Dell Circling the Drain?

[itguy08]

Looks like Dell may be starting to circle the drain:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100378030

Never looks good when you constantly loose market share, and start prvate equity talk. Usually one of the steps on the way down.

Perhaps Mikey should close the doors and return the money to the shareholders.

 

[bepperb]

Just because they're losing market share doesn't mean they should close their doors. They're still making money every quarter and their assets exceed their liabilities by almost 10 billion dollars.

I'm by no means a dell fan (and have never bought one but have a work supplied laptop) but every time a elephant trips the buzzards look no matter how healthy it is.

 

[cmorr]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Perhaps Mikey should close the doors and return the money to the shareholders.

Karma

 

[DragRace]

I wouldnt touch a Dell PC if it was handed to me for free.

JUNK

 

[CarbonSteel]

Originally Posted By: DragRace
I wouldnt touch a Dell PC if it was handed to me for free.

JUNK

Really? We have more than 10,000 of them deployed and although we have issues with them, ALL PCs these days are commodities with many of the parts being made by the same companies for different OEMs. We have had HP, Dell, IBM, and Toshiba in the past 15 years and all of them have had their share of issues.

Note; I am not a Dell fanboy, just relating my experiences.

 

[antiqueshell]

That's the problem with modern US business theory. Unless the organization is making a OUTRAGEOUS profit, the business is not
"performing" to expectations. What a crock of poop!

That is the kind of MBA nonsense that is DESTROYING solid companies that make a very good profit, but still deliver quality products and services to the folks that allow them to make the money in the first place...."THE CUSTOMERS".

The MBA programs need to be exercised from the universities.

My sister has a Dell Inspiron laptop and while it isn't a high end product by any means. It is built well, and has been working perfectly.

 

[simple_gifts]

Oracle hardware maintenance:

Thomas, I have seen you logged a ticket for a failed hard drive; please upload the logs /var/adm/messages and iostat to the support site;

1 hour later; Thomas I have reviewd the logs and we will dispatch a new disk via courier; Is your address still.....

Yes; Thank you; btw, we have "keep the disk" so I won't be returning the failed drive.

Dell server support:

me: I'd like to log a ticket for a failed drive;

them:How do you know it is failed?

me:The raid controller offlined it and it indicated "failed".

themid you reseat the drive?

me:No why would we do that when the raid controller said it is bad?

themid you flash the firmware prior to logging the ticket?

me:No.

them:I need you update the firmware on the RAID controller.

me:Respectfully, this machine has been running 24x7 for 4 years.

them:I need you to load this .exe file so it can report on the status of the disks.

me:It is running Redhat; it doesn't use .exe files

them:Ok, I'm going to send you a program where you can make a bootable USB stick, but the .exe file on it and boot from that.

meude, the machine is running production for our customer, the RAID controller said the disk is bad, just send us a replacement disk, thanks.

them:We have a guy in the area tomorrow. is that ok?

me:No, we have 4 hour response; we need the disk today.

them:my metrics are based on customers completing the tasks I have, you'll boot from the USB and run the utility later on?

me: ya, sure dude; i'm on that....

 

[Barkleymut]

I am guessing the whole MBA thing has passed you by. They do not care about anything but this and next qtr. That is all. Nothing else. Do not argue. No you are wrong. Forget it. Wrong again. This and next qtr. Wrong. Wrong again. no.

BTW Apple has got the whole thing wrong and that is why their stock price is so off

 

[simple_gifts]

A guy at work monitors our stock price daily. I told him "thanks for contributing to the problem" by demanding quarterly returns, the company is forced to make decisions that are measured quarterly; multiply this by 90% of the stockholders and voila.

 

[OVERKILL]

I called Lenovo.

Me: I need a keyboard for a ThinkPad L510
Guy (who's first language was English... this is tip #1 for DELL): What's the issue?
Me: two keys don't work
Guy: What's the serial #?
Me: Gives serial #
Guy: Address?
Me: (gives address)
Guy: OK, you should have it tomorrow.
Me: Thanks!

It is no surprise that when you treat your business clients like they are idiots and subject them to people who can barely speak English, that they get frustrated and go elsewhere. Just one of the many reasons I will never use BELL Canada. I have better things to do than fight with some guy in India for an hour.

 

[volk06]

Dell is looking to go privately owned.

 

[johnnydc]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Oracle hardware maintenance:

Thomas, I have seen you logged a ticket for a failed hard drive; please upload the logs /var/adm/messages and iostat to the support site;

1 hour later; Thomas I have reviewd the logs and we will dispatch a new disk via courier; Is your address still.....

Yes; Thank you; btw, we have "keep the disk" so I won't be returning the failed drive.

Dell server support:

me: I'd like to log a ticket for a failed drive;

them:How do you know it is failed?

me:The raid controller offlined it and it indicated "failed".

themid you reseat the drive?

me:No why would we do that when the raid controller said it is bad?

themid you flash the firmware prior to logging the ticket?

me:No.

them:I need you update the firmware on the RAID controller.

me:Respectfully, this machine has been running 24x7 for 4 years.

them:I need you to load this .exe file so it can report on the status of the disks.

me:It is running Redhat; it doesn't use .exe files

them:Ok, I'm going to send you a program where you can make a bootable USB stick, but the .exe file on it and boot from that.

meude, the machine is running production for our customer, the RAID controller said the disk is bad, just send us a replacement disk, thanks.

them:We have a guy in the area tomorrow. is that ok?

me:No, we have 4 hour response; we need the disk today.

