[Serrik]

Has Dell taken the low road the past few years?



I mean, I have not owned a Dell in a very long time as I build my own, but they used to be very well made with quality substantial parts.



But lately I have been working on alot of Dells with hardware failures. All of them seemed to have failed almost immediately after the warrant expired. Dead power supplies, dead mobos.



I sometimes see a rush of service calls for these kinds of issues after a big electrical storm, but we haven't had anything like that, and lately I been getting alot of Dells (compared to my usual) with true hardware failures.



I am also hearing alot of complaints of tech support from Dell totally sucking now. Did they farm out their tech support overseas?

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Yeah I've noticed that too. I had one two years ago, and I certainly didnt like it as much as my HP now. Nothing failed on my dell, but It just seemed more... basic. It had all the basic features, but not much more. And the tech support was terrible too

[hornet_hockey]

Yeah I've noticed that too. I had one two years ago, and I certainly didnt like it as much as my HP now. Nothing failed on my dell, but It just seemed more... basic. It had all the basic features, but not much more. And the tech support was terrible too

[ScHwErV]

Here we go again.

Has Dell taken the low road the past few years?

This is pretty subjective, youll have to give some parameters.

But lately I have been working on a lot of Dells with hardware failures. All of them seemed to have failed almost immediately after the warrant expired. Dead power supplies, dead mobos.

1st, dell doesn't manufacture the hardware, they just put it together and install an OS. Blaming them for bad hardware is like blaming the president of Canada because it snows in Michigan. 2nd, buy the extended warranty, thats what its there for. When you buy the $400 cheapie that you see on TV, don't come back and complain cuz its not top notch quality.

I am also hearing a lot of complaints of tech support from Dell totally sucking now. Did they farm out their tech support overseas?

Yes, and so did everyone else. Those who haven't, will soon. Its only a matter of time. You cant sell computers for $400 and still pay top money for support.

Why do you see more Dells now than you did before? Because there are more Dells out there. When they advertise a $400 computer on TV and everyone else is selling them for $800, you will see more. Its not that they are any less quality than before, its that there are more of them.

Common sense really.

Yeah I've noticed that too. I had one two years ago, and I certainly didn't like it as much as my HP now. Nothing failed on my dell, but It just seemed more... basic. It had all the basic features, but not much more. And the tech support was terrible too

I really don't know how to tell you this, but the features available today, weren't available 2 years ago. Compared to a new dell or HP now, a 2 year old computer will seem basic. Thats like complaining that your original Nintendo isn't as snazzy as your PS2.

[evilwizard]

It's really hard to have a possitive view of computers like, Dell, Gateway, emashines, compaq. Fact is, I have seen some really older computers that have withstood the test of time better, though slow and old they run good.

Then I have seen newer computers that as soon as the warranty expires, the computer dies.

Many times I have asked a customer if it were still covered under warranty and the reply... No.

I have seen some very funny stuff.. Example.

Emashines.. I have seen five this year that when the power supply goes it takes out the mother board.

Dell.... I have seen four in the past month, just after warranty expired, bad ram, on board sound failure, heat sink (plastic bracket ) broken so prosessor overheats and fails. On board video failure. Hard drive bad.

It's hard to not form a negative opinion on name brand computers when you see a customers frustration over the money they paid for the computer and cant understand why it's broken and they now have to pay out more money to fix it.

Had one customer who came to me because, after 5 hours of frustration, on the phone with Dell support, they still could not get the computer to run right.

Took my five min to find their problem.

I have nothing against name brand computers and am sure there are people out there with some really good computers that they have bought that are name brand.

It's my personal opinion that name brand computers are far over rated.

I'm far from being a pro at computers, but have seen enough to know where my $$ would go.

[Serrik]

"1st, dell doesn't manufacture the hardware, they just put it together and install an OS. Blaming them for bad hardware is like blaming the president of Canada because it snows in Michigan. 2nd, buy the extended warranty, thats what its there for. When you buy the $400 cheapie that you see on TV, don't come back and complain cuz its not top notch quality"

While the prime minister (not president) of Canada has no control over the weather in Michigan, Dell certainly has the choice to use quality components or not. If they no longer use quality components, somewher along the way they decided to be a company that puts price point ahead of quality, something the early Dell never did.

As far as your assumption that these were all just 400 dollar cheapies, I don't see anywhere in my post that said that.

You can get a good quality computer in Canada from a number of companies for the same price as Dell. It used to be Dell's edge was better quality for the price. I guess thats not the case any longer.

