Dell quality on the decline?

As an IT consultant, I have for years used Dell as my supplier of choice for client computers, primarily because of convenience in ordering exactly what I need. Their quality, while not great, was comparable to the competition in the same price range.

The last couple years, though, I have seen what seems to be a serious decline in QC at Dell. And while I might question when I hear stories from clients' employees, what I see in my own office is undeniable, even in the XPS line of computers and the FP designated monitors. Repeatedly failing parts replaced with "scratch and dent" refurbs which also fail (or are defective right out of the box!), nearly useless tech support, dropped calls, perpetually delayed orders for items Dell has discontinued but not told the people who ordered them. And so on.

Is anyone else seeing this? If so, where can we go? I don't have the time, and my clients don't have the money, to deal with specialty houses. I need mainstream manufacturers for my 20 or 30 workstations and 1 or 2 servers per year. I'm right now needing to order a couple of workstations for a client who told me he has had it with Dell.

Wow. That sounded almost like a rant. It wasn't supposed to.

 

bowserb,

Welcome to the board! I also have used Dells for years. I recently purchased an HP system and have been happy with it. My father-in-law bought an HP a couple years ago and has been happy with it also. The thing I like about the HP is that there is room for expansion. The Dells were very limited on that. Just an opinion from an HP short-timer (about a month).

Mike

 

I've only had one new Dell that was defective out of the box, but I have had several replacement parts that were bad, as well as some send-in laptop repairs that were not repaired. In the case of refurb replacement parts, one that was marked refurb was a card reader/bluetooth interface that included a front panel for one of the shiny cases. The front panel was very scratched and looked like someone had tried to clean it up with rubbing compound.

My point was that I had not seen this shoddy workmanship in the past--say late 90's and early to mid 2000's--but I've seen more and more in the last couple years. My XPS430 buzzes, hums, and rattles due to poorly fitting case panels. The WFP2208 monitor has been replaced twice because it will not retain brightness and color settings--actually it retains the "settings ", just not their effect. Clients see failing NICs, sound, and hard drives galore. In one case, a NIC failure took out a 16 port 10/100/1000 switch! They're covered by warranty, but that's not good enough. Business owners want the stuff to work--not just get replaced when it breaks.

I wonder about IBM. I mean...they started it. "PC" was an IBM product. There was once an expresssion that went "No one ever got fired for buying an IBM computer." Maybe it's time to look at IBM again?

 

My wife has an XPS420 desktop as do I. We've had them for a year and a half without so much as a hiccup. My wife also has a Dell XPS1330 laptop (had it for three years now) and never had any issues with it. We love our Dells and have no reason to look at other computers.

 

Well, I can not speak to the commerce/contract issues with Gov agencies, businesses, academic arenas, or the support end--I never had a brand new puter, so I never had that kind of support-- nor, can I speak to what is Michael Dell doing these days and why???

But I can say that the only kind of desktop I would buy.....and always refurbished on eBay, is a Dell Optiplex. i would also now consider one of their new high end beyond Optiplex systems running the i7 chip could I afford it.

I have an old Optiplex GX260, and this newer and much faster Opti I am on---I upgrade them, of course---my Optiplex GX620.

The Dell line made for small businesses is solid. No frills, beautifully engineered, it's a pleasure to work in the cases, esp when you get the ATX mini tower configuration....you need not confine yourself to OEM. The LARGE (badly named) mini tower configurations also afford EXPANSION.

For the money, compared to building your own rig with the same quality and specs, I think you can't beat the Optis.

Having said that, I will also say, in everything electronic & beyond, the newer the crummier. It's about globalization, burgeoning, giant Petri dish of cheap labor internationally....promulgated by the trade agreements, the NAFTA ESPECIALLY.

I also observe that more and more, the quality of a system is model specific. Cept for support, etc I think we can no longer logically project anything from a Mfg's rep alone.

I believe there are like 4 makers of mobos, 3 for LCDs, worldwide. My WD drives are made in third world countries, by, I think, hungry 8 year olds in basements; I once got a brand new one on Newegg and it was a lemon, had so many bad sectors their diagnostics software could not count them....tho WD sent me a healthy, fully tested one when I sent the citrus one back.

It's the decline and fall of quality, and the consumerbase enables this, and I think it is not indigenous to any given Mfg/amalgamator.
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One more: the Dell site is always up to date on driver downloads, User Guides, etc....and their schematics are The Best.

I think that they are of late, not doin so hot, owes more to that most people are counting their pennies, and most people have all the puter they need for their respective applications, even including businesses. Touch screens, more miniaturization in lappys & other mobile devices, and related "innovations" will only enhance revenues but so much over time.

 

...and the Optiplexes and the Longitudes, dudes.

Not to diss da Dell.