Dell Good/Bad?

marco murphy

Iam seeing a lot of complaints in regards to Dells service.

Whats your opinion?

angelofdeath

their service isn't bad, from my experience its been pretty good, the only reason i never recommend dell pc's to anyone is because they are imo overpriced

garthv

I ordered this PC off them last year and I have had no trouble with it all all. Well the monitor did melt but they replaced it the next day and the speakers went a bit funny but they were replaced the next day too
Ive heard some horror stories about Dell but tbh Ive found them to be grand. If a little on the dear side when you are getting a loan through them

I am MAN

angelofdeath wrote:

their service isn't bad, from my experience its been pretty good, the only reason i never recommend dell pc's to anyone is because they are imo overpriced

Are you serious? Dell are not overpriced in the slightest, you dont know what you're talking about.

Thumbs up for Dell.

Saruman

I am MAN wrote:

Are you serious? Dell are not overpriced in the slightest, you dont know what you're talking about.

Thumbs up for Dell.

He is right actually... they are overpriced in the sense that for that money you can build your own PC better than they can BUT and again i say BUT!!! few if any other pc manufacturer come close to being as cheap as Dell. So they are NOT overpriced for consumers who dont know anything about PC's

Feck the PC's their laptops and handhelds are class.

Sleipnir

Dell are overpriced.
They may be "cheap" when you buy it but as the man says
"If you put **** in, you'll get **** out"

Dell will source the cheapest parts they can, which is how they can sell so cheaply.
Quality is not near the highest priority for Dell.
They will often change they supplier of a part on a weekly basis if a competitor can deliver a similar product at a lower cost.
Of course, they'll change back if the price is lower again. They have no loyalties!

They also produce "custom" cases, PSU's etc which makes self-upgrade a near impossibility (unless all you want to do is bung some memory in there.

Dell are great for workstations but just awful for home/gamer systems.

I am MAN

Saruman wrote:

He is right actually... they are overpriced in the sense that for that money you can build your own PC better than they can BUT and again i say BUT!!! few if any other pc manufacturer come close to being as cheap as Dell. So they are NOT overpriced for consumers who dont know anything about PC's

Feck the PC's their laptops and handhelds are class.

Yes but we know the majority of computer users cannot complete such a task not to mention you will struggle building alot of the systems they have for the same price if you purchase a monitor etc.

So I still say he's wrong.

angelofdeath

you could easily save a couple of hunderd at least building any of their machines with the exact same spec

galwaydude18

They are the most retarded company out there! I waited for over 8 weeks to get a reply to wether or not they would give me finance for a laptop and they always fobbed me off! Never once rang me. In the end I just rang them and gave the woman at the other end of the phone five minutes of verbal abuse about how crap their company is! They are the worst showers fcukers I have ever dealt with ever!

JDxtra

Sleipnir wrote:

Dell are overpriced.
They may be "cheap" when you buy it but as the man says
"If you put **** in, you'll get **** out"

Dell will source the cheapest parts they can, which is how they can sell so cheaply.
Quality is not near the highest priority for Dell.
They will often change they supplier of a part on a weekly basis if a competitor can deliver a similar product at a lower cost.
Of course, they'll change back if the price is lower again. They have no loyalties!

They also produce "custom" cases, PSU's etc which makes self-upgrade a near impossibility (unless all you want to do is bung some memory in there.

Dell are great for workstations but just awful for home/gamer systems.

Bog standard users don't care about upgrades or who makes the compenents. They just want to know that they got a bargain - and in most cases, yes they did. Dell are dirt cheap these days for consumer PC's & there is no denying that.

Why should Dell have any loyalty to a parts supplier anyways? They're in a cut throat business where every penny saved counts.

Ruu_Old

never had a problem dealing with Dell.

Sleipnir

I'm not saying they should have any loyalties. It#s a good thing for them that they don't.

I wouldn't say they're getting a bargain, I's say they're getting a cheap, product.
Just because one thing is cheaper than another doesn't mean it's a bargain.

