Dude, you've been screwed by Dell!

[BossTamsin (imported)]

To anyone, I repeat ANYONE who is considering purchasing a Dell computer, I strongly urge you to rethink. Especially if you're looking at their slick new laptops in multiple colours.

You can start by reading this page (http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/ ... 25755.aspx), that is if you have hours of free time to go through the thousands of posts all complaining about the horrific customer service, eternal delays, and complete lack of communication with the customers keeping the company in business.

This goes beyond the Dell Hell (http://www.google.ca/search?q=dell+hell ... =firefox-a) horror stories in regards to it's technical support. These are people who have ordered computers, and seen nothing but delay after delay, stretching from weeks into months, with no sign of ever getting the computers they've paid for.

There are many many more pages you can look at. All I can advise though is that if you are in the market for a computer, you go through some channel OTHER than Dell. Maybe some company that actually gives a crap about their customers.

[Daughter (imported)]

I used to have a Dell. I liked it a lot. It worked just fine. However on the rare occasion that I did need some bit of assistance, I would agree that yes, their customer service blows donkey chunks. I guess I'd order one if I absolutely needed a new computer and had absolutely no other means of getting one. ((I have a Dell Preferred Credit Account)) But only in dire circumstances. And even then I'd lie beg cheat and steal before going that route.

[dometoo (imported)]

I have over 100 Dell machines on my network & haven't seen those problems.

I also have a new Dell laptop and a desktop at home (along with 10 machines I built myself).

Maybe it is because I am an IT guy, but Dell has been fine for me.

I very seldom call their tech support, usually I can get any information I need from their website to fix any issues myself.

On the rare occasiopna I have had hardware/warranty issues, they have been handled in a timely manner.

In reality, I think all computer makers suck anymore.

I do warranty repairs on many brands, and none are the quality they used to be.

The exception seems to be servers and workstations, they're more expensive up front (by quite a bit) but last a whole lot longer with less problems.

[padawna (imported)]

We primarily stick with IBM/Lenovo, especially with the rack mount servers, but have purchased some Dell's. Some of the case design of the Dell's sucks big time. They remind me of some of the older clam shell Mac's. Real difficult to work with. I do like their smaller business computers, especially the ones that mount on the back of the monitors. Unfortunate part is the biggest monitor that will work with that case is the 15"... 17" is the minimum we buy, mostly 19".

For laptops I highly recommend the Lenovo's, I definitely love the X41/60 for compactness. And the T61 for a true desktop replacement. I love the built-in fingerprint scanner, saves much time. I probably wont be buying any more Lenovo desktops, just because they are limited to basically one size tower. Size isnt everything, its whats inside.. Since Im the manager now I basically decided IBM/Lenovo servers and laptops, and Dell workstations. Until of course if a vendor ticks me off, then I'll switch to something else.

[kristoff]

We primarily stick with IBM/Lenovo, especially with the rack mount servers, but have purchased some Dell's. Some of the case design of the Dell's sucks big time. They remind me of some of the older clam shell Mac's. Real difficult to work with. I do like their smaller business computers, especially the ones that mount on the back of the monitors. Unfortunate part is the biggest monitor that will work with that case is the 15"... 17" is the minimum we buy, mostly 19".

For laptops I highly recommend the Lenovo's, I definitely love the X41/60 for compactness. And the T61 for a true desktop replacement. I love the built-in fingerprint scanner, saves much time. I probably wont be buying any more Lenovo desktops, just because they are limited to basically one size tower. Size isnt everything, its whats inside.. Since Im the manager now I basically decided IBM/Lenovo servers and laptops, and Dell workstations. Until of course if a vendor ticks me off, then I'll switch to something else.

I won't be buying Lenovo - When avoidable, I don't buy Chinese. I prefer American - but then who the hell uses American in computers....??!

[Dave (imported)]

I've heard both sides of these stories.

Where I worked, they bought several thousand computers over the years. They had 1100 users on one network in two offices 100 miles apart and servers to match the load. Dell made many of those. Every so often one would go wildly goofy but not like the worst cases described here. Lenovo makes excellent machines.

Personally, I used to buy cheap Windows machines and now that I am retired and have no need to live by work's standards, I bought a Macintosh.

[devi (imported)]

I'm not sure about macintosh. I have an ibook g4 and haven't decided whether to go back to Mac. I remember spending a whole day trying to get their mail application to work all to no avail. I have never ever used it and went ahead and dumped the icon. With all the g4 problems there was nobody to talk to not even to send it back under warranty. The problems ranged from the screen going blank periodically to not being able to type a capital "Z".

[Riverwind (imported)]

My only experience with Dell was my last job, I had one of there laptops with the bat that catches on fire, they sent me a replacement and about 6 months later sent me a replacement. It never did catch fire but I kept hoping.

River

[genderless (imported)]

I just got my first entry level laptop and it is an old used Dell Latitude model.

It appears to be alright. I would have preferred an IBM or HP but I got the Dell at a great bargain price.

It appears Dell and Microsoft both have terrible support systems.

[Beau Geste (imported)]

I bought a Dell Inspiron 2500 notebook computer in 2001 but didn't buy the service contract. After a year, something went wrong with the main I/O chip, and the keyboard didn't work any more. The initial warranty had expired. I called for help, and kept getting India. I usually couldn't understand them, sometimes they couldn't understand me. Eventually Dell wouldn't even put a person, instead of an answering machine, on the phone, unless whoever was calling had the service contract. If I had sent the computer in for repairs, they would have charged me $200, just for opening the case and testing the computer. A new mainboard, which would probably have fixed the problem, would have cost me over $200 from Dell, and I would have had to install it myself.

I wouldn't buy another Dell computer.