computer buying advice? (was forum=28)Follow

custom build is the way to go as long as you are competent when it comes to reading/following directions. There are plenty of sites out there that will help you find build guides, instructions, and good parts on sale/rebate.

I'd be more than happy to build you a computer. Lemme know what specs you want and I can give you a quote (that will probably beat Dell's price unless you're thinking really low-end).

I'm sorry, that's not a viable option... but I could probably help you with a lower-end version of that.

Usagi, care to chime in?

Kastigir,
I'll be nice to you but!
All of Dhells recient computers totally suck and they have the worlds worst customer support. Infact Tech support is mainly in India and their scripted goal it to push any issues to past the 21 day return date on customers computers. I'd have to say the last decient dhell computers were produced about 3-4 years ago. Now they have no quality control or even testing to check them.
Next time you say "Ignore Tailmon" Maybe you might consider that I worked at Dhell as a Senior Quality assurance tech. When they let my team go so did any bastion of Quality that they once had. I know Dhell and what the can and will do. Take your money and give you a crappy product these days.

Maybe you havent been paying attention to the news. But The FTC had a big investigation into their Stock and dealings. The state of New York has dragged them into court and they were convicted of deceptive trade pratices. Currently Dhell was involved in some Shady dealings in Lousiana. And got slapped for a nice multi-million dollar fine.

I'll give this advice to anyone even remotely considering getting a Dell computer. "Get some other brand" It's maybe the only best advice I can give.

Correction, State attorney general Andrew Cuomo has a lawsuit open, he didn't do it for deceptive practices he did it to further his political career. He didn't start doing it until AFTER dell had fines slapped against them overseas. This lawsuit in NY will get tossed or overturned in a few years. This is no different then when he threatened ISPs in new york with child pron lawsuits due to newsgroups. Then turned around and said "yay we won against child ****" and cited ISPs who stopped the newsgroups. What he failed to mention is 2 of the ISPs had stopped doing newsgroups 1+ years before he even brought it up. Most of the lawsuits against major companies in NY are nothing but a farce.

Does it suck they use overseas reps? yes, US based companies should keep US tech support here. Does it mean that the person you get doesn't know what to do? no, no it doesn't. You don't like Dell, good for you, but don't use your being canned as an excuse to persuade someone into going elsewhere.

OP, look into doing upgrades on current PC if you can if you are worried about buying a new computer. If you do look at new computers find what you like and then take a look at reviews, though I suggest avoid looking at reviews on the website of the computer you are looking at since posts that are bad could be "lost"

Not for rednecks "What Dhell U doin wif ur sister!".

Actually, I listened to some of the Mumbai agents doing support.

One sold a Dell On Call contract (82 dollars) for an in-scope for hardware issue (in other words should have been free), then proceed to start an OS reinstall with a third party retail OS CD (which will cause the person to get a message to register their OS within 30 days as the OS CDs Dell uses pull the Windows serial from the BIOS).

And that was a typical call. I cannot count the number of messes created by outsourced call centers. I cannot count the number of times they would punt using diagnostics. I cannot count how many times they ticked off a customer over the tiniest issue. It was horrible. There was a reason people loved getting support from either Edmonton, Salt Lake City, or us in Ottawa. Considering we were the top-ranked site in Customer Satisfaction, and most of our practices became SOP for other business lines, I know what I'm talking about.

I'm not angry with Dell for cutting me, or trying to avenge myself. Dell did what it did in some misguided attempt at savings, much like outsourcing their notebook design to Asus, despite them having rival units in that market. Dell runs in cycles, and right now it's in cost-saving mode. When it comes out of that, they will again splurge on support and design, and get back their leadership in the home PC market. Until then, buyer beware.

Edited, Nov 8th 2009 7:53pm by Pawkeshup

After you have worked for Dell you call it Dhell.
Sorry its my bad habbit.
The last of any type of corporate responsibilitys and Quality left Dhell when Mort left the company.

Actually, no. Outsourced overseas tech support = horrible tech support

Example 2:

I got a client from the Dimension line (not one we supported, only Mumbai did it). They had run the long MEM test (About 4 hours worth of the computer sitting and doing nothing but read/write to memory) not once, not twice, not even three times, but 6 times. The client was on the verge of their 21-day return, and it was painfully obvious they were trying to delay any parts dispatch or return of the system. I got them to Customer Service to process a return, never followed up on what happened.

Example 3:

Client comes in with an XPS200, which are notorious for PSU and overheating issues. We had just hit the floor for supporting these units, but the previous support (not sure where, but it was offshore) had replaced 4 straight mobos. Client didn't trust me to just have one part changed and wanted a system exchange. I finally had to cave and do it to save his business, but still another prime example of poor offshore support.

Example 4:

Client calls in with a totally unsupported issue. Previously he had spoken with an "Indian" (more likely one from some other region, but it was a standard Statesider, and anyone with an accent is "Indian") Dell On Call agent who told him this was in-scope for us. I informed him of that, and pointed out he had a DOC contract that came with his purchase, to which he told me that the [explicative] Indian had just sold him added insurance for me to help him. The goddamn guy had sold him a SECOND DOC contract.

I could literally sit here all day and list off stories I personally dealt with. I could go on all week if I asked my original team to give me stories to share. Simply put, in the case of Dell support, Outsourced = terrible.

The reason is that there is zero penalty for bad behavior. They kept their dispatches low by constantly punting calls to us. They defrauded customers to boost their sales numbers, because refunds were never charged back to the generating department. In short, with no control over them, they do whatever artificially improves their numbers.