What the Dell
"Effective Friday, July 8, Dell’s Customer Care board on the Dell Community Forum will no longer be available. Customers seeking assistance for general order support, rebate status, warranty information or invoice questions, can visit Dell’s Order Status Web site or Chat with a Dell Customer Care representative."
While many IT companies are desperate to offer well managed and usefull customer care message boards, what does Dell do with its popular boards? They close them down. The first thing that pops in to my mind is that Dell might no longer care as much about the consumer or, for that matter, small/home business customers, as their big corporate clients. I have no way of knowing if this is the case, but the company's decision is baffling.
I mentioned in my June 13 post that Dell was the #1 home office brand according to an IDC report. It's my belief that the now closed boards had some part in making that happen.
According to CNET News, Dell spokeswoman Jennifer Davis said "...the closure was necessary because many of the issues that cropped up on the boards were of the type that should be addressed only by authorized Dell representatives and not other customers. Many of the answers, she said, required access to customers' personal information."
What about the issues that weren't of the type that Dell feels should be "addressed only by authorized Dell representatives"? Well, there's no mention of those.
I'm sad to see Dell treat their customers, and the board's moderators, with this level of disregard. Does Dell need to save money? Do they want to sell support packages? Or...are they simply afraid that people say negative things about their products on the mesage boards?
Suddenly Dell doesn't seem like that much of an "alternative" any more.
Updated July 18: Dell falls off the Cluetrain
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