coold8

domino_angel

I had excellent service w/ HP to the point where they offered me a full refund on a machine I bought 6mo ago....why? Vista.

juanguapo

Replaceable EVERYTHING (Video (7900GTX!), CPU, LCD, Chassis parts from the XPS Gen2 Series, HDD, bla bla.) I really dont see how he could have so many problems w/ so many parts in so many computers.

and as for laptop video drivers....screw waiting for dell to come out w/ new drivers. [www.laptopvideo2go.com]

6

Sixxtwo

It's hardly the same as building a gaming PC on your own.

AndrewJC

Not including the recall on the power cords..

3 months in, replaced dvd/CDRW unit, self replaced,
3 years in, (within warranty by 2 months) overheating problems, Dell tech said new fans, Actual Tech who cane and replaced fans said it was the MB... And he would be back the following week... He was right and he was...
Now the power socket was just fixed by a tech friend, after buying a new MB to replace the one that wouldn't charge the batteries, (NEWER more powerful batteries from Ebay) new MB was dog slow, repaired the old MB and replaced it. Working fine, heat is still higher than I like though... Will replace the heat sink in the next few days...
I have had ~12 Dells, and they have ALL lasted more than double the warranty.
I will always suggest Dell to people when they ask.

GrandizerGo

redstorm986

beean

goller321

maztec

EndlessMike

This $350 "tax" is required since your new laptop blows so hard that "several" problems occur as a cost of ownership (I'm assuming since lack of outrage). This crappitude doesn't phase you. You expect it. Even boast of it. Which, is so... Sad! It's like a Stockholm Syndrome for consumer electronics.

All for a malfunctioning-by-design box presumably just under $1,000? (That's the price of the MacBook btw). Oh, plus that $350 for "support". Whoops: $1,350. Now you're talking MacBook Pro territory. Except Macs just work.

And, they make you buy a Blue-Ray drive which doesn't play Blue-Ray discs. Which... Sigh. I don't even know where to begin. I'm not sure what's worse - the criminals that sold it or the sucker that bought it...

And if you're lucky - lucky! - you can look forward to the day that your Dell breaks so completely that after three years of sending your laptop back and forth (reread the article), Dell may admit - finally - that they should provide a functioning computer. Then, and only then, they'll send you a new... Dell?! Is that a promise or a new form of domestic terrorism?!

Compare/Contrast your user experiences with mine, above. Look in a mirror. Honestly ask yourself, "Which sounds better?" Get back to us. Really. I don't mean to be snarky or offensive. You guys are all too good to have to suffer so much as a routine cost of ownership. It's just so... Messed up. Really.

Trai_Dep

Some of us just sit in the background and roll their eyes at the whole silly mess, until they feel compelled to remind everyone that this debate has been ongoing for twenty years, and the only thing anyone has managed to achieve yet is to look like a moron and perpetuate whatever stereotype they're arguing about.

Of course it's all on the Internet, so the signal/noise ratio is high enough nobody will notice.

mavrc

@beean:
XPS Technical support is purely American based. Pretty much anyone else you call (dell on call, XPS customer care, any other line of dell systems) you will most likely get someone in India or one of the other call centers in 3rd world countries. Also the only thing that I'm aware of about the gold warranty is that when you call up it shows a gold bar across your info and we are told to treat the customer extra nicely.

I know most of the techs that do XPS support, we are actually there to solve your problems (although 4 sales a week are required but expired warranty support, RAM, anything like that counts and we only sell it to people, we as trained A+ techs genuinely believe need).

Customers like the one reported in this article are the people that I see have at least 30 different cases on their system and call up to complain about any little issue and won't get off the phone until their computer is replaced. After 21 days we are not allowed to replace systems until at least 3 dispatches and 3 calls to fix the computer are made. customers like him are better off being told to screw off and can go complain to the next company he buys something from.

Also don't ask to talk to a supervisor about a technical problem, they are not trained to fix problems nor do they want to. Unless the tech is overly rude he or she is there to solve your problem to the best of their ability.

Kelex

rattler459

dgcaste

Why are Mac people so sensitive and smug? By the way, I think I'd make a good Mac candidate cuz your last comments were mean and you made me cry. This proves I'm sensitive so now I just need to work on my "smug". ha.

Dibbler

That's what you get for a relatively cheap laptop and warranty, outsourced tech support and hassly returns, but in the end, you got a freaking 1730 with a blu-ray drive. Sure, it won't play blu-ray right now, but very soon you'll have the newest thing and it'll work fine, just like 99% of the 1730 owners out there. and if it keeps breaking, you'll get the new 1740, or whatever they call it, and if you're lucky the geforce 8800m will be out for the XPS laptop line and you'll have a sick computer!!

dgcaste

Get your money back, hon. 3 years isn't worth it.

