Complaint Review: Walmart

I remember not too long ago when Dell was a small computer company selling a good product with good support for the product. Dell grew so fast because of their reputation for quality and good customer service.

All of a sudden Dell became the largest computer manufacturer in the USA after not long ago being one of the smallest. The first change was that all the good tech support personnel were fired and replaced with less experienced employees with little knowledge of computers. Dell used to pay the techs really good money but went the cheap route. Of course that is if you are even lucky to get someone from the USA.

I don't have anything against people from Inida but when I am having a problem and already frustrated the last thing I want to do is be frustrated due to language barriers. I would be just as angry if I was speaking to someone from England with an extremly thick accent so I don't want people saying I am racist or whatever as I am not.

Anyway, the next thing people start to notice is not only is the Customer Service now crappy but the computer is having more problems resulting in needing to call Dell more often for tech support. Now I will add that some people don't understand what Dell or any other computer company is truly responsible for.

I expect Dell or whatever computer comany to replace any defective parts on the computer during the entire duration of the warranty. Years ago I would have skipped purchasing the three year warranty because the computers ran forever but now I would not buy a computer without the warranty. If I build a computer I make sure all the components have at least a three year warranty.

Now we get to a software problem on the computer and nothing related to the hardware. The average person gets angry because Internet Exlorer keeps crashing or because they are having some other problem and expect Dell to fix the problem for them. I believe Dell may have started a program where you can pay them to fix your software problems but you can't expect Dell to help everyone with every problem as part of a hardware warranty.

On the other hand if you are having a driver problem relating to the software then yes Dell should be helping you with the problem as this would be something they do support under the warranty. The tricky part is when you have a software problem being caused by a hardware problem. A good technician would most likely be able to tell if the software problem the user is explaining is being caused by the hardware.

Unfortunately, the technician in India who has never even used a computer before has no clue as to what might be causing the problem. Most of the time they just type in a few key words and go over knowledge base articles with you over the phone. Even if you get someone from this country most of the technicians are low paid and don't have a good knowledge of computer.

Dell used to pay good wages and had really knowledgable technicians working for them. I mean some of these guys that used to work for Dell were incredibly smart and I enjoyed working with them over the phone. The technicians used to never jerk you around on the phone and even went beyond above and beyond helping people solve software problems when they didn't have to. Of course that was when Dell was paying good wages and keeping the phones staffed with an adequate amount of technicians.

I find it sad that most companies that used to be good are now doing everything possible to make an extra buck here and there. I know companies have to make a profit and you always want to increase your profit but cannabalizing the company is not the way to do it. Two years ago Dell went as far to stop spending any money on Research and Development and that destroys the chances for any future product innovations or other things that would eventually make them money in the future with the way everything changes.

Dell doesn't even make most of their computers anymore. Of course HP and the rest do the same thing. I believe there are only like 3 or 4 companies in the world that actually make laptops. As for the desktops, I am not sure if Dell assembles all the finished parts but I know they purchase all the components from other companies. Now Dell can specify that the company use higher quality materials for certain models and such but for the most part Dell just wants to get the cheapest price and could care less about quality.

Dell just puts their name on the product and gives you a warranty. They also make money by selling you extended warranties, which you should buy or you have a good chance of having to purchase another computer. The cost of a replacement processor can be easily cost nearly half of what the entire computer costs if not more. Fortunately processors usually don't go but capacitor problems are common on motherboards these days and all the brands are having the problems.

You will spend more but you are better off paying more money and purchasing a busniness line model. Not that they don't have problems but usually you will be getting a better laptop. Of course you will spend more but that is why you will have less problems.

Cost brings up my last point in all of this. Computers used to cost a heck of a lot more than now and they used to run forever. The cost of a basic desktop used to be like $1,300 and now you can get a comparable desktop for $800. So the nice part is that computers are much more affordable now but the bad part is that quality and service are no longer any good.

The only computer part that seems to be just as reliable and is much cheaper are the Intel processors. The only reason for this is because AMD processors are finally comparable to Intel and the AMD processors usually cost more than Intel now. AMD processors used to cost less money than they do now but they were junk.

With Dell and Wal Mart now teaming up I can just image how crappy the computers will get. The computers that HP sells at Wal Mart are for the most part junk and I am sure Dell will be the same way. Of course for the price you can't really expect that much. I am not sure why but we all think we should pay a cheap price but get exeptional quality. I feel the same way myself most of the time and I have to remind myself that that is not the case.