Columbia Class of 2006 Blog

I can vouch for the crappiness of Netgear products, and tech support. I ordered a wireless router, and the DHCP stuff just didn't work. After half an hour on the phone with tech support (a guy who told me he'd never worked with WinXP and didn't know what DHCP was) my cell phone died, and I managed to get the router working myself. It required a reboot/power cycle every twenty minutes for the next hour, and then I sent it back.

On the plus side, I'd ordered it from Computers4sure, which sent me a prepaid UPS label for the return. They still haven't refunded my money, but I'm sure they will soon. Hopefully...

I have had only bad experiences with Netgear, and warn everyone to stay away from their products.

I've had only good experiences with Dell. They really do support their products, and their prebuilt machines are pretty stable to begin with. They don't bundle too much extraneous adware like Compaq and some of these other places. In fact, I think I'm going to give up on my quixotic impulse to transform myself into a Mac user and just buy a solid Dell laptop. (Sigh... if I keep compromising my dreams and principles at this rate, I'll probably have sold my soul before I'm even a real lawyer...)

I'm a Columbia 2L, and while this is only anecdotal evidence, there's a fair share of it. There are substantial complaints about the reliability of Dell from lots and lots of students at the law school. I can count on one hand the number of non-Dell users who've experienced problems (myself included), but 20 plus people with constant Dell problems. One classmate sent his laptops back 5 times over the year. I pluralize laptops because 3 of the times he sent it back they gave him a new one, and he had problems with those as well. This post probably comes too late for most readers, since if you're blogging, you're probably adept with computers, which means you've probably gotten a laptop already to break it in before the year starts. If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It's pretty annoying to be figuring out how to login to the Columbia Network while everyone else is taking Legal Methods notes. (Note: the joke is on your classmates, however. Legal Methods is useless. Seriously, do not waste your time with the class. Enjoy NY instead.) And don't get a Dell.

It seems silly to base one's opinion on one case, and I have come to expect problems with virtually all electronic equipment (though my friends tell me I am just plain cursed). If a company's service and support are decent I am usually happy. It is only if the service stinks (Netgear for example ships crap, and then will make you pay for a warranty repair) or if I consistently have serious trouble with their products (Creative Labs comes to mind). Again I am generally cursed when buying electronics so I am always bringing stuff for repairs or have to return them to the store.

Dell has a huge percentage of the market--I'd expect to hear more Dell complaints than other companies simply by dint of installation base. That being said, their customer service ranges from lousy to fairly good. Certainly no worse than Gateway or Toshiba, both of which I'm familiar with.

But I'd really agree with 2L up there about breaking in a notebook. You get to know the machine so much better before you have to work on it.

Since we're sort of on the topic, should I expect my wireless network to work consistently? I've never had one before, and it's incredibly flaky (connection drops every 20 minutes or so and won't reconnect without changing some security settings). I have a Centrino, and I've never been able to test it on a network that definitely works (I'm on wireless router #2 now, a Linksys, after the Netgear didn't work at all).

I'm beginning to wonder if my computer has hardware issues, or whether I have some security stuff set up incorrectly, or whether wireless is just relatively unreliable. Any opinions?

Alison -

Columbia's wireless network has been fairly reliable, in my experience. Whenever I've had connection issues, it's been my card or my software. But, if you're unsure about the integrity of the wireless network you're currently on, then it's difficult to gauge.

I've had horrible experiences with Dell, particularly in light of buying one specificially for use at CLS.

As for the economics, etc, see this employee website:

http://www.ihatedell.net/

I have had a nightmarish experience with Dell and would strenuously recommend anyone considering buying a computer from Dell to explore other options. I have made at least 100 calls and emails to Dell Tech. My Dell laptop (Inspiron 3800) was a lemon form the get-go. Dell refused to replace it, they claimed to have fixed it (screen went down, keyboard didn't work, etc), and assured me it worked. It didn't. Now it is sitting in the Dell repair shop. Several techies guarnteed that it would be back in my hands two days ago. Where is it? I have made several calls and the techies either don't know, disconnect my phone calls, or very clearly express the fact that they don't care and I should "wait a few more business days, maybe it'll show up." I have a thesis defense scheduled in 2 weeks time. I have told Dell, over and over again, that the laptop is essential. Upon hearing this one technician started telling me the line was breaking up and hung up on me. Based on these experiences, I have lost complete faith in Dell products and their so-called "customer service." This has been a very costly lesson; I will never buy a Dell computer again.

