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tgarrison

2 Posts

28652

November 3rd, 2006 20:00

PowerEdge 2900 Drive Carriers

I've just had an interesting conversation with Dell Spare Parts in the US in which they indicated that they will not sell us 'empty' SATA drive carriers for the PowerEdge 2900 system that we have recently purchased.

The general line was that we need to purchase our hard drives from Dell and then they will come with a carrier.

Is this really the case? Do we not have the option to reuse storage from some of our older machines, or are we effectively being forced to purchase hard drives from Dell.

Thanks
Todd

martincba

5 Posts

November 10th, 2006 20:00

@countryman73460 wrote:
CC852 is the part # for the SATA (1") Universal Hard Drive Carrier.




I couldn't actually find anywhere on the site where you could order these things. So let me recount my recent experience:

(1) Buy my 2950 Server (one drive)
(2) Realize I didn't get carriers for the other five slots
(3) Look on the dell site
(4) Curse dell because I couldn't find the carriers on the site
(5) Call dell, they refer me to a couple resellers
(6) One reseller doesn't carry the carrier, the other wants $80 per carrier
(7) $80!!!!
(8) Call dell and say that $80 is ridiculous
(9) Dell rep says he's sorry, but they don't sell just the carriers
(10) I say "Ok. I want to return my server then"
(11) (very-long-pause)
(12) Rep says, Ok. Just this time I can sell them to you for $10.95

I was stunned. This just doesn't seem right! I bought a Dimension E510 and after 4 dropped calls to customer service (or the reps just being plain unhelpful), I finally resolved the issue by telling them that I was going to return the computer if the issue wasn't resolved by the end of my phone call. I guess at dell, returns are the great motivator.

But I'm still frustrated. I suspect the reason Dell is doing this is to cash in on the absurdly high priced drives that come with the servers (They're significantly cheaper even via dell's own Accessories site). I have no problem with dell making a profit, but I didn't see this anywhere on the dell site "BEWARE: Carriers can ONLY be bought WITH the PE Server!" If feels like I'm being fed cheap parlor tricks to maximize dell's profits.

At any rate, given my the abysmal service I received for my E510 and now my 2950 (I had a bunch of PE1800s that were great and a few laptops that were so-so) I suspect I'll take my business elsewhere and find another company for my company's IT budget. It's a shame because Dell makes such great servers (like I said, I'm a big fan of our stacks of 1800s), but I just feel like I'm not being dealt with aboveboard.

We've already switched to HP for laptops. Anybody have any suggestions for servers?

tgarrison

2 Posts

November 10th, 2006 21:00

My final experience diverged slightly from yours:
 
(1)  Buy my 2900 server (one drive)
(2)  Realize I didn't get carriers for the other 7 slots
(3)  Check dell site
(4)  Figure I must be doing something wrong, 'cause I can't find them on the site
(5)  Spend 30 minutes following dead links to spare parts department.
(6)  Call spare parts and indicate my need for empty drive trays to be told "no sir, we don't sell them that way for the past 6 months".  At this point I had several interesting conversations with them where I asked what they would be doing if I had damaged my carrier.  The response was that it would be replaced under warranty.  The man on the other end of the phone was extremely uncomfortable having this conversation though would not budge and indicated clearly (over and over and over) that there was no way I could purchase an empty carrier.
(7)  Repeat number 6 and have the same conversation with a very nice lady in spare parts who basically explained that I was and though she felt my pain was powerless to do anything about it.  By the time I called her I simply telephoned and asked for part number xyz.  She typed away for a few minutes and indicated clearly that I wouldn't be able to purchase that.  After very little prompting from me, she launched into the conversation where she told me that I was getting hosebagged but that she didn't know of any way out.
(8)  I think about returning the server outright because by this point it is pretty clear that the part exists, just that I'm not on the magic list of people who is allowed to buy it.
(9)  E-mail my account rep at Dell, think out loud about returning the server and taking our entire set of hardware purchases elsewhere.  She gets frustrated, contacts spare parts.  Next day she sends me an email which bluntly says "I got jerked around just like you did, there isn't anything I can do ... maybe you can get them third-party."
(10)  Finally managed to find them third party for $50 a piece.  At this point I needed to have them a week ago and so went ahead and ate the cost.
 
This whole incident annoys the out of me.  I am not going to put up with this kind of garbage.  Especially not when I hear that other people are willing to yell louder than I am and will get them for $11 a piece.  In my case I HAVE been fed cheap parlor tricks to inflate Dell's profits and in the end was forced to purchase them elsewhere for a huge markup.  Why can't dell simply sell them for $25 a piece and make a nice profit on them?  I know why they don't WANT to ... but that answer doesn't cut it for me.
 
