What happened to Dell?

[AmberClad]

What exactly happened to Dell? They were riding on top for a good while there and then they end up losing the top spot to HP-Compaq.

Bad PR from the infamous flaming laptops (if I recall, Sony was more to blame for that incident)? VoodooPC working out better for HP than Alienware did for Dell? Or other factors?

 

[JackMDS]

The same thing that happened to:

Radio Shack Computers, in the early 1980.

IBM early 1990.

Compaq early 2000.

And many more.

Either you lose because providing good service become too expensive, or you lose because you stop provide good service.

 

[MarcVenice]

To come on top is hard, staying on top is even harder, especially with competitors like HP and Compaq and others. Not surprised tbh. They'll get their shit together, and come on top again, or won't. Company's come and go, that's what capitalism and fierce competition does. Not saying it's a bad thing, that's just how it is. That's putting it kinda grave though, it's not like they are out of business

 

[SerpentRoyal]

People were able to match DELL with their just in time inventory system. DELL is trying to fight back by adopting the non-direct sale model. Personally, I think HP has better styling and greater visibility via the B&M stores. It's no longer cool to own a DELL.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's no longer cool to own a DELL.

There was a time when it was cool to own a Dell ?

 

[LikeLinus]

Well I think you have to realize that HP had to buy Compaq to get that type of marketshare. Image if Dell had purchased Gateway/Emachines instead of Acer. Or better yet, if they had purchased IBM laptops (Lenovo).

HP wouldn't have done it themselves.

Dell had 17.1 vs 17.0 marketshare of 2006 vs HP (Dell lead in 2006). So you can easily see that if Dell had purchased another vendor, they would continue to lead.

 

[pythagoras]

i have always had good experiences with dell computers, i'm in the market for a new one now. my dimension lasted 7 years, and now it's just not worth upgrading price-wise; if i did upgrade it tho, i imagine it would run great for another couple years at least.

i actually didn't know that HP was on top now, is this market share-wise? review-wise? customer approval-wise?

 

[pythagoras]

i just read another post that says that "HP is on top"...what happened while i was gone?? the new dells look great...

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: pythagoras
i just read another post that says that "HP is on top"...what happened while i was gone?? the new dells look great...

It must be through 3rd quarter. Dell was on top in 2006. Not sure what the figures are now.

 

[pythagoras]

in defense of dell, i'm looking at the cnet review of the inspirion 530s, and it looks like it beats the HP in its price range hands-down in terms of performance...?

 

[AmberClad]

Well, in addition to the combusting-laptop fiasco, another theory I had was that it could have been due to the end of the Intel-exclusivity deal. (Where Intel was offering them hefty discounts or under the table payoffs to sell only Intel-based systems.)

Losing that edge may have forced them to play with HP on a more even field. This might just be me, but I tend to associate fewer blatantly bad things with HP than I do with Dell. The incendiary laptops and the stories about CS outsourced to India may have finally taken their toll, and with Dell losing their pricing advantage as far as Intel systems, HP becomes the more preferable option.

Now, to be fair to Dell, I've never personally had any issue the Dells I use at work and I've never had to call up their support. But public perception still counts for a lot. Anyone feel free to let me know if I've got any of my facts wrong.

 

[pythagoras]

that's all very interesting, amberclad, i didn't know all that stuff. so hp was phone support in the US, opposed to india for dell?

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: pythagoras
that's all very interesting, amberclad, i didn't know all that stuff. so hp was phone support in the US, opposed to india for dell?

I have no idea what the customer support situation with HP is, which is sort of the point. "No news is good news." I simply have not heard any stories about HP's CS, good or bad. It honestly wouldn't surprised me if HP's CS was outsourced to India as well -- but somehow Dell managed to get their company name associated with outsourced CS to a far greater extent.

 

[Pardus]

They seem to be going backwards with technology.there flagship desktop is the xps 730 starting at $1700.. besides the price, the case is huge.. most folks these days don't need a case that can hold 4 dvd burners or 8 hard drives. This was great 5 years ago.

For me a case that can hold a dvd burner, 1 or 2 hd's and a nice video card is plenty.

Dell is coming out with the XPS 420 in October.. reviewers say it's nothing special.