Zascar

I used to work for Dell and I think that they are a very good company, and for the aveage user (i.e. not a modder, serious gamer/tech head) I would definitely recommend them. Most of the time they are great value - look out for special deals sometimes they are unbelieveable - Dell loose money on many of their leading bundles. If you are a tech head and want to buy all your kit from Komplett and put it together yourself, I'm sure it will work out cheaper. But for a little extra you get it all done for you and get the service and support too.

Many people don't like dealing with Tech Support in India, but if you opt for the Gold Tech Support you get to speak with (Irish) level 2 engineers - well worth the money. Somtimes people will have nightmare stories of waiting many weeks for delivery but sometimes they have supply constriants from their suppliers which not much can be done. The sales reps are generally excellent but you may be unlcuky and get a bad one who gives you incorrect information or ignores your plea for help. In that case escillate it to their manager and it will be dealt with very quickly.

They sometimes get a bad rep because people buy their cheapest systems and expect them to be able to do Everything. The entry level systems (2300,2350,3000 series) for example has an intergrated graphics card which is fine for the vast majority of people who are not interested in games, and would perfer to save the money than buy a dedicated graphics card. As long as you know exactly what you are getting you should not have a problem.

I still have a lot of friends there so if anyone needs a good contact let me know and I'll see if i can help you out.

Any more questions please ask.

rsynnott

The bloody things are very difficult to upgrade for no good reason. And the keyboards are horrible.

Ajnag

If ya need a cheap flat screen and peripherals for your first time out then dell fit the spec. Other then that tho always better value to build yourself. Other then chosing a good spec for your system, everything else isnt too hard.

Tho the pda's rock, I just got a dell axim lately and its the coolest gadget I ever got.

galwaydude18

They are a load of crap! I HATE DELL SOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOO MUCHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Calibos

The only 2 downsides I see with Dell are they don't do AMD so if you want a top of the line 'bragging rights' gaming PC, you should look elsewhere. Thats not to say Dells with their Intel Proc. aren't competent gaming machines, its just that they are generally 5-10fps behind the FX53/55's of this world which tbh isn't really an issue when both are still 40+FPS faster than needed for smooth play on the latest games.

Their cases, mobo's and PSU's are proprietry and so upgrading those components are difficult and of course their systems are locked and can't be overclocked. This means they are 'pieces of sh*t' for the majority of the posters here and especially over in tweaking and modding where this kind of user is in the majority. However in the realworld, modders and overclockers are very much a minority where the constraints of a Dell system are not an issue.

My current Dell is a Dimension 8200 which originally had a 1.8ghz 400FSB, 256mb ram and GF ti200. Last year in anticipation of the big3 games (You know what they are) I upgraded the proc to a 2.8 400FSB 512mb ram and 9800pro. I flashed the GC to XT jury rigged the unused fan I got with the new Proc as an intake fan and was able to play the big3 at 1280x1024 with full detail almost across the board with frame rates that rarely dropped below 30fps. I enjoyed the researching and jury rigging and flashing(the card) so much at the time, I said to myself, "so thats what all these modders are talking about, this is fun and interesting stuff".

The thing is though that upon researching components for my first self build I discovered that it was brain numbing stuff. Too much choice, too many compatibilty questions (what speed mem with what timings and latency is compatible with which mobo and cpu combination blah blah blah) Finally put together a mish mash of components and found that cost wise it was cheaper than a Dell but not by a huge amount. Not by enough to make it worth my while dealing with 50 seperate warranties rather than 1, not worth my while trying to resolve hardware issue where one component vendor blames a problem on another component vendor etc etc. None of these issues with a Dell.

