Dell sucks!!!

[hellmet]

I had heard horror stories of Dell even before coming to the US. But, still, preferred Dell, coz 'everyone had dell' and other laptops were quite costly for the same config, except HP, which people said were of low standards.

After a loooong wait , one day I got my Dell laptop. I was excited like hell, but all that vanished when I looked at that awful looking grainy screen. Then, the quality of the plastic... More use, and I hear weird noises from the HDD. Bluetooth fails .. and then reappears after a few days..

That grainy LCD makes me send the laptop back to dell. When I get it back, I get a still grainer screen. 2GB Ram becomes 1.5GB , and Vista no longer loads. Thanks to ubuntu, it still loaded.

When I did call them up, they were completely non-chalant about the entire thing, and asked me if I wanted an all new laptop with the same configuration. I would never want another Dell product in my house. I should have actually sued them I guess. Don't know if I can. But, I chose to get my money back, and I ordered a new Lenovo for 200$ bucks..

Most of these laptops are made in china or malaysia or singapore.. What kind of crappy quality is this. Is this what has become of US?

[Kingsley]

If everyone thought like you, Dell wouldn't have been able to bank over $3.5 billion net income last year!

[ryno519]

My Inspiron is the most reliable computer I've ever owned. I don't recall ever having a problem with the hardware and Ubuntu runs great on it out of the box. Perhaps you just got a dud... or, did you drop it? :P

[hellmet]

These are the new Inspirons that have been in the news for all the wrong reasons... Mainly their LCD Screens!!

[starcraft.man]

Well, it's Dell. Not exactly the highest quality brand IMO, they buy and sell bulk and have a lenient return policy. If you want a top notch laptop most people I know say Lenovo. If your aiming for desktop, build.

[ExSuSEusr]

Dell is ok. I tend to favor building my own Desktops though - always have.

I built this current system a couple of few ago (3.2 gig PV IV, 1 gig of RAM, 256 meg ATI card... yatta yatta) and it's pretty out-of-date now. Beautiful thing is Ubuntu installed on it without ANY problems.

Now the Dell laptop I have.... that's another story. Ubuntu absolutely will not go on without a fight. Text mode or not. Debian? No problems. Gentoo? No problems. Slackware? No problems. Ubuntu - no go.

I'm not a big fan of factory built systems - too proprietary for my taste - and the fact you end up with a bunch generic components (well that's the way it used to be).

Anyway - Dell isn't too bad... I'd say they're probably the best out of the factory built systems.

[RAV TUX]

Well, it's Dell. Not exactly the highest quality brand IMO, they buy and sell bulk and have a lenient return policy. If you want a top notch laptop most people I know say Lenovo. If your aiming for desktop, build.

I agree that Dell is a bottom feeder.

I only buy Fujitsu Computers, if I buy new. Fujitsu's are actually made in Japan and are of much higher quality then the junk coming out of China and elsewhere.

[Rupertronco]

With the massive number of computers they sell, and the fact that not every piece of hardware is 100% reliable, they're going to have problems. I don't think you can judge the entire corporation based on your experience, I'm sorry it was bad, but one bad experience isn't enough to trash the company's name.

As far as laptops go, switching to Lenovo was a good idea. They're my preferred choice for laptops and with good reason.

[hellmet]

As far as laptops go, switching to Lenovo was a good idea. They're my preferred choice for laptops and with good reason.

:).. Thanks.. Hope this one works well.. I've had enough tension with Dell already.

[tbroderick]

These are the new Inspirons that have been in the news for all the wrong reasons... Mainly their LCD Screens!!

I just got my Dell Inspiron 1501 and have no problems.

[p_quarles]

I would never buy a Dell laptop (the stories I've heard!), but their desktops are fine. My 6 year old Dell is currently a headless home server running Debian Etch, and it's been running for about 4 months straight now.

Admittedly, the heaviest load it ever encountered was when I compiled Apache and PHP from source, but for a low-end desktop-turned-server, I've been pretty impressed.

[ger_mulvey]

My 1501 is great......no complaints from me!

[-grubby]

I've never owned a Dell, but what from I hear they are pretty bad

[BuffaloX]

At least you got your money back.
With some companies that can be a real pain.

[Spike-X]

I should have actually sued them I guess.

What the hell for? You got your money back, what more do you want?

[n3tfury]

geez even non-US citizens are sue happy nowadays.

