Why is Dell so "ewww"?

This is absurd. Do you really think it matters what the laptop is made of - if the battery explodes?

Jesus H. ****ing Christ, sometimes you guys scare me

 

I prefer the battery not explode in the first place . Now that the exploding battery issue is gone, I am not worried about it anymore.

 

I think we can probably agree on that one

 

Can you say "proprietary" for about everything on it?

And the battery fries your crotch!

I have lugged (they are heavier than average) a Dell Inspiron 8600 around the US, Asia, South America, and Europe for 3 years now . . . takes nearly 7 minutes to boot up . . . slow as molasses. I don't like it. It is heavy and ugly . . . but I must confess, the thing can't hardly be broken! Dropped it once on a cement floor . . . chipped a whole corner and lost the network card . . . popped another network card in the PCMCIA slot and wa la! The missing corner probably just worked to cool it better. Unfortunately, still works today!

Great for a low end machine . . . with no bells or whistles.

Gets replaced by my employer for a newer Dell this fall . . . I wouldn't buy one . . . unless I planned on dropping it again.

 

When the Attorney General of New York takes you on for fraud . . . you really have customer service and fraud problems!

Here is a great reason not to buy Dell!

http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/...alse_advertising_failure_provide_services_and

 

Can you confirm this story from a legitimate source?

EDIT: "Wall Street Journal" and "The Economist" are preferred.

 

It's definitely legit.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117928037803904288.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

 

Thanks, I like the Wall Street Journal. I have free access though my school's website. Give me a few minutes to read the article. :reading:

 

Here are several . . .

Press release from Andrew Cuomo's, New York Attorney General, Official Site

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2007/may/may16a_07.html


Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117928037803904288.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18694205/

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/b...85e25474845d4d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Update at PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,132492/printable.html

Enough?

 

this Lenovo nutswinging is getting ridiculous.

After everything Dell does to try to please the consumers, they get a bad rep.

After Lenovo does everything to displease consumers, they get god-like status.

Quit nutswinging and learn to think for yourselves

this fireproof, supreme built T61 bull**** is getting ridiculous.

It's just another laptop designed at a factory like the rest of us. I'm sorry guys, but there isn't any magic dust sprinkled on it before it gets shipped out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15047076/

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/09/28/lenovo.recalls.batteries/

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/09/28/HNlenovorecallsthinkpads_1.html

 

I assume you're talking to me? By the way, I've owned several Thinkpads and several Latitudes, so I'm pretty sure that my opinions are my own. I think Thinkpads are better than Latitudes, because of personal and business experience, so I don't think I'm "nutswinging".

 

From my experience with the Dell Dimension tech support, I have to agree it is terrible. I heard the Latitude tech support is better. I hope so because I plan to buy a Latitude laptop and I do not want to deal with the Dimension tech support again.

EDIT: Have you dealt with Dell Latitude tech support odin243? Tell me it is much better than the Dimension series tech support because that was the worst tech support I had to deal with. It was completely useless.

 

No Odin, sorry it wasn't directed at you. And those are not the type of posts that bothers me because I can understand and appreciate that you've owned both models.

 

I haven't delt with the Latitude customer service very often, but the one time I did it was horrible. The medical facility that I work for ordered 55 Latitude D620s last year, and within 1 month it was apparent that the screen was absolutely useless when working under flourescent medical lighting. As the assistant head of IT, it was my job to kindly request that Dell either replace the LCD's, or refund our money as the laptops were literally unsusable. They did neither. It took a total of 3 months of arguing with them before they agreed to ship us a new batch of D620s, during which time we had essentially a big pile of bricks which cost us some $90,000. The new batch they eventually shipped worked fine, but the way they treated us was totally unacceptable. I can only hope that this was not representative of their usual customer service, and was due to the extremely high volume of complaints surrounding the first batch of lcd's used on the D620.

 

The New York Attorney General is on the right track . . . I hope it spreads to other manufacturers too.

Better support practices across the board need to happen

 

Oh... so that then that dust wasn't...? Oh. Oh my.

 

Not a funny joke. -_-

 

I thought it was funny :laugh:

 

Thank you.

Why is this topic still alive? The poll makes no sense, and the last four pages are about laptops withstanding imploding batteries or some nonsense.

