My Dell Experience

av8r1 · **on:** January 12, 2015, 06:27:17 AM

As I was getting ready to start school this past August, my aging Gateway laptop's screen backlight gave out. The computer still works if plugged into an external monitor (in fact that's what I'm typing this on right now. Spoiler Warning, it's because the Dell doesn't work), but I needed a fully functioning laptop for school. So, because my father had a credit line at Dell already, I ordered an Inspiron 15 7000 Series with all the trimmings totaling upward of $ two grand.

Five months later, the laptop has bricked itself due to catastrophic hardware failure for the fifth time. My "next-day" parts support averages two weeks turnaround time. Once it took them two and a half weeks to fix it, and it failed ten minutes after I started it for the first time. This laptop has spent more time in a failed state than in a working state. The last time it failed was Christmas Eve, and I talked Dell into replacing the whole machine. The replacement still hasn't arrived.

I'm going to have to reload the laptop from scratch, but that won't be so hard because I didn't have time to move into it in the first place. All my data is still on the thumb drive I used to transfer all my old files forward to this machine. I might not even bother to transfer any files to the new hard drive, because Dell has so thoroughly lost my trust.

Even when it's working, there are some pretty glaring design faults with this laptop. The "docking station" isn't a docking station, it's a glorified USB hub that A) can't charge the laptop, so you still need to use the charger, and B) deliberately doesn't work with Linux. The backlit keyboard either makes the keys harder to read than without or projects glare onto the screen, there's nothing to get a grip on to pry the lid open, it's lid heavy so you have to hold it down with your palms when typing on your lap, and the trackpad is so huge that you WILL hit it with your palms and no amount of software correction will stop that happening. The trackpad has a host of other design flaws too, such as no tactile border between the buttons. I don't know how many times I've tried for one mouse button and got the other one.

Consumer advice time: Don't buy a laptop with metal skin and an internal wifi antenna. I was stupid enough to buy the Dell Inspiron Faraday Cage Edition, but it's not too late for you. There's a reason Lenovo still wraps their business-class machines in plastic.

Some of these problems are unavoidable with modern laptops. From now on, I will avoid consumer-grade computers entirely and buy from the business lineup. As is, I don't have any faith in the replacement their sending. As soon as I can afford it, I'm replacing the Dell.

I write this not only to vent my frustration, but as legitimate advice to a group of folks I have come to respect. My experience as a Dell customer has been lousy from the minute I dialed the phone number to order the smurfing thing. Avoid this company, and any company that does business with this company.

TL;DR: I bought a Dell. Now I look like this:

Higgins617 · **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2015, 06:37:51 AM

Quote from: av8r1 on January 12, 2015, 06:27:17 AM

As I was getting ready to start school this past August, my aging Gateway laptop's screen backlight gave out. The computer still works if plugged into an external monitor (in fact that's what I'm typing this on right now. Spoiler Warning, it's because the Dell doesn't work), but I needed a fully functioning laptop for school. So, because my father had a credit line at Dell already, I ordered an Inspiron 15 7000 Series with all the trimmings totaling upward of $ two grand.

Five months later, the laptop has bricked itself due to catastrophic hardware failure for the fifth time. My "next-day" parts support averages two weeks turnaround time. Once it took them two and a half weeks to fix it, and it failed ten minutes after I started it for the first time. This laptop has spent more time in a failed state than in a working state. The last time it failed was Christmas Eve, and I talked Dell into replacing the whole machine. The replacement still hasn't arrived.

I'm going to have to reload the laptop from scratch, but that won't be so hard because I didn't have time to move into it in the first place. All my data is still on the thumb drive I used to transfer all my old files forward to this machine. I might not even bother to transfer any files to the new hard drive, because Dell has so thoroughly lost my trust.

Even when it's working, there are some pretty glaring design faults with this laptop. The "docking station" isn't a docking station, it's a glorified USB hub that A) can't charge the laptop, so you still need to use the charger, and B) deliberately doesn't work with Linux. The backlit keyboard either makes the keys harder to read than without or projects glare onto the screen, there's nothing to get a grip on to pry the lid open, it's lid heavy so you have to hold it down with your palms when typing on your lap, and the trackpad is so huge that you WILL hit it with your palms and no amount of software correction will stop that happening. The trackpad has a host of other design flaws too, such as no tactile border between the buttons. I don't know how many times I've tried for one mouse button and got the other one.

Consumer advice time: Don't buy a laptop with metal skin and an internal wifi antenna. I was stupid enough to buy the Dell Inspiron Faraday Cage Edition, but it's not too late for you. There's a reason Lenovo still wraps their business-class machines in plastic.

Some of these problems are unavoidable with modern laptops. From now on, I will avoid consumer-grade computers entirely and buy from the business lineup. As is, I don't have any faith in the replacement their sending. As soon as I can afford it, I'm replacing the Dell.

