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Sure, of course dell (aka hell in my book- hence their slogan: "easy as [h]dell".
Think logically from a marketing standpoint.
Of course they will be all peachy and productive when you purchase a new system, they're trying to see that you're happy on your merry way with a new system they screwed you out of a couple hundred dollers for. Sure, they have easy ordering for new systems, and sure, they'll get them to you pretty quick in most cases.
Now, turn the tables around-
Rather than ordering a new system- order a replacement part for an existing system- e.g. a replacement internal keybard for an inspiron notebook. I seriously challenge, and will send money to, anyone who can get me the price of an Inspiron 2650 notebook internal keyboard without waiting an hour and a half on the phone, being transfered to literally 8 differant departments, giving your name, phone number, and address 4 differant times, asking for a customer number, and refusing to even give you the price until that proces has been completed.
No, it wasn't just an isolated incident. I work for a computer sales/service center, and we do business with dell quite often for people who have become frustrated with dell's support, and would rather pay 65$ to get something fixed rather than call up dell for a warranty repair. I've ordered numerous components from dell (non "user serviceable" parts do not even appear on their website in their parts category) over the phone, with the above result every time. Typically I would order the parts from a 3rd party vender, (such as laptopparts.com), but in many cases the machines are too new, and the models aren't listed on the 3rd party sites yet, leaving dell the only option for repair.
Story from a customer who brought his laptop in for repair-
He calls up dell support for an in warranty repair job on his notebook, problem is the network card will not work. Dell send an in home support agent to his house, the guy looks at the notebook, pokes around for a little while, charges the customer 200$ for the visit, and leaves. The customer turns on the laptop, tries to go online with his router/dsl connection, but hey, the network card won't work. He calls up dell again, they say the soonest they can send someone out again is the week after next, and they give no indication that it would be free of charge. The customer brings the notebook to us, I take a look at it, and oh, gee, the wrong network card driver is installed. If it were a third party network driver it may be understandable that the dell tech wouldn't know what to do with it- but guess what- stock card, came with the notebook.
I can go on and on about my loathing for dell, because sure, they'll treat you with respect if you're going to spend money on them, but wait until something goes wrong, and since 90% of the time it's "user error" (according to dell support) the warranty won't cover it, and good luck to you if it's hardware and you require a replacement part.
/end rant.
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