Laptops

[Maldon Blues]

I've just finally lost my sense of humour with Dell. I placed an order for a laptop five days ago and heard nothing.

I received a phone call yesterday telling me that the order was on hold because it had been placed by a 'Mrs S Currie'.

"That's not right," I said. "It was placed by me."

"No, it wasn't," said the woman on the crackly phone line in Delhi. "Our records show that it was placed by Mrs S Currie."

"I don't know a Mrs S Currie, crackly Delhi-based call-centre woman, and I assure you that I placed the order."

"We'll get back to you," she crackled and vanished.

This morning she got back to me to ask me where I lived. When I told her, she insisted that I lived somewhere else. Then she told me that she couldn't process the order because Dell didn't have any graphics cards.

"Enough!" I wailed. "Enough. These last five days have been characterised by failure and misinformation. Please cancel my order!"

She hung up. I hope she cancelled the order.

Now, the important point. Where am I going to get a 2gb RAM, 1.83mhz laptop that runs Windows XP?

Not PC World. Those ***** ripped me right off in 2000.

I vowed not to use PC World again, they have ripped me off before, but I think they have improved.

I bought a cracking Compaq laptop for £499 that fits the above criteria. Although you may also be able to purchase this on the Compaq website.

 

[scrounger]

I use www.dabs.com a lot and they do laptops with XP.

As for operating systems I use Vista at home and love it, but its also a pain in the backside at the moment.

My advice would be to go with Vista, put up with the niggles if they arent show stoppers and wait for the patches.

If you definitely need XP then stick with it and you can always upgrade to Vista later...

Good shout. I have used dabs.com before they went commercial. Now I notice they sponsor Villa, I hope they haven't lost their efficiency and value now they are well known.

 

[lee_sufc]

I've just finally lost my sense of humour with Dell. I placed an order for a laptop five days ago and heard nothing.

I received a phone call yesterday telling me that the order was on hold because it had been placed by a 'Mrs S Currie'.

"That's not right," I said. "It was placed by me."

"No, it wasn't," said the woman on the crackly phone line in Delhi. "Our records show that it was placed by Mrs S Currie."

"I don't know a Mrs S Currie, crackly Delhi-based call-centre woman, and I assure you that I placed the order."

"We'll get back to you," she crackled and vanished.

This morning she got back to me to ask me where I lived. When I told her, she insisted that I lived somewhere else. Then she told me that she couldn't process the order because Dell didn't have any graphics cards.

"Enough!" I wailed. "Enough. These last five days have been characterised by failure and misinformation. Please cancel my order!"

She hung up. I hope she cancelled the order.

Now, the important point. Where am I going to get a 2gb RAM, 1.83mhz laptop that runs Windows XP?

Not PC World. Those ***** ripped me right off in 2000.

This brings back so many memories - I would keep an eye on that and check they don't take your money. I nearly took Dell to court last year over 3 separate problems...their staff are complete and utter idiots who obviously work from a script and don't understand you if you veer away from that script!

If you do have any problems DON'T call their call centre back - you'll get nowhere. Instead email dickhunter@dell.com who is head of customer relations in America - this will then get answered probably by someone called Angela in Ireland who will then deal with the problem for you.

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[jstallan]

I went to Currys at lunch and haggled the manager into giving me something not quite as good (1.6mhz, 2gig RAM) for £700, but then told him that I'd think about it.

I'd want something better than that for £700...

Dell Latitude D620 is the wee beasty to get. Picked up one for a mate (Core 2 Duo 2ghz processor, 2gb ram, 120gb hard drive, wireless, bluetooth, DVD burner, 3yr onsite next business day warranty - £630 delivered).

Thursday is Dell change over day for their deals. Although at the moment, they tend to remain unchanged and only make adjustments on a monthly basis. I think they adopted this approach as they made to many pricing errors before ;-)

 

[jstallan]

I hate Windows Vista so much. Not least for the fact that it won't let me play Civilization 2 or CM93/94

Yes, I know exactly what I am.

Slipper - You can downgrade Vista Ultimate/Business to XP PRO or Vista Basic/Premium to XP Home.

Dell's are a doddle to do this because they require no activation. I've just downgraded a Dell Desktop from Vista Home to XP Home becuase my client can't be bothered with Vista at the moment. Later on she might and if that's the case, then she's got a Vista licence... Media is not a problem (got plenty in my cupboard)..