Judge: Dell deceived customers

I hate dell. I paid $2000 for a new laptop that breaks every other day. I was on hold for 20 minutes last night before I had to hang up because no one ever picked up. The laptop is completely useless and I will never buy another one. I also signed up for the “no interest” plan which never happened. Horrible customer service all around.

Five years ago Dell was a promising company. Now is heading to bigger problems or merge with a better established company.
Dell technical service is insulting. Dell products are getting worst and worst every year.

I’ll be short: don’t buy from Dell at all, or you’ll get a big headache later, one way or another.
I made that mistake once in 2000 and financed their crappy laptop for almost $3000.
Dell Financial put a blemish on my credit report even though I paid off the whole purchase within 2 weeks of contract. I called them many times and all I got was continuous finance charges on that already paid off loan!
I threw that laptop to the garbage in 2001. The blemish on my credit is still there.
Dell is pure evil. It is more agressive than ATT. Beware!

I do not understand why so many are so upset with Dell. I have had several issue with my Dell laptop. Nothing major just it operating slow and I fried the Video Card about 1 year after I Purchesd it. Whenever I had issues with my laptop operating slow I would call up Dell Tech Support talk to an American who proceded to direct link to my Laptop and check things out. Their techs were respetful, kind, and I found had a wealth of knowledge in computers.

When my video crad died I called tch support, they ran my trhough a diagnostic reboot to pin point the problem. Were still very kind and courtous and sent a Tech (took two days instead of the usual next day because the vidoe card did not arrive on time)to my house to replace my vidoe card. The on site tech was great, he was nice and seemed to enjoy working for Dell.

Maybe I am some wierd demention where Dell is super great and super crap everwhere else. But I think this is nothing more then a bunch of exaggerated crap and will always go back to Dell because they have the best products and support I have ever seen in a Computer company. I have purcased from HP ,Gateway, and Pro-Star in the past and it was a horrible experience, all three companies had indians that did nothing but read my their websites tech page. To get sevice done you had to spend says arguing with the techs and in the end they sent you a box so you could get your PC repaired in 6 to 8 weeks.

Dell has had superior support and a great product from my expience with them. All of you the trash talk them should be ashamed.

Dell canceled for no reason at all a laptop order when it was ready to be delivered to my house.

Guess what? The laptop was sent back from UPS to Dell but my money was never credited back to my account.

Call after call I was given the same story, my money was going to be credited back in 10 to 15 days… but it never happened.

After too many email and calls and wasting countless hours explaining on the phone my issue I decided to give up on my money and naturally on Dell.

Lesson learned the hard (and expensive) way: never buy from Dell.

I’m an IT pro — software engineer, database administrator and systems administrator. I’ll offer a few comments having used many different computers over the years. If you buy computer hardware purely on “selling price” and don’t do any research on the “Total Cost of Ownership”, you’re likely to be disappointed. The inconsistent quality of hardware and technical support along with poor contractual performance at Dell are reasons to look elsewhere. If you buy “on the cheap” anticipate a higher likelihood of problems. The internet offers many means to research purchases. And, should consumers face non-performance of contract issues, the state attorney general’s office is a good starting point but you must carefully document everything. As a final note, I highly recommend Apple laptops over all others. Laptops more than desktops are far more difficult and costly to service or replace. Apple has a decidedly superior product with a superb integration of hardware and software. Quality of Apple hardware and software is excellent and Apple is determined to maintain their reputation for high quality products. I note that some companies are indifferent to quality and customer satisfaction. They seem to imagine that their price and market share make them immune to competitors who offer products at higher initial cost but greater quality and better support. Ironically, most people posting refer to “big name” companies such as Dell, HP and Lenovo. Yet, many consumers will find that local computer stores can build excellent quality desktop computers at a very reasonable cost and they will support their products.

I was one of the worse scams Dell ever pulled-The computer they sent me in 2002-did not have the DVD player that was to be built-in–got some junk 4 wks.later-didn’t work-returned to Dell with UPS receipt and tracked that they had received it-They kept charging me for 2 yrs. for a laptop I had returned & sent them the proof–I certainly was not going to pay for a computer I didn’t have-they then got to my younger daughter& threatened to put me in jail& if she didn’t pay in one wk. the judge would serve her & I’d be served with stealing the computer–never knowing she got so scared by the threats of Dell Financial She agreed to pay $850.–and I was beyond angry-She paid Dell over $800-due to threats at her place of work daily-and we had no computer-The final amount they got to was over $3000- AND I NEVER HAD A COMPUTER=$800.+THEY STOLE WITH NO PRODUCT IN OUR POSSESSION-WAS PAID IN 2004–THIS IS CRIMINAL–I TRIED TO GET THE MONEY RETURNED TO MY DAUGHTER-BUT ALL I GOT WAS MORE THREATS & THEN THEY TURNED IT OVER TO SOME COLLECTION AGENCY WHO CALLED MY YOUNG DAUGHTER EVERY DAY AT WORK-AND SHE WAS YOUNG & THREATENED TO PAY FOR NOTHING-hOW COULD THEY EVER COLLECT & CARRY IT ON FOR YRS. WHEN THEY HAD PROOF OF THE RETURN ALL ups RECEIPTS SENT TO THEM & ups WROTE TO THEM STATING THE DAY they rec’d it & who signed for it–This is beyond Gross actions for any company and they never would accept anymore letters & never returned my daughter’s money–HORRIBLE AND SICK-THE GREAT DELL!!!