[color:#CC0000]them:my metrics are based on customers completing the tasks I have, you'll boot from the USB and run the utility later on?[/COLOR]


me: ya, sure dude; i'm on that....


That is a problem to. These metrics never take everything into account. The place I used to work at was all about metrics this and metrics that... They closed down now.

 

[Brons2]

Dell's been skating since about 1999 or so. I used to work there, it had the feel of a startup. Then around 97-98 the bean counters came in and took over. I left in 1998.

When they walmart-ed the support in the 2000s, that's when things started going downhill. Dell built their original reputation on quality customer support, they haven't been committed to that in a long time and as a result there's really no reason to choose them as a consumer.

Their business products are good (optiplex, latitude) but in the retail channel they are sucking wind.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
I am guessing the whole MBA thing has passed you by. They do not care about anything but this and next qtr. That is all. Nothing else. Do not argue. No you are wrong. Forget it. Wrong again. This and next qtr. Wrong. Wrong again. no.

BTW Apple has got the whole thing wrong and that is why their stock price is so off

Huh?

 

[The motor guy]

I have a dell and I think it's a POS. Even though I set the screen to go blank after a few minutes it always goes back to staying on all the time. I've given up.

 

[cmorr]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts

meude, the machine is running production for our customer, the RAID controller said the disk is bad, just send us a replacement disk, thanks.


Pretty scary how accurate that is for many companies that are allegedly selling and supporting Enterprise HW

As for the scenarios how about this one

EMC Support: Hi this is Fred (your local FSE)one of your array's called home last night with predictive warnings (not failed). Do you want me to come out today or tonight after hours or do you want me to wait until next weekend which I know historically is your monthly maintenance window.

 

[Barkleymut]

Originally Posted By: 2010_FX4
Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
I am guessing the whole MBA thing has passed you by. They do not care about anything but this and next qtr. That is all. Nothing else. Do not argue. No you are wrong. Forget it. Wrong again. This and next qtr. Wrong. Wrong again. no.

BTW Apple has got the whole thing wrong and that is why their stock price is so off

Huh?


Take the P/E ratio and divide by the market cap then multiply by the number of shareholders

 

[simple_gifts]

Originally Posted By: cmorr
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts

meude, the machine is running production for our customer, the RAID controller said the disk is bad, just send us a replacement disk, thanks.


Pretty scary how accurate that is for many companies that are allegedly selling and supporting Enterprise HW

As for the scenarios how about this one

EMC Support: Hi this is Fred (your local FSE)one of your array's called home last night with predictive warnings (not failed). Do you want me to come out today or tonight after hours or do you want me to wait until next weekend which I know historically is your monthly maintenance window.


Word! We have EMC, it takes a dentist to get a quotation and the equipment installed, but its a dream once it is installed.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
Originally Posted By: 2010_FX4
Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
I am guessing the whole MBA thing has passed you by. They do not care about anything but this and next qtr. That is all. Nothing else. Do not argue. No you are wrong. Forget it. Wrong again. This and next qtr. Wrong. Wrong again. no.

BTW Apple has got the whole thing wrong and that is why their stock price is so off

Huh?


Take the P/E ratio and divide by the market cap then multiply by the number of shareholders

What does that have to do with Dell producing/selling a good or bad product? My point was that it really DOES NOT matter what PC you own they are all commodities at this point and a handful of companies (like Foxconn) are making the parts for all of them. Dell, HP, Lenovo all have the same guts (more or less); the name on the machine matters not.

 

[wander2039]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Oracle hardware maintenance:

Thomas, I have seen you logged a ticket for a failed hard drive; please upload the logs /var/adm/messages and iostat to the support site;

1 hour later; Thomas I have reviewd the logs and we will dispatch a new disk via courier; Is your address still.....

Yes; Thank you; btw, we have "keep the disk" so I won't be returning the failed drive.

Dell server support:

me: I'd like to log a ticket for a failed drive;

them:How do you know it is failed?

me:The raid controller offlined it and it indicated "failed".

themid you reseat the drive?

me:No why would we do that when the raid controller said it is bad?

themid you flash the firmware prior to logging the ticket?

me:No.

them:I need you update the firmware on the RAID controller.

me:Respectfully, this machine has been running 24x7 for 4 years.

them:I need you to load this .exe file so it can report on the status of the disks.

me:It is running Redhat; it doesn't use .exe files

them:Ok, I'm going to send you a program where you can make a bootable USB stick, but the .exe file on it and boot from that.

meude, the machine is running production for our customer, the RAID controller said the disk is bad, just send us a replacement disk, thanks.

them:We have a guy in the area tomorrow. is that ok?

me:No, we have 4 hour response; we need the disk today.

them:my metrics are based on customers completing the tasks I have, you'll boot from the USB and run the utility later on?

me: ya, sure dude; i'm on that....


Wow deja vue! That brings back the first time I called Dell back in 01.. what a experience. With HP it was more like "Ok what's your issue".. Fill in short explanation with bad part and part number.. "Ok you'll have one in 3 days". Hence I've always owned HP's except going to Apple now. Probably not the same now but worked for me!