I have to say since I paid cash for all my systems, i’ve never dealt with thier financing and cannot comment on that part of it.

For those who complain about losing data, it’s the user’s responsibility to backup important work, period. PC components fail, that’s just a simple fact. Back up your data often if you plan on keeping it around.

I’ve had alot of people complain about only having thier PC for a few months and it dies. When opening up the unit and looking inside, all the dust buildup has been the cause 9 times out of 10. They never even considered that PC’s require cleaning from time to time, especially if you put it on the floor or in a room where people smoke. Heat is another factor that people overlook.

Dell’s not perfect, especially teh foriegn tech support agents. But in a global market where everyone wants everything for practically nothing, this is a measure they have to take to stay competitive with lesser manufacturers.

And go try to build a comparable system (with software) from the mom and pop down the street. They couldn’t even come close to matching, component for component, with a Dell machine.

I have to say since I paid cash for all my systems, i’ve never dealt with thier financing and cannot comment on that part of it.

For those who complain about losing data, it’s the user’s responsibility to backup important work, period. PC components fail, that’s just a simple fact. Back up your data often if you plan on keeping it around.

I’ve had alot of people complain about only having thier PC for a few months and it dies. When opening up the unit and looking inside, all the dust buildup has been the cause 9 times out of 10. They never even considered that PC’s require cleaning from time to time, especially if you put it on the floor or in a room where people smoke. Heat is another factor that people overlook.

Dell’s not perfect, especially teh foriegn tech support agents. But in a global market where everyone wants everything for practically nothing, this is a measure they have to take to stay competitive with lesser manufacturers.

And go try to build a comparable system (with software) from the mom and pop down the street. They couldn’t even come close to matching, component for component, with a Dell machine.

First I emailed and received a response to go to the online tech support. Since I type slow, I decided to telephone. I was left on hold and the phone line went dead about three times. When I did reach someone obviously English as a second language, I was transferred to American Express. Finally I reached dest top support and droppped during the transfer to notebook support. I tried the online support and was informed that I was a reseller and needed to try business support. I cannot believe that I couldn’t even contact Dell tech support after a half of day of my time.

And that was only the beginning. I looked at the packing slip and called the number on the slip. I was told that someone from tech support would contact me within 24 hrs. Adter 72 hrs, I emailed the CS person and they couldn’t believe that no one from tech had contacted me. The individual stated Dell would have UPS pick the computer up and return it at Dell’s expense. I just had to wait 24 hours to set the pick-up with UPS. Five days later, UPS still doesn’t know anything about a pick-up and Dell insists UPS will pick it up the next day.

I emailed Michael Dell, the CEO Kevin Rollins and the entire leadership team at Dell. I received a telephone call from the Executive Lip Service Person. And, it begins all over again. Well, I have boxed the computer and shipping it back tomorrow on my dime. If anyone cares to waste their time venting to Michael Dell or CEO Kevin Rollins, their email for example is kevin_rollins@dell.com. If you are reading this and desire to vent, you should hurry, I quarantee you that email will change.

With the exception of a boot failure on my desktop when I unpacked it all has been well. I am a PC technician and was fortunate enough to attend a troubleshooting class provided by Dell. So when I had the problem I was able to resolve it without a call.

That doesn’t go to say I haven’t had our share of problems. By default Dell ships workstations with Hyper-threading turned off. Many times I have had to go into the setup utility and turn it off myself. On occasion I have had to return Dell equipment that was bad out of the box. I also get a lot of refurbished replacement parts from Dell. I must note that Dell stands by these refurbished parts as if they were new. All in all my experience with Dell has been good.

This isn’t much, but I do hope everyone that has experienced these Dell nightmares is able to find some adequate resolution. Though I haven’t experienced these problems first hand I know of a few who have.

K G Wells, Fort Wyane, Indiana

I sent my laptop to Dell for Warranty work. The whole system crashed. It wouldn’t connect to the internet, it wouldn’t read the drives, and it wouldn’t allow plug ins. The crash prevented me from backing up any information, notes, or programs. (It would not read the zip drive or connect to e-mail the work on the computer.) My passwords to Lexis Nexis and Westlaw were stored on my computer. All of my papers, the Microsoft office from the school, and numerous other items.

Yesterday the computer came back. It came back without a DVD-RW, without a power cord, and without the hard drive. Dell now has all my Law School work, including papers and free access to Lexis Nexis and Westlaw.My husband called them at 5p.m., speaking with a lady named Monesha. They gave him an option of sending a new hard drive or a new computer. He said he had to talk to me. Moneshal said they would call back. They were 30 minutes late calling back at 7:15.

When Monesha finally called back, she got her supervisor Sarvesh for the call. During the 7:15 call, Sarvesh talked with my husband and said he would call back in 1/2 hour (7:45). Mark, my husband, told him “Now don’t tell me you are going to call back in 1/2 hour if you never plan to.” Sarvesh promised to call by 7:45. He also informed us that there are no worries as the hard drive would never leave dell. Mark told him theat it should be very easy to send back to us then. He never called back.

I got on the live chat and the Kulwant said the depot’s records said it was impossible to trace.

Well, at 8:30 we tried calling them back.As of 9:55 tonight, we have been transferred by a man named Simon and subsequently sat on hold. (Wesat on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes.) I called the Dell orders desk and asked for the corporate number (1-512-338-4400) and told Joseph Nobles what was going on. He said someone would call back by 12p.m. today. No call came. He reported this as incident # 904974

Offering me a new computer does not fix what has happened. We could not back up the programs or information because the thumb-drive and internet did not work (no way to send or save). We were told to send the hard drive with the computer, so we didn’t keep it. When they called to say it was being sent back, they said everything was saved and the computer worked fine.

I now have:

an incomplete computer (no hard drive, no power cable, and no dvd-rw)

loss of 9 months worth of law school paperwork ( notes, bar exam review, memorandums and motion briefs) (I don’t know how you put a vlue on this. 36000$ in tuition is what I paid and I don’t know what you would think my time was worth.)

loss of symantec corporate (I only get to have this once from the school and must now pay 100$ for it)

Loss of Microsoft Office Professional (I only get this once for the school and now must pay 499$)

Loss of 112 i-tunes downloads (these I know are worth 112$)

Loss of unlimited password access to Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw (These are very expensive programs that cost hundreds of thousands to law firms. I am attempting to see if I can get new ones and have these cancelled. I MUST have these for law school.)

Tell me what I can do. I need some help. We are hitting a brick wall. No one will give us the legal departments number. I bought the computer last June and have had nothing but problems and now this one fatal crash really did turn out to be fatal. I would understand if the hard drive had been damamged, but we were informed it wasn’t. We were also informed the information was saved. Right now my husband is on the phone with customer care (Jomine) and they said they will send only a new hard drive with Norton. This is in no way acceptable. Please let me know. I have copied Joseph Nobles, because he said I could e-mail him if noone called.

Jamie E. Still

Dell once shipped a set of multimedia speakers with one of my desktops, no charge. I guess they packed them by mistake. Luckily, Dell didn’t sue me for the return of the speakers.

But what really pisses me off is when my friend ordered a Xeon server, they sent him a dualie… there was an extra Xeon (and I’m not talking virtual CPU.. there were two procs, with two H/S). I guess I should sue too because my server didn’t come with a free second processor.