12/31/2006 - DELL COMPUTERS - NO OS DISK INCLUDED
Okay, I finally did it. I sent a letter off to Mr. William Gates of Microsoft. Now I know he's not the "hands on" guy there now, and I know that my letter will likely not be read by anyone who really cares, but it made me feel better to send it. I vented! My beef is not with Microsoft so much but with Dell Computers. I bought an XPS system some months ago and they did not ship an operating system CD with it. Instead, there was a note in the box that told me that I could use an included application to burn a "one time only" copy of the system utilities/drivers disk and the OS. I looked everywhere, but that application was not included with the system. When I contacted Dell Support, I told Mr. Abdullah Omar Docar (who went by the name of "Bob") that the application wasn't there. He insisted that it was and that I just couldn't find it. I pursued it a bit further but finally, just dropped it, frustrated with Dell. I bought a top of the line HP dual core system and just hoped for the best with my Dell. But, as luck would have it, we had a serious storm two weeks ago that resulted in us losing power for five days. When it came back on, there was a tremendous power surge a day later that took out the Dell. I spent $800 to fix the problem and part of that included buying a full copy of Windows XP Professional Edition to replace the XP Pro that I already legally owned, but had no disk for. What follows is my letter to Bill Gates - a letter that just expresses frustration with corporations that get so huge they live in a fantasy world and are basically untouchable, though they think that they really are in touch. I will have additional posts about Dell and some of it is good. I'll get to those as I have time. But for now, I think I'll be moving to HP when I eventually replace some of the other computers on my network.
What do YOU think of the practice of not including OS disks when you purchase your system? How often have you needed your OS disk and didn't have it? I would be interested in your stories.
Mr. Gates,
Greetings. I have a situation with one of your distributors, Dell. I know there’s nothing you can do about this, but I thought I would share it as it basically illustrates some of the disconnect between large, powerful corporations and the end user. And as Dell does resell your products, it could reflect badly on Microsoft should it happen to others, though it does not have that effect on me.
In early 2006, I purchased a new Dell XPS system direct from Dell. To my dismay, there was no OS CD included but the instructions told me that I could make one backup copy using an application included on the hard drive of the machine. That application was not included on the machine. After contacting Dell, I was told that it had to be my fault, that I just wasn’t seeing it. I told them that no, the application really wasn’t there and it turned into a big finger-pointing exercise with no resolution. As a result, I was never able to back up my operating system.
Two weeks ago, we had our big windstorm and five-day power outage. I did everything right – turned off the breakers to the house before the storm hit and then powered appliances back on slowly over the course of a day when power had been restored. After 20 hours of good, stable power, we had a surge and momentary blackout that lasted only two seconds – but it did in my Dell. Now I need to replace the hard drive and … I have no OS backup.
I wrote to Dell about this and got nothing other than emails from auto-responders.
My observations are that as companies get larger and larger, customer service goes out the window. But, like the emperor with no clothes, the company has a perception that it truly does offer good customer service. My experience with Dell shows a tremendous lack of service. For one, I can barely understand the support personnel when I have called them in past. And, secondly, they seem to treat everyone as if we’re all beginners and have no computer experience. I have fifteen years of programming experience and generally build my computers from the ground up, or continuously rebuild them to keep current with technology. If I tell a support person that an application is missing from my pre-packaged system, they can believe that it is, indeed, missing.
I have a lot of respect for Microsoft, but it’s almost more of the same. I have no idea who to send this to, so I send it to you. I fully expect that it will be opened by someone in the organization and it may be routed three or four times in inter-departmental mail before winding up beneath a pile of Cheeto’s wrappers on someone’s desk, there to languish until found next Spring.
I’m only writing so that hopefully you can get a little sense of the frustration from the consumer end. My frustration is not so much with Microsoft as with Dell. As Microsoft has a more powerful relationship with Dell than I do, perhaps Microsoft can implement changes in vendor practices that can benefit the consumer as well has the vendor. For one, having a physical, tangible copy of the OS is critical and should be included with the system, not left up to the end user to create as any number of things could go wrong. In this instance, the application to create the CD wasn’t bundled into the system.
As for me, I’ll buy a new 500 gb SATA drive for the computer and will buy another XP Pro, even though I’ve already paid for and own a licensed copy for that computer. But then, I may as well wait for Vista, but that will mean two months without the XPS on the network. That is my kids’ and my wife’s system.
Best regards and Happy New Year,
Jim W. Coleman III
P.S. In case you’re interested, when I bought the Dell XPS, I also bought a high-end system from HP. I have had no problems with HP – either on the support side or with the hardware. My home network is presently made up of three Dell and one HP systems. I think I’ll be phasing out the Dell hardware over the next several years.