 

I currently am employed by a lawn care company. In our office we have maybe 12 dell desktops, and 2 notebooks, that the owners take home with them. I am the customer service rep, and when something goes wrong with the computers I am the one who contacts Dell. And out of 2 and a half years at this job and all the calls to Dell I have never recieved bad customer service from them. The only cons is the wait time and not being able to understand them(sometimes). They are always on top of things and have given us coupons, faster shipping(for free) and been very nice and informative. I dont understand the bad rep and I will always be buying from Dell.

 

Most of the time, roberson, I've experienced the same sort of service, but, not always. When you're unfortunate enough to get the wrong rep, the runaround from Dell can be irritating beyond description - to state my thoughts politely. Bad customer service is rare, but awful enough when encountered to leave a very bitter aftertaste.

Personally, my opinion is that if Dell would bring its service to a level equal to the quality of the vast majority of the machines it sells, there would be no "ewww" factor to discuss.

 

Here is sumthng funny...A couple of weekends ago, I struck up a conversation at a local pub (Bikes n' barrels for the chennai folks) with a girl who said she worked for 2 years as a customer rep for Dell...

Though might be interesting to bring out her version of the story....her cribs were primarily centered around two things

a) Dell's insistence on running through a standard script for a problem with mathematical precision ...A reported issue that falls under category #A HAS to be handled by reciting the entire process flow under script #1
Thus even though it is more than apparent to the customer that his flickering LCD has nothing to do with a bad display driver, and even though the rep knows it too, she has no choice but to run through the work-flow given to her
..frustrating, yes....

but as an outsider, here's my take on it....90% of people who call for support are non-geeks/techies who do not know their RAM from a HDD ...or a dll from a ini

From a large organization like Dell's viewpoint, it is safer and more productive to handle a standardized troubleshooting process and keep the majority of their customers happy through resolved complaints than allow reps to jump the process flow for a knowledgable customer and take the risk of missing out on seemingly irrelevant but important details

B) Customers who love badmouthing reps...she had pretty sordid stories on this topic and I'll skip that part

All in all, it was an interesting conversation that fortunately moved on to other topics after 30 mins, but worth pondering nonetheless

 

They just look ugly and the quality isnt the best... i aint wan anything tat is ugly, even if they are cheap.

 

my personal reason for not going with a dell is that the look of the laptops is that of what it was back in the day....like a brick of sorts

but after seeing their new line...the m1330....wow...looks like they are headed in the right direction

 

I honestly don't see a way around that. Welcome to over-the-phone tech support. There are myriads of Dilbert comics about it as well.

 

I hope you guys know, email is better than Chat/on-the-phone.

 

Yeah, unless you can get to talk to a local rep on the phone. Our company uses one almost exclusively now for all our Dell issues (of which there are many ).

 

They are starting to push emailing alot more too. I just dont feel like im getting as fast of a response via email though. But I might try that next time. And I just spoke with a representative there actually, I got free next day air for my purchase and recieved very good customer service. The one thing that I love about Dell is when you speak to there representatives they always have traditional american names(Bob, Henry, Harry, Sherry, and Francais) but they cant speak english worth $**T

 

Dells are "ewww" for desktop but for notebooks they have a solid reputation.
Not sure why everyone diss the Inspiron line, it's one of the best bang for the buck line ever. Yes I do own one and compared to my classmates with other brands (Acer,HP), my Dell performs alot better and I paid less. As for the look, I don't give a damn about the two white stripes, I put a Dell Carbon Fiber QuickSnap and it looks good!

 

Not true. My last Dell Desktop lasted 6 years. My current Dell desktop works just find other than a small noise issue.

 

But they have a reputation for their desktops*(accidently had laptops), it's not so much build quality or that kind of thing. It is because their service is very questionable at best and they are very overpriced compared to building your own.

Their inspiron line got a bad rep for using cheap plastic, a valid concern, but now are made with a magnesium alloy, which may be covered in plastic.

 

I've never really understood all of the Dell complaints. Maybe Dell Canada is different than what you guys have because I've never heard a single person I know (from Canada) complain about their Dell PC/Laptop. I know a few Mac Zealots who think they're above it but that's about it. Since 1998 I've never had a major problem. Support (Hardware) has always been fantastic. I know not to bother calling them with a complicated software question because I'll never get a timely answer. With hardware, however, we've had a couple of parts go bad and they've sent replacements out which we've received either the next day, or the day after. They've been extremely supportive of their products.

