"!DON'T EVER BUY A DELL!
I bought a Dell Dimension 4550 with a P4 2.6, 256MB Ram, 60GB HDD, Nvidia Geforce 4 MX420. I paid $1480.84 on April 13, 03. After a week of using it the system would no longer boot. After the the Windows XP boot screen the screen would go blank. So I called tech support and they couldn't figure it out. He said he would call back tomorrow, he never did. So, I reinstalled Windows XP and the system worked fine. Untill oneday when playing Medal of Honor: allied Assault the graphics got all garbled up. I called support again and the indian lady told me that I was playing games incompatible with XP. So I called again but I could not understand the guy I got this time. His accent was way to strong. Then I decieded to start sending threating emails to dell's support to get them to help me with my problem. I even asked if I could exchange my graphics card but they just ignored me. I asked to return it but they didn't get back to me untill the warranty period was over. So I gave up.
The floppy drive broke a couple days ago. The floppys don't pop in no more.
Also, the 60 Day MX Radio Trial that came with my $20 Musicmatch Plus upgrade, I never got.
Now I am stuck with this terrible system that I hate. I will never buy from Dell again even if the product only costs a penny.

These are the main reasons I hate my Dell PC:

No Bios settings can be changed
Old video and sound drivers
Old software verisons, I paid $20 for Musicmatch Plus but they gave verision 7.1 when 7.5 was out.
Use crappy 845 mobos with only 4x AGP
Crappy plastic cases
250 watt Powersupply
One exhaust fan
no intake fan
huge CPU heatsink

If you know how to make a desktop computer than do it yourself, if you don't take a look at Alienware's new $930 Bot w/PCI-E, Falcon Northwest's $1600 Talon, and all the Velocity Micros. What ever you do stay away from Dell."

"I purchased the Laptop Inspiron 5150 & it performs very well. I am very satisfied with it. The problem is with the rebate. I'm sure Dell is not alone but they count on customers giving up if given a hard time over the rebate. I find that others have had the same problems. I sent several e-mails, one certified letter with all documentation, a few faxes . At first they said they never received a thing. And, I was getting about 10 Netsky virus tries a day. After I finally got a notice that they had received all my documents, the Netsky virus tries stopped. I have had none since. I'm not actually accusing Dell, but something is very fishy. You shouldn't have to BEG for a rebate you are entitled to. I am very disappointed in that part of their deal."

"Ordered a 710T monitor. It was delayed but they told me it was backordered. Received it about 2 weeks after I ordered. It is a great monitor thus making my experience a good one. Decent seller."

"I manage the IT needs for a department at a University. I exclusively purchase Dell systems because of their excellent prices & reliable service.
First of all, for the absolute best deals, you must NOT be impulsive! You must check sites like slickdeals.net or fatwallet.com regularly to see what the best deals are!
Second, I understand the customer service problems a lot of people have had. Being an educational user, we have a Dell representative we can call directly & he helps resolve the issue very quickly. That said, with 75 new Dell desktops purchases each year, we only have one issue every 12-18 months.
However, if you are an individual user, you must learn some tactics when you talk to their customer support representatives (whether they are in Panama, Haiti, India, whatever). You must tell them with CONFIDENCE that you've already reinstalled Windows, already tried all their troubleshooting tips, etc. That's the only way you'll get to a higher-tier support. If you second guess yourself & they detect it in your voice, they will KNOW you haven't tried all their tips yet & they will try to have you do them all over again. (Those tips have helped my friends & family when they've needed to talk to Dell support)."

"I did not have any problems with my laptop that I bought 3 months ago. I was tricked by the Dell preferred account. The laptop I bought was a deal that offered 1 year 0% financing. I never thought I would not be eligble for this deal. It did not say anything about being eligble for this deal. Anyway, I bought the laptop, the first month balance comes, no financing. OK everthing was fine but the second month, I really do not know what had changed, they charged me 10 $ (which they claimed to be only for once) and the interest which is more than 20%.
I WARN everyone about Dell's business ethics.They don't have one!!!"

