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Are DELL's really that great without their warranty and customer service???

J

jinjen

Senior member
Experts,

Since I might be leaving the country for a long period of time, I was wondering if the DELLs are worth the relatively higher price without their excellent warranty and customer service. Obviously, the warranty and customer service is not as issue outside the US.

Seems like DELL is offering a great deal on their systems as well as laptops, both of which I plan to purchase, if not the DELLs.

Would I be better off getting something cheaper?

Please advise.
 
dell's are ok. i have 3. they now have all of the specs on them(the motherboard chipset etc.) when you go to customize it, so it's important on the model you get. i got stuck with an 810E chipset for my PIII because my dad didn't wanna spend the money to upgrade from an L series, but yeah, they're good
 
Even WITH Dell's warranty and service, you're still better off getting a cheaper identical system from a reputable local dealer. If you absolutely cannot find a credible local shop, there are plenty of outfits on the Net that can put together a nice, full-customized system with standard parts, offer service similar to Dell's, and charge you less money.

Bottom line, buying name brand computers means just that -- paying for a name.

Modus
 
Dell uses the Palo Alto case which i think is a HUGE plus. its not as ugly as most cases and the construction is one of the best. of course i think most of the cases in small computer shops are ugly (enlight, addtronics, antec) and the plastic is crappy. their puters are good too, and they will basicly replace any part for 3 years. they replaced a mother board for a p2 266 with no questions asked with free next day air. buying from some small place will not get that as they don't have nearly as much money to replace such an old part. the mobo was used though, but working.
 
As he was saying though noxipoo, he will be out of the country and therefore unable to get replacement parts under warranty from dell or any other company anyway. I would say find the best price you can from all the major dealers on the computer you want, then go online and see if you can find a reputable computer dealer (checkReseller Ratings to see if they have a good reputation) that will sell you a computer with the same or similar parts for less. You could do the same and pricecheck the local mom and pop computer stores too. I guarantee you will find a place that sells a computer with quality parts for less.
 
Russ over @ compucheap.com has great tech surport, and will build you a custom system @ a competive price.
 
Modus, I disagree.

I have shopped high and low, and Dell comes out on top. I cant find a better deal from a local store then what Dell has to offer. The stores will match what Dell has, but use lower quality parts in the process, and not even save very much money in the end. $50 maybe $100. But then with Dell, you need to tack on shipping, which isnt a big deal 😀

When you buy a Dell, you know it will run. They test it, and retest it, and have all the proper drivers, and their tech support is awsome. If you dont want to build your own system, they are the only way to go.
 
I know you can get international warranties for laptops, and you CAN relocate the system warranty, just make CERTAIN you call Dell to get it done BEFORE you have a prolbem as the process takes several weeks to transfer the warranty.
 
Dell without the customer service and warranty is JUNK. The company I work for is a Dell only company. Many of the engineers, including myself, have wondered how they make a profit since nearly every one of us has had on site support to replace a major component of our system (docking station, LCD, mb). Most have had the mb replaced at least 1 time.

It is no wonder they are giving a profit warning.
 
I dont care much for Dell's either, but maybe I've just had bad luck.
Anyway, for a private computer, I wouldnt go with any of the big brands, I'd rather take Modus' advice(though take what he says with a grain of salt, cause he's the biggest cheap-ass I've ever seen 🙂).
 
noxipoo,

<<Dell uses the Palo Alto case which i think is a HUGE plus. its not as ugly as most cases and the construction is one of the best. of course i think most of the cases in small computer shops are ugly (enlight, addtronics, antec) and the plastic is crappy>>

At the end of the day, a sexy case won't let you get your work done any faster. There's a reason the PC industry has tended toward the so called &quot;beige box&quot; for some time now: it's cheap, standardized, and modal. Only with the introduction of the iMac and Apple's goal to sell computers based on cosmetics rather than components, has the PC industry decided to put more effort into outward appearance. In the end, the box sits on the floor as it should and never gets admired.

As for the &quot;construction&quot; of a case, this too is irrelevant. Plastic or metal, glass or wood, have you ever seen a case break due to faulty construction? About the only thing that matters is airflow, and many generic cases are outfitted with secondary fans.

Daz,

<<I have shopped high and low, and Dell comes out on top.>>

Try shopping far and wide instead of high and low 😉. Finding a company able to beat Dell's price is about as hard as finding a Smith in the phone book. I have dozens of customers who bring me Dell's latest evil, glossy flyer, bright eyed and excited about all the stuff they offer, who are genuinely surprised to find out how much more I can give them for the same price.

Dell's expensive, bloated sales division, its refusal to use AMD processors and the patently superior value they offer, and its consistency in using proprietary, non standard motherboards adds up to a company that is incredibly easy to beat from a price/performance perspective. Unfortunately, like Intel, they are riding the wave of their own marketing, and most people will likely never think to look elsewhere.

OneEng,

<<Dell without the customer service and warranty is JUNK.>>

Heck, Dell with the customer service is junk. What difference does it make if they replace it the next day, if it causes you so the lost productivity? You'll notice that the companies with the best warranty policies often have those policies because customers would revolt without them 😉

jinjen,

I think HellRaven has the right idea. A little Net research will find you a decent company to deal with.

Modus
 
No they suck. At least performance wise. I have to use a Dell here at work and every custom system I have built is faster with comparable parts. I don't know why, but they sure feel faster and crisper.

amish
 
Just to play the devil's advocate, if you HAD to pick a name brank company, would you even consider compaq, gateway, IBM, or lord knows an eMachine? Come on. The first two are complete trash, IBM is more overpriced than I can dream about, and eMachines, well, you know.

On the whole though, everyone here is right. Find an online shop, and do some business. If you want SOMETHING of a name, go with quantex or micron perhaps.

gl
 
I own a Dell and it has never given me a lick of trouble.

Despite what naysayers like OneEng may post, Dell computers are in fact reliable. Most of my friends own Dell systems and have not had any significant problems.

Dells might not be as fast as a custom built comp, but they are fast and upgradable.
 
Like I've said many times before to my friends and this forum.

If you know what the bleep you are doing, you are better off building your machine yourself. If you don' tknow how to turn on a copmuter then Dells are better.

Gatsby
 
For those who say dell ain't cheap...look at this -

Optiplex GX110
P3-733
128 Megs RAM
10 gig 7200RPM HD
I810 video
Int SB 64 sound
Int 10/100 NIC
Zip 100
48x CDROM
3com 56k modem
MS intellimouse
Keyboard
Win98se and other misc. software

For this I paid $849 shipped to my door. You can't hardly build something for this cheap that comes with a 3 year/next day air warranty and an OS.

Throw in a Sony trinitron 17&quot; for another $275 and thats one hell of a system for a little over a grand! This particular system comes w/ 5 PCI slots so could pitch in a decent PCI video card if you felt the need.

That's one hell of a system for a little over a 1000 bones!

And I don't know what sort of local computer shops you have around your area, but the ones around here wouldn't know a decent deal if it came and bit them in the ass. $20 bucks for an OEM floppy...WTF? $70 for an 8 meg vanta...sure. $89 for a used ISA SCSI card...sheesh! How do these guys manage to stay in business?

If you don't want to worry about loosing a reciept for stick of ram, or any other part for that matter in the event that the part goes bad and you have to RMA, then look into a dell.

BTW - what are your main needs for a computer?
If you game, what type of games do you play? Will it be mainly a word processor/mail checker?

It really makes a difference in what you buy.
 
TroubledShooter,

<<Just to play the devil's advocate, if you HAD to pick a name brank company>>

Well, assuming that for some demented reason you decided it would actually be a worth it to purchase a name brand PC, and assuming you escape comital to a mental hospital for such an obvious sign of psychosis, then I would suggest you pick up a Gateway or a CyberMax computer.

But do it before the nice men in white coats come for you 😉

KarinstheHutt,

<<Dells might not be as fast as a custom built comp, but they are fast and upgradable>>

Actually, Dell computers have a horrible track record when it comes to upgradability. A large part of the problem is the fact that they use terrible Intel OEM motherboards which are specifically designed to limit speeds, even thought their chipsets could easily support newer CPU's with a simple BIOS update. And I don't know if they still do this, but Dell machines used to use proprietary cases that only accepted Dell aproved motherboards.

Vi_Edit,

<<And I don't know what sort of local computer shops you have around your area, but the ones around here wouldn't know a decent deal if it came and bit them in the ass>>

Well when you live in a small town, selection will be poor. But that doesn't stop you from finding a bargain on the Net. I think the problem many have is that they think the Dell name actually stands for something. PC buyers need to realize that a computer is nothing more than the sum of its parts -- a nice sticker on the case is worth the glue holding it. If another company offers an identical system for less money and provides decent service (and there are no shortage of companies that provide far better value than Dell) then you buy from them. Simple as that.

