Rant----Dell

pmanton

pmanton

Final Approach
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My wife's computer is real long in the tooth. She wants another Dell and wants Win 7. I attempted to contact Dell. I could NOT get someone who speaks American English. After wasting 30 minutes trying to get someone in America on the phone I gave up and went to Best Buy. Bah Humbug
 
I have a slightly different Dell rant. In less than 2 years my Dell laptop crappped out. To me it was an obvious hardware problem but I had to go through about 16 person-hours with them doing their system-oriented troubleshooting, including clean Windows re-installation. End result was no fix at all.

I'm not complaining about the folks I dealt with. They tried their best. But they never, not even once, suggested a hardware solution, even with me specifically asking for one and happy to send the laptop in. I've been kind of tempted to buy a small compatible replacement hard drive to see if that fixes everything.

As it is, I bought a new laptop. Definitely not a Dell.
 
I was at a conference and the Vice President of one of the satellite imaging companies was speaking. He says "I have been told I have a rather heavy Indian accent. So if you have a hard time understanding me...just think Dell customer support."

I'm not a fan of Dell anymore either. They royally screwed me on a KNOWN DEFECTIVE drive in the XPS One I use. They also had non-functioning backup software they sold me a subscription to, and it took me forever to get that refunded after they admitted it didn't work.
 
People, people, people...

You can do better rants than that.

I used to order a lot of Dell desktop boxes prior to about ten years ago. Initially, there were good, and fairly cheap, then things started going downhill. Ship times when from days, to weeks, to "hmm, doesn't look like the order ever went through." Then the quality went down the tubes. Shake it and things fall off the cases. Sometimes, the computer wouldn't turn on, and you would open the case and find nobody bothered to plug in things like power cables and disk drive cables.

Both of these things happened to start within a fairly short timeframe, and obviously, stopped abruptly as we shifted to HP and ASUS. That said, Dell has always been pretty reliable and responsive on the server end.
 
pmanton said:
She wants another Dell and wants Win 7.
Click to expand...
Did you manage to buy one? To my knowledge, they do not sell this artificially "obsolete" OS anymore. You are stuck with WinX. :(
And no matter how many smart kids in our IT dpt at work tried to install Win7 on my new work laptop, they all failed. Smarts or not, Dell prevents Win7 from installing on the newest HW. On purpose. Talk about a deal with the devil. And our company's deal with Dell. Sad.
End result for the user? The poor schmuck (in this case: me) cannot get anything accomplished on this sorry-a** excuse for a system. I call WinX a virus. Rightfully so, IMHO.
Talk about a real Bah Humbug. :(
 
I had enough with Dell about 15 years ago. The last machine had a removable bay. Unfortunately, the small plastic clip that keeps the item in the bay broke. Easy to replace, just needed the part. Nope, can only be replaced by us. Okay, so I send it in to be replaced. Got it back about two weeks later. Now the mouse starts moving on it's own. Always to the same corner. I contact support and they say reinstall the driver. I do that. No change. I contact them again and explain this started as soon as I got the thing back from them. They said reinstall the driver. So I did. Still no change. Contacted them a third time. Told them if they said to reinstall the driver again, I was going to get a new computer that wasn't a Dell. They said reinstall the driver.

Got a Gateway next time I was in town.
 
I'm waiting for my 4th Dell laptop replacement in the last 2 months.

1) Ordered a Precision Xeon laptop initially -> kept bugchecking the moment you put heavy load on it.
2) Replaced with another Precision Xeon laptop -> arrived DOE. Spent 2 hours with Dell ProSupport on the phone* who had me remove the cover and keyboard and re-fit pretty much all the hardware. No luck.
3) Replaced with an Alienware laptop -> arrived with the wrong graphics card
4) Waiting for Alienware laptop #2 hopefully with the correct graphics card...

* Dell ProSupport is located in the US and people DO speak American English. And those guys are GOOD. I'm in this industry and any tech support generally frustrates me to no end, but Dell ProSupport is the exception. But to get ProSupport you have to order a business-class machine like a Precision Xeon, and even then it's not always included.
 
You can probably still get one at outlet.dell.com - that is their refurb and scratch and dent site.
When you buy a dell always get their "for work" line.
I always get the Precision Mobile Workstations. 3 year warranty , fast and easy to take apart.

I agree, there is no good reason for windows 10 in a computer without touch.
 
BigBadLou said:
And no matter how many smart kids in our IT dpt at work tried to install Win7 on my new work laptop, they all failed. Smarts or not, Dell prevents Win7 from installing on the newest HW. On purpose. Talk about a deal with the devil. And our company's deal with Dell. Sad.
End result for the user? The poor schmuck (in this case: me) cannot get anything accomplished on this sorry-a** excuse for a system. I call WinX a virus. Rightfully so, IMHO.
Talk about a real Bah Humbug. :(
Click to expand...