I will never purchase another Dell computer again. I’ve had mine for 6 weeks and have had nothing but problems with it since I plugged it in! Don’t bother with calling Tech Support or Consumer Care because they will do nothing to help you except transfer you from dept to dept. I can’t get anywhere with Dell…but I know that I will never purchase another product from them!

I bought a Dell laptop back in early 1999. It needed a few things serviced like the keyboard and CD-ROM drive and they were quick to take care of it. The CDROM swap was done by me removing it from the front bay and replacing it with the one they sent me. The keyboard was replaced in one day (maybe two if you count the time it took to receive the prepaid overnight FedEx box). I sent the entire laptop in after I removed my hard drive, battery, and CDROM drive that time. They not only replaced the keyboard, they updated my BIOS, which wasn’t required.

But, that WAS a long time ago. And I bought mine through our corporate employee purchase program, which gets serviced differently and has American English speaking technicians ready to help you. Hold times weren’t extreme and they spent what time you needed to help you with any problems.

If I had bought a desktop with in-home service like some of these people did, I would have expected just that, with no work on my part to do any repairs on the PC. In-home doesn’t mean you will be doing the repairs yourself! But, doing simple repairs and replacements will probably speed up repair times and if it’s easy enough to do, I would be willing to do that. But not everyone feels comfortable doing this, and I once broke something in a laptop while trying to follow the directions of the technician on the phone (a different brand that no longer is in business). They weren’t happy about it but they had to replace what I broke.

dell support are the best tech support i ever had. if you get a dell tech from the philippines, your dell system is in good hand. anyway, the issue here if dell is cheating or not. i know dell works with integrity. may be those people who are too lazy to read and understand the thing they are dealing with. every company on the top 100 fortune companies, for sure, have flaws on their processes. but its the way the company respond to those irregularities, i think, what matters most. and for that i give DELL a 9 star out of 10.

Dell’s support is mainly for help technical issues because of defects in computer, not because you messed it up during usage and definitely not a TUTORIAL SCHOOL for computer usage. That judge is just a pucblicity hog, just sensationalizing an issue which is not really a big deal actually. Customers that are mislead and those people that are soooo LAZY to read the services contract and warranty details, terms and conditions and stuff. Actually, Dell is not hiding anything if services are concern since the contracts are available online and downloadable as well, you can just read it and check the coverage of the warranties that you’re getting. Problem is, they just buy without checking first what they’re getting, set their own expectations and gets disappointed once that they expectation was not met.

People that are whining like cry babies about the services in India are just unreasonable. They want a cheap computer so they got Dell. Dell can no longer afford to pay tech support reps in US because they are not earning that much from the hardware of the computers that they sell so they had to find tech support services that are cheaper so that they can still provide tech support for the computers. If you didn’t want tech support in India, then buy a more expensive computer with US techs that support the computer.

I just bought an Apple!

Dell deceived customers, judge says.
The lawsuit also accused Dell of depriving customers of technical support that they were entitled to, in some instances, by pressuring them into performing repairs on their own or subjecting them to long wait times on the phone.

It happened to us just last week (May 2008). We paid Dell for a contract extension that would have a real person to come out and fix our daughter’s computer. When we tried to have someone come out, the person in India wanted us to trouble shoot it by taking the computer apart, piece by piece, so they could have someone bring out the right part as they don’t have anyone who can come out and trouble shoot the problem in our home.

Hello all you Dell employees leaving the positive comments here!

I once had a Dell. You guys failed your most basic obligation:
making a device that actually worked. Then you failed your
second most basic obligation: supporting that piece of junk.

I saw those ads on TV and they convinced me: I switched.

I have owned so many Dell Desktops and Laptops. I seriously think that they are the best out there and always received next day parts delivery and next day on-site tech when requested/needed.
I guess it depends which branch of support customers connect to. I know I spoke to people in India, Canaca, and here in the US throughout the support issues I encountered. US Dell support team was the best in my opinion.

cheers.

I am the victim of Dell’s Bait and Switch policy. I request for justice.

I placed order for 1TB Network Hard Drive to Dell Website on 03/27/2008.
1. When I placed the order I got confirmation email.
2. After three days I got another email stating shipment has been delayed,
3. Till 16th April, I never got any notification that order has been
canceled . I came to know about it when I called Customer Support that my
order has been canceled due to pricing error of the itm ($179/=00)
4. However I was never notified for the same. If there is pricing error
Customer must be notified
5. This is clear case of Bait and Switch.The bait and switch is a
fraudulent sales tactic that is punishable by US law, as false advertising.
When a true bait and switch scam exists, the store can be sued for fraud
6. I used my Dell gift card, which I threw after using it, I can’t recover
it.
7. Due to delay in supply of the product I have incur the loss of more
$500K beacuse I lost my valuable data on other drive, which I could have
saved on the new drive.
8. Order can be canceled when the item is out of stock not for pricing
reason. Even if it is pricing there should be proper notification just
after transaction.
9. I called and wrote many times to DELL but they refused to ship the item
and compensate my losses. Also they are not ready send another gift card as
I threw the original one after the purchase.
Now I want to use this forum to resolve the issue.
Thanks for the help.
BK Sinha
Customer Information:
Customer Number = 67755868
Order Number = 219708991

I’m a business customer of Dell, and I always purchase the ProSupport option with our equipment. (It used to be called Gold support on business desktops and laptops.)

