On 02/14/11 13:16, Gary Schrock wrote:
> On 2/14/2011 12:24 PM, STeve Andre' wrote:
>> On 02/14/11 12:16, Gary Schrock wrote:
>>> On 2/14/2011 11:58 AM, STeve Andre' wrote:
>>>> I think Dell is going seriously downhill. I'm going to think very much
>>>> before
>>>> ordering anything else from them.
>>>>
>>>> --STeve Andre'
>>>
>>> I can't say I've really noticed it going downhill with Dell recently,
>>> but trust me, it could be far worse. Like, say, Sony. We bought a few
>>> Z series laptops about a year and a half ago. One we had a bad drive
>>> right out of the box. One developed vertical lines on the screen, took
>>> a month a half for Sony to get the parts in to come out and repair it
>>> (although they did at least go to Ann Arbor to the professors home to
>>> replace it, which was good because that month a half later
>>> corresponded with the day before I left on a 2 week vacation). That
>>> same laptop developed the same problem a few months later, this time
>>> the on-site tech managed to disassemble the laptop and not get it back
>>> together, so it ended up having to be sent in. (In fairness, I'm not
>>> convinced mere mortals could reassemble one of those). It then
>>> developed the *same* problem a third time, this time out of warranty.
>>> Tough luck. And finally, we have the case of one that just stopped
>>> turning on. This one they insisted had to be taken into the sony style
>>> store (in Troy), and they've had that one for 2.5 months, and have
>>> been unable to give me a satisfactory answer on why it's taken so long
>>> and when we'll get it back. (The only number I have for info on it
>>> apparently only the sony store can interpret, and they claim they
>>> can't give me a number that I can talk with Sony about it.)
>>>
>>> And we only ordered between 4 or 6 of these laptops, and these are
>>> some of Sony's higher end laptops. So the grass isn't always greener
>>> elsewhere. I'll take Dell any day of the week over Sony.
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>
>> Oh yes... MUCH worse. I refuse to use Sony, Toshiba, HP and a host of
>> other
>> companies, as they all produce far too much utter crap. Or, perhaps I
>> should
>> say wildly inconsistent quality control. My other beef with most
>> places is
>> they availability of older spare parts. I had an adventure getting a
>> part for
>> a two year old Sony laptop. Two years! It was wild, but I finally
>> found a
>> place that had it (palm rest).
>>
>> I'd settled on Dell for desktops and Lenovo for ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo
>> has gone downhill some, but relative to everyone else they stayed at the
>> top during their slide. I thought so about Dell, but I am really
>> questioning
>> that now, when listening to friends whov'e had bad problems with
>> repairs.
>>
>> I still LOVE my little white Optiplex Dell's. I have some that are 10
>> years
>> old and will working, and consume about 57w of power, too.
>>
>
> So, are you having much luck with an abacus? Doesn't seem like
> there's much else left :).
>
> But in all seriousness, we have probably 400-500 computers in the
> department here, and I'd say 90%+ of them are Dell. I'd say I
> probably end up having to call dell about 1 or 2 times a month, and
> generally the problem is fixed the next day. Now, if a computer
> that's out of warranty has something like a motherboard fail, I have
> to admit, and that point I tend to tell people it's time to send that
> machine to salvage. (If for no other reason that some people here
> will hold onto a machine until you pry it from their cold dead
> fingers, well past the useful life of the machine. And then when I
> try to salvage that machine, someone else will come along and swipe it
> from my salvage pile before it gets picked up :) ).
>
> Even Dell's home support has supposedly improved based on my
> conversations with someone's that dealt with them. (And I have to
> admit, a few years ago, their home support had me ready to throw my
> phone through the wall.)
>
> (And to go back to topic, I'm afraid we don't have any motherboards
> from an Optiplex 320 sitting around. Honestly not sure we've even had
> any of those systems. I know we have a few 330's, but can't remember
> any 320's.)
>
My lunches are with ThinkPads. ;-) Despite their not being as good as
they were before
(I have several friends with 7xx series thinkpads running DOSish stuff,
11+ years old!)
they are still the best; my A series lasted 5+ years. This W500 will
hopefully be as good.
The desktop brand that Lenovo has, judging from the 80+ that a friend
got for her
work, with one unit having problems after 2 years, is also good. There
is also the
possibility of assembling a computer, as well. There aren't many parts
any more
(1. case 2. PS 3. motherboard 4. ram 5. video card 6. DVD 7. disk
8. monitor
9. misc cables & keyboard/mouse), so making one is hardly the exercise
it once was.
I admit that I am a hardware snob. It's OK... call me that! ;-) I got
very used to
the old Sun-4 days, where I had a Sun-4/670 run for 5 years, except for
two power
outges, and three disk failures. (Sniff... I miss VME card days!)
--STeve Andre'
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