Dell offering support based in N. America

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 11, 2008; Page D01

If you prefer a customer service agent who speaks "American," then computer maker Dell has a deal for you.

Catering to consumers put off by the accents of Bangalore, Manila and other call-center hubs around the globe, Dell will guarantee -- for a price -- that the person who picks up the phone on a support call will be, as company ads mention in bold text, "based in North America."

The Your Tech Team service, with agents in the United States, costs $12.95 a month for customers with a Dell account, or $99 a year for people who buy a new computer. It also promises that wait times will average two minutes or less. Without the upgrade, a customer is likely to get technical help from someone in India, the Philippines or the other places where Dell has operators.

By charging customers extra for a North American voice, Dell's program represents a novel strategy for easing the strains of globalization while maintaining profit, industry officials said.

Occasionally, "we've heard from customers that it's hard to understand a particular accent and that they couldn't understand the instructions they were getting," said Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman. "This illustrates Dell's commitment to customer choice."

for complete article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003574.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

• Dell offering support based in N. America - for a price
  • Note it says North America - sm -
  • hey... irritating maybe, but this is the PRICE for keeping American jobs - Emily Ayn
  • Dedication to customer service? Are they SERIOUS? - Nurse Diesel
    • That's nice, we live in US and have to - lp

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Make sure you get the extended warranty, again, MAKE SURE YOU GET THE EXTENDED WARRANTY. And, here is why.

My first laptop went out on my, though it was a couple of years old.  Because I had the extended warranty, a service tech came to my house, replaced motherboard, hard drive, heat sink, and keyboard.  He was able to back up everything first and restored it once all the new stuff was in place. 

One of my PCs kept giving some weird blue screen error and I couldn't get to go even in safe mode. I called up Dell, told them the problem, they looked up my extended warranty and they sent someone out to repair it.

Overall, I have been happy with Dell products.  The only drag is that everything Dell sells regarding accessories is proprietary and you have to order it through Dell.  No generic accessories will work.  My suggestion is if you decide to buy a Dell laptop, make sure you get the car power supply and you might even get a 2nd regular power supply because I have been known to leave town and forget the power supply at the house.  Now, I have everything in my laptop bag for when I go out of town and can just throw my laptop in the bag and know everything is there.

Lastly, some Dell laptops require a special aircard to connect to the internet.  I ended up getting a 2 cabled USB air card and I'm glad I did because 2 USB plug ins give better reception than one.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. I'm happy to help.

was a piece of junk, so I'm not the one to ask if you should buy a Dell.   I'd get at least double that processor speed.  My computer is about 10 months old and I have 5 times that, which means that there is probably something faster out now, or soon will be.  It is more than I need for work, but I also use computer to download music/pictures, and a bunch of other stuff.   The Dell I had had 650 mHz and it was slow and that was almost 6 years ago.   You may have to customize anyway to get XP unless you buy one previously owned, which you can also buy from Dell.   It is always a good idea to buy bigger than you need currently just to allow for updates to any software or new software you may add.    You need to also think about tech support.  I know Dell has tech support in India, which can be extremely frustrating.  I don't know that other computer companies don't offshore their tech support, but that would be a question I would ask and find out if there is a locally authorized dealer to handle warranty repairs or if you need to send off the computer.    I would not recommend a Gateway computer and I would not recommend any computer that has a Celeron processor.   They tend to be in all the lower end computers. 

and here I am offering to help, and what happens? We're called liars. I always just get so stirred up by this that it makes me want to holler.

What possible good feeling could a person get from making another person feel bad? NONE!

What possible good feeling could you get for helping somebody increase her earnings? A BUNCH!

But nobody wants the help, nobody wants to know how you produce, they just want to whine.

Hi,

Does anyone know about offernig E-Signature to a client? Is there a way to do it easily, on your own -- I mean, instead of signing up with a big company like Vianeta or Bayscribe to handle all of the reports you type and want to send to a client.

Or... If that's the only way to go - through a big company - are there any big companies that are economical if you just have 1-2 doctor clients?  I know some of those companies charge like $5,000 as a set up fee.  Thank you.

Dave

 I mean, I'm sure you can do it

This was posted with a picture in the hurricane slideshow.

Hundreds of Cuban doctors listen to a speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana, September 4, 2005. The U.S. gave longtime foe Cuba the cold shoulder on Tuesday over its offer to send more than 1,500 doctors to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, which created a humanitarian disaster after pummeling the U.S.Golf Coast. Picture taken September 4, 2005. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

What a disgrace.  During times like these, people should be able to set aside their grudges and problems and come together.

I just got the memo dated Sept 2

I have read it 3 times

I do not see the words STATUTORY EMPLOYEE anywhere

I am assuming they are doing away with that position???????

Anybody know?

and if so why am I scurring around trying to buy a computer to

accommodate their new platform as an SE when they are only hiring

EMPLOYEES.........who they provide computers to

I have LOTS of peripherals on both my laptop and desktop Dells and they certainly didn't come from Dell. You've been misinformed.

I love my Dells.

is going to be the end of our quarterly bonus. My concern still is if there is no work how do you get any incentive if they lower the base rate. Sounds like employees will have a larger window to get their work done which means we all will be scrambling around for work at all hours.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008DHVJ2/ref=nosim/104-6407180-5455101?n=551440

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE WORKING FOR DTS, BRENTWOOD BRANCH?

HILL-OH-REE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!