Dell has moved to my "don't buy" list

[Dave Schwartz]

We currently have 3 Dell laptops.

One of them broke and the next day there was a guy here to fix it. Great service, right?

Yup. And I am thrilled with that.

Guess what happened when I looked inside the machine?

See, I buy only performance systems and for me a laptop must have a 7200 rpm hard drive.

(They should also only have AMD processors as well, but that is another story.)

So, I purchased 7200 rpm hard drives... paid extra for them... and had to wait extra long because they were "waiting for the drive."

Imagine my surprise when I looked inside and found a 4200 rpm drive! Not even a 5400 rpm drive! The slowest drive they could possibly find.

After wasting 5 or 6 hours with customer service (who continually transferred me to tech support, warranty support or some other department) - and they refused to allow me to speak with a supervisor! Six hours and no supervisor!

Anyway, the bottom line is they aren't even willing to replace the drive.

So, the message is clear:

When you buy from Dell, you do not always get what you order and they will not necessarily stand behind it.

[GaryG]

I know all about Dull Computers. Their cust svc people must be in Bangalore or somewhere because I have never gotten one that speaks English as a first language. They use a service code with a lot of letters and numbers and is is painful to hear them read back what they think you said..Q queen, number 7, G gorilla and on and on. They probably pay them with rice. :mad:

[GameTheory]

If you paid with a major credit card you have recourse. Tell them you are willing to send the laptop back for a full refund of what you paid. If they refuse, file a complaint with VISA or whoever and you'll get your money back one way or another...

[JustRalph]

Hey Dave, check this out..............
Last week my power supply on my Dell at work died (six months ago they replaced it twice, I put in a new larger UPS, worked ok until last week) so I call the Tech Support line and after getting the worst english speaker in all of India, I try to convince him that my power supply has died again. He wants me to tell him what is on the monitor, after I have explained to him 5 times that the machine won't boot........no power.......etc..............he tells me that he thinks the power supply has died. Duh!
So he puts me on hold and comes back in 3 minutes or so and tells me that my power supply is out of warranty, he will have to transfer me to someone who can sell me a power supply. I asked him when the warranty ended. He says "one year from date of purchase" I tell him that I don't memorize dates and don't have the receipt. He finally tells me that it expired two days earlier. I ask for a supervisor. This guy gets on the phone and tells me that it doesn't matter that it only ended two days ago.........they are going to hold me to the date. ..........great........It's forty bucks locally for a power supply. I figure I will run out and do it myself. The guy on the phone tells me he is going to transfer me to sales to get a power supply. I ask, how much? he says around $70 plus shipping.............I tell him to forget it. I hang up.

3 stores later ( I am carrying the power supply into a couple of places to try and find a match) I can't find one that is oriented the same way, basically it has the prongs on the wrong side and the case has a cage covering the side that most 3rd party power supplies use. I finally hit a local shop where I know they carry goofy stuff. I walk in and the guy working says to me "Dell, they got you by the balls, they make that power supply so that you have to buy it from them" He tells me that I might as well go back to the office and call Dell. I buy a power supply from the guy anyway. I leave. Cross the street to the hardware store and buy some tin snips for 10 bucks. Needless to say, in about 10 minutes the case is no longer "stock" and my computer was up and running. They are on my "don't buy list " too

I have probably sold 40-50 computers from Dell to customers over the years. Sometimes I bought them and resold them, other times I just told my customer what to order...............not anymore.............

[Tom]

A guy at work bought a DULL, and it never worked from the day it arrived. He got nothing but a run around from DULL and had to go to his Visa provider to get
it taken care if.

[finfan]

Don't you love it that there are Dell sponsored links on this thread. :lol:


I got my last computer on Ebay from a clone maker almost 3 yrs. ago. No problems plus no proprietary bs either.

[kingfin66]

Don't you love it that there are Dell sponsored links on this thread. :lol:

You gotta love Google. It's all about "relevance."

[Dave Schwartz]

A very entertaining (if not useful) site:

http://www.IHateDell.net

No joke.

