On September 23, 2005 13:03, Keith Powell wrote: > On Friday 23 September 2005 6:44 pm, Ron Hunter-Duvar wrote: > > On September 22, 2005 14:42, Ron Hunter-Duvar wrote: > > > > Oh well, I'll still take the OS-free PC next time I need one. Last > > time I rolled my own to avoid the M$ tax. A fun learning > > experience, but buying the parts retail actually costs more than > > buying a complete machine from Dell. > > Ron, if someone bought a Dell machine with XP installed and took it > off, replacing it with Linux, do you know if it would invalidate > their guarantee?
I'm not really sure. I can't see how it would affect hardware warranties, but it might throw some semi-skilled service tech for a loop 8^). > Just wondering. No particular reason for asking. I'm not thinking of > buying one. > > As an aside, I have been told what excellent machines they are. Our > medical centre uses them, the IT section of the library has about a > dozen, the library itself uses them, and most shops or businesses > round here seem to have them. They really seem to have cornered the > market. > > Cheers > > Keith I've had three (a desktop, a laptop and a handheld) and I've always been happy with them. I had the 3 day on-site service option, and the only time I need service, the guy showed up the next day. And it's hard to beat them on price, because of their low inventory (I think it's something like 6 days, whereas HP carries 3 months; this means that Dell can pass on component price drops immediately, and then HP has to eat the write down to stay competitive). I like the custom built, delivered to your door idea. Just one complaint with Dell: if you or they make a mistake in the order and you call to correct it, they have a bad habit of entering it as a new order and shipping both, instead of cancelling the old one (I suspect it's a bug in their order entry system). Of course you just ship the extra one back, but it's a hassle. If you're tracking your order online and you see a duplicate, call them immediately, and insist the dup be removed. They'll try to say there isn't a dup, but there is, so you have to be forceful in insisting that it be fixed. It's happened to me on two of the three orders, but the second time I refused to take their excuses and wouldn't get off the phone until I saw the dup removed. -- Ron ronhd at users dot sourceforge dot net Opinions expressed here are all mine. "As you know, necessity is the mother of invention. I don't know who the father is. Remorse, I guess." - Red Green
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