On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 22:14:30 GMT, David Taylor <djtaylor@bigfoot.com>
wrote:
>> Dell sells extended warranties on most of their products. Prices and
>> terms vary but the usual rule of thumb is 10-25% of the purchase price
>
>Hold on though, i'm not talking about warranty but support for a
>product.
Support as in continued BIOS and driver development? OK, I can play
it that way.
>You can still get BIOS updates for much older kit and yet they choose to
>effectively obsolete a product such as the X3i for no reason other than
>"because we want to" when they have a firmware update for the X30i which
>is virtually identical other than the processor I think.
A different processor is not a minor change. The problem isn't
writing the new code, but the regression testing on the older devices.
Every manufacturer needs to draw the line on when the stop supporting
a product. There are quite a few that do it quite a bit worse than
Dell.
Dell does not build products and write code. They contract with
vendors to supply hardware and drivers. The length of driver and bios
support is often tied to the length of the contract. Dell and their
vendors would most happily cut off support immediately when they stop
advertising the product. However, large institutional buyers (i.e.
the US government) specify continued support for XX years and
literally force Dell into extending development for at least as long
as their service contract runs. That doesn't work for small ticket
items, are usually cheaper to replace than to repair under a service
contract.
It really gets ugly in the marketing department depending on who is in
control. Sometimes, the plan is to use extended support and service
as a sales tool to demonstrate to the customer that the vendor will
not abandon them. Other times, the plan is to wipe support for
anything they no longer sell. Most companies, including Dell,
experiment with warranties, extended support, and service contracts to
see what they can get away with.
>Reading the Dell forums, there are a lot of people that have just bought
>their last Dell although that won't bother Dell as they only sell on
>volume and PDA's aren't key earners for the sales folk i'm sure.
I spent 10 years working in a different industry getting a good
picture of who complains, who has problems, and needs support. The
rule of thumb was that about 5% of the customer base is cursed with
the ability to destroy anything they touch. Another 5% will complain
about anything including perfection. The rest are generally
satisfied. I suspect the percentages are higher in the computer biz,
where customer expect the manufacturer and dealer to indemnify them
from their own actions. Also, you might find it interesting to read
the scrambled Dell support forums and see how many other complaints
and threats were posted by those that proclaim they are dumping Dell.
I've never done this in the Dell forums, but other support forums tend
to collect a few chronic complainers, complete with nym shifting and
multiple personalities.
One computer vendor (name withheld) decided to seriously investigate
some of the more rabid complaints in their online support forum. I
did the wireless part with 10 complaints to follow up on. Five of the
ten either refused to talk to me when contacted directly or did not
return my call. One was a virus infected machine. One had XP
reinstalled 4 times to the point where it would not "activate" and was
declared dead on that basis. I was also unable to get a coherent
problem report from this person. Two others were easily solved with
updated wireless and Windoze drivers which had been repeatedly
recommended in the forum. One had been worked on by an independent
repair shop and had apparently (my guess) been butchered. It was
eventually sent in for warranty repair, even though it really should
not be covered. Incidentally, of the five that did not return my
repeated calls, I have some reason suspect that some may be stolen
computers.
OK, ten complaints is not a great sample in a forum with hundreds of
complaints. However, it's a clue as to what's behind all the yelling,
screaming, and blustering.
>Interested to read that you haven't used their warranty much. The only
>bit that's original on this laptop is the case bottom and screen
>surround plastic. All other parts have been replaced - yes ALL! :)
I don't sell Dell directly, but often advise my customers to purchase
Dell hardware. The general results have been excellent with a few
exceptions. One company bought five Optiplex GX-150 machines. All of
them eventually blew up either the onboard ethernet port, parallel
port, or both. Replacement motherboards did the same thing after a
few months. Dell claimed abuse, but I know that this was not the
case. I eventually gave up and just crammed in a 2nd ethernet card.
They're still running today after about 6 years.
I've also had problems with the flimsy power cords attached to the
huge bricks that pass for laptop power supplies these days. The
oversized connector, with the tiny center pin, and tiny cable, often
break when the connector is pushed into the wall. The connector is
not replaceable or commonly available. So, I have to get Dell to
replace the entire power supply. All my customers Dell power supplies
now have a home made strain relief at this connector.
The Inspiron 5000 and 7000 series laptops have had problems with the
screws that hold the hinges. They get loose and eventually strip the
threads. I've had to do some ugly machine work to fix these. As
these laptops are long obsolete, Dell had apparently sold their parts
collection to some dealer.
That's about as bad as it gets. I'm not sure how many assorted Dell
products I have in service. My guess is several hundred. I can grind
the numbers if you're interested. As long as there is no abuse
involved, they last and run well enough.
--
Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558
Is wpa2 hardware, software or both 
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