Dell laying off 10% of its workforce

It's no secret that Dell's been struggling lately -- after years as the alpha dog of the PC market they've recently slipped to number two behind arch-rival HP -- and now today they're officially tightening the corporate belt with announcement that they're planning to layoff nearly ten percent of the company's workforce. The BBC doesn't get specific about where they'll be trimming jobs, but anyone who's been in Dell Hell better pray that the cuts don't come from tech support and customer service.

[Thanks, Chay and Nimro]

[John @ May 31st 2007 6:49PM]

They probably wouldn't be struggling if they stopped making extremely bland-looking machines. The only laptops that are uglier than a Dell laptop is the Thinkpad, but its a helluva machine.

[Totalfixation @ May 31st 2007 6:53PM]

Well what do you expect, The HP DV series look so much better than there laptop series. Dell's Laptop are beginning to look outdated. Plus they don't offer that 750 off 1400 coupon anymore? maybe a good reason why they haven't been selling.

[strider_mt2k @ May 31st 2007 6:55PM]

Cut all outsourced stuff immediately.

You'll get some business back I'll bet.

[Aaron @ May 31st 2007 7:05PM]

Yup, instead of looking at management and lack of innovation in product design, it must be all those lazy, good for nothing, workers sucking up the profits and making them lose their market share.

[zac @ May 31st 2007 7:08PM]

I just got done fighting a complaint against dells financial service company. The BBB finally got them to make right on a screwed up financing deal. Dell used to be a good company but they have tried to cut costs by outsourcing there work and as a result their services have gone to hell. Never again will i do business with Dell, and I encourage others out there to do research before bying anything from them.

[XSportSeeker @ May 31st 2007 7:14PM]

They'll probably cut off people from their sales department.

[idk @ May 31st 2007 7:15PM]

At first I laugh at this, then I see that it is really screwed up that now thousands of people are going to be left without jobs just because HP has more style than them. An HP PC and especially their laptops are very unique and nice, where as Dell is just making bland ones. And while Lenovo and IBM make some ugly laptops, they're that way because they're rugged as hell, an excuse in which Dell cannot use. in my opinion, dell should just leave, and give up all together. And on that note, so should MAC, for making lackluster PCs at an extreme price, and for making it harder on software creators.

[CaptSaltyJack @ May 31st 2007 7:51PM]

I'm laughing at you. Laughing at you from my quad-core Intel Xeon Mac Pro. This sucker cost the same as a Windows machine I priced on NewEgg with the same specs. So the only thing "extreme" here is your ignorance.

[Jason Myres @ Jun 1st 2007 12:13AM]

that and your Mac Pro can run every operating system in existence. I'm sure developers hate that. It must confuse them when they can develop for WHATEVER platform they want on one machine.

[unkn @ Jun 1st 2007 2:06PM]

You are truly a queer. What the hell is the need to have 4 cores on a MAC!?
It's utter garbage, and anyone who has such crap on a shitty OS doesn't deserve to reply to me. There is absolutely no reason for such a worthless machine, especially on an OS that can't do much. I'm glad your a moron, now keep it to yourself.

Oh, and one last thing, if you got a mac to run windows then your truly a moron. Oh, and any PC can run ANY OS as well, just with more compatability, and with the latest tech. Hardly ANYONE is that retarded as to have windows and mac dual booted on thier mac, which is why it is harder for software makers to create software for everyone when they have to choose which OS it should be on. And the instant answer is Windows.

[Sy @ May 31st 2007 7:22PM]

Some reporter should ask Steve Jobs what would he do if he was in charge of Dell now. Karma is a bitch.

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.

[Big @ May 31st 2007 7:29PM]

OUTSOURCING is good for DELL because it allows them to have 24/7 tech support. What they really need to do is increase english training of that support to make their tech lines better. Most pc company's use TECH support overseas so they can boast a 24/7 help line.

SOME OF YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT.
DELL's products always looks outdated, utilitarian and plain. Its obvious they are doing this as cheaply as possible to stay competitive but they really should take a page or two from HP since HP has been turning out some fantastic pieces of equiptment lately.

I think Dell's biggest problem is that it isn't sold in BEST BUY's, CIRCUIT CITY's or WALMARTS.
The realized years ago that DELL and GATEWAY stores weren't doing a reasonable share of business. Dell should have begun making off-the-shelf laptops and PC packages years ago.

As a Dept of Education NYC worker I know DELL has put to much faith of its future into schools and small businesses. They should do their best to create laptops targeting back to school kids and high schoolers. I say if they could game together a viable $400 laptop, THEY would capture a large amount of the laptop market during 3rd and 4th quarters.

[dude @ May 31st 2007 7:41PM]

HP's are alot better than Dell's especially when you can buy them from say Best Buy which takes even more cash off. plus they look tons better. dell needs to make their lower end-mid price PC's better lookin to compete.

[mike @ May 31st 2007 7:56PM]

As a MacBook owner...


LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!

Beleaguered...

[John Doe @ May 31st 2007 9:44PM]

As a macBook Pro owner....its too bad Apple's warranty sucks my fat ass compaired to Dell.

Apple takes your system for 3+ days to repair. - Dell sends someone to your house.

