The Truth about Dell

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I purchased a $2723 Inspiron 8100 laptop.

Dell's service and, in my case, equipment is deplorable and the company is not worth having you or me as a customer. The laptop was a lemon from the start – this and continued problems are extensively on record. When the 8100 was about a month old, a Dell rep issued a Credit Return Authorization (#024266661) to me, and agreed to give me at least a couple of weeks to return the 8100 so that I could save my irreplaceable data. But when I called Dell back to make final arrangements to have it shipped, another individual at Dell cancelled my Return Authorization and refused the return! Now despite more than 53 contacts I have made with Dell personnel by phone (each call lasting 1 to 2 hours) - most of which I have detailed records, Dell would not replace the crippled system which consistently kept overheating and crashing. Finally, after about 18 calls in November and December 2004, a Dell rep and her supervisor agreed to replace it with a refurbished Inspiron 8600, with specific features as per the phone conversation, but with no warranty! In addition, when the "bare bones" Inspiron 8600 (with a price inflated by Dell to be over $1741.78 on its invoice when a NEW identical one was selling for about $1300 on Dell's web site at the time!) came, it was missing about five key features I had been promised and had paid for in the original system. An individual from Dell's Executive Support Staff finally responded to me by phone at the request of an editor of one of the computer magazines I subscribe to, who I had emailed. The rep refused to exchange the 8600 for the better-equipped laptop I was promised and said that she would put a 90 day warranty on the refurbished 8600. However, the refurbished 8600 failed (first the CD burner, then the display) two days after I took it out the box. When I called Customer Support and Technical Service, I found that the 90 day warranty does not, and never did exist! After months of trying to get a response from the high level rep, she finally called me back, and then had a senior technician call me. He had me run diagnostics as we talked by phone, and confirmed that the 8600 was not repairable except by shipping it back. Since this would still leave me with a system deficient of the promised features, at the advice of the technician, I called the high level rep again, but she will not budge on the issue.

Furthermore, the BBB case which was opened on 4-20-05, closed on 8-30-05 because the BBB could not persuade Dell to rectify the situation. Also, the Dell spokeswoman fashioned a bogus story in her letter to the BBB / "lied", alleging that the reason for my dissatisfaction with the 8100 was that I was “enrolled in Computer Aided Design classes” and found the 8100 to be inadequate; this is totally untrue and I have NEVER taken CAD classes and wasn't running CAD software! Among other untruths, she stated that I waited for 2 1/2 years to call Dell complaining about the 8100; as my detailed records show, I called Dell technicians starting only days after my purchase and on a consistent basis for almost a full year. After a year of complaining, I curtailed the contacts with Dell because of the frustration level with the company.

At the advice of the staff of a radio consumer advocacy group, I mailed certified letters and complaints to the Chairman of Dell, to the President and CEO of Dell, to the Federal Trade Commission, to the Better Business Bureau, etc., all to no avail. I will still be sending the same information to the Texas Attorney General's office and the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. They both encourage me to forward my complaints and transcripts or recordings of the phone conversations to them.
Lawyers I contacted will not take the case, because of such things as distance, low profits, or need of a specialization in consumer law.

I returned the 8100 and now have a useless, non-working 8600. The personnel at Dell whose personal extensions I have, choose to not return calls. I do not know if Dell will ever do what is right, but I advise all potential customers to beware of Dell if you want to be spared a nightmare.

View the current class action lawsuit against Dell at http://www.lerachlaw.com/lcsr-cgi-bi...ured/dell.html . View Jeff Jarvis' blog of his experiences with Dell at http://www.buzzmachine.com/?tag=dell. For other examples of poor service, start with a link such as http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...commfb&page=2. Dell is moving some of the most negative threads off the main page, but they can still be found such as these two: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...d=71690#M71690 and http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ssage.id=72637 .