Dell has upset more than its share of Americans, too.
I posted a few days ago about how I'd cancelled my order for a computer and a 2007WFP monitor. Well, I kept reading optimistic, hopeful posts from users. Just before the special price package I was ordering expired on July 5, I reordered. I was sure with the ship date I'd get the 02 revisions and all would be nice with the world.
I even went to the little Dell store in the local shopping mall and looked at the monitor. It's a very attractive piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell a lot about how it worked as they had it set up showing the WIndows deskptop, black background, and a few icons showing.
I asked the salesman if he could get the same price as I was getting, he assured me he could, and I was going to reorder right then and there. Even though they say the Dell stores have the same specials as online, he couldn't reproduce it, he was consistently $300 higher than what I was getting online. I rush home in the nightmare that is Las Vegas late afternoon traffic and place my order.
Over the next day or so, I kept reading this forum, seeing how those who got the new "fixed" monitors were faring, how much they were enjoying their new monitors in a happy world where their old monitors were just a passing headache. I start reading of the same problems, worse problems, this left and right side of the monitor at different brightness, and so on.
I cancelled again.
I discovered there was a sale for EPP purchases of XPS computers. My wife works for the schools here and decided to try that, getting 34% off. And, I didn't have to take a monitor with it! I was able to order the exact computer I had really wanted, the one I'd been trying for left me cold in some features. I got an upgraded dual core CPU, 2 GBs of memory, the NVidia chip graphic card I couldn't get with the other, and a 320 GB hard drive, and it came in about $250 less than the system I kept ordering, cancelling, ordering, cancelling because of the 2007FP and 2007WFP and their problems.
It's been over a week of reading, reading more, trying to decide, deciding, thinking better of it. It's similar to the experience I had when I bought a Dell notebook a few months ago. As an American, I really dislike the way the Dell purchase experience goes. I'd rather have dysentery.
My solution for the monitor? With the savings I got just ordering the computer without monitor and its sale price I ordered from a good online vendor a large Samsung. I've had several Samsungs and have never been unhappy with them. Never had one fail, always retired them to step up in size or features. It does lack some inputs compared to the Dell's, but I never intended to use the monitor as a TV anyway.
I am still disappointed the Dell's just seem to be flaky pieces of equipment. The potential is good, the features were good but, unlike others on this board, I had no intention of paying for, keeping, and using a monitor I knew wasn't working as it should, and trying to convince myself 75% funtionality was as good as 100%. I think Dell's becoming the eMachines/Packard Bell of the once good name computer brands.
I'm completely in agreement with you Steverv, in that the process of doing business with Dell is alot more painfull than a purchase should be. When everything goes right (which Dell prays to corporate god that it will) the process is simple; You pay them, they ship you something, done. But the second things go wrong, you suddenly realize there is (in my case) about 600 miles between myself and Dell's HQ, 400 miles between me and where my "fixed" monitor is being shipped back to (for my refund) and you wonder "Why didn't I just buy from a store with a physical location close to me?" You might pay a bit more, but when you need to return something, you don't go through the hurdles that you have to go through to return something to a company with no location anywhere even remotely close to where you live. That having been said, so far (being the key words) my return is going smoothly. Yesterday I asked for a return, today the UPS man showed up with a pre-paid label to ship my monitor back to dell, and I am hoping that when it gets back to dell this will FINALLY be over with.
The only thing that worries me..and I think it worries a few people.. is that the "replacement" monitor shows up on your account as having been invoiced for 239 dollars, and now I am going on 2 weeks since DHL picked up the monitor from my house, and Dell has sent no word that it has been recieved. What's worse, is that my account doesn't even show a return is in progress, or that the "Replacement" is infact..a replacement (just shows 239 dollar charge).