I used to like the laptops, and love the servers.
Now I just feel jerked around and ready to move on.
 
Todd
 

martincba

5 Posts

November 10th, 2006 22:00

Penny wise, pound foolish! Dell now stands a good chance of losing >$40,000/yr in hardware purchases from my company. All over 5 hard drive trays. But hey.. maybe they don't want companies like ours as customers anyway.

I suppose the difference here was that I actually told him to process the return, so they knew they were going to have to eat their assembly cost. I also haven't received them yet, and I have a VERY limited faith in the support team.

Who are you thinking of going with for servers now

DELL-Siobhan K

174 Posts

November 15th, 2006 19:00

Content from this thread has been pulled due to a violation of our Terms of Service. 
 
You can find the terms of Service located at the following link    http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/terms
 
In the meantime, regarding your query, I will contact Dell Spare Parts to see what their policy is.

 

 

martincba

5 Posts

November 16th, 2006 14:00

Yea...maybe you should not have forums.  i guess this transparency thing ain't for dell.  You guys are off the list.  My company and I are never buying dell again.

martincba

5 Posts

November 16th, 2006 14:00

For the record, what specific term of the TOS was violated?  I read the terms and don't exactly know.

theceg

21 Posts

November 20th, 2006 22:00

That's nonsense here are the part numbers:
 
H9122 Assembly,Carrier,Hard Drive Serial ATA,1IN $10.95
CC852 Assembly,Carrier,Hard Drive Serial ATA,Universal,1IN $7.67
1213C SCREW, 6-32X1/4", FLAT HEAD, MICROSOFT, ZINC PLATED STEEL, COUNTERSINK $0.05
 
Note that either carrier will work with SAS or SATA drives. The first one H9122 has a bottom that's slightly longer so it fully covers the controller card on SATA drives.
 
Also I recommend buying the screws since Home Depot and Lowes do not carry them and they're actually hard to come by. Plus you can't really use non countersink screws unless they're flush with the carrier else they're hard to pull in and out.

martincba

5 Posts

November 22nd, 2006 17:00

Yea, nobody told me about the screws.  You'd think after 5 calls about these things they would have told me they didn't come with screws or I'd need screws that weren't very common.  But for Dell that would be WAY to easy, I'm sure.
 
After investing 10 hours of my time just into getting hard drives into the server I decided to cut my losses and return the 2950.  I'm happy that I'll never have to deal with dell again except to get toner for my dell printer.
 
Good riddance.
 
Oh.. and thanks guys for telling me what terms of the TOS were violated.  Much appreciated! (sarcasm)

crchien

1 Message

November 19th, 2008 15:00

I know this is a much delayed pick-up on this thread, but just an update:

I just picked up a bunch of these carriers:  Item # J105C. for $6.99 each for SATA.  no screws included.  You'll need to order those separately (as previously mentioned). 

There's no info or photo on the item, but I can confirm that they work perfectly for a Power Edge 2900 III.

orgbrat

23 Posts

December 3rd, 2008 17:00

Most all the drive carriers I have seen will work with SATA or SAS drives. Can I ask if anyone knows whether the above carriers
( Item # J105C ) will also work with the SAS drives also. Thanks...

Orgbrat

NEngineer

1 Message

February 4th, 2009 07:00

Anyone know the part number for the screws?

 

Thanks

pcmeiners

4 Operator

 • 

1.8K Posts

February 5th, 2009 16:00

"You'd think after 5 calls about these things they would have told me they didn't come with screws or I'd need screws that weren't very common.  But for Dell that would be WAY to easy, I'm sure."

Purchased my caddies with the screws in less then 5 minutes on Ebay, so much easier then going through the bureaucracy.

 

superman1932

11 Posts

March 23rd, 2009 15:00

The funny thing is ... after over 10 years of hearing people threaten to "take their business elsewhere" (and this not working for Dell), I have found that it is only a temper tantrum and they keep coming back, because it was an isolated incident and one of the few things they didn't like and felt they needed to react to.  Few people have the integrity to hold true to that "promise" and even fewer actually want to ... they just wanted the attention - to make their frustrations heard.  Do you know how sick I get of hearing, "I spend $X here ..."

Anyway ... I don't like the policy either, but then again, I don't like paying "per text received" and "per text sent" either.

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