 |
 |
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.)