"I ordered the Dimeonsion 8100 from Dell. I paid a little bit extra for the p4 1.7 so if that gives you a little bearing on the time. Since I've owned the machine, I've had a few problems. First, I've gotten several viruses but those are Dell's problem. They're the users errors. However, I've had a hard drive go bad around 2.5 years since I bought it. I can fix computers myself so I paid 100 dollars for a new hard drive w/ a 50 dollar rebate. If you know enough about computers and you don't need their support, they make a good product. I work retail, NO ONE has good customer support / tech support. Everyone has their techs in India, its just the industry not the company. I would buy again from Dell. "

"my recent dealings with this company have been nothing short of a horror story of epic proportions. i will actively proclaim (as i'm doing here)that no-one ever do business with them. they have no interest in anything but the almighty dollar (and forgotten that the best way to do that is to make happy customers)i purchased an xps 'gaming laptop' from them and after a weeks of playing email and phone tag with their so called customer support(which are hard to understand ( do they just read a script after they select an issue? no diagnostic ability what so ever)) they sent me a replacement laptop with assurances that it would be thoroughly tested prior to shipment...as you may be able to tell from the theme of my rant, it wasnt. i'm telling everyone i know, my customers included ( i co-own a small cumputer business, but dont do laptops), and i am considering putting up space on my web page to let everyone know what to expect from this company. sorry about the diatribe
Ed"

"I have bought a total of 3 PCs (not for myself) from Dell as well as some other items, every time I was satisfied with my experience from Dell, especially the prices of the items I've bought using various promotional offers and codes which Dell generously supplies from time to time. So I really have no reason to complain. Yea, Dell's "generic" level tech support really started to worsen recently (though I haven't personally experienced it since all items work as they should), but here's a little advise how to avoid some of the tech support hassles: don't buy stuff from Dell's "Home & Home Office" section (you'll receive worse tech support treatment if you'll do that), use other sections like "Small Business" or "Medium Business" to buy stuff from Dell's website, plus try to get "Gold" technical support service, it really worth it if you'll ever have to use it. "

"I purchased a Kodak DX6490 digital camera. The price was 10% off, plus a stackable coupon made it an excellent deal. The order confirmation said it would be shipped in a week, but I had the camera in my hands in 3 days. The camera works great and I'm very happy dealing with Dell."

"This was the worst purchase of my life! It went from bad to worse!! To satrat out with i was lied to by the sales person, I spent $2200. second, the computer completely broke down in 6 months, thech support was rediculously inadequate,trouble shot with them for a week!! they couldn't even figure out a problem I had to figure out the problem myself...the hd was replaced, told it would take 2 days, it took 4...just to find out the motherboard was bad, another 4 days, to find out that that still didn't fix the pboblem...took arguing with them for another 2 days to get them to replace the system and oh my GOD it took 10 day to get it, they said they would ship it next day air, it went ups ground...they send my a pc that was broken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And to top this all off, i had to trouble shoot a BROKeN computer for 2 days!! So now i am waiting another 10 days to get ANOTHER replacment system, that has been downgraded!!!!! i mean really i have spoken to more than 50 different people in this company just trying to get a working computer that i originally spent over 2 grand on without monitor or a speaker system!!! I could have gone to another company and gotten a better spec system for less, but i thought hey! they are supposed to have a great rep and great tech support! I will never buy from this company again, and i discourage alll from ever purchasing from this company!!! and I found out from my neighbor across the street that the same thing happened to his father!!!! so the moral of this story is BEWARE!!! They will cheat you."

"Starts bad, but gets better: Dell sent a faulty mouse with the Dimension 2400 I recently purchased.
It was "half working"- that is, clicks did not always register when the buttons were pressed.

Thinking perhaps it was software related, I gave it a bit to see if any patches or new drivers would set things right.
If anything, it got worse, so I called for a replacement.

While I would say that the menu system on the way to talking with a live person needs helps (a confusing 6 minute maze), once I got through a replacement was authorized in about five minutes- and got to me in about 24 hours (called ~2 pm on 6/17/04, delivered between 1-2 pm 6/18/04).

Way to go on speedy service!
Better yet, I was given a phone number to call DHL and have them stop by my house that afternoon to pick up the old mouse and send it back.
Since the replacement came with an RMA sticker, there was no cost to me- very convenient.

I've never had service that fast and easy- granted, it was only a simple little mouse, but the response time was very encouraging to see.

--- Update 1/22/05 ---

The replacement mouse developed the same problem within the next two months.

Being very busy, and since the device "mostly worked", we decided to live with it for a while, including over the holidays, as I figured I had about a snowball's chance of getting through to Dell during that time.

