OT - Dell can kiss my hairy northern nards, Huh? Options

[soloracer]

I went to a family gathering in Montana for a relative of mine who is being shipped to serve in Iraq for two years. He mentioned that they had internet access over there via a wireless network and that he was thinking of getting a laptop. I thought it would be nice for the family to all chip in and buy him one. We could load it with pictures and our e-mail addresses and give it to him before he ships out.

So I called Dell and went through the ordering process. Right at the end I told them that it was going to someone who was being shipped to Iraq for two years. Their response? They cancelled the order!!! They told me that they can't sell to anyone who is taking it to Iraq because Iraq is on a banned list and that if the computer got in the wrong hands they could be held liable. I explained that it was going to a man who was in the military and they basically said that they could care less. WTF?? What do service men use over there for internet access? Two cans and a ball of string?

[fiid]

...chop...
They used to be all out of Austin Texas, now they only do management there and everything else is outsourced. That is not the way to run a business. I predict that they will fail if they continue. There is a lot of bad press about the whole thing. There was even talk that they were going to move it all back here to regain what they had if possible. But that didnt happen yet, instead they made them all take english lessons and change their names to something American. Funny though, last time I talked to someone in support for Dell, his name was Jeff and he had a very strong indian accent. I got pissed and told him to let me talk to his supervisor, his name was Andy and he sounded just like Jeff. I finally said screw it and figured it out myself. Time for the nasty letter to Michael Dell.

I work in software engineering. Here's the other perspective on outsourcing:

You run a software project in the US (or UK), it's mismanaged, overscoped, and the stakeholders won't make a decision about when it's delivered. All the engineers are pissed off with being overworked and answering questions for stakeholders that refuse to read the documentation they have been provided (which answers most of their questions). Project runs long and costs more that you thought. The CxO's wife/mistress/hooker works for IBM or HP, who has a product that they acquired 20 years ago and have done no maintenence on (because all the origninal team quit shortly afterwards) which does something close to the project goals, but doesn't work very well. There is a mandate to use that product. Project runs long, may or may not succeed (80% don't), and runs way over budget. CxO gets huge bonus because he overcame insummountable odds to actually deliver the project, even though it is way over time and over budget. Project team gets laid off so company can meet wall street expectations despite running over time and over budget.

You run a project in India (for example), and everything goes just as badly, probably even 10-20% worse. However - every hour of taught conversations, repeating the same meeting over and over, and sitting in denial that it is actually good to talk about the project requirements costs about 75 - 50% less. So it's STILL cheaper, and the odds of success are about the same.

Politics aside - This is a totally avoidable situation - basically if we got on top of our collective shit as a country (better education would be a good start) we could seriously outperform other countries. Go forth, compete, and innovate.