Dell was built on solid computers with top notch (and award winning, best of industry winning) tech support. My observations over the past year are leading me to beleive that is no longer the case.

[warriorscot]

Name brand computers are cheap and nasty you buy cheap and nasty thats what you get, if you buy a more expensive brand computer they usually last longer although most brand names use the expensive ones to subsidise the cheaper ones so more fool you for buying them. Also we who fix computers generally only see the problems we so rarely see the vast majority of computers that work perfectly well for years.

If you get for example a 3 year warranty that's a good indication that the life of the products is going to be between 3 to 4 years after that they are going to start failing usually the hard drive will fail first as they are most prone to after about that amount of time 4 to 5 years is all you can expect from a well used modern drive. If you dont build a computer and therefore dont have the longer retail component warranty you should get the builders warranty extended to at least 2 or 3 years at 4 years your probably going to have to replace at least one component or get a new system either through a failure or because the hardware is simply obsolete.

Also from what ive always seen those old computers you generally see working fine are either very old and thus not as complex but also not well used, alot of systems aren't as well used those are the ones you will find work after several years and they are also a small percentage of the original systems produced.

Dell support on the whole is pretty decent although again we will see largely home users who get the lowest level of service remember that the majority of builders dont make there money from the home computer market but from the corporate sector and they are the ones that get the best support by far.

But like ive been saying you cant complain when you get what you pay for. Fair enough if you buy an expensive system and it fails after a short period of time, but if you buy a cheap system and it dies after a couple of years well thats to be expected they used the cheapest parts with the highest failure rate to get you that cheap system and are expecting you will buy a new cheap system in two to three years, because it was cheap, if you want a computer that will last you have to do it yourself or get a more expensive system from a company that caters to home markets.

[pccromeo]

1st, dell doesn't manufacture the hardware, they just put it together and install an OS. Blaming them for bad hardware is like blaming the president of Canada because it snows in Michigan. 2nd, buy the extended warranty, thats what its there for. When you buy the $400 cheapie that you see on TV, don't come back and complain cuz its not top notch quality.

I most definately see your point with the $400 bit, but 'ya know...Even if you spend $18,000 on a Windows machine it's still going to......Suck, in my honest opinion. Dell could do better to test the products before they put them into their machines but they can't do that because they're too busy worrying about remaining number one. The people at Dell have obviously forgotten what happened for former PC king Compaq. One day they were the market leader and the very next were bought out by HP. Dell should begin focusing more on the quality of their products/services again and not the quantity..

[ScHwErV]

While the prime minister (not president) of Canada has no control over the weather in Michigan, Dell certainly has the choice to use quality components or not. If they no longer use quality components, somewher along the way they decided to be a company that puts price point ahead of quality, something the early Dell never did.

Dell may have a choice of hardware, but its a severely limited choice since they have a price margin to stay within. I don't believe they put price ahead of quality, but they definitely keep price in mind, thats how you stay in business and thats how you stay on top. Welcome to the real world.

As far as your assumption that these were all just 400 dollar cheapies, I don't see anywhere in my post that said that.

Looking through your post, I don't see where it says XPS either. If you don't want people to assume, you should give proper information.

Dell was built on solid computers with top notch (and award winning, best of industry winning) tech support. My observations over the past year are leading me to beleive that is no longer the case.

If you buy a good Dell and not one of the cheapies, then you still get a solid computer. Good tech support is a thing of the past for all the major companies.

I most definately see your point with the $400 bit, but 'ya know...Even if you spend $18,000 on a Windows machine it's still going to......Suck, in my honest opinion.

Ya know, I use and like linux, but I get sick to death of the people who think its cool to say "any computer with windows sucks". Since we aren't talking about Operating Systems here, were talking about hardware, maybe here is not the place for your opinion.

Dell could do better to test the products before they put them into their machines but they can't do that because they're too busy worrying about remaining number one.

Here we go again. "[bleep] those people from dell, they want to stay in business! They should just sell $4000 computers for $200." Most worthless sentence in this thread so far.

The people at Dell have obviously forgotten what happened for former PC king Compaq. One day they were the market leader and the very next were bought out by HP.

There is a difference that you seem to be missing. Compaq lost their quality, but kept their price point high. Dell is keeping price equal to quality. You buy a $400 computer, you get $400 hardware. Compaq was making a $400 computer and still charging $800 for the computer.

Dell should begin focusing more on the quality of their products/services again and not the quantity..

