You know..Dell isn't that bad

[zodiac66]

Some of you know I bought a new digital camera last week through Dell. Sadly, they shipped it DHL, the worst carrier IMO. I have had bad experiences with them in the past, mainly DHL delivering health insurance information to the wrong address. For a hearing, I needed all my EOB's sent to me and someone at DHL typed in the addy wrong and delivered it to the wrong address.

My camera was supposed to be delivered to my place of work on Tuesday. I called DHL at 2:30 and inquired on when it would be delivered since I had to leave at 4 p.m. to run errands for the business (my boss is on vacation and I am in charge :) ). I was told the driver was 20 mins. from my stop. He never showed. He didn't show up there after I got home from work either. Upon calling DHL, they claimed that the driver hurt his back in his truck and had to be taken by ambulence to the emergency room. It is a long story, but I caught them in a lie. When I was told he would be at my place in 20 mins, he was already en route to the emergency room, if that in itself if not a lie.

I called Dell, and they told me to refuse the original shipment, if it ever got to me and they would ship me out another overnight. I do see that they did that...but they shipped it DHL again.

Gah, I want my camera. I paid for shipping and it sat in Cleveland for 4 days before being "supposedly" dispatched out. Seven days in transit just doesn't cut it with me, even with the holiday.

All in all, Dell is doing what they can for me. The only thing I can fault them for is using horrible carriers for their products.

All I have to say is they have been trying to assist me as best they can. I have yet to speak to an American, but they are trying. Its the Americans that are giving me the ****-and-bull stories.

[Jerism]

fortunitly, when i got my dell a few months ago, the only thing that DHL delivered to me was the surge protector, so i didnt have problems with them. in my area, dell ships with UPS, but i guess its different for other areas...

[krzyhobo]

In my limited experience I've had the best luck with FedEx, medium luck with USPS and DHL, and terrible luck with UPS. UPS consistently delivers me damaged merchandise.

[masterazn]

Well I ordered my PowerBook from Apple and it got here three days earlier than their cutoff date. So Apple is better.


Anyhow, I don't know much about delivery services. I'd always used FedEx for some reason, I like how I can say "I'll FedEx it to you" because you can't say "I'll UPS it to you" or "I'll DHL it to you". FedEx sounds better. Plus, Wilson was shipped through FedEx.



Also, I am very dissatisfied with Dell products. Somehow, everything in their computer messes up somewhere along the line. I got a Dell one year and then, two months later, the graphics card fried and Dell tech support was horrible and told me it was my fault for putting the computer under my desk against a wall (I thought this was really really normal for a computer desk setup) and so I had to pay for a new graphics card. Half of the Hard Drive is also messed up right now and they wouldn't give me a new one because my warranty was voided by the guys who came to check my graphics card, which is retarded because then there's no point in having a warranty. Anyhow, this may be different elsewhere, but that's Dell China for you.

[krzyhobo]

Anyhow, this may be different elsewhere, but that's Dell China for you.

Nope, Dell customer support suxx0rz all across the globe.

[masterazn]

Nope, Dell customer support suxx0rz all across the globe.


Hrm, I was thinking it was more Chinese to open your computer, void your warranty, have your computer scream about "COVER PREVIOUSLY OPENED" at every start-up and then claiming you opened the case yourself when you need more help. Oh well..aren't they supposed to somehow make it so that you keep your warranty if it's their guys that service your computer? My dad (like an idiot) paid extra for the 5-year warranty. All down the drain now.

[krzyhobo]

Hrm, I was thinking it was more Chinese to open your computer, void your warranty, have your computer scream about "COVER PREVIOUSLY OPENED" at every start-up and then claiming you opened the case yourself when you need more help. Oh well..aren't they supposed to somehow make it so that you keep your warranty if it's their guys that service your computer? My dad (like an idiot) paid extra for the 5-year warranty. All down the drain now.

That does sound extreme. Though their support is awful, service covered by the warranty should absolutely not void the rest of the warranty. If you ***** and moan enough they will probably restore your coverage - I would recommend putting up a fight.

[Immortality]

Heh. Dell products just suck. Period.

BTW Im chinese, so you take that bias and stick up your fat american butt.
^I'm joking ok....geeze.. now go gulp down another whooper you fat lazy bum.

[AeroJonesy]

My Dell has served me quite faithfully for 4 years now, and I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. I think Dell gets a bad rap for several reasons. First, they advertise on TV, and they are popular, so it's automatically uncool to like them. Second, a lot of people who don't know much about computers buy Dells because Dell makes an easy to use product. People who don't know anything about computers are more likely to have problems, and therefore more likely to complain. When people have problems with homebuilt machines, there's no brand name you can blame, so the problem never gets associated with any company.

[krzyhobo]

My Dell has served me quite faithfully for 4 years now, and I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. I think Dell gets a bad rap for several reasons. First, they advertise on TV, and they are popular, so it's automatically uncool to like them. Second, a lot of people who don't know much about computers buy Dells because Dell makes an easy to use product. People who don't know anything about computers are more likely to have problems, and therefore more likely to complain. When people have problems with homebuilt machines, there's no brand name you can blame, so the problem never gets associated with any company.

You may be right in general, but I have nearly two decades of computer experience including assembling my own machines. In the two Dell machines I've used, both laptops (since I'll never pay retail for an assembled desktop), I've had two hard-drive failures, a DVD drive failure, a partially defective screen, a battery that lasted for only 45 minutes out-of-box, and atrocious customer-support. They also lay out the ports poorly - I couldn't simultaneously use a wireless card and my firewire jack on the most recent laptop I used. Granted Dell doesn't manufacture it's own components but quality control is their own responsibility and they have lost me as a customer.

[AeroJonesy]

Well my experience is with Dell desktops, so maybe that's why we don't see eye-to-eye on this issue. And Dell customer support definitely has gone down the crapper. It used to be good. They won awards. Once you win an award or two, you can export your service to some other country (India) and then proclaim your customer support as award-winning.

[DrunkCajun]

For the record, I've never once had a problem with DHL for international packages. I think that's what it's best at. Haven't had much domestic experience with them though.

[zodiac66]

DHL screwed up again..and Dell gave me a $50.00 coupon for my next order. I just placed that order and got me a free 512 memory for free.

DHL said it was Dell that messed up..Dell said it was DHL. I told Dell, that I was the one who was out and both companies can fight over the shipping however they seem fit but I didn't have my product when they said I would. A few hem-and-haws later, I informed them of the mis-truths they had stated to me. After they were alerted to those, a 50 buck coupon was mine!

I got my camera and free memory..all is good.

[D.K.night]

I had terrible experiences with Dell myself.

Calling them to let them know I have a machine with a fried motherboard, they have always put me through the same drivel about restoring the original OS from the CD. Even calling in to report a dead mouse resulted this whole routine where I'm asked a zillion and one questions before they'll finally concede and send me a replacement. It always felt like I was thown into a boxing ring and fought in order to get what I wanted, however big or small the part was. A phone call which should have only taken 5 minutes took easily 20.

And I always had a hard time understanding what the guy was saying, it sounded something like "bloop bloop what is your name bloop bloop what is your asset tag bloop number bloop bloop".

[Amra]

I have owned two Dell's now over the past 7 or 8 years or so. All in all I have been happy with them. There was the one time however when I called customer support and couldn't understand the guy in India or wherever he ways. But for the most part I have been happy.

I am however still thinking about a mac down the road.