There are other options for a computer than Dell and Mac, btw.

@rdm: i don't think this story was meant to start a MAC vs. PC flame war. Would you feel better if she said "Buy a Linux box"
Julia: I would start with your state attorneys office. If that doesn't pan out, I would return the laptop ASAP and ask for a refund. Using their failure to honor their promotions as reasoning.

HP, Gateway (well, Acer), your local computer shop, just to name a few :-)

I have to admit that all in my dealings with Dell, both customer-service-wise and purchase-wise, have been positive. Not perfect, just positive. Between me and my family, we have three Dell systems.

1. Family desktop. My parents ran into a problem with their order. Something along the lines of, "You lied to us. We do not owe you this money. Don't even try sicking collections on us." A call to the BBB got the charges dropped swiftly. So, while Dell may be becoming numb to the effects of the EECB, they still fear the BBB.

2. Refurbished, Personal Desktop. I have never been happier with a system. Perfect since day one.

3. Personal notebook. Ugh. A wireless connection that drops out occasionally. Probably my own fault for getting an 802.11n (Draft) wireless card and router, but oh well. The speakers sometimes get staticy and pop. It works, so I guess I have to live with it. I really wanted a MacBook Pro, but even a refurbished one @ about $400 more expensive was a bit much for me. I went for the Inspiron 1520 when I wanted an XPS, but I refused to get Vista. Vista = fail.

All in all, I still respect (tolerate?) Dell more than any other PC manufacturer. However, after working in IT at a mostly Mac school, I have come to respect Macs and Apple much more than PCs and the Windows OS. I am NOT looking forward to the day when I haev to support labs of Vista machines. Our XP machines are factors more buggy, shoddy, and insecure than our Macs.

Unless I secure a sweet deal, my next computer purchase will absolutely be a Mac.

@kahri: I would return the laptop as well saying I didn't get everything it was supposed to come with. AG, BBB, etc FTW.

Comment on "Dell Is Chasing Me Into The Arms Of Steve Jobs" Dell is a master of the Bait and Switch. I've ordered two machines from the SMB division. On both, I added firewire cards, which are listed as including a cable. Neither system shipped with said cable. One I spent several hours on chat / calls, and was offered a $50.00 credit. The purchase receipt / build confirmation shows the cable, the shipping receipt does not. See for yourself by buikding any Vostro desktop system.

@rdm: Great advice, glad your a comentator on this sight. You have surpassed the qualifcations you are Insightful, clever, witty and a concerned consumer advocate. Now if you have no further sparkling advice on this post why not read another. There must be some other post you can snark.

Chargeback $70?

@kahri: Couldn't have said it better myself. I think the golden days of executive support and EECBs are over. They have simply stopped giving a shit.

@ThunderRoad: I'd say that too, but don't most CC companies limit your time to 60 days? I thought it was 60 or 180, either way it can't hurt to call and ask.

As I have once worked for Hell, I can vouch for the validity of the OP's claims. I worked in their consumer sales side, and not a day went by where some poor soul called in to ask about the status of their rebate or giftcard or some other promo.Many times, I tried in vain to pass along any info to my supes,in the hopes it would be resolved.But all of this fell on deaf ears.This would become one of many reasons why I left.

Someone once told me their slogan should be changed from "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" to "Dude, you're going to Hell!"

You could just make your own computer for pennies on the dollar. At least that keeps you away from the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid and from being the kind of person that says, "I love being a part of this *insert random commodity* community."

A Dell computer would be the last computer on earth I would ever buy. They are junk, junk, oh did I mention they were junk ?

In all the years that I've owned Dells, I've never had support problems like this. Makes me wonder if I'm the exception to the rule...or if these cases are.

@WingZero987: @WingZero987: You can do both with some planning and tweaking. You can build your system so that will run the latest mac os and windows

I'll never purchase from Dell again. I purchased a Inspiron laptop for my wife when her Sony Vaio dies (yet another computer to stay far away from). I'd have preferred to build her a system, but she wanted another laptop - and Dell had a decent deal at the time which was made much better by the included $300 in mail in rebates. Well needless to say, Dell never came through on those rebates - after multiple calls and letters to Dell, a complain with the BBB and the state's attorney general's office - we never got the rebates.

Looking at price points versus performance - it's hard to argue with going the way of the Mac. A comparably equipped Dell, HP, Gateway or just about any other laptop is generally as expensive or more expensive than a Macbook or Macbook Pro. Even that monster Mac Pro with it's dual quad-core architecture - starting @ $2800 it's cheaper than the same configuration from Dell and HP.

So even as a died in the wool Windows user it's hard to make that argument that the Mac is so much more expensive - because it's not - at least not any longer. And the fact you can run WinXP (why even bother with Vista??) on a Mac, it's really hard to argue against a Mac at all.

I purchased a laptop about 6 months ago from dell while they had a $100 gift card offer. I received it in the mail some weeks after the laptop arrived so no complaints here.

There are reasons to dislike macbooks, especially if you plan on primarily running windows on one.

A somewhat silly but seriously annoying and deal-breaking issue for me: I personally can't stand using the touchpad for mouse clicks (this is one of the first things I disable on a new laptop) and on a macbook you have to 2-finger-tap the pad to right click.

I don't think she's a devoted Consumerist reader, as she claims. If she was, then she would have known better and bought her computers through Dell's Small & Medium Business division instead of the Home & Home Office division.

I'm pretty sure I and other Consumerist regulars have posted this advice in almost every Dell related story.

@rdm: Yes, but that's not the point. She got lousy customer service from one company and is now going to patronize the other, which she has used before (as per her note) and is happy with, from the looks of it. (So am I -- I've bought stuff from Apple before, including computers, accessories, and ipods and a cellphone both for personal use AND for my employer/boss).