I have never had a problem with hold times, call transfers, or anything else discussed in the article/ruling. I think this only applies to their consumer division and their financial services division.

We have, however, had a long-standing problem with their financial services division. I would not recommend using them.

I too was a victim of there interest plan and also got hung up on many times.

I ordered a dell xps laptop right before the new xps came out. I had the laptop for a week and sent it back.

I was on a payment plan for that laptop. The guy said since I was ordering a new laptop ( for more $) I would not be charged anything and this payment plan would be dissolved.

Later I got some invoices that said I owed them like $60 for interest etc. I tried to dispute this and got no where. I got hung up on 2 times. Another call, I got a promise that this would be reversed and was told not to worry at all about paying the invoice. Another month later I got an invoice, I now owe $80. Another phone call and now the harrasment starts. I had a guy basically yell at me saying I had to make a payment that whatever I was saying didnt matter. He then hung up after I said I’m not making the payment. I called again. I was then told that I could not talk to a customer service agent without making a payment first since my account was overdue. I argued for about 30 minutes this time and finally was told a manager would call me back. I got a phone call the next day when I was at work. Sounded like a nice lady, she said the payments would be reversed. Ok I am happy thanks I thought. Next month, another invoice, I now owe about $100. I thought this would be resolved and got frustrated. I tried to call them and get this resolved again, but they would not listen to me at all. Eventually they started calling my house like 3 – 4 times a day, saying I need to make a payment. Everytime I would try to dispute this payment. Spending about 30 – 45 minutes each time. Remember, I had this laptop for a week! Eventually I gave up and paid them $125. I also told the guy he can kiss my future business goodbye.

I’m the kind of guy that buys about 3 computers a year for myself & family, and also recommends computers daily to hundreds of my customers.

Dell Financial is pure evil, its a negative on your credit the moment you sign up, cheaper/better to just use a credit card.

As for support woes: What did you expect when you bought a computer for a price just barely over the cost of the parts that went into it?

-Ex Dell XPS tech support agent, replaced by “Bob” from India.

I have had no problems/issues with Dell support at all.
They have been very helpful when needed and the “next business day onsite warranty” is just that.

Maybe Dell just dosn’t care about the US?

If you read the judge’s ruling–the matter was not the quality of Dell computers, but only about two areas where they failed.

1. Next-day onsite service was promised but not delivered; tech support was offered but at a price of hours on the phone if you got a decent tech at all.

2. The financing deals left customers not knowing until it was too late that they did not qualify for the no-interest option. If the interest rate was quoted up front–as it is when you finance a car purchase–then customers could have opted out of the purchase.

Whether you have had a great experience with Dell products or not is not what the judge was looking at.

Bought a loaded, refurbished Dell desktop for $640, delivered. It has been quietly doing everything I have asked of it for 4 years, no problems ever. The only time it is shut down is when the power goes out. And it runs so quietly. You could not beat the price at the time or the performance it has given since.

My previous box was one built from parts, and while fun and interesting to build (and dependable, still runs), it ended up costing slightly more than the Dell and it makes more noise than a 737.

Refurbished Dells are the only way to go.

In my experience Dell is the worst IT service provider in the market place. We will no longer use them in my corporation, and I wouldn’t purchase them personally. IT Director… fortune 100 company

I own 5 Dells at home and a number at work. I would agree with the judge. But, I would also say I have seen the same with other computer manufacturers,some 10 times worse then Dell. If you push Dell they will make good where as others just don’t care at all. Dell has some issues but compared to others is far better. Try Lenovo Tech support (both reseller and customer support) if you really want to blow a gasket.
Dell financing and all that leaves a very lot to be desired.

Hooray — they had me in tears of frustration two years ago when I spent 5 hours being bounced around, trying to find out how to move my address book from old (but healthy) Dell to new laptop.

I finally got the answer when, in addition to my customer service paid plan, I shelled out annother $35 (annually) for a service that insured I would be connected to support people who were in the US.

Their customer support is the bottom –shame on them. When I wrote them saying so I got no response.

I brought a Dell laptop in 2003. One night the computer totally shut own. WHen I called Dell I spoke to someone out in India who was very difficult to understand. I was promised to receive a call back in which I never did. I had to constantly call them. When I finally spoke to someone regarding my built-in wireless internet access, they tried to tell me I never purchased it? The technician then went into my computer from his end, and until this very day, my computer is slow as ever and was never the same. My total bill came up to $700. I will never again purchase another Dell computer.

I too was victim of bait and switch from Dell of Three computers and printers I purchased about 4 years ago. I have an insurance practic. How do I kput in a claim?

Guess I was just lucky. I wrote Dell an email that I d done everything to try to fix my still on an extended warranty laptop. They wrote me back in ONE DAY and SENT AN ON SITE TECH THE NEXT DAY who swapped out the whole insides and in an hour, presto, no more problem.

I think they are terrific, but I guess I dont know the Judge.

