Buying from Dell ?...never again !

peasant

A tale of woe:

It all started when my old computer (also a Dell that had never given any trouble) got hit by lightning. What to get? ...a new Dell of course.

-Off to the website to build my computer (like you used to be able to) ..oh no, that feature doesn't exist any more.
-Well then, I'll pick a computer ..oh no ...they all have Vista, I don't want Vista
-Ok, so I'll "chat" to a salesperson and ask ...not possible, I have to ring the dublin sales office
-Fine, so i'll talk to someone in Dublin who will sell me what I want ...instead
I get to talk to an Indian girl who doesn't understand me and I don't understand her either
-I give her the promotional code of the computer I want, just with XP and not Vista ...sorry Sir, but this configuration is not available
-Finally, after lots of misunderstandings, she coaxes me into buying a system that costs more than I actually wanted to spend ...and as I later find out, also more than on the website :mad: (advertised with Vista)
- Then I have to spell my name and address about ten times ...in Nato alphabet (Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrott ??)
- Ten minutes later the confirmation mail arrives ...guess what? half of the details are spelled wrong ..at least I can correct everything in writing this time.

- five days later; a phone call ...no, no ... it's not Dell, it's Interlink ..my computer is in Mayo ...incorrect address
- arrange with interlink to pick up the following day (Saturday) from their depot
- bring new computer home, connect, plug in ...IT DOESN'T WORK !!
- ring tech support ...only available Monday to Friday
- ring customer support ...ditto
- ring sales ...yes, they are working (in India), but unwilling to help or register my faulty delivery ...very sorry, sir, but you will have to call again on Monday
- come monday, ring customer services ...wait for half hour ...talk to another Indian ...we will contact you with a return adress where you can send the faulty computer.
- ask for supervisor ...explain my problems so far in a few choice words ...technician will come to fix it tomorrow:D
- technician comes (not from India ...from Sligo this time) ...fixed (new power supply, new motherboard)
- take new computer home, connect, setup, works ...except that you have to download and install 3 years worth of windows updates ...another evening wasted
- good lady wife wants to record something from internet radio ...doesn't work (used to no problem on the old Dell)

- I'll cut the next one short, as my wife made all the calls ...but essentially after about twenty useless calls(two days wasted), being sent from pillar to post and back again (Indian pillars and Indian posts of course) it turns out that Dell have decided not to support the "record what you hear"-feature that our soundcard actually has, but the Dell driver doesn't run. They are unwilling/unable to provide a fix or even recommend or sell an upgrade that would sort this.
[insert Indian accent]
We are very sorry Sir, but we can not help you with this issue
[/Indian accent]


Anyone from Dell (Ireland !) reads this ...have mercy ...HELP !!!

SeanW

Dell's tech support is worse than useless.

Spiritine

They defo have a prob wit the staff all being indian, even sales is thay way now:mad:

Gran Hermano

And Dell wonder why they are constantly loosing market share to HP...

Like the OP I've had a rather similar experience with Dell's sales and customer
service. I've made sure both personally and professionally we never buy Dell
any more.

meglome

I've never had any real problems with Dell PC's. BUT... I'm not loving this Indian call centre, service is very patchy indeed. I've rung for some friends of mine. And they undertstandably don't have a clue about any local issues as they are at the far side of the planet.

mikemac

That truely is a tale of woe OP.
I got a huge shock when I rang the Dublin sales line and got through to India. I always thought they had a sales office in Cherrywood, South Dublin

Last time I dealt with them Interlink lost my package so order was cancelled after 9 business days later. To be fair, the Indian staff were helpful but maybe more training is needed.
"What d'ya mean you can't understand my thick culchie accent?":D

Shinto

I bought a laptop off Dell only last week. I customized it online, and i chose windows XP instead of Vista.

OK they've changed the website a little, but up untill last week anyway i could still customize my order. I imagine it's still that way. They'd be mental to delete that facility.