As for all this talk of substandard components. What a crock of sh*te. I am sick of people telling me, oh they have crap power supplies etc. Sure its a proprietry power supply but I am sure I read somewhere that the company that makes the unbranded power supplies for Dell are one of the most respected names in the PSU business. ATI recommends a 300 or is it 350w PSU to run a 9800pro. The 250w in my 8200 runs it no problem because while most PSU makers quote the max output of their PSU the Dell quoted 250 is actually the mean power output or some such terminology. Its peak output is the same as all these other brand name PSU's.

People say, "Oh Dells only have crappy on-noard sound and graphics" Well yes if you order the '€499 March special' optiplex intended for office use.

So I've given up the idea of a Self build, I have some interest in the idea but do not have the time nor probably the money to get into it. I just know if I started to really get into it I'd spend a fortune in money and too much time upgrading this bit, then that bit then tweaking this bit then upgrading that bit again. I'm sure I might enjoy it but fear the PC would more often than not be open on a work top with its guts ripped out!!

So, I've justed ordered an XPS Gen 4 which will remain untouched for much of its life, save a new graphics card in 2 years or so and maybe a new processor assuming I can find something compatible then.

3.4ghzP4(650)
1 gig 4200DDR2 533mhz Ram
160gb Sata 7200RPM HDD
Dual Layer DVD-R/RW
Audigy 2Z
ATI X850XTPE
2405FPW 24inWS Flat Panel monitor(1920x1200)
AIO 962 Printer
540 Photo Printer

Total incl. Vat €3567 on the Dell site
Rang sales, merely asked what he could do for me and he rang back 10 minutes later and said he could knock €567 off! 15%. Now bear in mind there is €1200 worth of monitor and nearly €500 worth of printers there so take that €1700 and you have €1300 ish for an XPS, Also bear in mind that if you don't want the flashy case and the extra cooling you could get a near identical Dimension 8400 for a couple of hundred less. I was willing to pay the extra.

I cannot fault Dell and am happy that my third new computer will be a Dell like the last 2. Hassle, Free, worry free, they just don't suit modders/over clockers and thats perfectly all right but they simply don't deserve the slagging they get.

CyberGhost

I love Dell

they make the best prebuilt computers

though, next time I'm building my own

but my laptops will always be Dell, unless someone better comes along

Tom Dunne

galwaydude18 wrote:

They are the most retarded company out there! I waited for over 8 weeks to get a reply to wether or not they would give me finance for a laptop and they always fobbed me off!

It's Permanent TSB that do the finance for Dell, so it's them giving you the runaround.

Dell are the Lidl/Aldi of PC suppliers - if you want a cheap PC/laptop that does what it says on the tin, buy off Dell.

If you want better service, or a better build, be prepared to pay more for them.

jjmax

My mum bought a laptop from them a little over a year ago.
It had issues right from the start, and within two weeks, after severeal days on the phone, an engineer came out and replaced the Hard-Drive amd RAM.
I was away at the time, but when I came back in May I had to rebuild the thing, again it was having HD problems.
My mum was away for the summer, but when she came back she had another engineer out who said the thing needed a replacement HD. She didn't want to do this at the time as she needed a backup done, something Dell weren't able to provide. I manged to do the backup by Safemoding into windows and burning a CD.
A few months later she decided to get the issues resolved once and for all and got on to Dell again. The machine was out of warranty at this stage, however they did accept that this was an ongoing problem and in fairness to them they collected the machine and returned it to us within a week with a new HD.
However, the HD was once again corrupt.
I got in contact again with Dell on behalf of my Mum, and I was speaking to someone in their Derry call-centre.
I could write for ages about the goings-on with that call, and subsequent callbacks.
My point was that the laptop had gone through three HDs, and I believed that the issue with the laptop was not with the HD but with the Motherboard.
Now this was an educated guess. Although I'll stess 'Educated'. I've worked for 8 years as an IT Field Tech, supporting both hardware and software. I've never worked in a call-centre although I have worked closely with one, and I know how they work.
The girl who took the call started to go through the usual rigmarole, even though she had the history of the laptop in front of her.
I asked to speak to her supervisor.
She informed me that she was the Supervisor. Her exact words were - "I am the supervisor of YOUR CALL"!
I asked to speak to the manager so, and all I got was - "I am the manager of your call".
I won't go on and on about the rest of the call, but from talking to her I got the distinct impression she was either unwilling or unable to help us.
Her escalation point (supervisor in layman's terms, I don't know what Dell would call him) was sitting at his desk, and apparently during this 90 minute saga was too busy to take the call.
My point is that she worked for Dell for 6 months, had no IT training other than what Dell had given her in that period (I asked her), and Dell were leaving her in the firing line on a call like this.
They offered no backup to her and no satisfaction to us.
Epilogue:
My mum threatened to go to Joe Duffy, when she called back later and was talking to someone else.
They sent an Engineer out the next day, who replaced the motherboard.
Well done, except the HD is still making noise, although the "Engineer" assured my mum this was normal (Iwasn't there).