IF YOU ARE ON A PAYMENT PLAN WITH DELL
AND THINK YOU ARE STAYING IN GOOD STANDING BY MAKING PAYMENTS EARLY WELL
FORGET IT ITS ADDED TO THE BOTTOM LINE AND THEY CHARGE YOU LATE FEES CAUSE WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE PAYING THE NEXT MONTH THEY CONSIDER YOU LATE I WILL NEVER OWN ANOTHER DELL AND THERE SERVICE ISNT ANY GOOD EITHER

I must be in the minority. No major problems with their tech support. After 2 calls to Dell’s India connection and explaining that I had a defective DVD burner, they promptly dispatched a service tech to replace the burner – free of charge under my original 1 year warranty. A month after that, my PC indicated potential overheating of the CPU and they shipped me a new fan after 1 call to the service center. PC has been running fine for several years now.

“Our goal has been, and continues to be, to provide the best customer experience possible,” spokesman Jess Blackburn said in a written statement to CNN.

“We are confident that when the proceedings are finally completed, the court will determine that only a relatively small number of customers have been affected,” Blackburn said.

This guy will burn in hell for his soulless lying. A small number? bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! type in “dell sucks” into google, you get over a MILLION hits, small number my A$$.

Yes, you pay of “at home” service and then some indian flunkie will say OK unscrew the back and let’s see if we can fix it. Sorry that’s me doing the repair work. Can you imagine that horsecrap with your car? Call for service ‘ok, let’s take the manifold off and see if we can fix the fuel injectors together”. Good for them, DELL should be sued over that nonsense.

Dell is a prime example of what’s wrong with US corporations. Offshoring of jobs and deceitful consumer tactics – just about anything to increase the corporate coffers. It doesn’t matter that American consumers and workers are duped, Dell does whatever it has to do to for the almighty bottom line. I know – I worked there for 10 years.

If you want a Dell with good service, and all you want to do is browse the web and read e-mail, I highly recommend getting one of the Dells pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux.

With Linux you won’t have the virus and spyware problems.

Additionally, on the hardware side, the tech support “script” is different. In the case of my wife’s laptop, they replaced the motherboard and memory under warranty with no hassle. With the Linux option, consumers even have access to Dell insiders if they know where to look.

Dell’s customer service is terrible, I would never buy a Dell again.

The “tech-support” offered was in the form of an online chat with a tech-support person. After being unable to answer my question regarding my Dell PC’s problem i was disconnected.

I’m not so quick to crucify Dell. I have 5 solid Dell boxes in my home and I have used Dell for 10 years now. I buy a new Dell every year. The machines are good and the service is excellent. I agree that the ads were misleading – but if you actually READ THEM BERFORE PURCHASING you would have discovered that it was a bad deal up front.

To be fair, last year I bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu (a Linux OS), and have never had a problem with it. The moral is NEVER buy extended customer service plans, and use an operating system that is simple, reliable, and has a very active user-based customer support forum.

Oh, and Ubuntu, most of its programs, and the forum support are all free. I bought the Dell because they were the first major hardware maker to offer computers preloaded with Ubuntu. But I was a little offended that on every page of the ordering process, a blurb at the top of the screen would remind me “Dell recommends Windows Vista.” Maybe they are a little bit evil after all…

To throw a voice of reason in, I own a Dell and love it. I’ve never had a problem with customer service – I had one problem, they walked me through it, and sent me a replacement part for free. Why is it that only people who are ticked off ever post anything?

The judgement issued by Justice Joseph C. Teresi is tainted with exaggerated and inflamed language intended to generate controversy and media manipulation. One also has to question how much publicity Justice Teresi gets from all of this spin doctoring.

I disagree! I have always found the Dell tech support people very helpful. The problem here rests with customers who buy computers and then make no attempt to read the instructions. Tech support is not a substitution for common sense.

Finally someone speaks my language – DELL has been so irresponsible, worthless for the money they take. I spent $505 for fixing a motherboard defect in my Inspiron and within 6 months, it came back – I cant use it now nor can i ask Dell to fix it (another $505) – They knew veyr well 5160 had a systemic defect but NEVER owned up for it – They are no better than cheap scamsters -
I bought another laptop but NEVER EVER, EVER a DELL again –
It is true they operate out of India and the customer service sucks really bad that it stinks across the atlantic

Last year, my wife and I bought two Dell Demension desktop computers with 2G RAM and Windows Vista. We paid them off before the no interest period ended and everything went perfectly.

The computers arrived a full week ahead of schedule and more than a month before any payment was asked for.

We don’t ever buy any extended plans because they are always a rip-off. A $2,000.00 computer ought to last longer than a year or two without buying any extended plan, and if you want me to continue buying your products you’ll make sure I get my money’s worth without extorting anything extra out of me. If you can’t do that much then I will fire you.

Anyway, we love our Dell computers. They run extremely well. They are quiet and efficient. Dell delivered it’s no interest deal to us without any complications.

We will definately be buying Dell products in the future.

A few years ago I would have agreed with what most here have said. The best description I’ve read was the one about the “wall of people” because that was exactly what it was like.
However, I’ve been dealing with Dell Tech support on a regular basis for the past two years and have found their service to be very good (I administer a computer network.) They have been very helpful, no run-around, and they haven’t hesitated to send a tech to our site when necessary. The last tech that was here from Dell went way above and beyond as a matter of fact. I think they have made some major improvements recently, personally.

