Why do people bash Dell notebooks?

I've had my XPS for about a year now. It's been flawless, IMO. Sure, it's not as "pretty" as say an Acer Ferrari, but considering what it offers my laptop's an outstanding value for what I paid for it new($1500). That to me is Dell's draw; outstanding value. So don't worry about the comments on this forum. Forums tend to be like this(I've been on many). Good luck on your purchase.

Remember the people with problems are going to be 10x louder than the people that have no problems at all. Plus I guess they have nothing better to do. And most folks' complaints lie more with Dell's tech support than with the quality of their product.

Everyone loves to hate on the big corporation. These are the people who don't think for themselves and just do it because its the "cool" thing to do. These are the same people who say how terrible Windows is and use Linux claiming its super fast when they dont realize its actually much slower. (No offense to linux people who like dell)

I would second the thought that it's human nature for people that have problems to seek help or compain on a forum. Those that have working machines are probably too busy doing other things with their computer. As will all products, there will always be a set of failures. This could be the product, a sub-system, or even support.

Dell machines are not the best built and they perhaps skimp on parts. However, I would say that Dell offers a pretty good computer for a great price, especially with coupons.

I don't know... but I have an XPS 1710 and it rocks!!! I hope I can upgrade the video card to the Nvidia G80!

Well, people are pissy and impatient. Everyone wants instant simple results...but that isnt always possible..

Some people just like to find fault with success

I've seen this over and over again through my years in the computer business. Back in the early to mid eighties I heard so many people complaining about how IBM sucked (this was in reference to mainframes) and were unresponsive; when actually IBM put out some pretty good products, and was the 800 pound gorilla in information technology.

That same level of hate towards success has been leveled at Microsoft. And is frequently levelled at Dell now also. There are certainly better computers than Dell makes, but it is very hard to beat them when it comes to bang for the buck. Dell is concerned with making a real profit, and they're doing so by delivering a product that many many people feel gives them the most value for their money, and it sure seems to have worked pretty well for them.

Some of the earlier Dell notebooks really were pretty awful (very poor build quality). Most of the people who complain about them (without any evidence) have only used on of those old models. The newer ones are far better quality.

it all started 4 or 5 years ago when most of the corporations moved their tech support overseas including dell. From then onward people started complaining about not understanding tech support, not being too helpful etc. Then the problem with build quality came forward so the complaint grew at an exponential rate. Luckily dell learned and improved both on the tech support and the build quality. I personally did not see many people complaining about dells but you will always some people with complaints here and there.

I love my XPS M1710, but hated my Inspiron 6400/e1505. My Inspiron 6400/e1505, had 2 dead pixels on the LCD, and the screen had the worst light leakage I had ever seen. I would rate the build quality of the e1505 was average, but the screen was one of the lowest quality I have ever seen, and was pretty big and bulky for a 15''. But everything on the M1710 I returned it for is top notch. What I have realized is that with Dell or any computer manufacturer for that matter, you get what you pay for. Since the vast majority of Dell laptops are low priced mainstream laptops you are going to see a lot of complaints.

Tech support for Dell is going to be back stateside by November of this year. Should make a lot of people happy... I won't have to worry anymore about getting ahold of somebody named 'Abdullah' lol...

i had my dell 9300 sence christmas and haveint had any problems at all

and its built like a rock

it got falled on by my uncle and spilled on 2 times from my uncle.

and it still looks like new no cracks or anything.

and too me the parts inside are pretty good from what i seen when i took it apart 2 times for my 7800gtx mod.

and so far CS been realy good to me.

One thing most customers don't realize is that first-level Dell support staff are *required* to follow a certain script depending on the problem reported.

For example, I have been receving NMI parity errors (infrequently, for now). The first time I called them, I told the support woman about all the research I had done and what I thought the problem was (including links and evidence to show how I came to my decision). She agreed with all of it, but told me that I had to follow all the steps to escalate the problem, otherwise my problem would never be fixed. So, I did that. I just went through another talk with support where I updated the status of my problem. The next time, the problem should be fixed.

I don't know about other people, but I only talk to Dell when I have hardware problems. And, for the price/specs that I got on this laptop, I think it's worth every penny.

Regards,

zakaluka2.

Never owned a Dell, but I checked out the M70's last year... With the Quadro card.... And in the end, my feeling was...

(1) It has everything I want in terms of hardware....
(2) IMO, It's fat and ugly and made from "silver plastic"
(3) at that price, for all those components --they had to cut a corner or two somewhere

But that doesn't mean they aren't great machines.... that M70 had a buttload of good reviews fir running AutoCAD, 3D Max, Maya, etc........ I just don't happen to like the way Dells look..... Personal taste....

But I'm probably going to buy one of their 24" widescreens

I agree, scripts, and procedures, levels you have to go thru to get your case another rung up the ladder.

People need to realize they can't call up, complain and be talking with a tech right off the bat.... They need to realize that the mfg wants to do tests to verify the hardware is "ok", to make sure the problem is not be caused by a mis-configured app, something screwy in Windoz..

Of course you get tech support saying to run a diagnostic on the machine when the customer just told them the unit fell out the window of the 4th floor, and is broken into pieces.. (read a post the other day about someone whose laptop flew out the window, or something like that, was broken in a thousand pieces and the rep was telling them to run a diagnostic

re: Dell TECH support is going to be back stateside by November of this year. (11-2006) This is VERY GOOD news indeed... PS: on the HP's when you call and get Abdullah, he goes by the name of Charlie, John, Suzy, Mary... Nice people overall, but it's very hard to understand them, and I imagine very hard for them to understand you... due to the fact in any language there are "twists and turns".. Due to that fact allot of the reps have such a "thick" accent, I've gotten to the point I have to hang up, and call back again, and again until I get someone who's accent isn't as thick. (I am very polite when hanging up, saying I've reached the wrong number) Problem with that is it wastes ALLOT of my time, holding for like 10-15 minutes+/-.... only to get someone who speaks with such a thick accent I have to hang up. To expand on that, and to add what I said above about running diagnostic's I have a funny story.. Called the phone company about my internet access, they sent out a tech with 25 years experiance.. We got to talking and we got on the subject of "outsourcing".... He told me that when he has to call in, he does as I do (hangs up, trys again) until he can get someone that understands English... He was telling me about calling in some storm damage, calling in a bucket truck to repair some lines that were down after a storm... the lines are on the ground, torn off the poles... Completley disconnected.. He calls in and the nice rep in India wants him to run a "diagnostic" on the line Sounds like he was talking to the above Dell "tech"/rep who wanted the man with his laptop in a thousand pieces to run a " diagnostic"...

No regrets and no problems... I've bought two systems within a year. I've had to use support a couple of times. I used chat instead of the phone. Results were pretty good. There will always be some horror stories, but it's more the exception than the rule. I pretty much agree with what a lot of people are saying. Especially the people with problems are going to be the loudest.

Any troubleshooting of problems will take time and be a potential inconvenience. It's the nature of the beast. No company is just going to roll over and give you a brand new machine without trying to correct something first. Dell is the best bang for the buck. Besides, you get a reinstallation CD as an option. HP gives you a whacked maint partition that's still loaded with bloatware. I'll stick with Dell for now.