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DontBuyDell.com

dontbuydell.com

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Re: DontBuyDell.com

#151

I'll just chime in with my opinion, too. Why not? Maybe somebody will find it helpful. I generally disagree with the opinions of the article, which is to say, my experience is different. I have used XPS 15s exclusively as my dev laptops since 2016. None of the 3 I've used since then ever let me down. My oldest still works marvelously and I use as my primary dev platform with Linux, and my newest from 2021 as my backu…

I imagine the site author is coming from the desktop world or the Mac world.

Dell is far from perfect from a QC standpoint but not nearly as bad as what's been described here. I have a $500 Dell Vostro from 2011 that is still running fine. It only needed a heat sink replacement that was covered by the Next Business Day in-home service warranty.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#152
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the credibility of your testimony is diminushed by the fact you are using a throwaway.

If anything, the credibility is diminished by the timeframe being 15 years ago. You would have thought their market share would have collapsed underneath the weight of all these quality control issues.

Well, Dell _did_ end up being targeted by Danish public TV for breaking consumer laws and having ridiculously long wait times for support calls. That's about the time I got out. Unfortunately, DR seems to have removed older seasons of "Kontant" from their online player.

I'd be surprised if Dell didn't do something to improve things after that, but as I said I'm not taking that chance.

Edit:

Found a reference to the TV show from a Danish tabloid. It's as much as I can say without doxing myself: https://ekstrabladet.dk/forbrug/dinepenge/article4181606.ece

Edit 2:

An article about the affair in ComputerWorld: https://www.computerworld.dk/art/54886/dell-faar-taesk-for-d...

Another one about Dell trying to spam DR's comment fields with positive comments after the show was aired: https://www.computerworld.dk/art/127000/dell-bruger-lyssky-k...

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again Ideapads can be dirt cheap.

I'll rather buy an expensive machine and use for a decade without problems instead of buying a dirt cheap machine and suffer indefinitely.

So many people go the other way on this :(

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#154
post #70

I had an older XPS 13 developer edition. My main complaint was that it used a thin barrel-tip charger. After relegating it to the kid's Minecraft machine, the plug would get jostled around and short out the charger. After several charger replacements, I gave up and it sits unused on a shelf. The newer generation XPS uses a USB-C charger. I wonder if that would hold up any better with kids. At least a USB brick is che…

The USB C ports get a lot of flex fast, but the connection remained stable in my experience, regarding both data & power.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#155
post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

Just throwing this out there, but you can put Prosupport on anything if you ask about it in their live chat. Even the refurbs from Warehouse.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#156
post #13

I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for people when they ask what laptop they should get. Dell XPS support is also fantastic, if you go though the business channel and pay for support. That said, Dell XPS is no longer my recommendation as the "New" line is a serious downgrade. They removed the head…

I think for XPS line Dell has always prioritized form over function. My wife(then GF) bought top of the line XPS13 somewhere in 2011-2012. It was red, thin and looked pretty amazing, except it had crippling overheating issues that required motherboard replacement 2 times (in India). The trend continues to this day ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpwCpubr_0 ) and hence I wouldn't touch XPS line with a 10 feet stick, if I can help it.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#157
post #144

> I asked GPT-3 what it thinks about Dell laptops. Here is what an AI learned from summerizing the internet Are there any details about how this text was generated? Or are we sure that there was no bias and no leading questions involved?

Of course there's bias.

Most people go online to complain, not praise their computers. That is what the GPT model is being trained to summarize.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#158
post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

We have had terrible problems with the Precision 3000 series overheating/blue-screening on our engineers while using SolidWorks and AutoCAD, and Dell’s response to us was that they couldn’t recommend that series for that purpose, after their rep had done exactly that. Also their WD19TB docks have been terrible. The display ports randomly crap out, the power supply randomly craps out, the ethernet ports randomly crap…

To be fair, HP's Thunderbolt docks are the exact same shit-show too. I've got experience with both and I hate them both.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#159
My experience with Dell laptops is, I had a 13" machine with some nvidia GPU, and ran World of Warcraft on it. It was rather hot to touch, but otherwise ran okay.

Until one day the laptop caught fire. Not metaphorically, it just sat on my desk and burned. Good thing I was next to it when this happened.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#160

I worked in one of Dell's outsourcing partners' call centres (admittedly I left almost 15 years ago), and back then it was the same people manning both consumer and business support lines. Towards the end of 2007 Dell started separating the two segments and that's where the problems started (edit: not sure about the exact date -- processes like that tend to take a while to plan) : * Dell European consumer division wa…

I worked for a Dell outsourced tech support center in America (Sitel, then ClientLogic). We only handled "busines" lines. In reality, it's a mix of business and consumers who used an employee purchase program. Systems are given a company number (might not be the correct name). The company number determines if a support queue handles that system. If it's not your numbers, transfer.

This was circa 2005-2007. I was in the pilot program for chat support in America.

Dell did not directly manage agents. They give a call center average metrics and it's up to the call center to hit them. Call centers are terrible places and want to cut corners and make money. 1 in 10 agents on our floor could actually fix your computer without help. Level 2 agents walk the floor to help the level 1 agents.

We did not have scripts past a greeting and maybe a closing. I don't think it was required, but you just start doing it.

There's an internal support decision tree from Dell. Once you follow it enough, you learn the shortcuts. For example, if a customer says they swapped a part to a new system and the problem follows the part, we can skip troubleshooting and replace.

Parts are split into cru and fru (customer vs field replaceable units). We tried to get customers to work with crus. Crus wouldn't get on site service. It can happen but takes approval. I never heard of a quota around this.

Second tier escalations were handled in house. That was me for technical and sometimes the customers bad day. I don't remember if there was a third level of escalation that got you to dell if you were out of technical options. If you were out of warranty by more than a grace period, I was your last stop.

Consumer systems are not as good as business grade. That's why their standard warranty is shorter. Business systems are easier to work on.

There is a level of support above business if you spend enough money where we will have a part leave the warehouse in 4 hours (maybe less). Usually, these companies have their own company numbers and presumably better agents.

I only buy Dell Latitude and above, though would consider business products from other companies. I buy them for my "business" which doesn't need any kind of proof.

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