Just because Dell is bad does not make HP good. I bought an HP for my daughter for her birthday. The hard drive failed a month later. It took two months and lots of calls for HP to send me a new drive.

People who don’t know how to even use their computers, generally stomp their feet and whine like this. Dell has always responded properly to any customer service or warranty call in my experience.

Learn to actually USE your computer, then you can complain. There’s a reason they have the lion’s share of the market. When you screw it up, it’s not their fault.

Bought two Dells. One never had a problem. The other failed after about 50 hours. Called tech support and wasted a couple of days on it. They finally sent someone out to fix it. It failed in about 10 hours and went through the whole rigamarole again. another repair call. They called it fixed and left. It broke again after about 2 hours. This time I ran through the whole diagnostic tree and isolated a fault in the on/off switch. I called tech support and went through another 2 hours of hell. Eventually they replaced the whole computer. Fortunately they mailed it to me so I was able to swap drives (the home techs will not do this).

Now is the PERFECT time to buy a Dell! All this took place while Kevin Rollins was in charge. Now that Michael is back at the helm, this type of practice is gone. Now that this Quomo witchhunt is over, Dell is extra careful not to cross those lines again. HP, Lenovo, Sony, etc can’t say that.

I think there should be a fine just for mental anguish from their phone system – it is absolutely from hell to get through endless recordings, long holds, and misinformed idiots that hang up or transfer you to the wrong place. They got so sick of my complaints to managers that they did issue a refund for the last software service contract, and actually did replace my motherboard once i got to the manager of hardware support. However I would rather crawl through glass than ever call them again.

Never had a problem with any of my dell’s, and I have been using them for over 4 years. I’ve found their customer service to be top-notch actually. A little bit of computer knowledge has helped when I talk to them.

Lol, reason I quit dell was I couldn’t stand working for a company that didn’t live up to what I was selling. I would hang my head in shame whenever a problem rose up.

As I read this article, I was reminded of why I now happily use an HP desktop computer.

I’ve never had an issue with dells. We buy laptops, monitors, etc from them.

I had 2 monitors with 3 or 4 burt pixels one time – and they sent me new ones before the boxes to return the old ones came.

I’m happy with Dell and will continue to do business with them.

here is an idea.. GET A MAC!!

Last year, my wife and I bought two Dell Demension desktop computers with 2G RAM and Windows Vista. We paid them off before the no interest period ended and everything went perfectly.

The computers arrived a full week ahead of schedule and more than a month before any payment was asked for.

We don’t ever buy any extended plans because they are always a rip-off. A $2,000.00 computer ought to last longer than a year or two without buying any extended plan, and if you want me to continue buying your products you’ll make sure I get my money’s worth without extorting anything extra out of me. If you can’t do that much then I will fire you.

Anyway, we love our Dell computers. They run extremely well. They are quiet and efficient. Dell delivered it’s no interest deal to us without any complications.

We will definately be buying Dell products in the future.

Last Dell I bought was in 2002 – servers for a small nonprofit. Never again. At the time it was “we’ll take care of making sure it’s tax exempt”. They didn’t. Their finance dept spent over a year trying to collect money we didn’t owe. Rude, incompetent, moronic service for years. Worst. Service. Ever.

When I was driving the shuttle bus part time at the Round Rock Dell campus, I’d see someone carried out on a stretcher once every week or two.

No joke.

The moral of the story is that “the road to Dell is paved with good intentions.”

YUP; DEL HAS MANY HORROR STORIES,LIKE MY TECH EXPERT REPAIR FRIEND,WHO WAS APPROACHED BY DELL,IN A SMALL AZ TOWN,TO DO ALL OF DELL’S SERVICE-CALLS WORK.
AT FIRST,MY TECH FRIEND,WHOM , VERY LOYAL TO DELL,WAS ELATED,AND HE QUICKLY SIGNED A ONE YEAR CONTRACT TO DO ALL REPAIRS HOME SERVICE CALLS FOR DELL. DELL SAID-VERBALY,THAT HE WOULD ‘GET MILEAGE EXPENSES’ FOR GAS. IT TURNED OUT TO BE ‘NOT TRUE’,AND IMMEDIATLY, THIS TECH MAN WAS SENT THREE HUNDRED MILES ACCROSS THE STATE,IN HIS OWN CAR,TO A MILITARY BASE,EXPECTING THE GAS+LODGING TO BE PAID FOR THREE DAYS,BUT…. DELL STUCK-IT TO HIM,HE HAD TO PAY FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP(LOST MONEY!!) AND THATS WHEN HE REALIZED HE WAS SCREWED!
CAN YOU IMAGINE; DELL LYING TO THEIR OWN CONTRACTED TECH SUPPORT DUDES-LOCALY? I KNEW ABOUT DELL LONG AGO AND STICK TO GATEWAY,AS THEIR SERVICE FOLKS ARE ‘A#1′.

Dell deserves it!

They are the worst of the lot.

