Complaint Review: Dell Computers

Inspiron 1525 Laptop
We had a custom built Dell laptop ordered (my wife did for Christmas 2008) and bought the extended warranty for three years and all.  By January 2011 (yes that is two years and two months from the time it was ordered) we have replaced as many hard drives.  

Does Dell provide NEW HARD DRIVES?  No they send you USED/refurbished <------nice word for used.  After repeated complaints about the quality of the $49.00 Toshiba hard drive, I got the usual apology for the inconvenience...ad nauseum!

 They did offer to let me buy another year warranty for $159 (so they can send me another used hard drive that can be bought all over the internet for $49).  This third hard drive is already failing (two weeks later).  Shame on Dell for putting profits before customer service and quality.  They will take your money, send you used parts, outsource the phone support to "Peggy" (you've seen the commercials) and they must take courses in advanced apologizing.  It is little surprise Dell's stock is in free fall and they are considered to be cut-rate now and not a quality company.  If you want used parts, GUARANTEED to fail, and some goofball attempting English apologizing to you, as if that will fix something, and don't mind being humiliated by your system if you use it to make your living like I do..then BUY A DELL!  If you want quality, reliability and assured performance, when you see the name DELL RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!  There are so many high quality hard drives out there today "Seagate Momentus XT (500GB)" for example: less than $100, yet Dell uses rebuilt GARBAGE to show their "valued customers" just what they're really worth. 

With finance charges, purchase price and warranty we tied up almost $1900 in a laptop that changes hard drives more often than you change tires and an a$$load of "I apologize for the inconveniences"  When the consumer spends generously expecting quality and gets treated like crap, even though it is not punishable by any laws, it is criminal...and Dell laughs all the way to the bank.  In India or somewhere.  If it says Dell, cross off the "D" and Sharpie in an "H" because that is what you are into now.

Oh, they have offered to send me another POS hard drive, but I choose to buy quality this time...I can't take the stress of reinstalling all of the programs and the intrinsic tweaks required to make everything work properly as often as Dell thinks I should, but they do apologize for the inconvenience (That should be printed on EVERY DELL BOX!)