[Scotty Bones]

I've gotta say I love my DELL desktop. It has been a great machine for me for about 5 years now with no issues (other than windows :) ) and Ubuntu run great on it. I can't say the same for the Compaq and HP I had prior to it. However I have a friend with a new DELL laptop... and I can safely say it's a POS (although it could just be Vista!). After working for SONY tech support (which is going down the crapper now that they have contracted it out to Alorica), I can say that SONY VIAO notebooks seem to be very solid machines with less than 5% of TS issues being hardware related. I've gotten to play around a lot with them while I worked there but since I cant afford one, I've never tested one out running Linux. So my picks (other than custom build's of course) would have to be:

Desktop: Dell
Notebook: SONY

[Scotty Bones]

I've gotta say I love my DELL desktop. It has been a great machine for me for about 5 years now with no issues (other than windows :) ) and Ubuntu run great on it. I can't say the same for the Compaq and HP I had prior to it. However I have a friend with a new DELL laptop... and I can safely say it's a POS (although it could just be Vista!). After working for SONY tech support (which is going down the crapper now that they have contracted it out to Alorica), I can say that SONY VIAO notebooks seem to be very solid machines with less than 5% of TS issues being hardware related. I've gotten to play around a lot with them while I worked there but since I cant afford one, I've never tested one out running Linux. So my picks (other than custom build's of course) would have to be:

Desktop: Dell
Notebook: SONY

[|Eric|]

you had a bad experience thats all ...
every brand has a few lemons its kinda inevitable you got your money back then thats a up note for dell ...
i just build a system after having a cheapo laptop for 3 years when i expected it to last at least 4-5 very cheapo but here is the thing Dell isn't the best out there Lenovo (IBM) was the best for hardware but they cost more Compaq & HP come second to third Dell is pretty much gaining on HP& Compaq maybe even.

but still ... never beat home built ... (well it depends by who ;) )

[Frak]

HP is low standard?

I have many HP's and they are some of the best computers I have ever owned.

[crawdaddyangry]

Hi

I support ~100 Del laptops in a number of models as well as ~250 Dell desktops in a number of models and I must say that I have yet to have a seriously bad experience with tech support or return policy. I'm not exactly a Dell fanboy its just that they have a contract with my employer. At other jobs I have had to deal with other companies and Dell compares well not much better or worse than the rest IMHO.

[GraFF]

It's cause of people like you that other people say stuff like "never owned a Dell, but the stories I've heeeaard.....". I'm not blaming - it's just an observation.
I have two Dell laptops at home: dad's 1501 and my 6400 + an old Dell desktop my bro used before I gave him my pc I compiled myself and used before this laptop. And I have to say that compared to such brands as Acer, Fujitsu, even Asus - Dell is by far the leader in prebuilt systems and notebooks. By quality and durability. And I'm saying that, having had to play with all of the mentioned above brands.

Drawing a line here - don't be overly globalizing. Sh*t happens ;)

[sanderella]

My Dell Inspiron 1300 (a real cheapie) works like a dream :KS

No problems upgrading to gutsy either.

[RAV TUX]

I had heard horror stories of Dell even before coming to the US. But, still, preferred Dell, coz 'everyone had dell' and other laptops were quite costly for the same config, except HP, which people said were of low standards.

After a loooong wait , one day I got my Dell laptop. I was excited like hell, but all that vanished when I looked at that awful looking grainy screen. Then, the quality of the plastic... More use, and I hear weird noises from the HDD. Bluetooth fails .. and then reappears after a few days..

That grainy LCD makes me send the laptop back to dell. When I get it back, I get a still grainer screen. 2GB Ram becomes 1.5GB , and Vista no longer loads. Thanks to ubuntu, it still loaded.

When I did call them up, they were completely non-chalant about the entire thing, and asked me if I wanted an all new laptop with the same configuration. I would never want another Dell product in my house. I should have actually sued them I guess. Don't know if I can. But, I chose to get my money back, and I ordered a new Lenovo for 200$ bucks..

Most of these laptops are made in china or malaysia or singapore.. What kind of crappy quality is this. Is this what has become of US?

You bring up very good points, While Dell is good enough for Desktops I would never go budget for a laptop. This is why I only buy Fujitsu products for laptops, they are made in Japan and of the finest quality.

With that said Fujitsu is not for those who have a budget in mind, but if you are willing to pay more for the best quality money can buy then Fujitsu is the way to go.

This still holds true in laptop computers: "You get what you pay for".