Had extended warranty. The mother board blew out. They wished me to open the machine and test the parts. Eventually I just told them nothing worked and they sent someone….They drove me to lenova and Apple…hope they go bankrupt…

Alienware (owned by Dell), was the last computer they’re EVER getting out of me.
I spent a small fortune for a gaming machine and a 3 year on site warranty. On site apparently meant a tech told me what to do over the phone, and if anything went wrong, it was my fault. I fought them into eventually repairing the hardware that was fried (not something I did), and the machine never really did work well ever again. A gaming machine that couldn’t play a game because it would crash. Pieces of JUNK. I have a wonderful desktop now i built myself for 1/3 or less the price of theirs with parts off new egg, and had great experiences when I got a video card RMA because it was dead on arrival.

Dell’s predatory attitude is common in American industry under deregulation by Bush and the Republicans, who would have industry regulate itsself. Even THEY don’t believe in corporate self-regulation. But if the politicians are to get campaign contributions and payoffs, they must turn their heads away from corruption. They are perfectly willing to do it.

I worked in IT for 3 years, during which time, and I can only etimate, the 34 ‘branches’ of the ‘company’ bought DELLs exclusively for the Administrative Staff and ‘clerical’ stff to use as well as a Great number of users in the Enterprise. The repair rate and first year mortality was larger than expected but was regarded as infant mortality in ;machinery’. However, during the next two years of a three year contract, many more DELLs failed. At first, a crditable response was forthcoming.from DELL. But wen the machines aged to the first and 3/4 rs year, warranty response nosedived. The ‘Asst Mngr” of our IT unit made very good purchases of parts from reliable vendors to replace the hard drives that were failing and we found a way to clone or install Dell Recovery software onto these new disks because DELL made it very difficult to work with what was becoming, JUNK! The DELLS are still there and our IT staff continues to service them and keep them going. Not a very pretty picture.By comparison, I still ave an old P3 intel chip driving XP and it works fine, I can fix it easily, it’s a fleeping workhorse. I woulfn;t whizz on a DELL cause it woulf be a waste of good whizz! Oh, by the way, did I mention that the DELL staff became very abusinve and vindicative when we asked questions that TECHNOCOANS shoud and did ask! When they made the offshore move, we just said ‘fleep it”, and fixed them, at a cost mind you whcih they really stuck up our nose, use any other 4-lletter work you;d like; but DELL, is init to make money the good old fashinoned way…scam ya and wham ya and don’t five a Damm about ya,,, In a way they sowed the seeds for thier own demise…cause there’s gotta be a bunch of schoolkids that learned not to trust or use DELLS at all cost, becuae they saw that is at all CO$T. Theres an old saying; Fleepin’ ARMY, but it’s changed to ..well,,guess who? Thank you Michael Dell…

I would never buy another Dell computer, Period! Thier service has gotten worse over the years. The service reps are horrible and most of them are very difficult to understand. Outsourcing might save money in the short run, but the long run consequences will be Dell user switching to Apple.

Dell is has great promising reputation in Asia! Go for DELL !!!

over here in malaysia, dell probably offers the best service compared to the other models:)

I called Dell tech support to resolve a printer issue. Since my printer was an HP the Dell folks said they could not help me and to call HP. As it turned out the HP tech support did a stellar job and spent hours trouble shooting my Dell laptop and resolving numerous issues that were not even printer related… Tech support for a product that was not even theirs! When they asked me what I paid for the laptop their response was “Oh my god, you could have gotten 2 HP laptops for that kind of money.” They were right. I wish I had bought an HP but at least I know that I can call them for help and next time I need a computer they will get my business.

I was told to re-install my whole operatiing system (vista) due to a printer driver not working. When I told the tech that I was a computer tech myself (i was fixing a customer computer) and the driver seem to be defective. I later found out that Dell released a defective driver just so they could give it away and had no plans in the near future to fix the problem. Remember friends do let friends buy Dell

May be I have been just plain lucky. My Dell has done well since I bought it in 2004. I had some issues initially that turned out to be no more than very minor setting adjustments but Dell sent me a new laptop when I told them I wasn’t comfortable getting a repaired laptop. I kept my original once I figured out the issues and it has served me well so far. I do wish the fix for those issues came from Dell support though as it was very frustrating when I found that the solution was really really simple.

Dell is the worst PC maker for quality and customer service. Their management could care less as well as they hang up on you when you finally get them on the phone.

Dell’s technical support is horrible. Whenever I call the number provided with the computer, I am told that I reached the wrong department after waiting forever in queue. After finally reaching technical support, they try to blame the customer for the problem and accept no responsibility. Eventually, I gave up and paid for the warranty repair out of pocket.

I bought a Dell laptop a couple of years ago under their advertised no-interest financing promotion. The promotion said that if I signed a financing agreement with Dell, I would pay no interest if I paid for the computer in full by a specified date (I think it was within 3 months). Sounded good to me, so I did that, paid for the computer before the due date, and Dell stuck to its end of the bargain. No problems at all.

I also have paid for Dell technical support for the past few years, and found that the company waas responsive and helpful. I had one minor dispute with them over the way they counted incidents allowed under the contract, but other than that, again, no problems.

How could my experience be so favorable, while so many other people allegedly got ripped off? Something doesn’t smell right here. Maybe there is nothing going on under the surface, but “Dell bashing” seems very much in vogue these days, regardless of substance.

I spent over four years and 200 hours trying to get Dell to repair or replace a “top-of-the-line” system they sold me that was defective from the moment I turned it on the first time. Dell’s tech support jerked me around for months on end and lied to me repeatedly. Dell’s executive support threatened to screw up my credit, if I didn’t knuckle under, and accept a “replacement” computer I immediately discovered was even more defective than the original.

