Jed’s Gateway MX6030 laptop worked pretty well for a couple of years, then the problems started—faulty power adapter, kaput motherboard, dead hard drive. Luckily, he’d bought a 3-year extended service plan. Unluckily, when his motherboard was replaced, the bottom of the laptop—where the serial and model numbers are located—was swapped out with one from a different model, so that when he brought it back for the hard drive repair, the store manager accused him of fraud.
computers
Dell Closing All U.S. Dell Direct Kiosks, Effective Immediately
By 1.30.08
There was a rumor going around since last night that Dell was shuttering its 140 mall kiosks nationwide in another wave of belt-tightening. Now it’s official: “Dell Inc. will close its 140 kiosks in the U.S. as the computer maker is changing its retail strategy to sales in partnering stores.
(Product) Red Responds To Dell Pricing Controversy
By 1.28.08
Responding to a Dell pricing controversy that boiled over last week, a spokesperson for (Product) Red, an initiative whereby company color some of their products red and donate a portion of the profits to an AIDS fighting charity, left a comment on our blog to try dispel some of the confusion they felt had arisen over the issue. At stake was a computer Dell sells for $1,299 that you can get in the (Product) Red version for $1,599, with $80 of it going to the Global Fund. What about the other $220, asked gizmo blog Engadget? Well, we could tell them that it’s because you’re getting Windows Vista Ultimate and Microsoft Office and Student 2007 instead of Windows XP and Microsoft Works, but we’ll let the comment from Bich Ngoc Cao of (Product) Red do the talking…
Is Dell's Pricey (Project) Red PC A Ripoff?
By 1.25.08
Over at Engadget there is a debate going on about Microsoft and Dell’s collaboration on a (Project) Red XPS PC that is $300 more than the standard XPS, with $80 going towards AIDS relief.
Are The New Apple Products Worth Buying?
By 1.16.08
The dirty-sounding finance blog “Make Your Nut” works through the pros and cons of the latest Apple products, so that you can “make sure you enter into your purchases with eyes wide open.”
Reader Pries Price Drop Refund From Dell's Claws
By 1.11.08
Reader Keith just bought a Dell computer last week. Right after he bought it, the price dropped $60. He wanted Dell to give him $60 back. The basic customer service reps he called “couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything,” so he ended up calling the returns department. There he met with success and got his money back. Good on ya! So remember, if you can’t get in the front door, trying going the side door. Sometimes you’ll have more luck calling a different number than the standard 1-800 line.
QuickBooks' Latest Update Destroyed Mac Users' Desktops
By 1.10.08
Here’s one reason to use an online service to store financial data: no buggy updates to deal with.* Intuit’s December update for 2006 and 2007 versions of QuickBooks Pro on the Mac platform wiped the user’s Desktop folder and anything stored there. The company released a patch, but it didn’t work if you launched QuickBooks while connected to a wireless hotspot, oops. The latest patch, so far as we can tell, simply disables any further updates to the application—on January 3rd the company “began automatically feeding a patch to Mac QuickBooks users that permanently switches off the program’s upgrade mechanism to prevent a repetition of a data disaster.” In the meantime, since they can’t offer a way to fix the deleted Desktop folders, they’re offering rebates to users who buy a copy of the data recovery program Data Rescue II.
Is Dell's Tech Support Staff Trying To Sell You Things Yet?
By 1.10.08
We’re curious whether anyone has had to call Dell’s tech support line in the new year—and if so, did they try to upsell you on unnecessary add-ons, devices, accessories, service plans, etc.? Because we got an anonymous email the other day from someone who claims he works as a Dell tech support specialist, and he wrote that “starting after the first of the year… we are now going to be required to sell you items that you don’t need.”
By 1.4.08
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If you’re serious about keeping your personal information safe, then make sure you wipe your computer’s hard drive with something like Eraser or Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) (both free) before handing it off to a friend, family member, or random stranger.
Wal-Mart Gift Card Servers Malfunctioning Day After Christmas
By 12.27.07
John wrote in yesterday to tell us, “I just got back from Wal-Mart trying to buy stuff with my gift cards, but the employees told me that they gift card servers were down across the country. I waited for about 15 minutes as cashiers and managers tried to get my gift card to go through and nothing occurred.”
By 12.20.07
../../../..//2007/12/20/apple-has-agreed-to-drop/
Apple has agreed to drop its lawsuit against Think Secret, a website that specializes in publishing in-house Apple rumors and leaks. In return, Think Secret has agreed to stop existing. However, this means the editor also gets to protect his sources. [Think Secret via Gizmodo]
Delete Your Porns: Court Says You Have No Right To Privacy When Your Computer Is Repaired
By 12.20.07
Evidence uncovered by retail store technicians (i.e. kiddie porn), is legally admissible as evidence in court because, “If a person is aware of, or freely grants to a third party, potential access to his computer contents, he has knowingly exposed the contents of his computer to the public and has lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in those contents…,” the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled December 5th. The case hinged on the question of whether kiddie porn a Circuit City tech found could be admitted as evidence, overturning a lower court’s decision. The Superior Court of PA also referred to codecs, computer video compression and decompression software, as “code X.”
Dell Replaces Out Of Warranty Computer Messed Up Since The Day It Was Born
By 12.19.07
I understand that Dell is an enormous company that does not make any of it’s profit from customer service, but I hope that maybe you’d like to help your PR… at least in my mind. My name is Dave S and I purchased an Inspiron 600m directly from dell a year or two ago for $1100. The man on the phone was pushing very hard to sell me the extended warranty. I asked if he had so little confidence in the product he was attempting to sell that he insisted it would break within 30 days….
Reach The Dell Customer Advocates
By 12.19.07
If you’ve exhausted the normal routes of solving your problems with Dell, try sending an email to Customer_advocate@dell.com.
Toshiba: "Don't Delete Bloatware If You Know What's Good For You"
By 12.11.07
A reader writes in to report that when he bought a new laptop direct from Toshiba in November, he triggered a blue screen of death as he was uninstalling the always-useful bloatware that came pre-loaded. He called a Service Rep, got the usual “reinstall everything” run-around, and then finally got escalated to a level-two tech, which is when things got ridiculous.
Dell Will Sell Computers At Best Buy
By 12.6.07
Dell is going to start selling laptop and desktop computers at 900 Best Buy locations in the U.S. says the WSJ. Dell has already started hocking their wares at Walmart, and has deals with “Staples Inc., France’s Carrefour SA and Gome, China’s largest electronics retailer.”
Jimmy T Pitches The Commodore VIC-20
By 11.30.07
Did you know that before he hawked for Priceline or regaled us with the adventures of T.J. Hooker, William Shatner had another TV career? Yes, he appeared in commercials for the Commodore VIC-20: “Unlike games, it has a real computer keyboard.”
