HOW SHIT IS DELL....

[JJ]

This cannot be normal...

After much deliberation and internet searching, i finally decide on a Dell Studio laptop. Its my first home laptop, having previously never purchased one, just used my work one at home. I decided on dell because of the product, and the recommendations from friends on reliability and the service they provide. CAN I JUST SAY... WHAT AN EFFIN JOKE.... on EVERY COUNT - product,reliability and service they have failed, failed, FAILED.

So was all pleased about getting the new baby home,up and running. And was loving it for the first couple of weeks. Then two weeks in the mousepad and keypad start playing up. Then 3.5 weeks in they pack up completely. Spent a total of about 4 hours listening to muzak, and intermittently having to reel off all my details then getting cut off ... eventually get through and then get cut off again. I just couldnt go through it again (you know, the whole,have you rebooted (breathe,breathe), can you click on...( NO I CANT FECKING CLIK ON ANYTHING THE MOUSE IS KAPUTT!!, breeeeeaaathe, breeeeatthheeee).

So waited until the next day and called again. Eventually they sent someone out to fix it, and he also pointed out that in fact the speakers were not working either!!! (i can hear on my earphones but not without them).... and had to sacrifice my whole morning while he was fixing it.....

AND THEN here I am again ... literally just over a week later, with the same issues. How can this be? Surely this is NOT NORMAL???

Am absolutely FUMING. To top it all, I actually bought the laptop at Officeworks as the Dell shop had a 2 week wait. Now when I contact the Dell guys are like, oh wel contact Officeworks. Are they suggesting that the Dell product that you purchase through one of their key national distribution channels is an inferior product to one purchased direct?

This should maybe be in the rant section but I just wanted to know - is this kind of thing normal - from product, service and company standpoint? I have only ever had work laptop - IBM Think Pad - and it worked fine for ages, and obviously we hada corporate contract with them - so when its not corporate account, does everyone get treated like shit?????

[Mabel]

How frustrating for you. It's really shitty service! Whether it's normal or not, I don't know. It's certainly unacceptable, regardless. Have read quite a few similar complaints about Dell and their crap customer relations this past couple of weeks...including this one: http://stilgherrian.com/internet/dells- ... r-service/

[Fresh Mint]

Funny old world.

I have nothing but praise for Dell and the two times they have had to fix problems that I caused in the first place they provided excellent service -- once doing a free next day home visit even though the warranty had expired.

One tip: You never get through on the help line, so call the sales people instead (they always answer the phone quickly) and ask to be transferred!

[azzam]

You're in Oz though, aren't you JJ? Might be different

[Morrolan]

i'm with FM: nothing but excellent service from Dell the few times I had an issue with one of the machines i bought.

the best one was when my brand new CRT screen burnt out and they replaced it with a 20 inch LCD (which 5 years ago was still pretty expensive), at no charge.

JJ, i think you should insist on a full replacement.

[Jedi]

Are you sure it's not software related? I presume you mean the touchpad is playing up only, or is the actual keyboard also playing up? Do you have an external USB mouse handy (to use for troubleshooting purposes)? Have you checked Device Manager (under Control Panel) and verified that the touchpad device is working correctly? Have you installed any software updates recently? Have you tried reverting the laptop to factory state and seeing if that fixes it?

[azzam]

Sheesh Jedi...so many questions....what you doin' this weekend? ( He's very handy, JJ )

[BFG]

Are you sure it's not software related? I presume you mean the touchpad is playing up only, or is the actual keyboard also playing up? Do you have an external USB mouse handy (to use for troubleshooting purposes)? Have you checked Device Manager (under Control Panel) and verified that the touchpad device is working correctly? Have you installed any software updates recently? Have you tried reverting the laptop to factory state and seeing if that fixes it?

If I was JJ, my question would be -

"Why should I have to do all this cr*p to a NEW machine?"

Just not good enough...

[daffodil]

Not overly impressed with Dell service here either.

Had a few glitches with my new laptop too and obviously can't spend hours trying to get them on the phone during my working day.... and their service centre closes at 5:30pm. And not open on weekends!

Email took 15, yes, 15 days to get a response....and then it was an online survey asking me to rate their bloody service centre!

GRRRR.

[Burbage]

It's a PC. If you don't want to do all that crap you should have bought a Mac.

[Fat Bob]

Erm, JJ. Ask for your money back. And buy something else.

