Dell Battery Recall- Win for the Web 110
conq writes "BusinessWeek has an article on how the Dell recalls show the true power of the web and how the attack on the Dell batteries evolved on the web. From the article:
But in cyberspace the race was on to dig out every last byte of 'truth' about those flaming PCs. Gadget news blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget spat out facts and rumors with equal zeal. They were relentless advocates for the consumer, too. On July 31, Engadget posted photos of a Dell notebook that had caught fire in Singapore. Its comment: 'We'll keep posting these until we see a recall or a solution, so please, Dell, treat 'em right.'"
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Re:This helped for the apple recall too (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This helped for the apple recall too (Score:5, Informative)
Dell estimated the bill at around $300m USD so it's just a one-time write-off for Sony. With their total sales of $71.2B USD in 2004, I doubt that 300m USD will hurt them at all. It's more painful for their reputation than anything. After all, when big boys like Dell and Apple rely on you for batteries and you give them C4, they get upset.
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writing this on a Dell laptop (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory Monty Python Reference (Score:3)
First Po...(bang!)
What is that?
It must have exploded while he typed it.
Oh, come on.
Well that's what it says.
Look, if it was exploding, he wouldn't bother to write "(bang!)". It'd just say it!
Well that's what's written on the
Perhaps he was dictating.
Oh, shut up.
No, just, "Bang".
-Rick
assuming the web was the cause... (Score:5, Insightful)
Having worked QA for a competitor of Dell's that's under similar scrutiny, and knowing what mechanisms we had in place, I would imagine that the various bloggers had - at best - a tangential relationship to the end game here. Of course, that's assuming that Dell has QA mechanisms in place that are at least half as smart as ours were...
Re:assuming the web was the cause... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:assuming the web was the cause... (Score:5, Funny)
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Please review Tyler Durden's formula for deciding whether or not to issue an automotive recall.
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But it could have initially been: Dell going to Sony saying: "We have a problem", and Sony saying "Oops! OK we've changed stuff, should be fine now, we pay for whatever blows up ok?". At this point if Dell wants to recall, Dell has to pay a fair bit - since not enough people are convinced it's a big enough problem, and Sony only commits to paying for what blows up.
Then when stuff hits the fan (theinquirer, etc), Dell goes to Sony and says: "Look, all bets are off, it's your frigging fault
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Smart companies get it written into the contract up front that if a component is recalled, the component manufacturer will pay for the recall and replacement of any device that contains that component. This is SOP for companies with half a clue, particularly for batteries and other potentially volatile parts....
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I doubt Sony will accept a contract where just because one notebook has a problem, and Dell gets nervous and recalls the whole batch AND Sony has to pay for the recall.
Often _perception_ of the problem (risk * impact * fear) can be a decider.
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Exactly!!!
TFA (I didn't read the whole thing) implies that pressure from the web, and videos/photos of flaming notebooks are responsible for Dell's recall. What a crock of shit!
Dell has done a few battery recalls, and at least 2 power supply recalls in the last 4 years, and none of those had near the media hype, and web hysteria that this one has had.
Our company has 80 of the affected laptop models, and only 6 b
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Damn you interweb! Damn you to hell!
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not a win at all (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but it certainly was a powerful incentive, given that negative publicity, despite what they say, isn't necessarily a good thing. Dell couldn't afford to have Sony's problem destroy their laptop business; in turn, they simply couldn't roll over on Sony, given the business relationship. In the end, the Internet end of the campaign was only one component of the change, and though important, was probably not the biggest factor.
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Yes it is Sony's fault, but you don't hear that on the news. All you hear is that Dell is having a recall.
WE know better, but not the media. So Dell is being affected.
This is a good thing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because information can now get distributed to millions of people by pressing an Enter key, it's great to see that things like this can be exposed. If anything, this should make companies look more closely at product quality and customer service -- or so we would hope. After all, a common mantra in marketing circles is that people rarely say anything when a product does what it's expected to do, but you can be sure they'll let as many people as possible know when something goes wrong.
Re:This is a good thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
Er... exactly how many years ago do you mean. Over her in the UK consumer programs on television have been seriously high in the ratings since the sixties - maybe even the fifties but my family only got a TV in 61, so I can't remember. And before that there were the curious things called newspapers which... well you get the gist of what I'm saying. Even today, for the vast majority of consumers the prime source of information will be television, and that internet thingy is only used by the kids/for e-mail/pr0n/on-line poker.
Re:This is a good thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
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The GP might have been a bit over-generalizing, the tech companies in particular need to be very careful about the qualit
Re:This is a good thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Like this: Late last year I spent $600 on a Fisher Paykel washing machine and already it's playing up. Never again will I buy Fisher Paykel crap.
So what's the news (Score:2)
Great - now the bloggers think they're fantastic (Score:5, Insightful)
Face it folks, your "blogosphere" is a mob of people who believe anything that their favorite "blog aka news site" posts, and that is ANYTHING AT ALL at times, and repost it themselves, often not even bothering to change a single character. They have no power, and never will. It's essentially the same as the fat outraged bloke in the pub that never shuts up about what he read in The Sun, despite not ever checking facts, figures, or common sense. I wish people would stop glamorising this crap.
And I'd like to say one more time, to all those who DO use their brains, and use sources, and not fly off the handle (like the O'Reilly incident), thanks for the news.
To Slashdot I say: Check the stories.
End of Rant
Re:Great - now the bloggers think they're fantasti (Score:3, Insightful)
There will
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This has always been true with any media.
You have those you trust, and those you don't. As with most fact-checking, it's not a good idea to search in the same media form for corroboration.
