Dell kit really is a P.O.S.

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corned

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Rant incoming...

I had a load of trouble with a Dell printer recently. The situation was far from satisfactory. I posted on here about it, and a forum member who works at Dell kindly stepped in to help.

He passed on my issues to a customer service person, who did actually contact me to find out what my problem was. I replied, relating all my problems with the piece of kit in question, only to be completely ignored. I emailed this woman again a couple of times but no response was ever forthcoming. What great customer service!

So that's a big thumbs down already.

Now we have my wonderful Dell 9300 17" laptop, which I have had for a couple of years. A few months ago I noticed a vertical line appear down the middle of the screen. Strange. I wasted several hours going through the tech support site - all the usual crap about updating video drivers (which I knew full well would not help at all) - and surprise surprise, it didn't. I looked at Dell's own forum, and the thing is littered with complaints about vertical lines down Dell 17" laptop screens. A common problem then. But as the laptop is more than 1 day over the warranty period, despite it being a rife problem, they refuse to help anyone with this issue. I now have 8 (yes, eight) different coloured permanent vertical lines down my laptop screen.

What a pile of crap!

And to cap it all, tonight the power supply has packed up. I was busy keeping myself sane in various Off-Topic threads (to avoid 'X factor') and saw that my battery was getting low. So I plugged in the AC adapter and - nothing. The thing is as dead as a doornail. I have checked the fuse. There's mains getting in there, but sweet FA getting back out the other end. So no laptop now until I can get a replacement adapter. :(

Sorry, but Dell should be thoroughtly ashamed about the quality of their products. And as for their customer service - well, let's not go there.

The word 'execrable' doesn't begin to scratch the surface. I will not look at Dell ever again. Once this stuff packs up (which I have no doubt it will - and not too long to wait I'm sure) then I will be pleased to replace it all with proper professional quality equipment. Which does not mean Dell - truly a by-word for sh1te.

Rant over. :mad:
 
I'm just about to give up configuring one of these for the night. SONY VAIO VPCEE2S1E/BQ at cheap prices | PC World Am quite impressed by the price and laptop, especially as I do not normally use PCWorld on principle.

I have heard a few negatives about dell, and had my own run in trying to get replacement SBS 2003 media.

Perhaps a Small Claims form would help, depending on the age of the machine. Still has to Fit for use and merchantable quality.
 
Once out of warranty my Panasonic 42 inch plasma TV started developing vertical coloured lines. Panasonic were not interested at all so TV is left now as an emergency spare.
My Sony laptop battery lasted just over a year, consumable item said Sony.

So it's not just Dell who give build down to a price, maximise the price then give poor service.

Rant over.:wallbash:
 
Rusting cars, poor laptops, broken TVs, poor customer service, cost cutting. Welcome to 2010, they tell us we never had it so good.
 
I have got an old Dell Inspiron 1520 that was purchased 2 and a half years ago.

It gets booted from pillar to post and abused by my 5 year old. It is switched on and used 20 hours a day.

So far...perfect.
 
All our garage set up is on Dell, server and laptops and they have been bullet proof. MOT lane also runs on a Dell PC and printer. After sales support and service has been brilliant.

My work laptop is also a Dell and after 4 years the fan failed last week, rang Dell tech support, they shipped a brand new chassis overnight machine was rebuilt next day, hasten to add it did have a faulty graphics card which we discovered friday, called Dell another chassis despatched overnight machine being rebuilt again on Monday.

I know they say take as you find but over the years I have had some horrors with Toshiba, HP and Sony, the only true reliability I have had has been Dell and Samsung.

Sorry to hear of your woes but I can give you the name of the regional sales and support manager for Yorkshire if thats any help :dk:
 
Rusting cars, poor laptops, broken TVs, poor customer service, cost cutting. Welcome to 2010, they tell us we never had it so good.

Steve, we were told we've never had it so good at the time you were born, since the things went downhill. So it looks like it's you who's to blame for the mess we're in today.:D
 
My first piece of Dell kit was a Latitude laptop, purchased brand new about 12 years ago.

I still have it, and it still works perfectly. The only problem I have with it is that it is too damn out of date to run anything like what I need to run these days. It runs on WinNT! It has a 6GB HDD, 133Mhz processor and 256MB RAM, so no chance of it being any use to me now, but the point is - it still works perfectly.

It has been all over the world with me, dropped, immersed (yes really), generally abused, and it has still worked perfectly every time.

Maybe Dell stood for something back then? Well it does now, but not quite the same thing. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the offer Ian, but it's time for me to move on and vote with my feet. I hope you back everything up regularly! :devil::D
 
My first piece of Dell kit was a Latitude laptop, purchased brand new about 12 years ago.

