Dell Computers

[bignairy]

Read this quick because it will probably get deleted by the moderator!
Do NOT under any circumstances order a PC from Dell unless
1) You are prepared to wait in day after day while they fail to deliver
2) You are prepared for hours on hold on their premium rate phone lines
3) You are prepared to have all your emails ignored.
4) You are prepared to be lied to when they say they will call you back.
5) You are prepared to pay the money and not get the goods.

I was stupid enough to trust them Learn from my mistake!! I'm still waiting for my PC.

 

[TexMex]

Our organisation used to have a contract with DELL to supply all of our PCs. We used to order, on average, about 20 PCs per week. I suddenly found out the prices that we were being charged. I queried it with the girl that placed the orders. She assured me that it was a "special price" that we got for being a big purchaser. We even had our own loggin to place online orders with our own special prices.

I then opened the site and looked at the price for an identical machine. I found that as a humble brand new home user, I would get it at about 5% cheaper than our own special price.

We were also being charged £30 per unit delivery charge, (that's £60 for a base unit + monitor) even when we were ordering 120 units for the same address. That's £3600 delivery charge for one drop!, on top of our hiked up price! This was, despite the fact, that our contract specifically stated that we were not to be charged any delivery charge. Their excuse was that, their system could not handle orders without the charge, but assured me that the price had been reduced to take this into account. When I pointed out that the price, itself, was already higher than Joe Public, they had no answer.

Suffice to say, we stopped using Dell.

 

[bobdabuildarrr]

I have used many suppliers for both home and work PC's
I would recommend Dell to everyone, both on quality of PC and quality of after sales service.
I have spent (through work) nearly £1m on Dell hardware and less that 5% of it has had ANY hardware problem in 3 years. This cannot be said for any other hardware we use.
Support is excellent and prompt (even from India) and purchasing via the web is easy and quick (although we have an account manager).

As for purchasing large quantities, you get what you ask for. If you let them give you a std account they will. They review spending every 6 months or so, and if you hit the right level, they will elevate you. (or demote you if you arent spending what you said you would). If you are going to order large volumes you should request a premium account manager.

As for waiting in for deliveries. They use Lynx couriers, which allow online tracking so you can tell where your package is at any time, or have it delivered to work.

I'd buy Dell everytime, and I recommend anyone considering either corp or home purchasing to do the same.

And no, before someone flames me, I don't work for, or know anyone who works for Dell, I am just a happy customer.

 

[pipme]

Yep, I have a humble 600 p3 Dimension XPS Win98SE ...Bought 16/2/2000 ... used everyday, on off several times a day whatever. ... never 'reinstalled' OS... 640 MB ram (2x256 1x128) .. 20GB HD ..CD RW ..DVD R.....Zip drive .. XD smart media reader ... BB Adsl usb Modem ..Ibm scanner ... Speakers ... joystick .. DJ890C printer. That lot bunged on all the time. Nothing alarming .. but all placing a stress on the machine.

A superb set of manuals .. all the graphics relate to my machine !! All the install cds included.
Help on disk both HD and CD with diagnostics ...
Oh, we also have a P120 Dell ... twin HD's CD etc ... still running aok .. bought around '97
Guess where I'll buy my next M/C I would not hesitate !!
BTW I can still go to the Dell site and use my 'Service Tag' to access loads of updates .. and info about my machine etc.

 

[bignairy]

When things go well, I am sure they are acceptable.
When things go wrong, Dell are a nightmare.
Its fine if you are a big customer (we have hundreds of them at work) but as a home user I spent HOURS on the phone on their premium rate lines and days at home waiting for them failing to deliver when their carrier had LOST the PC.
Their customer support for home users SUCKS big time.

 

[pipme]

Sorry to hear about the problems.

Bought Dell for home twice delivered when promised twice .. worked straight out of the box twice .. can say no more.

P

 

[bignairy]

As I said, when things go well, I am sure they are acceptable.

My car works most of the time, but when it fails I expect to be able to get it fixed without paying a fortune to talk to the mechanic and for him to not lose it when he is fixing it!

Dell have been utterly delinquent in their treatment of me, probably because I was ordering as a mere member of the public.

 

[2scoops0406]

When relpying to Dell via email, copy in (email address) seemed to work in my case.

____________________
Moderator

email address removed

 

[AdamW]

I have only bought one PC in my life, that was from a small independent and was upgraded as soon as I bought it with the then state-of-the-art Voodoo 2. Since then I have built my own.

My current computer is nearing a state I am happy with. A rather large Zalmann heatsink on the CPU (about 700 grammes, exceeds the allowed mass so there are warnings on the paperwork with it that you must not move the computer with heatsink in place, or you risk breaking the motherboard). Very large fan blowing over that but so slowly you can't hear it. Very quiet harddiscs. I am currently waiting on a totally fanless PSU, I ordered it nearly 2 weeks ago but was told it would be 3-4 weeks.

I love silent computers, and was tempted for a moment by a totally fanless Zalmann case but I can think of better things to spend £800 on! My bro goes completely the other way, his PC has probably 10 fans in all, it sounds like a Harrier taking off. Yet he still sleeps with it whirring away in his bedroom!

 

[Just_back_from_the_pub]

I bought a Dell laptop (an Inspiron 8600) a few months back. Like Bignairy the process of delivery was a complete b*lls-up. But the machine overall has been pretty inpressive. I have had to call Dell on two occasions, once on-line and the other by phone, and really both of these matters were dealt with successfully.

My big beef though is with the cost of Dell ink-jet cartridges (the A920 printer was part of the package). I understand that Dell took out an injunction in the US against a manufacturer of compatible cartridges maintaining that such production was a breach of patent. For reasons I do not begin to understand Dell were successful in this action. Dell replacement cartridges are currently £22 for B&W and £25 for colour. To buy both of these costs more than 75% of the value of the printer.

Which brings me to raise a salient question - though maybe I should ask this question on a new thread? Has anybody tried using any of the ink refill kits that are available? Has anyone used them with a Dell printer?

 

[dietcoke]

get a differnt printer, i read http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13116

 

[Just_back_from_the_pub]

Currently the printer is working fine with the refill indicator showing about 15% full so the cartridge is not dry at present.

 

[ninebob]

I am very satisfied with Dell.

Last November I bought a 3.06Ghz dimension 4600 for home with 17"TFT and printer/scanner, delivery was spot on and the machine impressive.

A couple of months later I tried to connect it to my telly using the SVHS-out and couldn't get it to work. Called tech support (a local rate, not premium), they did the troubleshoot and decided a new video card was in order and sent one by courier at my next available appointment. What more could I ask for?

Then bought a similar machine for my business, no issues whatsover to report, all excellent so far.

Only slight niggle is that they appear to have shipped out their support call centres to india like many other companies. I would prefer the jobs to stay in the UK but the staff member I spoke to spoke good english and was very knowledgeable.

Overall I rate Dell very highly and would reccomend them to anyone.

 

[wickerman]

This is the gods honest truth--i live in eire and almost 3 years ago bought a Dell computer, the bees knees at the time, latest spec everything, cost around 1900 euro. Switched it on, lasted 3 HOURS then wouldnt start, motherboard packed up, sent it back , 3 weeks later got it back, still going but now i know about them i would build the next one myself for a fraction of the cost never buy a Dell anything !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[2scoops0406]

I know about them i would build the next one myself for a fraction of the cost never buy a Dell anything !!!!!!!!!!!

Not disputing your Dell experience, but building one yourself for a fraction of the cost, is simply not possible these days, well it is as long as you allow for improper fractions !