why Dell?

[HumboldtLogger]

Why do people recommend Dell.com as a place to buy computers when they have such a low rating on resellerratings ? I just don't get it. I'm shopping for a new desktop and so far almost all of the web stores I've looked at i started out thinking I'd buy a refurbished pc, then I started reading all of the horror stories in the reviews of Tiger direct and Ascendtech. I was surprised that Dell and Amazon were rated so low on resellerratings. So far about the only places rated highly that I've looked at have been NewEgg and J+R

[Steve R Jones]

Human nature motivates people with bad experiences to want to get it off thier chests and tell the world. People with great experiences often don't say a word cause they got what they expected.

If I don't build my own machine - I buy Dell

[MarcGA]

Right now most mall stores are suffering with very low traffic, and these malls have higher-than-usual vacancies. Just heard a commercial real estate professional disclose the sole exception: Apple Stores.

Thank who you will. Michael Dell. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Whatever, whoever. But until you've had an Apple Store retail experience--regardless of where you fit into the whole MS/Apple OS landscape--you've never had a retail experience. It's the smoothest, most hassle-free shopping you'll ever do.

I've had 3 experiences in the Atlanta area. Apple has cracked the nut on brick-and-mortar retail.

[michaels39]

I guess Dell is as good as any other place if you just want a stock equipped,ordinary use PC. But I wouldn't buy a high end high powered gaming machine from them.

[tgrt]

I've bought my computers from Dell for years. And I've had the opportunity to see how other companies are, and I'll stick with Dell. The computers I've purchased have all been well-built and mostly trouble free. I say well-built in the way they're constructed and not necessarily some of the sourced suppliers they have, but I haven't had any failures that left me dead in the water. As for other computers just don't get me going on the stinkpads that my previous employer seemed to love...

I will complain about their inability to give you accurate shipping information. But, that seems to be mostly on accessories and parts. I had a new battery say it was going to ship in a week, then say it was backordered for two months, then arrive about a week later, and then get another backordered notice (after I received it). I got it and was happy, but weird stuff there.

Obviously their computers are built differently depending on what you buy. When you buy the cheapest you're going to get the cheapest. I like to buy my personal computers from the small business line. They're a little more but there are still bargains. And I don't know if it's still true, but Optiplex support was U.S.-based. It was nice to be able to understand technical support.

[HumboldtLogger]

Thanks for the replies all, someone much smarter than I once said "knowledge is power".

[michaels39]

One area I wouldn't trust them on is their laptops,had a miserable experience with their Inspiron line a while back,in fact they're currently facing a lawsuit over it. The motherboards overheat and die,usually right after the 1 year warranty ends. I had two replacement boards installed,one was DOA,the other died after 3 months.

[frostbitetwice]

Originally Posted by michaels39

I guess Dell is as good as any other place if you just want a stock equipped,ordinary use PC. But I wouldn't buy a high end high powered gaming machine from them.

I will bet you, that most Dellco products contain white box PSU's....

[michaels39]

From my experience,most of the massed produced PC's,Dell,HP,ect,are underpowered in the PSU area. They throw in units just powerful enough to handle whatever components are in the system. If you want to add upgrades later,especially more powerful graphics cards,you can have problems. At least they've gotten away from making the PSU's and other components proprietary in design,Compaq was notorious for that.

[Steve R Jones]

They throw in units just powerful enough to handle whatever components are in the system.

Sure helps keep the prices down by not over doing it...