Ran across this gem about Dell

I can't IMAGINE anyone repairing a printer.

Toss it and go by another, better one, for $39.
 
I could share the transcript of several chat sessions and follow-up e-mails with Dell tech support that puts that to shame. My son's school implemented a BYOD (bring your own device) policy this year, so I got him one of those ultra-thin combo Windows 8 flip tablets from Dell. Great product until the keyboard started to short out after a month. After 3 weeks with no resolution in sight, went to Sam's and got him an ipad. Finally got a new replacement computer from Dell about 6 weeks after initial problem was reported. I used to be a big Dell fan, but that experience soured me.
 
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There are plenty of reasons to dislike companies. But an erroneous 2 year old post on a message forum that was corrected 1.96 years ago? Hard for me to get very excited about that. You can do better.
 
Geico266 said:
I've had great luck with Dell stuff. We still use our 15 year old lap top.
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15 years ago, Dell was great.
Times have changed. Now, people don't want to pay for "great". They want cheap.
 
In the Marine Corps, all our stuff was Dell. Can't say I ever remember any issues with hardware.
 
I'm more disinclined that Dell sold me my desktop system with a KNOWN defective hard drive that everybody else has complained about it over the web and even Seagate admits that these are problematic but they won't do anything about it.

I've spent days on the phone with their Indian tech support on their idiotic backup software that doesn't work and they have no clue about and finally just reversed the charge with the credit card I used to purchase the service.
 
Does Dell still contract NCR to do their field service? Even 15 years ago, Dell had a lot of problems with boards.
 
Henning said:
Does Dell still contract NCR to do their field service? Even 15 years ago, Dell had a lot of problems with boards.
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Nah. NCR lost the contract ~ 2008 or thereabouts. After booting NCR they used BancTec, DecisionOne, and a variety of other vendors, most of whom would sub or even sub-sub the work out to independents (including me).

I only accepted calls in Westchester, Rockland, Orange, and Putnam counties, even though Westchester and Rockland were the farthest points in my extended service area, and Orange and Putnam were outside of it. Those assignments were the only ones that paid worth a damn.

The calls in the five boroughs, Nassau, and Suffolk counties were paying $26.00 / call, so I always refused them. Westchester would usually command $45.00 / call plus tolls: usually not worth bothering with except that on a next-day call I could almost always schedule one of my own Westchester stops for the same trip.

In Rockland, Orange, and Putnam I could usually get $75.00 - $85.00 / call plus tolls; but again, I could usually combine it with a call in Westchester or Rockland on the way out or back, so they were basically paying my tolls and gas.

Rich
 
My buddy was the sole NCR guy from Islamorada to Key West and covered all the NCR, Dell, and Gateway calls. If he knew he couldn't make his required response time on a Dell or Gateway call, he'd call me and I'd grab one of his shirts and run the call. Lot's of infant mortality on their motherboards at the time.
 
I have a Dell printer. It was fine to a point, but within the last 8-9 months it's been downhill all the way. Tech support is clueless. Ordering supplies (including toner) from them is an exercise in frustration.

At least with HP and some of the others there are plenty of places that sell the replacement toner.

Friend has a Dell laptop that's been a disaster.

Never again for me.
 
We used to buy our computers from Dell, and they started off great, especially the servers. Then about 10-12 years ago quality went horrid, and it started taking them weeks to deliver. Horrid meaning flimsy cases, and QA so bad they would forget to connect internal cables. The straw that broke the camel's back was when they cancelled an order with no communication.
 
Henning said:
My buddy was the sole NCR guy from Islamorada to Key West and covered all the NCR, Dell, and Gateway calls. If he knew he couldn't make his required response time on a Dell or Gateway call, he'd call me and I'd grab one of his shirts and run the call. Lot's of infant mortality on their motherboards at the time.
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They were using some pretty crappy mobos for a while. I forget which model, but one of them had such a ridiculous frequency of blown caps that the primary contractor would send me boards in advance for the calls he knew were coming. On another, the chipsets were flaky. I think it was one of the Dimension 8000 series machines.

Frankly, no one I knew spent a whole lot of time on troubleshooting these problems. For what little the primaries paid the subs, we couldn't afford to. Even the higher end of what I was getting for the Rockland, Orange, and Putnam county jobs was peanuts. So we just replaced the boards, drives, or whatever other components had failed and moved on as quickly as possible. But I did enjoy getting out of the city, and I could usually combine the jobs with my own on the same trips.

I also was aware that the primary was losing money on most of my calls. But they ate the losses because they didn't want to lose the Dell gig, and no one else would take the calls. A lot of people in The City think that civilization ends at the rivers. You may as well ask them to go to Siberia as to go to Haverstraw or Cornwall on Hudson.

What I always wondered was why they didn't contract with someone who lived in or closer to those counties. It wasn't as if I had any unique talents (nor were any needed for the work). I suspect that it had something to do with the facts that I was a legal LLC and carried liability insurance. Dell probably required those things.

Rich
 
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Henning said:
My buddy was the sole NCR guy from Islamorada to Key West and covered all the NCR, Dell, and Gateway calls. If he knew he couldn't make his required response time on a Dell or Gateway call, he'd call me and I'd grab one of his shirts and run the call. Lot's of infant mortality on their motherboards at the time.
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I had a Dell laptop. The motherboard was replaced three times before they figured out it had a faulty heat sink which was frying the motherboards. Good thing it was under warranty. But I never bought another Dell.
 
HP MFp is on the way. I could probably fix the Dell, but by the time I get a new imaging unit (with no guarantee it'll be like new) it'll be only incremental to get a new printer.
 
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