Dell complaints

[delltech_jeremy]

Have any other techs notice that there are a really high percentage of parts fail right at the one year mark, most of the time just a few days to a week? I take 30 calls a day (give or take) and more than a third of these systems have a part fail like one week out of contract? Is it just irony, or is it some sort of money-making conspiracy?

Yeah, maybe its just me.

BTW- Happy holidays everyone!
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Caller>Yes, I was calling to check what kind of materials your mouse pads are made of.
Me>Uhh... uhh... hold on... (hold button)
[Ten minutes later...]
Me>I'm sorry, but I have no idea.

[Badger]

There is probably a little evil on the end of Dell to use cheaper parts that have a minimum 1 year failure rate. Hell, they would be cheap which would drive down manufacturing costs, causing more money to be spent to keep the computer working.

I also think that its part of the consumer mentality as well. Some will put up with a problem for a while pushing back the day they actually try to get it fixed. They realize they've had the computer about a year, they have a one year warrenty, and decide they had best get it fixed while it's still under warrenty. I know any slight problem with my car, regardless of how petty or small, is going to be addressed on the last checkup before the warrenty runs out. I'd say this is less a vendor issue making sure parts just past the warrenty and more of a consumer issue waiting until the last possible moment to fix something.
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I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it.

Midget Tossing funds Terrorism

[DellDirectSales]

Hmmm...That really isnt irony.

It would be irony if Dell started to offer 2 year warranties because of the high percentage of parts failing after 1 year but then all of the parts started to fail after 2 years and 1 day.

[delltech_jeremy]

I've really been paying attention to my dispatches recently (like I havent been in the past) and it seems like about half of the dispatches I send out are for parts that have failed within 2 or 3 days from the contract being expired. And it's not that the people are waiting up until the time, I have asked these people when the parts fail, and mostly say that they fail earlier that day. Even people with extended contracts usually see their parts failing right around the one-year-mark right down to the day.


I THINK ITS A CONSPIRACY!!!
AHHH!

w00t!
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Caller>Yes, I was calling to check what kind of materials your mouse pads are made of.
Me>Uhh... uhh... hold on... (hold button)
[Ten minutes later...]
Me>I'm sorry, but I have no idea.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Interesting trend, Jeremy. I always suspected the first integrated circuit ever designed was a tiny clock that told the device when its warranty was fixing to run out.

The average specified MTBF (mean time between/before failures) for consumer computer components is 50,000 hours, which works out to about 6 years of OPERATING time (not just-sitting-there time). But only about 80% of components fall within the specified curve, half of the 20% remaining fails early, the other half fails late. (A 'lemon' is a box that coincidentally contains SEVERAL of these early-fail components.) And optical drives are rated differently, 50,000 hours power-on time; actual in-use time is much shorter, by more than half.

Yeah, there's a conspiracy. It's called 'statistics' (as in, "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics"). I once worked on a large-scale electromechanical storage device. Its designers told me that, if you calculated the MTBF of all the components, that statistically it should never work at all. (It did, admirably; I helped ).

To end users, the statistics mean "if your box contains one of the 10% of parts that fall on the 'early' side of the curve, you're going to have trouble." But since these components are failing outside the predicted curve, they are NOT doing what their designers and qualification engineers expected them to do. Err, ahh, hem, haw... well, they DID expect the 10% to fail early, so maybe they ARE doing what they were expected to do. Hey, it IS a conspiracy!
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[AnotherFTP]

[techiebyheart]

It doesn't cost Dell a thing to replace the parts. All the parts come with with either a 1YR Manufacturer Warranty or 3 YR Manufacturer Warranty. So the next time a part fails and you think Dell bears the cost you are wrong. Dell is known to send thousands and thousands of error code 7 hard drive to Maxtor daily (Maxtor comes with a base replacement warrant of 1yr) and hundreds of motherboars and processors to Intel back daily (Intel gives 3 yr warranty on its motherboard and processors). So this thing about parts failing close to 1 yr is not that much of Dell created but manufacturer gimmick
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All is NOT so well with DELL. Else you think I would have been here !!!

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Techie raises an interesting point-- Dell indeed gets replacement parts for free, and they also 'absorb' the difference between their skimpy 90-day warranty and the manufacturer's 1-3 year warranty.

One could say that's taking honest advantage of business terms and conditions, which should give them more 'headroom' competitively. They have another business process which should make them comfortably competitive.

When you order a system, the parts are sitting in a warehouse just outside the assembly floor. The 'sale' of the parts to Dell doesn't technically take place until the parts are brought onto the floor. They do this by declaring their facilities 'free trade zones' (with the help of well-financed lobbying?).

Then Dell stretches the 45-60 days before they have to pay for the parts. Meanwhile, your credit card is debited as soon as the system ships, a couple hours after Dell 'bought' the parts to put in it. Dell only 'owns' the parts for 2 hours, and they get to hold the customer's money in their account for two months before they are required to pay the bill for the components. Wish I'd thought of that! I think it's a legal and ethical application of business terms and conditions to the company's advantage. Should give them an enormous competitive edge, at least financially, since their products are ultimately pretty indistinguishable from anyone else's.

With all the corners they cut, retail terms they construct like a Las Vegas casino constructs house odds, 'novel' financing terms they bully out of their vendors and trick their customers into... it's quite hard to be sympathetic when they whine that they have to go offshore for virtually EVERYTHING to remain competitive.

And with all those advantages, their stock just sits there? They obliviously think they're doing everything right. A higher power (Wall Street) thinks otherwise, and so do a whole lot of customers.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'