Why I dislike Dell

[beetlespace]

At work I do not get the luxury of working with Linux and furthering my knowledge. :o I am stuck with a network using a Windoze NT 4.0 terminal server, Win98 desktops and XP desktops mixed. Throw in a few NT terminal server clients (diskless dummies) and you have my daily headache. The software that we use throughout our dealership(motorcycle) is proprietary and we have a company that supports this. I am stuck in the middle of both them and Dell.

Case in point;
Our daily backup consists of a 8 GB tape backup drive and tapes that are rotated. This piece of equipment has failed 6 separate times. Each time Dell Sonic Air'd a replacement drive. You would think they would send a new one right? NOT! Each time they send a refurbished one. The two previous incidences they sent a “technician” out within 4hours. He replaced the drive only to find out they sent one that was bad as well! Those were very long days there. Eveyone screaming because they can't get any work done because the server is down. :mad:

The part that ticks me off the most is I already know what is wrong. I tell them, but they have to go through their routine of “troubleshooting” the server. Then they agree with me that I was right. They would rather spend more money using substandard equipment but getting it there quickly than use quality parts and get it fixed right the first time. This tape drive needs to get replaced every 6 months!

I thought that we were the only one's having this problem, but this is a common problem. Dell refuses to deal with this issue and just keeps sending their so called technicians out to replace them. I will never buy another Dell again!I have enough FUN with them at work.

What about all of you? Have you had these kinds of experiences with them? Any other manufacturer?

[lnx_nu_b]

We buy 25 computers per year and 3 servers per year. Rotate all computers/servers out on a 3 yr. basis.

We've had a couple mobo's go out in our servers, and we did get refurbished parts. I was told by Dell that they do not send new parts out, but yet the last mobo that did go out, the tech showed up with a refurb'd one and a new one. Ended up putting the new one in.

We're strictly a Win2k/2k3 house with XP. No problems with our tape drive.

Sucks that you're having all kinds of problems.

[lnx_nu_b]

BTW, my biggest nightmare with any sort of tech support is with HP. Because of the problems I had with a past problem, I will not take another HP box in to work on it.

[ph34r]

Don't have any issues with Dells, but then, we have a rather large account with them. We get replacement parts and a tech within 3 hours of calling, we get to tell them what parts/pieces to bring, and we don't get refurbished stuff.

On the other hand, we have about 3000 dell desktops and about 100 servers....

[Daedrus]

We haven't had any problems with Dell Support, I am sure that it could also depend on your level of support that you pay for. With 2000 desktops, 25 server, and a Dell|EMC SAN and PowerVault, we pay for Gold Support and get good response. As with any vendor the main question is who is the technician that is coming out. HP for a long time contracted out all tech support to local companies. These techs don't necessarily know everything that they should. Having been trained on most HP products (I had to get certified with HP for a previous job) I learned a lot more than most of the people that we had coming out to fix PC's and printers (especially printers). I noticed that many technicians shotgun part orders and still don't get it right. (Shotgun = ordering 5-6 parts to fix a single problem).

It seems that companies are starting to inhouse their support groups now and support is getting better. Most Dell support technicians are Dell employees, although I think they still contract out some. It might also be the region that you work in. Smaller areas might more likely have people that have been contracted out and don't know as much. Dell might also tend to send refurbished parts more to these technicians that to actual employees. It doesn't sound logical, but who says large corporations ever work logically.

[cybertron]

Well, it wasn't on a server but I know what you mean about recurring problems on Dells. My POS laptop has cracked on at least four different occasions. Twice while it was still within warranty, and though they replaced the cracked parts it happened again in the same places. Now my fix is a little super glue pen that lasts about as long as their "repairs".:)

Incidentally, from my time in tech support the last three years at a college where we see all brands, the only laptops that don't seem to have rampant quality issues are IBMs (disclaimer, I now work for them too:)), and now that they've sold the business who knows whether that will still be true.:confused:

[beetlespace]

Incidentally, from my time in tech support the last three years at a college where we see all brands, the only laptops that don't seem to have rampant quality issues are IBMs (disclaimer, I now work for them too:)), and now that they've sold the business who knows whether that will still be true.:confused:

I love my Thinkpad 600e!!!