Frustrating Dell order experience

[Greasy Burger]

forget Dell or Compaq or Sony or any other piece of crap computer manufacturers. Go buy a book and build your own pc, virtually all computer parts come with manuals. I'm a dumbass and I still somehow manage to build my own rig within 6 months when i first intruduced to computers and that's without any schooling

just my .02 cent

[bpear1600]

and ordered a new Dim8250 online 11/23 with an estimated shipping date of 12/9. Last weekend the date was changed to 12/17 and then to 12/16.

Monday morning I was surprised to receive an Email from Dell giving me a new estimated shipping date of 2/3/03! No way I'm waiting that long so I canceled my order.

It's not that I can't wait that long it's that I have no confidence in what they tell you. Check out Dell's Customer Care/Order Status web site and read postings from the past few weeks. Delays, delays and more delays with excuses changing several times a day. Go to the Company's sales site and configure an order. You'll probably get an estimated shipping date two months earlier than those customers who have already been waiting a month. But I'll bet if they tell you it will be shipped 12/20, for example, you'll be lucky to get your computer before 3/1/03.

Dell may make good computers but you will never prove it by me. I refuse to do business with a company that treats its' customers with such little respect.

[summars]

Been having video problem (the infamous infinite loop in nv4_disp.dll) for the last 6 months since I recieved my DELL replacement notebook. The replacement notebook's motherboard failed 6 days after receiving it, and the system has been crashing due to video problem ever since.
I paid for "Complete Care" 3 year next-business-day-on-site-service. It's already been two days since DELL finally agreed to replace the video card (hope it's not another NVIDIA, cause that's part of the problem....search internet on nv4_disp.dll to see more info). No one has called yet to schedule the repair. So much for next-business-day-on-site-service.
Regarding desktops, it's best to piece together your own system.
A good lightweight notebook is not easy to make yourself.
However, just based on my experience, I couldn't recommend a DELL simply due to 12+ hardware failures and problems that have never been resolved yet:

SUMMARY of FAILURES/REPAIRS:
1.DELL i7500 Service Tag 2H0440B
Hard Disk Drive failed and replaced 2 times: 03/21/2002,05/22/2002
2 CD-ROM/DVD drive failed and replaced 3 times: 03/22/2002,03/25/2002,05/21/2002
3 MotherBoard failed and replaced once: 05/20/2002
4 Keyboard failed and replaced 2 times: 05/22/2002,05/24/2002
5 LID latch replaced once: 05/22/2002
6 DELL i7500 hard disk or motherboard failed again;
DELL i7500 replaced with DELL i8100 Service Tag 93DH811: 05/30/2002
replacement missing 2nd replacement battery: 05/30/2002
(NEVER received 2nd battery)
7 DELL 8100 motherboard failed and replaced: 06/06/2002
8 DELL 8100 nVidia driver crashes system 06/06/2002 to present
tried BIOS A11 and A14 and
tried 8 different nVIDIA drivers. but DELL 8100 still crashes.

If you're going to get a DELL, you'd better have a lot of PATIENCE,
because the time and effort to deal with the numerous problems is STAGGERING.

I think DELL's run as a PC builder is about to come to an end.

bpear1600,
One thing DELL used to be good at was fast delivery.
Now, they seem to be failing there too.
DELL may be able to pretend to be an IBM, HP, or SONY,
but DELL doesn't have Research and Development (R&D) that would hold a candle to IBM, HP, or SONY. I'm not endorsing any other PC manufacturer though. For desk tops, build your own or beef up a bare-bones system. For a good notebook, I'm not sure which is the most reliable....numerous reviews grade IBM notebook reliability the best, but I'm not sure that's true either.
I'd like to know who truly makes the most reliable notebooks AND has the best support when things fail ?

[DocMartin]

Summars,
I've heard that Toshiba makes really good notebooks. My son has a really old one that he bought secondhand, and he is really pleased with it. I don't know what their support is like, though.
DM