I think Dell are great. Although, i do admit their tech support is kinda crap...from the one unhelpful email i've received from them. But their products are good and reliable. And no i dont work for them at all. Im just someone with a different opinion.

shanethemofo

I actually know somebody who has become racist towards indian people through having to deal with dell support, honest to god im being DEADLY serious.

irlrobins

Moving to consumer issues.

squibs

There was a big hoohah recently about dell bowing to customer outcry and offering XP as an option with new PCs again. I bought mine 6 months ago with XP and a free vista upgrade, but have no intention of loading vista

Re the soundcard, it sounds like it's a creative labs? You may be able to install creative's own drivers to enable the what-you-hear function.

In my last job, we outsourced a bunch of stuff to India. All clever people, but communication was a nightmare in most cases because of Cork and Indian accents on the English language. We mutually agreed to do all communication by email eventually.

mickoneill30

Gran Hermano wrote:

And Dell wonder why they are constantly loosing market share to HP...

Are HP better now? I used to support our server room (about 100 HP servers). Any time there was a problem it was a quick 10 minute call to HP support to get the replacement part or engineer. Until they moved the number I call to India. Then it generally took about 40 mins to just explain what kind of server I had (with serial numbers and warranty numbers). We don't buy HP now.

Jip

It's not just a Dell issue, most large companies have moved their support centres to India so I feel the ops pains as I've been in the same situation myself many times. There's something of a backlash in the UK at the moment with some companies moving their support centre back to the UK due to the amount of complaints there were receiving, with one company (can't remember which one now) using the fact that their call centre is in the UK as a selling point.

cornbb

I've always found Indian call centre staff to be pleasant, well-educated and helpful. If the accent wasn't such a challenge they'd beat the hell out of Irish/UK call centre staff (I say this having worked in an Irish call centre).

For what its worth I've only had one experience of needing tech support from Dell (c. 3 years ago, needed a replacement power supply) and I found them to be excellent.

mathie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp8PZMn8-_E

M

TerrorFirmer

cornbb wrote:

I've always found Indian call centre staff to be pleasant, well-educated and helpful. If the accent wasn't such a challenge they'd beat the hell out of Irish/UK call centre staff (I say this having worked in an Irish call centre).

For what its worth I've only had one experience of needing tech support from Dell (c. 3 years ago, needed a replacement power supply) and I found them to be excellent.

I once had to ring them a few years ago and it was a pain as well. Not because he was useless - in fact, on the contrary, he was excellent and certainly far more helpful then anyone I'd gotten before, but his accent was so heavy it was impossible to understand anything without him having to repeat it several times.

Gran Hermano

mickoneill30 wrote:

Are HP better now? I used to support our server room (about 100 HP servers). Any time there was a problem it was a quick 10 minute call to HP support to get the replacement part or engineer. Until they moved the number I call to India. Then it generally took about 40 mins to just explain what kind of server I had (with serial numbers and warranty numbers). We don't buy HP now.

Guess it depends on what level of support/maintenance you have with
either Dell or HP. Dell are constantly loosing share to HP and the fact that
all but their highest levels of support are off-shored is not helping them.

Here's the latest figures from Gartner on market share for servers:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/19/hp_wins_dell/

1. IBM: $3.83bn Q1 revenue, 29.8 per cent market share
2. HP: $3.64bn Q1 revenue, 28.8 per cent market share
3. Dell: $1.44bn Q1 revenue, 11.2 per cent market share
4. Sun: $1.37bn Q1 revenue, 10.3 per cent market share
5. Fujitsu: $698m Q1 revenue, 5.4 per cent market share

heyjude

Last time I was ordering a PC from the Dell website, I specifically opted out of having Norton installed, the cost of the Norton product was deducted from the invoice, but when the computer arrived, the Norton product that I didn't want was installed anyway. :mad:

I don't feel I am getting the full benefit of the new PC as I think Norton is taking up a lot of processor time and harming the PC's performance.

I'd be very reluctant to buy Dell again, the purpose of going to the website and specifying all the bits and pieces you want on your PC, is to get the machine and software you want, not to have the opportunity to say what you want and then have them give you something completely different. An earlier Dell I had, saw its hard drive pack up just after the guarantee expired.

thefinalstage

heyjude wrote:

Last time I was ordering a PC from the Dell website, I specifically opted out of having Norton installed, the cost of the Norton product was deducted from the invoice, but when the computer arrived, the Norton product that I didn't want was installed anyway. :mad:

I don't feel I am getting the full benefit of the new PC as I think Norton is taking up a lot of processor time and harming the PC's performance.

