Timely thread...I've got an interview coming up on Thursday for a summer internship with Dell Global Customer Experience

For every person that hates Dell, there is one that swears by them. If they let you down, they REALLY let you down, but if they are good to you, they are really good.

Dell is one of the few companies my employer's IT dept will buy from. Our experience has been generally positive. I personally bought a refurb from them 3 years ago with a problem that they couldn't fix in 3 tries. It kept killing modems. I solved the problem by going cable. No help from Dell. They even sent a tech to my house to replace the modem three times.

I decided to give them another chance and got some advice from the NW admin at my home site. She showed me the 4 categories in the outlet. I eliminated refurbs and lease returns. The remaining categories are scratch and dent and cancelled orders. The implication is that they are on the shelf, custom built machines. I specifically selected this machine based on the software installed and the extended life battery. That does not sound like a machine waiting to be finished. I have decided to wait until Monday to call in hopes I reach a CSR some where closer than India in hopes that I will be better understood. I don't want to cancel the order. I want the machine sooner. The point of 2 day shipping was to get the machine by Wednesday, not 2 days after they feel like shipping it. b@stards!

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.

If you really want a computer that ships when they say it will, the way is to buy something in stock from PC Connection or such. PC Connection has been particularly reliable for me over the years. They have HPs (and Apples, for that matter, if you're so inclined) that will ship the same day you order them. They also appear to stock certain configurations of Lenovo ThinkPads for quick shipment. The one HP laptop I bought recently seems fine, some variety of nc6400, although I'm not the everyday user of it and it doesn't get used particularly hard.

For the most part, it was that Dells were "good enough." There really wasn't a compelling reason to spend a premium for ThinkPads when the additional $$$ didn't provide us with anything we needed. The reliability wasn't significantly different with the ThinkPads either.

In ordering several things from Dell, my guess is your machine will ship much sooner than the ship date indicated. If you have patience (and about 1/2 an hour) and want to get $50 Dell dollars or free next day shipping (ask them to refund your shipping cost and upgrade to next day), I highly suggest calling (It may be frustrating and you may need to call back to get what you want).

After purchasing 25 Dimensions from Dell, and having the hard drives fail on each and every one of them, I standardized my office on Optimex systems. Truthfully, the reason I chose dell is that ever since the Gateway 2000 machines, I have been using Dell. Additionally, all of our servers are Dell, and our software was designed for Dell (it is only supported on Dells).

I haven't had great experiences with Dell in terms of customer service, but when something went wrong, they did send out someone to fix it. They even let me keep the dead Hard Drives to have them shredded.

We do use Sony Viao laptops- the tiny tiny ones, I don't remember what they are called, but they are excellent.

Generally, I am satisfied with the quality of Dells, though I have noticed a decline in quality over the years.

Having gotten hosed by H-P. Compaq, IBM StinkPads and Gateways, my company now buys Dells exclusively. Why? I got a corporate deal that includes "gold level tech support" and we get them for three year terms. You pay a little more, but when you call in you talk to someone sitting in a large building in Twin Falls, Idaho right on the main drag by the Applebee's and the Sizzler. I have never waited more then 3 minutes for someone to initialy answer the call and they have solved EVERY ONE of my problems. AND, more shocking than anything else, if the guy you are tlaking to doesn't know the anwer he will admit it and find someone up the food chain who DOES. Ask me how long it had been previous to this to have an OEM tech spport rep admit he didn't know the answer!

The Indian tech support is absolute feces. No argument, no two ways about it. After dealing with these reprobates one too many times I threatened to pull my significant purchases and that's the solution they came up with. We couldn't be happier. Now all Dell needs to do is close ALL call centers on the Indian subcontinent and put everyone in Twin Falls. Nice, more competent people you will not find in computer tech support.

--PP

I had a keyboard go out on one of my 4 work issued dells.

I called the gold guys, they sent me the part, instructions for putting it in, and the 2 tools that I needed (screwdriver and a lifter) to pull the old unit out.

Our IT guys can order parts directly without actually calling dell, they just go to a website and order the broken stuff and it ships.

All that being said, dell is the walmart of computers, just an absolutely awesome supply chain management org. No innovation on the products themselves (like Lenovo) but great logistics (current situation aside).

What a shame - I have always gotten great products from them. I get the service that I need, just WAAAY too late.

Just calling Dell is agonizing - press 1 if you are calling on a phone, press 2 if you are holding it with you left hand, press 3 if your holding it with your right hand, press 4 if you are wearing a headset, press 5 if you flossed last night, press 6 if your significant other likes it up...

Does anyone know if Dell & Lenovo are going after different customer groups? Do they compete head on, or does each company strive to attract a different type of customer? I'm mainly speaking of business pcs, e.g. the target market for the Latitude/Opptiplex vs. the target market for the Thinkpad/Thinkcentre desktop?

Those lines compete directly.

FWIW ...

I always found it much better to deal with Dell service via email. The first email reply will always be a generic one, attempting to use some heuristic to list things to try, etc, and may miss the mark completely, but you can then reply to that one and it will be viewed by a human.

-David