Timely post! I am dreading the fact that I have to call Dell tomorrow due to a problem with a laptop. I'll keep this handy.

Before things get to the e-mail bombing level, I've also found that Dell's phone support is infinitely more helpful than their chats. Chatting, I've had Dell reps be completely clueless about what systems to recommend, not understood "my computer is giving me a pop up that says 'replace battery," and insisted that keys falling off was my fault (and that I'd have to buy a new keyboard). Via the phone, I've had very helpful reps help me find drivers, ship new power cords, and arrange to replace my keyboard (because, strangely, Dell can't replace one key).

But I have to call in about the covers of my USB drives falling off, so I'll be bookmarking this list for sure in case things go badly there...

All Dell addresses follow the same formula. I work closely with some of the enterprise Dell guys, and it's pretty well known that Michael Dell doesn't actually read the address listed for him, but the rest should be good though.

Can you explain why writing an executive in charge of finance, HR, or procurement would help a consumer solve his/her Dell product issue? Carpet Bombs are great, but why email departments that clearly would have very little relevance to a customer issue?

I say, emailing anyone is worth a try. I've had problems with a dell laptop for day 13, 2 years ago to today. I don't care who I bother as long as I finally receive a reply other than "Take the battery out" or, most commonly "I'm sorry, it is no longer under warranty..." and the fact that I'd called them 5 times while it was in warranty means nothing.

@castlecraver: The idea behind it is that they are high up and by them passing it to somone it will probably get taken care of since it will look important coming from the head of any given department.

the reality behind it is the person will look to see who received the email, and ignore it if it got to the right person in addition to being sent to them.

@Xerloq: I don't know any CEO of a major company who actually checks their public email address. most have staff members check it then forward to their internal address. people like bill gates changes his address frequently to prevent it from getting leaked.

When I get the "runaround" from any company, I've found that a certified letter addressed to the legal department, explaining my problem including a threat to file a small claims case, works best.

Susan Sheskey got her incompetent ass fired / "resigned". she's not there any more.

FYI:

judy_lewent@dell.com

and:

alan_g_lafley@dell.com

Reply with mail delivery errors, so you may want to take them off your list.

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 501 #5.1.1 bad address

What I have to say about Dell from my experiences in the past: As a whole, the company's customer service policy is better than most in the industry. The problem is that the people they hire are, without a better term, idiots.

When you have a problem with them, the Dell reps are all really nice (and I've even had them call back several times in the next weeks "just to check in" and make sure I was satisfied with my repairs) but to get real answers or a real solution ESCALATE. You don't need to go to the Executive level (In my case I just got the run-around to a couple different departments) but eventually you will get high enough to get someone who can give you answers.

@BigNutty:

Just a tip for others, your LAST RESORT should be threatening legal action. Once you mention you may sue most reps won't talk to you and direct you to the legal department.

...and you thought you got the run around before dealing with them....

FWIW, as a former Dell employee, one of the first things you are going to get asked by anyone dealing with customers at Dell is what business segment you are coming from-- are you a hausfrau with a wonky mouse, or a superintendent of a school district, or are you the I/T VP at a Fortune 500 company with a problem with your order for several hundred servers?

As you can imagine, from that point on, the difference in attention paid to you will vary wildly. Since working for them I have always had superb service from Dell, but only because I've dealt with them on the corporate level, and they have dedicated account execs to handle escalations, etc.

I would expect that the home consumer isn't going to get very far by this Carpet Bomb strategy. You'll just get shuffled over to the CSR/TSR queue appropriate to your segment. That's the policy. Will some kind-hearted exec take exception to the policy? Who knows but I seriously doubt it.

@Xerloq: I can say definitively that all Dell email addresses do not follow the same formula. New ones, maybe. It may be due to when the employee was hired and who was managing IT at the time. You may find success with the format of those listed, but it will not work for all.

