Re: When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG UP!! ----- 0MCX2ECzHk

Wow, I never knew they went so low...

4.81 down to 2.35 satisfaction rating. (OUT OF 10!!)

WOW, when only 23% of your customers are satisfied, this says alot.

Where I work (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Medicine), we can purchase either HP/Compaq or Dell. We've been buying Dell Optiplex exclusively for over two years (since the HP/Compaq merger), and have been wholly satisfied. In fact, my boss refuses to buy anything else (except for Apples, of course).

Dell Dimensions, of course, are an entirely different story; we wouldn't have one on a bet.

You need also to remind everyone that you are talking about "At Work" for a major university with a large IT department. You have all the in-house expertise you could ever need along with a cadre of several thousand computer geeks hanging out in the wings. Not to mention that Dell is pleased to have the sycophant's opportunity to kiss Vanderbilt's ass and then brag about it. All the way to their bank in Sioux City.

Hardly a fair or valid comparison with a one-unit Home system. My IT Department consists of me. And I do not have a very large interest in why or how the computer works. I want to turn it on and have it work properly without any input from me. I am not even slightly interested in becoming a computer guru.

I had a Dell as a home unit, but got rid of it about a year ago because it was a POS and I was sick of Dell's attitude. Now I have a unit that I built up from components at my local computer store -literally- down the street about two miles from my house. Everything is now lovely and I can call the store when I have a problem. I did have one last year with a browser hijack program, but it's fixed now and no more problem. At the time Dell would not even talk to a home-user about such a problem. If they do now.........well, that's nice, but I am no longer in their customer data base and I can assure you- and Dell- that I never will be again. I will have an opportunity later this year to choose a vendor for a small networked business system and Dell's name is most certainly NOT even in the hat.

I would choose Apples if I could, because they are far superior to any windoze machine, but such is not to be. It will be PCs with windoze.

Don't bet on it, I worked at Computer City in Toronto, we were the Apple Center up until they closed in 2001, Apples hardware fails just as often as PCs, only you fix 10 PCs to every Apple because that is the sales differential.

Where I live now, there is one Apple Dealer and five companies doing PCs (including myself). One of my clients last July had problems with his PC, he got a virus because he had not kept up his software. He NEVER updated the virus definitions. I came over to work on his machine and it would not start. His HD had crashed and he was all upset, he NEVER backed up his data either. His friend worked at the local Apple shop and talked him into a MAC. Instead of replacing his HD ($100.00), he bought a new MAC, this was in July. His machine went down at the begining of March, the local Apple Shop only sells, they do not repair, so they had to send it to Apple Canada in Markham. It has been gone over 2 weeks and he is livid, he needs his machine for his business. He was complaining to me, and as an ex-client, I just told him, "Well, if you had stayed with the PC, I would have had you back up and running same day".

Apples only appear to be more reliable as they are only 3% of the market and they use most of the same parts now. The only difference is that the hackers don't waste time with MAC viruses, as the target market is too small for effect. Microsoft is the percieved threat. Personally, I am waiting until Linux is ready for Prime Time and becomes as easy to install/use as MS Windows.

Could have sworn that when I wrote: "Where I work (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Medicine)" I DID remind people of that.

Having said that, and having been the shop supervisor, prior to my current position, we've never had to contact Dell for any repair, hardware or software. Any software issue has usually been: a. The user's fault, or b. a problem with something OTHER than the OS load.

I was an Apple dealer in the 90's. They are by far the worst quality machines, worst support, and arrogant. I dropped them like a hot potato. They don't even support their dealers and the end user be damned. I switched to three PC lines and my customers and I were much happier campers! The PC's did not go down nearly as often as the Apples and tech support, though not always perfect, was adequate. In addition, every city has any number of qualified individuals to work on your PC while you would be lucky to find ANYONE that can work on an APPLE. Stay away from Mac's they're a nightmare.

I suppose that explains their extremely high satisfaction ratings, and owner loyalty.

Well, we used to use a lot of BOTH Macs and PC's at the university where I work. In my department (Computer Science, Engineering Science, and Physics) at one time we had, maybe 20 PC's, 35 Macs (and a few old Apple-II's). Due to attrition and upgrades we actually had well over a hundred of each pass through our department over the years.

