1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Rant Why Dell, why?!

Discussion in 'General' started by RinSewand, 13 Oct 2008.

  1. RinSewand

    RinSewand What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    11 Sep 2006
    Posts:
    1,845
    Likes Received:
    80
    I ordered a Dell Studio laptop, a 15" model with a few options on the 5th. Delivery date was set for the 3rd of November which seemed a bit much but I can cope with that. It's a replacement laptop as my Inspiron, which i loved, was stolen from my bedroom while we were in downstairs (a flatmate left an upstairs window open...) It came to £577 after using a coupon code which went through perfectly, which i reckon was reasonable. A day later I got the 'order confirmed' email. Since then I've been checking the status of my order ever few days and the past few times it got to the "in production" stage.

    Today I logged on and found that the order had been cancelled, certainly not by me! The page also told me to check the email I had been sent for a reason why. Well, I haven't recieved any emails, not in my junk mail, deleted items etc etc. I've emailed them to ask for confirmation of why this happened. I then went back to pricing up a new laptop, ie: saving the save config again so I could re-orer as soon as they confirmed anything... and the same identical spec now comes to £677.99!!! the coupon code i had has also expired, but the £677.99 is still more than it was origionally! On their site it states that they are allowed ot cancel orders if they've priced items wrong, but the spec I had origionally had been on the site, at the origional price for around three weeks! It surely can't take them a month. It also added up perfectly well, nothing seemed overly cheap or expensive. The configurator has been changed and many options which have been offered as standard for a while now are now expensive extras.

    What I'd like to know is where do you guys think I stand with this? I'm going to ring up tomorrow and try and speak to someone who will hopefully apologise for whatever error caused it to be cancelled, apologise for the delay, and then place a new order for me at the origional price... however I have my doubts on this happening.

    *sigh*

    If they do try and charge me £100 more, expect a thread in the appropriate section asking for advice on a different laptop brand!

    </rant over>

    RwD
     
  2. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    22 Jun 2005
    Posts:
    4,643
    Likes Received:
    121
    Get an Asus, nuff' said.

    I've never liked the brand laptops like Dell, HP, etc.

    I bought my Asus laptop off newegg (obviously US only), and as have all my friend's at my recommendation, and all of them are extremely happy with their Asus laptop, which are cheaper than buying from Dell, HP, etc and have better or equal specs.

    So if I were you, I'd check into getting an Asus lappy
     
  3. Volund

    Volund Am I supposed to care?

    Joined:
    16 Sep 2008
    Posts:
    1,947
    Likes Received:
    65
    Have fun calling them.... It took me 2 hours with dell to get through to someone who knew what they were talking about...

    good luck, this sounds slightly messed up.
     
  4. Firehed

    Firehed Why not? I own a domain to match.

    Joined:
    15 Feb 2004
    Posts:
    12,574
    Likes Received:
    16
    I remember back when Dell had good support. I think their business lines are still decent, not so much on the consumer side.

    I'd avoid HP laptops like the plague though, if you end up looking elsewhere. I've never been happy with any HP products, ever.
     
  5. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

    Joined:
    20 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    12,300
    Likes Received:
    710
    Dell business is supposed to have descent service.
    A friend of mine has the Dell Studio 15 laptop, a very nice machine. Quiet solid build, good keyboard, with little flex (and I am being picky here). When I tried it I didn't have any problems with the keyboard. very nice! I didn't' buy it, as I want 13inch one, I am looking at the latitude e4300 (which is over priced), and the next XPS 1330 with supposedly eSATA and no faulty GPU.
     
  6. freedom810

    freedom810 Minimodder

    Joined:
    3 Dec 2007
    Posts:
    592
    Likes Received:
    2
    If you got an email confirming the order then you can actually sue, since they have accepted your offer automatically via email.
    Or alternatively you could just phone and explain the situation, I've placed loads of orders with dell and they have all gone through smoothly.
     
  7. Geektechnica

    Geektechnica Minimodder

    Joined:
    11 May 2004
    Posts:
    124
    Likes Received:
    0
    I can confirm that Dell's business support is excellent. All of the PCs, laptops, and servers in my network are Dell, and I have few if any complaints. Their consumer grade products are ok, but consumer support for them is horrific.
     
  8. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

    Joined:
    21 Jan 2003
    Posts:
    23,925
    Likes Received:
    655
    What's the Asus then? I seem to remember that's a brand...

    Dell laptops are pretty good, not withstanding the thread subject, which is weird.

    Hopefully the OP will be able to get them to lower/adjust the price for you though. :)
     
  9. shomann

    shomann Minimodder

    Joined:
    5 Sep 2003
    Posts:
    402
    Likes Received:
    4
    The Asus laptops are like the secret of the mobile computing world. Apparently, they have a great following of mostly happy customers. They tend to lean more towards Apple in some of their high-end designs (which isn't bad IMHO) and while they aren't bargin basement, they certainly aren't the worst priced (that would be Apple, right before notebook "events" - hehe). Take all that with a grain of salt as I haven't actually purchased or used one, just a lot of research before I bought my MBP.

    I would like to throw in a vote for Lenovo. The Thinkpad series doesn't look like much, but they are awfully nice gear (piece of kit, I believe you Englishmen say ;) ). I can speak from experience on this as I purchased one of these machines this past spring. Durable, functional and a great value for the money.

    I have also has experience with Dells and tend to find their laptops at least quite serviceable, even secondhand. My only gripe with my older D800 was that the keyboard was utter crap.

    I could recommend a site or two for further research if the mods don't mind.
     
  10. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

    Joined:
    21 Jan 2003
    Posts:
    23,925
    Likes Received:
    655
    I wasn't saying they weren't any good, in my experience (not a massive amount, but a couple of their units) they're pretty good.

    IBM/Lenovo are my favourites for working laptops tbh - they're a bit pricey for their specs, but they are built to be totally bomb-proof, particularly in the hinges and other moving parts.
     
  11. shomann

    shomann Minimodder

    Joined:
    5 Sep 2003
    Posts:
    402
    Likes Received:
    4
    I wasn't being sarcastic, I really thought you didn't know - I should have read your mini-profile a bit better ;)
     
  12. chrisb2e9

    chrisb2e9 Dont do that...

    Joined:
    18 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    4,061
    Likes Received:
    46
    When my ex ordered a new laptop (hers was stolen as well) she got a free printer with the order. special deal or something . The laptop showed up but no printer. she called in and they had no more printers so she was never sent one. The rep sent a much better printer for free.
    Point is that if you ordered something, just call and ask for help. be nice about it. When I worked in customer service I would go out of my way to help a nice customer. and out of my way to *screw* over a rude customer. "evil laugh"
     
  13. 500mph

    500mph The Right man in the Wrong place

    Joined:
    22 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    2,129
    Likes Received:
    33
    I can vouch for the Studio 1535. Great laptop when priced right, seeing as how I got $300 off the original price. The backlighting in the keyboard is nice, but the media keys can be wonky sometimes.
    OSX is great on it too, even though some of the drivers are still in development >.>

    Can't say the same about Dell. XPS support is nice, but regular consumer support can be a bother sometime.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 15 Oct 2008
  14. klutch4891

    klutch4891 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    4 Feb 2008
    Posts:
    693
    Likes Received:
    25
    Idk why the order would get canceled; but are you sure you priced it the same way? Because I know from experience that even if you build Studio 15's with the same specs, it depends on which base product you start with (aka the middle one turns out about $100 cheaper for the specs I want than any other ones).
     
  15. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

    Joined:
    20 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    12,300
    Likes Received:
    710
    If you don't care about the about the video card, check out the latitude e6400, 14inch, Intel 4500HD OR nvidia Quadro 160M, up to 8Gb of RAM, Vista 64-bit, metal hinge screen, keyboard back light, support 2 battery for up to 19 hours of battery life, Magnesium alloy LCD back and base, and aluminum cover top so it won't scratch, and gives a nice look.

    http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/pro...top_latitude_e6400?c=ca&cs=cabsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

    But I think its more expensive.

    Review:
    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TRV/~3/415029911/p1
     
  16. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    22 Jun 2005
    Posts:
    4,643
    Likes Received:
    121
    I meant it's not like Dell/HP/Compaq where you have to select the "build" and then they put it together, and then they ship it to you after 2 or 3 weeks (granted you *can* buy some straight up, but as far as I'm aware, you can't order from the Asus website).
     
  17. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

    Joined:
    20 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    12,300
    Likes Received:
    710
    I think custom build is the best solution as you get what you want. On the prebuild ones there is always a major down side liek you have something like
    - 320GB of HDD 5400RPM
    - Geforce 9300M
    - Vista Home Premium
    - Wireless N, bluetooth
    - The size and price that you want.
    - DVD burner
    - eSATA
    - Display Port or DVI
    and then... 1GB of RAM on 2 dim at 533Mhz... yea... fun! Ok here you can change, but sometimes it could be like an SiS S3 graphic card.. yea good luck with Aero.. actually good luck with XP theme.
     
  18. bigsharn

    bigsharn Officially demotivated

    Joined:
    9 May 2008
    Posts:
    2,605
    Likes Received:
    83
    I haven't touched Dell since they priced up a replacement inverter light for a laptop at £120...

    I've never had a problem with Fujitsu Siemens or Toshiba laptops (I know people with Porteges from the 90's that still work), just as a bit of advice if you're looking to change your brand...

    (or build your own... it's not like it's un-doable :p )
     
  19. woof82

    woof82 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    18 Jul 2005
    Posts:
    2,223
    Likes Received:
    58
    I got a Dell laptop from NDC. I payed £305 inc. VAT and shipping (FedEx next day delivery) for a refurbished Vostro 1500. This laptop is sweet, I'm so happy with it. It feels like I cashed out for a really decent bit of kit, but I actually just payed the kind of prices you would expect for a dodgey chinese knock-off :)
     
  20. Senny

    Senny What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    20 May 2008
    Posts:
    66
    Likes Received:
    1
    http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=betafrbsd

    ^^ Dell factory outlet. When a customer or business return a laptop/desktop because it "doesn't match there required specs" it gets put on the outlet due to being a second hand item. Can get some really good bargins on top notch kit there. Yes Dell Tech support can such, especially if you get through to our off-shore techs(yes I do work for Dell). I'm not saying the techs here are all amazing at there hobs but they are certainly better than the off-shore techs. :)

    I've had a couple of systems off the outlet shop, laptops and desktops and they are all in pristine condition. Alot of people call it "Dell Scratch and Dent" but truth is when they come back if they are damaged in transit(usually cosmetic) the damaged parts are replaced.

    The outlet covers Latitude, Optiplex, Server, Studio, Inspiron, Dimension, Workstation(Precision), and accessories even down to TV's etc. Anything sold by Dell that is returned working is put up on there at a very reduced price.
     
Tags:

Share This Page