I posted this on my programmer's newsgroup and got similar stories.

Dave

[mainardi]

Maybe I should knock on all of the wood in the house. ;)

I've had a refurbished DELL GX50 for about five years -- expanded the memory and added a USB 2.0 card, as well -- and to date I have been extremely fortunate (by the sounds of things from the rest of this thread). :faint:

Last year, I bought a DELL 24 inch LCD monitor -- highly rated by a PC magazine -- and it's humming along quite nicely. :)

Yes, DELL has horrid customer service, and that's why I'm glad that I haven't been as unfortunate as some others with horror stories. :jump:

[NoDayJob]

We currently have 3 Dell laptops.

Anyway, the bottom line is they aren't even willing to replace the drive.

So, the message is clear:

When you buy from Dell, you do not always get what you order and they will not necessarily stand behind it.

5 AMD 64's, 939 socket, in the last 15 months without a hitch. You might give these folks a try. I have no interest in their company either.

http://www.cpusolutions.com/html/index.htm

[cj]

Dell makes their hardware proprietary. You can't replace things with anything but Dell parts usually. No thanks.

[ecaroff]

Sorry but that is just not true. I currently have 2 Dell servers, 3 Dell Dimension systems and 4 Dell Laptops. I have also purchased over 4 Dell's for family members. The only problem in the past 8 years I've had is with a monitor and they replace it FED-ex the NEXT day. I have replaced such things as fan's, etc. as a precautionary measure, upgraded disk drives, increased memory, etc. and no of these were Dell parts.

Now......... I do have one complaint. When they upgrade a system it is not necessarily upwards compatiable with the previous models. I wanted a backup of one of my servers and one of my Dimension systems and really wanted to purchase their new model. I had to purchase these systems on e-bay. Dell did not have the model's anymore in-stock and the new models weren't 100% compatiable. So I purchased the systems on ebay and I have no complaints.

I have owned Gateway's, Compaq's as well as other PC's and the only one I can recommend is a Dell. However, when purchasing a system NEVER EVER get a system that has a Western Digital Drive. When I was working for companies time after time we had drive failures and everyone of these were Western Digital.

[hurrikane]

Compaq was the same way. had the same problem with a power supply.

I raped the damn thing for whatever I could salvage and tossed it.

Been building my own ever since. Except laptops.

I would file with the Better Business Bureau Dave. I know it won't get you anything but if enough people do it maybe they'll wake up.

Funny story. I had verizon dsl and could not get a reliable feed to the house.

After being on the phone with new dehli tech support for about an hour the guy tells me to wrap the modem in aluminum foil because it is getting bombarded with radio waves and that is the problem.

After picking my jaw up off the floor I hung up, called verizon, told them to get their crap out my house and never darken my door again. They still can't figure out why.

[lsbets]

When I got my computer, I also got a Dell All in One printer. Can't get ink anywhere but from Dell. Drives me nuts.

[wes]

LEXMARK Makes the Dell Printers. May can match up with a Lexmark printer cartridge.

wes

[GameTheory]

I have owned Gateway's, Compaq's as well as other PC's and the only one I can recommend is a Dell. However, when purchasing a system NEVER EVER get a system that has a Western Digital Drive. When I was working for companies time after time we had drive failures and everyone of these were Western Digital.Who does make the best drives? (Did your company also use non-WD drives that never failed?) It seems Western Digital dominates the market. I've got a few WD drives that I'm using now, including two 7200 SATA "Raptors" -- no trouble so far. I've read that they've improved somewhat in the last few years.

I did have a drive fail last year that might have been an WD, can't remember. They all fail eventually. What's a good alternative?

[ecaroff]

That was in the late 90's that all the WD's were failing. I have not purchased one since so I don't know how they are today. We had one that we had to leave the computer door open so you could easily get to the drive because you had to tap the drive with a hammer to get it started. Eventually, it too completely failed. I've had good luck with Maxtor and that's all I buy now. I have used IBM with no problems too. It's probably like anything - some models are good and some are bad. Regarding the comments on Dell: they may have just found a bad model but I had to state my case since Dell has been great to me.