I'd be very reluctant to buy Dell again, the purpose of going to the website and specifying all the bits and pieces you want on your PC, is to get the machine and software you want, not to have the opportunity to say what you want and then have them give you something completely different. An earlier Dell I had, saw its hard drive pack up just after the guarantee expired.

To remove Norton use the Norton removal Tool Here(use the top file)

Than follow the instructions here

Its really easy and quick to do. Whenever I go to repair computers I bring this along because 80 percent of the problems are caused by Norton.

eth0_

Any time I have dealt with an Indian call centre I have come away dissatisfied. It's not just a problem with accent, they are all reading from scripts like a sheep, they seem incapable or are not allowed to think outside the box.

I can't fathom why American companies are STILL outsourcing support to India. They have such bad press, and lots of UK businesses actually make a point in their adverts that they have "UK based call centres" because banks etc have lost so many customers having had enough of ringing Bangalore to discuss an item on their credit card bill..

Ruu_Old

Bought a couple of PCs and one laptop but thankfully never any bother with them or having to call their support.

Oryx

Ive just come off the phone to an Indian call centre (Apple support). The guy was very helpful, but the combination of accents and VOIP made it an agonising call.

I own a Dell, and its run perfectly for years now *crosses fingers*. The only problem Ive had was the preloaded mcaffee, which is a nightmare, and no system discs supplied.

goose06

I ordered a laptop about a month ago through Dell Finance, still no sign of it, I ring them everyday to find out what is going on and everyday the same story, . Call goes the same way every day, I ring them they ask for my IR number, I give them that, they ask how can they help me, I tell them to read through the previous calls, they always come back saying that I haven't sent in the finance forms and proof of ID, I tell them I did and that I have recieved my passport back in the post on the 11th of July so thats proof, I ask them can I speak to someone in the online team, they say they do not have a direct number but that they will send an email to get the Online Team to ring me. I tell them that I have been told this everyday that I call and that I still have not recieved a call from this fictional online team, they then proceed to promise me that they will definately follow this up and will contact me by close of business, never happens, so tomorrow I intend on ringing them up and hopefully I'll be able to cancel the laptop without as much hassle.
So a friendly bit of advice don't ever bother try and get a finance deal from Dell, if you think they are slow when you paying up front, way worse trying to go through a finance deal...
Like talking to robots, at least with an irish helpdesk you will come across people who will actually follow up and try and help you out.

griffdaddy

if people are worried about the crap that comes with a dell just format the hard drive and reinstall windows before you put any files or anything on it. That way you'll have as clean a system as possible with just windows on it.

Oryx

griffdaddy wrote:

if people are worried about the crap that comes with a dell just format the hard drive and reinstall windows before you put any files or anything on it. That way you'll have as clean a system as possible with just windows on it.

Would you need discs to do that?

griffdaddy

just the windows disk that comes with the computer, it's very easy to do, the lads in the windows forum would probably be able to walk you through it in a matter of minutes.

dahamsta

Dell computers don't come with Windows disks. As standard restore capability is stored in a hidden partition on the hard drive, which can be accessed from the boot menu. You can also pay extra for a restore CD. Both options will restore all of the crap you get when you buy the machine.

adam

griffdaddy

ah ok, is that a relatively new thing? i bought a desktop a good few years ago (when 512 ram would've been a lot) and it came with just a normal windows xp cd. They must've changed it now. although that was a business pc, would that have made a difference?

Oryx

griffdaddy wrote:

ah ok, is that a relatively new thing? i bought a desktop a good few years ago (when 512 ram would've been a lot) and it came with just a normal windows xp cd. They must've changed it now. although that was a business pc, would that have made a difference?

