Dell ownership
 

Anyone thinking about buying a Dell would be advised to look here first.

I, personally have had a very similar experience despite the fact that my company buys Dell Inspirons at a high rate.

We have now stopped, and will not do so again.

Tony

Sorry to hear of your experience Tony, but I am sure that you can find at least one similarly disgruntled punter with just about every manufacturer. For example, a colleague with a Compaq Armada, is on his third HD within 12 months!

My daughter has had a Dell desk-top for 2.5 yrs, which has been moved/re-connected several times, and has had no problems whatsoever. Maybe they have a problem with lap-tops.

Usually a good idea to keep an eye on reports in the PC magazines. But beware, some of them take paid editorial from PC manufacturers! :mad:

I do not work for Dell, or any associated company!

Tony,

This can happen to any company, just like newswatcher said. I try to run all the parts I sell for 30 days before selling them. That does lower the rate of failure considerably. But I am a specialty computer company. Large companies cannot do this.

When you get the computer, you are doing the 30 day break in at home. If there is a problem with the motherboard, it goes much higher than Dell. It goes to the maker of the motherboard (Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc. do not actually make any hardware, they just put it together.), or even the chipset maker.

There have been fundamental design flaws been found with Intel and VIA Chipsets. These were highly publicized.

Sorry you had problems with your computer.

Richard

P.S. It is a lot of fun building your own computer. If you find it interesting, you might want to look in to learning how. It is very rewarding.

Well, even though my Dell X200 is working just fine, I have to agree. Dell's customer service is utterly appalling. I had endless problems with my Latitude LT; eventually those were fixed after about 5 months. Then a small flaw appeared on the TFT screen only a few months after a new one had been fitted unnecessarily. I lived with it as I simply couldn't face another frustrating episode with Dell, but then it became worse. I rang Dell, e-mailed them and was quoted a ludicrous price to replace the now out-of-warranty screen. So I then conacted a so-called customer service manager and e-mailed all my details........that was in May and I'm still waiting.

Dell - sort your act out. No American-style fluff, just answer the queries and do something for your customers. Because we think your customer service STINKS!!

I find that the biggest problem with DELL is being passed (literally) around the world, from one department to another that has no ability or authority to actually do anything.

A big problem is that some of the people in the Indian call centre(s) have a very limited command of English, and are completely flummoxed if you depart from the "script".

They are going to have to do something or they will collapse.

I am encouraging the IT purchasers in our companies to think about IBM Thinkpads. Although they are expensive they are probably cheaper in the long run (though I am very happy to hear of any other PC laptop manufacturer that provides good after sales support.)

W

I would have to disagree with all of the above.

I've been happily running Dell machines as servers, clients, laptops - you name it for 7 + years.

On the odd occasion I have experienced a problem I have always found both their online support (using the Service tag) and telephone support well above satisfactory. I find that their combination of parts is very reliable and easily upgradeable.

As Richard and newswatcher have stated, you will always find someone with a horror story from any supplier.

But it's not just one horror story, our experience with three separate laptops has been just the same as that of the guy who wrote the article, and those of WCollins, it seems, and we have no positive experiences at all.

Anyway, never mind, I was hoping to save some people some hassle by pointing out a grim reality of how bad Dell have allowed things to get, but if you are all sanguine about it, I can only hope that you don't find out the hard way.

Tony

Tony,

It is still a good heads up for anyone looking to buy a notebook to make sure that it does not have the hardware the failed in that article.

Take Care,

Richard

Not the first thread to complain, see here.

Or, in our experience, a screen, a keyboard, a touch pad or a hard disk:( .

Doesn't leave a lot really :}

Tony

Not so. Because you can't buy a Dell from a retail outlet in the UK, your only recourse is back to Dell and their appalling customer service if something goes wrong. Whereas if you buy, say, a Sony from a high street PC store, you can at least take it back if it develops a fault.

I have been in the business a long time and I would say that DELL is much worse than any other company I have dealt with.

...and they so totally don't care that it's amazing.

I am sure that they will be the next to go. Shame, really, because they were once really very good.

W