That is why I voted No in the survey.

Dinner

I've never had a major problem with Dell. I'm on my second computer from them and its still working grand. The price wasnt bad I've only recently had to add to it, though that was my own fault for not buying enough RAM in the first place.
No problems with anything other than once with a boot problem means that I would recommend Dell to anyone and I'll probably get my next computer from them too.

delly

Anybody who uses four fifths of my name gets my thimbs up.

wavin

anyone know the story with dell support service?
1 Year European Collect and Return Service is 350€ cheaper than the basic 3 year package.does this mean it takes longer to get problems sorted and stuff like that?

Dempsey

tom dunne wrote:

It's Permanent TSB that do the finance for Dell, so it's them giving you the runaround.

Dell are the Lidl/Aldi of PC suppliers - if you want a cheap PC/laptop that does what it says on the tin, buy off Dell.

Aldi/Lidl make great pcs

Dell are good, its just that you hear about horror stories more than you'll hear when everything is running good. Id recommend Dell but only if the Adli/lidl offer isnt coming

chippo

wavin wrote:

anyone know the story with dell support service?
1 Year European Collect and Return Service is 350€ cheaper than the basic 3 year package.does this mean it takes longer to get problems sorted and stuff like that?

Nope it works the same just the length of time is the main difference. My 2 cents worth, from my own experience get the 3yr insurance. If your paying alot for a laptop its better to be covered. I didnt and 1yr 2 mnth after buying the laptop the motherboard needed to be replace to fix a sound card problem cost quote €600! (Obviously didnt actually get it replaced!)

4Xcut

Dell offer deplorable service on the whole. When you are buying there is a very helpful person with english as a first language on the other end of the line but as soon as the payment goes through you're on your own. When my dell went boom i rang up and said i didn't know how to fix it and could it be collected and fixed by a professional as it was still under warrenty. No help what so ever, now i'm not being racist but i refuse to be instructed on how to fix a E1300 computer over the phone by someone who does not have english as a first language and has a strong accent only making understanding her even harder.

Dell computers are notoriously(sp?) hard to upgrade due to the cases being horrible to work in and their special dell motherboards. now i admit this is not a concern for many dell owners but its another way they screw money out of you, either pay an arm and a leg to get one aspect upgraded of fork over another wad on a new rig.

TBH with dell you are just buying a brand.

DELL=POO

JDxtra

Calibos wrote:

...Hassle, Free, worry free, they just don't suit modders/over clockers and thats perfectly all right but they simply don't deserve the slagging they get.

Very well said - I agree completely with your entire post.

I can also thoroughly recomend Dell Gold Support for business PC's and servers.

Zascar

Calibos you're spot on...


Galwaydude, Tom_dunne is correct, Permenant TSB do the finance. I can tell you from experience that probably less than 40% of people get accepted for TSB finance, and the reps have so much to do that sometimes they may forget to call you back or simply be waiting on a decision from othe people... This does not make Dell the 'Most retaeted company in the world'. Giving someone 5 minutes of abuse on how crap their company is does not help your situation in any way... In the UK the acceptance rate is closer to 90% and most people get accepted on the same call. (Dam crappy Irish finance companies...)

