Boycotting Dell!

[The Conservative]

I'm boycotting Dell, I am no longer going to suggest their hardware, use their hardware, or touch their hardware if I have a choice. If I have to, I'm charging 25% extra for the annoyance factor.

Yesterday I tried to go through their business services over the phone, to get support with two pieces of hardware, the first is a SonicWall SRA1600, the 2nd is a SonicWall NSA2600, both with the Dell logo on them. I wanted to upgrade some hardware to speed up our network, or bring someone out to help and resolve our current issues, because the hardware we have in not set up correctly. I know enough about the hardware, but I don't want to take it all down, rewire it, and not have it work after the fact. I would rather have an expert to do so, I know my limitations. I was told over the phone that they don't send people out. That the only support we can get is over the phone. We are a company, we are willing to pay a certified dell network specialist over $100/hr to come out and resolve our issues, and Dell says, sorry, you are SOL? Seriously?

So today, since 9:00AM EST to almost 10:00AM EST I was on chat with Dell, their Business branch, their support, sales, and then their desktop support for some reason (yes 4 different branches) each one told me they can't help. If they can't help, who can?

Screw Dell, they lost me as a customer, and this company for as long as I am their Director of IT/Infrastructure. I will never buy a dell product again if I can help it. I am so tired of dealing with their out of country support, and getting crap responses back. We paid over $15,000 for this hardware and contracts for support, and we have gotten squat from them when it comes to support.

I was trying to save money, and stick with a brand that we currently have, but I am going to Sophos and using their hardware. They are at least wanting to work with me, send someone out and have them help me take down the old hardware and put the new hardware up...

Dell, can go suck exhaust from a tailpipe... I'm done.

[SuburbanFarmer]

That's pretty much any of the big manufacturers. They don't send out techs, they have repair contractors that fix warranty issues, and that's it.
I used to do warranty support for Costco electronics. They'd walk through fire to avoid giving a refund or even authorizing a repair. I remember, I had one poor sap that sent his kid's laptop in over 5 times for repairs, and never got a decent fix.

That's why there's always been a cottage industry for computer repairs and setup. You'd have to hire a 'consultant' to come in and do your installs for you. None of the manufacturers can be bothered.

Just curious though - what exactly is the problem you're having?

[The Conservative]

That's pretty much any of the big manufacturers. They don't send out techs, they have repair contractors that fix warranty issues, and that's it.
I used to do warranty support for Costco electronics. They'd walk through fire to avoid giving a refund or even authorizing a repair. I remember, I had one poor sap that sent his kid's laptop in over 5 times for repairs, and never got a decent fix.

That's why there's always been a cottage industry for computer repairs and setup. You'd have to hire a 'consultant' to come in and do your installs for you. None of the manufacturers can be bothered.

Just curious though - what exactly is the problem you're having?

As I said, we have a SonicWall SRA1600 and a SonicWall NSA2600. We also have a Ruckus system, all three and connected in such a way that I honestly can't make heads or tails of them.

The SRA and NSA seem to be doing the jobs of the other, and the Ruckus is doing the WiFi distribution. I want to tare it all down and start from scratch, AS far as I can tell we don't need all the hardware. We just need one, but since Dell won't give me tech support, I'm going with Sophos, which is going to have someone come out, help me tare it down and put it back up in a day...

Oh, and a heads up, Sophos is a decent size company, they have a better product than what Dell does, it's cheaper, and better built. I've known about them for ages, and I love the company... their support it amazing compared to what Dell is... Dell lost their way, and I am not going to wait for them to find it again.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'doing the job of the other'.... One is a VPN server, and the other is a firewall.

[Dand]

I'm less involved than you but have also been having bad experiences with Dell so I'll join the boycott. About two ago I got a new top of the line Dell laptop and the "build quality" or whatever is amazing. Externally it looks great, is tough, and light but it runs so loud and the graphics card crashes at random times. The touchscreen looks fantastic and registers touch accurately but it's like every time you touch the screen there is a 1/10 chance that the cursor will permanently disappear until I reboot. It's got this almost great touchscreen that is virtually useless now because of this problem and it's annoying the heck out of me.

I've had a macbook pro in the past too and the motherboard broke after only a year and a month to fully screw me over on the warranty and a thousand bucks. Not sure where I'll go next for a laptop.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm less involved than you but have also been having bad experiences with Dell so I'll join the boycott. About two ago I got a new top of the line Dell laptop and the "build quality" or whatever is amazing. Externally it looks great, is tough, and light but it runs so loud and the graphics card crashes at random times. The touchscreen looks fantastic and registers touch accurately but it's like every time you touch the screen there is a 1/10 chance that the cursor will permanently disappear until I reboot. It's got this almost great touchscreen that is virtually useless now because of this problem and it's annoying the heck out of me.

I've had a macbook pro in the past too and the motherboard broke after only a year and a month to fully screw me over on the warranty and a thousand bucks. Not sure where I'll go next for a laptop.

I got a pretty badass Asus last year on Amazon. It's got about as much power as a mid-range gaming desktop, runs quiet, stays pretty cool, even with some intense graphics running.

What exactly do you need it to do?

[DBTrek]

AWS, guys.
AWS or Azure.



Watch at 1.25x, and accept that the era of the on-site server room is over.

[SuburbanFarmer]

AWS, guys.
AWS or Azure.



Watch at 1.25x, and accept that the era of the on-site server room is over.

Depends on whether you care about information security. Uploading your data to a remote server is not going to help with that.

It's an old-school mainframe model - charge per hour of processing time, charge for data storage, charge for this, for that... I'm not a fan.

I am hopeful that they could drive down the currently-insane prices of server hardware though. The proprietary nonsense is absolutely out of control.

[TheReal_ND]

I'll pay $50 for any dell laptop you don't want. An extra $50 if it comes with sky rim and doesn't clip on high res

[The Conservative]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'doing the job of the other'.... One is a VPN server, and the other is a firewall.

The Ruckus is doing the WiFi when the Firewall can do it as well. This entire situation is a clusterfuck.