Hold for Delivery
Service and Support submitted by mohrman
10/12/07
There are many posts on this site about the difficulty of having to be present to receive and sign for a home delivery. Often they come earlier or later than expected, so planning to be present is almost impossible. Many have asked for scheduled deliveries, but apparently these are not feasible or reliable. People are often left to take time off from work to receive a delivery, sign off for it to be left on the doorstep, or wait until the carrier has attempted several times and then drive to a facility to pick up the package.
Here is another option: Fedex offers on its website a service called "Hold at Fedex Location." Packages can be held at a Fedex location or any Kinkos. If Dell would offer an option that allows for that service, then the customer could choose a facility to hold the delivery and pick it up at a convenient time and place. This would eliminate all the problems people are having receiving their deliveries.
200
Removing an option in the Ubuntu order process.
Dell Web Site, Linux submitted by devlin
10/14/07
I was on the configuration page for the Dell Inspiron Desktop 530 N (the Ubuntu desktop) when I noticed two things that while one was just annoying the other was just plain stupid.
1. The just plain annoying one was the banner at the top of the page where I'm configuring a LINUX system saying "Dell recommends Windows Vista® Home Premium."
2. The stupid one..... Okay now Dell took the Wine (Windows compatibility app) out of the Ubuntu they are pre-installing. The stupid thing is in the configuration area for the UBUNTU LINUX desktop they are offering to sell you Quicken Home & Business a *Windows* ONLY application!
Either leave the Wine app in or keep the Windows software out of the things you are trying to sell us when we are configuring NON-Windows systems.
660
Transform Dell Inc. by Doing Something Bold
Dell, Sales Strategies, Service and Support submitted by pauli
03/09/07
Subject: Transform Dell Inc. by Doing Something Bold.
1. Idea.
Okay, here is the idea. The Dell 2.0 model is a great idea that is being implemented across Dell. The focus is on the customer and on the shareholder and the employee. But lets talk a little more about what it means to really focus on the customer.
The Dell direct model is a great success story. Nobody disputes that. But, we need to remember that most of the direct model is serving corporate customers, and not the individual consumer.
2. The individual consumer.
What do most individual consumer customers do when they want to purchase an item, whether it is a computer, a camera, or other high tech item? Well, they go to the store and look at what is available and do lots of touch and feel and talking with the sales person.
The consumer gets educated and more interested as he or she learns more about the item. As the interest grows regarding the possible purchase of the item, the consumer begins to get excited. When the consumer gets excited then they want to fill that excitement with an immediate purchase. How do they fill this desire to immediately purchase the item? They tell the sales person to wrap it up, lets do it. I want to get this home and start using it.
Of course in the sales process the sales person tries to talk the consumer into extended warranties and stuff like that, which means more money for the store and/or whoever is going to provide the extended warranty / tech support.
3. Dell direct model is lacking.
What the Dell direct model is lacking is the ability to satisfy this immediate consumer urge to walk home with a purchase. Also, the Dell direct model lacks the ability to give the consumer physical contact with the high tech item as they are at the store and interested in making a purchase.
You can check with many consumers who have purchased a high tech item via the internet ordering process, and who have subsequently been disappointed in the item because it really wasn't what they thought it was. My wife bought a digital camera from Dell, and has been disappointed ever since. We will be going to Best Buy soon to purchase another camera. My wife wants to talk to a sales person and discuss the features she really is interested in for her camera purchase.
4. Dell needs to address the needs of their consumer customer.
The consumer wants to go to Best Buy, and Circuit City, and Wal-Mart, etc. and see the Dell branded products available to them. This would especially be true for a few basically configured laptop and desktop computers. It is my belief, and many of my friends belief, that if a good basic Dell laptop or desktop was available at one or more of the major stores such as Best Buy, then we would be much more likely to buy from Dell.
5. How to implement the great idea.
So how would Dell get their products into the major stores for consumer visibility and purchase? Here are my suggestions, and those of several of my friends.
5a. Option 1. Expand the Direct Model into Retail Sales.
Have the Dell team figure out what basic laptop and desktop models the consumers would be interested in, and get an agreement with some of the big stores to begin to carry the Dell branded products. Do not go small, such as just putting products at Radio Shack. Not enough visibility. If Dell wants retail visibility then the Dell brand needs to be in the same store with HP/Compaq. Give the consumer a direct retail model choice between Dell and HP/Compaq, in the same store.
5b. Option 2. Dell Inc. should consider a buy-out of Acer and/or Gateway.
Just like HP and Compaq joined to make their current company that is killing Dell in the stock market and in the direction of their sales, I think that Dell should buy either Acer or Gateway, or both. Those two already have space in high tech stores. The Dell team could figure out if they wanted to re-brand the Acer and Gateway products with a Dell brand, or if they wanted to do some kind of phase out of the Acer and Gateway brands and transition them to the Dell brand. Either way, make sure that the Dell brand products are in the same stores as the HP/Compaq products. Lets level the playing field.
