Dell Hell

[Walleye]

I ordered a laptop from Dell on 7/8. It was supposed to ship the 25th, was delayed 'til 8/4 and now delayed again 'til 8/28.

AAAaaargh!!!!!!!!

Any one else have any experiences like this w/ Dell?

[Daddy]

There's been a recent shortage for laptop parts affecting the whole computing industry. If Dell is a just-in-time manufacturer, that shortage might be crunching them.

[Walleye]

Ahh, JIT one of the most ill-advised, poorly managed and misunderstood concepts in the manufacturing industry. I'm planning on calling today and asking what they will do to keep my order. I figure, if I have to wait, they should make it worth my while. If not I'll head out this weekend and purchase one from chain. Any recomendations? We're looking to spend around $1,000. We don't require much. This is what we had ordered from dell.

Inspiron 1521, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 (1.6GHz/512KB)


My wife, God Blesser, won't use a Mac.

Oh, well.

Thanks all,

DW

[schaefe]

Plus, all of Dell's laptops are made and assembled in Malaysia-hence the longer shipping times compared to desktops. But the parts shortage is affecting everyone. I toured the Dell plant in Austin once, and they only have about 6-12 hours of inventory available at any one time for their desktop line--and their laptop manufactures follow the same JIT process.

It was pretty impressive. Parts show up, finished products leave on the other side of the building. When you watch from the balcony, it almost looks like a giant Rube Goldberg machine, just missing the whacky "da da da, da-da-da da da" music.

[Walleye]

Customer Service is way backed up, I've been on hold for a little over two hours. No worries, I have my headset on and I'm working through it but, yeesh.

[lackadaisy]

My company deals exclusively with Dell and it's generally a nightmare. I've spent many long hours on hold and dealing with barely competent support folks. The worst part of their support services is that you can't contact anyone directly, so if your issue drags on over multiple calls you end up working with a handful of different people who are trying to make sense of someone elses (usually incomplete) notes and you have to explain yourself over and over again.

I won't go nuts over this, suffice it to say I don't like Dell, never have.

I'm a Mac guy, so I think you should get a Mac, install Windows on it as well and ease your wife into using it. It worked for me, my girlfriend loves our iMac now.

Otherwise, push Dell as hard as you can. Especially if they think they're going to lose your business, they tend to throw out good offers. If they won't lower the price, push for an upgrade of the system (more RAM!!!)

If that doesn't work, try someone else. I've seen some nice laptops from Acer recently.

[Walleye]

Thanks Lacka,

Still on hold. If they don't wow me, I have the wife's permission to cancel and we'll go shopping this weekend. I've given the impression that it is indeed a rush, however we could wait if we needed to. We'll see.

Thanks.

I work right next to the mac store. Perhaps I'll check them out at lunch.

[schaefe]

Wow.

My company is exclusively Dell also, and we very rarely have any serious issues that are not resolved promptly. Huge change over HP/Compaq, that's for sure.

[speedymarie]

I used to be kinda scared of Macs, too, but when I bought a laptop, I got a Macbook, and I love it. It's more intuitive than Windows, and you can install Microsoft Office on it. I use a thumb drive to take files back and forth from my desktop Windows PC to the Macbook, and have never had a problem. (this could be your wife's concern)

best thing about the Macbook - the boot-up time is about half that of my Dell desktop, and it never locks up and crashes.

[lackadaisy]

Walleye,
If you've got any questions about Mac, I'd be happy to help. I used to work at the Apple Store (not for long, but was hired cuz I'm a hopeless Mac geek). Now my desk at work has a MacBook on one side and a Dell mini-tower on the other. Since I mainly support Windows users, it's necessary unfortunately.

My company is exclusively Dell also, and we very rarely have any serious issues that are not resolved promptly. Huge change over HP/Compaq, that's for sure.

I'm glad that's the case, at least it means they aren't wholly incompetent.

And I ABSOLUTELY agree about HP/Compaq. Real losers there. Bad computers too.

Have you dealt with Dell field techs, though? Those guys are horrendous. One told a client of mine "oops, i'm out of heat sink grease" as he was replacing the CPU "we'll just hope it's fine." (Kind of like starting to change the oil, draining the car, then realizing you don't have any new oil, and deciding it can run ok on what may be left in the engine) Then he left cards shoddily connected to the motherboard and the HD configured incorrectly so the computer wouldn't even boot. (Kind of like a doctor forgetting to tie you up after surgery where he's removed part of your liver instead of the gallbladder he was after)

Not all experiences have been like this, but enough to know it's not just a random occurance

[schaefe]

Well, they sub-contract that work out to whoever has a contract with Dell for the field sales calls. With that, it's hit or miss if you get a decent technician or not.

I've been in IT for over 10 years, so I just fix it myself. Hardware is pretty easy to fix, and there are plenty of guides online and in print available to walk you through it. It's the OS/Software problems that are harder to figure out and repair.

[lackadaisy]

Yeah, I know they sub-contract. Funny, the Dell techs often seem as disillusioned with the field techs as I am.

Problem here is that my clients are all over the world (I work for a Video Conferencing software company, we build systems using third-party components like the Dells) so I'm usually just functioning as an intermediary from the Chicago office. I'd fix it myself if I could, but usually the easiest thing for both Dell and myself is to send someone with a warrenty replacement.

I will say, though, that the award for most problems / worst support does not go to Dell, it goes to an audio company (that I won't name). Unfortunately, we have very few other options in that department, so we deal with them the best we can.