Why people buy from dell...
 

I don't really understand why businesses and people in general buy from dell.

Today at staples I saw an hp. 250 gig hard drive. 1 gig of memory. 2 CPUs (amd athlon 64bit). xp pro media center edition. yada yada yada for about $700. If I configured this computer at dell, it would cost probably twice as much!

Why?
I don't understand why I even buy dells. I love dells, I hate HPs. Am I missing something?

Well, most buisnesses usually don't use computers that powerful. Afterall, they're only doing word proccessing, intarweb, and powerpoint. They can buy moderately powerful computers in bulk from Dell at a cheap cheap price.

I was just able to configure a computer on Dell's website with those stats you listed for $783.

The question is why you buy Dells or HPs.

Dell also tends to have 35%-40% off of said computer as well as offering ridiculous package deals for bulk purchases by businesses. Honestly, I've been building computers for a long time, but these days you hardly save any money by building your own compared to having Dell do it for you. Of course, when you build a computer, you tend to have the choice of selecting quality parts for every aspect which isn't always the case with Dells.

But most people don't have the knowledge to build their own computers, so I can understand why they go for Dell. And having to build 100+ computers for a business would suck ass. No way in hell I'd ever do that. Also, did this computer come with a monitor? Most Dell computers also throw in a virtually free 17 or 19 inch decent quality LCD monitor.

Personally, I don't like Dells. When they have to get serviced, they put stuff in the cases in ridiculous locations that make it IMPOSSIBLE to do anything with. And if you call tech support, IF you get a person (after navigating their horrible menu) you probably will get some Indian guy who speaks crappy English and sounds like Apu, only worse.

HPs, Gateways, and eMachines (which are basically low-cost Gateways) are a lot easier to deal with if they do break. Sure, I'm speaking from a technician standpoint, but would you rather have to send your computer to a local techie or send it out which will take a lot longer?

But generally, when getting a name brand, whether Dell, HP, whatever, people are doing it because...

1) They know jack about computers.
2) If they do know something, they don't know how to build.
3) They don't need something fancy, which typically buying something of low power from a company is cheaper.
4) Bulk purchasing, usually of the item above.


Honestly, the worst computer brand to buy? IBM. They're even worse than Dell.

Dells are actually pretty darned simple to work with the innards of. I mean everything basically snaps into place with a plastic tab or two, allowing you to move just about any part out of your way pretty easily. Even the small form factor Optiplexes are pretty simple to handle.

And yes, if you buy from Dell and skimp on the support contract, you will speak to India, this is fact. But if you pony up the extra fifty bucks, you can get pretty competant Texans or Alabamians {a buddy of mine works for a subcontracted Dell tech support call center in north Alabama, so if you have an Optiplex and call in, you may speak to him. He'll treat you real nice}. Also, if you get the decent service contract with Dell, they will send a {somewhat competant} technician to your location to replace parts. Of course, I always decline that, since it takes their guys an hour and a half to swap the motherboard of a laptop, while it takes me like twenty minutes. Like I want to babysit some tech for an hour and a half while he fumbles around with "I am missing one screw, let me find it."

You do know IBM doesn't even make computers anymore?

I have a DELL laptop, love it, havnt needed to call customer support
ive actually dealed with Dell's customer service before (for a friend's laptop) and i have to say it wasn't bad at all, actually good, i guess i just got lucky...

i wouldn't buy a Dell pc, but i wouldn't buy any from a manufacturer, id just build it myself, but Dell makes good laptops and good LCDs and with their coupons, there price is unbeatable, at least in my experience

Oh yeah. It's some Chinese computer geek wannabees that just slap IBM on the label so people buy the product.

Cause it certainly seems to me that IBM STILL MAKES COMPUTERS.

Hell, they're packaging some of their servers with Nitix.

I love dells to: if you haven't read this yet...
1. I love trying to figure out if I am a Home Office or a Small Business. What if I am a large business run from my home? Yikes!!

2. I want to own technology that is at least 6 months out of date...it makes me feel safe. I think the world moves too fast. So I sure don't want my computer to move fast too.

3. I love a web site that requires seven pages of ordering to see my final price. I have nothing but time on my hands!

4. I enjoy having to fill out reams of paperwork to get the money I overpaid back in a rebate check. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you have loaned $200 of your money to a corporate giant for three months (Interest Free)

5. Paying so much extra for a laptop helps me to feel as if I have contributed to the economy.

6. I appreciate how hard I have to look around the DELL site just to see if the laptop has a USB port. DELL must figure that this weeds out the idiots from the rest of us. If I cant figure out were your specifications page is, then I am too dumb to own a DELL laptop to begin with. Keep that page buried, the strong will find it.