As for "they don't last".. our family has had 6 machines since 1998 and every single one still works perfectly. Heck, even the PII 333mhz is working flawlessly.
Now I will agree that the Inspiron line did have some creaky plastic issues, but I had a friend who abused the hell out of it and it still works perfectly.

One note: We've never ordered their super cheap computers so the story there might be different, but really.. if I was ordering a $300 or $400 computer, I wouldn't expect the thing to last forever.

P.S. Dell Financing is different. I'd stay away from them alltogether.

 

I hear "Dell sucks" from many people, but I seriously don't get why they think it sucks!

Well, at least I can guess why:
-PC freaks like to build their own PCs by them selves. They say: "You know exactly what you get by building it yourself!"
-Other people say the support sucks. I cannot confirm this!
-Dell PCs might not have that much style... This has definitely changed with the new release of Laptops and Desktops this week!

 

I just bought my first Dell (haven't received yet) BECAUSE I've heard good things about Dell. But mainly because of their customer service and warranty plan. And they have a pretty solid rep... even if I hear nothing good, it usually isn't bad.

However, they did majorly screw up my order yesterday. I finally recieved the confirmation e-mail for my purchase and the subtotal before the confirmation was $1512, but the e-mail afterwards someone calculated my total order to $3000!!! My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that... so I called their customer service to see whats going on.

Well, I didn't have to wait very long, and the rep told me that the billing system was messed (and doubled my order price... wtF??!) but he fixed it and then said he would give me free shipping, and keep me up to date on my order status through e-mails... so I thought that was cool.

 

The support is the main reason I still use Dell. I just don't want to be stuck RMA'ing parts and waiting, potentially for weeks. I was going to build my most recent desktop myself as I am fully capable of putting one together. I eventually decided on the Dell with the 3-year warranty almost entirely because of the warranty (I liked the computer and everything as well ). Recently, the memory on my video card started to go and I saw lots of weird and wonderful things lol. I reseated the video card and still had issues. I then booted up from Dell Diagnostics, ran my video card through them and sure enough the memory had gone bad. I called up Dell and after about 20 minutes they sent out a new card.

I believe I called on Tuesday and the card was at my door on Thursday. I popped the old one in the box and UPS came by and picked it up. It sure beat RMA'ing.

 

i've had an inspiron 8600 for a while and every single part of it has broken down, if not twice. though given its a refurbished, the monitor broke, hard drive broke, dvd drive broke twice, the graphics card broke, and right now the thing that controls the lcd is broken.

given that i was going to buy HP dv2500 until dell came out with the 1420 and too low of a price >_<
though I read in a review that the new inspiron line is made of magnesium alloy and not plastic - the stuff they use on the latitude business lines. so hopefully it'll be better =) i can deal with their terrible tech support - just make sure you get your warranty with your computers because not having warranty + broken computer is not cool. i promised myself never to buy dell again but i just put in an order last night haha

 

...........

 

Think about it. What part of the market segment do we make up, less than 5%. Now what would Dell decide to cater to, us or where 95% of there sales are going to go. Its not us thats for damn sure. Dell was the number 1 OEM for a long long time because the methods really worked well and still do. I do admitt that they need to define there market segments a bit better, but this allows them to use the same parts in many machines cutting costs, R&D, and thus improving there bottom line. Hate to say it Dell must be doing something right.

 

Well actually, the refreshed Inspirons do have the 8600GT...?

 

Yea in the passed I really disliked working on older Dells. But I bought my G/F a new Dell E521 Dimension Mid tower and I was surprised as hell. The Case was well though out and only has 2 fans. since its a BTX, it used a big Alu tower design with a 120x38mm fan which is SLIENT but can ramp up if need be. The Motherboard had the 6150/430 not the cheaper 6100/410 combo as expected. 4 dim slots, PCI-e x16, PCI-x1 and two PCI slots all usable. 6 USB ports on the back alone All cables were routed nicely, could hold two HDs, two CD-Roms, and a floppy or media card reader. I threw in an old 6800NU and this was a *****in little machine for what I paid. I wish people would have real hands on experience before they shoot off there mouths.