[headhawg]

Who does make the best drives? (Did your company also use non-WD drives that never failed?) It seems Western Digital dominates the market. I've got a few WD drives that I'm using now, including two 7200 SATA "Raptors" -- no trouble so far. I've read that they've improved somewhat in the last few years.

I did have a drive fail last year that might have been an WD, can't remember. They all fail eventually. What's a good alternative?
Regarding hard drive brands I couldn't agree more. They ALL fail eventually. I have had good luck with WDs, and I like the new Seagate that I bought not too long ago. I am a little gunshy about IBM/Hitachi drives. I was an unknowing victim of the IBM GXP75 Deskstar (uh..."Deathstar") drive problem. That model had a failure rate over 10% if I recall the details from the class action lawsuit (and I think that the rate was higher than that). IBM settled for $100 or a $25 IBM product "coupon" depending upon how you fit into the
lawsuit parameters. That's probably the only brand that I would stay away from. Maybe Maxtor, as I think their drives underperform compared to other brands.

[Valuist]

Gary-

My dad always says the same thing about Dell. He says they might as well call it New Dell-hi because he's always talking to somebody in India.

I've had a bad experience with Gateway. They are liars; plain and simple. I bought a computer from them in 1999 and paid $100 for their "trade in" plan. In 2004, when I wanted to trade it in, I was told sorry. I told them sorry, they've never get any more of my business. Then I made a mistake in fall 2004 buying one from a company called MDG. MDG may exist in other areas now but they pulled out of the Chicago area in spring 2005, and the warranty is now expired. My dad hates his Dell.

Are there any good computer buying experiences out there?

[chickenhead]

I've always bought Dell, both at work and at home...rarely does anything go bad, but when it does it's been minor and I just fix it myself. The stuff is so cheap nowadays it's not even worth my time to try and sit on the phone.

[andicap]

I got a Lacie external and the drive is fine except the damn plug keeps breaking...the pins are incredibly fragile and they break if you just pull on them a little hard.

But Lacie tells me no one else makes their particular plug so its $17 every time it breaks. The only solution is to anchor the damn drive to my desktop and back up my laptop stuff using Folder Share to sync the files.

:bang:

[GameTheory]

Gary-

My dad always says the same thing about Dell. He says they might as well call it New Dell-hi because he's always talking to somebody in India.

I've had a bad experience with Gateway. They are liars; plain and simple. I bought a computer from them in 1999 and paid $100 for their "trade in" plan. In 2004, when I wanted to trade it in, I was told sorry. I told them sorry, they've never get any more of my business. Then I made a mistake in fall 2004 buying one from a company called MDG. MDG may exist in other areas now but they pulled out of the Chicago area in spring 2005, and the warranty is now expired. My dad hates his Dell.

Are there any good computer buying experiences out there?I always build my own from scratch. With a laptop you obviously can't do that, so you should also do research. Research not just a brand, but the particular model you are interested in. Always pay with a major credit card. (They will usually take your side in any dispute as long as you can document the purchase properly, and retailers DO NOT like to get on VISA's shit list, so you will usually get your refund from the company to avoid that, and if you don't you can usually then get it from VISA) Buy only from places with a good return policy. Research online retailers at places like resellerratings.com. Look at their return & customer service ratings in particular. (Lots of people are good at selling stuff and bad at taking it back.) The cheapest online retailers are almost always bad bets, but at the next tier up (in terms of price) there are some good dealers.

Most no-name computer products are crap. Many brand-name products are crap as well. Don't buy anything impulsively.

Speaking of good service, I just had a 1GB RAM stick from Kingston fail. It worked for a little over a year. But they have a lifetime warranty and are sending me a new one (they even paid for the return shipping). As a rule, things will fail, but if you deal with the better companies they will take care of you.

[NoDayJob]

Speaking of good service, I just had a 1GB RAM stick from Kingston fail. It worked for a little over a year. But they have a lifetime warranty and are sending me a new one (they even paid for the return shipping). As a rule, things will fail, but if you deal with the better companies they will take care of you.