My dell is over 4 years old. Business customer, no disks. I rang them and they said its not policy to send discs. Which is why I asked if youd need them when reformatting the hd.

jaggeh

I had a fairly serious problem with my XPS yesterday. spoke to tech support.

20 minutes later my pc is fine and working. i mentioned to the operator that i had upgraded my graphics card and hes sending me out a new one, i just have to send back my old one.

ive never had a problem with tech support or dell in general. my next pc will probably be an XPS laptop.

dahamsta wrote:

Dell computers don't come with Windows disks. As standard restore capability is stored in a hidden partition on the hard drive, which can be accessed from the boot menu. You can also pay extra for a restore CD. Both options will restore all of the crap you get when you buy the machine.

adam

yes they do. and it costs 4 euro to order replacement restore disks which are seperate.

dahamsta

Yes they do what? Did you read past the first sentence? Did you understand it?

antoinolachtnai

Let's be realistic here.

The cost of a Dell computer is extraordinarily cheap for the amount of stuff that's in it.

The reality is that there isn't enough gross margin in the product to provide a very high quality level of technical support. It just wouldn't be financially viable.

It's a terrible thing to have to say, but the reality is that quality support doesn't really pay financial dividends. When people go to buy a new computer, particularly for home use, they're looking at the price, not the service level. (This may not be true of all home purchasers, but it is of many.)

dahamsta

The problem with Dell - and I really do believe it's a problem - is that their sales people are as bad as their support people. Getting through on the phone is difficult, and getting through to the person is often harder as they don't have a proper grasp of english. Ask for anything that doesn't use an evalue code and you might as well be shouting up a chimney at santa. You can't run a business like that. It doesn't work. You might get away with crappy support staff - although you shouldn't - but crappy sales staff? That's suicide. It can't last. It's just not a sound strategy.

The amount of people that have switched to HP is telling. HP doesn't even have a decent website, and getting in touch with them is almost as hard. But people are so pissed off with Dell at this stage, they'd rather buy there. That just shows the level of disdain this particular market has for customers.

adam

antoinolachtnai

But it does work. These people have beaten the living crap out of all the small PC manufacturers. They put Gateway out of business in Europe.

Ordering on the web is where it's at anyway.

dahamsta

Worked. Gateway was what, 6-8 years ago? Now people are moving to HP and even some niche providers.

As I said in my post, it can't last. Obviously this refers to the future, not the past or the present.

adam

jaggeh

they do come with windows disks

dahamsta

They don't come with Windows disks, they come with restore disks if you pay for them. I've explained the difference already, I'm not going to do it again.

Oafley Jones

jaggeh wrote:

they do come with windows disks

Only a very small percentage of Dells machines come supplied with discs. You have to pay a small bit extra if you want them.

formatman

dahamsta wrote:

They don't come with Windows disks, they come with restore disks if you pay for them. I've explained the difference already, I'm not going to do it again.

they do come with Windows disks , and it is the full version of XP or Vista , it is not a restore disc ( they were charging a while ago but seems to send them out now ( with vista machine anyhow) ( they provide restore partitions hidden on the hard drive ) the difference is that the disc has a pre registration built into it so doesn't require registration once installed on the appropriate DELL machine

What differences did you notice out of curiosity ? ,

heyjude

thelastangryman wrote:

To remove Norton use the Norton removal Tool Here(use the top file)

Than follow the instructions here

Its really easy and quick to do. Whenever I go to repair computers I bring this along because 80 percent of the problems are caused by Norton.

Thanks for that.

dahamsta

I've bought several new Dells in the past year or two, for myself and for clients, and they didn't come with Windows disks, and no option was available to receive a Windows disk. They came with Dell-branded system restore disks, on request. I haven't received a Windows disk with a Dell machine in several years. I find it very strange that I haven't received them for three or more machines and, supposedly, everyone else has.

heyjude

thelastangryman wrote:

To remove Norton use the Norton removal Tool Here(use the top file)

Than follow the instructions here

Its really easy and quick to do. Whenever I go to repair computers I bring this along because 80 percent of the problems are caused by Norton.