STrRedWolf

TacticalSniper

The macbook line uses intel graphics cards. These are about the weakest you can get in a mainstream laptop.

The mac pro is the highest powered workstation they offer. It is not offered with the highest-powered graphics card available may not be compatible with many of the popular graphics cards (not that you'd want to run games on it).

varco

And, of course, even the low-end Macs have built-in NVidea chips. High-end ones have slots to throw in whichever GPU cards rock your world. So go nuts.

Trai_Dep

varco

Trai_Dep

The Wall Street Journal wrote

Defying popular perception, the iMac costs less than the XPS One. The base, 20-inch iMac costs $1,199 - about $300 less. And even if you double the memory, and add a wireless keyboard and mouse to match the Dell, it's still $1,399 - $100 less than the base XPS One (though Dell is currently running a sale that wipes out the $100 gap). Even the cheapest iMac has a dedicated video card with its own memory, something the base XPS One lacks.
Plus, while Dell offers only 20-inch screens on the XPS One, Apple has higher-end iMacs with huge 24-inch screens for the same price, or less, than the higher-end Dells.

And yes, we can be snug, but only because we try to reason with Windows users about the 140,000+ viruses, trojans, spyware etc etc, including all the extra time, money, stress etc, etc, only to get it lobbed back in our faces, because no ever believes it that Macs 'just work'. Don't bash em', if you've never tried em'

dix99

If I paid 3 times more for a Mac then I would hope those bastards would fix my laptop. Your only problem is that he bought an XPS which means he wants to play games on it. Apple computers are for serious (i.e. smug) people who don't like to play games since they don't really have any.

Dibbler

We still run five year old Latitude C840's since they have been extremely reliable. We did upgrade the ram and WiFi cards to work better with our wireless network... plus we ordered new batteries for most since as the old batteries were getting tired after five years.

I guess Dell for business is better than home... we do our own DIAG and part replacements so we don't have to deal with tech support often. However when we do we don't get the Indian support people, thank god.

Then again, my personal Inspiron 9100 that is now 3 1/2 years old still works great. I had to replace the video card shortly after buying it though... however that was done fairly quickly as well. The same for my 24" UltraSharp LCD monitor and Dimension 9100 that I gave to my parents..

Or the 27" HDTV I won from Dell! Well, it was replaced under warranty last year but Dell contacted me, told me they will send a replacement to be safe. Up until that point my TV was working great and the replacement has been perfect as well...

Thankfully my personal experience is just fine with Dell and I don't have to deal with these problems...

I guess I don't have to go on about my Axim X30, I found I didn't have much need for it for the first three years I owned it and it sat in its box for more than two years with little use... but the better half uses it all the time now for work and loves it. Zero problems.

blah blah blah :)

Trick

Just. Simply. Awesome.

I've had almost a dozen Macs and this is the first problem I've experienced. You guys handled it so well, I almost wish something breaks again. Almost.

Trai_Dep

On a similar note, my 2.5 year-old iMac's power supply died this weekend (sob!) (and, really, not just saying to be snarky). Got gradually worse over a couple days, but within 5 clicks on Apple.com, I was able to diagnose what the problem was. So kudos there.

The problem is that I didn't have extended care, so I was 1.5 yrs out of luck. There was a power supply related warrantee extension program, but my serial number didn't match - off by one digit: imagine my chagrin. Any reasonable company would say, with some justification: "Dude, 2.5 years of flawless performance, quit yer b*tching." Seriously! And they'd have a point.

So I look up how much the part is on the web: $200. Ouch. Still, cheaper than an out-of-service repair. Surely. So I call Apple to see if I can pick one up from them. They walk me thru diagnostics to be sure, then tell me to bring it in to one of 2,000 Apple stores.

"Umm, I just want to buy a power supply. I'm doing the work myself."

"We know. We want to make sure it's the problem before you do that. Nothing to lose, right?"

"Uhh, right." (Imagining the upsell opportunities (yeah, I'm cynical)).

I bring it in. Cheery Apple Genius does some diagnostics. Does some keyboarding. Grabs my iMac and takes it behind the counter and slaps a repair bill on the table in front of me. OMG! Shenanigans!!

I scan the order. Service: check. Parts: check. Consumable items tallied: check.

Amounts: $0. $0. $0.

Grand total: $0.00

I exclaim: "But it's out of warrantee. And it's two-and-a-half years old!"

(Genius shrugs): "Yup."

