Since March of 2010 I have had four com. and three new hard drives but I had to go back and use my old emachine because I can not get the to do anything about it!!! I have to refurbusher com.that they sent me but they don't work...They want me to send one back but I refuse until I get a MY MONEY BACK or A NEW COMPUTURE

I purchased a studio laptop with Vista installed (I had no choice). Months after the purchase I got the blue screen. I immediately reported it to Hell (misspelling intended). That was the beginning of my hellish relationship with hell.
After the warranty, I purchased their "cadillac" service. But I got a scooter service. After more than 8 hours of phone trouble shooting, I requested they refund the cost of the service since they can not help me. They say check is in the mail...we will see.

It started with the delivery of my Dell XPS M1330 laptop, being delivered over 3 weeks later than the already long build/delivery date projected, when I purchased this unit. I chose not cut any corners on a fast, small laptop for travel and selected all the performance options and paid, considerably, for this configuration. Since this model was only available with Vista, I chose to support the RED program and got the included special edition of Vista Ultimate.

Each time Vista updated, (frequently), something would go wrong. Often this was a total blue screen situation. Dell blamed Microsoft and Microsoft blamed Dell.

Like everyone else in the world, not on Microsoft's payroll, I found Vista to be clunky, slow, finicky and frustrating, to the extreme to use.

I spent endless hours, the day before I was going on the first of several planned trips, for which I'd purchased this computer. With a phone glued to my ear, working with both Dell Support, out of the Far East and Microsoft Support, out of the Far East, to restore my frozen system and restore all my lost business email, took literally nearly 20 consecutive hours! Subsequently I turned off auto updates from Microsoft. All clunked along until the computer simply stopped working one day. It was shipped to Dell's depot and returned very promptly. They had replaced the motherboard, LCD cover and webcam. However when they reinstalled Vista, not only were some features not properly configured, Windows Updates where left on automatic. The first time I started the system, it updated and crashed. This was resolved with many more hours phone time with Tech Support.

Four and half months later the system was dead again. When my system came back from the depot, the second time, they had replaced the Memory, CPU Fan, Heat Sink, Motherboard, Hard Drive and Bottom case. Since it was still running Vista, I booted it up without internet access and immediately disabled updates.

On each of many occasions I had to deal with Tech Support, I pleaded to dump Vista and install Win XP. I was consistently assured that this unit would not run XP, since many components had no available drivers for XP. After having done lots of research I found many others had been successful in dumping Vista and getting the laptop to run far better and faster on Win XP. I partitioned the drive, from Vista and found all the required drivers, except the graphics card driver on the Dell website, (mostly from other Dell laptop model driver download pages). The graphics card driver was downloaded from the graphics card manufacture's website. I bought a copy of WinXP and used a Linux based utility, to very stably manage a dual boot system. After a year of getting only endless frustration and no functional use out my costly Dell, I was able to feel like it was not so bad after all...no thanks to Dell!

Almost exactly a year after the last depot trip, the new harddrive failed! I have been around PCs and Apples for going on 30 years and have marvelled at how much more reliable all components have become. So, I am wondering where Dell is sourcing their components. For a single computer to have two motherboards and two harddrives fail, within a span of under two and half years, is as outrageously ridiculous as it is frustrating.

Now when I call Dell and ask to speak to someone about this totally unreal experience, I am shuffled off to some offshore call centre where I am simply told that Dell's policy is there is no financial adjustments made on lemon systems or in any case. When I ask to speak to someone who makes such policy, I am promised a supervisor will return my call. I guess those offshore lines only go one way, since I have had no call. Any decent, ethical company would offer to, at the very least, dump Vista and give me complimentary upgrade to Win 7 or offer me suitable replacement unit or, or nominally, a substantial reduction in the cost of such. However, it seems that Dell is not interested in standing behind their products, when they have something fundamentally wrong with them, nor will they accept any responsibility for adopting Vista, when it was not fit for service.

There seems to be no way to find someone at Dell corporate to talk to about this.

My father maintained an account with Dell which had a credit limit of 5000. He recently passed, but shortly before passing he wanted to make things easier for my mom, so he paid off every account he could. On some accounts, such as Dell, he paid twice, resulting in a credit balance (That is, he was owed money by Dell!) of 680 dollars. He has since passed, and Dell is making it impossible for my mom to get the money. First they want a copy of Dad's death certificate. Then, after Mom sends it to the payment center by mistake, they claim that the payment center can't process it, and they want us to send ANOTHER copy to their Minnesota office for review. The financial services division directs me to speak to DCM, who handles their probate accounts, but DCM tells me I need to speak to Dell Financial. No one helps, no one can do anything, and Mom sits waiting for a refund that isn't coming. I am looking at my legal options, but have decide never to buy another Dell product if I can help it. This company is slimy to the point of oozing slime.