No, it is more like hardware manufacturers aren't spending development cycles to build drivers for an operating system that ended mainstream support two years ago. I doubt the smart kids in your IT department are going to write the drivers either.
 
Dells are garbage.

Have her look at asus
 
overdrive148 said:
I built a computer and haven't looked back. The store bought ones always had problems and were over priced for the performance...
Click to expand...

I buy parts and build my own machines. Good practice and they run better, faster and last longer.
Also I converted (almost) all of them to Linux Mint. So much better than Windows and not as brain dead as Apple OS.
 
So, if Dell is not considered to be a good PC manufacturer anymore, who is a good midpriced manufacturer?
 
overdrive148 said:
I built a computer and haven't looked back. The store bought ones always had problems and were over priced for the performance...
Click to expand...

Me too. Go to a computer shop, tell them what you want, and they will put it together. No brand names for me.

Bob
 
RalphInCA said:
So, if Dell is not considered to be a good PC manufacturer anymore, who is a good midpriced manufacturer?
Click to expand...


For laptops, Asus, MSI

For desktops, build your own.
 
Shepherd said:
I buy parts and build my own machines. Good practice and they run better, faster and last longer.
Also I converted (almost) all of them to Linux Mint. So much better than Windows and not as brain dead as Apple OS.
Click to expand...
I've got some "ancient" laptops that run exceptionally well with Mint. In fact, that was the thing that finally convinced me it was a hardware issue with my Dell. Even Mint won't boot up on it!
 
Build your own isn't for everyone. When it comes time for troubleshooting, you need to know a little bit about what you are doing to get around the finger pointing. With a build your own, you are dealing with several manufacturers for support (hard drive, motherboard, memory, power supply/case and sometimes the video adapter). With a single vendor, you only have one call to make. For desktops, I like HP, but Dell is OK. For laptops, Lenovo, HP, ASUS, Dell, etc. They can all be good and they can also all have bad models. I like HP support. My main laptop now is a Lenovo and it has been pretty problem free, but I did run into a driver issue early on with Windows 10 and their support wasn't that great. I also have quite a few HP laptops in my business that are pretty reliable.
 
SkyDog58 said:
What, you guys build your own computers!??

What's next, airplanes?

Home brewed beer?

Think of the American worker!
Click to expand...

I am.

I building the computer and I'm a American ;)
 
SkyDog58 said:
What, you guys build your own computers!??

What's next, airplanes?

Home brewed beer?

Think of the American worker!
Click to expand...

What I want know is if the thing starts acting up and you start conversing with tech support, do you have to answer yourself in an East Indian accent?
Just askin'
 
Frankly with the level of tech support you get now, I ether figure it out myself, or get on Google.
 
James331 said:
Dells are garbage.

Have her look at asus
Click to expand...
This. Have had my asus for 6 years after my second replacement dell crapped out, both within a few mounths of purchase, absurd for a desktop.
 
I've had decent luck with the actual Dell product. My beef with them came several years ago when I purchased a computer online from them through one of their programs where you pick a basic configuration and add bells and whistles. It was very easy. Just like they advertise - spend a few minutes on our website and the exact computer you want will be delivered to your door in a couple of days. No need to waste hours driving to the computer store, dealing with salespeople, etc. I lived in a somewhat rural area at the time, and it was probably an hour and a half round trip to the nearest quality computer store, so I was fine with their "convenience" sell.

The problem was they coded the frickin' delivery as "Owner must be present and sign for item". So I had to take a morning off work to be at the house in order to receive my "convenient" new computer. In hindsight, I should have refused delivery...
 
I bought a Dell server running Window Server r2012r2. I paid for five year next business day support.

Dell support has been phenomonal! Always native English speakers, most of them here in Austin. They fully support Window server software and have helped me several times with subtle configuration isssues. The same tech handles every issue, even if it requires several calls and emails.

I think for consumer PCs Dell charges $99 for this level of support.

You get what pay for.
 
deonb said:
* Dell ProSupport is located in the US and people DO speak American English. And those guys are GOOD. I'm in this industry and any tech support generally frustrates me to no end, but Dell ProSupport is the exception. But to get ProSupport you have to order a business-class machine like a Precision Xeon, and even then it's not always included.
Click to expand...

We still do Dell at the office for desktops and the Windows user laptops but two hard rules...

1. We look at reviews and listen to our long-time
dell business sales rep. When reviews or he says "don't buy that" we don't. He's not steered us wrong in this regard ever, and the former sysadmin ordered two machines he said "don't" and they're the biggest piles of trash in the whole company. He liked the screen on them. Dell put a better screen in their sturdier business laptops three months after he bought them.

2. Always ordered with Pro support and on-site. If you sell me garbage it's going to cost you a lot of money because you're going to roll a truck every time one breaks. Guess which machines they won't offer on-site on? Heh.

