Dell Hell: Don’t play with me, I am a blogger…

Dell Hell started when Jeff Jarvis, after buying a Dell computer, posted in his blog BuzzMachine the following:

“Dell lies. Dell sucks
…I just got a new Dell laptop and paid a fortune for the four-year, in-home service. The machine is a lemon and the service is a lie. I'm having all kinds of trouble with the hardware: overheats, network doesn't work, maxes out on CPU usage. It's a lemon.”

Jeff Jarvis bought a Dell laptop that had several problems and when he contacted Dell customer service the “Dell Hell” started. Jeff Jarvis decided to post in his blog his complains about Dell’s costumer service.

The interactions between Jeff Jarvis and Dell costumer service didn’t go well and Jarvis continued to post about it in BuzzMachine. Jeff’s posts increased popularity and other bloggers started to use the “Dell Hell” to spread negative comments about Dell’s customer service, weakening Dell’s reputation.

The catchy “Dell Hell” become popular very quickly and was noticed at The New Your Times and Business Week. For sure Dell didn’t expect that a post in a blog would have so much impact on Dell’s brand.

Blogging become a popular way to complain about Dell’s Costumer Service. Dell responded to this launching its own “Customer Service Blog”.

What Dell should have done? Dell should have solved this problem as soon as possible avoiding the huge brand damage that this caused. When a customer buys a product that is not ok the company that sold it should fixed it as soon as possible (nothing new is our days!!!), especially when this costumer is an influent blogger. To avoid the big dimension that this problem achieved Dell should have made Jeff Jarvis really happy from the beginning and hope that he posted is happiness and the end of Dell Hell in his blog.

To recover from the brand damage, Dell should first change its image within the bloggers community since these were the one that “caused” all the brand damage. The launch of Dells customer service blog was in my opinion definitely directed to this community. Just after changing bloggers opinion Dell will be able to change the overall public opinion.