JDxtra

4Xcut wrote:

Dell offer deplorable service on the whole. When you are buying there is a very helpful person with english as a first language on the other end of the line but as soon as the payment goes through you're on your own. When my dell went boom i rang up and said i didn't know how to fix it and could it be collected and fixed by a professional as it was still under warrenty. No help what so ever, now i'm not being racist but i refuse to be instructed on how to fix a E1300 computer over the phone by someone who does not have english as a first language and has a strong accent only making understanding her even harder.

Dell computers are notoriously(sp?) hard to upgrade due to the cases being horrible to work in and their special dell motherboards. now i admit this is not a concern for many dell owners but its another way they screw money out of you, either pay an arm and a leg to get one aspect upgraded of fork over another wad on a new rig.

THB with dell you are just buying a brand.

DELL=POO

I wouldn't like to have to deal with you on the phone! I've never had an issue with the Inidian techs. All techs are obliged to try and fix your problem over the phone first otherwise every muppet would be ringing them up and saying "I get loads of porn pop ups, I demand an engineer as my PC is still under warranty".

YOU=ASS

Gurgle

4Xcut wrote:

When you are buying there is a very helpful person with english as a first language on the other end of the line but as soon as the payment goes through you're on your own.

My rant in a nutshell.

I haven't had problems with the techs (because I have never called tech support ?), just with the sales people.

CyberGhost

jdempsey wrote:

I wouldn't like to have to deal with you on the phone! I've never had an issue with the Inidian techs. All techs are obliged to try and fix your problem over the phone first otherwise every muppet would be ringing them up and saying "I get loads of porn pop ups, I demand an engineer as my PC is still under warranty".

YOU=ASS

yep, I like Indian tech support, they usually are nicer and more polite, and it's not hard to ask them to reapeat what they said and play it as a joke instead of getting angry at them

jjmax

Dell Tech Support is sh1te, whatever ethnicity they may be.
My experience the other week was with an Irish Girl at their call cantere in Derry (no, no, Derry not Delhi).
She asked me to remove the HD, Ram, Modem, DVD, from the laptop.
I asked her would she have any recommendations about how to do this without running the risk of static fooking up the whole thing.
She had no idea what I was talking about, had never even heard of a clean room, except that it was a room that had been polished and hoovered (possibly causing a huge static buildup due to the hoover and cloth rubbing over all the rooms surfaces).
She told me that if I refused to do what she said then she'd terminate the call.
I refused, but managed to explain to her the reason why I refused before she hung up.
My experience Dell tech Support are sh1te.
Nobody knows everything, so if you're unsure about something just ask, which she apparently was unwilling to do.
She isn't really to blame it just symptomatic of Dell's in-house fast-track support training.
As I said earlier this was a 90 minute call and her request came about 45mins into it.
I had to wait in a queue of 14 people for 10minutes before I reached her. So, in a call-centre that busy, her supervisor would have been paying attention to what was going on and is apparently clueless himself.

Megatron

jjmax wrote:

Dell Tech Support is sh1te, whatever ethnicity they may be.
My experience the other week was with an Irish Girl at their call cantere in Derry (no, no, Derry not Delhi).

That person you spoke to is not from Dell. From a 3rd party company who do some of the tech support.

as for the 1 yr collect and return , if it doesn come to that it usualy means you will be without your PC for 10 working days.

I've never had a moment's problem with my Dell, i have had problems with the OS, but i've fixed that myself.

I bought dell because i was too busy with work to sit down and build my own PC, and it does the job very nicely indeed. Some upgrades i bought myself and upgraded, Honestly if people are having problems upgrading thier system they just are not looking in the right places.

jjmax

So, Dell tech support are sh1te or the people Dell hire to do their tech support are sh1te?
I can't see the difference.
But hey, if you're happy with Dell then fair enough.
Millions of people seem to have no problem with them hence their success.

