Dell Dealt Me A Dud
Oct 22 '00
Folks, I hate to be the one to ruin the party, but there is something I have to say -
Dell was once a favorite of mine when it came to system design, but that was before I got to know one, personally. It was also before their technical support showed me just how little customers are worth to them.
I'll give you a bit of background, first:
I am currently typing on a Dell Dimension XPS P200s (EXACT PRICE UNKNOWN), with a 17" monitor (Dell, $849). The first problem I had was when the monitor blew. I contacted technical support immediately, because I bought it brand new - directly from them - and had only had it for two weeks. The woman I spoke with first had such an attitude that I felt it was my duty to mankind to reach through the phone, pinch her face, and scream, "Gotcher nose!" Eventually, after dealing with the rudeness for about 15 minutes - long enough! - I asked to speak with her supervisor. She promptly hung up, and I decided that I would take advantage of my rage and call back.
The second time I called, I was able to speak with the supervisor immediately, but was not satisfied at all when he stated that their "employees do not generally respond that way unless they are antagonized by a customer." When I questioned if he thought it was me, he said, "Well, sir, it wasn't me." So I proceeded to ask him what happened to "The Customer Is Always Right"? His answer - "C'mon, sir. This is the real world."
At least he said "sir."
Finally, the next day, I was able to resolve the issue. They instructed me to send the monitor back, which I did. Unfortunately, the weight of the monitor made shipping very expensive.... oh, by the way: did I mention YOU pay all return-shipping costs?
Ten days after I sent the monitor out, I received a brand-new replacement. It all seemed well for a few weeks, but then I noticed it began to flicker. Now, 80% of the time I am seeing a deep-violet color, canvassing the seventeen-inch, 1024x768, 24-bit True Color display that should actually be showing me a plain black-and-white notepad file.
As if all this was not enough to disgust a customer, the clencher is in the overall system performance.
The Dimension XPS P200s "boasts" a speed of 200MHz (INTERNAL), but that speed is drastically reduced to the near-sickly external speed of 66MHz (BUS SPEED).
If you think you can move that hard drive from one computer to the next.... think again. Dell's format is not your typical run-of-the-mill IBM compatibility. And in case you are wondering: NO. It is by NO MEANS better than the basic format.
Dell uses its own versions of operating systems (i.e. - Windows 95 for your Dell PC), which is system-specific. Great, you can reduce piracy by doing this. Unfortunately, if you ever need to upgrade your hardware and have to reinstall, make sure you have their disks handy, because that $200 OS you just bought is going to be a PITA (Pain In The @$$) to put up.
The access time of the RAM is absolutely horrid. While the 64MB SDRAM (Dell, as well) I am using is supposed to have an average of 9ns, the actual access time is almost 1.05 seconds. I know this doesn't sound like much, but when you are loading programs, multitasking (which I do a little too much), or surfing any mediocre websites, you'll notice it.
Installing new hardware is a snap, because the side of the case comes off without necessitating the use of any tool other than the two that grew on your wrists. The twist-bold on the side panel comes out with 9 twists (I get bored sometimes while on the phone), and - viola! - the internals are bared like Mel Gibson in "Braveheart."
However, before we celebrate the ease of installation, note that Dell's PnP (Plug 'n Play) is not one of the best. It may take a few swings before you hit it off with the integration of your new device. If you think about it, though, this happens with many systems, and Dell's stands up better than quite a few. It's not a software problem, its the instability in access time of the PnP BIOS, PCI, and ISA expansion slots. To be fair, though, I will concede that there are slight occasions when the data transfer rate exceeded the descriptions.
Compatibility via 3.5" FDD from your Dell to another computer is next-to-impossible. Apparently, Dell prefers to write data in their own format once again, which renders your disk almost useless, unless you are only going to use it for that exact same machine (or format it).
Without the FLASH BIOS, you cannot install a hard drive any larger than 8.4 GB (which I found out the hard way - that was my own stupid fault for not checking).
There are also many other bugs that I haven't mentioned, but if you are a Dell owner, you know what I mean. Thus, sadly, I need to sum it up with the following statement.
"Friends don't let friends buy Dell."
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Epinions.com ID:
The_triad
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Member: Daniel Brown
Location: Olyphant, Pa - USA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
I know this kid whose cousin had a friend whose uncle beat up your Dad.
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