Andrew had a beautiful and relatively modest dream as a teen. He wanted to own an Alienware gaming computer. When he became an adult, he was able to achieve that dream by purchasing a M14x laptop. There was no happy ending for the man and his computer, though. It has needed to be sent back to Dell five times already. He bought it in August. Of 2011. He hasn’t even owned it for a whole year yet. [More]
Dell Tech Support Manager: 'Sell Your Computer, Buy Something Not Made By Dell'
By April 4, 2012
Audit Finds That Foxconn Workers Are Laboring Under Crappy Conditions
By March 30, 2012
While it turned out that monologuist Mike Daisey made up a bunch of stuff about working conditions at Foxconn, that doesn’t mean that things there are all sunshine and roses. A recent labor audit found the giant Chinese manufacturer has working conditions that need a whole heck of a lot of improvement. [More]
Dell Thinks That Second Hard Drive Bay Is Just A Big Hole
By March 22, 2012
Spencer’s Dell laptop has two hard drive bays. That’s pretty cool, and he decided to take advantage of this by using it to install a hard drive. But no one at Dell has ever heard of such a crazy thing, and you can’t order any of the parts needed to actually hold or connect the drive from Dell’s site. Because that would be simple and easy. [More]
Dell Sends Technician To Your Office To Break Your Laptop
By March 2, 2012
Experienced customer service wranglers will tell you that if you’re going to buy products from Dell, buy them as a small business owner, since they get better customer support. I’d hate to see what kind of support reader Benjamin would be getting for his Vostro notebook computer if he weren’t a small business owner, then. [More]
Dell Outlet Sent Me A Barf-Covered, Gum-Filled Refurb Laptop
By January 6, 2012
Frank ordered a refurbished laptop from Dell Outlet last week, and got a great deal. He hadn’t anticipated that the machine would come with extras: some gum in the CD drive and an unidentified substance that we can only hope is soup, but looks more like vomit.
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Why Do I Have To Hand Over My Personal Information Just To Get A Price Quote From Dell?
By January 4, 2012
Joe wanted to find a new battery for his daughter’s Dell Mini Inspiron 9 laptop computer, as the original couldn’t hold a charge, so he checked out the company’s website for a replacement. He didn’t have any luck, so he began chatting with a customer service rep online, which turned into one of those roundabout ordeals no one likes dealing with. [More]
Canceling Orders Over A Pricing Error Is Not The Same As Bait-And-Switch
By December 22, 2011
Several times a year, the Consumerist inbox is flooded with e-mails from people who are livid because they purchased something online at a huge discount only to have the retailer cancel the order, claiming it was a pricing error and the item should never have been listed at that price. Some people are quick to call this “bait-and-switch,” and state very confidently that the retailer is somehow legally obligated to honor the original price. These people are mistaken. [More]
Dell Ditches Its Netbook Computers As Tablets Continue To Captivate Consumers
By December 16, 2011
Hear that? It’s the dying gasp of the Netbook computer, as tablets continue to rule as the device of choice for small, portable computing needs. So clutch your Dell Mini close and tell it you love it, as the company says it isn’t selling any more of the 10-inch laptops. [More]
Which Online Retailers Have The Fastest & Slowest Delivery Times?
By December 16, 2011
Today is Free Shipping Day, which is pretty self-explanatory, but free shipping doesn’t mean good shipping. That’s why the folks at STELLAservice wanted to know which of the top 25 online retailers were able to get you your order in a timely manner. [More]
Michael Dell Replaces High-End Laptop Previously "Fixed" With Black Marker, Crumbs
By November 4, 2011
Jeremy’s 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell didn’t work right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. When he sent it in for repair, he got it back with crumbs in the keys, and a crack on the side someone tried to hide with black marker. When we posted his story on Consumerist, we gave him CEO Michael Dell’s email address to go tell his story. Now Jeremy writes that after he emailed Mr. Dell, the CEO intervened and made sure Jeremy got a brand-new laptop, along with a free memory and CPU upgrade. [More]
Consumerist Techniques Pay Off, Even With Dell
By September 22, 2011
When the cooling block of Jeremy’s Alienware computer began to leak, the answer was obvious: call Dell to see whether they would fix what was an obvious and pretty terrible flaw. Dell’s answer was obvious in turn: tell him that the machine was out of warranty and he should go away. But Jeremy thought that a $2,500 computer shouldn’t destroy itself within two years. [More]
Alienware Laptop "Fixed" With Black Marker, Food Crumbs
By September 2, 2011
Jeremy’s 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell hasn’t worked right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. Then when he sent it in for repairs, he got it back with food crumbs between the keys. The side panel was also cracked, and someone had tried to hide the crack by coloring it in with black marker. [More]
Get Your Free Xbox 360 From Dell For Only $100
By August 18, 2011
It was probably a glitch and not a nefarious plot on Dell’s part, but Chris found it odd when he tried to take advantage of Microsoft’s back-to-school promo where a free Xbox comes with certain Windows laptops. Dell’s site kept showing that adding on the free Xbox promo made his total $100 higher than with just the computer. Huh? [More]
Beware Of The Vanishing 12-Month Financing Dell Deal
By August 5, 2011
Catastrophegirl bought a computer from Dell during a promotion for 12 months of interest-free financing. Like a good little consumer, she had every intention of paying off the balance long before twelve months were up. Which is good, because when she checked her statement, she happened to notice that the deal suddenly became six months of no-interest financing. What happened to catastrophegirl’s deal, for which she still had the original receipt? Dell basically shrugged and extended the deal to 12 months. Even if this is an error, will it trap other consumers? [More]
Dell: Prove To Us That Your New Monitor Isn't 10 Years Old
By August 4, 2011
Did you know that Dell has been making one particular model of 24″ flat panel HD monitors for a decade now? G. didn’t. That’s why he was surprised when he contacted Dell to find out the warranty expiration date for his monitor (manufactured in March of 2011) and they couldn’t provide him with that information. Worse, the confused customer service rep was convinced that the monitor was, somehow, ten years old. [More]
Alienware Sells Marine $6,000 Paperweight, Shrugs
By July 18, 2011
The Alienware Aurora ALX is a pricey, awesome gaming computer that sort of looks like a blue Cylon. Except in Drew’s home, it looks more like a giant $6,000 paperweight. No matter how many extra parts Alienware/Dell try to sell him to fix the problem, the glorious beast still won’t work. Drew is a Marine, and he, his family, and his computer are now stationed in Okinawa, Japan. That means transferring the warranty to Dell Japan if he wants to keep trying to get the damn thing to work. What’s Japanese for “lemon law”? [More]
Dell Warranty Provider Buys Customer New TV On Amazon
By June 23, 2011
Two weeks ago, we shared the story of Tom, who bought a Vizio TV from Dell that he bought an extended warranty for, but couldn’t track down the warranty company when the television actually failed. He finally got in touch with the nice people at Service Net Solutions, and they did amazed him by doing exactly what they were supposed to: replace his busted TV with a nicer one. Curiously, they did this by ordering one up for him from Amazon.com. [More]
Dell MIght As Well Have Not Sold Me An Extended Warranty For This TV
By June 10, 2011
Tom normally doesn’t bother to buy extended warranties. Now he knows why. He did happen to purchase one for the Vizio TV that he bought from Dell last year, but the third-party warranty provider seems determined to ignore him at all costs. [More]
