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Computer go BOOM


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Alrighty, I will be in limited contact with the site the next week or so as the brand spanking new computer from Dell I got in October decided to go BOOM in a big way, with problems starting from the first and just getting worse.

They've replaced the guts, it worked for two days, then the damn thing died in a critical fashion two days ago and of course I'm going to loose much of my info on there which rather ticks me off, so if any of you have shot me e-mails in the last week or so and I haven't responded, well, that's the reason.

After much screaming I've got a completely new system on its way to me, with an additional two gigs of memory (up to four gigs now), several hundred in rebates, a new printer and the new Windows Vista operating system that is coming out. Not satisfied, but mollified for the moment - sure as hell better not have any other troubles with this thing.

Anyhoo - I'm using works computer right now, so I'll be a bit on responses, sending out orders and anything else that is required in front of the computer for a bit till the new one shows up next week and I get everything setup again.

-

Nathan

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Something similair happened to me a couple of years ago. A brand new Compaq kept fritzing once and every call to Compaq customer service had me try the same thing (reboot and system restores stuff) and it never fixed it. I wanted to scream at them, saying "if this didn't work the first time, why the %$@^ would it work the fifth time!" Finally I gave up on Compaq's CS and called Staples CS (where we bought it and had gotten a warrenty) and they actually had somebody come over to look at it. After two house calls, it was decided the motherboard was completely messed up and they sent a whole new one. Mde me vow never to buy Compaq anything ever again.

Well, I hope you get a speedy delievery and set-up, Nathan, and a cessation to all computer hardware and software-related headaches for a long while!

:pcguru:

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My work computer is a Dell and I've never had problems with it. Actually, scratch that, I had problems once, but it cleared up when I uninstalled Norton Antivirus. Of course, the nice thing is that if anything goes wrong with it, it's not my problem! :D (Hmm, I really should backup my files one of these days though.)

And here a little something for the MAC fanatics out there: LINKY

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My work computer is a Dell and I've never had problems with it. Actually, scratch that, I had problems once, but it cleared up when I uninstalled Norton Antivirus. Of course, the nice thing is that if anything goes wrong with it, it's not my problem! :D (Hmm, I really should backup my files one of these days though.)

And here a little something for the MAC fanatics out there: LINKY

:laugh:

I love Ctrl+Alt+Del.

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Still without a computer and resorting to snagging time on breaks at work or running down the road to my fathers place when I'm able, but I'm around enough to check up on things overall but not enough to participate much.

If ya'll have hit me with a PM or message everyone should be replied to by now and for the next week or more it'll be some delays between replies to these.

Grrr ... come on UPS, drop me off a big ol' package.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So ... I'm back.

Pissed .. but back.

New computer came in. Missing the goodies I was promised. When I called on it, I was told there was no record of it and that I could basically go screw myself. After talking to several people I got the same message and was basically told I was lying.

Ooooh ... talk about pissing me off.

Still, I have a computer now, still going to work on getting what was promised but I have to say, Dell has royally pissed me off and I doubt I'll ever be purchasing another computer from them. Hell all I wanted was to have the computer quickly - the guy I was wrangling with offered all the goodies. Sure, wasn't looking for them, but now that they were offered I sure as hell want them.

Anyhoo, I'm back, e-mails and the like will be a bit quicker now.

Oh, and I got badgered into a myspace account. Not sure what the hell I'll do with it, but I was told to tell you buggers about it.

http://www.myspace.com/frustratedfather

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Wow, that does suck!

I learned a while back, when calling customer service to always get the name of whoever you talk to and, if they do this, a case number of your complaint. That way I can ask for whoever I spoke with the first time (or point the finger at). I surprised Dell didn't have some way of tracking complaints, or recording what was promised as a replacement. That's really poor bookkeeping on their part. I called CS over something small on my computer and was still given a case number and recieved a follow-up email (a "please rate our service" type).

Oh well, live and learn. Maybe you could lodge a complaint with the BBB, which probably won't yield anything significant.

And my PC is an HP. Real nice people there, especially the lady who helped me out when my rebate papers got lost somewhere between leaving my place and arriving there.

For FF:

:AR15firin DELL:evil:DEVIL :rocketwho

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Oh I'm not stupid. Have the guys number. Have the guys e-mail. Have the guys name. Have the case number. And everyone there swears up and down that they wouldn't do it, no I can't talk to this man, no they aren't going to track him down, that's my job.

Oh the joys of customer-no-service.

That's alright though, got a nice letter being written to BBB, Dell Corporate, Consumer Reports and Clark Howard which is a local watchdog here. See where it goes.

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Anyone know if there's any legal issues that might come of that on my end if I actually did so?

The law varies state by state. In some, you must inform the person being recorded at the beginning of the conversation that he's being recorded, not afterwards (like you can't end the conversation with,"Oh by the way, I'm taping you. Bye!") You'd have to find out what you state laws are, or just inform the person anyway, just to be safe, since I think you can be charged with a misdeameanor if illegally taping somebody.

This is what I get from watching court TV instead of soap operas in the afternoons. :rolleyes:

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Anyone know if there's any legal issues that might come of that on my end if I actually did so?

General rule of thumbs is they have to be informed ahead of time (the beginning of the conversation). But that's no big deal just let them know that you are tapeing the conversation for "quality assurance purposes".

FF - Any computer that came in the last month should have a voucher for an upgrade to vista since Vista was released just today. As for the other stuff, do you think you have enough to take them to small claims court. They might make good on the promise rather than send some lawyer's intern to fight it out.

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when I have to buy a new computer, I do one of 2 things:

- buy the components myself and put them together. This has two backdrops: You have to know what you do and complaining about something don´t working is even more complicated. The advantage is: you really learn how this machine is supposed to work.

or

- buy the PC in a (small) store (not a franchise one), where you actually meet someone in person. You`ll get better service, the components you want (custom built computer) and it might be even cheaper than the big franchise computer.

This works even for laptops.

With the exception of my first two computers (one being an atari ST back in 1986) I always went one of the two ways above and it worked well.

On a sidenote: I don´t know about prices in the US, but in Germany Dell is rather expensive.

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I am just getting a new system, and I ended up getting fairly luck. The IT company which takes care of my work builds computers, and I trust them to do it, since I know them pretty well personally. And they needed some design work done, so we were able to work out a little swap, and I managed to get a nice system both for a very good price, and with the knowledge that if something does go wrong, I know where to go to make it better. All the benefits of building your own system without having to learn a damn thing! :D

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