I do not own a Dell. I have never owned a Dell. I have, however, worked for companies that exclusively run Dell computers and have had to contact customer support on one too many occasions. Each one of those help sessions was, without a doubt, less than pleasurable. In fact, out of the six calls I remember, five of them were downright painful. Between the language barrier between myself and the tech, the lack of basic computer knowledge and the infinite collection of ‘hold muzak’, I would rather buy a new computer than deal with their customer support. Apparently I am not the only one. I gleaned this info from the interweb just today.

Dell is actually hoping that customers will pay more money to speak to an American about their tech problems.

The computer maker recently put out a press release announcing “new premium support service.” The plan is this: For a fee, people get the right to talk to “the same dedicated team each time they have an issue” with a Dell product. The kicker: The service will be provided by “an advanced support team in North America.” Sounds like Dell is going to tap into MinuteFix anyday now!

So the question begs to be asked. Is Dell finally admitting that their regular, FREE customer service is lack luster? And furthermore is a sad excuse to tap into American sentiment and patriotism in order to sell a product?

According to a Dell spokesman, “We try to do the best we can for all of our customers all the time. That said, we want to be able to provide options for customers.”

It will be interesting to see the adoption rate of this pay-for-service and even more interesting to see the people that choose alternative companies such as MinuteFix.