An open letter to Michael Dell and Dell Computers

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Mr. Michael Dell

Dell Computer Corporation

One Dell Way

Round Rock, Texas 78682

Dear Mr. Dell,

I am writing to bring to your personal attention a problem, which I am having with your company, and the apparent indifference your “operating divisions” have in working with a customer and keeping the customer informed.

On June 29, 2003, Livewire received an approval notification for Small Business Financing, with a credit limit of $5,000.00

On July 3, 2003, I attempted to place an order for three systems online. After experiencing difficulty, I abandoned the shopping cart and then tried again on July 5th. When this was also unsuccessful, I set aside time on Monday morning, July 7 to call in and place the order with one of your sales representatives.

After about 40 minutes, the sales representative did enter an order for me and gave me three different order numbers. However, just before hanging up, she said that an error had occurred and that she would have to reenter the orders, and then gave me new order numbers. At this point I was told to call Monica at Dell Financial, as she would handle the payment portion.

When I did call Monica, she told me that the order had not come to her yet and that I should check back later in the day. I was able to confirm on the web site that the orders had been entered and were pending.

After 36 hours had elapsed, I saw that the orders were still in pending and I again called Dell Financial. I was told there that their “database” had not been updated yet, and then I should check with sales as to why not.

I called sales, only to be told that the orders had been entered wrong and that they needed to be re-entered. New order numbers were assigned. At this point, this was the third set of order numbers I had received.

That evening, I checked the web site and found these new orders listed as pending. I registered the orders for your email notification of shipment.

The following morning, I found the orders listed as “cancelled”.

No phone call, No email, No notification of any kind. A fine example of a corporate policy, which totally ignores its customers.

I spent a great deal of time trying to package a system that could be duplicated in the coming months for other divisions. Yet, after all the hours, I spent on my own, and then with your sales people, I have nothing, not even an official notification that the orders were cancelled or as to why.

Mr. Dell, apparently my $5,000 order is insignificant to your company. However, what your company didn’t know was that the HP units which I had been installing as work stations were going to be replaced by your Dimension unit which we had already tried one and found successful. My budget called for twenty-three of this work stations to be replaced during the course of the next 10 months. As to the servers, one was being tried out as a web server before we placed an order for five more.

Yes, it was a small order at first, but it could have been a much larger one in the long run.

At this point sir, I feel that Dell owes us an explanation as to why we were approved, allowed to place the order, and then with no notice of any kind, all of our efforts were flushed down the drain. You sir, owe us the courtesy of an answer.

Sincerely,

Guy Polselli