Some days it’s good to be a small business owner and some days it’s not. In this space, I often whine about various things that bug me, but I have to say that this summer has been the best one I can remember in a long time. Businesswise things are going well, plus I’ve had less stress and more fun than I’ve had in ages.
Last weekend, we went out and picked huckleberries. We have been to summer parties, gone kayaking, had friends over, and spent lots of quality time just sitting outside enjoying our screened-in deck. I’ve had time to work on some of my endless refinishing projects and to can strawberry preserves and even pickles. (When a neighbor drops off a bag of 9 sizable cucumbers, pickles are pretty much your only option, since realistically, who can eat 9 cukes?!)
In more nerdy news, sure it’s been a great summer for me, but not so good for Dell. This week, I learned that my Dell laptop is part of a battery recall on laptops made between April 2004 and July 2006 (https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com). I read an article about how Dell is recalling 4.1 million (yes million) batteries because the battery may overheat and cause your laptop to catch fire.
Dell actually recommends that you immediately pull out the battery and run it only on AC power. The worst part for Dell is that it’s not even their computer that’s at fault; it’s the Sony battery. (On the other hand, you can make the argument that someone at Dell selected that battery.) I read that only six laptops out of the 4 million actually have caught fire, so the risk isn’t very great. However, I don’t want my laptop to be number 7, so my little laptop is plugged into the wall.
Dell’s response to this problem has been pretty impressive. I can only imagine what it takes to organize a recall on 4.1 million of anything. It’s disturbing. I went to the site and presumably, I will have a new battery for my laptop in about 3 weeks.
Problems are going to arise in any business. It’s all in how you handle them. Keeping customers happy (and safe) is important. It’s nice to see a huge company like Dell making the effort to do the right thing, even when it affects 4.1 million machines.