This post is more than 5 years old
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
8
77843
DELL is the worst company I've ever had to deal with.
Dell, by far and a large margin, is the worst company I've ever had to deal with.
My wife bought a laptop from them; all I can say, is what a piece of rubbish it is. Screen blanks all the time, it overheats, it turns off... it is useless.
Then there is the absolutely horrible overseas customer service from people who's only purpose in life is to upset you, tell you no and eventually hang up on you.
Now, I'll probably get told by the moderator of this forum that this post is not hardware related or some nonsense like that. But this is hardware related. It is related to the rubbish hardware Dell is pushing on customers and then the horrible failure of the customer service.
My advice: DO NOT buy DELL. Do your homework and search the internet (and amazon.com); you will find plenty of similar complaints and seriously dissatisfied customers.
Sincerely,
Ivan Thomson
68flag
1 Message
5
April 6th, 2012 10:00
I had some awful experiences with dell too. Not really their customer service, its actually pretty ok, but with the hardware of their computers.
Everything dell related I ever owned the motherboard had died. I owned several dell laptops back in 2005ish, and a dell printer, and they all died in about a year. I never again bought from dell until I was looking for a laptop about a year ago and made a big mistake picking the dell Inspiron N5110 at a very fair price off $500 on amazon.
The first couple of weeks I kept on getting calls from Dell harassing me to get their extended warranty. I declined since it would cost a few hundred dollars that I couldn't afford to pay. Next week, my computer would not connect to any sort of network. Shockingly this was not a hardware issue, since when I boot into Ubuntu its able to connect just fine. I then deleted everything dell related on the computer, all of dell's bloatware, and my wifi worked again. Odd.
After a few more weeks I've been getting blue screens telling me that windows was having issues reading RAM. Booted into Ubuntu, same problem. I called Dell about it and they said the RAM went bad. I was not aware RAM could fail in such a short time, but Dell quickly sent me a new stick of RAM that arrived in 3 days, free of charge. The even payed the shipping for me.
After a while my computer suddenly wouldn't turn on and gave me 3 beeps, indicating the motherboard has died. The motherboard failed in, no joke, 2 months. That is pathetic. I would expect motherboards to last at LEAST a year, 3+ at best, but 2 months? I never abused this computer, I only type documents, create powerpoints, record music, and fiddle around with Ubuntu with it. Luckily it was still under warranty and Dell actually sent a tech to come and replace the motherboard for me in 2 days. How nice. The tech also told me that the screen was mounted wrong so the cable connecting the screen to the motherboard was barely seated in place, so he fixed that too. All for no charge since it was under warranty.
The computer worked fine for the rest of the year, until I turned it on and heard a loud and horrible screech. The hard drive failed, and it didn't just fail, it crashed, the read write head crashed into the platter, where all the valuable data is, at 7200 rpm. I had a hard drive fail like this before, it was a 4 year old Toshiba, I tripped and dropped it down a flight of stairs, BUT IT STILL WORKED for the rest of the day. The dell was just sitting on my desk for most of its life, or occasionally carefully carried to school in a padded laptop case, and the hard drive catastrophically failed in only a year. My warranty was only a year so Dell stopped talking to me.
I was about to replace the hard drive myself until I realized there is no convienent was to get it; I had to take the whole laptop apart, take off the screen and keyboard, just to access the hard drive and then replace it. I don't understand why dell made this computer so difficult to replace the hard disk. My toshiba has a little door that opens to reveal the hard drive, and so does this new computer I am using to type this. Hell, on of my old dells had a slot in the side so a new hard drive could just slide into place.
I since sold that awful dell for $400, and used the money to go towards a system76 Pangolin Performance. I am much happier with it then I ever was with dell. I must say though that while their warranty lasted, Dell has some pretty good customer support. But that does not make up for the fact their laptops are awfully designed.
Bugbatter
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
•
20.5K Posts
1
February 8th, 2011 13:00
Hi Ivan Thomson.
Welcome to Dell Community. I do not work for Dell, and am a customer as you are. I'm sorry that you feel that way. I doubt that the Dell Liaisons here will insist that your issue is not hardware related without knowing more details. What diagnostics did you use to determine a hardware problem and eliminate the possibility that there is a software issue?
I've done the "homework" you refer to by not only searching, but by volunteering on other manufacturers' forums like this one. I can tell you that there are just as many unhappy customers posting complaints on those forums. We try to help everyone, but need details in order to do so. If you post some specifics about the system and what steps you have taken to diagnose and correct the problem, perhaps one of the helpers on this forum can offer some assistance.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Bugbatter
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
•
20.5K Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 14:00
I'm just a satisfied customer who has been around these forums for a few years and who enjoys helping other customers.
I have a Studio 1558 as well. Mine is 6 months old. I updated the BIOS and one or two drivers when I received mine, but have had no trouble with it. It sounds as if you are understandably frustrated with all that you have been through. I would be angry too, especially with a computer still under warranty on a "maximum service plan". Your attempt to circumvent the smut filter on the forums will probably cause your post to be deleted. That is unfortunate after all the time you spent describing the issue. I will see if I can have a Dell Liaison take a look at your case and find someone who can help you. It may take a day or two. In the meantime, it might be good to edit your post to remove those text characters before the Terms of Service people delete the whole thing.
DELL-Terry B
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
3.5K Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 15:00
Ivan
I have sent you a friend request so that we can discuss the problem with your Studio 1558 and I can get the service tag and case numbers that you have had with tech support. I will be happy to look into your issues and see if we can't get you up and running as quickly as possible.
TB
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
11.1K Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 16:00
Terry,
If you are going to reward bad behavior by someone like ivan, then you should at least respond to someone who also needs the help and didn't resort to using the F* word.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19365095.aspx
kalamarz00
2 Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 23:00
You think Dell is bad? Well customer service over the phone is bad but on the net is a little better, but i have to say that with Dell inspiron 1720 all i had as a problem is to change my hard drive twice but one time they send me a hard drive from toshiba (thats the biggest rubbish company EVER) but now its good and i have it for 3 years now. The worst computers are form toshiba i had one and i had to fix it every 6-8 months for 3 years and 3 of my friends also had toshiba nad they had to fix it a lot as well, so dont say that Dell is a bad company cuz its a lot better than some of them out there, im a customer as well.
FU2
1 Message
1
February 9th, 2011 06:00
You can hardly blame Ivan for his upset, if you had got laddled with an expensive but less than adequate machine you'd be pretty upset also!
customerservice3
1 Message
1
January 9th, 2012 08:00
listen for all you doubting the hideousness of dells customer support, i ordered my 3600 dollar alienware computer a month ago, supposed to be here three days ago. i had to complain and call and then they send me an email that there was a delay and its going to be another month but i would get a call from a person in the packing department to let me know when exactly it would arrive. i got a call this morning from an automated machine informing me of nothing at all and saying they would let me know an exact date later on. when i call dell they have no answers and their customer support is a bunch of offseas foreign people who barely understand your problems. combine that with noone caring about the amount of money your spending at their store, i would never ever shop with dell EVER again. PERIOD.
zbestwun2001
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
•
8.8K Posts
0
January 11th, 2012 10:00
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
1
January 13th, 2012 05:00
Zombie Threads Have a Life of their own.
:emotion-3: