"I never thought I'd say it, but I just had a pleasant experience with Dell. They were running 20% off monitors and free shipping so on 9/2/04 I put in an order for an NEC 19" which was listed as out of stock, shipping in 1-2 weeks. It wasn't a rush, and having heard the horror stories I was prepared to wait a month. It was a great deal.

11 hours after ordering, I received an email that the order was shipped, and 2 business days later (weekend and labor day excluded) it was delivered. Jennifer who took my order over the phone was great and the process really took me by surprise.

In sum, Dell has some great deals if you have time to wait for them, and their sales staff is still run out of Austin, TX, so I definitely recommend phone orders. From past experiences, their customer service is a nightmare, but if you stick with single parts that are warrantied outside of Dell, you should be alright. I'm still shocked that it went so well. Thanks!"

"I ordered a Dimension 4600 and the delivery was fast and great. However, I don't know about other Dimension models but the 4600 has a VERY LOUD CPU fan! This seems to be the norm according to the Dell community forum pages. Had this been mentioned in the description...I would have opted for a different model. Tried calling tech. support who had me doing things unrelated to the fan--un plugging the speakers, the keyboard and the monitor. He then had me open the case, and when it wouldn't open ( I later read the instructions for opening the case in the manual and found that he was telling me to do it completely wrong!)...he told me to have my husband take over. Yeah, I'll do that...WHEN I GET MARRIED! I hung up on him. My Dell 922 printer works fine but can't seem to get it that the tape was removed from the ink cartridge and thus I keep getting an error message. I will not buy from Dell again if for no other reason than for all the complaints about them and yet they do nothing."

"Bought projector from Dell. On 1st call they agreed to return and I'd buty another with 10% restocking fee. Fine so far. I then spent 2 full days at home waiting for a Dell arranged pickup which never happened. They said I could take it to local UPS store, which I did - where they couldn't find any record for pickup, so I had to take unit hokme and wait! Once projector finally back in their hands, they indicated 5 to 10 days for credit. 30 days later I'm still waiting, now told it will be another week or 2. I've made MANY calls to customer support, been hung up on, had promides return calls not made, and in general Dell has been a horrible company to deal with."

"I have ordered twice from Dell. The first was a custom specified Dell Dimension 4600 with printer. It arrived early and everything was correct and working great. I also ordered a replacement printer cartridge which came promptly."

"It would be hard to express how frustrating it is to deal with this company. They entice you with a big rebate and as soon as you've swallowed the hook, the dance begins. They can't find any record of your purchase, they can't honor the rebate for undisclosed reasons, you cannot speak with a manager, you cannot escalate to someone who knows anything about what is going on, you must send in this piece of paper or that piece of paper even though you've already done it a dozen times ... it's a seemingly endless process to get the rebate. It took from November of 03 until June of 04 to finally receive the rebate. If I had not been relentless in holding their feet to the fire, I'm sure I would never have stood a chance of getting that $300 they owed me. My only other buying experience with this company was on a desktop system several years ago. I swore at that time I'd never buy from them again. I don't know how I allowed myself to believe they may have improved. T'aint so."

"I will never do business with this company again! They promised to send me a printer along with my order because I was going to cancel my order. It's been over 2 weeks now and still no printer just customer service run around."

"I purchased a Dell Inspiron Laptop a few years ago, and I've been as happy as could be with it. I've had nothing but minor issues, all of which were quickly resolved.

I selected Dell in large part for their Complete Care warranty offering, which covers all accidents and such (except for fire, theft, and intentional damage (the first two usually being covered by other insurances)). I have to say, they're warranty lived up to it's name, and was very worthwhile."

"I originally ordered an Inspiron 8200 laptop from Dell, Inc. with their "Complete Care" accidental damage protection (because I'm a klutz) in 2002, and in December of 2003 I dropped my machine while walking down a flight of stairs. I called tech support and they said they would send out a replacement as soon as possible, and, per their service contract, it would be the same or better caliber machine. They ended up sending me a refurbished Inspiron 8500 as a replacement, which was fine by me as long as it worked. Since Dell requires customers report any order discrepancies within 30 days, I checked my laptop to ensure that I did actually receive the same or better caliber machine. I ordered my original Inspiron 8200 with one 512MB stick of memory so that I'd have a slot open for upgrading later, and I also paid extra for a 5400rpm hard drive. When I opened the memory compartment, I discovered there were two 256MB sticks instead of one 512MB stick. They eventually sent me a replacement stick of memory, and that was fine. Then, after having the laptop a little over a month, the machine would not power on. I called tech support yet again, and they eventually fixed the machine. However, before I sent in the laptop for repair, the tech agent told me to take out the hard drive. When I removed the hard drive I discovered that I was actually sent a 4200rpm hard drive instead of a comparable 5400rpm hard drive like I had in my Inspiron 8200. Thus, I had to call tech support yet again and have them send me another hard drive. At this point it was February of 2004. Dell had sent me a less upgradeable, slower laptop as a replacement. To add, around late April or early May of 2004, my laptop would not power on again. I called tech support, and I pleaded with them to replace the motherboard, which they eventually did. Now, in August of 2004, I noticed that my right speaker has been distorting even at low volume levels. In addition, my laptop won't recognize my AC adapter any more, and the AC adapter will not charge my battery. I thought this was probably because my former pets (two cats) chewed the cord that connects from the AC adapter to my laptop, which is also covered by "Complete Care." So I called yet again. I just received the box to send in my laptop for repair, which was supposed to include a new AC adapter but did not. I called tech support tonight, and the order for my new but refurbished AC adapter had been cancelled. So the tech rep (hopefully) placed a new order for a replacement AC adapter, and I'll be waiting yet again. As one can imagine, I haven't had the most pleasant experience with Dell's award winning service and support and quality that they love to boast about in their commercials."

"I ordered a Dell 2001FP 20" LCD Monitor and received it inside of one week. The monitor came in perfect condition and I was extremely impressed with the quality and aesthetics (it's the best looking 20" monitor I've seen so far)

Overall extremely pleased."

"This has been by far my worst online experience I ever had. Ordered a notebook from Dell's Outlet page w/ overnight shipping. Dell would not allow me to review my order for 6 hours online (stated -No order placed!). Once I was able to review it, I noticed that there was a mistake on the configuration (by the way, be very careful, the specs are incorrect from the search criteria, review w/attention..). I called them immediately to cancel the order (4X same day). Still wasn't able to stop the process, even Fedex is not stoppable (called them 4X too). Bottom line you have to refuse the delivery at your door step and then it will be shipped back "ground" to Dell so you're looking at 5-7 business days for them to receive it back and God knows when your credit card will be credited back!! As a long time Dell customer I strongly recommend to stay away from them, horrible on-line systems and ineffective customer service. The award winning company is long gone. What a shame... Meanwhile, I await the Fedex truck to refuse something I do not want and eventually receive my money back in 10 days (hopefully - Dell promised a full refund - let's see how that goes..) "

"recently i bought a Dell Axim x30 via telephone.
when i ordered over telephone sales person promised me that he will send me an email about the order and the order will be prceded only if i confirm by replying to that email.
but, after 3 days there was a card at my door saying that someone tried to deliver something and i have to contact them.
then i called dell customer care to find out what's happening to my order, but they said it's been delivered already and then after a discussion they rearranged for a delivery between 5pm - 8pm on tuesday , but they deliverd on monday during day time.
even after this i never received an email.
when i opened i was more shocked to find the dark silver palm top and a night grey usb cradle, which wan totally different from the one i've seen in the website, which should be all in white silver color.
i called the customer care again, they said they can't do anything about this, i wanted to talk to the manager , they said they will arrange for a call back, but no one called.
i really got frusturated and wanted to cancel the order and they said because my invoice is on a company name they can't cancel it.
then i was asked to call the technical support, the technical support raised a case (505506197) and said they can't do anything.
again i called customer care, they said they requested some information from marketing team and waiting for that and will call within 4 hours(on 20/08/2004) but didn't, i called again about 4.30 pm the operator told definitly they will call before 5.30 pm, but never happened.

like this i've promised already once that they will call me before 5.30pm, it never happened.

now i don't know what to do.
still now i've not started using your product.

i buy all my electrinics only from web, and never had this bitter experience before.

because dell is trading only through online, i expected they will be more prompt and perfect than any other online trader. i really shocked to find the truth."

"I ordered a Dell insperon notebook 8600. When I made the order there was an option for a dual layer dvd burner. Having selected and paid for this option, I was supprised to find my shipping invoice changed after recieving the computer, the drive changed to a single layer drive, and my money not refunded. After calling dell they told me I had gotten exactly what I ordered. I called again after finding proof of my original purchase and dell told me they would fix the problem. After a week without hearing back I call again. This time they tell me my customer information is wrong, and I have no access to my own account. I call again and am forced to use the shipping adress instead of my adress just to talk to some one. They insist I never spoke to any one about the drive and only offer me an external dvd burner as a replacement. I then ask to return the computer. First I have to fight to get them not to charge me for a free printer i never ordered and so couldnt return, then they mess up the return. Instead of ups coming to my door, I call ups to find out dell had never set up a pickup. I took an entire day off work to wait for a ups man who never came. Then I arange for me to drop off the computer. When I get to the ups store, my number is invalid and they dont know what to do with the computer. Finally, ups agrees to take the computer after calling dell. The computer is added to a pile of other returned dell computers at the shipping store which werent processed correctly either!!! I couldnt believe such a large company could handle everythign so poorly. Not to mention the way they swapped my order parts and then rewrote my order without a notification is illegal."

"I ordered a Dell Inspiron 9100, 3.2Ghz, WUXGA, 1GB mem, 60Gb HD, DVD-RW, ATI MR9800 Video card, Internal wireless. Placed order on 5 August 2004. Was given a confirmed ship date of 18 August 2004. My system was shipped on 13 August (5 days early) and arrived on 16 August. Out of the box everything worked. All software was installed properly and all orginal disks were included in the box. After checking DXDIAG, I confirmed that what I ordered was what I got. Perfect! This is my fourth Dell computer (2 pc, 2 laptop) and I have had no problems whatsoever. By the way the price for the system was $2400, which included a mouse, free printer, MS Office SBE, and a 128MB disk key. Incredible price. "

"I have been a Dell advocate for many years now. I have perhaps ordered 50-60 systems. I will no longer endorse Dell or their products. There are several reasons for this change. They have become proprietary, their tech support is over seas and in another language, the wait for a new system is over 30 days now, their prices are not in line with the quality of their products. They have just gotten to big and greedy and have forgotten how they got there."

"Ordered on website and had item 3 days later. Great ship time. I just really hate calling dell since they outsource their calls to INDIA. The language barrier sucks."