(Rev-Mar 30)Fast orders if you know what you want
Written: Nov 27 '01 (Updated Mar 30 '02)
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The Bottom Line
If you know what you wanted then Dell4me is great because you can order online. Otherwise, you'll have to call and be on hold for customer service.
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| Full Review |
Dell.com or Dell4me.com which redirects to Dell.com is the online web site for America's number 1 PC manufacturer. Dell is renowned for its technical support, computers and its built to order system of computer manufacturing.
Getting to the main Dell.com web site, you will notice links to the Dell.com home page with the American flag (default), Contact , Search, Support, Order Status and Your Cart. The Contact link, lists the contact phone & fax numbers and email addresses of the departments of Dell as well as its mailing addresses. The Search page firsts prompts for the areas (Home/Home Office, Small Business, Large Business, Healthcare, Federal Governent, Education or all US Customers) of the web site in which to narrow the search. Then, you can enter the words or phrases of your search. To narrow the search further, you can also check the various areas of the web site such as Product Information, Support.Dell.com, About Dell.com and others to search for only specific information, The Order Status page provides real time status of your current Dell order. Upon entering the Dell order number and verification data, it will take you to a web page that provides up to date information on the order status. For the Canadian web site, you will need to enter your Dell order number and your postal code. For multiple orders, there is an area where you can enter either your customer number, link number or po number. The Canadian site only allows input of the PO number. The Your cart page is an overview of a virtual online shopping cart showing the details such as product info, quantity, price, etc and total of a saved online cart. Underneath the links is the "Choose A country" drop down menu, which allows anyone from almost anywhere in the world (from Anguilla to Vietnam) to access the relevant Dell.com web site to order their Dell computer with prices and promotions available in their relevant home currency.
To the right, there are links aimed at specific customers such as consumers via Home & Home Office link, businesses via the Small Business or Medium & Large Business links, public sector via the State & Local Government, Federal Government, Education, and Healthcare links. Underneath all that, there are pictures and links to specific Dell products such as servers & storage, notebooks & desktops, networking, software & peripherals & services to allow users to quickly access information on the variety of product lines available.
The Dell.com or its other worldwide sites is fairly straightforward, easy to navigate around and use. Links are easily identifiable and logical. Clicking on a specific picture on a promotion or special will take you to a page with more info on the product or products as well as prices. For most pages on the web site, there will be links to My Account Login, Register Now (for those without a Dell.com account to set one up), My Cart, Order Status, Product Finder (search for specific products), Payment Solutions (payment options available), Tax & shipping info, Secure Shopping Guarantee, Returns, Privacy Policy, Request a Catalog, Refurbished Systems, DellExchange (marketplace to sell, trade or donate your Dell computer), Dell Affiliates Program, Rebates, BellSouth FastAcess DSL.
Regardless of what type of customer you are (home, government, etc), near the top of the page are tabs for Systems (Computer systems), Software & Accessories, Services & Support & Learning Center. The default is Systems which has links to Desktop, Notebooks (laptops), Servers, Storage, Networking, Accessories, and Hot Deals. Under Software & Accessories there will be links to products ranging from Accessories to Printers. The Services tab will provide links to Payment options, Support services (system & software support, asset recovery and other online support available), Installation (for businesses), Consulting (for businesses), Website hosting & Integration. The Support tab will have links to Technical Support, Training (online courses), Customer Service, Services (same as Services tab), Parts for Dell (replacement part sales), Warranties, Dell Care (support & warranty coverage), and Awards & Reviews (independent awards & reviews on dell products). The Learning Center tab contains links to EducateU (online courses), Dell Technologies (info on home technology solutions such as home networking, broadband, etc) and Dell Browser magazine (contains updated articles on computer care and technology).
As most readers of this review will be home and home office users, I will focus on the home and home user area of the site. Other areas of the site may differ in some ways, but they all eventually take you to a page where you can customize the product you are looking at and provide quick access to online ordering, pricing and delivery information. Clicking on the Home & Home Office link will take you to the main page which will show the current promotions and specials as well as links to specific products such as desktop, notebooks, servers, storage, accessories, etc. Clicking on any of those links will take you to a page which will outline the various models available as well as a brief overview of the technical specifications and more information such as prices and configurations.
For example, if you click on the Desktops link in the Home & Home Office area, it will first take you to a page which lists the various models of Dimension desktops available: 8200, 8100, 4300 and 2100 along with brief technical specifications and pricing. Clicking on any of the models will take you to a page which will provide more information on the model, graphical product views (if applicable), detailed technical specifications (eg.such as number of PCI slots, etc) and service & support available and provided. If you are interested in configuring and pricing of the product, you can click on either the "Customize & Price" or "Recommended Systems" link to be taken to a page which provides pricing. Clicking on the either link will provide a page of configurations for the model you specified. Clicking the "Customize It" link from the configuration chosen will take you to a page in which you can customize the system in many ways. All through the page from top to bottom are various components of the system. There are checkboxes and drop down menus which allow you to select various configurations to suit your needs. You can learn more about a component by clicking the "Learn More" link which will bring up a pop up window which will provide more information on the components and the various types available. By selecting or de-selecting various components, you can easily configure the system and quickly calculate the price by just clicking the "Update Price" link. For example, you can choose to have more RAM, bigger hard drive, larger monitor, CDRW drive, etc. This is a very handy and invaluable tool to use for the consumer who is into maximizing price for performance. I, myself have used this tools many times before settling on my Dell laptop system. This is the one aspect of ordering from Dell that I like most, the ability to configure the computer the way I want. If I'm unhappy about the price, I can downgrade on a specific component and upgrade on another until I am satisfied with the price and configuration. Most other computer manufacturers don't allow this flexibility as most only offer a rigid, pre-configured system, to mass produce at a lower cost. Since Dell does a lot of advertising via TV commercials (eg. Hey, it's me, Steve), newspaper ads and inserts, if you are able to get a hold of a special price on an ad, you may be able to get a better deal than what's offered online. With each printed advertisement, there is what's called a Dell "E-value" code. By entering this code when you access the dell website online, you can order and configure the system at an even better price than what's offered online. Unfortunately, the E-value code is limited only to the native country you are in, meaning that you can't apply a US Dell.com E-value code to the Canadian Dell.ca web site.
