Dell Support Site Has Removed Drivers for Many Older Products

This is not a technical comment but it is a comment about Dell's Technology Support. Recently the support site for laptops, and I presume other areas though I have not checked, was revised to change its structure. In the process many items were removed notably having to do with drivers for older systems. Even if a system is past warranty that does not remove the responsibility for Dell to continue to provide the most recent (even if old) drivers especially since the cost of doing so is trivial. This is especially the case when Dell is the only source for specific drivers. A specific example is a Dell Vostro 3700 laptop which uses the embedded GPU in the CPU as well as outboard nVidia GPU; the hybrid video architecture is such that NVidia provides no driver and re-directs users to Dell's site. In the case of this specific model, most of the drivers that were present a month ago are now gone.

Dell laptops have two things going for them - good products at a good price and a great support site. This has prompted me to continue focusing upon Dell - e.g. two new 5759's in 2017, and to recommend Dell to colleagues and friends. I have had recent occasion to review some very old systems on HP's support site - all relevant drivers continue to be available. I strongly recommend that Dell commit to ongoing availability of drivers for old systems - obviously, ongoing support is not justified but ongoing availability is.

A second observation if I may. I have had issues a number of times that concerned issues beyond technical support (e.g. problems with orders) and it is virtually impossible to contact somebody who works for Dell in other than a front-line capacity. The inevitable result is that they cannot help users and worse, have no means or references to redirect users to alternate contacts. This is not new. User forums are rife with negative comments regarding difficulties in dealing with Dell as a company. You've got great products but you need to work on company processes.

Thank you,
Michel LaBarre