Customer to sales clerk: "You're overhead, I'm profit"

I recently ordered a laptop for the office and because the ship date was longer than expected and since I needed a unit, I had to call to cancel. Wouldn't you know it, but the morning I am going to contact them, I get a shipping notification from Dell. I still decided to try for a return since I already had other arrangements made. I called Dell and was able to, surprisingly, cancel the order with very little hassle. Because of the excellent experience, I decided to send an email through their website praising the customer service rep. Here is a copy of what I sent;

"I just wanted to comment on the customer care I received this morning for a call. I had called to cancel an order and was prepared for a drawn out conversation of miscommunication and script reading, however I was quite pleasantly surprised at the experience. The customer rep was quite knowledgeable, easy to understand (very important to me) and extremely courteous. She assisted me through every step and shared several options that I had not considered. Over the years I have become increasing frustrated with customer service phone calls as they are outsourced to other countries where all the person can do is typically read from a script and they have little ability to get things done on their own.

The person with whom I had contact was kirsten_baumann@dell.com It is experience like this that will make me much more likely to confine my orders to Dell in the future with the understanding should the need arise, I will be able to get the same level of care."


This evening I received the following response;

"Dear Mr. Blitch:

Thank you for contacting Dell. I'm sorry to hear that you previous interaction with us was not to your satisfaction. Please be assured that your satisfaction is of utmost importance to us and I will work with you till everything is resolved.

As per Dell records Isee that you had requested to setup a return request for the Inspiron Laptop for the order number 68716###. I will provide you with the required information.

Mr. Blitch, we realize the key to our success lies in providing outstanding customer satisfaction. It is input from our customers that help us to evaluate our performance. We hope you will give us the opportunity to serve you again in the way you deserve. Again, we are sorry that you experienced these difficulties, and we hope that we can restore your faith in Dell.

Thank you for choosing Dell."

Right now I am amazed as to how quickly Dell was able to turn a great experience concerning customer service to one that is now quite negative. Their message was the antithesis of what I was attempting to convey. The person with whom I spoke actually gave me personalized response, understood what I was saying, and could communicate. Whomever answered what was supposed to be a positive message in support of Dell has NONE of those qualities and could not seemingly comprehend anything I was trying to say. All they did was provide scripted responses by cutting and pasting or choosing from some pull down menu responses. Even my praise is being shipped overseas and outsourced.


Update: (6/9/07)

I sent a response to the message above that I received from Dell outlining my dismay.

"Did you even comprehend the message I sent in the least? You personally just turned a great experience into a bad one. Your message was the antithesis of what I was saying. The person with whom I spoke actually gave me personalized response, understood what I was saying, and could communicate. Whomever answered what was supposed to be a message in support of Dell has NONE of those qualities. All you did was provide scripted responses by cutting and pasting. It would have been so much better if you just accepted the compliment and let it be, however someone even my praise is being shipped overseas."

In response, I received the following.

"I am the case manager at customer care.

I sincerely apologize that my agent could not comprehend your email in the last interaction you had. I will certainly provide you the required information.

Mr. Blitch. I will certainly forward your valuable feedback to the agent who has resolved your concern. At the same time I will also ensure required feedback to my agent who could not comprehend your email. Your feedback has and will continue to be considered in our ongoing endeavors to improve services. I truly believe that anything less is completely unacceptable. We take this information very seriously and will move to take immediate corrective action.

Once again, I apologize and truly regret any inconvenience or frustration this matter may have caused. If you need any additional information, or have any other questions, please feel free to reply to my email. I will ensure that all of your questions are answered.

Thank you for choosing Dell.

Sadanand_K"

The response was nearly the same as before, broken English that is difficult to understand and seemingly additional canned responses. Who actually ever says "I will certainly provide you the required information"?, especially when sent by two different people. Even my complaint of their handling my praise is getting either scripted responses, I am dealing with the same person pretending to be other people, or they are wholly unimaginative.

I understand the need to save money and reducing labor costs, but I feel this behavior is driving away the American consumer. I do not need this kind of aggravation when I am trying to give someone my business.