Once you are happy with the configuration and price, if you click the "Add to Cart" button, you will be taken to a page (after you login for the Dell.com US site, none if Cdn) which provides an overview of your order with the quantity, the subtotal, the shipping costs, the taxes applicable and the total price of the order. You can then indicate your method of payment: Credit Card, Cheque Via Courier, Wire Transfer via phone or customer purchase plan. Should you decide to add more items to your order, you can do more shopping and click the "Update Price" button to have an updated price of your order. Clicking "Continue" will take you to a page in which it prompts for your name, address, etc. Clicking "Submit" will send the order to Dell for processing.
If you are someone who is uneasy with online ordering, you can easily place your order by phone via their toll free number. Keep in mind that you may have to be on hold for a while. I was on hold for an average of 45 minutes the three times that I called Dell Canada. And, you may be disgruntled to discover you are in the Dell "hold zone", an irritating hold message you are subjected to listen to while you're on hold. Rather than the usual, "your call is very important to us...." you instead get a guy who talks about how glad you should be to be on hold from Dell because that means they have lots of people who order from them. Yeah, whatever. (I think they have since removed that annoying "Dell hold zone" message. Anyways, make sure you have all the information on your system order ready, including the configurations (processor speed, hard drive, RAM, etc), the e-value code (if applicable), the price, the software that comes with it, any bonus promotions offered, etc. The representatives are all sales commissioned so they may be in a hurry to get your order placed without asking you much questions on what's offered. It is your responsibility to ensure that what they ordered is what you are entitled to.
It generally takes one business day for the order to be "verified" meaning that your credit card has been approved. It may take longer if you are paying via other means. For me, it took three business days for Dell to assemble the computer, one business day for it to be packed and ready for shipping, three business days for it to cross the border (yes, the computer is assembled in the US for transport to Canada) and an extra business day for it to arrive. Overall, it took 8 business days to arrive after the order was placed. The delivery time may differ depending on where you live in US or Canada. And, in Canada, they ship via Purolator.
And, Dell has a web page which allows you to check on the status of your order at any time of the day. Depending on the web site of your country, there should be a link from the main Dell page that allows you to check on your "order status". It will provide brief information on what step of the process your order is in, whether it be processing the credit card information, awaiting for parts, etc. For someone who wants to know asap, this is a great feature to have, rather than calling Dell reps regarding the order or just waiting.
Overall, I found the Dell.com (or Dell.ca) website very fast, easy to navigate and informative. The quick and easy update configuration calculator is very helpful in determining the best value for my money. Since it's a website, I can access the information, place an order, check on order status, etc 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I most liked the ability to customize the computer configuration to my needs and suitability (a feature not offered with most) at a price that I found that beat the competition hands down. I bought an Inspiron 8100 with 866mhz Pentium III, 256MB RAM, 20GB HD, 8X DVD, 56K & 10/100+ PCI interface card for C$2399 before tax. That's quite a steal. I would recommend the Dell4me.com or Dell.com website as a choice for online computer shopping for the reasons cited above.
For more information on the Dell Inspiron 8100 notebook, please check out my review:
http://www.epinions.com/content_41502936708
********Updated March 27 2002*******************
I have recently bought a few more things from Dell's spare parts department and found the delivery to be very fast. Although I checked out the spare parts web site of Dell.ca http://www.dell.ca/parts and couldn't find anything other than an AC adapter and power cord, I decided to give the spare parts department a call. I was able to buy an additional battery for C$98 plus $15 shipping and taxes. I received the battery the next day! And then I ordered a fixed optical CDRW drive also from the spare parts department for C$207. And I received that 3 days later! Wow. That's fast. Unfortunately, you'll have to call the spare parts department in Canada to check on what they have but compared to going through ebay or other online stores, I got a much better deal just dealing direct. One note though. The spare parts department sell "refurbished" parts, meaning that they were opened. Dell reps say that they are new and usually as a result of orders being cancelled and thus the parts are "opened". And, it doesn't come with software. Oh well, it seems to work fine. And I don't mind looking for the drivers or software myself. And, I could always call tech support and see what they can do. You might want to check them out before looking elsewhere for your Dell upgrade.
If you're from the US, you're in luck because the Dell US site does have a spare parts web page that shows the products that they have in stock. From the home page, you just click on Home and Home office, Peripherals and click the relevant product you are searching for. You'll be taken to a web page of products that are available to Dell customers with a picture of the product (most times), the price and you're able to buy online. Unfortunately, the Canadian site isn't very good as I discussed before. It's too bad that I can't purchase Dell products from the US web site because otherwise, it would make my life a lot easier.
Thank you for taking the time to read and rate my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Canada
Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 152 members
About Me: I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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