Branding David

What is sure to be an interesting event is being held at my favourite building in Toronto, the MaRS Centre on July 21st from 6pm to 9:30pm called Cross Media TO. Billing itself as a conference that will bridge the gap between the different media sectors in order share information and find new opportunities, the event includes demos, debates, case studies and a panel presentation that is sure to open the eyes of many business executives still working hard to understand the changing landscape of media in North America and the world.

The list of speakers looks rather impressive, and don’t worry if you don’t recognize their names, just look at their titles and the companies they work for. If they don’t have experience in modern media, then who would?

Jacob Blackstock – CEO, Creative Director and Lead Designer, Bitstrips
Richard Bernstein – S.V.P. Managing Director, Arc Worldwide, A Leo Burnett Company
Lisa Charters – SVP Director Digital, Random House of Canada Limited
Colleen DeCourcy – Former Chief Digital Officer for TBWA Worldwide
Douglas Edwards – CEO, ES3
Sabrina Geremia – Head of Agency Relations, Google Canada
Gavin McGarry – President, Jumpwire Media
James Milward – Secret Location
Siobhan O’Flynn – PhD, Transmedia Consultant, Narrative Now
Steve Pratt – Director CBC Radio 3, CBC Radio 3
Chris Van Noy – Chief Strategist, Akamai
Pete Watson – Senior Business Development Manager: Consumer Partners, Research In Motion Limited (RIM) / BlackBerry

I’ve been invited to the event to cover it, and will be publishing posts on a variety of different blogs thanks to the friendships I’ve made over the years. I will hopefully give those unable to attend a good rundown of all that is happening. Check back here the night of the event, as well as the day after.

And if you are interested in attending, you don’t have much time left, so jump over to the Cross Media TO website, and purchase your tickets today!

So, it has almost been a month again since last I talked about my epic struggle to get my wife’s Dell laptop fixed. She has been talking to them more than I have, so I can’t really say too much, but here’s an update.

The laptop got sent back to Dell again to get fixed. Soon after, it was back and the screen was working fine. Unfortunately, they didn’t take any time to look at the other issues we’ve been complaining about since the start. It seems Dell can only fix one issue at a time, and have a one track mind. Despite the display issue apparently being fixed, they’ve ignored the other stuff.

I mean, my wife can now see as the computer automatically deletes text she’s written, and tries to print things out no matter what she touches. Or when she moves the mouse and the browser increases the text size, despite her not touching any of the keys. “But wait”, you’ll say, thinking that such settings can be configured within the operating system. I’ve turned off all the special features of the track pad, and not only that, what special feature makes it press the windows key at random times? Or highlight strings of text at random times?

At this point, my wife and I are now adamant. We want a replacement machine. We got a “lemon” and want a replacement of comparable features.

My wife is not able to use the machine to complete school work, and she is feeling very stressed, and frustrated. When paying thousands of dollars for school, the last thing we want is for her grades to drop over computer problems. I really don’t think I am crazy to be asking for a replacement at this point.

They want to send out a technician to look at the machine, but have pretty much stated that the issue they are still trying to help resolve is the screen issue. This isn’t the issue that is plaguing my wife now, and would be a waste of time for him to come out if he isn’t going to help with the main issue. There is something wrong with the hardware of the keyboard and palm rest area.

I don’t understand why Dell can’t be more helpful in these cases. I am not trying to screw them out of money or anything, and think that at this point, it would have been cheaper to send out a replacement machine. Even if they gave a slightly smaller or less capable machine, as long as it worked perfectly, reasonably quickly, and efficiently, I am sure my wife would be more than happy.

At this point, I am so angry that no matter the resolution, I probably won’t buy anything from Dell again, even third party products they sell, nor will I recommend them, solely based on the fact that anyone that buys from them will be out of luck when it comes to hardware support that may require more than one replacement. Shame really, as I still think the people that I’ve met that work there are good people, but how can they push out a message of change regarding Dell when I am living through the fact that they haven’t?

So, five more days have gone by, and due in part to my special circumstances of not having a home phone line, I haven’t been able to talk to the representative they’ve set up to help me with the problems my wife is having with the Dell laptop that I bought her.

I have since bought a cell phone, so that should help. And I’ve been contacting them as often as I can through Skype, but every time I call, Sunny is on another call.

I am getting more and more frustrated, and each time I talk to my wife, she mentions about how quickly the laptop is degrading. Now, the screen is dim most of the time, with it only going to a normal brightness when she presses on the frame near the hinge. She just told me today that we should send it back, and they’ll be able to see the issue no matter what this time but she forgets how narrow minded the technicians are at Dell. They’ll fix the cable for the back light display, but probably won’t look to fix whatever is shorting out on the wrist rest area or the other weird quirks that her laptop is quickly picking up.

I truly believe that we received a lemon for a Dell and that we should receive a replacement with the same features. The laptop isn’t very old, and so I assume they still have one sitting around. My wife wouldn’t even care if it had slightly less hard drive space, or was slightly slower, as long as it was mostly comparable. The goal of course is to get a machine that is built right and that will make her happy.

The longer this goes on, the more layers I am exposed to within Dell’s corporate structure, the more frustrated I get. I still believe that Dell has good products, but that they do sometimes have build quality issues that need to be resolved quickly. The reason why Dell gets so much bad press isn’t because their products suck, but instead because their support in dealing with products that don’t work is poor.

Had Dell been wise enough to vigorously test the laptop when we sent it the first time, I am sure they would have come across our issue and been able to fix or replace the components with issues. Then all of this fall out, and negative press that I am working so hard to write, would have never occurred, and I would have continued to sing their praises.

Skipping over that, if Dell had been wise enough to put me in touch with someone that could instantly just ship out a replacement unit of similar specs, and taken back the one that I had issues with, they could have reconditioned it, and sold it as a discount. Their loss on this exchange would have been noticeable, but the good will would have been huge.

Now, I am sitting here, frustrated that I still don’t have a working laptop for my wife, and she starts school in a week, and all of this goes back to Dell not being able to solve an issue that was brought to their attention more than a month ago.