Dell's journey into Second Life

I have been hard on Dell recently but here's a little love. SL superstar Hiro Pendragon notices a few SL additions to Dell's real world offerings.

From the post:

"For instance, if you go to the dell.com homepage, you'll find that in the "Choose your country" picker, "Second Life" is one of the options. This takes you to a Second Life Dell homepage, at dell.com/secondlife. From there, Dell includes a welcome area that aids in the training of new users.

Today I received a link to a video, here. Dell has filmed their own "What is SL?" type short piece that describes the platform very well to people who have yet to dip their toes in Second Life.

This complete cycle indicates that to me that Dell, as a company, is very serious about treating SL as an extension of the flat-web, and not just some walled garden where people go and chat."

Dell Responds, kind of

I posted "My Dad's Dell Nightmare" on Feb 8th. On Feb 13th "Margo" from Dell's custom care unit left a comment asking me to contact her to get some additional assistance.

I sent her an email stating among other things: "do you really expect to sell a $3,000 computer to then have a contract laborer take it apart and replace the motherboard? Are you kidding me?"

I haven't heard back from her.

I did talk to my Dad last night. He said that a new person was helping him and "was going around the usual conventions" to make sure he got a working computer. Apparently he saw my blog post and told the person that he was going to blog about his experience. That got the rep all worked up and so she offered to go off the standard play book to try and help him.

I am left wondering: Are you kidding me? I mean really. This is so ridiculous I can hardly believe it. Man threatens Fortune 500 company that can't seem to deliver a working product with a BLOG and gets peppy customer service....it would be funny if... well, no it is funny. Funny in a sad pathetic kind of way.

My Dad's Dell Nightmare: Do NOT Buy a Dell!!!

After much soul searching my father bought a new computer two weeks ago. I tried my best to talk him out of getting a PC. He wouldn't have any of it. So we looked at Dell's and Sonys. I have bought Dells for my business and personal use for years.

Dad's not real technical so we went with Dell because they offer onsite set up. I spec'd it out for him and he ordered it.

All of the components didn't come in on time and then it took a while for the tech to get it together to set things up.

The first pass seemed ok but the Ethernet jack didn't work. The tech said they needed to replace the motherboard. When he told me that I told him that was not a good thing. They guy showed up and took the computer apart, spreading parts all over his office.

Now it will not conect at all, wired or wireless. Dad has been on the phone since I got to his house with Dell support, who don't really want to play ball. Even though he paid for a tech to set things up now they want to charge him for it. He is now in the 3rd hour and has bumped up two times. His contact Erica, a second level manager, will not give him her last name, just her ID 323479. Erica - do you remember Jeff? Dell do you remember Jeff?

From Jeff's letter to Michael George:

"I am writing about this on my weblog in detail and you are losing customers by the day... including me. I am going to the Apple store in one hour. You may go read what I've written here. But first, I urge you to read what consumers say in the comments there. And before that, again, please read your own customer service email trail first and tell me whether this represents the best of the Dell brand.

In its first two weeks of use, this machine has so far gotten a new motherboard... cpu... memory... keyboard... wireless networking... and case. The disk drive is so bad it won't even run your diagnostic. The wireless networking still does not work. The machine goes to the blue screen of death frequently. The keyboard is still faulty.

I paid for both at-home service and complete care but have received neither. Your at-home care is a fraud; your own person has said in writing that the technician would arrive without parts sufficient to fix the machine. Complete care? The machine is clearly a lemon under federal warranty statutes and regulations and you'd be better off just to replace it. If it just burned up -- which it has come close to doing -- you'd send me a new one. But instead, your people put me through service hell. And I am left unable to do my work because I have an unreliable Dell computer.

This machine is a lemon. Your at-home and complete care service is a fraud. Your customer service is appalling. Your product is dreadful. Your brand is mud."

Pretty much exactly what my Dad is going through.

If you know anyone looking at buying a computer, please tell them 1) not to buy a Dell and 2) not to buy a PC. Friends don't let friends buy anything other than Macs. Really. Screw you Dell.

Third Party Second Life Registration

Several companies are now offering a third party registration process for Second Life.

BCSL:

"The third-party registration API Linden Lab is about to make available will allow organizations to establish a direct relationship with potential Second Lifers from the get-go by facilitating SL registration right at the point of contact via their own corporate web sites.

In fact, both Dell and NBC are ready to roll with this, - they have already integrated it - encouraging people to register for a Second Life account at their corporate web sites. The API isn't quite ready yet as planned, but both have their registration features ready to go.

Dell has done a particularly nice job of tying their SL presence into their web site. Their “choose a region” menu on the home page includes Second Life as a bona fide region, and selecting it takes you to a very attractive page about their SL presence. The page contains a handy direct teleport link as well. NBC also has a registration page for their Second Life Very Virtual Christmas promo."