Dell Computers

[meld51]

Hello folks,

I'm thinking of buying a Dell computer for my mum! Has anyone any experiences, good or bad, of buying over the web from Dell?

My mum is not all that computer aware ans she does not live very close to me and so I am looking for an easy trouble free experience.

[matty4donna]

I think you will find that Dell are the best and most competent computer manufacturer in the world at the moment. And their support is excellent. I myself am a computer engineer and i see so many customers who have had bad experiences with the likes of Time and Packard Bell etc but very very rare is it i ever see a customer with a bad experience with Dell.

I think the will probably the best solution for a hassle free experience.

Consider Evesham, compare what packages Dell offer with Evesham. Evesham hardware excellent.

[kbcs6dpm]

I have had a Dell now for 2 years, with no problems. Very good quality and service. Bit pricey though. But you get what you pay for.

[Nemesis]

Have bought Dell PC's for Office environment. Very good sales and goos support if anything goes wrong. Bit expensive.

Have got Evesham at home, again very good, support very good, and a bit cheaper.


Only problem with Dell was buying an external Non Dell CDRW
HUGE problems trying to get them to replace. If it's branded DELL then no probs.

[Martin]

I would say Dell are a brill company and never had any trouble with them.

[Undisputedtruth]

That lying, deceiving American company - no NTL but Dell. Well NTL as well. Seems like I have a problem with American owned companies!

I've ordered a laptop last week, spent a few weeks deciding on the right laptop and to get the best possible deals. Try and use affiliates to get the cheapest price. Speaking directly to DELL may not mean you'll be getting the cheapest price. I've saved 10% and free deiver (£57) on top of any special offers by Dell by using a portal through AOL. Sadly the portal has now ended.

Dell charges £117.50 for 256mb of memory for system upgrades. It might be cheaper to shop around. Crucial memory charges £23 + vat and Kingston Technology charges £40 inc vat + posting. The KT memory is the exact make (according to KT) as that supplied by DELL. The memory upgrade on Dell parts is £50.

Don't speak to sales on Wednesday night as a lot of the sales staff are under a lot of pressure of customers taking advantage on the final day of special offers.

Make sure you check any sales invoice for any errors. Once the computer has been shipped out there is very little you can do about it. There is also a very good DELL forum on dell.com which is an excellent source of information. Generally, the staff are not bad at all, though the best source of information is the DELL forum. I am very confident I bought the best possible laptop for the money, much cheaper than Evesham.

Delivery was a bit of a problem. I took a day of work yesterday. Unfortanately, the girl from Walsh Western carriers did not register the delivery date on the system. I complained to Dell and they arranged an evening delivery between 6pm and 10pm. The Dell order watch is good.

If you're happy with the standards of NTL customer services then you're going to be more than happy with Dell.

Oh yeah, one more thing, make sure you tick the no box if the computer is not going to be used for "Weapons of mass destruction" on the sales section of the website. Apparently it is a FBI thing!

Good luck

[meld51]

Thanks folks.....really positive stuff......wheres the catch. Anyway must dash....today is the last day of a particular deal I'm interested in so here goes!.......................I'll post the outcome.

[Undisputedtruth]

My Dell laptop has arrived. I'm well please with my purchase. Well done Dell.

[Theodoric]

Originally posted by matty4donna
I think you will find that Dell are the best and most competent computer manufacturer in the world at the moment. And their support is excellent. I myself am a computer engineer and i see so many customers who have had bad experiences with the likes of Time and Packard Bell etc but very very rare is it i ever see a customer with a bad experience with Dell.

I think the will probably the best solution for a hassle free experience.

I've had a Dell for a year and a half. In the main it's worked ok.

Their support is mixed. They'll get there in the end, but you have to perservere. I've had 3 problems.

As I've just posted elsewhere, when the floppy drive went tits up, I was put through to a help desk in India. I really had to perservere (polite, but firm, is what I hope I was) before they finally agreed to get an engineer out to change it: at the end they did it.

I also had a problem with the CD Drive. However, I think that this was a problem with the Roxio software rather than I hardware problem. I finally solved it by downloading an updated driver from the Roxio site. I tried the email help line at Dell and the first thing they do is send you an automated reply based on keywords in your message; mine was 10 pages long covering every possible problem with a CD drive. Again, you have to perservere.

My biggest problem was a major crash; BSOD with all the trimmings. Dell's response was a little worrying. Firstly, I discovered that despite paying for a 3 year guarantee, this did not cover software problems (30 days only apparently), so you have to pay £20 up front before they'll talk to you. Secondly they made no attempt to find out the source of the problem. It was simply reformat the hard drive and re-install Windows XP. For £20, I'd have expected a little more effort.

[Shaun]

I personaly cant speak highly enough of dell, they are so friendly and efficent I almost couldn't beleve it. I spent a long time making sure I got the best PC for the money.

The computer is well built, made with top quality components, and their customer service is second to none IMHO. They can be a little bit more expencive than the others but you get what you pay for.

Dell could show most companys a thing or two about how to run a fast efficent service.

Keep it up Dell

[matty4donna]

It looks like Dell could be the one then?

The company I work for has Dell machine and their reliable and robust

[Lord Nikon]

Originally posted by matty4donna
It looks like Dell could be the one then?

When you are looking at dell also don't forget to check out the Dell Axim X5 PDA they sell... VERY nice spec

[SMHarman]

As someone else said check the spec they are selling you to the spec of the deal on offer if you are taking a newspaper advertised deal.

The one my father bought they were marketing with a fast 7200 rpm HDD. The quote spec showed it with a 5400 disk. A fax of the advert (prior to build / payment) sorted it though.