6. With either of the above two options, the percent of the Dell Inc. sales that go to individual consumers would significantly increase, and it would open up the market for more retail selling of specially configured Dell products.
7. The Dell Kiosks that are hidden in some malls around the country do not excite the consumer like the above two options will excite the consumer. The Dell Kiosks leave the consumer without the immediate satisfaction of a purchase that they can take home. This is a big deal. Dell Kiosks are not the answer. How many consumers would actually know where to go to find a Dell Kiosk anyway? I don't know. People in a small town don't know where the Dell Kiosk is, but you can bet they know where Best Buy is, and Circuit City, and Wal-Mart, and Target, etc.
8. Bold moves also move the stock market.
Making these bold moves would make a bold move in Dell stock. I think the stock market would send the Dell stock significantly up in the right direction, and it would start bringing the HP/Compaq stock back down where it belongs.
9. Dell 2.0 needs to do something bold to make an impression on the consumer. Getting more efficient and reorganizing departments doesn't excite the consumer. Doing something bold will excite the consumer. I think it will excite Dell employees as well.
30
Dell / Target for retail
Sales Strategies submitted by dvd
02/23/07
If you're going to hook up w/a retail partner, Target would be the best choice - they don't have computers (yet), as WalMart does, and are growing fast, yet still keeping true to their vision.
100
WalMart and Sam's Club
Sales Strategies submitted by robert
02/21/07
I realize profit margins are probably pretty slim for HPQ in these discount stores but HPQ gets tremendous exposure in the one of the largest shopping venues in the world. Why not sell a consumer/small business simple PC or laptop that is inexpensive and user friendly, with eye catching looks. Maybe just one model to control expenses. The purchaser could later add any additional software they wanted to fit their individual needs. WalMart and Sam's Club attract a worldwide range of shoppers, including the affluent. Sales for personal purchases could translate into increased business sales in the workplace. I could easily see a small business owner buying several Dell laptops from Sam's Club or WalMart for a small workforce, or a mother/dad buying them fo their kids and grandkids because it would be convenient and easy to do. If nothing else Dell could reduce HPQ's influence and name recognition in this area and slow them down. While this may stray from Dell's present business model, this move could certainly shake up your confident competition. Get the "masses" trained to use Dell again. Personal purchases can translate into business purchases if the product is good enough.
-27
Low end Dell systems = no quality
Desktops and Laptops submitted by izprince
02/27/07
I have not bought a Dell PC.
I don't know if I would consider one personally.
My mother (who knows nothing about computers( ended up ordering a cheapie Dell last year.
The marketing on it made it sound like a steal, but really it was bad even for a low end system.
For $599, she got:
2.6 Ghz Intel Celeron
512 megs of RAM
Intel 845 GL onboard video with no AGP or PCI-E expansion
60 gig hard disk
DVD ROM/CD-RW drive
Around the same time last year, I bought an eMachine at Wal-Mart, I got:
AMD Sempron 3100+
1 gig of RAM
Geforce 6100 integrated video, I upgraded to a Geforce 7300 with the PCI-E slot
100 gig hard drive
DVD-RW/CD-RW drive
Anyway, with the Dell, she wasn't online more than a few days before I had to go over and re-format the hard disk, because it had picked up a bunch of malware which caused the computer to start screwing up.
I re-installed Windows XP and locked it down as much as I could and put in some proper anti-virus anti-spyware (not the junk trialware the Dell shipped with), and installed a copy of Firefox for her.
I also ATTEMPTED a RAM upgrade, but when I pressed down to secure the module, intstead of snapping into place, the plastic retaining hinges snapped OFF.
In short, I've never seen such a high price for an under-performing, low quality pile of junk, and the amount of circusware that Dell pre-loads is unbelievable, I know all OEM's do it, and it drives me nuts, but Dell is the worst I've seen.
40
Dell Media Marketplace
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Dell Web Site, Sales Strategies submitted by bakerle
02/27/07
The online market is exploding with downloadable movies: Unbox, Microsoft XBox Live, Zune, iTunes, a few weeks ago Wal-Mart, today Bittorrent... and the old guard dot-com era sites. All of them, excepting apple TV and Microsoft XBox Live, download into a PC player. Microsoft, Sony and Apple have "set-top-boxes" that can download and play content. Microsoft XBox, Sony PS3, and Apple TV.