 

True buts its not the standard and was smart to have that option there for that rare 5% out there.

 

I think you're just being nit-picky now, but whatever. I have no data or facts to prove you wrong; I'm just guessing it's a lot more then 5%.

And what are they supposed to do... put the most expensive options on 'standard' so that when you look at an Inspiron the base price is $1400? Even if you're going for dedicated graphics anyway, and you want your system to cost over $1400, that initial price tag will deter many.

 

In Australia, the 1520 is only available with the 8600GT.

 

Let me preface by saying that I have never personally owned a Dell, but my best friend, brother in-law have them so I've been the default tech support and we have a few at work (we're a small 10 person company). Pretty much every Dell I've had personally experience with has malfunctioned in some sort. My best friend has had 3 Dells desktops over the last 7 years...all had a "major" problems that needed warranty service. The first system mobo died, the second had 3 hard drive failures (all Seagate drives...go figure, must've been some cheapo models Seagate unloaded on Dell). And the 3rd latest just started being "unreliable" after about 18 months...random reboots/shutdowns. Well after getting burnt 3 times he finally switched to an HP dv9000t lappy.

My brother in-law has a fairly late model C2D e1505....the speakers wires came loose so he sent it back for repair. Well DHL lost it during return shipping (not Dell's fault) so after much hoopla (he called Dell 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks) they finally authorized him a new "refurbed" replacement laptop which even had a few upgrades so I would've called it even. Well now this latest laptop OS has gotten screwy (not to say it's not my bro's fault...but all he does is internet, music and school use) but I'm currently reinstalling the OS.

And at work we have 3 Dell Dimension desktops...each about 3 yrs old now. One fried itself (overheated) after about 18 months, the other 2 are kicking along just fine....but 1 out of 3 isn't great neither.

I also went to Penn State and they had the Dell deal, so all computer labs on campus where all Dells (thousands of PCs)...and whenever you went into one of the computer labs, there were always 2-4 "out of service" pc terminals. And these where generally workstation class optiplex desktops all running win2k, locked down so users couldn't tinker with settings other than desktop resolution.

So I dunno...that's a lot of bad taste in my mouth from having to deal with Dells (and they're not even my own PCs...thank goodness )

 

I have a Dell M1210, took it apart and the plastic fascia for the LCD screen is VERY flimsy- was worried it would break under its own weight. Guess Im a glutton for punishment.... But seriously, the new M1330 looks like a decent build and the Dell Ultrasharp LCD monitors are the best in the industry, eg Dell 2405

 

it could've been network problems and not computer problem related

 

Snork, I feel really bad for you lol. You and your family havnt had much luck with computers. But I have worked for a company who is also a small company 12-16 people. Every computer in the branch is Dell, we may have a problem every now and then but not enough to send the computer back. It is usually do to software not hardware. I would say for the two years I have worked there dell is pretty reliable. Also every computer in my house is a dell, we have yet to have a problem with those also. I just ordered a M1210 and it will be here tomorrow so hopefully my luck will stay.

 

so i always thought the phone support wasn't half bad even though I got frustrated at times with the waiting etc and I tend to understand the outsourced (india for ex.) reps pretty well.

i called today to change an order and I got an India rep. I could understand him fairly well, but my gripe was i couldn't hear him! i just kept saying, "im sorry i can't hear you can you repeat that?" he said something about calling my school representative (i ordered EPP) and then i got transferred to some domestic representative where the sound/pronounciation was great =)

2nd thing, they don't let you change orders on the weekend? what kind of crap is that =\

 

I think it is just the outlook on their products. They got popular and had good support at one point and people tend to hate what becomes popular. Then supposedly their service/support went down hill andpeople really started hating them.

 

The fact that this section (the Dell forum) has at least twice as many viewers than any other manufacturer's section at any given time is an illustration of just how popular Dell notebooks are.
The satisfaction of most consumers is usually a matter of product comprimises, because cost is a big priority for most people.
I have seen people with an expensive Mac notebook, which is absolutely beautiful, comment negatively on other brands. But I've never seen anyone get out of their Porsche 959 and make a stupid comment about my Subaru.
Why is that?
You buy what you can afford. It's really just that friggin simple.