Originally Posted by
fuzz
I do not plan on ever purchasing another Dell and if someone asks what kind of computer to buy, the first thing out of my mouth is "just don't buy a Dell." I have actually had little positive experience with them and I do not know anyone who has. The only comments I've heard from those with Dell is that they will never again buy from them.
I switched over to Apple and cannot be happier. Before that, I had a Thinkpad and loved it (not sure I would buy a Lenovo Thinkpad, though...)
I don't know if I would go as far as to say never (ever see Never say Never Again) but having just switched to an Apple I would have to agree.
Originally Posted by
jetsetter
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: ...
Again I agree 100% though I date the change back to the last few years. At the time I got my last Dell in 2000, the tech support was great, I could reach a guy in Texas 24/7 who could always fix my problem (and there were very few). But as the .coms crashed and business tanked, the surviving tech companies had to find ways to cut costs. In Dell's case, it appear the company cut back on both product quality (and I'm talking build quality) and service, as evidenced by the idiotic ICC response received by OP. Dell went so overboard with mediocre ICC that it lost a lot of business customers and had to reverse course at least for business contracts.
I don't hate Dell but I won't buy products that fall apart and I won't deal with ICCs particularly for something that costs this much.
Originally Posted by
PorkRind
I honestly don't understand all the grief Dell gets. I've had two Dell laptops, a PDA and a desktop over the last 5 years, and my company has standardized on them (with a brief excursion into Thinkpads, but we came back). New equipment virtually always arrives well before the "scheduled" date, both for my company and my wife's.
While I've certainly had to have my laptops serviced (I do, after all, travel with them and often use them in sub-optimal conditions), I've never had a service issue that wasn't resolved within 48 hours. I've had 2 hard drives, a keyboard, a video card, a heatsink/fan assembly and a palm rest/bezel replaced. I was always given the option of doing it myself or having a tech sent on-site.
For both hard drives, I received significantly larger replacements; a 30GB for the first laptop's 20GB, and an 80GB for the 2nd laptop's 60GB.
I'm sure that the vast majority of Dell's customers get similar service. It's unfortunate that a couple of bad experiences can attract so much attention . . .
I have to admit my last Dell Latitude has been in service 7 years and still ticking, though the keys are getting sticky and I preemptively replaced the hard drive. But I have heard horror stories about the new Dells, particularly the cheapo Inspiron line. And I think you would have a different opinion if you did not have a corporate service contract. To assume that the "vast majority" of owners get similar service is
Individual owners are treated very poorly by incompetent ICC as evidenced by OP.
Originally Posted by
sllevin
While this particular situation is unfortunate, me, I shudder when people start talking about buying something OTHER than Dell. From a software and support angle I've found (as an IT managment type) that Dell is far and beyond the least headache to own.
I personally have owned Dells for the past six years as my primary personal machines and cannot be happier.
Steve
I will let you know after I have owned my Apple for 6 years.
But after 6 days I can tell you it is already far easier to do simple things, i.e. hook up my printer, get a wireless connection, etc. than it was to do any of these things on the Dell. The Apple is also a lot quicker as I have no need to have ZoneAlarm, MacAfee Antivirus, Spysweeper, etc. running in the background, not to mention all those stupid updater programs.
From an IT perspective, I would not doubt that Dell is a good choice as they take better care of their corporate clients. But from a single user perspective, I don't regret going with Apple. And it is nice to know I can take my laptop to the Apple store down the street anytime I have a warranty issue or for that matter any questions.
Originally Posted by
BamaVol
What do you do, scratch it at the end of the assembly line?
I agree this gets my vote for best line of the year.