop.

Thanks.
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It’s pitiful when a big company plays grubby little games such as leaving pathetic comments such as you describe. And it is also very woeful that Mr. Walker just passed the buck and failed to actually apologise. Presumably his $300 attorneys advised him not to take liability for an intern’s actions. I had a Dell machine aand i must say it was excellent aand very reliable. Their policy of ramping up their prices every December prevented me from buying another one and for the moment I am happy with Acer, but a great deal of the worth of a company has to depend on their after-sales service.
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Great article you share with us. Thanks dude :) It really helps me out :D
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Dell is one of my favorites. It seems that they don’t go down. I like it.
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i consider it was a bit rushed, and not noted some features that not many people talk about. Everyone knows that the majority new smartphones have web, so why show that basic operate at its bear minimum. Scroll up scroll down zoom in zoom out. Really? which new phone doesnt do this? How bout speak about how the text rearranges itsself. Additionally the texting, very poor review. Why didnt you point out you need to use the mic and text along with your voice? Overlooked ALOT of other extra essential options
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There was a time not long ago, when if a $60B company that happened to be the (or one of the) largest PC manufacturers in the world started blogging, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Rubel, and Robert Scoble would have had to
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Jeff also bothered (as you didnt) to investigate and found that the IP address of the submitter is from CGI, a company hired by Dell to improve (HAHA) their image.
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Some friendly advice from Dell