I ordered a Dell mini 9. I bought this item for work as I was hoping to use it in conjunction with an in-class television to display pictures and powerpoint presentations. I purchased a travel mouse, wireless router, and the netbook for around 550 dollars. They arrived a bit late and in separate orders, but I wasn't bothered as it wasn't a gift. What did irk me was that within a couple of hours, the sound stopped working. While I search online and am familiar with programs within the OS, I'm clueless when it comes to the more indepth features, and I was especially a fish out of water with this item as it had the Ubuntu system installed and came with no disk drive. I'm a bit spoiled by Windows and HP's system recovery disks. So I did what anyone in my situation would do: I called for technical assistance. Big mistake. First time on hold for an hour, hear the operator pick up, then hear the line go dead. Decide to go the online chat route (note that there is no ubuntu disclaimer for this option). Wait 50 min. only to be eventually told (after all the other crap they're scripted to read off to us and an unfathomable delay between each response) that they don't handle systems with Ubuntu and I must call another number which is given to me. Call that number. Another hour-long wait. Get in touch with another rep. who tells me that I've yet again been put through to the wrong department and then informs me that the Ubuntu department isn't open on the weekends. By this time I'm really irate. Plus, the last laptop I had was a huge lemon and coincidentally the thing that went out on it first was the sound. So between the already burgeoning fear that this netbook might a lemon as well and the bad customer service, I decide "to hell with it, " and I'll just return the damn thing. Call to do a return the next day. Am told they are going to charge a restocking fee of 15% unless they get tech notification that the system isn't working. Well, I wasn't going through that nightmare again, so I told that that I would just eat the restocking fee. So basically Dell would get 75+ dollars out of me for trying out their system, and I'd not have argued. You'd think this, of all things, would go smoothly. No. Now, all of the associates (except the sales...but I'll get to that in a minute) have been Indian, and I can tell they're reading scripted responses because they all sound like accented automatons. This guy here has me on the phone for around half an hour as he starts the return process and periodically puts me on hold to get instruction from someone else on how to go through the various steps. He gives me CRA numbers for all of the items (separately since that's how they shipped) then puts me on hold as he...so he says...sets things up with UPS. I don't have a store in my vicinity, so he says he's going to set up a pickup. Says to have everything ready on Monday as that's when the UPS guy is coming to pick the items up. Tells me to put the number he's just given me on the packages. Stresses that they must be ready to go on Monday. End call. I receive an email with the return label for one of the items. I don't know what to put on the other boxes but think well maybe the numbers he gave me is some sort of corporate account/tracking/something number and call UPS to verify. UPS doesn't know of any package pickup and they require a tracking number which in no way resembles what the rep. gave me. No UPS and I'm still stuck with a bunch of boxes. So I call back AGAIN. And yes, I was upset...but no, I did not raise my voice or use inapproprate language. As soon as I was connected to an operator I asked to speak with a supervisor. Again this call was taking place in India. She told me that she'd be able to help me. I said that I had no luck with the five previous associates and would like to speak with a supervisor. She said she couldn't put me through unless I related the story to her first, so I began. As I started and it finally dawned on her that I was not a happy customer and had a complaint, she started complaining about a signal loss and said she would transfer me to the proper department. Tell me, what department is in charge of "you're breaking up"? A tactic a petulant teenager would use from a supposed professional. Nice. So there I am, in the very same hold line again. By this point I'd had enough. Their website is crap. I looked for anything relevant for my situation. An email sent received nothing more than an automated reply stating that no emails except for those pertaining to whatever compartmentalized department received it would be answered and if I wanted to track my order, to please contact Customer Service. This company is run like a pyramid scheme. Shuffling and obfuscation at every turn in the hopes that the customers will give up from sheer exhaustion and disgust. I find it telling that Dell recognizes the incompetence and low proficiency of its overseas associates to the degree that all sales are handled by domestic operators. Once your money has been paid, in a classic bait and switch tactic, they then funnel you over to a bunch of underpaid, uneducated (not in general perhaps, but definitely in terms of Dell policy) foreigners who produce spectacularly unsatisfactory results.

I have since reported them to the BBB, sent another email, and now play the waiting game. The sad thing about all of this is that I have previously shopped with Dell (my desktop) with fantastic results. Then again, that product worked wonderfully from the get-go and is now approaching the one year mark with absolutely no incidents...other than the notorious Vista IE shutdowns which aren't Dell's fault.

Tried calling Dell again. Thought I'd give them another try seeing as how I never did get in touch with their Ubuntu department. Called the number given to me and was told by an automated message that Dell doesn't give technical support dealing with Ubuntu and I was to to visit the Ubuntu forums if I wanted anything done. This is what they call the Ubuntu department? This is what the previous three associates tried to funnel me to and the one told me was closed on the weekends...in fact, she actually told me that day that she SAW the last few Unbuntu employees leaving for the day! How can you close a recording on the weekends? How does a tape recorder have store hours much less walk out of their department? I can't even begin to tell you how much I now LOATHE this company. Sell me a system and then tell me you can't friggin service the thing because of the OS I chose, but not once tell me that this was a contingency of choosing this system to begin with?! I have never...NEVER...seen such incompetence and unprofessionalism from a well-known company. Ever.

I received a response to my letter. Maybe it was the BBB report that did it...who knows. Anyways, they say they're sending a tracking number with the UPS delivery guy tomorrow to pick the system up, but they only mention one number. Am I supposed to put them in one big box, do I send the one system back but not the rest...what? I guess I'll just ask the UPS guy when he gets here.

The incompetence never stops. The notice said UPS was scheduled for the 31st. Thank god I didn't actually cancel my plans and stay home all day waiting because I called UPS in the morning and found that they aren't doing pickups on the 31st at all, and they're also closed on the 1st...all for New Years.

I finally returned that piece of uslessness, and I am just glad beyond belief to be rid of Dell. I still have my Dell desktop from a few years ago, but when that goes, I'll be looking at other brands.

**These events occured in 2009. I had posted them, but I guess it didn't go through b/c there no record of the post under my profile or on the site, so I decided to repost. Please keep this in mind. I still believe the information is useful (especially if there are repeated mentions of this kind of service), but the more current posts might reflect policy changes within Dell (hopefully for the better).