Oh the irony, when you go to the second link quoted for how to remove Norton, there is a GoogleAd at the top of the page for Norton Internet Security !!!! :rolleyes:

Mezcita

I work in Sales in Dell Cherrywood. I deal with the irish market. I am from Ireland. And yes I speak english perfectly.

I love hearing this stuff. People call into Dell all the time looking for a good price on a system. This is exactly what they get. Then when something goes wrong with the system they bought for 399 euro, they get annoyed with the after sales support. What exactly do they expect? Michael Dell himself to arrive the next day with a brand spanking new system for them? Grow up.

If you buy a home system with a crappy warranty, don't get annoyed when the after sales suypport isn't up to your standards. why didn't you buy a better warranty? Why didn't you buy a better system for that fact? Look at the guy who bought the XPS - he had a great experience. That's coz there's a better support line for those systems. Yes they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. You could also have bought an optiplex if you don't like speaking to indian tech support - The tech support line for them is in Scotland.

Ah yes the indian issue. Personally I think the employees in the Indian call centres do a great job. They do the best they can in what is a challenging environment for them. How would you find trying to sell a computer to someone in India if Indian is not your first language? Also for the person above who says that his friend is now racist after talking to Dell India, I suggest then that this person isn't really worth knowing in the first place. The amount of similarly bigotted people I have talked to on the phone in my time in Dell would make anyone stop and think about what type of abuse someone with an Indian accent might go through on a daily basis. But if you do insist that it is your right not to have to deal with indian reps, there are 1500 people working in dell in Cherrywood who could help you buy or support your system. If you happen to get through to me though, I will take a lot of pleasure out of putting your racist ass on hold while I go to home for the evening.

mickoneill30

Mezcita wrote:

This is exactly what they get. Then when something goes wrong with the system they bought for 399 euro, they get annoyed with the after sales support.

Why don't Dell unbundle the support. I'd pay more for better support and so would a lot of corporates. I'd expect a lot of other people would too. Say average machine with crappy support for €399. Or average machine with good support for €499. You take a gamble getting the cheaper option but at least you can't whinge when it's crap.

Mezcita wrote:

If you buy a home system with a crappy warranty, don't get annoyed when the after sales suypport isn't up to your standards. why didn't you buy a better warranty?

If you buy a better warranty are you transferred to a different tech support line?

Why didn't you buy a better system for that fact? Look at the guy who bought the XPS - he had a great experience. That's coz there's a better support line for those systems. Yes they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. You could also have bought an optiplex if you don't like speaking to indian tech support - The tech support line for them is in Scotland.

And how is the average Joe Soap buying Dell machines supposed to know this?

Ah yes the indian issue. Personally I think the employees in the Indian call centres do a great job. They do the best they can in what is a challenging environment for them.

I agree. As a customer though, I don't care if it's challenging for the support guys. That's Dells problem. I just want my problem fixed. It doesn't help the customer if his / her experience is made more difficult through an already frustrating situation. The customer will remember the experience and vote with their feet the next time they're buying. We did in our company (reasonable server room of 100 HP servers, standard 3 year life on them so that was 100 new servers (at least) every 3 years, moved to another supplier that could guarantee better support).

The amount of similarly bigotted people I have talked to on the phone in my time in Dell would make anyone stop and think about what type of abuse someone with an Indian accent might go through on a daily basis.

I actually agree with you there. The line I used to work on took Irish & English calls. We all used to groan when we saw the next call was an Irish customer. Generally the English were way more polite. The Irish guys were more likely to jump up and down and think that screaming down the phone would get better service. (I'm Irish too, from Dublin).
By the way if you're a customer and you shout or "demand your rights" from a tech rep, even though you've no clue what your rights actually are , prepare for lots of hold music and a crappy service.

dahamsta

I bought a €3500 Dimension 9200 with a 3 year warranty, and I can tell you here and now I don't get any special treatment. Because Dell support is sh*t, period. There's no levels, there's just sh*t, across the board.

adam

jay80

Mezcita wrote:

I love hearing this stuff. People call into Dell all the time looking for a good price on a system. This is exactly what they get. Then when something goes wrong with the system they bought for 399 euro, they get annoyed with the after sales support. What exactly do they expect? Michael Dell himself to arrive the next day with a brand spanking new system for them? Grow up.

