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Dell Cheating on the Direct-Sales Model?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-won't-tell-if-you-won't dept.

capt turnpike writes "Despite its CEO saying that the direct model is the company's 'religion', according to eWEEK.com, Dell seems to be moving away from direct sales and working with value-added resellers." From the article: "Still, 'they'll never admit it or make [the channel] a formal program,' said one analyst who asked not to be identified. 'If you look at Dell's stock versus HP's, part of the difference has to do with Dell's reputation for owning the customer. There's a sense they own the entire margin and have higher profits because they sell directly. It makes them appear more valuable to Wall Street.'"

4 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Re:You can buy Dell stuff all over the place by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use Dell Higher Education (I work at a University) and they will match any other price from a Dell reseller, or another Dell department (Small Business, Home) if you want to buy directly from them - I do it all the time.

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  2. Yeah, I got owned by geobeck · · Score: 3, Informative
    ...part of the difference has to do with Dell's reputation for owning the customer.

    I think they mean pwning.

    Last year, I bought a new Dell workstation for work, the first of several workstations we were going to evaluate to replace our aging machines. Price on website: $1300 and change. But the website was flaky, and I couldn't complete the order. I called, got an "account manager", who took the product numbers I had written down from the website, and we ordered it--only to have the total come to $1400 and change.

    I called back to complain, and the account mangler very rudely refused to do anything to help resolve the situation, boldly lying about one of the options I had purchased as an add-on supposedly being included in the base price. Eventually he said, "I don't know what you expect me to do about this," and wouldn't say anything else.

    Needless to say, today we are an all-HP shop. We have a local reseller who provides excellent on-site service, and who I can reach directly; no IVR, no switchboard; I call my tech directly.

    This site will never buy another unit from Dell.

    --
    Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
  3. Re:Check Costco for occasional big Dell discounts. by uthanda · · Score: 3, Informative

    I saw the same thing too, however it was actually a decent deal. If you looked closely, yes it was an EOL machine, but the price did include AppleCare. It's about $150 or so for a Mini, I think, so subtract that from the price and it's not as bad a deal as your laughter would indicate.

  4. Big vs. Small fish by edlong · · Score: 3, Informative

    If your a small fish, you probably won't get the service you think you deserve from Dell, that's my experience. Now that I spend a few million a year with Dell, while it may not be Dell's biggest account, we get some more attention.

    I hope Dell's listening, because I've been buying Dell personally for a long time and my XP400 while a good machine, didn't come with a restore disk (lame) and had so much 'trialware' running it was killing my performance. I just had to wonder what a non technical person would do. Is it about the price or the customer? IMHO Dell's going to lose market share.

    Here's a good war story, my 5160 laptop USB ports went dead, I think due to a power surge. I called and spoke to 'India' to a very very pleasent person, but couldn't do anything outside of the script. They finally agree to replace the motherboard (after having me check lots of things). I travel a lot, so the local VAR calls me and we make an appt. for 2 weeks out. He calls back and says that he had to return the part because the ticket was open to long per Dell. I had to call Dell support again, and again go through the script, and they wanted me to do every test again (30 minutes). I played along, because I needed my ports and there was that this guy was going to comprehend the situation. After both the Dell calls, they ask, would you talk to a supervisor about your experience. I did both times. But, the second time, I told them the story and I don't think it meant anything to the guy, because it probably didn't impact his pay. I got a 'ok thanks'. (No thank you)

    So Dell had to take two calls at 30+ minutes a pop. Dell mailed the motherboard twice to the VAR and 1 time back to Dell. I had to sit on the Dell support line for an additional 30 minutes, but luckily they gave me another code, the VAR got the motherboard back and he fixed my laptop before I headed on another trip.

    Did Dell save money on that transaction by outsourcing? Probably, but it's short term IMHO

    For more discussion on Dell negativespace2005-Dell at yahoo dot com