internet - Dell gets on its knees

The heated exchange between computer manufacturer Dell and a group of disgruntled online consumers got a new twist, as Dell's AP director of corporate communication T.R. Reid starts to offer his apologies (here in Sam Flemming's weblog):

We made and have acknowledged an error in our marketing material. That error has since been corrected. While there's no performance difference between the T2300 and T2300e in notebook computers, customer experience matters most. So we contacted customers when we realized the error, apologized, and explained the comparable performance. Most customers were satisfied. For those who were not, we offered refunds for returned systems. Some customers have taken us up on this offer. We welcome discussion of Dell in the blogosphere, in China and elsewhere. We're learning from and contributing to blogs, on a range of topics. As for China, we are the second-largest supplier of computer-systems in the country, which suggests a large and growing number of customers see value in what we offer. We serve customers in more than 2,000 cities in China. And we just opened a second manufacturing plant and are one of the country's largest exporters (to Japan and South Korea) in any industry.

Sam is praising Dell - of course, since he rightfully might smell some business here. Dell's problem is that it took an article in Business Week before they noted something was really going very bad in China. Keeping a closer eye on China's online discussions might be smarter.