If people buy a computer (regardless of value), then they expect it to work. It may not be a powerful machine, and possibly slow as hell but it should work as expected.

Mezcita wrote:

Ah yes the indian issue. Personally I think the employees in the Indian call centres do a great job. They do the best they can in what is a challenging environment for them. How would you find trying to sell a computer to someone in India if Indian is not your first language?
...
If you happen to get through to me though, I will take a lot of pleasure out of putting your racist ass on hold while I go to home for the evening.

If my last call to Dell had been recorded and put on the net it would be an instant comedy hit - seriously. I didn't have any problems as such, but wanted to put in more RAM and had no clue what to look for or do. Thick Irish accent and thick Indian accent caused the worst breakdown in communication I've come across (no irateness - just comedy gold, I did get sorted eventually). However I would not accept speaking to an Indian helpdesk guy after that incident if I did have a problem that needed fixing. Nothing racist about that and if your attitude is anything to go by, I think I'll go elsewhere for my next pc.

Oryx

They do the best they can in what is a challenging environment for them. How would you find trying to sell a computer to someone in India if Indian is not your first language?

So why are Dell doing it in reverse?

Dell have support on the cheap. People who dont like it will vote with their feet and buy elsewhere.

MOH

Mezcita wrote:

I work in Sales in Dell Cherrywood. I deal with the irish market. I am from Ireland. And yes I speak english perfectly.

I love hearing this stuff. People call into Dell all the time looking for a good price on a system. This is exactly what they get. Then when something goes wrong with the system they bought for 399 euro, they get annoyed with the after sales support. What exactly do they expect? Michael Dell himself to arrive the next day with a brand spanking new system for them? Grow up.

Eh, no, they expect a reasonable level of support, given that they expected the system they bought for 399 euro to work in the first place without any need for support.

You could also have bought an optiplex if you don't like speaking to indian tech support - The tech support line for them is in Scotland.

Must have missed the bit on the website where that's highlighted.

Ah yes the indian issue. Personally I think the employees in the Indian call centres do a great job. They do the best they can in what is a challenging environment for them. How would you find trying to sell a computer to someone in India if Indian is not your first language?

What are you smoking? No one's talking about Indians trying to sell computers in Ireland. They're talking about buying computers in Ireland from a company based in Ireland, trying to get support for them when they don't work, and getting farmed out to a call centre in India. I'm sure it is a challenging environment, but it's Dell who are creating the situation, and since the only company representative the customer can speak to is the poor schmuck on the end of the phone, it's no wonder they have to bear the brunt of the frustration.

But if you do insist that it is your right not to have to deal with indian reps, there are 1500 people working in dell in Cherrywood who could help you buy or support your system.

Care to publish a number that people can use to get through to them?

If you happen to get through to me though, I will take a lot of pleasure out of putting your racist ass on hold while I go to home for the evening.

And with that attitude, you've finally convinced me never to buy a Dell again, personally or professionally.

oceanclub

To be fair, I've had good experiences with Indian call centre staff, and bad experiences with Irish ones. It was definitely an Irish call centre person who gave me muppet-level advice about an Inspiron 9300 fault, which I documented here on Dell's own blog:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/08/22/2131.aspx

(skip down to "Jeff Jarvis suggested I share my own Dell horror story on this thread. ")

If the woman I talked to was a typical "Dell Technician" (her own description), they're in trouble. Dell's share price has been plummeting, while HP's is soaring. Dell might want to have a think about where things are going wrong.

The ironic thing of course is that their laptops are fairly decent.

P.

Mezcita

Mick. Answers to your questions:

1. Dell do unbundle the support. The 399 genereally comes with either a 90 day collect and return, or a 1 year depending on the system. You can upgrade this to a next business day respons at point of sale if you wish. If you prefer a better level of support than the home support (based in india) that you get with the home range, you can buy an optiplex system that is supported from scotland.

2. As above, a better support line is available on the optiplex range -just make sure it includes the line"business support" in the spec list.