I write this not only to vent my frustration, but as legitimate advice to a group of folks I have come to respect. My experience as a Dell customer has been lousy from the minute I dialed the phone number to order the smurfing thing. Avoid this company, and any company that does business with this company.

TL;DR: I bought a Dell. Now I look like this:

Really sorry to hear this man, that totally blows! There is nothing worse than going out of your way to get what you feel is the best, only to have it be junk.

I've got a Lenovo t530 and owning it has been a dream, by far the best computer I've ever had. If you do decide to jump ship and ditch the dell then Lenovo would be my recommendation. Goodluck!

derekmac · **Reply #2 on:** January 12, 2015, 03:34:05 PM

My father inlaw does contract repair work for Dell, and when he started, he couldn't believe how many problems they have with their laptops! He says that he would never buy one, or recommend one.

He also owns a point of sale business, and sells Lenovo products and has had very good luck with them.

My wife had a cheap HP that lasted her years, and had no problems with it at all. The only reason she sold it was because of the weight of it. She carries her laptop around at work for meetings, and travels with it, and with all her other stuff, it was too much. She ended up buying a Macbook Air, and that's a fantastic little machine! She's not a Mac OS fan (we have a 24" iMac, and she hated using it), but she loves the Air. It's super light, and fast.

Whoey · **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2015, 05:02:08 PM

I've heard of horror stories with all types of brands in the past.

My brother in law in particular seems to be a magnet for such problems no matter which brand he picks.

We sold our previous (Compaq) laptop on for nearly the amount we paid for it several years prior and it was still running great, the money went towards the purchase of the Lenovo (Yoga 2 Pro) we have now. The wife wanted something more easily portable to be able to take to class with her, as well as a tablet like option for reading PDFs in her degree, yet still having a proper keyboard to type up stuff. We've had a great experience with it so far, and no issues (touch wood).

sawman · **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2015, 05:09:31 PM

No problems with my Dell laptop so far but I'll be keeping an eye on it. Sorry to hear about your experiences.

I consider myself an Apple person but keep this laptop around for faster typing on the forum. Otherwise I'm on my iPhone or iPad. I used to like Windows 8 at first glance but now am realizing just how clunky it really is compared to Apple interfaces.

You did answer a question of mine as I've always wondered about Dell's on-site service. I'll definitely steer clear of Dell's in the future.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2015, 05:11:19 PM

My old Dell (Vostro 1000) was bought in 2008 and worked fine for me. A couple of years ago I replaced it with a Toshiba and gave the Dell to someone else and he's still using it.

Mind you that was a long time ago and if their laptops have problems I'll be sure to look for something else when this one meets it's end.

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

eddie1115 · **Reply #6 on:** January 12, 2015, 05:14:53 PM

I've never had any real problems with Dell, though I wouldn't consider them one of the best options. I've had several Dells over the years, and the only constant issue is battery life. Now, I've usually bought the cheaper models, with matching expectations. My company uses their laptops, and no real issues aside from, again, battery life. Based on discussions with various people, my experiences are the minority.

All that said, if I ever buy myself another laptop, I'd get a Lenovo.

av8r1 · **Reply #7 on:** January 12, 2015, 06:08:43 PM

Even the purchasing department was rough. We knew the product line better than the ditz we ordered from.

My 8 year old Gateway is still chugging along.

My next machine will be a business class machine, probably a Lenovo.

sir_mike · **Reply #8 on:** January 12, 2015, 06:13:10 PM

I owned quite a few dells but that was many, many years ago. Both laptops and desktops and never had much problem with them.

When it comes to laptops, I have had great luck with HP Elitebook's. They are an upgraded business laptop and like you said, I stay away from the consumer grade ones.

Now I have custom built desktops and for traveling around, I use a tablet.

Higgins617 · **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2015, 06:15:28 PM

Quote from: av8r1 on January 12, 2015, 06:08:43 PM

Even the purchasing department was rough. We knew the product line better than the ditz we ordered from.

My 8 year old Gateway is still chugging along.

My next machine will be a business class machine, probably a Lenovo.

If you're getting it for school spring for the extended battery.

PTRSAK · **Reply #10 on:** January 13, 2015, 02:58:08 AM

My 6 year old 13" MacBook Pro is still ticking like a Timex. It dual boots OSX and Win7 and while is is getting a little leisurely compared to the original version of the OS. I will up the RAM and drop in a SSD and I can see it making the 10 year service milestone.

I'm no fanboy, but this has been the best laptop I've ever had. Second was the Lenovo before it which started off on the wrong foot (it was pre-loaded with Vista) but after downgrading to XP it was da bomb. My mother is still using it to write letters on.

Ashley · **Reply #11 on:** January 13, 2015, 01:11:17 PM

Our desktop is a dell and we have had nothing but trouble with it. They have put at the very least 15 new "refurbished" junk hard drives in and it still doesn't work right. We have basically gave up on it being fixed. It hasn't been right since we bought it. My dell laptop lasted like 2 years before it died. I will never buy a dell again. HP for me.