7. I like the fact that my Technical Support is redirected to India. They have such cool accents.

8. Great idea selling my "on site" warranty service to the lowest bidder in my neighborhood. I think it is very nice you find work for the hardware technicians in my area that are not good enough to find work on their own. In addition, I like having this person in my house seeing all my other great toys. Maybe he can set the clock on my VCR for me.

9. DELL does not give me a free carry case. Good idea. That is also why I bought a car without rust proofing or bumpers.

10. I appreciate the fact DELL feels I only need free technical support for one year. Why would I want lifetime free support? You think I am an idiot or something? If I need help after one year, well then I deserve to pay for it.

Or put simply, don't buy a DELL laptop.
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Ya, they'll always make servers. Wow, don't have a wide variety of desktops. Wonder how much one of those things cost!
Joseph

Servers? Sure, but above all else IBM is known for its mainframes. When you need to make sure your application will run for the next three decades uninterrupted, and want space for expansion, then there's the zSeries, or whatever they call them now. Those things can still run code written for the System/360 architecture, first shipped back in 1965.

Why do people buy dell, they've got some ridiculously cheap packages. I own two Dell desktops despite me personally hating Dell. Why do I have them? They're dirt cheap. Here's this ad in the newspaper today from Dell:

Dimension 3100 Desktop

Intel Pentium 4 Processor 521 (2.8GHz)
Windows XP Home Edition
1GB Dual Channel DDR2
80GB SATA HDD
48x CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Dell 17" LCD Monitor

Price: $419

Yeah, that monitor alone would cost ~$150, Processor maybe about $120? The RAM is pretty cheap but still at about $80. Add in a Mobo ($100), Assume you have your own case and drives and keyboards, etc. , that's about $450. And Dell builds it for you. Wanna play some games? Dump about $150 into a GeForce 7600GT and you got yourself a decent gaming machine at about $569.

EDIT:

First of all, you're at Staples, a store that always has discounts. My friend bought this computer a while ago. It's a nice computer at a low pricetag. Despite all that, if you're talking about gaming performance, even with a Radeon Xpress 200M, it's still relatively weak. If you're talking multitasking, it's awesome. That and you probably didn't get a monitor with that, unless there was some special deal. I'm not defending Dell here, I'm just reinforcing the fact that they have massively manufactured computers that are dirt cheap. They have good ones too, but those tend to be a lot more expensive.

Cheap != Good.

Also, have you ever tried calling their tech support lines? I've had the unfortunate opportunity to do this (one of our work computers is a Dell and the HD blew out on it) and MY GAWD. Awful shit man.

And trying to fix some of them yourself requires you to perform feats of god, given placements of some of the items.

It's really not that difficult if you open your eyes and analyze what you are looking at before you start trying to rip stuff out man.

Well, from an historical perspective, IBM's are pretty much the worst of the lot, due to their lack of standard parts (most of their parts are manufactured with different sizes so they won't fit on other cases). I should know, because I own one, and it's been a pain in the ass. I'll just build one myself later.

Also, I bet you didn't know that the resistors on IBM motherboards are made to suck ass.

And yet my company has 425 Dell made Optiplex desktops and I've had a total of ZERO hardware failures on any of them since we purchased them 2 years ago.

One might expect a difference between high-end server hardware and cheap-as-free consumer PCs. :rolleyes:

That's pretty lucky. I've probably bought 200 or so Optiplexes {small form factor GX280s, small form factor GX620s, and fullsize desktop GX280s and GX620s} in the past year and a half and have had a handful have issues, like bad memory and bad hard drives, but not enough of them to get irritated about, since we order through the premier page and I get gold tech support on all my machines, I usually get to talk to someone in Texas when I have a problem.

What are you talking about bro.

And I've dealt with a bunch that have had hard drives blow up. Never in any other brands though. It's ALWAYS a Dell.


Heh. You should have seen this one computer I had to work with. Total pain in the ass. You needed a steel claw to get into the HD bay due to its positioning.


Agreed. What sucks even worse is their substandard case sizes. Our IBMs at one work place is too small that it doesn't fit any standard expansion cards - you have to take the brace off. What a crock.

Mental lapse. Dell servers are called PowerEdge, not Optiplex. :(

And Dell's servers come with reasonable support, decent prices, and are well built. Their options are limited, but you can usually find a configuration that'll do.

Just last week they had a 25% off sale on servers, allowed us to pick up two servers and cluster them while remaining well under budget. They aren't top of the line, but they are more than sufficient to do what I need.

I haven't had good experience with their desktops though. Not that they seem much worse than any other OEM, or even most home made machines.

Never had to, Never broken down. Nice reliable machine. Then again, I just switch out stuff when they break. But it's not like everything's broken, the only thing that died is a RAM stick (128MB....lol). I popped in a graphics card, and it's a very nice machine.

Digging up a recent article I read......

My gawd, THAT IS HILARIOUS.

Good job Dell. :thumbsup: