Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Cycle Sluts From Hell -- Michael | Main | Evening AoSHQ Ladies [Hugh Jackman, a close personal friend of Dave in Texas] »
September 01, 2006

Okay... Back. I Think. (Never, never buy Dell.)

Spent all yesterday doing, well, you know. Spent all day today recovering. I don't think I've strained that much in my life. I drank one large coffee and four diet Red Bulls by 3pm and I stll could have taken a nap at any moment (if I could nap, which unfortunately I can't).

Internet went out, and was on and off only spotilly throughout the day. I'm still trying to figure this new USB wireless card out. And the balky router it connects to.


Spent two hours talking with Dell trying to convince them the should give me a discount on a new computer since the last one they sold me has never worked. They kept trying to tell me the problem was that I had a Celeron processor and only 256 K RAM. Which drove me crazy. Because computers in 1983 could handle minor word processing tasks and email. (Well, that was before email, but you know what I mean-- I'm not using this computer for anything high-end or processor intensive.)

And yet Dell kept trying to convince me to spend another $1500 on a Dell computer when the last $1200 I spent resulted in a computer that hasn't worked since it came out of the box. If only you upgrade to the Pentium M and 512 K RAM, multiple Dell representatives (including a manger) told me, then you'll be able to handle that very high-end "typing into a window and pressing send" application you use.

Funny. When I bought the last one 16 months ago (a period of time Dell's representatives kept rounding up to two years, for some reason), no one warned me that a Celeron processor and 256 K RAM wouldn't be machine enough to handle Gmail.

Had they so informed me, I don't think I'd've bought one.

They just didn't seem to get I was 1, irate, 2, sold a lemon, 3, lacking any more faith in Dell and certainly not willing to buy a more expensive computer from them when the last midrange one was such a piece of crap. I kept telling them "You're trying to upsell the wrong person," but they just kept offering me "solutions" in the $1400 to $1600 range. Solutions for me, you understand. They were only trying to help.

The last guy told me he could not, under any circumstances, offer a discount beyond what they were giving anyone else. But he told me to call Customer Care because maybe they could.

Are they just going to waste more of my minutes? I asked. He said no.

So I called Customer Care, now in my third hour of Dell Hell. I put it to her quickly: I am not interested in speaking with you if you cannot offer any discount on a new machine beyond what is offered to everyone, including those people who were not sold a computer that has never worked. Can you offer such a discount?

No, she said.

No discount for a machine that has never worked? Or for the huge number of hours I've spent talking with clueless "customer support" assholes whose only goal was to get me to go away and look for answers on some one's website? Or for the multiple times I've had to reinstall Windows and reload all of my old files (losing many of them along the way, of course, as the CD burner has never worked either).

At any rate, I'm going to do what I told them I would do at the end of this process. I am going to create a blog ad telling all people to avoid Dell computers at any and all costs, and I am going to run it on my site in perpetuity.

Hopefully the lastest money I have sunk into this piece of crap will keep it going until I can buy a new one. From HP, or Gateway, or Acer. Anyone but Dell.

Anyone but Dell.

Anyone but Dell.

Anyone but Dell.

I'm serious. Buy a cheap used computer off Craigslist for $400. Sure, it won't last longer than six months, and no one will help you on tech support.

But then, same deal with Dell. And you'll be saving money, too.

This computer only has to last the two weeks or so it will take to get a new machine. Hopefully, it will last those two weeks (or, as Dell's representaties would call two weeks, "almost two years").

At least I still have the Dell carrying case. It's not a particularly good one, and it cost me around $1200, but it is the only part of the sale that has actually functioned more or less as anticipated.

Dell is the worst computer vendor out there, and they're getting worse every day.

Don't buy from them.

digg this
posted by Ace at 01:41 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
buddhaha: "Holding her like a bowling ball? I'll see myself ..."

Sebastian Melmoth: "If you are a Republican who voted for Austin then ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "Earlier today (Tuesday), the IAF conducted an inte ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "Is Graham considering voting to reject him? Poste ..."

Mister Ghost: "Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh JUST IN: Senator Lind ..."

Sebastian Melmoth: "The prosecution proved the glove was OJs beyond a ..."

guzano: "TX Gov. Abbott bussing all those migrants to New Y ..."

Tonypete: "OSINTdefender @sentdefender 4h Israeli Defense Mi ..."

JackStraw: ">>Colorado Officials Persecuting Tina Peters Worke ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "Taking a page from PDT: OSINTdefender @sentdefe ..."

Sebastian Melmoth: "I think The Good , the Bad and the Ugly is the wor ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "Africa beats you with all those universities that ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64