Looks like Jeremy is stuck in Dell Hell, trying to deal with their terrible, terrible customer service. Oh how I feel the sympathy.
I once made the mistake of purchasing a Dell Inspiron. The laptop itself was okay in terms of functionality and the display, though the whole thing was made completely of cheap-feeling plastic. Sure enough, the motherboard itself died twice within two months, as did the keyboard. Three on-site support technicians had to deal with that poor machine before I wised up and bought a Powerbook.
Yes, yes, I know, it isn't Linux, and that's almost a sin considering I worked at Red Hat at the time, but there's nothing like sitting in the middle of a meeting and having the ONLY WORKING LAPTOP in the room. Wireless AND suspend, both working... shocking. I once actually managed to lockup a coworker's Thinkpad just by shutting the lid... oh how I laughed. I managed to pawn off^W^Wsell the laptop to a good friend, and of course within two weeks, the same problem with the motherboard came back. Thankfully it was under warranty... but I don't envy the misery he had.
Laptops aside (I'm no fan of their desktops or servers, either), Dell does indeed make wonderful, wonderful LCD screens. After being impressed with my pair at work, I, too, purchased a 2405FPW for home via employee discount. It arrived with the styrofoam utterly crushed. Somehow, miraculously it worked, though the power button has a tiny blemish from where apparently it rubbed the cardboard while being manhandled by DHL. I count my blessings that I didn't have to deal with returning it. Poor Jeremy.
Unless you like sitting on hold or meeting on-site repair contractors, don't buy Dell. Nowadays I'm pretty much either building a system myself from scratch or buying Apple. So much less hassle than Dell, and so much higher quality.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I have used 3 of Dell's laptops, all of them several models of Inspiron. I found them very reliable and economical. The only problem I had is that they are a bit overweight. I had only one problem with one of the laptops, and that too after 1 year of its use, but I got it fixed by Dell's excellent customer service. Well, its just my experience. I believe that different users might have different experiences. From my experience and that of my friends, I think the "lousy" cheap-plastic dells whose mother-boards die are a rare occurence. All of us had excellent experience with using Dell and their technical support
I've had night and day service from Dell.
The laptop I use now is a Dell Latitude D600, which is a gorgeous little machine. I've had to have the keyboard replaced, but that's all. I called Dell and they had a new keyboard in my hands within 16 hours.
The Inspiron that I used (briefly, before it died) was the precise opposite. Every problem (they sound very similar to yours, including both a catastrophic hard drive failure with 100% data loss and a toasted motherboard) was incredibly difficult to deal with.
I think what happens is a crapshoot - it just depends on the Dell tech that you got.
Post a Comment