Come mid-Januray I tried getting through, didn't wait too long (3-4 mins), but then after explaining the problem was transferred to the EPP department (because the system was bought through the Employee Purchase Program discount, for a college student).
Was sent straight through, explained the problem again, and was told I was given the wrong department- this one only did product exchanges during the first 21 days.

I think the lady heard me barely stifle a scream, and quickly offered to just refund the money for the mouse, since (her words) "We've had a lot of trouble with those mice."

So, Dell can't provide a reliable mouse with their systems, but they did do a good thing in returning its cost so we can buy one ourselves.

Not ideal service, but they did make right by the customer.

Their phone system and crazy departmental divisions could go for a serious overhaul though, and I'll wager a guess that the fact I was able to speak with American-based techs each time I called so far is keeping this review from being in the negative category- I did speak with someone in India for pre-sales questions, and just gave up on it, way too difficult to understand."

"I ordered a dell 4600 computer with all the upgrades because i play a lot of games and needed a system that would handle the heat. I recieved my computer and it's running great...now 7 months later. The only thing that I didn't like was that I had a spare floppy drive so I didn't order a floppy drive in, well that also means that the bracket doesn't come either. I expected the bracket to be there even without a floppy drive."

"USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!
Dell has proven to be dishonest, a bait and switch company, and a company that has not concept of what "Customer Care" really means.

I have purchased 2 laptops from them in 4 years...the second one, 2 years ago, was a nitemare...I called and asked the rep if the modem was v 92 and if the USB was 2.0...His reply....no idea what USB 2.0 was, and He figured the modem was v92 since it was and internal modem....I about fell out of my chair at such and incompetent answer.

I like their complete care warranty and so came back a third time...glutton for punishment...I ordered an Inspiron 9100 3.2ghz processor. The specs on their site for this laptop and processor show there are 512kb of L2 cache on the processor which makes it a Northwood processor which was what I wanted. WHen I got my receipt 2 days later in the email, low and behold the processor was 1 mb cache..a Prescott processor....I specifically told them when I ordered I wanted the Northwood. So I called back and after 30 minutes of phone runaround thru automated menus which Dell has miles of,the rep said I would have to take whatever the plant had...I said, HUH UH, cancel the order then...you want to lie to me when I place my order, and then switch it to a processor I do not want then you can just cancel the order.

I called today and spoke with a supervisor about it again and told him the site still was listed as a Northwood on their site..no mention at all of Prescott nor 1 mb cache...it took me 45 minutes of being transferred here and there on the phone to get to him,...and then he told me I would have to be transferred to customer care so they could make the changes...I told him that they were the jerks that transferred me to him..I told him I had had enough of Dell's BS and I would buy elsewhere...not with a dishonest, non caring company like Dell.

ALso my email experience with them shows they could care less about the customer. they replied all right, but obviously WITHOUT reading what I wrote...never, not in 1 email did they address the issue(s) I sent the emails for..they responded about some off the wall crap...So they don't pay attention nor care about the customer...
So if you wanna play phone tag and get lied to and cheated to and no customer care, then Dell is for you.
A word of warning...when you call Dell number there is NO guarantee you are even talking to a rep in the US...I found out the rep I talked to was in Malaysia...
Really good there Dell..so much for trust....no wonder people's identities get stolen and credit card info...Dell reroutes your calls to other countries and you have NO idea and then you are placing your order on the phone giving your credit card info and personal info to someone in another country that you have no idea if you can trust or not.
My advice? Stay a long way away from Dell...t
I would also add that the rep this time Had NO clue as to what a prescott processor or a northwood processor nor an Intel processor even were..He thought all three were 3 different brands of processor...sheesh."

"LOUSY OUTSOURCED TECH SUPPORT!
DELL used to have highly rated tech support.
The past few times I have had problems, I ended up with "totally clueless" techs from the Philiphines (and I paid extra for priority advanced support! Should have got the GOLD support I guess?)
I used to get techs from India that were pretty good, but no more!?
DELL is NOT SWELL!"

"I've placed many orders with them, always happy with their service. I just don't like how everytime I place an order I get a new customer number. But other than that, I've ordered 11 computers from them and it's all been very successful.
***** Comment ****
Wow, after reading over all the other reviews, it's amazing. it really is true, someone unhappy makes 10 times as much noise as happy people. If they were really as poor as all the reviews had illustrated, then they wouldn't be as large as they are. Just like Microsoft, everyone complains about them, but everyone uses them!"