Dell rip off.............

sldsmkd said:
Apple's instore support is terrible compared to Dell's premium support (which is roughly the same cost) - i.e. £300 over the cost of the base unit for 3 years. Having looked after a lot of Dell/HP/Apple laptops in my time I wouldn't skimp on it tho :)

Booking an appointment a few days in advance so that you can queue to meet a "Genius" who will then take your hardware off for a repair that takes a week, and then trekking all the way to the store again does not compare to having an Engineer showing up wherever you are worldwide the next working day with the bits needed to fix whatver is wrong. (On a laptop 9 times out of 10 this is a motherboard or screen, Apple don't even keep these parts in stock in their stores - they need to be ordered in)

The upgrades cost a fortune because the machines all come out of the factory with the same baseline spec. If you go custom then someone on UK wages needs to unbox it, install the extra crap, reinstall the OS, run all the sanity tests to make sure it still works and do a bunch of paperwork before shipping it to you. The high prices are their to dissuade you from customising and they make user upgrades like RAM or SSD's as easy as possible.

Never heard of a banker buying an Alienware either. Not sure who buys them. Idiots I suppose.
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Well my experience of Apple in store support has been completely different.

Although I suppose being a Apple owner makes me an idiot. :)
 
i have had many alienware cases and laptops over the years.....i wouldnt pay there crazy prices for a desktop but there laptops are sweet....i just sold a m17x r2, not really a laptop as a mobile desktop though....very well made and stunning piece of kit bought for £1500 and with a little tweek to the spec sold for £2000 6 months later.....they dont force any body to buy there stuff... i think apple prices are worse...i paid £600 for the iphone 4 32gb handset on release day but over the course of contract it was cheaper to do it that way by £200....steve jobs and micheal dell are very wealthy men
 
TBH the only reason I've dealt with both these companies is through work, I wouldn't buy from either personally as I can build better for less and my support is 2nd to none :D

MW
 
Purgatory said:
Typical Dell Customer ... Need I say more....?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNPzgPhHeWQ
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ok the guy is a bit of a hothead/(insert 4 letter word of choice) but come on;
all the tech guy had to say was "hold the power button down for 4-15 seconds"= happy customer + more time for him to help those with real issues.

Im not defending Dell by any means, and not just for their prices, but for their specs:
a mate of mine bought a dell system (he gave his dad my spec from OCUK, but come xmas, low and behold, daddy bought a dell!)
anyway, not too bad a system spec wise, but with one MAJOR fault in my eyes:
i7 860 + nV 220gt +6gb (2x2+2x1) on a 250w PSU :eek:
even at Idle the PSU sounds like its in pain, but when he tries to play a (any) game this increases to a worrying level (nearly drowns out both mine and another mates entire systems together, both have 5850s, his has a [email protected] on air with 2x37dB scythe fans on) from my A level physics days I would estimate 55-60dB. Thinking this was an honest mistake, he phoned dell, hoping to get an upgraded PSU that at least matched nvidias recommended wattage for that CARD (!) let alone the rest of the system. their response? Wait for it
"That's normal behavior for a high performance machine of that level" and something about they will replace parts if and when it (completely) fails (to post?) provided it is still within warranty

on top of the worrying noise it emits, it causes the screen to flicker black, for upto and including how ever long it takes him to press ALT+F4. All explained to the tech on the phone who deemed this "normal" behavior

my old dell (e6300, 2gb, 7300LE) came with a 350w PSU, and was even fine when I chucked an 8500gt in it and then OC'd the nipples off the new card in rivatuner, lasted years, and let me play crysis online at a bare-able framerate. I was shocked this (massive) company who used to pride themselves on good support had slipped so far in only 2 and a bit years
 
If people bothered to research properly and saw for themselves what a rip-off these companies are, then the prices would drop very quickly IMO.
 
The one Alienware PC I have considered buying is the m11x netbook, purely because that is exactly the thing I want in a portable machine. Shame it costs so damn much :(


Retard question time, but isn't dell technically a competitor? I know we aren't allowed to mention the purple shirt brigade, so how come we can mention dell/alienware? :confused:
 
Apple aren't actually that bad, sure their i5 systems are £1500 but to be fair, you do get a 27.5in IPS panel monitor with it. You'd have paid the same thing by buying an i5 rig + 27in IPS. Their laptops are pretty well built too and you pay similar for a sony vaio Z or high end hp
 
Chuggerboom said:
Dell's gaming rig makers Alienware might have started thinking that its users are willing to part with a lot of cash for not much.

The outfit has started flogging the Intel Core i7-2600K 'Sandy Bridge' processor and is offering to overclock it from 3.9GHz to a blistering 4.1GHz. The only downside is that this upgrade will cost you $250.


Read more: http://www.techeye.net/hardware/alienware-caught-overcharging-for-intel-overclocking#ixzz1B8w5GQTE
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What the hourly rate that overclocker is getting paid :)
 
I just made an Alienware desktop build on the Dell website that has as close as possible to the specs my machine did when I bought it (no warranty, no monitor, no software etc.). It costs more than twice as much now as mine did 18 months ago. :(

One particular reason for the price increase was the RAM - changing from 1333 MHz RAM to 1600 MHz RAM will cost you £160! :o
 
A few years ago Dell used to charge £134.99 for one of their "technicians" to come to your home and setup the pc, i.e. plug the colour-coded connectors into the corresponding colour-coded sockets.:eek:
 
doesnt every pre-built system from a large manufacturer not cost a lot more than it should? having said that, does this not apply to pretty much everything you buy, im sure i could knock out some Nike/Adidas T-Shirts from a local printer for half the price Nike/Adidas do. people buy from them because they do not know, or are not willing to learn how to do it themselves, or they just dont have the time. cant really blame alienware, if people are willing to buy their systems, why lower their prices.
 
paradisiac said:
people buy from them because they do not know, or are not willing to learn how to do it themselves, or they just dont have the time. cant really blame alienware, if people are willing to buy their systems, why lower their prices.
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Did you see the Which adverts and such? most are too scared which comes back to your first one. Too scared as they'll think they will break it.
 
If poeople are that ignorant when it comes to computer hardware then they can pay that much, shows that it really does pay to have technical competance in todays world.
 
V F said:
Did you see the Which adverts and such? most are too scared which comes back to your first one. Too scared as they'll think they will break it.
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most parts these days come with a pretty good warrenty, 'if you dont tell us how it broke we wont ask' kind of policy. we have had quite a few people in that have brought gfx cards from another site, when the fault is discovered and they phone the site, they ship a new one out there and then, no messing about with testing the dud card. now is the ideal time to learn in my opinion.
 
wakayoda said:
If poeople are that ignorant when it comes to computer hardware then they can pay that much, shows that it really does pay to have technical competance in todays world.
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Look at the state of the UK culture because of that exact same attitude. Far too many people wont take the time or care to learn about the countries history and get suckered by the politicians. Believe anything or can't handle the reality, if it's not on Eastenders and the likes. Too many people want, quick and easy or somebody else to do it no matter what it is.
 
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