Apple will go out of their way to avoid replacing the system - Dell will send you a new one at the drop of a hat, any hat, in a hat factory.

Dell's most expensive warranty covers accidental damage. - Apple? LOLROTFLMAO.

Sorry but Apple has NOTHING to be proud of.

[RichardatDELL @ May 31st 2007 8:12PM]

The reduction will be targeted to eliminate redundancies, bureaucracy and activities not critical to delivering customer value. So, we are doing the right thing to IMPROVE, not decrease efforts anywhere we do business….

[Matt O @ May 31st 2007 8:27PM]

I have a sony vaio sz and im nothing but satisfied... I thought about getting a Mac but it was not practical because for that price i wanted the compatibility that a pc offers

[Chris @ Jun 1st 2007 9:34AM]

"I have a sony vaio sz and im nothing but satisfied... I thought about getting a Mac but it was not practical because for that price i wanted the compatibility that a pc offers"

Really? You are aware that a Mac also runs Windows, aren't you? In reality, a Mac has more compatibility with more software than your Sony since you can run OS X (legally/easily).

[UO Guy @ May 31st 2007 9:34PM]

Man, I bought some 30" monitors from Dell Outlet (refurbs) and they SUCKED. I had to return all but one for replacements. The replacements are more refurbs. If you buy a new monitor and you send it back, you get a refurb. Their refurbs are JUNK. But what pissed me off more was the fact that their customer support was so terrible, I had to spend LITERALLY over five HOURS on the phone with them (over several calls) to get it straightened out. I finally asked for them to just send me NEW monitors for my trouble. They refused. I returned all of them and got a refund. Screw Dell. Their service is horrible.

[mensrea @ Jun 1st 2007 9:42AM]

I've bought almost nothing but refurbs from Dell over the years and everything has ran great. Bad luck my friend.

[KC @ May 31st 2007 10:07PM]

What's wrong with laying off 10% of the staff? That needs to be done all the time, to retain the best talent in the company, trim off the lazy and useless, and motivate the remaining employees.

[Mitch @ May 31st 2007 10:55PM]

Dell use to have awesome service and that is what got them to the top. They have cut corners every year and now have one of the most pitiful customer service units in the industry, maybe only second to sony for the honor of being the worst. last time i called i was connected to someone in India, who started the conversation off telling me his name "Bill" Obviously this is not his name so they start off the calls by lying to you? this is the way to build a relationship with customers????? On the other hand my E1405 has been a good machine and so has my 600M both very solid and problem free. Dell is offering some of the lowest Bang for the Buck you can get, but the coolness factor of the HP's is well worth the extra money. Dell make some cool laptops, the last 2 X1's we received where unusable the mouse on both was failing the bluetooth did not work, just complete junk. The sony's are the coolest in the ultra small laptop arena, but their support also is way below par.

[Moby Disk @ Jun 1st 2007 1:02AM]

They need to stop pre-installing crap on their machines that just increases their tech support problems. I know 2 people who bought Dells in recent years, and both systems could not burn CDs because there were so many competing CD burning applications running that they all conflicted. Dell created their own support nightmare. The first thing you see on a new Dell is a bunch of EULAs to agree too. They just are not customer friendly.

[mike @ Jun 1st 2007 2:49AM]

They need to stop pre-installing crap on their machines
--

Are you kidding? That's where their profits come from. They get kickbacks for installing that shit.

How else did you think they could make a profit off a $600 laptop?

[Darkzero63 @ Jun 1st 2007 2:53AM]

Great- and I just bought a Dell Core 2 Duo computer.

[Justin Timperley @ Jun 1st 2007 3:58AM]

I had so many service issues with HP that I swore that I would never touch the things again. I had a gateway before this and had no problems with the service, now I have a Dell, and thankfully I haven't had any issues, however they do need to stop pre installing crap on their machines, it took me less than a day before I formatted my new laptop just to get rid of all the crap, been great since I did that. I am, however seriously concerned that people have had service issues, bad service is a fast track to the bottom in the computer industry.

[Addy O'Smani @ Jun 1st 2007 8:17AM]

I'm bemused at how quickly you all turned news about Dell's shortcomings into a PC Vs. Mac debate.

I should be happy that it took you a whole 11 posts to get there this time. Go you : )

[noob @ Jun 1st 2007 8:58AM]

yeah so when is apple going to get off its high horse and have a real warranty plan anyways?

i have a macbookpro, after switching from thinkpads and inspirons...and yeah the warranty sucks my ass.

[Pedro @ Jun 1st 2007 9:07AM]

Dell does not make most of its money in the consumer arena, nor does HP. These companies make the lion's share of their money selling to corporations. That is where Dell has fallen behind. Companies and small business are looking at alternatives to Dell. Its not the people on Engadget ordering one or two systems, but the people who order thousands of machines a year. In their eyes Dell is certainly no longer the golden child they once were.

[senyl @ Jun 1st 2007 9:25AM]

I was laid off from Dell back when the bubble popped in early 2001. I feel for those people.

[david haizlip @ Jun 3rd 2007 12:26PM]

dell sucks and so do there turban heads technical support.