I still have it, and it still works perfectly. The only problem I have with it is that it is too damn out of date to run anything like what I need to run these days. It runs on WinNT! It has a 6GB HDD, 133Mhz processor and 256MB RAM, so no chance of it being any use to me now, but the point is - it still works perfectly.

It has been all over the world with me, dropped, immersed (yes really), generally abused, and it has still worked perfectly every time.

Maybe Dell stood for something back then? Well it does now, but not quite the same thing. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the offer Ian, but it's time for me to move on and vote with my feet. I hope you back everything up regularly! :devil::D

Very regularly, automated daily back up's :thumb:

If you not considering Dell anymore my second choice would be Samsung.

HP,Sony and Toshiba all sh*te form my experience and IMHO
 
There will always be good and bad stories about all brands.

However, my personal experience with Dell has been poor. Had a PC from them years ago that was unreliable. 6, months ago I bought a Dell laptop (£900 inc 3 or 4 year warranty) and it was awful, truly awful.

Illuminated keyboard failed to light up after one days use.
Aside from that, the keyboard was faulty in other ways.
The machine would crash and the whole thing was poorly made (in Poland).

I eventually got a refund after an epic struggle and did this only by saying I'd had the machine inspected by Trading Standards and that I had a reference number for the inspection. As soon as I mention trading standards Dell instantly backed down. I never did consult trading standards and blagged the whole thing as a last resort because Dell were adamant that no refund would be given.

The sole reason I bought that Dell machine was because I'd heared good reports from members on this forum, but I'd never touch the brand again.

I see other computer companies marketing their products based on the speed, memory, screen size, and reliability of their machines.

Dell advertise their machines based on the all important principle of what colour you can have.. Lollipop, Lollipop... :rolleyes:

HP are not that good either. The DV9088EA laptop I had was a very nice machine but became increasingly unreliable as time went on.

Around 3 years ago I bought two Toshiba laptops for the young Ringways' and even though the machines are subjected to a hard life they are still running perfectly. Based on this experience I bought myself a Toshiba laptop 6 months ago and (apart from the touchpad not being as sensitive as my old HP) it has performed excellently. A very stable machine.
 
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I like Dell for one simple reason... if you get the extended warranty, it's easy to plan when to change your laptop. All issues I've had in warranty were resolved within a few days (more than once with a guy coming out to replace a motherboard at my house/office).

If it lasts longer than the warranty, it's a bonus... but really, 3-5 years is plenty old for a computer!

M.
 
I think I would probably take Ian's advice here. Everything Samsung I have seen in the last few years has been absolutely rock solid. No doubt someone will post some horror stories now!

Now I'm just waiting for my (Dell) colour laser printer to pack up. Then I can call 'house'. :wallbash:
 
The problem these days is that even the top brands are of lesser quality than in time gone by.
They are still better than the lower priced brands but have to cut corners to lessen the price gap to be able to compete as someone else makes something a little worse and sells it a little cheaper.

I have a 8-9, year old Sony Vaio that I gave to my Uncle and it is still running. The Vaio's made these days may not be as reliable though..
 
It's a philosophy which even MB have adopted. Remember when an MB was 300% more expensive than an equivalent Jaguar or similar? Now what's the difference - 10 to 20%?

People can no longer see past price. Quality and reliability come second and third nowadays. Or sometimes nowhere at all.
 
I think I would probably take Ian's advice here. Everything Samsung I have seen in the last few years has been absolutely rock solid. No doubt someone will post some horror stories now!

I'm not that keen on Samsung computing kit - though we do use their laser printers. However on the consumer product front they're generally excellent.

I personally don't like Dell laptops that much. But we've had good experiences with their business desktops and servers - as have our clients. We've had two servers manage just over 10 years of service before honourable retirement a few weeks ago. Still got an old clunky Inspiron 7500 laptop from May 2000 that boots and runs.
 
The IT(30 or so PCs & printers) at our business is all provided & is all Dell. It is etremely reliable, bearing in mind it is in daily use.
The problems we have is invariably with the software....
 
I'm typing this on an elderly dell (9 years, so far) , and still going strong. IT stuff is all the same, branding is a marketing, not quality difference. They are all the same components and slightly different packaging,

If it breaks outside warranty, fix it if you can, or bin it.
 
Had maybe 30 Dell PCs and laptops and never taken an extended warranty on a single one of them. Run for 4 years and then replace. To date I've had one CD Drive failure. :)
 
My HP laptop gets lugged around in the boot of the car and is used every time I go on customer site. That's at least once a day sometime 2. It's nbeen as good as gold for over 18 months now.
 
Now I'm just waiting for my (Dell) colour laser printer to pack up. Then I can call 'house'. :wallbash:

Mine has been making some horrendous noises for the past few months.....

However - it came free with a load of toner, and I've got another identical laser printer - also free - still in its box under my desk.

Only problem is it stops me stretching my legs ..... :doh: :wallbash:
 

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