No more Dells for me

Originally Posted by Junior

I am just having horrible luck with computers at the moment, and had to vent. I have had 4 computer go bad in the last 3 weeks. Two Dells and Two IBMs.

Dell 1 Bad video so no display
Dell 2 hard drive crashed
IBM 1 motherboard is toast due to my son dropping it
IBM 2 video display went bad in it as well.

I am going to tear apart the two IBMs to see if I can combine the two to get one to work.

Sounds like me. I recently had to give my Apple MacBook to Apple to fix a dent caused by TSA dropping it while I was going through security (not covered under warranty). So I decided, since I was working from home, to use my home computer (a Dell 5150). I ordered some extra memory yesterday and decided, in a fit of "upgrading" to do the BIOS. Well, apparently that fried the memory sticks.

I called Dell to see if the error I was getting (3+4 were lit green and the computer was "buzzing" -- although I'm told it's a beep) was limited to the memory and not the memory slots or motherboard. The technician kept re-iterating that they would send me replacement sticks (2GB) but I said it didn't matter since I have 4GB on the way. He goes on that he can't refund the amount, which is fine. I asked again whether the motherboard could be an issue and he goes on about the refund. I get the manager explain it 3 times before he clues in. Now, I've worked Global Support for a few years for a large software company (no not M$) and even I understand what a customer is looking for when asking a question like that or know enough to probe further as to what is going on (i.e., it's useless to send new sticks if the motherboard is fried anyways, no? :P )

Sigh.

The quality of the systems and the quality of support has gone way downhill. It's not the economy that's killing Dell; it's Dell that's killing Dell.