[thelist] OT: Need a new laptop for development...

[Ken Schaefer]

Some points:

a) if you pay appropriately for support, you'll get someone local. If you pay lots and lots for support (what it costs to provide) you'll get stellar support. There are plenty of companies that fall into Dell's enterprise Premier offering that get good support

b) you get what you pay for. If you buy a $400 laptop, then expect to get support that's worth then $20 margin Dell is making on that laptop. Buy a Latitude or Precision series instead. They cost more than Inspirons, but they come with 3 year onsite warranties, and Dell wouldn't offer something that if they had lots of defects, because they simply wouldn't be able to make money.

c) Apple Macs don't cost 3x an equivalent Dell, HP or Lenovo laptop. An Apple Mac might cost 3x the *cheapest* Dell, HP or Lenevo laptop, but that isn't an Apples-to-Apples comparison.

Cheers
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of TJ
Sent: Friday, 30 November 2007 12:19 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] OT: Need a new laptop for development...

Yup, I wont buy Dell anymore either.  Too many problems in the past 4
years.  HP, while not perfect either, has been stellar.   I cant stand
calling Dell support and speaking to someone named "Mike" in Dubai,
Abu Dahbi, or someplace like that.  I am well aware of these
outsourced call-centers using fake "American" sounding names in an
effort to try to fool us, but when the person on the phone doesnt know
where TEXAS is, there's a problem.  I purchased my laptop, desktops
AND server from Dell in the USA and would like to speak to people in
the USA, someone who knows a little bit about the company AND the area
these computers are built in and sold in - thank you.

As far as Mac go, they look pretty - thats about it for me.  I would
never pay those prices when I can get 3 equivalent Windows (Dell, HP,
Acer, etc) machines for the same price as one Apple.  Its a financial
no-brainer.  If I had money to burn, then I might because - like I
wrote, they look pretty and they look fun but I need to work and I
need to save money.   I could fully max out an HP laptop AND get a
monitor for the same price as an equivalent Apple.

I'd go with an HP from Costco.  The 90 no questions asked return
policy cant be matched anywhere and they've got at least 6
configurations on the shelf at any time for darn good prices.


On 11/26/07, Ed at comsimplicity.com <Ed at comsimplicity.com> wrote:
> I've worked in a couple of large Dell shops, and they've never seemed to have
> any serious problems with thier support.  OTOH, when I needed a new DVD burner
> for my out-of-warrantee laptop, they:
>
> - sent me two wrong units
> - refused to refund me after I returned both of the wrong units
> - used obnoxious sales techniques to try to sell me a third wrong unit
> - wasted over 12 hours of my time, waiting on hold to talk to one wrong
>   department after another
>
> I don't plan on buying any more Dell products.  Their units have always been
> well built, but they obviously don't give a (bleep) about home-office users.