I'm not exactly the poorest guy on the block, but 400 dollars (original monitor) could buy me an entire budget PC with an included monitor, and what's more, 600 dollars (original plus the invoiced price of replacement) could buy me a Playstation 3 when it comes out (sometime this millenium hopefully). So in other words..a 600 dollar charge sitting on my credit card is definatly NOT what I need right now.
andrewbe
6 Posts
0
July 6th, 2006 12:00
SR45
2 Intern
•
12.1K Posts
0
July 6th, 2006 12:00
ipwnnoobs
21 Posts
0
July 6th, 2006 13:00
stevernv
13 Posts
0
July 6th, 2006 15:00
Dell has upset more than its share of Americans, too.
I posted a few days ago about how I'd cancelled my order for a computer and a 2007WFP monitor. Well, I kept reading optimistic, hopeful posts from users. Just before the special price package I was ordering expired on July 5, I reordered. I was sure with the ship date I'd get the 02 revisions and all would be nice with the world.
I even went to the little Dell store in the local shopping mall and looked at the monitor. It's a very attractive piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell a lot about how it worked as they had it set up showing the WIndows deskptop, black background, and a few icons showing.
I asked the salesman if he could get the same price as I was getting, he assured me he could, and I was going to reorder right then and there. Even though they say the Dell stores have the same specials as online, he couldn't reproduce it, he was consistently $300 higher than what I was getting online. I rush home in the nightmare that is Las Vegas late afternoon traffic and place my order.
Over the next day or so, I kept reading this forum, seeing how those who got the new "fixed" monitors were faring, how much they were enjoying their new monitors in a happy world where their old monitors were just a passing headache. I start reading of the same problems, worse problems, this left and right side of the monitor at different brightness, and so on.
I cancelled again.
I discovered there was a sale for EPP purchases of XPS computers. My wife works for the schools here and decided to try that, getting 34% off. And, I didn't have to take a monitor with it! I was able to order the exact computer I had really wanted, the one I'd been trying for left me cold in some features. I got an upgraded dual core CPU, 2 GBs of memory, the NVidia chip graphic card I couldn't get with the other, and a 320 GB hard drive, and it came in about $250 less than the system I kept ordering, cancelling, ordering, cancelling because of the 2007FP and 2007WFP and their problems.
It's been over a week of reading, reading more, trying to decide, deciding, thinking better of it. It's similar to the experience I had when I bought a Dell notebook a few months ago. As an American, I really dislike the way the Dell purchase experience goes. I'd rather have dysentery.
My solution for the monitor? With the savings I got just ordering the computer without monitor and its sale price I ordered from a good online vendor a large Samsung. I've had several Samsungs and have never been unhappy with them. Never had one fail, always retired them to step up in size or features. It does lack some inputs compared to the Dell's, but I never intended to use the monitor as a TV anyway.
I am still disappointed the Dell's just seem to be flaky pieces of equipment. The potential is good, the features were good but, unlike others on this board, I had no intention of paying for, keeping, and using a monitor I knew wasn't working as it should, and trying to convince myself 75% funtionality was as good as 100%. I think Dell's becoming the eMachines/Packard Bell of the once good name computer brands.
bob_c_b
556 Posts
0
July 6th, 2006 17:00
LCDPhreak
141 Posts
0
July 7th, 2006 19:00
The only thing that worries me..and I think it worries a few people.. is that the "replacement" monitor shows up on your account as having been invoiced for 239 dollars, and now I am going on 2 weeks since DHL picked up the monitor from my house, and Dell has sent no word that it has been recieved. What's worse, is that my account doesn't even show a return is in progress, or that the "Replacement" is infact..a replacement (just shows 239 dollar charge).
I'm not exactly the poorest guy on the block, but 400 dollars (original monitor) could buy me an entire budget PC with an included monitor, and what's more, 600 dollars (original plus the invoiced price of replacement) could buy me a Playstation 3 when it comes out (sometime this millenium hopefully). So in other words..a 600 dollar charge sitting on my credit card is definatly NOT what I need right now.
Message Edited by LCDPhreak on 07-07-200603:22 PM