Eventually we will have news sites on the web that we trust -- the question is whether they will pick up on 'small' news stori
Re:Great - now the bloggers think they're fantasti (Score:2)
99% of any source of information is going to be noise that isn't relevant to you even if it is of acceptable quality.
Re:Great - now the bloggers think they're fantasti (Score:1)
Compare with traditional news media, that believe anything that their favourite news wire (AP, PA, Reuters) post, and reprint/broadcast it without bothering to change a single character.
Survivor Man (Score:2, Funny)
[beavis voice:] "Fire, Fire, Fire!!!"
Power of the Web (Score:2)
Dell vs Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it that when someone like Dell has a problem leading to a recall it's assumed they were doing something wrong. Either they're trying to cover up defects, or they're unresponsive to customers or everything they make is crap.
Why is it that when the same exact thing happens with Apple suddenly the apologists come out of the woodwork. The defect isn't Apple's fault first of all, and when Apple finally gets around to acknowledging the problem and recalls the product people insist that it proves they care about the customer.
Dell laptops come with defective Sony batteries: Dell is crap.
Apple laptops come with defective Sony batteries: It's all Sony's fault.
Dell recalls batteries: Dell would never have initiated the recall if it hadn't been for bloggers.
Apple recalls batteries: Behold Apple's benevolence.
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No I don't quite believe that, even though my experience with Dell in the past two years has been horrendous - little things like 100% failure on 200 or so corporate desktop PC hard drives, ~50% mobo failures on same (GX-270 if you want to know), multiple DOA laptops, server build quality into the toilet with idiotic case designs, crappified rack rails, reduction in drive b
Anecdotal (Score:2)
Persecution syndrome (Score:2)
- Apple is the underdog, holding onto a tiny percentage of a market dominated by Wintel machines
- Dell is the top dog, the biggest OEM in the Wintel arena
So, of course, Dell must be evil and crap just because it's the top dog. And conversely Apple must be lawful good and pure technical excellence just because it's the underdog.
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think about it:
1) Dell had to recall many times the number of batteries that Apple did. that just makes it a bigger issue. if Ford recalled 75,000,000 cars and GM recalled 100,000 for the same defective brake pads i am s
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One Man's Netroots Web Advocacy... (Score:4, Insightful)
When the "blog-O-sphere" gets it wrong, will there be any mainstream media left that's not already been cyber-whipped and pixel-chastised enough who might call them on it?
The Guillotine has gone out of fashion, and been replaced by The Drudge Report. That still places civilization ahead.
I think...
On the bright side... (Score:2)
Dell is just an intermediary in that operation, and would have more to lose if they didn't take part. The choice being (A) recall the batteries at exactly 0 (ZERO) dollars own cost,
Recall only when something blows up! (Score:1)
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachment.php?attach mentid=1553&stc=1 [badcaps.net]
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachment.php?attach mentid=431 [badcaps.net]
Dell is doing something about the problem, but for the most part, a lot of people are not even aware of
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TheInquirer.net is trusted because they're honest (Score:2)
Mod Parent Up! (Score:2)
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Watchdog (Score:3, Insightful)
How is this any different? It's not a win for the web at all, but a win for people who complain en masse, and a win for negative publicity shocking a company into action.
Apparently Dell were "EMBRACING THE BLOGOSPHERE". Yet this only happened after the recall was announced.
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It is a win for the web, because that is how people found out that it wasn't just them - it wasn't simply an isolated, freak case, and they didn't do anything wrong. The net helped people find other people with bad batteries, whereas is they simply called the company, where the first decision is to deny everything, they would have
Win for me, too. (Score:1)
:rolleyes: (Score:2)
I order you to breathe! Good! Now, keep breathing for the rest of your life! You are obeying my every command! Witness my magical mind control powers!
Win for panic - not the web (Score:3, Insightful)
If there's one thing that's missing in our modern hi-tech society it's modern hi-tech assessment of risk.
Why recall the batteries? (Score:2)
The link... (Score:2)
Hmm, missed this somehow...
http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006
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Without an INTERWEB it would have been DAYS later (Score:3, Funny)
I am sure that UPS and the USPS, for example, don't give a fig if a plane with some laptops on it catches on fire every now and then. They are huge evil corporations! Keep it up INTERWEB! SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER!
Here is what I would like to know... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Hmm, come to think about it, with DRM there might not BE video at 11....
obligatory reference (Score:1)
What company do you work for?
A big one.
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I'm sure all the web stuff gave Dell enough ammo to convince Sony, if Sony weren't convinced by then.
Dell was probably working on it long ago. (Score:1)
Prior Art (Score:3, Interesting)
So all we have to do... (Score:2)
if bring Dell and Apple batteries on plane (Score:1)
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Sammy Jackson would probably want to star in the m-f movie, maybe?
what about the torched pickup truck? (Score:2)
that got burned up by an exploding battery?
(not to mention the lap top computer).
I'm a bit weary of anti-dell autoresponse (Score:2)
I've had four Dell laptops, and all have been among the most reliable machines I've owned. I've used their support very very rarely -- but hell, I don't expect any company to provide a support tech up to my own technical a
New Alienware tagline (Score:2)
A possible cause... (Score:2)
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Backstabbing 101 (Score:1)
Tinfoil Hat On (Score:5, Funny)
Think about it.
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Re:Tinfoil Hat On (Score:5, Insightful)
I could post doctored photos posing as various different people and cause an "uproar." Does this mean a company like Dell is going to recall their product with no investigation into my claims? I'd hope not.
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Now, whose being naive?
Seriously though, there is no way the recall is going to stop a class action lawsuit. That's going to happen no matter what.
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