Dell coughs to second Vostro laptop keyboard cock-up
QWERTYUI-OOOPS
Despite admitting a month ago that it had shipped Vostro laptops to Europe with the wrong keyboard, Dell confessed this week that it has made the same blunder again.
The computer giant this week emailed UK and Italian buyers of its Vostro 1310 and 1510 notebooks that they've got the wrong keyboard - just as it had to do in May.
Back then, it shipped said Vostros into Europe with a keyboard layout that placed the Z key below the S and D keys, and not below the A and S keys, which is where European touch-typists expect to find it
This was because the left shift key was "too big".
Dell's Vostro keyboard: wrong (top) and right
Credit where it's due, Dell apologised and offered to replace the kooky keyboards.
And then it went and sold a whole batch more of laptops with the original, duff design.
How come? "One of our keyboard parts suppliers sent us one shipment of the pervious [sic] layout," an embarrassed Dell admitted to affected customers.
"When the factory received the shipment, our own quality control process did not pick up the error," it added and pledged that "we have now put in place new quality control measures in our keyboard parts procurement process."
As before, punters can be sent a new keyboard which they can fit themselves, or they can arrange for a Dell techie to do it.
Thanks to reader Andrea for the tip.
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COMMENTS
OMG Dell get something wrong.
Stop the press! Dell make a mistake!
If this is the worst piece of news to come from Dell as they slash their Irish workforce, they'll be doing well.
Dell's quality control process
Apparently Dell's "own quality control process" works like this:
QA #1: "Hey has that shipment arrived yet?"
QA #2: "Yeah."
Dude, you're getting a WHAT?!?
SurfDude: Dude, you're getting a Dell!
Joe6Pack: Oh, shit!
SD: No, dude, seriously, you're getting a Dell!!
J6P: Can I have a root canal instead? Much less painful....
SD: You don't want a classic, all-American computer?
J6P: Not when I am understanding the excellent support gentleman not at all...
SD: OK, how about a Vostro?
J6P: Huh? 'Vosotros' is archaic second-person plural in Spanish....
Dell are a lot like Microsoft. When they started out, you were rooting for them and (usually) enjoyed dealing with them... but now...
Show me a company in any other industry that could repeatedly, knowingly ship defective product and still be near the top in their industry. Only in PCs do we routinely accept such mind-blowingly negligent garbage.
(Mine's the dental coat with the huge bloodstain... Thanks)
The previous was perversly pervious?
Sorry, I am just being a smart arse. Nothing to see here.
Re: now we know who was laid off in the last round
"All those people were doing something (and if they weren't then the managers should have been laid off for incompetence)"
There is a small problem with your theory...
If the managers are laid off, people will realise that they weren't doing anything, then their managers will be laid off, etc, etc all the way up the chain.
All that'll be left are the monkeys on the floor, who will realise that they have no boss and start doing nothing.
Come to think of it, being Dell, this would be a good outcome!