[baloo]

I'm tossing up between a Lenovo and Dell laptop at the moment. Can't decide. If the Lenovo *didn't* have 802.11n disabled then it would be a no brainer.

[Jedi]

So "n disabled" means no support for n. If onboard n support is so critical, wait until n has moved beyond draft. Then all notebooks will have it as standard. Besides, even if it did have n enabled, what guarantee do you have that it's going to work (well) with say a linksys draft n router? There are no guarantees with any n hardware at the moment.

If you really want n now, you'd be better off getting a PC/USB card from the manufacturer of whatever n router you have.

[azzam]

What n did Jedi n say n?

[Burbage]

What n did Jedi n say n?

It means that the keyboard doesn't have a letter en but if you get a usb doofer you should be able to include ens in your writing. Otherwise you have to replace ens with gees and bees.

[Bender]

I have a 'draft N' laptop and a 'draft N' router which are made by different manufacturers. They work at full 'N' speed just fine.

My understanding is that the current 'N' specification is pretty much what the final will be. The hardware is unlikely to change, and if there are any changes to the spec at this stage they will be addressed in firmware updates.

Then again, you could always waaaaait. Inevitably whatever you buy will be old technology and worth next to nothing the moment you take it out of the box.

[Bender]

It's a PC. If you don't want to do all that crap you should have bought a Mac.

The new Apple laptops released this week are behind the times - no blu-ray. I would advise not buying any laptop (Mac or PC) until they come with that and next generation (fuel cell?) batteries. And better processors. And wireless USB3. And lower cost. And, in the case of PCs, Windows 7.

...or do you want it now?

[azzam]

What's a draft n then b g? Is that when b you don't n have a real en so you have to draw n a picture n of bg one?

[Jedi]

I have a 'draft N' laptop and a 'draft N' router which are made by different manufacturers. They work at full 'N' speed just fine.

My understanding is that the current 'N' specification is pretty much what the final will be. The hardware is unlikely to change, and if there are any changes to the spec at this stage they will be addressed in firmware updates.

That proves absolutely nothing bender. Plus manufacturers are under no obligation to provide upgrades for draft equipment once n is finally released. They can easily cite any reason they like to not provide upgrades. IMHO, draft n gear purchased now should be considered throw away. Just like HD-DVD was.

[Fat Bob]

I remember someone saying that it's best to wait until N is fully rolled out officially, and not the current draft version.

They said that at least 6 months ago, and probably pre-Singaporum. So when is this draft going to become an official version? Oh, I've just checked, it ain't going to be ready until Nov 2009. WTF? Sort it out geeks!!!

as for Blueray....I don't think that will take off like DVDs sort of did. DVDs took a while to take off, and really, a lot of people will be buying over the net by the time the Bluray becomes semi-affordable.

[baloo]

Which reminds me FB, do you have a wireless router I can borrow ? I've been, against my better judgement, tasked to set up my parents with a computer and the internt.

Oh what fun it will be.

[Jedi]

as for Blueray....I don't think that will take off like DVDs sort of did. DVDs took a while to take off, and really, a lot of people will be buying over the net by the time the Bluray becomes semi-affordable.

Iron Man sets new Blu-ray sales record
Iron Man on Blu-ray is glorious. FB, there's a long, long way to go before you would be able to download equivalent Blu-ray quality over the net (Iron Man is 2 discs = 100gb). Never the less, i do concede that it is quite possible that the masses will never appreciate (or perhaps value) HD, and therefore downloadable content would be 'good enough'.

[Burbage]

Blu ray will be a thing of the past by 2010. Excellent foresight by Apple I would say. After all they are the ones who are essentially responsible for the death nell of music disks. Movie disks (in whatever format) will follow soon.

[Jedi]

So in just under 15 months Blu-ray will be a thing of the past? Hillarious.

[Burbage]

Apple already believe it is useless.

Solid state transfer of data at point of sale is the way of the future. It's only a matter of time, and not very much time at that. Downloading from the internet may still be a way off for high quality movies, but then, on the other hand, people have been downloading movies for 5 years at least and have been quite happy with the quality. Very few movies that are any good require stupidly high resolution anyway.

People who listen to mp3s care nothing for the fact that CDs are vastly superior in quality.

there will always be a market for blu ray, as there is still a market for vinyl. It just won't be very big.