Why I will never buy another Dell again

I am currently the unhappy owner of a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop (kinda like the one in the image to the right, this is an Inspiron 8600).  About a month ago, the system developed a problem with the FireWire port.  I had to send it back to the depot to get it fixed.  When it came back (which is a story in and of itself), the pointing stick on the the keyboard did not work.  Note that the keyboard went to the shop working and came back not working. I called Dell and they had a new keyboard sent to the hotel I was staying at in Washington DC.  Well that did not fix the problem.  I decided to wait until I got done in DC to do anything.  With the fact that I picked up a four day gig her in TN this week, did a talk in Alabama on ASP.NET Whidbey, and am leaving on Saturday (8/14) to go to Seattle, WA, I really couldn't be without my laptop.  I called Dell support and worked out a deal where they would send the parts to my office and I would work with one of their phone support guys to replace the laptop.  I had wanted them to come to my office to fix it or have me take it to there local contracted fixit places in the area.  I figure that this was fair because of the fact that they keyboard did not work when it came back from their service center, but they would not.  Well, I am working on a .NET book, so being down for a little while was not something that I could really do.  Anyway, the parts arrived earlier this week.  I was able to sit down today and call Dell support.  First, the person said that they did not recommend replacing the keyboard or motherboard without an authorized technical person doing the work.  Ok, but I am not a moron either.  After an hour of trying some things, the we got disconnected.  They had taken my phone number in case we got disconnected.  It has been about an hour and a half since we were disconnected and they have not called back.  I have emailed the support person that I talked to with no response at this moment.

I'll never buy another Dell again. 

Note: This becomes really frustrating when you spend 1 1/2 hours on each phone calling doing the same things just to prove to the person in customer service that the problem is real.

Did I mention that I got disconnected each time I called at least once..............

I think that this is ether the third or fourth time that I have had a major breakdown with this thing since I got it two years ago.  Is it asking too much that laptops not break all the time?

And when this one breaks and is unusable, I am chucking it in the trash.........I read where eMachines got a great review in PCMag for reliability.

7 Comments

  • Way to go, I agree, the more hype the less quality. You pay for advertising and that dell dude. That's where the money goes.



  • Hey Wally, when this pig croaks, take a look at the HP NC8000. Was the notebook of choice for last employer (pretty big development shop).

  • The same thing could have happend with HP/Compaq, Gateway, or anyone else. The only way not to be disappointed is to lower your expectations.

  • I've got a widescreen eMachines with an AMD, 512 MB, and wireless. It rocks -- and it was only $1000 after rebate. Everyone that sees it can't believe the screen and the savings, but they're all to chicken to do it themselves. Its been flawless -- and I would do it again. Did I mention I'm standing across right now from a Dell representative (we're setting up my client's racks) and he even noticed my eMachines and was impressed!

  • If your going to buy Dell, buy the Latitude. It's made for the abuse. I've had 2 and both are still running (for someone else ;-)). Currently I'm using a Toshiba m205 Tablet PC convertable and could not be happier.



    See you at the next Author Summit ?

  • I just got a Latitude D600. It arrived with 1 pixel dead. The little

    popup-stick under the display that turns off the display when closed

    sometimes sticks when it is open, and I have to hit it. The 2200BG Intel

    Wireless is also very unstable - Has anyone had this problem? Downloads are

    usually corrupt and RD disconnects with encryption, protocol, and client

    errors regularly...



    My 624Mhz Axim also arrived dead. It randomly locks up, even after hard

    resets, and requires me to pull out the battery and re-insert it to unlock

    it.

  • Justin: i think the wireless in XP is unstable... XP is too aggresive at searching out networks and is ALWAYS trying to latch on to something, even when its got a signal. As I type this post, its blipped three times. I use the Dell truemobile miniPci wireless.



    I have an Inspiron 8500 for a year now... now problems, couldnt be happier... never had to get support though, so I dunno. If I was the support guy, I would've pushed to just send a refurbed same model laptop to you and just change out the HD / memory, but maybe efficiency isnt the support guy's strong points ;-)

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