Finally, I put both systems, the defective original and the defective replacement, in my attic and ordered an Apple G4. I will never go back. NEVER!!! And I bought an Apple G4 Powerbook for business trips. Both are jewels and working with Apple, when there’s been a glitch, has been exceptionally easy. And last fall I upgraded to a Mac Pro with a 30 inch monitor and nearly a terra byte of storage. It’s WONDERFUL!!!

The two defective Dells? I took them to a Dell recycling fair here in Nashville a couple of months ago. Dell claimed they were offering the recycling to show their commitment to the saving the environment. In return for your old systems, they’d give you a pine seedling to plant as a symbol of this commitment. They gave it to you in a PLASTIC BAG with a LARGE brochure touting that Dell has gone GREEN.

Despite being replanted in fresh soil and watered properly, the tree died in less than a month. Another defective Dell product. When I called to complain, Dell customer service claimed it wasn’t their responsibility. They said adamantly that it was a software issue and I should call Microsoft.

I bought a Dell for 1300 a few years back, I was supposed to and have been paying 42 a month. I was recently turned down for a home loan due to a $3000 debt including a $500 payment that is 150 days past due. Dell raised the interest rate and never told me. Now they turned over the account to CIT. but Dell is still taking 42 a month from my bank account. the bank says Dell has to stop and they can’t do anything. Dell says they can’t help me because my account has been turned over to CIT, but Dell continues to take money from my account. I don’t know what to do or who to turn to but i am 27 a newly separated veteran and now have ruined credit.

I bought a DELL Inspiron 2650 in 2002 and found out it was actually a package of junk which was not worth as it ad said. I am absolutely not going to buy any DELL product in future.

I had the same experience with Dell in China. Company bought me a notebook which blew itself within 4 hours of arrival. Taking back to ’service’ took 3 weeks.

I must be a fortunate one..Have had nothing but Dells, both for home and business…Had some equip problems early on, they had a new one shipped asap…Got cut off once with support, and they called me back to finish the call.

Dell customer service works if you have some idea of what you are doing or how to follow instructions.
Yeah, their customer support is out of India, but guess what YOU wanted the cheapest product that would work for your purpose. Look at it this way, if you took your car in after you tried to fix it, and it took several more hours of billable labor just to figure out what you did to make it worse would you complain about the cost? Yeah you probably would.
I will respond to the posts in the order posted using the car analogy if appropriate:
1) First off spyware, thats your fault for doing something stupid. If you took your Ford Focus off road and de-rimmed a tire would you blame Tires Plus? Yep, because you are an idiot.
2) What did they lie about? Your comment may as well be from #1’s 9 year old nephew -> Dell is dumb.
3) Ok, you may have a case marketing people are weasels. Did you read the fine print or just see a toy get it? One of the reasons we have a mortgage issue is because Americans have stopped reading the terms. MOST retailers have a 6 or 12 month no payments/interest plan, but if they are not paid by the end it accrues everything from day 1. It sucks, and I feel for ya.
4)Why didn’t you just go to the website and put in the service tag? The service tag tracking system is one of the best features Dell has. Indian call centers suck, and it is a pet peeve of mine but if I want an inexpensive product, that is one of the trade offs. People who know what they are doing aren’t affordable for simple tech support.
5) Sony, are you serious? Those are the people that charge you an extra $50 if you don’t want all the preloaded software. Never heard of Lenovo. HP, eh their customer service is on par with Dell. However, I do prefer HP network printers.

I work as a SysAdmin for a medium business and from a business side things work well, but businesses pay for it. The company I work for has 3 people besides me that do IT work. I am paid $43/hour (when you break down benefits and pay to hourly) to do my job and I am at the bottom of the pay scale.
I WOULD LOVE TO LOCK THE USERS OUT OF MOST ADMIN FUNCTIONS!!! If we could stop the users from screwing up their own systems, I wouldn’t EVER have to work late or on a weekend (hell I could go down to 20 hours/week).
Basically, if you have no idea what you are doing, DO NOTHING!!! If you don’t know how to replace the clutch in your car, put away the wrenches!

It took Dell 6 months to send my 350.00 rebate and only after multiple people telling me that I was mistaken. Seems that they changed the deal and “didn’t know I was entitled to a refund.” I had to run down the sales person to confirm the rebate. I will never buy from Dell again. What a hassle.

My friend Dan had the worst experience with Dell and their billing practices…he was late 1 lousy day paying his bill and they sent collection agents after him. I could understand if he was late a month or so…but 1 day…give me a break!!!

I am so glad of this
I bought 6 dell laptop and dell NEVER held on to their next day on-site service I paid dearly for. I can’t recall a single occasion. In many case help came 1 week later

I bought a Dell in 2001. The hard drive began having problems within a year. Tech support was impossibly bad. Of course the drive fully crashed just outside the one-year period. Later news reports led me to believe it had been a widespread hard drive problem. “Never again” is still my view on Dell

I bought a Dell laptop about 5 years ago, for roughly $2,500. Chose them because of the good price after a $500 rebate. Rebate rules were followed to a ‘T’ but they refused to pay. Said they received it, but too late. Was maile d first class two or more weeks before the deadline. Took many many phonecalls at which point they admitted getting it in time. But only offered half the rebate (which I took as the best I could do). I’ll never buy Dell again.