For various reasons NOT related to reliability we have switched mostly to PC's. We now have perhaps 120 PC's and a dozen Macs (just for our department).

OTHER than hard drive problems, that affect both machines about equally, we had FAR better luck with the Macs. Close to HALF the PC's develop various hardware problems within a couple years, mostly power supply and network card problems. WE scrounge or 'toss' PC power supplies by the boxfull! We NEVER had a single Mac die of hardware problems, and only one that even got 'cranky'. A couple of the Macs we're still using are now close to ten years old, and the newest one is a G3! Other departments at the university, mostly graphic arts, have a whole bunch of new G4 and Imac machines.

*ALL* hardware support is TERRIBLE, but some is worse than others. I can't address Apple hardware support much ... we never NEEDED it much!

We currently use mostly Dell PC's. They are as good as any we've tried, and support is better than most, not good, just better. Gateways were a disaster, with the local Gateway distributor refusing to support our machines because we'd bought them direct from the manufacturer (as we do almost ALL our machines)! Absurd! we have a 'zoo' of other PC's purchased due to some specific feature that somebody wanted.

Now software is a different matter. *ALL* the software, Mac and PC, is a nightmare ... especially ANYTHING (except Excel) that Microsoft has ever had anything to do with!

Dan Mitchell ==========

Brian Paul Ehni wrote:

My experience as a Macintosh owner has been significantly more satisfying than my experience as a PC owner. The problem is not the hardware, it is the OS. The problem is that Microsoft Bloatware sux and does not ever work exactly right. I don't care whose box the hardware is in as long as the OS is easy to use and reliable. An excess of trendy "features" such as Microsoft likes to market, just adds complexity and vulnerability to a system that is marginal from the start.

This is a plus. I do not consider being bombarded with viruses, spyware and hijackers as a reassuring sign that I picked the most popular operating system.

I do not want to spend all my time on a learning curve. I am too old and too tired to get excited about learning yet another operating system. I want one that is small, simple and bullet-proof. I am smart enough to open an attachment if I so desire. I do not need an OS that opens them automatically, NOR do I need one that I have to eff around with to disable the dangerous "features" that I do not want.

Apple has problems of their own, the most serious one being Jobs. He is a two edged sword that has done equal amounts of good and bad, (ie) he has thrown the baby out with the bath water by cutting off the MAC clones several years ago. OTOH, when I needed Apple help it was right there at my telephone.

I purchased 38 dimensions for one firm, 25 optliplex system for another. Warranty issues were about the same with both. (Western Digital had a problem with a bad batch of hard drives, which accounted for a number of drive replacements on the optliplex systems) I have lots of horror stories about Compaq systems. As long as Dell comes through with the value and service, I will stay with them. Bill

F3Nac.19217$ snipped-for-privacy@read2.cgocable.net,

I have to agree on the Dells working pretty well, compared to most other popular brands.

Lets not forget the IBM "Death Star" hard drive issues from a few years ago....wait, that was "Desk Star" hard drives. Most Dell Dimension PCs used that model HD.

Mike

I have a Fujitsu HD in my homebuilt PC right now and I don't like it. It is "squirrelly", especially on cold boot. I don't know where Maxstor HDs actually come from, but that's what I am getting ready to get in a couple of days. Probbly by Saturday night it'll be in there. I had a Maxtor once that was bullet-proof and rock steady. I think I had it for about four years and passed it on to someone else in '99. It may still be running, but I doubt it. It was "only" 960Mb capacity. Maxstor is up to 80 gig/platter these days. What can anyone do with 320 gig of storage capacity and 1024 Meg of RAM?

LOL ! ! ! Wait three years and ask that question again.

How about the Quantum "Big Foot" drives of about 5 years ago? That killed Quantum.

There are known issues with Fujitsu 20gb drives......

Quantum is still alive and well, living in Orange County, CA. I know several people who have worked for them recently and some who still do. OK, they aren't in the HD manufacturing biz anymore.

Paul

Nope, their users are just brainwashed, like Bush lovers.

Gad zooks Brian,

I didn't think anybody bought any of those even 5 years ago.

Mike

Only if you bought a Compaq of any kind.

Or Kerry lovers. Waffle, anyone?