Modus
 
Here's a decent deal...

The link above is pretty much identical to what I did. With the discounts they are offering, you really can't do much better.

And Modus...gateway?? BWUAHAHAHA!

You ever try to get ahold of technical support to RMA a part? Hope you aren't planning on doing anything for the afternoon. Average wait time to get ahold of a gateway rep to get a replacement part was about 45 minutes. This was a year ago so I apologize if they have gotten any better.

Longest I've ever waited to get ahold of Dell was about 10.

BTW - these systems may be refurbished, but a 3 year next day warranty is a 3 year next day warranty.
 
vi_edit:
I just build my aunt a pc with the following stuff:
Aopen midtower
windows me
700mhz Pentium3
128megs of ram
15 gig 7200 rpm drive
40x panasonic cdrom
Creative Ensoniq soundcard
Cheappy Creative speakers
voodoo3 2000
Epox 6vba2 motherboard
Lexmark z22 with extra ink
Samsung 17&quot; dynaflat monitor
Logitec keyboard and optical mouse
and a 3com 56k I threw in for free

All this ended up being $1100

This is pretty competitive to what you said dell had for a great price.
Plus almost everything has a 3 or more year warrenty on it.

If you had to pick a name brand pc I would get a micron or have www.mwave.com build you a pc.


Gatway is suck
They were going to make me reformat my computer because I was running windows 98 that I didn't buy from them to get my dvd replaced. Wtf is up with that? Not to meantion back when I was dumb they hung up on me or my mom more than once. Or else they will promise to call back but they never will. You also have to wait on hold for an eternity.
 
Oh, and I'd say that a population of 150,000+ isn't exactly small. Also, the shop I was in last week was the 3rd largest city in the state. Prices were still absolutely ridiculous.

If you may have a computer shop close to you, then more power to you, but unfortunately, in the 10 or so mom and pop shops in 4 different states the prices they list are totally unnacceptable.
 
I'll just leave this conversation at this - don't throw away exceptional service to save $100 bucks.

When you build your own computer, you have upwards of 10 different companies that you may have to contact in the event that the part fails. You also have the problem of figuring out if you work through the vendor or the manufacturer.

If a part does fail in factory built (ie dell, gateway, ect), you just call one phone number.

Also, if you do have to RMA a self built part, you have to put up with often times toll numbers, long waits, and incompetent RMA reps that really aren't there to help you because your RMA is costing thier company money. Anybody having the &quot;pleasure&quot; of dealing with Abit knows exactly what I mean.

If you aren't that good of troubleshooter, or just plain don't have the time to dick around with trying to replace a part, I would seriously consider looking at a pre-built PC.
 
i never want to buy a brand name computer like dell, gateway etc for me we just buy the brand name, the system is still the same, and the performance is still the same with our built one! the different just the service and warranty
 
Ok. Here's my try to beat their price: 🙂

AMD T-Bird 800 $131
Fan: $14
128mb PC133 SDRAM: $78
G400 16mb Video Card: $75
Epox 8kta Motherboard w/onboard sound $107
Realtek 8139 10/100 NIC $12
56Kbps Lucent modem $20
Maxtor 20gb 7200 RPM: $117
Afreey 50x CDROM: $34
Floppy: $12
100mb Zip: $49
250W Mid-Tower Case: $34
Mitsumi Keyboard: $8
MS Intellimouse: $15
Win98 SE: $89

Well, there you go...
Some prices are local, some on-line (CPU &amp; RAM online)

$795 +shipping or Tax.. 😉

amish
 
crazydood,

The cost of your computer is approximately the same as the one listed. But, the DELL computer comes with Win98 (Plus MSword at a minimum), a Virus scanner and the one he listed includes a Trinitron monitor.

Unless you can get resale prices you cannont beat the cost of a Dell computer if you factor in the cost of legitimate software. Using resale prices I can usually match a Dell price but it reduces my margins to razor thin. Higher volume Mom&amp;Pop stores can probably match Dell prices easier but they often resort to using FIC motherboards and other substandard components to keep margins up. Dell computers are very competitely priced for the value they provide and the service and support is way over the top.

And to answer the orginal poster, you should call Dell and talk to them about where you are going to be moving. Being that they are an international corporation you can probably still get support and replacement parts outside the US, but you won't get them next day air like you would in the US.
 
I have an old Dell. It's the biggest piece of JUNK! when I wanted to upgrade every thing was proprietary (i.e. power supply, motherboard).
 
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