The issue is, simply, "I patronized Company A and Company B. Company A cheated me and didn't care even when I repeatedly tried to solve the problem. Company B didn't. So I'm only going to patronize company B in the future."

The specific names of the two companies don't matter.

@WingZero987: Having happy customers mean that companies have drugged Kool-Aid?

What?

@LatherRinseRepeat: Thanks for your blame-the-victim snark. Oh, that's SO innovative.

Buy your Dell computers through the small business portal instead of the retail portal. Better service, slightly higher prices.

It's been in my experience that Dell computers are kind of like Linux. If you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. Otherwise, be prepared for long and painful CS.

@kahri: @thirdbase: too many consumers see "computers" as "should i buy a dell, or a mac?" because they are (were, in dell's case) the most reputable and common names in the industry.

it might be a bit generalized, but seriously, some people do hate apple and know better than to buy a dell...maybe go for a leveno or asus or a cute little shuttle...some people are afraid to try anything thats not advertised to death.

...still a little beside the point

Watching people buy PCs is like watching a battered wife return to her abusive spouse. DTMFA, gurl, DUMP!!

@sohmc: Exactly. I did just that on a recent Dell purchase and was absolutely floored when I got a phone call a few days after I received the computer from a guy at Dell introducing himself, and offerering to be my Dell rep for any and all issues with my purchase. He followed up with an email with his contact info. Worth whatever extra I paid for the computer buying it that way.

Came without crapware or bloatware too.

@guroth:
For what it is worth, there are other ways of getting the right click. If you have two fingers on the pad when you press the mouse button that also registers as a right click.

@ThunderRoad: My impression of a chargeback is that it's an all or nothing situation. Either you're going to get credit for the whole purchase or not. And since the gift card wasn't part of the original purchase as an itemized, costed item, then good luck trying to convince a credit card company to charge that back to Dell.

Also, where did she buy the Dell from? If it wasn't through Dell itself, maybe she has some recourse through the reseller.

@guroth: Macs have come with 2-button mice for a while now, and for even longer than that you have been able to plug in a multibutton mouse and have all the buttons recognized.

Why so many comments about laptops?? We have no ides from teh post whether she bought a laptop or a desktop.

@kahri

Maybe it was one of those "wonderful" low-end rejects Dell shoves out to Wal-mart...

@nequam: ... and I apparently have no idea how to type!

@nequam: That's ok, kinda looked like you were responding in LOLspeak anyway.

Time for Dell Boycott......

My company orders lots of Dell and I end up using this webpage quite a lot: [support.dell.com]

Also, when you get an email from someone at Dell and the 50-line sig has their supervisor's email address, carbon your reply to that address.

Hey @WingZero987: Thanks for the idiotic, off topic response. Yep, Steve Jobs runs a cult alright, no doubt about it. I go to the "church" every day when I sit at my Mac.

Gimme a break!

@Audiyoda said, "Looking at price points versus performance - it's hard to argue with going the way of the Mac. A comparably equipped Dell, HP, Gateway or just about any other laptop is generally as expensive or more expensive than a Macbook or Macbook Pro."

What have you been drinking?
At least for Dell, some comparable (if not better) configurations I looked at were at least half the price of the MBPs.

@blackmage439:

I also did the IT helpdesk thing at a university, and I was less than impressed by the Macs. There was a hardware repair shop on campus, located near where the IT helpdesk was, and they got dead and dying Macs all the time. And they hated dealing with them, because apparently Apple notebooks are hard to get apart and back together again. Plus the Macbooks use hte same parts that you would find in a Dell or Gateway laptop.

Hey all - thank you all so much for the responses. :)

Here are my answers to the comments:

- I bought a desktop (but I used to have a Dell laptop in the days when their retail customer service wasn't as crap) - though the laptop/desktop isn't really a part of the issue

- Point taken that HP, Compaq, Alienware are other PC options - it's not just Dell and Apple (but that doesn't take away that one of the two biggest players in the game - Dell - is routinely screwing their customers)

- I debated on whether to purchase from the Small Business gateway - but ultimately, the price difference was several hundred dollars, so I opted for Dell retail. Yes, I regret it now. Can I hear a collective "I told you so?"

- Thanks for suggesting a chargeback! I've talked this over with my CC company, and apparently, this is BOTH outside the time limit, and an all-or-nothing proposition, and since I did receive the actual computer, there's nothing they can do... And I can understand that

- Depending on how things go with Dell after a few days, I'll follow up with the AG and the BBB

I think that's all the stuff I wanted to clarify... Thank you all so much again for your support and feedback!

I'll send any updates as they come up.

@Trai_Dep: You're a Dan Savage reader, aren't you?

Never buy something on the basis of an expected rebate. I know that won't help your current situation but it is a lottery scam. I'm with kahri, try your retailer if you haven't already.

@WingZero987:

Well then she would have to say that she loves being a part of the custom builder community.

@Buran:

People like him are way too far gone. Don't worry about him.

So has anyone noticed that LeBron James has been playing like shit?

@Buran: Since you post on everything, what did you post when Apple wouldn't replace that power supply that fried a macbook, or all the other problems people have (LCD SCREEN LAWSUIT LOL)?

I have a Macbook for work. It works, just like my friend-built PC does. It's certainly nothing special.

Then again, there was nothing like paying $2000 for $1000 worth of parts in a white box! Thank you reimbursement!

Apple consistently has the best customer service in survey after survey. We must all be deluded. I like my coolaid sweet with extra sugar!

Return the Dell. Buy a Mac.