Why Dell?

killbillvol2

As the thread title says...?

I can understand if it's because they're cheap but otherwise I'm baffled.

a) ridiculous delivery delays.

b) appalling, unintelligible customer service

c) generally bulky laptops

d) expensive, but often necessary, warranty

I'm not talking in a vacuum here - I've ordered lots of Dell stuff for work because I've been told to as it's cheaper but it's given no end of hassle. Three laptops out of four just died -2 dodgy motherboards and one dead HD. The desktops are just crap. Out of 37 I've had trouble with 22. And the fun really starts when you have trouble. 20 minutes just to get to being identified by the Call Centre and endless BS then.

So why are there numerous threads here recommending them? As I said, if it's because they're dirt cheap it's slightly understandable but there's no way I'd tell anyone to buy anything from them. Are there loads of Dell employees on Boards pushing these crappy machines?

Tom Dunne

killbillvol2 wrote:

a) ridiculous delivery delays.

This has only applied in the last couple of weeks, especially with the new Vostro range. I wouldn't say that is unusual for any new product.

killbillvol2 wrote:

b) appalling, unintelligible customer service

I must admit, I have never had to deal with them.

killbillvol2 wrote:

c) generally bulky laptops

You get what you pay for - generally any laptops I have ordered for friends/family, mobility was not a factor, all they wanted was cheap and cheerful.

killbillvol2 wrote:

d) expensive, but often necessary, warranty

You don't have to take it.

killbillvol2 wrote:

Are there loads of Dell employees on Boards pushing these crappy machines?

If there were, I'd be down on them like a ton of bricks. I have exceptionally low tolerance for shills.

From my own perspecitve, price is the biggest factor. I always refer to Dell as the Ryanair of the laptop world, cheap and cheerful. I can honestly say, in all the laptops I have ordered for friends and family, not one has ever given an ounce of trouble. Granted, they weren't heavy users.

Of course, I am a bit of a hypocrite - typing this on my IBM laptop , but then I would regard myself as a power user and am willing to pay that bit more for quality.

killbillvol2

tom dunne wrote:

From my own perspecitve, price is the biggest factor. I always refer to Dell as the Ryanair of the laptop world, cheap and cheerful. I can honestly say, in all the laptops I have ordered for friends and family, not one has ever given an ounce of trouble. Granted, they weren't heavy users.

Of course, I am a bit of a hypocrite - typing this on my IBM laptop , but then I would regard myself as a power user and am willing to pay that bit more for quality.

That was really my question. I can see that they're cheaper than most other brands and can accept tht as a reason for buying them. But I get a bit p*ssed off when it's followed with how good they are because that hasn't been my experience. One of my friends is not happy with me at the moment because her 15 month old Inspiron (which I ordered) has gone belly up.

As regards the warranty, I'm usually ordering for a school so it was often easier to take the warranty. I've since got one of my past pupils to look after maintenance so it's no longer an issue.

I too am typing this on my IBM so I suppose I'm biased.

AlmightyCushion

I've got a dell laptop and it hasn't given me the slightest bit of trouble. Two of my friends have/had hps and they had nothing but trouble with them.

Ghost Train

i think dell make it easy to get what you want. You can customise and only pay for the spec you need, they have a decent range, although most of the styling is pretty bad though. In my experience, delivery is not too bad for an online shop, but would be better if they used something like dhl. Dell customer satisfaction seems to quite good. There isn't that much choice in ireland for buying computer hardware, would be happier going with dell than somebody like pcworld

anthony4335

I find dell better than most. Have not had too much bother with them. A few calls to the customer service ,I will say I don't like dealing with the Indian center, they are very nice but follow everything by the book, which takes ages to get to the problem, even when you know what the problem is. I prefer cherrywood ,they are very quick. As for reliability I dropped one from 3 feet onto a tile floor while powered on, and it is still working to this day. And no I don't work for them.

RoyalMarine

i bought a dell xps m1710. 17", very big laptop.
but i use it for gaming. ive got extremly high specs, and its what i want.

dell do a wide range of laptops. lots of them are slim and compact.

i havnt had a problem with them at all.

delivery was 3 days from when i ordered it.

love the look and feel of it, and its great!

customer service was more than friendly. any question i had and they helped me straight away, plus gave me a great discount and deal on my laptop.

Soundman

First laptop I had was a Dell. Didn't have much cash at the time so went for an Inspiron 6000.

The only problem I had with it was a dodgy DVD writer but that was Sony's fault and not Dell's. I called customer support and within 15 minutes had it narrowed down to it being a hardware fault so they sent a courier the next day with a replacement. Not one ounce of trouble. Even had a very nice follow up call to see if everything arrived and installed/worked fine. They also sent me out every install CD I would ever need for the machine for free.

All this was 3 years ago and the laptop is still going strong. Hinges are a little loose but I will get around to tightening them soon. I passed the laptop onto the girlfriend and she is having no problems at all.

I have ordered probably 7 or 8 Dell systems for friends and family and not one has had a problem.

I think you are just jinxed KillBillVol2

killbillvol2

Soundman wrote:

I think you are just jinxed KillBillVol2

LOL. I wouldn't mind so much if I was jinxed but I've never bought anything for myself from Dell, always for others. I'm obviously a Jonah.

optiplexgx270

Out of the 50-60 dell machines we have in work only 1 (inspiron 8600) had a failing HD (data was saved) and another had a broken screen (Latitude d820 - but someone put his golf clubs on it in the boot of his car :rolleyes:). So just problems with one machine in 3 years and the odd hard drive in production servers (<3 in the same timeframe). We do stick with the Latitude, poweredge and Optiplex ranges.

Soundman

killbillvol2 wrote:

LOL. I wouldn't mind so much if I was jinxed but I've never bought anything for myself from Dell, always for others. I'm obviously a Jonah.

Dell have feelings too you know. I think they can sense you hate them. They are like cats in that respect.

mikemac

Owned a Dell 5160 laptop and was very happy with it. But after 15 months, the sound stopped working due to some motherboard fault. Did some reseach and it was well known problem at the time.

It was out of warranty (15 months old) so never got it fixed or replaced.
Possibly, I could have pushed this more

Ordered another laptop and after 9 days it still hadn't reached Dublin from Limerick. Probably the couriers fault and not Dells but pretty unacceptable all the same.
Managed to get a full refund on this.

The Indian staff were helpful but it was some shock to ring an Irish number and get through to India. I never got to deal with Cherrywood so I'm not sure what exactly they do there.

I use an Apple macbook these days and it's the best thing ever.:)

copacetic

i've had dell laptops/dektops in work for 10 years or so and have had little or no trouble with them.

have had to follow up with customer services fir friends in the past which wasn't fun, but no PC supplier has decent service imo.

Dell aren't perfect but are cheap and as reliable as any other make imo, the new 1330 design is very nice and the latitude D series which I use are nice too.

as tom says on your issues

a) ridiculous delivery delays.

disagree here, up until the new machines delivery was always pretty reliable.

b) appalling, unintelligible customer service

agree but no worse than any of the rest and you can bypass the foreign support by saying the right things

c) generally bulky laptops

not true if you buy the right ones and the dimensions are obvious before you buy anyway

d) expensive, but often necessary, warranty

you don't need to buy it and there is a free warranty that is as good as most suppliers.
Similar higher end warranties for any other make are expensive too.