DELL Build Quality

[Dr Lobster*]

about four years ago, i purchased a Dell Dimension 8200. The case was all metal, with a hinged front to access the usb ports and headphone socket. The monitor was a rebaged Sony Trinitron, the hard disk a western digital. It is still in use to this day and has been one of the best PC's i've ever owned.

Recently, we've had several equivilent model delivered PC's at work. A Dimension 8400 i believe.

What a load of cheap crap, Maxtor hard disks (i don't care what anybodies' experience of these drives are - i work in an organisation with close to 500 pc's having worked somewhere previously with several thousand - these drives are unreliable - their failure rate is much higher than competing drives, such as wd, fujitsu and samsung), horrible cheap plastic case, and the crt 'ultrascan' monitor. no longer a trinitron.

anybody thinking of buying a dell in the future, think very carefully, unless you're prepared to spend £1500 on a dell xps (not really worth it, unless you're one of these saps who'd rather spend that much on a pc than spend £99 on a playstation2 or msxbox get tones of games and have just as good gaming experience)

has anybody else noticed the slow deterioration of build quality in other products too?

[Orry Verducci]

I have a Dell that is now a few moths old and the build quality is very good on mine. I have a Dimension 2400. Big metal case, reliable hard disk, sockets on the front, ect. The only thing I can't say about is the CRT monitor because I have a Dell TFT Flat-Screen. My TFT is decent for that matter.

[Nick Harvey]

has anybody else noticed the slow deterioration of build quality in other products too?

In my view, Sony themselves are one of the worst for this.

They used to build up to a standard and be excellent value, even if quite expensive.

They now seem to build down to a price, especially the horrible cheap plastic cases, yet the retail price hasn't come down similarly, making them very bad value now.

[Dr Lobster*]

has anybody else noticed the slow deterioration of build quality in other products too?

In my view, Sony themselves are one of the worst for this.

They used to build up to a standard and be excellent value, even if quite expensive.

They now seem to build down to a price, especially the horrible cheap plastic cases, yet the retail price hasn't come down similarly, making them very bad value now.

the thing i *hate* about sony, and its one of the reasons why i'll try and avoid buying anything from them again, is their customer service is dreadful. they seem to take the attidude: 'i am only one of their customers, if they piss me off by bullshitting me on the phone, it won't matter because they've got millions more'

i've found toshiba to be a pleasing alternative in every way.

[Nick Harvey]

Must say I used to buy all my Sony stuff from the Swindon Sony Centre, which is actually a franchisee called Hickmans, who have other stores in the area, selling other brands.

I always found their customer service to be excellent. Extremely helpful engineers who, if they had to come out, would always ring to find a convenient day and time to share the seventy mile round trip to me with other customers if possible. You could tell they actually DID do this, too, from the travelling time on the docket.

Haven't dealt with Sony, themselves, as a company.

[Dr Lobster*]

Must say I used to buy all my Sony stuff from the Swindon Sony Centre, which is actually a franchisee called Hickmans, who have other stores in the area, selling other brands.

I always found their customer service to be excellent. Extremely helpful engineers who, if they had to come out, would always ring to find a convenient day and time to share the seventy mile round trip to me with other customers if possible. You could tell they actually DID do this, too, from the travelling time on the docket.

Haven't dealt with Sony, themselves, as a company.

You need to threaten them with clauses from the sale and supply of goods act and the small claims procedure before things start to happen. that was two years ago mind, don't know if things have improved.

haven't used them since.

must be said, the demise of the independant dealer is a shame. i'm fairly certain 'wheelers' used to offer a man to come around and tune in your new video for free.

no such service today, you'll be lucky to even get to speak to somebody in bangalore to help you to get pdc to work.

[marksi]

I have to agree, Sony used to have fantastic build quality. Now it's just about average, and the prices certainly don't reflect that.

JVC, Panasonic and Thomson are generally better in my opinion, and considerably cheaper.

[Jamez]

It's a hell of a lot cheaper to choose your own components and get it built for you. There are plenty of small companies on the net that will do this for you.

I would never ever buy a generic shop/dell computer again. It's just a complete rip-off.

[Uncle Bruce]

Must say I used to buy all my Sony stuff from the Swindon Sony Centre, which is actually a franchisee called Hickmans, who have other stores in the area, selling other brands.

Hickmans are a good bunch - have dealt with them before.