[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Soundtweaker

You really have to think that hard?
It would be a no brainer for most people.

Well, there are certain things that Dell sells that no one else does - namely, Dell products. I really like Dell monitors for instance, and in the case of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, until the HP Mini 1000 was announced, it was the only netbook of its type.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Soundtweaker

You really have to think that hard?
It would be a no brainer for most people.

Well, there are certain things that Dell sells that no one else does - namely, Dell products. I really like Dell monitors for instance, and in the case of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, until the HP Mini 1000 was announced, it was the only netbook of its type.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment.

[sesummers]

My brother bought one of their PCs because it's the only reasonably inexpensive machine that can use CableCard TV tuners. We weren't able to get the thing hooked up immediately because we had to move cabinets around to get to the TV cable so I could add the splitter to connect the HDTV tuners to the cable, at which point he had to wait for the Time Warner guy to come out and "activate" them. Well, the first tuner turned out to have been DOA - pushing its power cable into the little hole popped the connector right off the circuit board. The second one worked- for two days.

My brother called Dell to try to arrange the RMA. They told him that it had been more than 21 days (it had - since they were shipped) and therefore they couldn't be returned, and he had to go through ATI. ATI has told him that he has to get them repaired through Dell. Dell then told him their computer was down(!!!) and therefore they couldn't even respond to his call. He now owns $1100 worth of PC and cablecard tuners, and has no TV recording ability, and nobody returns calls.

As far as I'm concerned, I'll never buy, nor recommend, another Dell product. Ever.

[emuelle1]

My new Dell my wife got for me at Sam's club. That RMA process sounds horrible. What if it was a laptop that you needed for something like work or if you were taking classes? It's a pain not only to have a laptop break on you, but for the manufacturer to take it's sweet time getting it fixed and shipped back only adds insult to injury.

I had a Toshiba from work that was bought through New Egg. When the display stopped working entirely, I had to spend an entire day just getting an RMA issued, then after the laptop was shipped off, I had to wait about 5 weeks for a new one to arrive. Our network at work is pretty tight now. Back when my laptop died I was able to clone the MAC address and borrow another laptop to use. I'd never be able to pull that off now.

[mkss55442]

Thanks for the report Jason. I hope they don't pull that kind of crap if my Latitude laptop with Next Day Complete Care goes belly up.
Mark

[The Yaz]

I was interested in buying one of the Mini's for my department at work. My purchasing group has an account with Dell to purchase desktops/laptops.

When I made my request, I was told it could not happen at this time because the mini is not listed as an item to be purchased through the agreement.

This was significant because under the agreement we get to call up and tell them to give us a RMA, no questions asked. Any item purchased out of the item list would have to go through a "complicated verification process" and the purchasing group would not put up with that.

I can see what you're going through Jason. You've reviewed so many Dell products, don't you have some contacts that you can call diretly and complain to?

[Eriq Cook]

I was seriously thinking about buying a Dell over HP this time for my next desktop & notebook. Think I'll be staying with HP though now. Dell just lost two more sales because of your bad experience!

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by The Yaz

I can see what you're going through Jason. You've reviewed so many Dell products, don't you have some contacts that you can call diretly and complain to?

Dell's PR department no longer responds to my emails - they've been ignoring me for about 8 months now. That's the reason why I had to purchase the Inspiron Mini 9 to review it - they wouldn't reply to my emails requesting a review unit.

[onlydarksets]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Well, there are certain things that Dell sells that no one else does - namely, Dell products. I really like Dell monitors for instance, and in the case of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, until the HP Mini 1000 was announced, it was the only netbook of its type.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment.

Not to go too far OT, but what about the Mini 9 set it apart from the netbooks? Specs look virtually identical to the Wind, EEE, Aspire One, etc. (except, of course, more expensive ).

[Jelster]

Have to say I've been having a similar run around with HP. My TX2000 has been in once already and now exhibits a "phantom" mouse pointer that teleports to random points of the bottom right of the screen. Long story short, it's been three weeks since I first contacted support, I'm now at the point where I need to contact the supervisor by phone to resolve the matter because they don't appear to be bothered to do it themselves.

Frankly I've been shocked at how poorly HP performed and this now tells me Dell isn't much better. I'm putting my money down on a cheaper, foreign make from now on. They may lack in some aspects but when it comes to reliability and support if HP and Dell are dropping the ball then what is the point of paying out for that premium.

[nmcclana]

Is there a 'more expensive option'? Somewhere I can pay $1,500 for an $1,100 laptop so I get good customer service?

Another suggestion - once I had a problem returning my xbox to MSFT; filed a complaint with the BBB & everything was magically taken care of & a supervisor called me a day or two later to get my address. Have you tried that route?