Dell Hell, Redux

Megan McArdle writes of her troubles with Dell, which would be funny if they were not so close to the experiences many of us have with poor customer service from any number of big-name companies. The writeup is similar to the well-publicized dustup Jeff Jarvis had with Dell. These aren't the only two bloggers who have written up their customer service issues with Dell, but Jarvis is well-known in the blogosphere while McArdle is known among economics bloggers. In each case, Dell suffers from the broad audience that bloggers can reach, so that instead of telling their sad tales to a few friends and family members, Jarvis and McArdle are reaching thousands of people with their stories of customer service woe. Apparently, there is even a white paper on the impact of bloggers' "Dell Hell" stories.

The real question, though, is whether any of these stories cause customer service to improve, or whether they are just, as they say, pissing into the wind.