He continues. "The thing is, you have to understand that there are orders in front of you so you might have to wait. Five days on the outside. It might be sooner, since it's a quick repair, but it might be up to five days."

Realizing the absurdity of complaining about the speed in which they do a $300 repair - that by rights they could easily argue is a cost of owning a tech product for free - I shrug and walk away. Crestfallen at the uncharged iPods, undocked cameras and unattended music library I'm leaving behind.

We go for breakfast, grab some food-to-go, back at home in an hour. And a half.

Hmm. Call waiting on my answering machine.

"Hi, this is the Apple Store. Your iMac is fixed! Come by when you can."

DAMN APPLE TO HELL for fixing it so quickly that I didn't even have time to digest my breakfast. For FREE! A year-and-a-half out of warrantee! After not having purchased AppleCare! After having worked flawlessly for 2.5 years!

(FYI, this is typed on my newly resurrected (with 90-day warrantee) iMac)

After reading about the poor LW's experience, I can only say to Michael Dell (and all of his potential customers): Think Different.

Apple sure the Hell does.

Trai_Dep

akalish

This guy loses me when he starts bitching about battery life. Yes I know they are advertised as "laptops", but in reality they are more like "easily movable desktop" systems. Anyone looking at the specs can understand this. I bet if Dell had put in a bigger battery for better runtimes he'd bitch about the bigger battery! If he wants to play games for hours on end he should get a PSP or DS.

Simply_J

Sidecutter

brent_w

dix99

I understand the principle of the thing: he wants the company to give him a functioning laptop. He wants the company to do their job. But after all that time and hassle, I would've just asked for my money back and bought another brand.

veraikon

ARPRINCE

Buran

Brand loyalty is one thing but this is ridiculous.

UX4themasses

JustaConsumer

I can believe that the guy got sent *one* bum laptop. I've worked on PCs and laptops long enough to realize that you get the occasional DOA unit, I'd encounter maybe one a year out of hundreds I came across, spanning several different makes and models. But 2 or 3? This guy has to be having environmental issues or is just one of the people that tech support people loathe because 1)They really want something that doesn't exist (in his case, a SLI laptop with a 5 hour battery life) and 2) the slightest little glitch or problem is cause to demand that the entire machine be replaced or overhauled.

If I were Dell, I would have just given the guy his money back just so he'd go away and be someone else's nightmare.

barty

You also get the express customer service number. A little number on the bottom of the laptop that you key in and it puts you ahead of the line when you call customer service.

StinkyCat

Ugh...

HykCraft

Yeah, they did that a couple times for him.

mrmysterious

Come on Dell, help this man!

huginn

mthrndr

I lost count at three laptops. Insane.

Hoss

Sounds sort of like the Motherboard Chronicals ^^^ .

SexCpotatoes

beean

Sounds like you managed to royally screw Dell over.

scoobydoo

meanwalrus18

Dibbler

By the way, this story sounds fishy. I totally buy that Dell sent a broken laptop to this guy. I've had no problems with mine, but I understand that it happens. I also believe that their customer service has been poor for the most part. What I simply can't believe is that all these broken laptops are not, in some way, his fault. The odds of this many laptop problems happening purely from manufacturing defects have got to be pretty small, given that Dell is still in business. Based on the weird symptoms he's had, I'd be willing to bet that he's either got really bad power at his house, or he's been using some sort of third party chargers that keep frying components.

ThunderSaid

mrmysterious

smith186

PatrickIs2Smart

You are either very patient, or insane. I think I would have just given up and asked for my money back at this point.

After reading all that, I'm with you, Ben.

Papa Midnight

econobiker

Kenneth

tinders

ARPRINCE

bsalamon

rewinditback

When I plug the laptop back in from running on Battery it bluescreens or freezes."

If it freezes every time, how does it freeze again once you plug it back in after it has been running on battery?

EmperorOfCanada

only when i am mad :)

StinkyCat

OLPC for you.

savvy999

JimmyKumby

PinkBox

EmperorOfCanada

AT203

Get a mac, not only because they are better, but you can just walk into the stores when they are messed up and walk out with a brand new one.

aquanutz

ech-o

LiC

A week later, I spilled a whole bowl of chicken noodle soup on my laptop and it promply shorted out. Dell sent me a mailer box and had the motherboard, video card, keyboard and fan replaced and shipped back to me in 5 days.

All free of charge.

StinkyCat

structuralpoke

Just checking. :-)

bluesunburn

headon

does the guy's company have an account or something with dell?

i'm with Ben on this one i would have played their game for 3 month and demanded my money back.

that's just nuts

B1663R

rukasu