Dell Computers...Goodbye!

My daughter's computer, and I paid an extra $40 for the purple color!!!

Add Dell to the products that have become one of my favorite things to hate!  After being a long time customer of Dell, purchasing several computers, and recommending them, I have joined the ranks of the disgruntled and dissatisfied buyers.

I was even going to blog about this because I am so disgusted and yet I can’t seem to think about anything else, so here goes.

Two years ago, at this time, we bought my younger a daughter a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop.  The computer her college gave her was becoming unreliable and I felt she needed a better, more reliable one to get her through the remaining 2.5 years of school.  The price was $350 and for that we got a lot of great features and memory.  First problem arose after six months, while it was still under warranty, thank God.  The hard drive crashed for no explicable reason.  Dell sent a repair man over with a new hard drive and installed it in a few minutes.  One year later, the power cord died and we couldn’t charge the computer battery.  I call Dell.  The laptop is not under warranty and they want $72 for a new power cord.  I expressed my outrage at the customer service person, as a long time customer of Dell, but they could care less and just kept repeating the amount.  I had no choice.  I could have tried to get a compatible cord but was afraid it might harm the laptop and decided to get Dell’s hoping that the laptop would get my daughter through her last year of school with a new hard drive and cord.  

Well here we go again!  Thursday night, four days ago, the hard drive crashed again.  We have no warranty and I have to decide what to do.  I am leaning towards purchasing my own hard drive and installing it.  After watching a few tutorial video’s online I have found that it only requires removing four little screws, changing the hard drive and replacing the screws.  Then you install the operating system that came with the computer.  Sounds simple enough right?  I have a repairman that I know who will do it for me for $80 plus the cost of the hard drive, but I am thinking of going it alone.  

We are planning to get my daughter an Apple computer when she graduates college and I really want to wait till then because in six months they may have upgraded them.  She enjoys playing games and Apple computers come fully equipped for everything.  If I have to I will upgrade it to accommodate her needs.  I know these products are four or more time as expensive, but I have heard that they don’t get infected with viruses and they are built with quality you can depend on.  

So I will repair the Dell.  I’ll probably order the hard drive today.  Wish me luck.  I never thought at my age I would be changing hard drives and doing computer repairs.  Hopefully, the laptop will get her through another 5 months of school and if it lasts longer we will have a backup computer.  If all does not go well, I can take my new hard drive and computer to the repairman and see if he can do anything with it, at a cost of an extra $80.  

Now I am going to send this blog to Dell so they can see how I feel without my having to write a letter and repeat myself.  

PS Just got off the phone with a Dell Representative. Michael S. Dell referred my email to him and he read my blog.  Unfortunately, since there is no warranty, the best he can do is guide me through the replacement process and re installation of the operating system.  Isn't that nice?  I have to get a new hard drive and then contact him for help.  I guess that's all I should expect, but I am not a very happy camper anyway.