Don't go to Dell if you want good technical support (Dell Dimension 5150C Entertainment)

Member Name: emuk00

Product:	Dell Dimension 5150C Entertainment
Date:	28/10/08 (184 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good computers when they work

Disadvantages: Crap customer services

The computer is a fab computer, runs well, and has plenty of memory for me to add programs such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, fireworks, microsoft office and other programs.

My problems, however, started only after having the computer a couple of months.
My Dell Dimension 5150c kept on shutting down right before my Dissertation was due in. The computer kept turning off, then on for about five seconds then turned off again, and kept on doing this, not giving a chance to run any checks/tests. I kept on phoning up Dell and the problem didn't fix itself. Eventually the computer just worked again.
I brought a power surge extension lead for my computer and all other hardware as the lady on the phone said this could have been one of the problems.

After a couple of months my computer started to turn on and off again, I don't even get chance to press F2 because as soon as it turns on it turns off. I have plugged everything into a new socket, but this shouldn't be a problem as I have a power surge extension.
I was not happy, as I had some more course work to do and I don't have a computer which works.
I don't particularly want to phone up Dell again as with the same as last time, they will ask me to perform tests in which I cannot do as the computer won't stay on long enough.
Dell are crap for customer service! They all just read from a script which I can do, they need to look at the problem itself.

Again the problem seems to have resolved itself, and everything was working fine.
A year later (today) the computer decides to turn off again, mid work - important work for a client with a deadline today.
I then thurn on the computer and find it has the blue screen with info about BIOS - uh oh I know that isn't good news.
I have managed to get it into a company to be fixed and hopefully its good news.

I will never buy another Dell computer again, my dad's partner has a very similar computer by Dell and has the same problems and we have both had the same problems contacting Dell and getting them to understand that turning the computer on and off simply won't work.

Now my computer is out of guarantee, they should have done something about it when I rang up the first time, instead of trying to do stupid tests via email and phone which I was on for a while and costing me a fortune.

Summary: Don't buy from Dell

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