I've had nothing but great luck with Dell myself. Of course, spending over $2000 on a small business laptop probably leads to better tech support than trying to handle a luddite that can't figure out Vista on a bargain basement system their "computer whiz" 13 year old nephew ordered for them.

Tech support is designed specifically for script-trained grunts to weed out the "It don't work!" crowd. You can follow the script for a few minutes and escalate, or you can spend enough to justify a higher tier tech from the start.

Remember the print up there, this is a last resort. When all rational and reasonable attempts at fixing the problem have been exhausted, and you are being positively stonewalled on an issue that you are certain you can demonstrate is their responsibility to fix, that's when this comes into play. Any sooner than that, and you're only giving them reason to bunker up away from the public even further.

Customer_advocate@dell.com

I have used This email address to take care of issues that i had spoken to countless supervisors about, I would use this only if you have exhausted every other normal route of solving a problem.

I have given this to Consumerist to add to the post.

I work at Dell and have to say that while we aren't infallable we are trying hard to quickly resolve any issues -- and also try to make it easy to contact the right people. Here's a good general link to get questions answered and problems fixed:

[support.dell.com]

And IVEALWAYSGOTMAIL above is giving good advice. I've seen how the people at customer_advocate@dell.com work with customers, and they are some of our best tech support and customer care troubleshooters.

Yep, I got a reply from customer advocate asking for my customer number and service tag even after I said my Dell was 2 years out of warranty.

Looks like I'm going to be taking lots more cases...

I went round and round with CC and TS for 4 weeks trying to get a faulty network card replaced on a new system. I almost gave up until I found the EECB. It worked! In less than 24 business hours, the Esclation Managent Team called. It took a bit more prodding, but I got my card the next day. Too bad what took the EECB could have been easily handled by TS in a day or so. I'll still buy Dell, but I'll keep the email addresses.

well another 2 hour battle with tech support, to hear that my warranty didn't apply, but at the end have a "courtesy extension." I've called Dell tech support 5 ties or more over the years, and it always goes the same way. 3,4 or 5 calls, multiple referals to other phone numbers, long holds, the I'm sorry we cn't do anything for you rep, the lowly reps supv, who says the exact same thing, finally next level up manager who knows that if I have these names and these emails, and i've been on the phone for 2 hours a hot letter is only 15 minutes away, and Gues what the ethical one time special consideration is given to my case (each time) and my prepaid extended warranty is honored..it's greta to live in america. Do you realize that the dollars we pay for extended warranty actually pays for more phone techies to deny us our service warranties? They bank on us to get tired give up and possibly buy another Dell product.

I had Dell loose a payment for our Business. We had mistakenly used their website and it turns out it defaulted the payment to the first account (we have several). I definitely would not recommend DFS website for anything other than payment tracking or statements. Anyways, after almost 3 frustrating weeks of calling and getting people in India, Manilla, etc... and being refused to talk with someone in the U.s that would track down the payment via the confirmation number, amount and payment date, I sent an email to one of these representatives and the issue was forwarded, almost immediately, to someone at DFS finance who fixed this in just hours. I would not use them for every issue, but the level of frustration we had dealing with their outsourced customer service was definitely relieved with this list, thanks!

Four more of the emails are bouncing now-

Donald Carty
Mark Jarvis
Susan Sheskey
Martin Garvin

If found replacement names/emails for two of the four names in my previous post-

Brian Gladden replaces Donald Carty- brian_gladden@dell.com

Erin Nelson replaces Mark Jarvis- erin_nelson@dell.com

Less than 12 hours after sending my EECB, I got a call from Dell. My replacement laptop is on the way, due in 7-10 days! =)

I just tried to send a complaint to all of the addresses listed above and they are ALL bouncing. Great customer support, Dell.

I just spammed the entire list and only got bounces from the following emails: martin_garvin@dell.com alan_g_lafley@dell.com susan_sheskey@dell.com donald_carty@dell.com judy_lewent@dell.com mark_jarvis@dell.com