They already do, you just seem to be missing the boat. If you want quality and you are willing to pay for it, buy an XPS.

[dsenette]

While the prime minister (not president) of Canada has no control over the weather in Michigan, Dell certainly has the choice to use quality components or not. If they no longer use quality components, somewher along the way they decided to be a company that puts price point ahead of quality, something the early Dell never did.

you know you've got to take into account that the actual hardware manufacturers are taking up the "Ford" business model of making products that aren't built to last forever.....if they (hardware manufacturers) build a card that will physically last forever (i.e. not break) then you've got ALOT less insentive to upgrade later..especially since the hardware upgrades...(except for CPU's and the current upturn in graphics card innovation)..offer few advantages over the "older" models.....so how do you make sure someone's going to buy the new device you come out with in 2 years...that's only marginally better than the one you're making now? you make it so it will break...that's not dells fault...

I am also hearing alot of complaints of tech support from Dell totally sucking now.

...you know...you only get out what you put in...MOST people that i know who have problems with thech support...have problems because they have no idea what they bought...how can you get tech support if you don't know what hardware is in the pc you shelled out $1000+ for? i've got a few dell machines here at work...and i've got my dell at the house (have had it for the past 7 years in fact) and i've yet to have an issue with tech support....people assume that when you give them that service tag number that they automatically know everything there is to know about your PC and why the "magic smoke" came out...they're working blind on a system...and usually they are working with someone on the other end of the phone (the person that called) who doesn't have a clue what they're doing...blind leading the blind?...tech support is hard....and...people who work in tech support (overseas or not) get a bad rep because of the dink on the other end of the liine who doesn't know what info to give someone to get help..

Did they farm out their tech support overseas?

....have you seen the education that is available to ALOT (i know...not everyone can get it..and there is a lot of poverty in the country still) of people in india (where most tech support locations are)...ALOT of indian children go directly from "elementary school" into what is basically a high level electronics/computer based college...they are EXTREMELY tech intensive there...and they get trained (because of the need and availability of jobs in tech support) from a VERY early age in tech trouble shooting....NO ONE in america gets that...ever...

[Burton1]

I have had my XPS Gen 5 for about 2 years now. No problems nothing has happened, i am happy with their support. Have any problems go online instead of calling and talk to them online they help alot.

Now with the warranty, lets think when you go to buy a car do you buy the warranty. i mean your purchasing a 25,000 to 30,000 car usually. Of course you buy the warranty because after the standard one year don't expect them to help you. Always buy the extended warranty, you buy something expensive make sure you have some coverage.

[Comrade General]

HP ftw is all I got to say.

[ScHwErV]

HP ftw is all I got to say.

Haven't we had enough stupid comments in this thread already?

[sari]

I'm making one last comment. I don't see the point in bashing Dell repeatedly, since I've had issues with most every company and their tech support that I've had to deal with. No one is perfect, and with the market share Dell has, you're going to see more of them showing up for repairs.

I provide the tech support for an office of 30+ PCs, all of which are Dells, in addition to the 3 Dells in my house. We've been an all-Dell shop for at least 5 years. In that time period, I think I can count our hardware issues on the fingers of one hand; we've had an on-board NIC fail, the temperature sensor on a motherboard go bad, a hard drive go bad, I've had one monitor that failed straight out of the box, and one mouse that had issues straight out of the box. In the case of the NIC, I just bought one and installed it. For the other 4 issues, I called tech support and got through fairly quickly; in all 4 instances, I received satisfactory support. I had a new mouse and monitor shipped immediately, and 24 hour turnaround on the temperature sensor. As ScHwErV pointed out, buying an extended warranty is critical. I buy all of our PCs with the 3 year warranty. While we typically replace our PCs as the warranties expire, I haven't any failures after the warranty period and prior to the replacement. In addition, one of the Dells in my house is an old work PC - it's an Windows NT computer from at least 2001 and has never had a hardware issue.

[RatHat]

I'm on my second Inspiron notebook. My little daughter managed to pull half the keys out of the first one, and Dell had someone around to replace the keyboard within two days.

While we were on holiday in Penang, my daughter pulled the shift key out of my new one. I called Dell, and they had someone round to the hotel to replace the keyboard the following afternoon!

I personally think that is bloody good service. I only hope that my daughter takes up the piano soon.

[dsenette]

I personally think that is bloody good service. I only hope that my daughter takes up the piano soon.

dell doesn't service pianos...if she rips the keys off of one of those