Dell complaints

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:32 pm Post subject:

The 'cheap-expletive' moniker attaches indirectly. I think Paul refers to the fact the entire marketplace tends to be driven by pricepoint, rather than by specific customers. A $2000 computer is NOT cheap, but it is cheapened by using the same parts the 'bargain' ones do.

Pricepoint marketing is the ONLY reason why a Dell from 10 years ago could be expected to last 5-10 years, and a Dell from today is highly unlikely to make it much past warranty without requiring repair.

This marketing pressure spans the entire industry and is what drives vendors to China as a source of faulty components (same as toothpaste, dogfood, kid's toys painted with lead). No matter what you pay for a Dell, you get the same Chinese halfass crap. That makes Dell the 'cheap bastard', not the end customer. But every mainstream vendor buys the same halfass crap. It requires a great deal of diligence to escape the 'cheap-bastard' syndrome.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

Mele20 · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:24 am Post subject:

Thank you Rocke. So, actually it is the fault of the OEM because if you buy a reasonably "expensive" computer (2000-3000) you expect to get parts that are better made than the cheap junk ones put in the $300-500 computer. I paid about 1900 for my Dell bought in May 1999. That price included a very nice monitor and an extended warranty so I guess the computer itself was about $1400. As you have pointed out many times, as has been my experience, those computers are still working fine. Mine has required a new floppy drive four years ago. No other hardware problems.

I expected the 8300 I bought Nov 2003 for $2200 (with a nice monitor and extended warranty) to be comparable to the earlier Dell but, of course, it wasn't and it had a series of one problem after another hardware wise beginning with the first tower that was replaced during the first 30 days (and the monitor that was DOA). I find it infuriating that, as you have pointed out, it is so difficult to find a computer that is made with reliable, sturdy parts. With everything being made in China now...what does one do? I don't want a throw away computer. I want a reliable one that lasts and performs with out a lot of hardware problems for at least five years...one like my original Dell.

Actually, I suppose what is going on in the computer industry is a microcosm of what is happening generally in the USA. We reached our peak after World War II and are now on a relentless downhill as a post industrial society that I don't think is reversable while China is now in the position we were in after 1945 and is on the rise.

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:29 am Post subject:

I'm afraid so. No matter what you pay at Dell, you get cheap. Same with all "US" computers. Can't say if it's the case with Sony and Toshiba. The Japanese treat each other in commerce differently from the rest of the trading world. Most capacitor companies are owned in Japan, but most have outsourced manufacturing to China. There's a good chance that the Japanese inside connection gets them the good parts, while everyone else gets the melamine dogfood and antifreeze toothpaste.

Had we (the US) been in this position in 1941 with all our means of production outsourced, we would now be speaking German.

The Chinese as a culture are about as ethical as Dell. They're Communist, absolutist, nuclear-armed, and have the means to deliver weapons anywhere in the world. Should we come to economic or diplomatic odds with them, our position would be, shall we say, awkward. Perhaps fatally so.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'