Dell Account Rep Nightmare
My company, over the course of the last year or so, has been standardizing on Dell servers for our infrastructure projects. We've always used Dell desktops and notebooks, but over the last year and a half have bought fifteen dual quad core PowerEdge 1950 servers, a giant PowerEdge 2900, and a host of other various 1U boxes.
Three weeks ago, I was on my third Dell account team since I started here two and a half years ago. The rep I had was excellent. She went out of her way to solve problems for me. She got quotes out to me lightning quick. She was always pleasant to deal with, and sincerely interested in helping out whenever she could. I had actually even emailed Mike Dell and told him how great this rep was, and how happy I was dealing with her.
In my professional career, I've had direct dealings with Dell since about 1999. I standardized VPIsystems on Dell and Unisys gear, and we spent a ton of money on Dell desktops, workstations, and peripherals. At Rubin & Raine, I inherited an Everex server with dumb terminals, and by the time I left everyone had Dell desktops and laptops (except for Pat and his battle worn - and great - Toshiba), and about five Dell servers. Through various consulting gigs I did I always deployed Dell gear, and now at my current job, which I don't mention the name of but you can figure it out if you Google, we've become pretty much all Dell for our infrastructure. (We still develop on IBM Blades, Sun, and HP boxes.)
About two weeks ago I got an email from my new Dell rep saying that my account had been transitioned:
Your account currently resides in the Dell Business Development Group (BDG) where you have access to a variety of services and benefits to meet the specific IT demands of your company.
The primary reason for the e-mail today is to let you know there has been an update on your account team. Effective immediately, I will be the primary Dell contact for your company. If there is an outstanding purchase or issue I need to follow up on, let me know who you were working with and I will follow up with them to ensure there is no break in service. In the weeks to come, I will be calling to introduce myself and briefly review a couple of items.
Your company will continue to be eligible for acquisition pricing and various other services including Premier Page, Premier Access, elevated level of tech support and customer care, etc.
As your account manager I lead your account team which consists of a Server & Storage Consultant, 3rd Party Licensing Specialist, 3rd Party Peripheral Specialist and Dell Financial Services Officer. Please use me as your point of contact but feel free to contact your specialized team member as well (see my signature for your account team’s contact information).
Right off the bat, the first thing that I noticed was the "in the weeks to come." (The bolding is mine.) Alright, you're taking over my account. I've spent in excess of $100k on Dell gear in the last three months or so. Why are you going to wait weeks to get in touch with me? It's a fairly nit-picky thing, but it left a sour taste in my mouth.
I then went to my old rep and tried to see what I could do. Unfortunately there is nothing she could do about losing my account. I already had the email addresses of some of the higher ups with Dell's Oklahoma call center, so I went about contacting them. It took a few days but someone did get back to me.
I should stop the story right here and take you back to 2000, when I had another excellent Dell rep by the name of Steve Milam. Eight years later and I still remember his name. He was, by far, one of the best salespeople (even outside of Dell) I had ever dealt with. He ended up getting transitioned to a higher level within Dell, and I got a new rep. The new rep was okay, but not nearly as good as Steve. I suffered through that for a few months before I left VPI. While I was at Rubin & Raine, the same thing happened. I had a decent (but not as good as Steve) rep, and was transitioned three times in rapid-fire sequence, each rep being progressively worse than the previous one. I finally had to email Mike Dell again and ask them to knock it off -- which they did for a month or two.
I spoke with Holly, who is my old rep's supervisor's supervisor. She assured me that my new account team - who has less accounts to deal with than my current rep - would be just as good, if not better. I pleaded with her to stay with my current rep, which she told me was not possible at her level, but she said she'd try to escalate the issue. She said that there were various political things that went on behind the scenes that made my seemingly easy to fulfill request impossible. I told her that Dell's political machinations are irrelevant to me, and the only thing that was important to me was staying with a rep that my company had a great working relationship.
I also escalated to Holly's boss Chris, who has yet to return my phone calls.
The last few days I requested some quotes from my new account team. It took several hours to get a quote back, and I only got them after I prodded my account rep to get them to me before a meeting. I also spoke with the storage specialist in my team, who didn't know what an ISCSI HBA was.
I got a call this morning from my rep's supervisor who attempted to defuse the situation. I told him the only thing that would make me happy would be if my account didn't get transitioned, and he quickly shot back "well it's already been transitioned." I told him that if I had to deal with a new account team, then it's worth my while to go deal with a new team at IBM or HP, since I am sure that they don't play musical reps like they do at Dell.
It's amazing to me that Dell would jeopardize an account - one that is growing and spending a lot of money - because of their own backroom dealings. It's also amazing that Dell is trying to "rebrand" itself and show the world that it's more customer focused. This process - which I have lived through about five times - is incredibly harmful to their dealings with customers. Their response to my unhappiness has been one of inflexibility. I have no choice to bend to the will of Dell, according to what I am told.
My IBM rep will be ecstatic to hear about this.