Daddy Dee Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I've been in the market for a new laptop, and btw, though I have considered buying used, have never thought the Ebay market on used computers made sense. Just by way of parentheses, couldn't understand why someone would spend nearlyh a thousand dollars on a two or three year old laptop from someone they don't know instead of spending a couple of hundred more to buy a brand new one with a warranty. Anyway, go figure. That's Ebay. I've seen $25 dollar gift cards bid up to $27. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. Browsing Dell's website for a couple of weeks while thinking about features I really wanted I found myself scratching my head wondering about Dell. I ended up ordering a Studio 17 because I wanted a keypad on the keyboard, decent screen, 1066 FSB and 64-bit Vista, and it doesn't really need to be portable. Also, I have to say that after looking at the LED screen for several months on an XPS machine, that option is very nice, indeed. What seems odd, is that best I can tell, this may be the only laptop Dell sells with both the 64-bit OS AND 1066 FSB. Even among higher end XPS laptops I could not find this combination available. There were a few XPS laptops offered with 64-bit OS, but not with 1066 FSB. There were a handful of fast FSB laptops but the configurator didn't allow selection of a 64-bit OS. Another example of oddness, was hard drive selections. For example, on the Studio 17, I elected to have a pair of 320GB 5400 RPM drives, but the choice was limited to one or a pair of the same drive. No 500GB drives available, no 250GB drives available and none at 7200 RPM, all of which are common offerings on other laptops. Does this strike anyone else as odd? Is there a method to Dell's madness here? Is it a marketing thing? Is there some reason the machine I purchased would not run 500 GB drives or faster 320 GB drives? I haven't tried to get on the phone with folks at Dell to see if the order might be modified from what was available online, so perhaps this is not a real limitation for someone willing to get on the phone. Any thoughts welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Dee, Don't know about your situation but I'm not too happy with Dell right now. A couple of weeks ago I bought a new PC from Dell for my wife's business. The ship date provided was 12/12/08. It still has not shipped and the latest ship date provided was 12/18/08. Now it looks like I will not have it by Xmas barring some miracle and it was all supposed to be up and running this week along with some other equipment I purchased. The whole thing screwed up on me. In the past I have been happy with Dell and have had good luck with their equipment and stuck with them. But today I am not real happy with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 I wouldn't like that either. Have they given any reason for the delay? That's the worst I've heard from Dell. Most of the units I buy from Dell come through the outlet store. This time I ordered new because the desired configurarion wasn't available in the outlet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Dee, Don't know about your situation but I'm not too happy with Dell right now. A couple of weeks ago I bought a new PC from Dell for my wife's business. The ship date provided was 12/12/08. It still has not shipped and the latest ship date provided was 12/18/08. Now it looks like I will not have it by Xmas barring some miracle and it was all supposed to be up and running this week along with some other equipment I purchased. The whole thing screwed up on me. In the past I have been happy with Dell and have had good luck with their equipment and stuck with them. But today I am not real happy with them. I worked at a Dell manufacturing plant in Austin for ten years until they closed it recently so I can think of two possible reasons. One there may be a part shortage for the industry. Sometimes a part has high demand by Dell, HP, Apple and the supplier can not keep up with the demand, especially at Christmas. What did cust service say? The other is that after they closed the manufacturing plant I worked at the other two plants can not keep up with the demand. Many of us at the plant they closed wondered if they shut us down to soon. I worked 2nd shift which ended Aug 22 and 1st shift ended Nov. I don't know if this is the problem but they should have kept a full staffed 1st shift on till Jan to ensure they could help with the backlog. I may be able to check with some of my friends in Tech support who may be able to figure out what the hold up is. Let me talk with them and I will get back with you. I was a Expeditor/Escalation Senior Assisant while at Dell and my job was to work order completion and aged orders. I would find out why a order was not shipped and solve the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 jbsl, Thanks for your take on that. Your idea that some parts could be in short supply would make sense in terms of moving buyers working through configuration menus. If you do have a chance to ask some of your friends in tech support, I'd sure be interested to hear your take. BTW, I am sorry to hear that Dell closed your plant. Hope you have found satisfactory work since then. I was somewhat surprised that my unit was shipping from Nashville. I think I had gotten outlet units from there before. However, all my "new" systems had shipped from TX before. I passed over Sony and HP systems that had more bang for the buck in the purchase price. They offered Blu Ray and more powerful video cards and better screen resolution for less money. However, I've been a fan of Dell a long time and like doing business with a Texas based company. Also, Dell service is excellent when something breaks. Having a tech show up at the house or the office to put in a new motherboard or whatever is tons better than packing the machine up to FedEx it to the service depot. I'm afraid though, shoppers at BB will not agree and Dell will take a beating this Christmas on off the shelf systems from the retailers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Nashville does only Dimension systems/home systems while the plant I worked at did both home and business desktops. Nashville may have picked up some of the business systems once the plant closed down. What did customer service say about the order? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Austin is making servers, workstations, and probably is helping with the Christmas home comp rush. I sent you a PM. My latest hobbie is still unemployment but this is a very slow time of year for jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I do tech support at the college where I work. We normally buy Dell systems, but have on occasion bought IBM, now Lenovo. Their service has been excellent. We also had a student with an IBM desktop, out of warranty, that had a bad MB, with exploded caps visible. IBM replaced it, no questions asked. One of the faculty brought in another model with the same problem and they replaced that MB, even thought it was also out of warranty. I am usually routed to a service center in Atlanta, where the support staff are as hard to understand as the ones from India, though. Just upped my own IBM laptop from 512 Meg of ram to 2 Gig. Cost all of $25. I still think the Dells are a pretty good deal, but the margins for all of them is so slim, you know they cut every corner they can. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 Bruce, Excellent reference for IBM. I can remember back in the 80's folks saying, "nobody ever got fired for ordering IBM". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 Well, I have to say that ordering this Studio 17, I already miss XPS technical support. I'm trying to consider it entertainment, because I've now spoken with 5 people in a call center somewhere not in Texas, who have not been able to help me with this little problem. Ordered the machine with two HDD's and it only has one drive. Other than that, the machine is very nice. The look and feel is sturdy enough. The LED display is a beauty and I really like the backlit keyboard. This is an odd quality issue for Dell, IMO. The System list with my service tag says I've got two HDD's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 I'm hardly believing this. The problem with the second HDD was that it was not secured in the case. That's right. It's little cover assembly is supposed to be secured to the case/motherboard with a screw at teach corner. Nary a one was there. It plugs directly into a receptacle on the MB and the machine recognized and ran the drive as long as I held it in place. Tech support rep suggests going out to buy new screws. Dell will be closed next week and it will be near the end of the month before they can send new screws. He asked me if I wanted Dell to send the screws anyway. I said, "yes, I'd like that". I am surprised that Dell sent this unit out the door like that. Well, the good news is that this is easily fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 So it finally arrived. Sorry to hear about the missing screws! It would not surprise me if the person who built your computer has been working 3 weeks straight! Dell does this so they can ship as many Christmas systems before the 23 when manufacturing shuts down. I use to come back to work on the Sat after Thanksgiving and work right up to Dec 23 9-10 hours a day. It sucked cause I was so tired that I did not go home for Christmas but sleep Dec 24-25. I was not in any kind of a social mood and would go home on Dec 26. This will be the first year I will spend with my family at Christmas in a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Yeh. A tired builder would make sense. Hope your family time this Christmas is good time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Have a good holiday and hope you don't have anymore trouble getting the screws. If you do let me know and I'll see if my freinds in Tech support can help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Tech support rep suggests going out to buy new screws. Dell will be closed next week and it will be near the end of the month before they can send new screws. He asked me if I wanted Dell to send the screws anyway. I said, "yes, I'd like that". To be blunt, that's a bunch hooey! It's brand new and they won't send the part yet? Call support again...you'll get someone else anyway. What is the warranty for this? The should overnight the screws for the drive.If they won't send them... Those are the little black screws? They are metric, if you know the size (length), tell me and I'll send some. I have extras of different lengths. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Have a good holiday and hope you don't have anymore trouble getting the screws. If you do let me know and I'll see if my freinds in Tech support can help. thanks jbsl. I'll let you know. I imagine I can get them secured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Tech support rep suggests going out to buy new screws. Dell will be closed next week and it will be near the end of the month before they can send new screws. He asked me if I wanted Dell to send the screws anyway. I said, "yes, I'd like that". To be blunt, that's a bunch hooey! It's brand new and they won't send the part yet? Call support again...you'll get someone else anyway. What is the warranty for this? The should overnight the screws for the drive.If they won't send them... Those are the little black screws? They are metric, if you know the size (length), tell me and I'll send some. I have extras of different lengths. Bruce Bruce, I've been thinking the same thing. It is a strange response from tech support. During the last couple of months I've had four occasions for contact with XPS tech support, which is light years ahead of what one gets with ordinary Dell products, for which they are willing to offer North American tech support for $100 per year additional cost. I had two power adapters go out. For each of those there was FedEx overnight with the parts. I got two house calls, one to replace a mother board and another to replace a bad hinge. Anyway, one of the home visit techs told me that even he has trouble with the Indian call centers. On some occasion he discovers that an additional part is needed for repair. Even as a Dell contracted third party tech he is sometimes refused a part he requests. He says he just calls back until he gets a tech who will help. Sort of makes me wonder if these folks have some kind of *** oriented contract, which they are rewarded for not providing service. It's a real headscratcher for me. Just does not make sense for Dell to work in this way. The tech guy I was dealing with last night never did actually say he would write up a dispatch to send the screws. I know I'm paranoid.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 My son, Josh, works in our tech support offices. He called support one time, fter they had sent a desktop power supply for a laptop (Latitude, no less). The guy in India told him we would have to pay shipping because it was costing THEM too much money. Josh politely pointed out that it had a warranty and all the mistakes were Dell's. We got the part. It's one of the reasons they pulled a lot of the support back to U.S. call centers. I would call again. They can have those there before Christmas. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 It's one of the reasons they pulled a lot of the support back to U.S. call centers. I would call again. They can have those there before Christmas. Bruce I agree call again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Update: Sent email to tech support outlining the issue and requesting the parts. Got an email response in a couple of hours with a tech requesting to confirm my address for shipping. Looks to be resolved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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