My first few machines were Dell's, and I think the service has gone sharply down hill since say 1995.

The reasons I hate Dell are:
1. The tech support is often not very good even on a corporate account spending more than $100,000 each year. Basically a diagnosis is made by phone, and then a contractor tech comes out and install whatever part is sent. If it happens to be the wrong part, often the customer (and not the tech) has to call Dell and start all over again. For instance my last repair they had to come out 2-3 times before the right parts were replaced. When a tech returns it is often a different tech who has no idea what is going on with the overall issue. The techs basically just swap out hardware parts and thats it. In contrast IBM provides the tech support for IBM/Lenovo systems, and you reach a representative in the USA. Also I believe the hardware techs are IBM employees? And they just don't install the part and run?
2. No Quick Reinstallation: Dell does not provide an automated system reinstallation cd. They provide only the MS Windows cd, which you must run through and answer all the questions, and then you must manually install drivers. If you should be so unlucky as to have a broken hard drive 1 of two things will happen:
*A tech will come out and just swap the hard drive, but leav eyou at a c:\ prompt. You will have to reinstall windows, etc. yourself; or
*They may offer you a hard drive with Windows pre-installed, but this will delay the service call by a few to several days.
In contrast IBM/Lenovo offers its Rescue & Recover Thinkvantage product which Dell does not offer;
3. I have the sense that Dell uses whatever parts are cheaper that day, where as IBM/Lenovo uses quality parts and components;
4. Dell largely does not innovate, and just produces comodity products. I had a roommate a few years ago who lives in Dell's back yard in Texas and this was the primary reason he "hates" them too. In contrast, IBM is a leader in research and development efforts;
5. The company again was unresponsive and very bureucratic to deal with. For instance, when we dealt with them in an IT department, they refused to make available scripted startup cds as noted. If something falls outside there little scripted processes it is difficult for them to recover.


PorkRind,
I am dying to know what made you switch from Thinkpads back to Dell's? I know the Thinkpads might be more expensive, but other than price, I wonder if there are other reasons why people prefer the Latitude? The Thinkpads imho are better now that Lenovo has put the Windows & Start button keys on the keyboard. That was admitedly a problem under IBM, which you could remap keys, but still I'd rather just have the buttons thank you.