Dell claims its customer support has improved by 90% – do you agree?

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Customer support is about as sexy as cauliflower cheese, but anyone who’s suffered a bad experience will know just how infuriating it can be. What’s even worse is when it appears that companies just don’t care, which is why my hellishly early interview with Tim Griffin this morning – who has overall responsibility for Dell’s global customer support – was so welcome.

For a start, it’s refreshing that Dell is so open to the fact that its support hasn’t always been great. “We’ve obviously not fared too well in your own surveys over the past couple of years,” Griffin said, referring to PC Pro’s annual reliability and service survey, “and it’s something we’re very cognisant of.”

(I’ll interrupt myself here to say that if you haven’t already taken part – and we do rely on a huge number of responses to make our results significant – then you have just over a week to do so. And you’ll be in with a chance of winning one of our £4,500-worth of prizes too.) (more…)

The delights of IT customer service… no, really

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Anyone who listens to the PC Pro podcast may have noticed my absence over the last couple of weeks, as instead of sitting in the office annoying my colleagues I’ve been busy filling boxes with books, CDs and what can politely be called odds and ends – those innumerable items that “might come in useful” at some future and uncertain date. In other words, I had the delight of moving house.

But there was one surprisingly pleasant part to the whole process, and it’s surprising because it’s the aspect of moving I dreaded the most: changing my address details with all the service providers that take my money each month. (more…)

The 2008 anti-awards

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Welcome to Stuart Turton’s 2008 anti-awards. These are not voted for by the public, there’s no free booze, swanky trophy or glittering ceremony, and you better believe they’re biased. Here, in no particular order, are all the things that made my 2008 memorable, whether because they filled my head with happy, or just made my teeth itch.

Most embarrassing event of the year

The will they, won’t they, courtship between Microsoft and Yahoo was just about the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen. Yahoo couldn’t resist Microsoft’s bedroom eyes, but didn’t want to appear cheap, while Microsoft made the old lover’s mistake of seeming overeager. Microsoft proposed, Yahoo said no… for a bit, then yes, but it was too late, Microsoft was shunned and not coming back. Yahoo’s share price is now somewhere south of hell, Yang’s out of a job and Steve Ballmer needs a new plan. Worst first date ever.

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