Do Not Buy From Dell - Page 2

If you are giving your students ideas based on your bad experience alone, perhaps you should reconsider your profession. I'm dead serious. You can't just call a company "bad" because of one bad service rep. What image do you think you're giving your students? "If that &#*&$*# company so much as *^*^#$* with me, I'm going to Y#*$&^*^*#% them and use another!"



Yeah, that's exactly what we're looking for in a teacher.

Agreed.

HP, hahahahahaha good luck (Tread starter is likely gonna need it).

Man I expected to get flamed when I told the original poster they were just as annoying as dell was by using BS tactics to encourage others not to buy Dell.

But now I feel safe here seeing that I am not the only one that had that opinion. I tried very diplomatically to basically say "Not only can Dell be jackasses, but you are too"

Don't even go there. Primary/secondary education in America is a mess. Where we excel is higher education (academia). Max Weber wrote one of the definitive pieces on education titled: 'Teaching as a Vocation.' In it he expounds the idea that professors should not be political/social pundits--considering the date of the publication this notion can also be extrapolated to account for economics and religion--but should instead provide their students with the tools and information necessary to allow them to advance, one day hopefully to even exceed their teachers. Respectively teacher should not embark on a frenetic and puristic(pietistic) ministry of indoctrination and conversion. Anyway, read the article because this over-generalization makes a debauchery of it. Just food for thought.

I have to respond to this thread. I recieved my notebook without the blank for the pcmcia slot and called Dell tech support to recieve one, the first call went to some foreign guy that COULD NOT speak English. We got disconnected ( I think he put me on hold but wasnt waiting around to find out) so I called again in about 5-10 mins and got a lady on the line (she spoke English very well) and told her the problem. After talking to the first guy I was admittedly getting frustrated but the lady understood this and talked nice to me; "be patient" she said to which I replied "im trying" after a little wait and a couple times on hold (i think they had trouble finding the part #) she set me rite up and I had the blank within 2 days (awesome service in my book). I hope your happy with your HP as I think they are decent PC's as well (im on my dad's rite now) though if I was going to buy an HP I would go retail (over the shelf) because I heard HORRIBLE things about hpshopping.com or whatever they call it. I LOVE my Dell so far. I got it with 15% off and another 15% off through my Dad's company and a free memory upgrade. I would have ended up with a dated laptop if I would have bought off the shelf and still spent a few hundred more bucks.

Agreed 100% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And don't get me wrong. Dell's pissed me off about as well as any other big company out there, BUT, arbitrary statements made with broad strokes is not good in the presence of anyone, much less students!

What's really funny is that in most cases, complaining logically, cordially and effectively will more often than not, result in a large company such as Dell going far out of their way to make you happy. THAT is where you invoke the absolute opposite of a large company's wrath by reaping the benefits of what a large company can afford. You might have just gotten that 8600 for even less than you could have before *or* after the "DEAL" dates had come & gone!

You should have ordered a Sager from PC Torque. Lower price, better quality, faster turnaround, friendly service. It doesn't take much web surfing to find where the real values in laptops are.



Edit: Tongue in cheek, no offense intended. I considered gonig with Dell also but have heard too many horror stories, and I found what I consider better alternatives.

Consider another scenario: suppose Intel notifies Dell that if Dell wants to sell its computers with Intel hardware, Dell cannot use any competitors' hardware on that computer. Surely, Intel has every right to dictate its terms, and Dell has every right to freely accept or reject those terms. If Dell accepted Intel's conditions, then yes, other hardware companies would be at a disadvantage. However, no company possesses the right to have its hardware used by Dell. If this arrangement comes about, other hardware companies have the incentive to create hardware that will replace Intel's.

Some claim that Intel prevents innovation because the computer industry is somehow locked and hamstrung by the Centrino platform. But how did Intel come to dominate the industry? By manufacturing a commercially viable product that people found beneficial to their business or personal life. It was consumers who voluntarily purchased its hardware and made Intel a Fortune 500 company.

Besides, if Intel were a "monopoly," which would imply its managers have nothing to fear from competitors, the company would not update their products, come out with new processors, or add new features to their chipsets. Innovation is not the practice of an omnipotent entity.

Something to think about the next time you consider to buy a product from Dell...

Dell has mastered the art of cutting costs. They play lots of pricing games, because they obviously want the fattest margins they can get, but once in a while they'll offer deals that nobody can match. When I buy a laptop for $100's less than anybody else can offer (even for used lappies on eBay), I don't have very high expectations for customer support. So, I'm pretty psyched that Dell offers any sort of customer support. And unlike some companies, it's actually possible to reach a human at Dell. That's an amazing level of service given the price I paid.

but again, innovation does push companies to make better and better products. look at the drug companies. your theory may work on some issues, but not all. (and yes, i know about the merck deal)

the deal is that even if you have a monopoly in an industry, you do need to pace yourself in terms of innovation.

walmart is probably the best at pricing games =)

That almost entirely depends on the industry. In High-Tech yes thats true. In oil production, well, OPEC hasn't had to have much innovation in the last (insert year they formed here).

the OP's story is pretty much just standard business practice. The Dell rep he talked to can't change the price of a computer anymore than a clerk at Mcdonalds can change the price of a Big Mac. I'm sure some reps could bend the rules a little but they're probably going against company policy. I'd be annoyed if I spent 6 hours on the phone too but then again I would have known better and just waited for another deal.

Dell brown noser

I hope you enjoy your memory sharing video. I had a HP 9010nx for 2 months, it had a gig of ram, and all the pertinable bells and whistles. It did have one glaring negative....gaming on it was virtually impossible. Reason is: when physical memory is utilized by something other than say....CPU and memory caching, the logical bandwidth is saturated, causing stuttering and well, crap performance. HP IMO is slower than dell at updating drivers.

So I fear that by not taking the necessary motion of stepping back, cooling down, then getting another rep to dicuss....key word "discuss" not complain, I would pay good money that the new rep would assist you accordingly.

Case: I had a terrible experience with a rep trying to suggest that the pricing for my $3k+ lappie would only last for 24 hrs....mind you, this was the second to last day of the month. So I called another rep, gave him my info, requested a similar config but without...say, the pretty remote control for DVD functions. I expressed my concern over the pushy sales tactic of the prior rep and not only did he beat the price by $480 but also provided me a $200 dollar rebate (which I did receive within th 6-8 week period). So all in all, my sig rig was shy under $3k, when it was clearly going for much more.

Though I kick myself for being a computer enthusiast and wanting the next gen next year, this lappie will be golden for quite sometime.

oh yea....they did upgrade me to the mr9800 for free 21 days later, 2 days after the mr9800 was released

To me, it did sound like you were being rude and saying whatever you wanted to get that price. I would've told you to piss off and hung up on you.