I'd love to see an inexpensive Dell-branded set-top-box, comprable to Apple TV, that integrates with "the other" downloadable marketplaces - Wal-Mart, Amazon, and the other players. I'd love to have variety and ubiquity in my online media shopping, and I can't get it today, unless I know how to (a) buy a Media Center PC, (b) buy an XBox 360, (c) hook the two up, and (d) know how to use one of the many, varied clients to buy and download WMV protected content and play it back through this inane, rube-goldberg setup. And it's still clunky and difficlut to use.
A Dell set-top-box that integrated clients from Wal-mart, from Amazon, from MovieFlix, from MovieLink, from Vongo.... into a single, easy to use portal client, well, it would surely give Apple TV a run for it's money. And it would provide a platform for Dell to market and sell its own content. And since it integrates *all* the media marketplaces under one roof, Dell isn't exposed to the infrastructure expense of setting up a server farm and the like. Charge the marketplace provider (Unbox, Amazon, and the like) $0.10 per purchased title through the Dell portal. Download and manage the content on the box. Sell upgraded versions with 200 and 500 G hard drives, so people can accumulate *huge* libraries of content.
Go a step further, and rip DVDs and store them in the library (but don't let them get out easily).
Go another step further, and integrate a tuner and HD DVR software.
In essence, the box would host a library manager, a WMV playback widget, and a marketplace client to a Dell Media Marketplace portal with Dell-hosted content for sale right alongside Amazon Unbox, Wal-Mart and the others.
I'm tired of being locked into Apple, and I think having to have an XBox360 and a Media Center PC to be able to play back downloaded HD or DVD quality content on my HDTV sucks. And I don't want to have to buy a $1,500 PC and put it under my TV either. I want a $300 box that does it all.
Dell, can you help me out?
-70
Make A Cheaper Laptop
Sales Strategies, Laptop Power submitted by clicky
04/20/07
How about making a low speed, smaller screen "Internet" laptop (kind of like the ones theyre sending to africa) available that would make internet access much more affordable and available to lower income and homeless US RESIDENTS (or just ANYONE) who just needs to access the internet (many cities are now wireless), possibly create and print a resume and dont want to run high power games and business apps.
Maybe use Linux . Sell for about $199 and can run from regular batteries ( or 12v DC car battery) with solid state low capacity hard drive.
They can do it for OTHER countries ....why not here?
Thanks!
220
Free documentation
Service and Support submitted by walter_br
05/23/07
Everybody wins with a free documentation, and as a long time costumer of Dell and developer I would like to ask for you guys from Dell to help us, developers on this movement
-30
1GB MP3 USB Watch That Also Connects To Your Car Radio
New Product Ideas submitted by gaviritech
05/23/07
My company has a couple of different models of a 1GB MP3 Watch with our patent-pending software preinstalled and I would like to make them available for sale on the Dell website.
We have a 1GB USB MP3 Watch that comes with earphones and we have a wireless version of it also that allows a user to connect to and listen to music from the watch on any radio. So a user can transmit the music wirelessly from the watch to any car radio! When not around a radio or in the car, use the included earphones to enjoy your favorite music.
The preinstalled software allows the user to search/move/copy/delete data from the computer to the watch. The wireless technology allows the user to connect to any radio and listen to their favorite songs or playlists uploaded to the watch using our software.
-300
Create an expandable laptop
New Product Ideas, Laptops submitted by tnitchov
05/18/07
Create a laptop similar to my old Dell Inspiron 4150 with an expandable bay. It had 2 "drive bays" one of which was used for the battery. I could add a 2nd battery into the 2nd slot for additional runtime. I could even swap out a floppy, cdrom or DVD into that 2nd slot.
In addition, come out with adapters that fit in the slot but contain the following components :
- additional hard drives
- a media slot with IEEE1394
- a 2nd video card
Give the user the option to take out a DVD drive to decrease weight, but also the option to add features in the future.
Dell used to have it in older systems but stopped producing them. Now Lenovo has their Thinkpads equipped with the Ultrabay which "almost" does this.
410
Dell Support Overhaul - Put Support back in Support
Service and Support submitted by ssvp
04/30/07
I find it rather disheartening as a small business owner using Dell and even leasing from Dell. That when I need support with my XPS system. I get the great email XPS owners can only use chat.
I also really can't stand that support is limited to businesses M-F and not 24x7.
Anyone can build a computer. Anyone can lower prices. But to break from the pack, you should focus your profits on Service and Support. That is what will seperate yourself from the rest.
Service and Support not only make the customers happy, but it allows Dell to build a brand. A brand that can be, "Dell Computers. Customers First." Brand loyalty can get you far.. So bone up on Support and Services, it's a transparent economy and doesn't take long for your rivals to copy products and price, but support is a whole other demon.
I would like to see the following support options:
24x7 - Email Support
24x7 - Chat
24x7 - Telephone Support
Oh and easy to understand customer service reps that speak the native tongue of the caller, would be a nice added benefit.
220
 track my votes
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