There other desktop system Inspiron is just ok, nothing breakthru here. There business class Vostro and Optiplex come with a dvd reader and 80gig hard drives, really sad if your running vista.

Dell's tech support is also horrible, they will ask you for your name and address at least 6 times and spend an avg. of 30-60 mins troubleshooting even the most simple problems.

On my dell desktop, the motherboard-power supply and hard drive died in the first month, they replaced those parts. when the dvd-burner died 9 mos later.. the ready light kept flashing even when i swapped it into another case. Dell kept telling me it was a software issue, cabling wrong and problems with my os.. all were wrong, after 45 mins on the phone.. they finally sent a tech out to install the new burner. There tech had the drive set to slave(instead of master) and the ide cable was backwards (duh).. he couldn't figure out why the system wouldn't boot.. i kept asking the guy.. you been a p.c. tech how long??

Buy a dell cause the price is cheap and upgrade parts later on, if you buy it for the 3-year warranty.. be prepared to spend 1/2 your day on the phone with them when something goes horribly wrong.

To compare dell with hp is tough. my hp laptop almost 3 years old, never ever had a single issue that required me to call them. Cant say that with dell.

All my systems that were custom builds are still running to this day.. even my celeron 300 p.c, very old yes.. but runs like a champ.

The majority of people why buy a dell are unable to build there own rig and buy a 4-year warranty so they don't have to worry about anything.

 

[JustaGeek]

I have owned HP computers and printers since 2004 and am utterly impressed.

Their support website is the easiest place to find drivers, software, product specifications (including motherboard layouts and jumper settings) and even... Repair Manuals with detailed instructions how to replace the CPU and the HSF in your laptop!

All you have to do is type in the model number of your computer/printer in the "search" window of their "Support and Drivers" website.

In addition to the above, they use off-the-shelf quality components: ASUS and MSI motherboards, Seagate Hard Drives, brand name memory modules etc.

All in standard ATX or micro-ATX format, so replacing/adding a Power Supply or a Video Card is extremely easy.

And... I am probably lucky, but I have not experienced failure with any of their product, so it is very hard to comment on the quality of their Customer Support.

Let's just hope it stays that way...

 

[Aluvus]

1. Customer support that was once the envy of the industry is now an outsourced joke.

2. Other companies have copied most of the strengths of Dell's low-overhead model, even as Dell increases overhead with mall kiosks and such (a cheaper version of the failed Gateway Country stores).

3. Reduced personal involvement of Michael Dell, who is now back at the reins.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's no longer cool to own a DELL.

There was a time when it was cool to own a Dell ?

Sure, just like Apple today.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

The average selling price of a DELL used to be cheaper than HP by at least 10%. Course we now know that DELL was cooking the book to inflate profit margins. Most people would rather go to the store to visually "test drive" the new PC. It's also much more convenient to return a defective item at the store. If you have to pay sale tax on top of shipping, then you may not save that much $ with a DELL today.

 

[Venomous]

I finally went to HP for my laptop and im not regretting it one bit. My last Dell laptop was a service nightmare. The customer service is even worse.

I was in the market for a new laptop 7 weeks ago. I had decided on a Dell. After i had outfitted the unit and placed the order, i had a 3 week build time. I called to make a simple change to the video card and was on hold the first time for over 81 minutes.. Than i was hung up on. The second time i called, i was on hold again, 76 minutes and again, my call was dropped. I made two more calls before throwing in the towel with an excessive time of over 60 minutes before i hung up.

I went to HPs site and outfitted myself with a HP Pavilion DV9500T fully loaded. I grabbed a 30% off coupon from tech bargains. I was looking at about $1355 shipped and taxed out. I decided to call customer support just to see what i would be dealing with. 31 seconds i was speaking to an american! WOW!

Anyhow, i told her my issues with DELL and she gave me 3 years accidental coverage ontop of my coupon to get my sale. It worked. Im very happy. I dont want to go into the nitemare story of cancelling my dell order however i will sum it up quickly. After an additional 3 calls, i sort of got my order cancelled.. problem was... they moved the build time of my laptop to 4 hrs built and shipped overnight after the cancellation... hmmm i never paid for overnight shipping! One i got a case rep on it, i got the ups labels to send it back sight unopened.

