UPDATED - Dell is the very best - UPDATED (Dell)

Member Name: essaynsqueak

Product:	Dell
Date:	13/08/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great price, Great product, Great staff

Disadvantages: None

My partner is Head of IT at a special needs school. When the "National Grid for Learning" money came in for the school, she decided to go with Dell. She was so pleased with the product and service that she ordered her own laptop from them. This I did get to see. After seeing how smoothly everything went from ordering, financing, and all the way to delivery, I decided to order a Dell desktop for myself.

I wasn't sure about ordering from a web site; I like to see what I'm getting, but I decided to at least look at Dell.
The first thing that struck me was how easy it was to navigate the site. And everything you could want is on the home page; very self-explanatory.

So I went to the page for home users and saw what they had to offer. I was expecting a page full of pictures and specs of maybe ten different computers. What I came to first was a page giving me the option to choose from notebooks, desktops, workstations, or accessories. I clicked on desktops, expecting to be taken to the page of pictures mentioned above.

What I came to instead, was a page giving me the option to choose from the L Series, the 4100 Series, or the 8100 Series. I start with L and it immediately shows you the cheapest computer of that series. On that page you can click on any of three tabs; "Product Views" which shows the computer from either the front or back side along with a brief description of the tower, "Product Highlights" which provides an overview of the range the L Series has to offer, and "Tech Specs" which gives you detailed information about everything on the computer including all the software and support and service.

After clicking on each of these tabs, I clicked on the "Configure and Buy" option on the page. This is where things get interesting. You can change almost everything on the computer to fit your needs. Obviously, you can't change the tower. All the L
Series have the same tower just as all the 4100 Series have the same tower and all the 8100 Series have the same tower. But you can change evrything else to suit your needs. This impressed me, but the L Series wasn't what I was looking for.

So I went back to the page giving me the series options. I clicked on first the 4100 and then the 8100 series. I went through the "Configure and Buy" option with each of these series.

After configuring a 4100 (spearate opinon) that fit my needs, I proceeded to the checkout phase. On this page you have the option of getting a personal loan in your choice of 36 or 48 months. You also have the choice to make a deposit. This is not mandatory however. This page shows you what the monthly payments will be and the total you are being charged for financing. You also have the option to pay by cheque, credit card (online or off), or directly transferring money from your account to theirs.

I decided for the loan and filled in the necessary forms. My credit was immediately approved and an email was sent saying that my specs would be forwarded to the manufacturing department and work would commence. This was on a Friday.

On Saturday I received basically the same information through the post. This letter also added that delivery would be the following Wednesday. That's only five days after ordering. And there was also the full name and phone number of a real person I could talk to if I had any questions or wanted to make any changes at the last minute. I found this refreshing. So often today when phoning companies we only get to go through an automated process. It was nice to know I could speak to a real person.

Also that same day I received an email that has a tracking link so I could monitor the progress. However, this wasn't needed. Dell notified me via email and the post of everything that was happening. I was emailed and posted a letter as soon as the com
puter was built, as soon as it went to shipping, as soon as it was on the ferry, as soon as it reached the delivery company depot, and as soon as they had a confirmed delivery date with the depot.

My computer did arrive on the proposed delivery date. And it was very securely packaged. It was packaged so well I honestly believe I could have dropped it from the top of my stairs without damaging it. I've never seen such care taken in packaging anything, but I've never ordered a computer before. Maybe they are all packaged just as securely.

So to sum things up, if you want a computer designed just for you and you want good, fast, reliable service, then Dell is definitely the choice.

Summary: