DELL - Going downhill?

empirix

Hey all,

I have ordered a few different desktops and notebooks from DELL over the years but this year i ordered a desktop and notebook and they cocked them both up - spec wise and i had to wait for each one to be returned and replaced. "LOIKE" i am ordering these online and can't see how the hell they are putting in the wrong cards etc.
And then when you ring up about it you get put through to some indian who can't understand you and you can't understand him/her as well as them not believing the spec is wrong. Luckily for me i always use snagit to take a screenshot of the spec online.
The latest episode with the notebook has me at my wits end, its been a week and still no sign of a replacement, even though they have admitted it was their fault, "loike" you think they'd try and rectify asap. I also think the build quality is not so good anymore

Anybody else have issues like this?

never again.

Cuddlesworth

Mabye you should look at how Dell runs their bussiness. They own your parts and pc for less then 30 minutes. So they screw up quite often on spec. Alot of customers dont notcie.

witnessmenow

I think you could be right..
I got a desktop of dell back in 99 and it never once gave me any bother , was recomending dell to anyone buying a pc. But lately i wouldnt be so sure...
3 of my freinds got inspiron 6000 notebooks last year(they werent exactly cheap either) and all 3 of them have had major problems. one of them was not running proparly at all when he first got it, it took 8 hrs to install a game! more recently this laptop had to be sent back as its display was not working(ended up being a damaged mother board), another one of the laptops after a week had to get its harddrive replaced, and the last one , one of the profiles on windows got correpted(maybe it wasnt there fault though) and the battery has to be recalled(which i really dont blame dell for). I only know 4 people with this laptop so the numbers arent great! The thing is none of these people even use there computers all that much, id use my laptop(medion from aldi) way more, id do more strenious stuff too and ive never had any bothers with it.
Would really think twice before buying off dell, although there collect and return repair service is very good, and they can be really good value on lower end models

ScumLord

I've only once bought a pc off their website where I changed the specs and it was fine but that was years and years ago. Nearly all our pcs at work are dells and work fine but we order the off the self ones so I'd assume their prebuilt.

The only bad experience I've had with them is trying to order replacement parts, expensive isn't the word. Ripoff more like it.

Raiser

- after what they did to my folks.

Told the parents to buy a Dell. PC suffered lightning damage, Dell were contacted & after Pow-wow mith many Indians [42 phonecalls later, LONG incomprehensible calls that is] they billed credit card approx. €150 and pointed out that they were allowing themselves a 3 month lead time :eek: :rolleyes: :mad: to collect and repair PC.

They didn't bother to collect PC.

PC is still fcuked 12 months (approx) later.

They have done God knows what my parents money (racehorses you say ?)

The Da is pursuing via small claims court - because he is retired [and therefore has time to argue with idiots] and because I'm pushing him to.

- Finally you must bear in mind that with Dell using their own arseways cases you cannot just buy a replacement Motherboard and fix it yourself. And therefore must trade scalps with the jabbering, confused Indians of "40+ Minutes Of On Hold Music Creek" - otherwise known as backwater India.

You'd have a better PC experience buying, maintaining and using an Amstrad CPC 464 from Ebay than to attempt to deal with these incompetent fools.

P.S. I've worked as a contractor in Dell on occasion and I will state as my personal constitutional opinion that they treat their staff like dogs and that the jobsworth, small-minded, small-time, self-important, swaggering management seems to outnumber the honest working man by a ratio of about 2:1.

P.P.S. I condemn the Indian aspect of Dell support from a non-racist platform, my problem is not with the people themselves OR with their nationality - but with the fact that Dell is being cheap at MY [the customers] expense - I would never work in Dutch Tech. Support because my Dutch is NOT good enough to converse with, interact with and assist Dutch people over the phone. Anyone that would consider me fit to perform such a role cares more about paying the least amount of money possible than respecting and holding on to their customers.

projectmayhem

this entire thread is just a glowing recommendation for everyone who can to just self-build systems themselves.

DVD-Lots

gave up on dell about a year ago. had a dimension 4300 (i think) and flogged it recently to get a new pc.

at work all our main servers and any new desktops are dell, we are now looking at alternate suppliers as the built quality has gone to sheet lately. we were unlucky with our batch of gx270's, practically all have faulty motherboards due to crapppy capacitors, they have admitted that all gx270's are affected and will eventually have to be replaced. the only good thing is the next business day onsite support (ie if they say tomorrow they mean tomorrow) but u pay through the nose for this. Logging the call however is a bit of a struggle, even though we know what the problem is, every time we report another pc gone belly up they still ask us the same dumbass questions, like its on a script/ticksheet in front of them. the convo goes something like this:-

US:- hi, this is *** from ****, we foned before about our gx270's, another pc has gone on us and the capacitors are raised as before.
DELL:- Okay, what is the Tag number
US:-KJHD657KLJHJHKHK76
DELL:- okay, have u tried rebooting it
US:- yes but as before it won't boot up, the capacitors are raised on the mobo
DELL:- okay, what colour are the lights on the back of the PC
US:- as before, orange. look, we have had 17 of these machines go like this, can you just send out an engineer with the mobo as before.
DELL:-okay, can you try and boot to run the diagnostics by pressing f12 (or some other crap)
US:- .......okay, i never tried that before, can you hang on please. (at this point we put them on hold for 10mins while we make a cup of coffe and twiddle our thumbs. they meanwhile have to listen to bloody Kieran Goss on hold!!!), no I'm afraid it's just not booting at all.

... 20mins of ol Gossy later and a few more stupid attempts to check it could be something else......

DELL:- okay, can you open up the case and check the capacitors for me?
US:- yup no problem, oh look, they're all raised!!
DELL:- can you put your finger over the top of them and check if they are raised?
US:- :rolleyes: yup, they're raised alright.
DELL:- okay, it looks like we'll have to replace the mobo, an engineer will be out to you tomorrow........


i used to praise them to a height and got some friends to buy them but would not touch them now, new champ for me is ankermann, but the warranty isn't as good as dell so it's hard to recommend to non techy people if they cant troubleshoot basic pc problems.

themole

Raiser wrote:

PC suffered lightning damage,

The same thing happen to me with a dell pc. I didn't even bother contacting dell. I just claimed for a new mobo from the house insurance, got a new case aswell.

TerrorFirmer

I think in thread like this all you're going to hear are the negative aspects. I've owned alot of Dell computers over the years, never gave me any trouble - other then perhaps minor issues like optical drives not working after 11 months etc but nothing that doesn't happen in any pc at some stage - and a fair few of my friends own dell laptops. No problems either.

Haven't bought anything from them in the last 2 years though....but I wouldn't hesitate to use them again if I ever wanted to buy a prebuilt system.

BigEejit

I have not recommended them for some time either .... I just avoid recommending any of the PC manufacturers now because its not just Dell that are shít quality and support now, it appears to be all of the major manufacturers (those that are left that is) ... my neice is going to be looking for a gaming POC after christmas and I know I'll be asked for a recommendation, it may just end up being Dell :mad: due to lack of any competition (in the decent spec for lowest amount of money dept that is)

monkey tennis

DVD-Lots wrote:

like its on a script/ticksheet in front of them.

It usually is on a ticksheet in front of them. If at all possible when dealing with multiple failures (especially with further future failures expected), try to get a contact there, e.g. an account manager to send things like this through. A few years ago, I had problems with a rake of NEC machines, and things went a hell of a lot smoother once I got hold of a level 3 tech's email address.

Dogre

DVD-Lots wrote:

. . . we were unlucky with our batch of gx270's, practically all have faulty motherboards due to crapppy capacitors, they have admitted that all gx270's are affected and will eventually have to be replaced.

Yes, gx270's are failing for us also, with 'swollen' capacitors. We also have to go through the rubbish rigamarole insisted upon by the Dell call-takers before they will log a call for an engineer to call out. We are also having a huge amount of hard drives failing in our newer GX620 models. When we run the built-in diagnostic, they are giving 'error return code 7'.

We have 3 or 4 failures each day with these 2 models.

DVD-Lots wrote:

i used to praise them to a height and got some friends to buy them but would not touch them now, new champ for me is ankermann, but the warranty isn't as good as dell so it's hard to recommend to non techy people if they cant troubleshoot basic pc problems.

Yes, I have just placed an order with Ankermann - great prices indeed.

hobie

As a 6 year Dell (2 m/cs) user I'm disappointed and sorry to read the above .....

I went thru the Lightning strike syndrom and 150.00 yo yo's plus parts quote from India support but got it fixed locally at a pc repair shop for a 100.00 euro's total .....

I would not buy a Dell without the 3 year warranty ..... it costs $$$$$$ all per week over the 3 years ....... in the 6 years I've run the two Dells I've used the warranty once for a Disc replacement but it's nice to know it's there .......

Lappies seem to have more probs than towers ..... at least so it seems ...

jacks_bile_duct

surely lightening damage is not covered by warranty?

chamlis

About 90% of the PCs that come into me for repair are Dell. Could be cos they're popular, could be cos they'z unreliable. All of them are less than 2 years old.

As I like to say: "Damn it all to Dell"

hobie

surely lightening damage is not covered by warranty?

not sure about that but the pc was well over 4 years old when I got hit ....

this is it before I replaced it ..... it's still here beside me and powers up fine if I ever needed it, after 6 or so years ....

CiaranC

Again, why would warranty apply in the case of lightening damage?

I support houses with hundreds of dell boxes, they dont seem any better or worse than anything else.

hobie

About 90% of the PCs that come into me for repair are Dell. Could be cos they're popular

Dell ship approx. 50 million pc's every 3 months worldwide ..... that's a lot of pc's for sure ! .... :eek:

Owen

I'm sitting here tap tap a tapping on a 3 year old Inspiron 8600c Laptop. No issues other than I wish I'd gone for the 1900x1200 display at the time of ordering - and the inevitable screen wobble all laptops get when they get old, you open the laptop, and the screen wobbles on the freeplay of the hinge. Very annoying, and some day I'll get around to fixing it.

Occidental

Biggest problems over the last five years have been the GX270's and overheating Inspirons(badly designed fan and heatsink). We generally go for 1 year on the desktops and 3 years on the laptops. We can fix the desktops ourselves, but the laptops are more of an effort and the extended warranty is way too cheap not to take up.

In general the Dimensions are as good as they've ever been. The Latitudes and Inspirons cause us more problems, but we seem to get good and bad ones(one machine will fail again and again with different problems, where as 3 others will work fine for years).

Raiser

1.

Lightning damage = act of God = not a warranty call - My folks problems started when they tried to pay Dell for assistance - and Dell said fine - but fcuk you - you are waiting 3 months for the privilege of paying for this problem to be fixed......[this is standard crap from Dell folks - read the small print in most of their adverts]

.......I have been building PCs for years BUT you still have to crawl back to Dell and wait 3 months cause of their non-standard replacement parts.

2.

My point was not that Dell are any less reliable than anyone else - I'm glad that a few of ye have used Dell systems for years without issue.....

...... My point was that if it all goes wrong they may well bill your credit card €150 and not bother to fix the problem & you may have to go to court 12 months later & it won't have been worth the trouble and the judge will prob. just ask them to fix it - WHICH IS WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE !!!!! - [and not after a 3 month wait time either]

• What if you were trying to run a business ?
• What if you were a final year student ?
• What if you wanted, hoped for or expected to be treated fairly and reasonably?
• What if you lived within view of the Dell factory - but still had to spend 15 days on and off the phone to Ranjit, Ashram, Chahal, Paramjit & et al getting promised callbacks that you know will not happen and being shunted from one department to another as they anxiously tried to get rid of you - before somebody has the initiative to bill your Visa card - but not to actually book an Engineer ?

netwhizkid

My own experiences with dell are:

I bought one Desktop Dimension 8400 3.4Ghz in Jan 2005, their technical support is junk, I can never understand those crazy Indian accents.

However the system is well built and performs well, my only hardware problem was that the DVD drive went and they replaced that free of charge as per the 4yr next day on site warranty that I got with it. It is guaranteed up until 2009 and so far so good, 4 formats later from the day of taking it out of the box, can't blame Dell for Win XP being pure utter sh*te.

Although I do hold them responsible for my last format which was caused by a faulty Dial-up modem, static had built up in the PCI slot and Dell wisely recommended a Format re-install and foola here did it, only to discover the same problem again, I removed and re-inserted the Modem from the slot problem solved. Stupid dopes.