Gurgle

jjmax wrote:

Millions of people seem to have no problem with them hence their success.

The same millions of people who use it as a PC shaped ornament, who bought a Dell in the first place because it looks cool in black.

Seriously, There are so many ppl who wouldn't know the difference if you gave them a 386, so long as it had the 17" TFT and wireless peripherals.

Of course they're the ones who spend €2k every 2 years keeping up to date.

Jip

Never has one man met so much smarminess in one place !
No wonder many people have perceptions of anyone involved in computers being geeks.
Some of you remind me of a skit I saw on "Not the 9 o'clock News" where someone out of touch with current trends (the current one seems to be a dislike of Dell or anyone who buys a ready made P.C.) went into a store to buy a new 'gramophone' and the 2 lads working there proceeded to quiz and take the piss out of him for their own amusement because the customer didn't have the same level of expertise as them.

Dempsey

I agree with Jip. People buy dell because they keep it simple for people that dont give a **** about a 6800 Ultra.

jjmax

Well, **** me gently with a chainsaw Jip, but seeing as 29 people have voted to dislike Dell, and 39 have voted the other way, I'd say the current trend is to big-up Dell.
Doesn't take smarminess to figure that one out.
I'd say this thread was light on technical mumbo-jumbo too.
Though if you want to have a bleary-eyed giggle and reminisce about some TV-show you might do well to have a gander through some of the other posts, (The modders forum is always good for a laugh!)

Spacedog

Dell are a rip off, not on base machines, but on extras like next day service charges etc. extra ram, hard drives etc... If you look at what they add on for an extra 512MB of ram and then go looking around, you'll almost always find it cheaper elsewhere.

nesf

Dell, are, as many have pointed out above, perfect for someone who isn't technically proficient and after just a machine for web surfing or spreadsheet work. These people make up a majority of the people buying PC's so Dell are doing the right thing by catering to them.

Personally I build my own PC's after having a Dell being bought for me as a present 4 years ago and it being totally unupgradeable apart from it's memory. But I'm not your average PC buyer, so thus I shouldn't be using Dell in the first place (the person who bought the machine didn't know anything about computers so meh).

If you need a high powered laptop, then your probably better off looking elsewhere (personally I love nice durable toshibas) but it's a matter of personal preference. If all you want is a machine for surfing and some office work, then definitely go for a Dell. If you're like me and a person who'll be running complex applied math simulations on the machine, then you probably need a more specialist machine than Dell do, but imo if you're doing this kind of work on a PC you should be at least proficient enough (or know someone who is) to build your own PC.

I don't get the modders who bitch about Dell, if you're a modder who chose to buy from Dell originally you are wasting your time, if you really want to mod a machine you're better off building it from the ground up aimed at that goal. As for recommended PSU ratings for 9800 cards, you can get away with 250 but you WANT 350 so that your PSU isn't being strained by you running the card. Believe me on this one.

azezil

I often wonder do the people who should "you could build the same machine yourself cheaper" take into account the software you get with the dell machine. Whilst you may be able to build the physical machine cheaper, software is expensive

BoB_BoT

azezil wrote:

I often wonder do the people who should "you could build the same machine yourself cheaper" take into account the software you get with the dell machine. Whilst you may be able to build the physical machine cheaper, software is expensive

Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing myself, I've tried to build computers for customers and compare them with dell. People who build their own machines and compare to dell don't seem to consider the price of the OS. That's generally an extra €130 on top of the machine cost. I can't compete, you get your support with dell, you get your engineers on call when you have major problems. Also when you go with a dell offer they throw in a flatscreen, if you add that price onto a basic machine it raises it a good bit as compared to a crt!

From what i've found dealing with dell myself they're fairly good. I fix computers for companies, most of which have dells, the problems are generally software problems i.e. spyware, virus etc... only twice have I had to contact dell about a machine fault and when I did they were polite, fast and had the parts out to us as fast as possible.

So dell gets my thumbs up