dugums said:
Keros: You seem to have examples of problems with Acer's and Toshiba's, but never qualify your initial statement against Dell. It sounds like you are not recommending their product because, by word-of-mouth, you have heard there service stinks - is this right? -- or do you actually have some experience with their product that is responsible for this opinion?
That's a fair question, and I had it very well responded to... and then I decided I needed to close the window, and lost a 3000 word essay. L2UseMSword... :3d_frown:
Anyway, perhaps I was mistaken to attack their tech support as my fundamental reason for disliking Dell. For this, I apologize, for I was mistaken.
The problems I have with Dell don't start at customer service or tech support, although I have seen it be utterly worthless (specific example available). I hate Dell because they are cooperate pigs conning uninformed consumers out of their money.
When I built my computer, I could have bought it from Dell for $5000. Yeah... no. I instead bought the parts to assemble a superior computer from a local store for about $2700 and built it myself, as that two of my roommates had done before me. One of them, who also built his from the ground up, suffered a complete computer failure... he took it back to the shop on monday, and tuesday morning they called him and told him his video card had failed and they didn't have it instock. So they upgraded his video card and told him to pick it up at his convenience.
Anyway, on with the practical example:
These are easily among the best computers you could possibly build right now with off the shelf retail parts. My computer on the other hand, was a half step back (not top of the line, but almost). In the above Dell shot, that is before shipping/taxes (it was taken to show that the computers are straight across the board identical). After taxes are applied in Alberta and shipping to my house, the total is $8065.54. Where the fuck does that extra $2287.22 worth of computer come from? Fuck, you could buy a damn nice computer for that and have one for the wife too. For nearly 2300 dollars more, that Dell had better sing, dance, and serve wine and cheese while I play Supreme Commander.
I can list specific examples if they are needed, but in my opinion, Dell is overpriced and overrated junk intended for uninformed and lazy consumers. 2300 bucks is ALOT of money. That's food for nearly a year, or alot of supra parts, or a vacation. I fail to see how Dell's computer will be $2300 better than one I assembled from Memory Express. If you think it would be any different with a bottom of the barrel computer, it's not. Dell lists all their computers before they add in any warranty at all, and then they charge +300 bucks for the warranty. I tried building the cheapest computer possible at Dell, $834.00 shipped to me. Memory Express built a very comparable computer for $560. Take that however you like.
My advice is to go to a place like EB Games, or wherever computer gamers hang out, and ask someone about a good place to get a computer. Most gamers and computer nerds love nothing more than to help a guy out. I was in Future Shop one day and a lady and her daughter (who was reasonably attractive) were getting sold by a salesman. He was trying to sell her some overpriced super laptop for 2500 bucks so that her daughter could do her homework and surf the web. The salesman walked away after I took him to task, he didn't know jackshit about computers (futureshop pays on commission)... Anyway, I showed her the computers she should be looking at and told her to go to memory express and tell them you need a computer for X and Y. The point is that uninformed consumers get taken to town at the till and businesses laugh all the way to the bank.
Dell is overpriced and overrated shit in a box. If I were starving and Dell had the last meal on this planet, I wouldn't give them a dime to satisfy their bank accounts.