I helped a friend out last week by upgrading his troubled Dell to Vista.. He had mass spyware in it. I installed Vista and had a nightmare of a time trying to find appropriate drivers for his hardware. I still never got the sound card to work and Dell doesnt have Vista drivers.. although.. the computer say " Vista Ready "

In a nutshell, Dell is DEAD and their customer service is even worse. The HP is beautiful to look at and runs like a dream. I couldnt be happier. Their site is easy to navigate and find what you need.

 

[neothe0ne]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: pythagoras
that's all very interesting, amberclad, i didn't know all that stuff. so hp was phone support in the US, opposed to india for dell?

I have no idea what the customer support situation with HP is, which is sort of the point. "No news is good news." I simply have not heard any stories about HP's CS, good or bad. It honestly wouldn't surprised me if HP's CS was outsourced to India as well -- but somehow Dell managed to get their company name associated with outsourced CS to a far greater extent.

Let this post be your first news, and it's bad:

HP, like Microsoft, employs non-native English speakers to answer the support phones. I called both in an attempt to transfer my OEM Windows XP. HP's guy was kind enough to hang up on me as I was giving him my email address.

 

[pythagoras]

venomous, "dell is dead"...? them's fightin words!

whenever i'm in any sort of office enviorment, i usually see dells...but is this a sign of being on the way out (like IBM) or a sign of superiority??

i know i'm biased to dell, as i've never had a problem with my dimension in 7 years (just my piece of the pie to balance the post). i've heard some people have problems with dells, some with hp's. i'll be the judge of it all if i ultimately become the owner of a new inspiron.

...but the phone support stories are scary, yikes. so i'll have to ship my dell for repairs, huh. well on the hp side, what quality of service are you getting from the geek squad at best buy, per se? i also know of the advantages to apple's customer support, as i have an apple store local to me. i just like windows better than mac OS. i have a mac and a PC but i just can't bring myself to going all mac...

 

[bamacre]

This should be a very nice system,...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ells-xps-420-revealed/
...but it may end up being more expensive compared to what we see with the current xps 410 system.

The current Dell Precision 390 workstation is top-notch right now. Very well-built, well-designed, fast, stable system. And pretty damn quiet as well. Pricey when buying new, but does come standard with a 3YR NBD warranty, and XP Pro or Vista Biz.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: bamacre
This should be a very nice system,...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ells-xps-420-revealed/
...but it may end up being more expensive compared to what we see with the current xps 410 system.

The current Dell Precision 390 workstation is top-notch right now. Very well-built, well-designed, fast, stable system. And pretty damn quiet as well. Pricey when buying new, but does come standard with a 3YR NBD warranty, and XP Pro or Vista Biz.

That article mentions something about a "Dell Xcelerator" media coprocessor. Sounds intriguing, but I'm having a hard time finding details on what exactly that thing is .

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: bamacre
This should be a very nice system,...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ells-xps-420-revealed/
...but it may end up being more expensive compared to what we see with the current xps 410 system.

The current Dell Precision 390 workstation is top-notch right now. Very well-built, well-designed, fast, stable system. And pretty damn quiet as well. Pricey when buying new, but does come standard with a 3YR NBD warranty, and XP Pro or Vista Biz.

That article mentions something about a "Dell Xcelerator" media coprocessor. Sounds intriguing, but I'm having a hard time finding details on what exactly that thing is .

I'm sure we'll see more info when the system is actually released. This is going to be a pretty high-end system. They are going to use the X38 chipset instead of the P35 which would otherwise be normal for this range model from Dell (they used the 945P in the XPS 400 and 410).

If this coprocessor is for media encoding, I am a little surprised because dual and quad core processors can handle those jobs really well. This system will be designed for Wolfdale and Yorkfield which I believe are even better for media encoding.

 

[JackMDS]

The whole thread puzzles me.

Most of the participant take care of their own computer (actually more build their own).

Most people here know and understand the specs. of each computer.

So why general marketing numbers should be of any significance?

You need a computer, you evaluate the hardware, and the price and you buy whatever is the best deal whether it Dell HP, or anyone else.

I do not buy a Computer (or any thing else) just because someone else buys or do not buy it.