Why are people so hard on Dell?

What is it that makes people bash Dell so hard sometimes? Can anyone venture a guess?

 

Usually, it seems to me, bad service from out-sourced techs is what makes folks angry. Being passed along from one person to the next, being put on hold for too long a time, and, in the end, not accomplishing whatever had been the goal at the start of the call.

In the past, I've owned Dell machines, and usually fared pretty well with Dell's service. However, there were times . . .

 

I don't believe Dell is bashed in general: it's the inspiron line that is(and it well deserves it). It's got no style, no strength, and is not worth buying.

 

I've read all the comments and while everyone is correct the answer is much deeper if you want the truth. Dell became the equivalent to Microsoft when they first started out in the 80's. As Dell grew in size, users began to see Dell as a builder of cheap low cost computers.

I remember servicing Dell products for my clients back in the early 90's and they were built solid. Today that only applies to a select type of Dell products which have been classified as such. When Dell got their start they were pretty much all built the same, rugged and tough.

Over time consumers got tired of Dell's arrogance and their size and they were basically seen as an extension of Microsoft. Today Dell has it's share of financial problems. As such they have outsourced their once solid tech support staff. I have no problems buying from Dell, but unlike the to early 90's you need to be a smarter consumer when buying a Dell product as they now cater to all types of consumers.

 

I personally have had a few bad experiences with Dell, I won't go into too much detail, but having used and done technical work on their entire line up for about the past 3 years, There has been a stedy decrease in the quality of some notebooks (the Inspiron middle of the line) and an increase in others (the ultra-portables and Inspiron 9000+'s). Latitudes are great at the higher end, and I haven't found much to fault in the XPS lineup outside of the 1310 (I saw one keyboard cracked in half. It was just one instance, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.).
The best story I have is a friend who ordered a new Dell, and I was there when it showed up. We unpacked it and got everything set up and charged it. Then up comes Windows Live Updater: "You are running an unlicensed version of windows" Then something about being reported and you will have to buy an official license to download updates.
Then of course the customer service is just...ick. They usually solved the problem, but after 2-3 hours of being on hold and being transfered and transfered back and everything else. Gah! Sometimes they didn't solve the problem and that was even worse. I haven't seen the same problems in other laptops, so I guess that is why I am hard on them sometimes.

 

Well, I remember one time a friend of mine told me that a friend of his bought a DELL in UK and it had a Matsonic motherboard, which is less that lousy in real-life. These kind of things improve DELL's image.

 

Of course everyone in this forum bashes Dell - they took a large chunk of our money!

Obsessive-compulsive buying from Dell....

 

Well Honestly I have never had an issue. I buy warranties with next day service, and they have been out the next day to fix things, even things which did not need fixing to a certain extent.

I had a few dots on my LCD, maybe the truelife gloss wore off, emailed them some pics, and was called the next day by a technician, who within 1 hour of calling, turned up at my work and replaced the screen! (Was not expecting that, I only emailed asking them if they knew what it was)

Same thing for the modular DVD burner, would read CD's but not DVD's, next day a tech person came out, took the old one and slide in the new.

Was called about the batteries I had that needed to be replaced, within 5 days delivery man picked up my 2 old ones, and gave me my two new ones.

I mentioned this in another forum. I think it comes down to location, and where you live, as I only ever have pleasant dealings with Dell. And I am waiting to hopefully buy one of the hot new XPS Systems. 13 inch

 

I'd guess that most of the bashing occurs for the same reason people bash Apple or MS: no good reason at all. They're not the only people that are using Indian tech support, and in my experience their PCs have been just as hit-and-miss as other places were.

They do happen to have a lot of customers though, which also translates to a lot of happy customers, and a lot of unhappy ones -- you probably know which group is more vocal out of the two.

 

I bought a new Dell E1705 in January. It arrived defective, got so hot , it started to smoke. To make a long story short, it took nearly 3 months before I had a working laptop. Extremely poor communications and extremely poor service does not help Dell. If I could speak whatever language they speak in India, I might have resolved my problem sooner. Buyer beware.

 

I've had Dell's for years from desktops to notebooks. I'm fairly technical so I've never had to really deal with Dell techs. I find the Dell hardware fairly well built and haven't had any real issues with any of my PC's. Had my I6400 for the past couple of months and it's been running rock solid. *knocks on wood*

 

Yeah, their customer service really needs some improvement. I can hardly understand anything they say. When I called in for a replacement of my D630; they kept me on the phone for at least 30 minutes. And we pretty much accomplished nothing, because I asked for addition upgrade on my replace and willing to pay for extra. That Indian lady keep telling me please hold, we are working on this issue. I finally got tired of it, and told her just call me back when you got some answers.

 

Well I think this post over at Engadget discussing the new Inspiron line is very telling of the current attitude towards Dell:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/pics-and-specs-of-dells-new-inspirons

I'm with the some of those people here. For a simplistic and economical line of notebooks the current Inspiron is fine. No, not the most flashy. But I'm sorry, I have to agree with the negative posts about the new line. In many ways they went backwards. They're ugly. No, not as bad as that new Acer Gemstone crap, but this is definitely not a step in the right direction. Furthermore it brings to mind more intuitive and stylish designs from other manufacturers and begs the question, with all the clout and money that Dell could bring to the table, why should they not lead the pack in introducing new technologies and taking a leap in their design and build quality? This kind of thing I believe rightly angers people.

 

You mean English?

 

Did they actually call you back?

 

Yeah, they called me after a day and told me that my replacement will be shipped within 8 days. And I got on the 12th, compare to the original D630 I am happy with this one.