as I see it

For a long long time I refused to believe that Dell was so bad as was perceived by many people all over the Internet. But then they say See it to believe it.

Now, I have a Dell Vostro 1400 (ya I know made a big mistake). So, for starters the screen blinked everytime I started my laptop, resumed from hibernation or unlock from the locked state. It just blinks for once (that too terribly) and then as they say "adjusts the screen resolution". But it is irritating. At first, it seemed to be a problem with my laptop but then around 150 other friends of mine who own the same model (bought it in a bulk deal) faced the same issues.

Next, there were some issues with my OS I believed so I started looking for all discs that came with the laptop (if at all). To my surprise, I was so glad to see a Drivers Disc for Windows XP when I had Vista Business on my system. I thought that was really nice of Dell to give me that disc in case I need it in future :)

But then that :) slowly turned to :( and then :@ when I noticed that there was no Driver's Disc for Windows Vista !!!

I checked with other friends and same problem. Meanwhile, many of my friends reported that their battery charger was not functioning and every now and then I saw someone or the other getting it replaced. Sad but true, I had to join the league too.

They replaced it after many mails and phone calls (customer support really CARES) and took the old charger in return.

The backpack I bought with the laptop was perhaps as good as a polythene and it tore apart in 3-4 months. Thankfully, again after a series of mails and phone calls they sent me a new one too.

Ya, I still didn't mention what happened to the driver's disc. They sent me a new one :)

But guess what?

Again for Windows XP !!!

HP, Toshiba can you beat that?

I stopped loving (liking it was at first I guess) Dell !

On raising this issue again and a series of apology mails they sent me the correct disc. Alas!

What? So Why I hate it?

There are way too many reasons for that. One of them is the performance which is not as expected. Another issue is the heat sink which desh refers to as choona bhatti and says can be used for drying clothes :P

For a long time now my touchpad has been giving problems. Just refuses to function. Behaves irrationally. Utter Nonsense !! :@

This happened again last night and I thought I would complain again to the Customer-Friendly Dell Support :)

Sadly, they were NOT available. Why? Again many reasons.

First, they couldn't allow me to chat with their technical support because their Chat Application didn't support Google Chrome.

Secondly, they were not available at the time I wanted to so they suggested I mail them my problems.

For mailing, they wanted me to register.

But then they didn't let me register !! :@

This time beacause after filling the entire form and blahhh it was "temporarily unavailable".

I was being taught in one of my courses here that the ease of access for a customer to report any issues is really important. It should be as simple and as quick as possible like One Click Away. But then Dell probably believes that real world is different from what is there in books. Agreed? Not in this case Mr. Dell !!

To end with, another small problem attributed to my "excessive" usage of my laptop. Battery Backup SUCKS and the matte finish on the keyboard and touchpad has worn out.

I know you will replace it Dell. Why not? I have taken all sorts of warranties you suggested. But then a request - If you are ready to replace all damaged parts, why didn't you at first sent me a better product?

Yea, Mr. Dell? And why can't your online support be available 24X7 and whats with this Saturday and Sunday leave for them?

Yes, so now I have started hating Dell and I won't ever recommend it to anyone it seems. Its just so irritating and annoying. Bit more than that is your customer support using that nonsensical phrase "We understand that you are not happy with it and that it is irritating you".

God !