Found your blog on Dell by accident. I am to take delivery of an Inspiron 5100 notebook tomarrow.
After reading all of your comments and those in the Ed Foster "Gripelog" I am seriously considering sending it back and opting for the Sony Vaio notebook or the emac desktop I consdiered. I was warned off Sony for the same reasons everyone seems to be down on Dell. Whats a novice to do!!!!!!!?????

Here, in the UK, everyone I talked to including IT managers, IT techies, lap top specialists and a student friend of mine taking a second degree in AI said GET A DELL!

Glad I bumped into your comments. Thanks from a fellow American in England.

UPDATE

DELL CAN GO TO HELL

I cancelled the order. They bothced the cancellation. My refund has been delayed. After leaving more metaphorical dead bodies in my wake than in a Terminator movie I am now assured the check will be in the post "tomarrow".

Moral of the story: Dont purchase a big ticket item from anyone you can't see, hear, smell, touch or scream at in person...and dont touch DELL with a pitchfork.

anna

My mother bought a Dell 3800 and it has been the worst lemon I have ever seen. I got my first laptop in 1996 and have changed laptops at a rate of about 1 ever 2 years as I hand mine down the food chain. I have owned 2 Sony Vaio’s, a Compaq, Toshiba, and now a Dell 8200.

All of them have worked fine. Including my Dell.

But my mother Dell 3800 (currently sitting next to me on my desk, and the reason I am searching for info on the web) has been the biggest lemon I have ever seen. In the 2 years she bought it, it has literally been out of service for more than 6 months spread out over 5-6 different failures of different types – They even replaced the motherboard once.

And then it went down again. It simply refused to boot. Power-up and lock up before it even got to the greeting screen. I could get it to Safe Mode but it would lock up soon after that. I brought it here to call Dell and tell them that it was time to concede that the system had never worked and that they needed to trade it for something out of there pre-owned bin and let us get on with our lives.

So I set it on my desk and now it boots up just fine. I did a Disk Scan and everything seemed fine, it’s got gigs of available disk space – and everything seems fine. I’m thinking of upgrading the thing to XP Professional in the hopes that the current buggy-ness might get over written with an OS upgrade from Windows ME that’s on it now.

Has anyone tried this with the 3800 lemons, and did it help. Thanks in advance.

Anna, I bet your a real bitch in real life.. you sound like you treat others like trash and would rather scream at someone at the first problem rather than solve it in a civilized manner. You waste someone elses time by placing the order then cancel it and rather than being patient as they have with you you get irate...

Mabe you should learn to relax a little.

Dell has yet to do anything to piss me off, they always rectify any problems, mabe they would do the same for you if you'd be patient and give them the chance.

Dell's are great for the money. Sure you can go buy a mac or an ibm and the hardware will be better and you will have a less chance of it failing. But you will PAY for that. That's why dell sells cause it's a great price for what it sells. And they are machines and they break. No matter how much you complain you can not change that fact.

Genius is of no country.

Has anyone purchased a "new" Dell computer (be it a laptop or desktop) online using the "build it yourself" method, paid the full price for that "new" computer, and then found out that it was completely refurbished from the beginning?

you've been talking about my computer crashed, broke down and all but how do they use their computer anyway?some s**ck**s complain that their computer crashes all the time...its because they don't know how to use and maintain a computer very well

dell support has been very helpful and polite. the system was working beautifully until i encountered a virus and took advice from my mother on how to fix the problem. that just made things worse. the viruses were gone but my system acted like it had cerebral palsy. i then thought to myself, duh, call dell dude! it didn't take long once i got through to fix my problems- one of the techies even called me back to make sure everything was working okay.

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I keep getting a notice saying messageApp. I had no idea what it was for. I have lost the ability to post on my favorite board... screen keeps saying WRONG E-MAIL address. I found a site where someone gives lengthy instructions on how to fix this problem. It should take a week. lol I am very disappointed in Dell. I will try tech support on phone. cth

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