I have used both Kingston and Micron RAM. Micron is the best by far.

[GameTheory]

I have used both Kingston and Micron RAM. Micron is the best by far.Yeah, Micron is good, but it costs twice as much too. If you get Micron, buy it from Crucial, otherwise you may be getting Micron chips on a substandard board...

[xtb]

After a bad experience with Gateway customer service and proprietary parts problems with HP, I'll probably never buy another PC (other than laptop) from anyone. I've built 6 PC's since with no problems. I know what's in them and I can upgrade them.

[Dave Schwartz]

I have to agree with all you guys about building your own... except I get someone to do it for me.

I have a local company I have been working with for years and generally buy 4-7 computers per year from them. (This year we've bought 9 already but that is because we are also upgrading our Linux servers this year.)


Of course, they don't build laptops. So, it was Dell and, hence, this thread.

The Sager laptop I have is just a thrilling machine. I highly recommend them from a performance standpoint.

Dave

[JustRalph]

Dave, there is help out there. Check with a local hospital, counseling is available....... I think you are addicted! :lol:

[Dave Schwartz]

Ralphie, you have no idea.

LOL

Had a contractor over at my house one day. He counted 17 systems currently active on the network. He said, I have never been in a house with so many computers.

We're down to 15 now. (I'm tapering off.)


Dave

[JustRalph]

He counted 17 systems currently active on the network. He said, I have never been in a house with so many computers.

We're down to 15 now. (I'm tapering off.)Dave

do you even have to run your furnace?

[NoDayJob]

Compaq Funny story. I had verizon dsl and could not get a reliable feed to the house.

After being on the phone with new dehli tech support for about an hour the guy tells me to wrap the modem in aluminum foil because it is getting bombarded with radio waves and that is the problem.

:lol: He probably wraps his head in foil too, to stop the radio transmissions emitting from the fillings in his teeth. We had a telephone repair[?] man, probably this fellas brother, wrap our incoming phone lines box with foil because the plastic cover was missing. The phones shorted out during a rain storm and we had to wait over a week to get our service back. :lol:

[toetoe]

Dave,

I'm sorry you got "delled" but look on the bright side. You've started a thread that:

1) looks like it'll go on forever, and

2) is very useful without being about porn or gambling. Oh, sorry ... GAMING. :D

Well done.

Confession: I bought mine at Costco. :blush:

[GaryG]

So I guess this means PCs are cheap because:
a) they use the cheapest components, virtually all from Asia
b) they are assembled in third world county sweatshops
c) they farm out cust service because Americans don't work for rice
They probably figure that if you get too upset with the service you will just buy a new machine. We have become a nation of consumers...period. I'm not sure Dull even does the design in Austin anymore.

[BIG RED]

After being on the phone with new dehli tech support for about an hour the guy tells me to wrap the modem in aluminum foil because it is getting bombarded with radio waves and that is the problem.

I had to hire Cartman ( From South Park ) to stand next to my modem with the sattelite sticking out from his arse! :D

[GameTheory]

So I guess this means PCs are cheap because:
a) they use the cheapest components, virtually all from Asia
b) they are assembled in third world county sweatshops
c) they farm out cust service because Americans don't work for rice
They probably figure that if you get too upset with the service you will just buy a new machine. We have become a nation of consumers...period. I'm not sure Dull even does the design in Austin anymore.They aren't made in sweatshops, they are made in very high-tech factories, but different brands are all likely made in the same factory due to the ISO standards.

[Dave Schwartz]

Ralph,

What's a furnace?


Dave

[Doc]

I just bought a new Dell desktop, the XPS 400 series, this week, with a 19 inch flat panel monitor. They forgot to ship the speaker system (and never charged me for it), so when I called to complain the representative apologized and then sent to me their best system, including a subwoofer, free. This is my second Dell - I can honestly say my first is six years old and going strong with no problems. But then again, I have a Toshiba laptop (no problems either) and another desktop, a Hewlett-Packard 703 series, and no problems with that system, either. Maybe I'm just lucky.