P.S. – Dell blamed their rebate company, and the rebate company blamed Dell (back and forth over and over). But Dell offered me the rebate and it was not delivered.

I’ve had 3 Dell desktops and 1 laptop. I have purchased 6 Dell desktops for work and have helped 6 friends and relatives purchase Dell desktops over the last 8 years. Not a single one of them has ever given a minute of trouble. Personally I’ll gladly buy another Dell. I won’t, however, buy a service contract from anybody as they are all ripoffs, no matter who it is. If you aren’t skilled enough to learn how to remove spyware off your own computer you have no business owning one.

Get a mac.

Dell customer service, Finances and product itself are horrible. I have been duped by DELL at various levels. Tech support is waste of time, they are capable of giving out fake extension or telephone numbers and names, yell at you, and lie and stage dispatches. Helping a customer is the last thing on their list. They go by script and downloading drivers seem to be answer to all the problems ( even if hardware itself has failed or missing). My laptop crashed because of hardware failure within four months of purchase and DELL has taken me for a ride ever since. Every time i send my laptop to fix the issue or change some hardware , it comes back with some different issue. DELL finances never informed me of not being approved for NO Payment and kept sending me hefty bill for three months. My suggestion NEVER BUY DELL. If u have one Good Luck!!

I bought a dell laptop in 2000. Paid a bunch for the extra at home 4-year service. If you needed service you had to wait over an hour sometimes on hold to get it… but if you were willing to hold – I always had someone come to my apt and fix whatever issue I had and check for other things.

After 4 years, my battery wasn’t being recognized by the computer. When I told dell (who by then implemented their online chat), they would not fix my computer because they thought it would just break again and I would be a dissatisfied customer. Instead, they sent me a brand new laptop with simliar, but updated specifications. Not bad service if you ask me.

I think they just grew too fast – so most people feel they get poor service because they can’t get anyone on the phone, but I personally had a great experience and wouldn’t buy anything but a dell.

I have since bought a dell dj and other stuff from them, including a desktop for my parents – with no issues… sorry you had a bad experience, but if you talk to the reps with the same tone some of you wrote on here – I’m not surprised the service wasn’t the best.

Dell tech support is no longer what it used to be. Dell’s tech support in India repeatedly run me through a series of non value added tests to diagnosis my computer problem on multiple calls. Dell never solved the problem or authorized the onsite repair service that I had paid for at time of computer purchase.

I gave up and bought a Toshiba….I have owned 4 Dell computers in the past, but never again!!

I actually have had very good results. Sometimes it took time to get through but in each case my issues were resolved. I have purchased four Dell desktops, one Dell laptop, and one Gateway laptop. I’ve had pretty good luck.

I have actually had very good results. It has taken some time but in each case my issues were resolved including a new motherboard for a laptop about a year after we purchased it. Most recently some updated drivers had to be modified.

I disagree with Ben. I have 4 Dell computers, 3 desktops and a laptop. My oldest one, which was bought in 2002, is doing just fine. I got another desktop for my wife when she was in college in 2004 and it is doing great as well. The laptop I bought in 2003 is awesome and the new desktop I just bought is fantastic. All 4 have been excellent purchases. Learn to take care of the electronics you buy or pay a little extra money for the support. Sure, I have had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall the drivers and software, but that was caused by viruses, not through the fault of Dell.

I used to buy Dells, but the last straw was when they WOULD NOT help me with a service call because I did not know my address that they incoreectly transcribed in their data base, Even though I had the service ID tag number.

Twoo years ago I wanted to reformat my Dell. I called their customer support becuase I was concerned that I would lose the Microsoft Office that came pre-installed on my Dell. They assurred me that it would still be there after the reformat. Guess what…it wasn’t. When I called back they claimed that I was sent Microsoft Office disks with my PC; I wasn’t. Then they told me they couldn’t help me and I should contact Microsoft. Needless to say, after spending $500 to replace my software, I will never buy a Dell again. Their customer service is inept and indifferent.

I had three Dell Inspirom 8100’s with five batteries when they had the battery recall. The “wonderful” replacement batteries didn’t last a year. And, as others have noted, calling support is wasted energy.

Yea, I paid Dell over $200 for tech support to rid my computer of spy ware and after several calls to their “so-called experts,” my computer performed worse than before I started. ONly after my nephew who lives in another state and city from me guided me through the process did I ge the computer back to good working order… that was more than 3 years ago and the computer is still fine. But, I tried to get my $200+ back from Dell but it was like a Catch-22 and no one wanted to hear my complaints. Just bought a new HO….Dell won’t get any more of my money.

Dell customer service is horrible, they lie and cheat. This is the last Dell I would ever buy.

I was a victim of the “interest-free” bait and switch. They don’t run a customer service department, they have a wall of people that make certain you never get the deal you signed up for.

Customer service is out of India. They work from a script and can’t help if you go off their script. Even if you say “I’ve already done that!” They just keep reading. My video driver is still out because they gave me a list of 10 to use, not saying which one is for my laptop.

Here’s the proof why you should not buy a Dell. I bought one and it broken less than a year in and the customer service people were useless or sent you in circles. Buy from Sony, Lenovo or HP.