Don't buy a DELL computer

Let me clarify something here - DELL UK sell 99% of their computers direct. Until recently, you could not buy a Dell computer in any store. It is all direct. Just recently, they have started selling a few items in their range through some stores. But not this one. I don't know how they sell in the States. So I can't just take it back. There is NO shop. The contract is with Dell. However, I do know where their head office is. It used to be based in Ireland, but now there is an address in Bracknell, which I have discovered. It is not that far away. They may be meeting me. Soon.

Ireland was the country of choice for quite a few computer giants moving into the UK and Europe a decade ago, because of massive EU incentives to businesses developing the local economy. When we have had our previous confrontations with the company, it has been Ireland we have had to deal with and I suspect that all their computers are still assembled and configured to your requirements there.

I went to bed at 11. Still waiting for the promised call at 6pm. Michael Dell needs to be aware of how his company is being run. Not to mention Aonghus Hegarty, who appears to be the head of UK Home sales. I also found a disturbing piece of information on line which details how their Mumbai call centre was being run in 2007, and I have no doubt things still work the same way in 2008.

When companies get so big that all the human aspects get side-lined, we have a problem. The pursuit of great profit margins, aka corporate greed, and obsession with shareholder interests before customer satisfaction with the product they make leads to the exact opposite of what they want - greater market share. If I can personally stop people from buying their product, just because I have a small voice here, then they need to listen to me. DELL does.

Because a global voice, albeit small, is still a global voice. I don't want other parents to watch their sons' and daughters' joy and delight turn to disappointment. As I said, this is not the first time it has happened to us. The theory is that you get more for your money with DELL, than, say Sony. I happen to love Sony laptops. My daughter has one. DELL is everywhere. It is unfortunate that the first thing I saw in the hospital cubicle was a DELL computer. Yesterday, sitting sorting David's student bank account, what did I see? DELL computer on the desk in front of us.

And because they have such a massive market share here in the UK, they think that one small voice is irrelevant. Hah. We will see.

Edited to add: Dell people, if you are reading this, you need to scroll down a bit to read from the start. The post entitled Ding Dong DELL is the beginning.
AND: I am aware that there is a mega problem with the NVidia graphics cards for this model. If you sold my son one, knowing the unit was faulty, you will have a bigger problem than you anticipated.