[JustRalph]

Ralph,

What's a furnace?


Dave

Dave, look around the room........you have 15 mini furnaces running...:lol:

[DJofSD]

He who dies with the most PCs wins?

Or is it the number of PCs is in direct proportion to one's manhood?

[Indulto]

DJ,

It's he who dies with the last PC running to transact a wager achieving the largest posthumous payoff.

[Dave Schwartz]

Doc,

Seriously, can you send me his name and extension?

Dave

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi Dave,

You wrote "He counted 17 systems currently active on the network."

I thought I had you beat. But I counted it up and I only have 14 currently active. If I turn all the laptops on, it would be 18, but they are rarely on in my house (they are generally only used on trips).

What the heck do you do with all of them? I personally do lots of number crunching.

Mike Nunamaker

[Dave Schwartz]

"Number crunching" would be a good description, as would "web servers," "email server," "print server," "music server," etc.

And I actually counted 3 of our laptops that we use on an everyday basis.

Dave

[DJofSD]

FYI.

There was an article in this AM's LA Times about Dell losing a very large multi-year contract with Phillips Electronics. It was worth $500 million. The article claims the termination was by mutual agreement. Dell PR did not have a comment.

Gee, maybe PA has some readers over in Holland!

[andicap]

These types of threads can be a tad misleading because even if 7 out of 10 people are happy, that's still a pretty bad customer satisfaction rate.

Having said that .... I've had practically no issues with my Dell Dimension 4100 desktop and it's about four years old now. Its obsolete as hell but for my needs, as long as I have my laptop it's OK. I upgraded the RAM to 512K, got a 19" Samsung screen and a wireless keyboard/mouse. Thats worked out fine.
One thing which hasn't done so well was the upgraded to 2.0 USB -- somehow the software didn't take and the new USB 2.0 slots don't work at all.

Service is as good/bad as any other company I assume. I can get quick answers on e-chat quickly although I don't always trust them. I had some issues a couple of years back and did have some problems getting the right people on the phone, but once I did everything worked out fine.
So I'd say the only knock has been service.

[Dave Schwartz]

Andy,

We have not had problems with either the hardware or the service.

My issue is that we did not get what we ordered and Dell does not care. That is a serious complaint.



Dave

[DJofSD]

My issue is that we did not get what we ordered and Dell does not care.

Perhaps they should hire Bode Miller as a spokesperson.

[IRISHLADSTABLE]

I just purchased 2 Dell's A Desk Top and a Lap Top

Lap Top Inspiron B120
Desk Top Dimension E310

Should I cross my fingers ?


Jimmy

[Bala]

With Dell's sagging stock price - Micheal Dell is attempting to reinvent his company.
http://gear.ign.com/articles/710/710986p1.html



____________________________________
Outsource congress to anywhere but here.

[JustRalph]

http://www.amny.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--dell-lawsuit0516may16,0,4813041.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines


NY attorney general sues Dell, claiming deceptive practices
By SAMANTHA GROSS
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2007, 3:57 PM EDT
AP New York


NY attorney general sues Dell, claiming deceptive practices
By SAMANTHA GROSS
Associated Press Writer

May 16, 2007, 3:57 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday accused Dell Inc. and its financial services affiliate of "bait and switch" advertising practices and failing to deliver on promised customer service.

Cuomo announced details of a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Albany County, claiming that Dell and Dell Financial Services LP engaged in fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices.

Dell spokesman Bob Pearson said in a written statement that the company's conduct has been honorable, adding, "Our customers are our top priority at Dell."

The lawsuit accuses Dell of luring customers with ads for zero percent financing then, at the time of purchase, tricking buyers into higher interest rates, often without their knowledge.

Cuomo also accused the company of selling "onsite" computer repair plans but failing to deliver, at times requiring customers to disassemble their own computers.

Jaqueline Scofield, 75, said she was outraged when she and her husband were told they would have to open the body of their computer.

"We're both not young. We both have arthritis in our knees. And to tell my husband to get down on the floor ... I'll never buy another Dell," she said at a Manhattan news conference.

~more at the link~