I have owned two Dells. Mainly I bought them because they seemed to get good reviews. The first dell I owned had a lot more problems then the Gateway I owned before it and so I felt maybe it was just bad luck. I bought another dell recently (A dimension 8200).

I also paid $150 for the 3 year tech support. It is upsetting they charge for that. It is especially upsetting because every time I try to use the tech support that I paid $150 I am told that my tech support plan does not cover whatever I am calling about.

The new case design of Dell is terrible. You have slots about an inch deep you have to reach your fingers into to try to hit the drive buttons. The buttons are so faint they are hard to even feel. You can't see into the slots unless you get on the floor. If you look down and try to see the buttons you can't because they are black and the same color as the case and the slots don't allow much light in to see the buttons. The case looks nice on an ad but from a practical standpoint it is such a hassle to use.

I called dell to try to get a different case (not an option) and even considered removing the case because it is such a poor design (but you can't because some drive buttons are part of the case. I have owned 5 computers. This is the worst case design I have ever seen. It is makes it so much harder to use the computer.

They also did a way with a reset button on the computer case. If you computer hangs then you may be forced to put the cord from the back of the computer because sometimes pushing the power button will not cause the power to be reset. On a few occaisions I have had to pull the power cord. It makes me nervous having to do that but because they don't have a reset button you are sometimes left with no other choice then to pull the plug when the computer hangs and you can't reboot or reset it.

The case design alone would prevent me from ever considering another Dell computer. The tech support is also worthless because even if you buy a $150 support contract Dell seems to claim every problem you call about is not covered by the support contract.

To make matters even worse, the salesperson convinced me to go with a 90 day's same as cash loan. I was told I would not have to pay any interest on the loan if I paid if off in 90 days. After I got the paper work it appears Dell gave me a high interest loan of 23% interest and no 90 day grace period. When I called Dell and asked to talk to a supervisor they told me I was not approved for the "90 days same as cash and they converted it into a regular loan." They did not tell me they were going to do this and they would not change the loan and I would have to pay that high interest rate on the balance even though the sales person promised me "90 days same as cash".
Here are the problems I am having.

My cd burner and zip drive are extremely slow. It takes me an hour to copy files off the CD or zip drive. To copy the same files off on other computer I have only takes about 5 minutes.

On my new computer, my CD-R drive is supposed to be a 16x10x40x speed. (16 speed write, 10 speed rewrite, 40 speed read). It seems a lot slower than older drives I have on other computers that are rated at lower speeds. The drive seems to write OK but it is terrible when trying to read disks.

I called Dell about this and they told me the drives are copying so it is not a problem. I was originally told that if the drive is so slow it is likely a software problem and so if I want any help on that I have to pay $30 for them to give me help. I ask them what the $150 is for and they say that only covers hardware support and because the drive hardware is working it must be a software problem and I have to pay extra for that.

Another tech person says the drive probably has trouble reading CD-R disks and that is why it is slow and I should avoid use CD-R disks in my CD-R drive. Another tech person suggested I not use the CD-R drive for reads and only use the DVD drive. Part of the reason I have two drives is to avoid swamping disks and none of the tech support people gave much help in solving the problem.

My ZIP drive is a 250 MB zip drive and I was trying to move data onto a 100 MB zip drive. After calling tech support 3 times on the ZIP drive problem I think I finally got a reasonable answer. They told me the 250 MB drive is known to be slow if using 100 MB disks. My other computers have 100 MB zip drives so it appears the newer zip is not very fast when using smaller disk sizes. The problem mainly seems to be with writing to 100 MB disks. It seems to read those disks OK.

I have trouble deleting or renaming files in Window's explorer. What happens is I keep getting a file sharing error saying some other user or application is using the file. I am the only user on the machine and even if I shut down all programs that are running I still get that error. Sometimes rebooting my system lets me delete or rename files but that doesn't always work either. I called Dell tech suppport and again am told they won't help unless I pay $30 because that is a configuration problem not covered by the $150 hardware support plan I bought.

Viturally any question I ask after the first 30 days is not covered. Even when I called them 2 weeks after getting the computer they told me to call Microsoft because even though I was covered they couldn't answer the question (and then I had to pay Microsoft $35 for the tech support).

My CD-ROM burner is tempermental. I have tried burning disks from 3 different manufacturers (Memorex, Hi val, and Trax data). Only one brand works some of the time (memorex). Sometimes I have to put the disk back in multiple times to get it to record). The other disks are 650MB disks but the software alway tells me "not enough space on the disk" even though I am only buring a 400MB file it won't let me use the 650MB disks so I guess all my inventory of disks won't work unless I get newer disks. Even the larger 700 MB disks occaisionaly get rejected.

In addition you have to be careful not to have any CD-roms in the drive when composing the disk you want to burn. I noticed the software (Roxio) seems to want to copy files from those disks into the CD you are making even though you don't tell it to do that. I have owned 2 other CD-R burners and this new Dell is the worst one. I have not had these problems with other burners or computers.

My ZIP drive takes forever to release a disk. I hit the eject button and it churns and churns and after about 5 minutes of waiting if finally ejects. Sometimes I have to push eject multiple times before it gives me the disk. This might be an issue with the case design. The button is hard to find and push so I don't know if it is the drive or the case causing this problem.

My Internet explorer seems to fail alot more than on my other computers. I keep getting script errors. I don't know if that is a Microsoft problem but it is really anoying. I would guess around 20% of the websites give these errors. The clock on my computer seems to loose time too. I reset the clock in the morning and it is off by a few hours by the time the day goes on. I set the right time zone and other info in windows but it just won't seem to keep the right time. I don't know what is causing that problem.

Another annoying thing is that Microsoft constantly overlays my favorites window in explorer with a window telling me I have Money 2002 preinstalled on my computer. I have been reminded hundreds of times of this and it is annoying I have to constantly (about 10 times a day) shut down that Money reminder window so I can get to my favorite links.

I am extremely angry by the poor design of the case, the problems I am having with extremely slow CD drive and zip drive and the lack of support Dell is giving me even though I paid extra to get a support plan.

I will never buy another Dell. The tech support isn't very good, the salesperson was either dishonest or incompetant, and they don't take care of treating their customers fairly.

In addition I am shopping for computers for my office and I am suprised how overpriced Dell has become. I would recommend you consider other brands to see how the prices compare. I don't think Dell is as good as what people say and they are certainly way over priced for the product and support they give.

I am thinking about getting HP computers. When you look at the price and compare value of the HP computer I think it looks like a better deal. Before buying a Dell see what other manufacturers offer. I don't think Dell offers any better of a product and their support is poor. I spent almost $3000 on this "top of the line" piece of junk that doesn't work and they won't support even though I prepaid them $150 for support.

If you do make the mistake of buying a Dell then be sure you call them for every problem during the first 30 days. After 30 days you won't get much support. Also if you aren't happy you can return the computer if you do so within 30 days. After 30 days has gone by you may find out that many of your problems are not covered by Dell support unless you are willing to pay them $30 per question. If they offer you "90 days same as cash" be learly about that because I got stuck with a 23% interers rate loan with no grace period even though the promised me "90 days same as cash".

Also, from what I can tell that $150 they charge for a tech support contract is basically money you are throwing away. I have not been able to use any support because they keep telling me I have to pay even more to get support. Even on hardware problems that should be covered they claim it is not hardware and is a software problem that they don't provide support unless you pay for it.

For the record, I have owned and used the following brands of computers during the past 15 years:

Gateway
HP
Amiga
Dell
IBM
Toshiba

Dell is the worst brand I have owned. I will never buy another Dell again.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 2800
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50