We were on the edge of dumping them because they couldn't build "workstation class" laptops they'd recommend for a short time about two years ago. They got it together before we left for HP.

ASUS for home use is great. Agreed. Don't think we could get direct on-site support for them though. Would be nice. We do know of an on-site vendor who'll contract damn near anything and aren't too ridiculously expensive that we could switch to if we had to.

Side-note: Apple hardware has been stellar but... no on-site and we aren't big enough to do any of their business stuff as far as we can tell. It's utterly retarded to tell an end user "we paid for AppleCare on that, just make an appointment at the Apple Store like the proles and let us know what they say" -- when we can call Dell and some
dude will show up next day and completely replace the guts of any other machine on-site while we can keep an eyeball on him.

It's a big joke to service Apple hardware in business environments, but thankfully it doesn't break much.

HP was the poison of choice at the former employer. Again, on-site, everything generally worked, and business support ONLY. Never the consumer level of support. You will want to kill yourself after a day of dealing with HP consumer support.

Lenovo/IBM was poison of choice at the company before that. Back then they were built like tanks and I don't think they ever had to fix a single one in our department of 40 people except the one that someone's kid dumped an entire can of Coke into the keyboard directly. Can't say what their quality is like nowadays. Been too long.
 
asicer said:
Interestingly, IBM says Macs have been saving them money.

http://www.cio.com/article/3133945/hardware/ibm-says-macs-save-up-to-543-per-user.html
Click to expand...

Could be.

Our user base that uses Macs needs the really high end ones where RAM and SSD are insanely overpriced.

I suspect those numbers from IBM probably reflect prices before Apple soldered the silly things to the laptop motherboards this fall to protect their profit margin on them... again. We've seen this merry go round whenever Apple isn't innovating, they just lock down the hardware.

No way they can say that in a year, when all they can get are $4000 high end laptops again.

It's a shame really, that they're in this forced hardware model again. The previous generation of MacBook Pros were reasonably competitive, if you threw non-Apple branded RAM in them and a Samsung SSD.

Going to be difficult to cost-justify the new MBP against an equally fast PeeCee variety. Here's hoping the bean counters don't ask, because it'll make the Devs and their bosses quite unhappy to be told a $2000 price differential isn't worth paying for.

And our IT group (myself included) were the people who pushed hard to get the company to start buying Macs... back when we were a PeeCee only shop unless you brought your own hardware.

Oh well. We'll see if Apple prices themselves right out of the company again... not much I can do to save Cook if he continues to be a moron toward business users.
 
denverpilot said:
Going to be difficult to cost-justify the new MBP against an equally fast PeeCee variety. Here's hoping the bean counters don't ask, because it'll make the Devs and their bosses quite unhappy to be told a $2000 price differential isn't worth paying for.
Click to expand...

I must say I don't get MACs in the office. I have a 5960X Extreme running Windows as a dev box. It cost me all of $2000 to build.
Almost all the other devs in my office have high-end MBP's that run in the order of $4000 each.

The build time of our product on my 5960X is 90 seconds.
The build time of the same product on those expensive MBP's is 10 minutes.

But the devs still insist on using the MBP for development because they "like OSX more", and every now and again they reach to a PC for cross-platform testing. I do it the other way around. I can't for the life of me figure out why someone wants to slow down what they do 90% of the day by a factor of 6x so that when they do the other 10% of stuff they can have prettier fonts or whatever else they find so appealing on OSX.

I'm not a Windows fanatic or anything - I frequently use Linux when it's the right tool for the job. I would use a MAC if I ever I can find a scenario where it's the right tool for the job, but this certainly isn't it.

I wonder when IBM says they save $543 per user on the MAC, is this just evaluating the IT department overhead, or is it actually evaluating their end user productivity as well?
 
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GRG55 said:
What I want know is if the thing starts acting up and you start conversing with tech support, do you have to answer yourself in an East Indian accent?
Just askin'
Click to expand...

I've been working in IT for so long that I now THINK in an Indian accent when even pondering contacting tech support ...
 
gkainz said:
I've been working in IT for so long that I now THINK in an Indian accent when even pondering contacting tech support ...
Click to expand...
Does your head wobble too?
 
JimNtexas said:
I bought a Dell server running Window Server r2012r2. I paid for five year next business day support.
...
You get what pay for.
Click to expand...
Yes, if you pay extra, you get to talk to a 'murken. If you are just a Joe Schmo with one computer, you get support in Hindglish.
It's like pressing #2 for English on the phone.

Dell went downhill really fast. At least their laptops used to be good and well equipped. That changed too.
It's called "progress". :)
 
GRG55 said:
What I want know is if the thing starts acting up and you start conversing with tech support, do you have to answer yourself in an East Indian accent?
Just askin'
Click to expand...

My name is Peggy, please hold...
 
My dell is still running strong. Must be because I don't use it that often. My Toshiba is a warrior though. I've had it for 7 years and still running good.
 
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