3. Average Joe Soap is supposed to be informed by the sales rep. If they are not, this is the fault of the rep him or herself.




Dahamsta: If you spent 3500 on a Dimension 9200, to be honest you would have been better spending the money on either an XPS, or Precision range. They are more powerful, have more options, and have better support. I would be very surprised if you were not advised this at point of sale. Reps work on commision, and if they thought you would have bought one of these systems, believe me, they would have tried to sell it to you.



For the record, those of you who don't want to speak to an indian sales rep can ring 01 2044014 and ask specifically to be put through to someone in Irish sales in Cherrywood.


Jay80 - define reasonable level of support. For 399 euro I think people get exactly what they pay for. If you get a system this cheap and have to go to tech support and stay on the phone for an hour, so what. There may be some language problems, and it might be a bit of hassle, but your problem WILL get fixed, even if you have to go to the sales rep's manager. Anyways, you could have bought a better warranty. Believe me all sales reps on the phone will try to sell you a warranty but 9 out of 10 people don't bother. When things go wrong, that's when they start to rant about Dell. This is just another example of peoples inflated expectations. The fact that you can now buy systems at prices like this is completley down to companies like Dell, who started the whole budget pc thing. If this had not happened you would still be buying systems for 1K from HP, and no doubt on some other website giving out about their price. The fact is that Dell actually lose a lot of money selling budget systems - it's a loss leader. They sell them at these prices so they can get calls into the business and hopefully get the customer interested in their more profitable and better system range. The upside for the public is that nearly everyone can afford some sort of system. I just hope you understand that it is not financially possible to have an Irish support centre, manned by Irish reps, being paid Irish salaries to support systems that Dell loses money on anyways.


Lastly:Jay80 and MOH : My last comment in my post above was directed specifically at someone who had admitted to having racist views. Since you're getting so defensive about it, I can only assume you either didn't read my post properly, or you share these views. If the latter is the case, then I have this to say: You say you would never buy from Dell Personally or professionally. That's fine coz I would never sell you anything with that type of attitude.

Apologies to anyone else reading this post - I do not want you to think Dell takes a nonchalant attitude towards customers -we don't. Only racist ones.

dahamsta

At least 1k of that was on a large monitor. You could possibly spend that much on a system alone. Surely you should know that if you work for Dell?

I didn't talk to a rep, simply because the last time I tried to buy a server from Dell, I was shunted from India to Ireland, back to India and back to Ireland again, and not one of the four people I talked to had a bull's notion what they were doing. I'll never buy anything of value from Dell again. Pizza boxes on special offer is all I'm interested in now.

If you really do work for Dell, you shouldn't take pride in it. It's a sh*t company that places no value in either it's customers or it's employees. They give as much of a sh*t about you as they do about us.

adam

Mezcita

dahamsta wrote:

At least 1k of that was on a large monitor. You could possibly spend that much on a system alone. Surely you should know that if you work for Dell?

Sorry whats your point?

BTW did you mean to say "You couldN'T possibly spend that much on a system alone?" If so, are you kidding?

dahamsta wrote:

I didn't talk to a rep, simply because the last time I tried to buy a server from Dell, I was shunted from India to Ireland, back to India and back to Ireland again, and not one of the four people I talked to had a bull's notion what they were doing. I'll never buy anything of value from Dell again. Pizza boxes on special offer is all I'm interested in now.

Right so you spent 3500 euro on a asystem, didn't get any advice on it, and now you're upset?

dahamsta wrote:

If you really do work for Dell, you shouldn't take pride in it. It's a sh*t company that places no value in either it's customers or it's employees. They give as much of a sh*t about you as they do about us.

Ok. That's why I am sitting at home talking to you on a friday afternoon because Dell were nice enough to give everyone in my dept a day off for doing a good job this quarter. They are also consistently voted in the Top 5 companies to work for in Ireland by the Irish Times. We also as reps are paid based on how well we score in our customer satisfaction surveys filled out by you the customer. That means that anyone I sell a system to has a direct effect on my paycheck. Why would Dell encourage me to give a good after sales service if they didn't give a sh*t about their customers?